Although my information comes primarily from family sources, I do have some notes on Colonel Charles Addison McDaniel of Bowdon, GA, who was a Confederate officer, and who fought and died at the Battle of Perryville, KY in October of 1862,
According to the book, "Bowdon, The First 100 Years," (copyright 1990 by Mrs. Jim Rowell, Jr. [my cousin]), Col. McDaniel was founder and first president of Bowdon College, and his Georgia unit was composed primarily of young men recruited from the college. He and another man, John Manley Richardson, had founded the college as "Bowdon Collegiate Institute" in May, 1856. He served as its first president and as teacher of literary subjects. The charter for the college was actually granted by the Georgia legislature on December 22, 1857.
At the conclusion of classes in May, 1861, seven graduates, along with some 130 lower classmen and volunteers, formed a military company and elected McDaniel, their college president, as their captain. When Cobb's Legion was organized near Atlanta, McDaniel offered the services of his volunteers and the group from Bowdon became Company B. of Cobb's Legion, which later distinguished itself at Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.
After McDaniel took the company to Virginia, he was promoted to the rank of colonel and was ordered to return to Georgia to raise the 41st Regiment at Big Shanty. As its commanding officer, he was transferred to the Army of Tennessee. Then, on October 8, 1862 the 41st participated in the Battle of Perryville, where he was gravely wounded. He was tranferred with other injured men to Harrodsburg, KY and died there on October 18, 1862. Some ten years later, his brother George McDaniel paid for his body to be returned to Georgia (cost, about $400), and his grave today is in the cemetery of the Methodist Protestant Church was McDaniel had been pastor.
by Barry Copeland (barrybc@bellsouth.net)
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