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Andrew Jackson Pool, commissioned as Brigadier General of the Hall County General Militia on 1 February 1856, wrote Georgia Governor Joe E. Brown in July 1861 requesting the formation of a reserve unit. He said even though there were already four companies raised in his militia Brigade, he felt there was enough support for one more.
Pool Letter 22 July 1861
The Governor’s response is unknown, but Pool raised his company. “I hereby authorize Col. Robt. McMillan to tender to his excellency Governor Brown the services of the Glade Guard Rifle Company, a volunteer company of which I am Captain this 13th August 1861. A.J. Pool.”
Pool Authorization 13 August 1861
Out of 133 recorded Hall County volunteers officially mustered into Company I of the reserve 24th Regiment on 24 August 1861, eight men seem to have been there in the last days of the Civil War to surrender to Grant. Many others survived, but as captives, deserters, the discharged, the paroled, the retired, the misplaced and the wounded.
In all at least 30 men were killed and at least 13 reported as seriously wounded. The enemy captured 33, five deserted to the North, and 20 were considered Absent without Leave (AWOL). Four men were paroled by the Confederacy, three were discharged, and one resigned due to disability. The records for 10 men just ended abruptly.
In May of 1862, the company fought at Williamsburg and Seven Pines, Virginia. In June two men died at Farmville and Richmond, Virginia. In July they fought at Savage’s Station, Malvern Hill, and the second battle of Manassas in Virginia.
In September and October of 1862, two men were captured at Crampton’s Gap and Sharpsburg, Maryland. At Crampton's Gap the Union Army held a peak overlooking the Confederates, who charged the hill in force unsuccessfully. The Union’s General Franklin reported that his men buried 15O of the enemy's dead and took charge of over 300 wounded who had been left on the field.
The armies met at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on a foggy morning on December 13, 1862. Heavy fighting cost both armies dearly, and one soldier of company I, Noah Martin, was injured in the wrist, and he lost the use of his left hand. The Union lost 1,284 killed, 600 wounded, and 1,769 missing, while the Confederates lost 608 killed, 4,116 wounded and 653 missing.
On June 30, 1863, one soldier was captured at Bloody Run, Pennsylvania, and within days two more members of company I were captured at Gettysburg. Confederate reports gave General Robert E. Lee's losses as 2,592 killed, 12,709 wounded and 5,150 missing, but the records of prisoners of war in the office of the adjutant-general of the United States army bear the names of 12,277 Confederates who were captured at the battle of Gettysburg.
In the Fall of 1863 the company moved continuously and fought in Hagerstown, Maryland; Chickamauga, Georgia; Culpepper, Virginia; and Knoxville, Tennessee. They continued to fight throughout Tennessee until March of 1864.
A man was wounded during the Wilderness Campaign in Virginia, on 6 May 1864. Throughout the ensuing battles in May, June, August and October of that year, four soldiers were captured at Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Deep Bottom and Cedar Creek, Virginia.
In 1864 the Confederacy ordered all able bodied men 17 to 18 and 45 to 50 into the regular army. Captain Andrew Pool, who had resigned and was discharged due to an incapacity and returned home, wrote Governor Brown again on 11 August 1864 to ask if members of the volunteer companies could instead remain in the Glade Guards. His concern may have been that conscription would break up the experienced unit.
Pool Letter to Brown 11 August 1864 page 1
Pool Letter to Brown 11 August 1864 page 2
The company engaged the enemy on January 30, 1865, but the details are a mystery, except that 16 men are listed as AWOL in the company records that day. Nothing else is recorded for those soldiers. One man is recorded as killed in Richmond on February 19, 1865, although the regiment does not record an engagement on that day.
The first week of April 1865 gives a clue to what is about to happen when on April 3 a man is captured in Richmond, and on April 6 men are captured at Farmville, High Bridge, Sailor’s Creek, and Burkeville, Virginia. Three days later on April 9, 1865, the eight remaining soldiers of the Glade Guards, Company I of the 24th reserve regiment, surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia, with General Robert E. Lee. Over the next few months, prisoners were released or paroled to return home.
The company fought at Richmond, Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Knoxville, Cold Harbour, The Wilderness Campaign, and Mechanicsville, just to name a few of the battles through out the war. For the rest of their lives some of the veteran Glade Guards met annually at Bethlehem Baptist Church near Lula in Hall County to remember their drills, and swap tales and memories with Glade District veterans of other units.
Source: Letters and group photo provided by Ed Quillian, a descendant of Andrew Jackson Poole.
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