Corporal Augustus McMillan Bryant
Dublin Core
Title
Corporal Augustus McMillan Bryant
Subject
Company C, 32nd Regiment N.C. Troops
Description
Augustus McMillian Bryant, a nineteen-year-old farm laborer, was one of seventy men who enlisted between August 1-7, 1861, in a company from Northampton County that was assigned to the 2nd Regiment N.C. Volunteers as Company O. Confederate policy generally forbad infantry regiments from having more than ten companies, and in October 1861 Companies L, M, N, and O of the 2nd N.C. Volunteers were assigned to the newly formed 1st Battalion N.C. Infantry as Companies A, B, C, and D, respectively. By July 1862 six companies from other commands had joined the battalion and it was renamed as the “32nd Regiment N.C. Troops.”
The 32nd North Carolina saw little action prior to the Gettysburg Campaign. Augustus was frequently absent with an unspecified illness in late 1862 and early 1863 but returned to duty by June 6.
Like all the units in Brigadier General Junius Daniel’s Brigade (43rd, 45th, and 53rd Regiments N.C. Troops; 2nd Battalion N.C. Infantry), the 32nd North Carolina sustained serious casualties at Gettysburg. The regiment numbered almost 500 men and lost forty-four killed or mortally wounded in action, forty-three wounded in action and ninety-seven captured (of whom sixty-seven were also wounded), a loss of more than one-third. Augustus Bryant was seemingly present at the Battle of Gettysburg, for he was promoted to corporal on July 8, six days before the Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac back into Virginia.
The 32nd North Carolina was scarcely engaged at Wilderness, but the regiment suffered severely in Union General Emory Upton’s attack on the Mule Shoe salient at Spotsylvania on the evening of May 10, 1864. A prompt Confederate response repaired the breach, but the 32nd North Carolina lost twenty-eight men killed or mortally wounded in action, twenty-four wounded in action, and two hundred twenty-nine men captured (of whom only twelve were wounded). One of the captured was Augustus, who was incarcerated successively at Point Lookout, Maryland, and Elmira, New York. He was released from the latter place on July 26, 1865, after he took the Oath of Allegiance.
The 32nd North Carolina saw little action prior to the Gettysburg Campaign. Augustus was frequently absent with an unspecified illness in late 1862 and early 1863 but returned to duty by June 6.
Like all the units in Brigadier General Junius Daniel’s Brigade (43rd, 45th, and 53rd Regiments N.C. Troops; 2nd Battalion N.C. Infantry), the 32nd North Carolina sustained serious casualties at Gettysburg. The regiment numbered almost 500 men and lost forty-four killed or mortally wounded in action, forty-three wounded in action and ninety-seven captured (of whom sixty-seven were also wounded), a loss of more than one-third. Augustus Bryant was seemingly present at the Battle of Gettysburg, for he was promoted to corporal on July 8, six days before the Army of Northern Virginia crossed the Potomac back into Virginia.
The 32nd North Carolina was scarcely engaged at Wilderness, but the regiment suffered severely in Union General Emory Upton’s attack on the Mule Shoe salient at Spotsylvania on the evening of May 10, 1864. A prompt Confederate response repaired the breach, but the 32nd North Carolina lost twenty-eight men killed or mortally wounded in action, twenty-four wounded in action, and two hundred twenty-nine men captured (of whom only twelve were wounded). One of the captured was Augustus, who was incarcerated successively at Point Lookout, Maryland, and Elmira, New York. He was released from the latter place on July 26, 1865, after he took the Oath of Allegiance.
Creator
Gable House Photographer
Source
Busey and Martin, Regimental Strengths and Losses, 290; Manarin et al., North Carolina Troops, 5:244; 9:39; Mast, “North Carolina Casualties”; service record files of Augustus M. Bryant, 12th Regiment N.C. Troops and 32nd Regiment N.C. Troops, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers from the State of North Carolina (M270), RG109, NA.
Contributor
North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Files
Citation
Gable House Photographer, “Corporal Augustus McMillan Bryant,” Tar Heel Faces, accessed May 5, 2024, https://tarheelfaces.omeka.net/items/show/77.
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