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Submitted: 9/16/20 • Approved: 9/23/20 • Last Updated: 9/26/20 • R34426-G0-S3
April 4, 1840 - August 21, 1864
His body was reinterred in Alabama in 1918
Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. He was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and at the age of 18 entered the University of Alabama, where he studied until early 1861, when Alabama seceded. Enlisting in the Confederate Guards or Company E, 11th Alabama, he was elected Captain on June 11, 1861. The 11th was ordered to Virginia and assigned on July 21, 1861, to the 5th Brigade, Army of the Shenandoah. By this time most of the army had left for Manassas and was engaged in the First Battle of Bull Run, the 5th however was still in the valley. Besides missing the opening battle of the war, the 11th would see no action the entire first year, receiving its baptism in combat at Seven Pines from May 31 to June 1, 1862. During the campaign, he fell severely wounded on June 30th at Frayser's Farm. He returned to duty on August 11th, assuming command of the regiment. He led the 11th at Second Bull Run, and Antietam and was formally promoted to Colonel after the Maryland battle. At Fredericksburg, in December, he again commanded his unit with skill and bravery. Throughout the Army of Northern Virginia's campaigns in 1863 and 1864, he continued to perform conspicuously, fighting with gallantry at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, where he was wounded in the knee. While he recovered, he served as president of the division court-martial. He returned to regimental command in spring 1864, leading his men in the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania, where he temporarily assumed command of Brigadier General Abner M. Perrin's brigade, when Perrin was killed during the Federal assault on the "Mule Shoe." His performance earned him his commission of Brigadier General. During the Petersburg Campaign, he commanded Brigadier General Cadmus M. Wilcox's brigade of Alabama regiments, leading the unit brilliantly in the Confederate counterattack in the Battle of the Crater. While engaged along the Weldon Railroad during the Battle of Globe Tavern, he was mortally wounded. A minie ball passed through his thighs, severing both femoral arteries. He died within a few minutes, but not before he calmly told his adjutant, "Take me back, don't leave me." His body was taken to Richmond the next day and was placed in a vault in Hollywood Cemetery. From there he was interred in the Maryland Section for a short while, but his family decided to move his body to lot O-9 which was owned by John C. Page, a wealthy shoe merchant who had cared for him in 1862 after he had been wounded at Frayser's Farm. Somehow the exact location of his grave has been lost, and in 1971 a granite marker to his memory was erected in Section R. The marker reads: IN THIS CEMETERY LIES GEN. JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN SANDERS C.S.A. APR. 4, 1840 - AUG. 21, 1864 LEE CHAPTER U.D.C. 123 1971.
Bio by: Ugaalltheway
Contributed on 9/16/20 by tomtodd
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Record #: 34426
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