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Photo Gallery: The Orphan Brigade
Marker text:
1864. Activities in Atlanta indicating a new offensive by
Gen. Sherman's army, which had occupied that area since Sept. 2nd, units of
Gen. Wheeler's cavalry corps were posted on all roads to the south. On Nov.
15th, the advance of Osterhaus' 15th Corps, which had marched from White
Hall (West End) via Rough and Ready that day, was halted near Stockbridge by
Brig. Gen. Joseph H. Lewis' "Orphan Brigade" (2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 9th
Kentucky Mounted Infantry). Although greatly outnumbered, the Orphans
delayed the enemy until flanked out of position, after which they retired in
good order to Lovejoy Station. This was the first real resistance met by the
Right Wing of Sherman's army on its destructive March to the Sea.
These Kentucky regiments were "orphans" because the secession movement had
failed in Kentucky, leaving them with no "home state" in the Confederacy.
The Orphan Brigade was first commanded by Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge,
formerly Vice President of the United States, later Secretary of War in the
Confederate Cabinet. It served with great distinction through all four years
of the War Between the States.
075-2 Georgia Historical Commission 1957
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