Civil War Documents Signed by George M. Sorrel, Lot of 7 

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Jun 12, 2015 - Jun 13, 2015

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• Lot Description
  Lot of 7 documents addressed to Major James M. Goggin (1820-1889), CSA. Many are written on scraps of paper, date from 28 April to 1 Sept. 1864. A number appear to be entirely written and signed by Sorrel. The note of 28 April simply calls Major Goggin's attention to Circular of 21 Feb. re: Monthly reports. Signed G.M. Sorrel, AAG. 21 June appears to be ANS by Sorrel requesting Goggin's trimonthly report as soon as possible. 15 July is a request for a detail of 300 men to report at dark to McKenzie house. Appears to be signed by a clerk in Sorrel's name.  17 July is similar, requesting a detail of ten men to the Pioneer Party camp at sundown, ANS G.M. Sorrel. 22 July a detail of 20 men was to be sent to the Pioneer party camp, ANS by Sorrel.  28 Aug. Sorrel writes that he could use three men who might be disabled for the field, but are suitable for guard duty, but not if they have to be replaced by sound men on Goggin's unit. On 21 Sept. M. McDonald requests two details of 23 men to lift heavy timbers. On verso is a note in Sorrel's hand requesting Maj. Goggin to send these details to Capt. McDonald.
  
  James Monroe Goggin attended USMA, but left before graduation. He moved to Texas, joining  the Army of the Republic of Texas as a Lieutenant. About the end of the Mexican War, he moved to California, where he established mail routes, then went to Memphis, TN to work as a cotton broker, where the start of the Civil War found him. He moved back to his "home" state of Virginia after the start of the war, entering the Confederate army on 1 July 1861. He joined the 1st Corps of the ANV just after its formation in 1862 on the staff of General McLaws, then head of the 1st Corps, as his AAG. General Joseph Kershaw replaced McLaws in May 1864, and Goggin then served him as AAG. After temporarily replacing Brig. Gen. James Connor after the latter lost his leg in the Battle of Cedar Creek, Goggin then returned to Kershaw's staff, remaining there and being captured with the division on 6 April at Saylor's (Sailor's) Creek, just three days before Lee's surrender. Most of the men were paroled that day, but Kershaw was imprisoned until July.
  
  Joseph Kershaw, CSA
  
  The following lots (84-101) were in the possession of Major General Joseph Brevard Kershaw (1822-1894) when he was captured at Sailor’s (Saylor’s, Sayler’s) Creek, 6 April 1865. Kershaw was a native of South Carolina. A Joseph Kershaw who immigrated to North America from Yorkshire in 1750 served as a Colonel in the Revolution. Kershaw’s wife, Harriet, was a daughter of one of General Marion’s aides-de-camp. Thus, both families had a history of military service. Kershaw began practice as a lawyer in Camden, SC in 1844, but served a year as lieutenant of Co. C, Palmetto regiment, in the Mexican War. He was later a state representative and was sent to the convention which decided South Carolina’s secession, although Kershaw, himself, was reportedly opposed to it.
  
  In February he was commissioned colonel of the 2^nd SC Regiment, serving at Sullivan’s Island. Barely a week after South Carolina’s secession, Federal troops under Maj. Robert Anderson evacuated Fort Moultrie on December 26, 1860, moving to the as-yet-incomplete, but stronger, Fort Sumter. From Fort Moultrie and other points around Charleston Harbor, shelling of Fort Sumter commenced on 12 April 1861. Fort Moultrie was one of the few points to take return fire from Sumter. Fort Sumter fell later the next day, and the war had begun. Kershaw was then sent to Virginia. He was engaged at Blackburn’s Ford and First Manassas.
  
  Although he had a bit of military experience, he was not trained as a military man.  Kershaw reportedly threw himself into learning everything about what is today called “military science.” The 2^nd SC became known as one of the better trained Confederate units, and Kershaw one of the Army of Northern Virginia’s best officers. He was probably as close as any of the Generals came to the “gentleman-soldier” of southern myth, although it took a bit of time to grow into his position. (He appears to have gotten off on the “wrong foot” with Beauregard, for example. The two went their separate ways after Charleston Harbor.)  Kershaw was savvy enough to pay attention to those who “knew the ropes.”
  
  The following February (1862) he was commissioned Brigadier General, and given command of a brigade is Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He stayed with Lee’s forces through the Peninsula, Northern Virginia and Maryland Campaigns, and was engaged with Lee at Gettysburg the following year. He then transferred to the West with Longstreet’s Corps where he was part of the charge at Chickamauga that destroyed the Federal right wing.
  
