Micah Jenkins

From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia

Micah Jenkins (1 December 1835 - 6 May 1864) was born on Edisto Island, South Carolina. He graduated from South Carolina Military Institute in 1854, and established a private military school at Yorkville, South Carolina in 1855. He was elected colonel of the 5th South Carolina regiment at the opening of the War Between the States and reorganized it at the end of its year's enlistment as Jenkins' Palmetto Sharp-Shooters. He led a brigade in the Seven Days' battles around Richmond, and, after Gaines' Mills and Frazer's Farm, brought out his sharp-shooters, originally numbering more than 1,0O0, with but 125 men, his personal aide having been shot at his side, and his hat and clothing pierced by seventeen bullets. He was promoted to Brigadier-General, and was present at the second battle of Manassas, where he was severely wounded and where two of his Colonels and his Adjutant-General were killed. In the spring of 1863 he led a corps of observation on the Blackwater, near Richmond and Petersburg. In September following he went to Georgia with General James Longstreet, but was too late for the battle of Chickamauga. He then commanded Horn's division and accompanied Longstreet to Tennessee. He moved in the spring to Virginia, where he met his death from his own men by mistake at night, on the second day of Grant's advance through the Wilderness.