Everything that you ever wanted to

know about the Covington name

 

Return to Site Map

Return to Home Page

 

COVINGTONS IN THE U.S. CIVIL WAR

 

The U.S.Civil War is the central event in America's historical consciousness. While the Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation it would be. The war resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the revolution: whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world.

Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nation and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. But these achievements came at the cost of 625,000 lives--nearly as many American soldiers as died in all the other wars in which this country has fought combined. The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.

The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. When Abraham Lincoln won election in 1860 as the first Republican president on a platform pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. The incoming Lincoln administration and most of the Northern people refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. They feared that it would discredit democracy and create a fatal precedent that would eventually fragment the no-longer United States into several small, squabbling countries.

The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on April 12, 1861. Claiming this United States fort as their own, the Confederate army on that day opened fire on the federal garrison and forced it to lower the American flag in surrender. Lincoln called out the militia to suppress this "insurrection." Four more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy. By the end of 1861 nearly a million armed men confronted each other along a line stretching 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri. Several battles had already taken place--near Manassas Junction in Virginia, in the mountains of western Virginia where Union victories paved the way for creation of the new state of West Virginia, at Wilson's Creek in Missouri, at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, and at Port Royal in South Carolina where the Union navy established a base for a blockade to shut off the Confederacy's access to the outside world.

But the real fighting began in 1862. Huge battles like Shiloh in Tennessee, Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas, and Fredericksburg in Virginia, and Antietam in Maryland foreshadowed even bigger campaigns and battles in subsequent years, from Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to Vicksburg on the Mississippi to Chickamauga and Atlanta in Georgia. By 1864 the original Northern goal of a limited war to restore the Union had given way to a new strategy of "total war" to destroy the Old South and its basic institution of slavery and to give the restored Union a "new birth of freedom," as President Lincoln put it in his address at Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed in the battle there.

For three long years, from 1862 to 1865, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia staved off invasions and attacks by the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by a series of ineffective generals until Ulysses S. Grant came to Virginia from the Western theater to become general in chief of all Union armies in 1864. After bloody battles at places with names like The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, Grant finally brought Lee to bay at Appomattox in April 1865. In the meantime Union armies and river fleets in the theater of war comprising the slave states west of the Appalachian Mountain chain won a long series of victories over Confederate armies commanded by hapless or unlucky Confederate generals. In 1864-1865 General William Tecumseh Sherman led his army deep into the Confederate heartland of Georgia and South Carolina, destroying their economic infrastructure while General George Thomas virtually destroyed the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee at the battle of Nashville.

By the spring of 1865 all the principal Confederate armies surrendered, and when Union cavalry captured the fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia on May 10, 1865, resistance collapsed and the war ended. The long, painful process of rebuilding a united nation free of slavery began.

The following Covingtons are listed as serving in the U.S.Civil War

 

A. M. Covington, 3rd Sgt.  Organized at Big Shanty in September 1861 23rd Georgia Regiment Volunteers, Co. I - Army of Tennesse. Volunteer Infantry Army of Tennessee.. These men came from Cass/Bartow, Floyd, Pickens, and Cherokee Counties, GA.

Abel Harrington Covington, Pvt.  20th Georgia Volunteers, Co. F

Allen J. Covington, Pvt. Present at Appromattox surrender April 1865 McIntosh's Battalion Artillery - 3rd Army Corps. Army of VA. Lt. Col. W. M. Owens, Commander

Andrew Covington, Private, Co.K. Sevier Co TN. age 18, served: 28 Feb 1862 - 29 Dec 1864. Honorable discharge.  2nd Tennesee, Co. K - a.k.a. 2nd East Tennessee Mounted Infantry

Arnold Covington, Pvt. Co. K. Sevier Co. TN, age 32. Died: 18 Apr 1864. Buried: Andersonville National Cemetery, GA. Grave: 615.Captured at Rogersville. Confined at Belle Isle and Andersonville. Admitted to hospital at Andersonville 15 Apr 1864 where he died of diarrhea.  2nd Tennesee, Co. K - a.k.a. 2nd East Tennessee Mounted Infantry

Benjamin Covington,Private. Co.K. Sevier Co TN. age 21. Honorable discharge.May have been captured at Rogersville. Record not clear.  2nd Tennesee, Co. K - a.k.a. 2nd East Tennessee Mounted Infantry

Cameron D. Covington, 2nd Lt. Listed in: Confederate Prisioners at Morris Island, SC, who were under fire when Confed. Army attacked Sept. 7 to Oct 21, 1864 45th Tennessee Infantry

Charles (NMI) Covington, Lt.  Died of brain fever in Albany, KY between Jan. 22 and Apr. 1, 1863. Unit organized at Madison County, KY.  11th Kentucky Cavalry, Co. F

E. B. Covington, Rank Unkn. Died: ? In list of Uunkowns Graves at Stone's River National Cemetery,TN. Battle of Murfreesboro casuality.  61st Illionis Infantry, Co. F

Edmond DeBerry Covington, Sgt. Maj. Organized at: Raliegh, NC on 28 Mar 1862 44th North Carolina Infantry

Elijah Covington, Rank Unkn. Died: 25 May 1865. Buried: Cypress Hill Cemetery, NY. Grave: 2874.  1st South Carolina Artillery

George B. Covington, Adjutant. Died: 1 Jun 1864. Buried: Rising Sun Cemetery, Ohio County, OH.  12th Regiment Indiana

George Covington, Pvt  18th Virginia Infantry, Co. K. - The Charlotte Rifles

George William Covington, Pvt. Killed at Winchester, Virginia.  Pelham's-Stuart's Artillery Battery - All horse mounted Battery.

