May 13 

 

          On this day in 1863, Joseph Hubbard Saunders (1839-1885), a Captain in the 33rd North Carolina Infantry, received a promotion to the rank of Major, just a week after the end of the Battle of Chancellorsville. A married farmer from Orange County with three young children, Saunders was known for his “high moral character and social position.” He enlisted in the “Orange Light Infantry” in Chapel                                                                            Hill on April 6, 1861, just days before the bombardment of Fort                                                                              Sumter signified the beginning of the war. His unit became                                                                                      Company D of the 1st North Carolina Infantry (a six months                                                                                    regiment) and fought at the Battle of Bethel, the first serious                                                                                    skirmish of the war. After his term expired, Saunders was                                                                                        appointed 2nd lieutenant of Company A, 33rd North Carolina                                                                                Infantry, and was promoted to Captain in April 1862. He served                                                                              with distinction at the Battle of Cedar Run in August 1862, earning                                                                        “a compliment upon the field by the commanding general,”                                                                                      Stonewall Jackson. Saunders was wounded in the arm at the 2nd                                                                            Battle of Bull Run on August 29, 1862, when he tried to stop                                                                                    regiments in his brigade from firing into friendly forces during the                                                                        chaos of battle. He returned to duty from his wound three months                                                                          later and served with the unit through the maelstrom of Chancellorsville, where, on May 3, 1863, Major Thomas W. Mayhew–“a brave and skillful officer” who “was greatly beloved by the regiment”--received a mortal wound. On May 13, the day after Mayhew’s death, Saunders was appointed regimental Major. Less than two months later, Saunders led the 33rd North Carolina in the fateful Pickett-Pettigrew charge at Gettysburg. The regiment “advanced to within a few yards of the stone wall, exposed all the while to a heavy, raking artillery fire from the right.” They never reached the wall and Major Saunders was wounded and captured. He spent most of the last 21 months of the war in a Prisoner of War camp in Johnson’s Island, Ohio, where he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel while a prisoner in recognition of his valiant service.  

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Sources: 

Louis H. Manarin and Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr., comps., North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, 3:20,24; 9:115, 118, 123; Joseph H. Saunders, Compiled Military Service Record; 1860 U.S. Census: Orange County, North Carolina; Joseph Hubbard Saunders, findagrave website; Joseph Hubbard Saunders Papers, 1777-1921 (see finding aid here), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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