He Wouldn't Run

At Jericho Ford, Virginia, when the 14th Georgia Infantry had orders to fall back, eighteen-year-old J. Rufus Kelly of Company B kept advancing, waving his hat and rifle and urging his comrades forward. When the retreat continued, he joined another brigade and lost a leg in battle. Back home at Gordon on crutches, he voluntarily spied on Sherman’s army as it advanced from Macon. Riding into Gordon on horseback, he warned Georgia Adjutant General Henry C. Wayne that federal forces were coming, then fiercely denounced the Confederate officer for entraining seven hundred cadets and paroled convicts to flee from one hundred thousand approaching U.S. marchers. Declaring that he would defend the women and children of Gordon alone, Kelly, aided by John R. Bragg, went out to meet the advancing Union forces and killed one soldier. The advance was delayed until Union forces deployed around Gordon. Kelly was captured when his horse staggered and was sentenced to be shot, but he escaped from a wagon crossing the Ogeechee Swamp and lived for many years after the war. He is buried at Liberty Hill Church near Myrick's Mill Pond in Twiggs County.

Gordon, Georgia · United States