OVERVIEW:61st Infantry Regiment [also called 26th Regiment] was assembled at Charleston, South Carolina, in May, 1862. It was formed by using the 7th Georgia Battalion as its nucleus. The men were from the counties of Irwin, Tattnall, Brooks, Bulloch, Montgomery, Bibb, Quitman, and Wilkes. Ordered north in June, the unit arrived at Petersburg, Virginia, with 1,000 officers and men. During the war it was brigaded under Generals Lawton, John B. Gordon, and C.A. Evans, Army of Northern Virginia. It participated in many conflicts from the Seven Days' Battles to Cold Harbor, went with Early to the Shenandoah Valley, then fought in numerous engagements around Appomattox. This regiment sustained 36 casualties at Gaines' Mill, 63 atSecond Manassas, 114 at Sharpsburg, and 100 at Fredericksburg. It lost thirty-seven percent of the 288 at Gettysburg and sixty-five percent of 150 at Monocacy. The 61st surrendered with no officers and 81 men, of which only 49 were armed. Its commanders were Colonel John H. Lamar; Lieutenant Colonels Charles W. McArthur and James Y. McDuffie; and Majors Peter Brenan, Archibald P. MacRae, Henry Tillman, and James D. Van Valkenburg.

A P MacRae