Skirmish at Statesboro Historical Marker Restored

Photo: Re-enactors from the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans fire cannon during the unveiling of a marker the Bulloch County Historical Society had refurbished and re-erected on Northside Drive West near Food World. Photo by Scott Bryant-Statesboro Herald.

The Bulloch County Historical Society restored and reinstalled a 1958 historical marker commemorating the 1864 skirmish at Statesboro between a strong party of mounted foragers from Major General William T. Sherman’s Union Army and a detachment of Confederate troops.

The marker was reinstalled on Thursday December 4, 2014 – 150 years after the Sunday battle occurred just west of Statesboro. Following the unveiling of the restored marker, members of the Georgia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), including members of the Ogeechee Rifles Camp 941from Statesboro as well as other area SCV re-enactors fired a volley of rifles and cannon as a salute to the six Confederate soldiers killed.

Sherman was on his famous “March to the Sea” and Statesboro lay in the path of 60,000 veteran Union troops headed to Savannah to connect with the Union Navy blockading the port at Savannah. About half of Sherman’s Army traveled along roads in northern Bulloch County, while the largest part of the invading army traveled along the north bank of the Ogeechee River.

The marker, along with dozens of others throughout Georgia, was erected in 1958 by the Georgia Historical Society in preparation for the 1961-1965 Centennial of the American Civil War. The marker was apparently struck by a vehicle at some point and its concrete support post badly damaged. The restored marker is powder coated to help it remain readable many years longer than the original finish.