May 1 

 

          On this date in 1863, Sidney A. Crowder (1839-1863) became the sole fatality in the 12th North Carolina Infantry during the first day of the battle of Chancellorsville. Crowder was an unmarried, itinerant tailor from Cleveland County–the census taker in 1860 found him staying at the Mansion House hotel in Charlotte on October 5 as he made his rounds. Just ten days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter ignited the war, the 22-year old enlisted in the “Cleveland Guards” at Shelby, North Carolina, on April 22, 1861. Sent to Garysburg for training, his company became Company E of the 12th North Carolina. Crowder’s service took him first to Norfolk, Virginia, and then into the thick of combat. He fought at Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill and South Mountain, where his brigade commander, General Samuel Garland, was killed. He then survived the carnage of Antietam. Despite the regiment’s heavy losses, Crowder emerged unscathed and earned recognition for his bravery. On February 3, 1863, he was honored with the role of Color Corporal–designated as one of the men to carry the regiment’s flag into battle. That honor proved fatal. On May 1, 1863, during a late-afternoon advance near the Orange and Fredericksburg Plank Road, the 12th North Carolina, now in Alfred Iverson’s brigade, encountered a retreating Union force. As the Yankees fired blindly into the scattered woods toward the Confederate banners, a single shot struck Crowder. He fell standing near the regiment’s flag–the only soldier killed in the regiment that day.

 

 

 

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Sources: 

Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr., Comp. North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, 107-108, 176; 1860 U.S. Census: Mecklenburg County; Sidney A. Crowder, Compiled Military Service Record; Crowder grave marker website (findagrave)