Harris Covington, Captain.  26th South Carolina Regiment, Co. D. Wallace's Brigade, Brig.Gen. W. H. Wallace, Commander.

Henry T. Covington, Pvt.  26th North Carolina Regiment, Co. K

J. W. Covington, 5th Sgt. Appointed 5th Sergeant December 6, 1862 . Discharged and furnished Thomas Kearney as substitute December 27, 1863 . Enlistees from Jefferson,Laurens, and other Counties.  63rd Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment Co. H

James Covington, Pvt.  55th Virginia Regiment, Co. G. Barton's Brigade

James D. Covington  12th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry Co. K. "Marion Guards"

James E. Covington,1st Sgt.  Organized at Big Shanty in September 1861 23rd Georgia Regiment Volunteers, Co. I - Army of Tennesse. Volunteer Infantry Army of Tennessee.. These men came from Cass/Bartow, Floyd, Pickens, and Cherokee Counties, GA.

James H. Covington, Private. Co.K. Sevier Co TN. age 22. Honorable discharge.At first reported to have deserted from 14 Aug 1862 until 3 Jan 1863. Charge of desertion removed 11 Jan 1886.  2nd Tennesee, Co. K - a.k.a. 2nd East Tennessee Mounted Infantry

Jefferson Covington,Private. Co. K. Sevier Co TN age16. Honorable discharge. Captured at Rogersville. Confined at Belle Isle and Andersonville. Paroled at N.E. Ferry NC, 26 Feb 1865. Returned to regiment 1 Jul 1865.  2nd Tennesee, Co. K - a.k.a. 2nd East Tennessee Mounted Infantry

John B. Covington, Private. Co. K. age29. Died: 16 Jun 1864. Buried: Andersonville National Cemetery,GA. Grave: 2131.(another source: Grave 2081) Captured at Rogersville. Confined at Belle Isle and Andersonville. Cause of death diarrhea.  2nd Tennesee, Co. K - a.k.a. 2nd East Tennessee Mounted Infantry

John F. (or John A.) Covington  12th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry Co. K. "Marion Guards"

Jonathan M. Covington, Pvt.  McIntosh's Battery Artillery, 3rd Corps. Army of VA. Capt. W. B. Hurt's Co. of Artillery Volunteers

Joseph Covington, Pvt  18th Virginia Infantry, Co. K. - The Charlotte Rifles

Joseph G. Covington, Pvt.  Clutter's Battery - Johnson's Battery Artillery. Commander: Lt. Col. Marmaduke Johnson. Unit present at Appromattox surrender, April 10, 1865.

Martin Luther Covington, Captain  18th Virginia Infantry, Co. K. - The Charlotte Rifles

Matthew T. Covington, Jr. 2nd Lt. Killed at Battle of Mechanicsville.  Organized at Lincoln County, North Carolina 38th North Carolina Regiment, Co. E. - "The Richmond Boys", Col. William J. Hoke, Commander

Robert Covington, Pvt.  13th North Carolina Regiment, Co. H

Van Buren Covington, Rank Unkn. Died: 12 Oct 1864. Buried: Fayetteville National Cemetery, AR. Section: 5 Grave: 9.  1st Arkansas Cavalry, Co. D

William B. Covington, Corporal. Died: 19 Feb 1865. Buried: Little Rock National Cemetery, AR. Section 2 Grave: 369.  8th Missouri Cavalry, Co. E

William Covington, Pvt. 44th Alabama Regiment Infantry, Co. A

William Covington, Pvt. August 10, 1863. On detached service February 1864 . In Ocmulgee Hospital, Macon, Ga., December 29, 1864 with variola.  63rd Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment Co. H

William Covington, Pvt.age 22. Died: Near Nashville, TN 22 Feb 1863. Buried: Stone's River National Cemetery, TN. Section I Grave: 303.  6th Eastern Tennesee, Co. D

William Fleming Covington, 2nd Lt.  6th North Carolina Regiment, Co. H

William H. Covington, Private, Co. K. Sevier Co TN. age 26. Died: Unk.Sick at hospital in Cincinnati OH about Mar or Apr 1863. Later sick in hospital at Lexington and apparently never returned to regiment. No record or details of separation.  2nd Tennesee, Co. K - a.k.a. 2nd East Tennessee Mounted Infantry

William H. Covington, Pvt.  Black Eagle Company of Cumberland County, VA. Capt.(later Major) Carter H. Harrison, Commander.

William T. Covington, Pvt.  59th Georgia Regiment Infantry, Co. G

William W. Covington,1st Lt. Listed in Confederate Prisioners at Morris Island, SC, who were under fire when Confed. Army attacked Sept. 7 to Oct 21,1864. Organized at Bennettsville, South Carolina. 23rd South Carolina Cavalry

 

 

 

Please send e-mails to: covingtonhistory@mhcovington.plus.com

Visit the Covington History search engine