Confederate Col Charles A. McDaniel of Bowdon Georgia

ol. Charles Addison McDaniel was the youngest of three brothers who moved to Bowdon, Georgia in the years leading up to the Civil War. He was co-founder and first president of Bowdon College. The college offered its student military training. When Georgia entered the war most of its student left to join units in their home towns. In the Fall of 1861, the remaining student cadets and men from the the community formed Co. B of Cobb's Legion "Bowdon Volunteers" and elected McDaniel as their captain. They joined Gen. Lee's Army in Virginia and served the entire 4 years of the war. Capt. McDaniel was promoted to colonel and sent back to Georgia to form the 41st Regt. Ga. Inf. This united along with the 40th and 42nd join the Army of Tran-Mississippi and served in the western theater. The summer of 1862 was hot and dry. The 41st headed to Kentucky looking for a water source they had headed about at Doctors Creek located in the Chaplin Hills. It was here the the 41st along with several Tenness units met up with Union Forces and fought the Battle of Perryville, Ky. Oct 8th 1862. This battle was fought over 4 gentle rolling hills. At each hills the confedrates were able to pushed back the union. In an attempt to take the 4th hill the confederates made a gallant charge down the valley into a cornfield. The union forces running out of munitions unloaded all the remaining ammunition onto the confederates. Col. McDaniel leaped from this horse to grab the units flag and was hit in the thight. Mortally wounded He was carried from the battlefield to the General Hospital in Harrodsburg, Ky. Union doctors did the best they could to car for him, however he refused to have his leg amputated. Col. Charles A. McDaniel died there 10 days later and was interned in the masonic cemetery there. years later his brother, George McDaniel paid $400 to attorney to have his body brought back to Bowdon and reinterred in the Bowdon Methodist Protest Church Cemetery. Col. McDaniel was the highest ranking officer during the Civil War from Carroll County, Georgia.