Sevier Clark Robertson

Sevier was born in 1844 in Murray County, Georgia.  He is the son of John Robertson and Sarah Bates.  He is the fifth child of six.  He enlisted into the Confederacy as a Private in Company E, 11th Georgia Infantry.  He was wounded at Malvern Hill,  Captured at Vicksburg and served two years as a Prisoner of War in Fort Delaware.

Malvern Hill
Poindexter's Farm Virginia

This was the sixth and last of the Seven Days' Battles. On July 1, 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee launched a series of disjointed assaults on the nearly impregnable Union position on Malvern Hill. The Confederates suffered more than 5,300 casualties without gaining an inch of ground. Despite his victory, McClellan withdrew to entrench at Harrison's Landing on James River, where his army was protected by gunboats. This ended the Peninsula Campaign.  When McClellan's army ceased to threaten Richmond, Lee sent Jackson to operate against Maj. Gen. John Pope's army along the Rapidan River, thus initiating the Northern Virginia Campaign.

=================================================================

Gettysburg

The conflict of July 1863 was not the Confederate army's first visit to the Gettysburg area. On October 10th and 11th of 1862, the famous Confederate cavalryman, Jeb Stuart and 1800 of his men raided Chambersburg and Cashtown, Pa., stealing horses and creating public panic. It was however, in the final days of June 1863, that the two armies stumbled upon one another, resulting in the massing of the forces of Union and Confederate armies and full scale combat. In fierce fighting, often hand to hand, at such locales as Culp's Hill, The Peach Orchard, Devil's Den, Cemetery Ridge, Little Round Top, The Wheatfield, the two armies exchanged bloody blows. With the repulse of the Confederate assault on July 3, 1863, Pickett's Charge, General Robert E. Lee was finally forced to withdraw back to Virginia, never again to seriously invade the North. Lee's defeat however, was certainly not without horrible toll to the ranks of the Union Army, for both sides the casualties were huge. The Union Army casualties exceeded 20,000 men of their force of about 80,000. General Lee's forces also suffered casualties of 20,000, from a pre-battle strength of 55-60,000. It was a major turning point of the War

==================================================================

Fort Delaware

Fort Delaware  "Bent On Exacting Revenge"

Fort Delaware, the prisoner-of-war camp on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River, was a pesthole and death camp for the Confederate inmates. Eating rats to supplement their starvation diets, they desperately clung to life in spite of the policies of the U.S. government and prison officials who seemed bent on exacting revenge on helpless men whose only crime had been to fight and be captured in the service of their country. U.S. prison inspector reports of inadequate medical facilities, deplorable living conditions, and overcrowding were ignored by the Commissary General of Prisoners Col. William Hoffman and Commandant Gen. Albin F. Schoepf.

Though prisoner rations in Fort Delaware were supposed to be the same as those of the guards, medical reports from November 1863 to February 1864 reveal 365 cases of scurvy among the prison population of 2,747, with only three cases of scurvy reported among the 1,068 guards. By further cutting the meager rations of the prisoners, Schoepf had amassed $23,000 dollars in a prison fund. The medical director recommended that some of the money be used to purchase fresh vegetables, which would quickly cure the inmates' scurvy, but Schoepf refused.

Prisoner diaries are full of blistering diatributes about Schoepf, whom they called "General Terror", and others among the guards who made prison life even more miserable than it naturally was. On orders from Schoepf's adjutant, Capt. George Ahl, a lame prisoner was shot and killed while returning from the privies because he moved too slowly. Ahl's assistant, Lt. George Wolfe, was as sadistic as his superiors and delighted in eating fresh fruit in front of the prisoners, and watching them scramble for the peels he would throw into the mud. For trivial offenses these prison officials would have inmates hung by their thumbs for an entire day.

Across the river from the prison on the New Jersey shore lie the mass graves of 2,436 Confederate soldiers who died during their incarceration at Fort Delaware.

Fascinating Fact:  As the last inmates were leaving Fort Delaware in July 1865, high-ranking Confederates captured after the end of hostilities were arriving. The last of these men were not released until January 1866.