Four members of the Conecuh Guards lost their lives at Second Manassas

Today (Thursday) marks the 152nd anniversary of the Second Battle of Manassas, which was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War for the Confederate military unit from Conecuh County.

On Aug. 28, 1862, Confederate forces under the command of Robert E. Lee clashed with Union forces under the command of John Pope at the Second Battle of Manassas, which is also known as the Second Battle of Bull Run. The battle ended three days later, on Aug. 30, 1862.

The battle took place in Prince William County, Va. and resulted in a Confederate victory, but it was costly for Co. E of the 4th Alabama Infantry Regiment, which was known as the “Conecuh Guards” when it was organized at Sparta in April 1861.

At the Second Battle of Manassas, around 10,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded with Confederate losses amounting to an estimated 1,300 killed and 7,000 wounded. Nine members of the Conecuh Guards were among those numbers.

According to B.F. Riley’s 1881 book, “The History of Conecuh County, Alabama,” four members of the Conecuh Guards were killed at the Second Battle of Manassas – Thomas Robertson, Joseph Stallworth, James H. Thomas and Jasper Newton Stinson, who’d been promoted to regimental color sergeant only a month before the battle.

Five other members of the Conecuh Guards were wounded at the Second Battle of Manassas, and some of them would survive the war while others would not. Among the wounded were 1st Lt. Alfred Christian, 1st Lt. John G. Guice, William Morrow, Buck Stuckey and Francis M. Sampey.

Of the two Conecuh Guard lieutenants wounded at Second Manassas, much is known about Guice, who had been promoted to first lieutenant from second lieutenant on Aug. 22, just six days before the battle’s first shot. During Second Manassas, Guice was wounded in two places, lost one of his legs and was honorably discharged.

Guice had been wounded at least twice before during the war, including once at the First Battle of Manassas, which was also known as the First Battle of Bull Run. The First Battle of Manassas occurred on July 21, 1861 in the same location as the second battle, but the second battle was on a much larger scale and included about three times as many soldiers.

About a month before the Second Battle of Manassas, Guice was also among the 16 members of the Conecuh Guards who were wounded at the Battle of Gaine’s Mill. That battle occurred on June 27, 1862 in Hanover County, Va.

Christian, also a first lieutenant, apparently survived the war, but Riley’s book doesn’t say what eventually became of him.

Morrow’s wounds at Second Manassas weren’t serious enough to put him out of the war. He continued to serve with the Conecuh Guards only to be wounded again on May 9, 1864 at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in Spotsylvania County, Va. Morris survived the war and moved to Mobile afterwards.

Stuckey also continued to serve with the Conecuh Guards despite his wounds at Second Manassas. However, a little over two years later, he would be killed at the Battle of Darbytown Road near Sandston, Va. on Oct. 13, 1864.

Sampey also continued to fight, and later suffered wounds near Farmville, Va. as the war drew to a close in April 1865. Sampey survived the war and died in Selma in 1874.

In the end, if you’ve got any other information about the men mentioned above, I’d like to hear about it. You can contact me at The Courant at 578-1492 or e-mail me at courantsports@earthlink.net. You can reach me by mail at The Evergreen Courant, ATTN: Lee Peacock, P.O. Box 440, Evergreen, AL 36401.