Victory or Death

The 18th Georgia Battalion, a heavy artillery unit originally formed in 1802, served in the coastal defenses around Charleston, South Carolina before moving to Virginia in May 1864 to guard the Richmond & Danville Railroad Bridge over the Appomattox River. Commanded by Major William S. Basinger at Sailor’s Creek, the battalion mustered eighty-five men in General George Washington Custis Lee’s division. Posted on the right of the battle line beside the Rice-Deatonville Road, the men wore artillery uniforms with scarlet markings, and their silk battle flag bore the embroidered words “Victory or Death.” When Federal infantry reached the crest of the ridge in their assault, Sergeants Richard Millen and Simeon Morton tried to rally the Guards around the flag, but both were shot down. Soldiers of the 121st New York Infantry came into contact with the Guards, and Private Warren C. Dockum of Company H is credited with capturing the flag. The battalion lost 30 men killed and 22 wounded, a loss of 61 percent of the men engaged. In the 1870’s the Guards flag was returned to the surviving men, and one member wrote that “it was lost without dishonor and recovered without humiliation.” At Appomattox, 1 officer and 16 men surrendered, 8 of them black musicians and cooks.

Virginia · United States