Confederate soldier Robert Norris

          It was September 20, 1863 during the bloody fighting for Horseshoe Ridge in the final hours of the terrible battle of Chickamauga. The battlefield was (and still is) in northern Georgia, within a handful of miles of the Tennessee line.

          The 15^th Alabama Infantry Regiment had battered itself against the Union defenses in an area between the Ridge’s Hills 1 and 2 and was pulling back after suffering losses.

          It had been 79 days since the 15^th fought so gamely and failed to push the 20^th Maine off the rocky sides of Little Round Top during the second day of fighting at Gettysburg. Now this veteran unit, led by William Oates, had been transferred with about 12,000 other Confederates from Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee.

          The fighting at Horseshoe Ridge was every bit as brutal as the desperate

This path is located in the general area
where the 15th Alabama  and the Alabamians
of Hilliard"s Legion got in each other's way
during the battle of Chickamauga.

bloodletting had been at Little Round Top. One historian referred to the “iron hail” of Chickamauga and your loyal blogger agrees with that descriptive phrase.

          Fighting among his comrades of 15^th was an officer named Robert Cicero Norris and Norris was about to meet his future.

          Norris enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private at the age of 23 in 1861. He was not married and his occupation was listed as ‘student.’ He progressed through the ranks and was a Sargent Major by 1864. His rapid rise may have partially been due to the heavy losses suffered by the 15^th during the war.

          During the battle of Chickamauga, the Confederate attack against Horseshoe Ridge was not a well-coordinated affair. Your loyal blogger is working on research which, hopefully, will be a book someday. It would take a book-length treatment to explain the lack of coordination between Confederate commanders that afternoon. For now, just read along with the assumption that the commanders on hand struggled to work together.

          As the 15^th pulled back down the hill, it bumped headlong into another determined group of Confederates, a brigade of about 2,000 men, rushing up the hill. This group of attacking southerners included two regiments and a bunch of Alabamians in an outfit known as Hilliard’s Legion.

          The retreating 15^th forced part of the Legion’s line to stop attacking in order to allow the exhausted survivors of the 15^th to get down the hill and it was during this meeting of the units that Norris met his future.

          In a span of about 90 minutes, the Legion suffered severe casualties but managed to force the Federals off the line at the top of the hill. The Legion’s losses were so severe that in the months following the battle, the Legion was split into three smaller units, the 23^rd Battalion Alabama Sharpshooters, the 59^th Alabama Infantry Regiment and the 60^th Alabama Infantry Regiment.

          The 15^th Alabama and the three units that splintered off from the Legion eventually spent parts of the next 19 months fighting in the same areas of the war. The losses suffered by the 60^th were tremendous, both among the officers and enlisted men. In 1864, Norris was promoted to 2^nd Lieutenant and transferred to the 60^th. He eventually became a first Lieutenant.

          The tattered survivors of the 15^th regiment, 23^rd battalion and the 59^th and 60^th regiments from Alabama all surrendered at Appomattox.

This marker in memory of Robert C. Norris stands on the grounds
of the Confederate Memorial Park in Alabama. The plate glass covering the
area with the printing gives off distracting reflections, so your loyal
blogger burned in some areas of the marker to make it easier to read here.

          Shortly after the end of the war, the leader of Brazil offered former Confederates inducements to relocate to that South American country and settle there. Some number of Alabamians did so, including Norris. They lived in a settlement named Americana.

          George W. Hilliard, who organized the Legion which bore his name, was the United States Minister to Brazil after the war from 1877 to 1881. Lieutenant John Washington Keyes of the 60^th became the family dentist for the royal family of Emperor Dom Pedo.

          Many of the transplanted Confederates returned to the United States after five years or so in Brazil, but Norris and others remained.

          Robert C. Norris died in Brazil May 4, 1913 at 77 years of age.

          There is a marker in his honor at the Confederate Memorial Park near Montgomery, Alabama.

 

          Thanks for reading.