  He returned to Virginia with Longstreet, was promoted to Major General and took command of a division in 1864 in the Wilderness, Spotsylvania C.H., Cold Harbor and Shenandoah Campaign. He was with Ewell after the evacuation of Richmond, during which he was captured three days before Lee surrendered. Other than those last few days, he was in the thick of the war from beginning to end.
  
  The papers in the following lots were in Kershaw’s possession at that time. Most of them are dated 1864, when he took command of the division. Custis Lee, also captured at Sayler’s Creek, was immediately paroled. Inexplicably Kershaw was held for three months, as was Ewell.
  
  G.M. “Moxley” Sorrel
  
  George Moxley Sorrel (“Moxley”) (1836-1901) was a bank clerk in Savannah when the war began. He left his job to enlist for the Confederate cause. He was commissioned into General James Longstreet’s staff, and was present at the first major battle of the war, Manassas. A few days later, he was appointed acting adjutant general of Longstreet’s division. October 31, 1864, he was promoted to Brig. Gen. and given command of a brigade in Mahone’s division, A.P. Hill’s corps. It was likely at this time that Latrobe took over Sorrel’s position on Longstreet’s staff.  In one incident reported by Confederate Military History from Antietam/Sharpsburg, Longstreet and his staff came up on the Confederate center, which had been left with but a small regiment, the remainder sent to reinforce the left. There were two artillery, but the gunners were dead or wounded. Longstreet held the horses while his staff, primarily Sorrel and Latrobe, manned the guns, holding off the advancing Federals until reinforcements arrived, saving Lee’s army (and at least bringing the battle to a draw rather than a Confederate loss).  Not mere paper-pushers, these guys! And Sorrel would go on to be a good field commander – for a few months, until the end of the war.
  
  Osmun Latrobe
  
  Osmun Latrobe (1835-1915) was born in Mississippi, but attended Maryland Military Academy, and returned to Baltimore after the war. His grandfather, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, was the designer of the U.S. Capitol. His father, John H.B. Latrobe, was a man of many faces – inventor, lawyer, architect, philanthropist, and more. He succeeded Henry Clay as president of the American Colonization Society, helping to expand the colony of “Maryland in Liberia.” Osmun served on the staff of Gen. D.R. Jones until Jones’ death, when he transferred to Longstreet’s staff, as AAG and Inspector General, eventually becoming AG and Chief of Staff of the First Army Corps, replacing Sorrel in that role near the end of the war.
  
  Walter Taylor
  
  One of the “bigger” names here is that of Walter Taylor. From the time he reported for service in Richmond in May 1861, Walter Herron Taylor (1838-1916) was assigned to Lee’s staff as ADC and, later, AAG. Taylor was the perfect complement to Lee, handling administrative duties and correspondence, which Lee hated, with efficiency. When Lee was assigned the Army of Northern Virginia after Joe Johnston was wounded, he retained Robert Chilton and A.P. Mason from Johnston’s staff, and brought several, including Taylor, with him from Richmond. Lee reportedly kept his staff to a minimum (certainly increasing pressure on Taylor), to keep as many trained officers in the field as possible. This does show up on these papers. Lee orders every able-bodied man, including teamsters and cattle-herders to return to their units by 1864. Apparently one of Lee’s tactics by the summer and autumn of that year was defensive – stay put, dig in, and release many of these men for service on the front. If the wagons aren’t moving, you don’t need wagoners - they can man pickets, dig rifle pits and build roads. 
  
  Taylor achieved such status that he seems to have occasionally signed papers for Lee, and had clerks signing orders for him (by command of Lee). Most of these are marked “(Sgd.) W.H. Taylor,” indicating that someone else signed them. The irony is that Taylor was such a high-ranking aide, that others signed his signature. Probably the reality is that so many copies of orders and other documents left Lee’s command, that, had Taylor signed all of them, he would have been crippled well before the end of the war!
  
  Taylor (and several other aides, especially Charles Marshall) accompanied Lee to Richmond after the surrender at Appomattox Court House. Taylor’s own wife of just over a week was also waiting for him in there (Lee had allowed Taylor go to Richmond to marry Bettie Saunders on 2 April). On Easter Sunday, April 16, 1865, Taylor and G.W. Custis Lee (Lee’s son) were photographed by Mathew Brady on the back porch of Lee’s Richmond home, 707 E. Franklin St., in the now-famous series of photos. A majority of these orders have Taylor’s name on them somewhere, since Kershaw’s Division was in the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia.

  Condition

  Most are fairly light. Sorrel scribbled many of his notes in pencil. Overall readable with expected wear.
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