Battle of South Mountain • Turner’s Gap • Fox’s Gap • Crampton’s Gap
The historical marker for the Mell Rifles & Troup Light Artillery is on South Mountain at Crampton’s Gap. It is on the south side of Crampton’s Gap Road across from the War Correspondents Memorial Arch. (map)
From the front of the marker:
The Mell Rifles, Co. D, Cobb’s Legion Infantry, was raised in Athens, GA, in July 1861, by Patrick Hues Mell, Baptist Minister and Vice Chancellor of the University of Georgia. After Mell resigned due to his wife’s death, Thomas U. Camak was named commander. John Boswell Cobb, Robert Goodman and W. A. Winn were named lieutenants. Noncomissioned officers were J.F. Wilson, Wm. A. Gilleland, S. P. Kenney, G. W. Barber, J. J. Mattox, and L. H. Horne. The unit fought throughout the war until two days before Appomattox, when it was surrounded and captured.
Sgt. Benjamin Mell, son of Patrick, was seriously wounded, Thomas S. Lee, a local Southern sympathizer, nursed Mell at his home, “Needwood Forest,: near Petersville. Mell died there on Oct. 21, 1862, and was buried in St. Mark’s Epsicopal Churchyard, Petersville, his grave marked by a handsome monument.
The Troup Light Artillery was organized in Athens in 1859 and was placed under command of Professor Marcellus Stanley. Stanley later became ill and turned over command to Dr. Henry Carlton, and Athens physician. In his report on the Battle of Crampton’s Gap, Gen. Howell Cobb praised the unit for coolness under fire in checking the advance of the enemy.
From the rear of the marker:
This marker is erected to honor the memory of Athenians and their neighbors who fell at Crampton’s Gap on September 14, 1862. The valor of these citizen-soldiers is remembered with gratitude and affection. Most of these men now lie in uniscribed graves in Washington Confederate Cemetery, Rose Hill, Hagerstown, MD:
Troup Light Artllery
Cobb’s Legion, Cobb’s Brigade
John J. N. Kenney
Mell Rifles of Camak’s Company
Co. D Cobb’s Legion Infantry, Cobb’s Brigade
J. Martin
V.B. Cody
Asa G. Haguewood
John McHannon
Cody Fowler
George T. Highland, Jr.
Benjamin Mell
William Glover
John F. Kenney
Burwell E. Yerby
Also killed were Col. John Bell Lamar, General Howell Cobb’s aide and brother-in-law, and Lt. Col. Jefferson Mirabeau Lamar, Commander of Thomas Reade Rootes Rotes Cobb’s Georgia Infantry, who had close ties to Athens.
Erected by the Athens (GA) Historical Society 1992.
