COL. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS SANDERS, merchant and banker, of Gainesville, was born at Grove
Level, Jackson county, Ga., May 8, 1840. In 1861, He graduated from the
Georgia Military Institute, of Marietta. At the outbreak of the War between the States he was commissioned Lieutenant- Colonel of the Twenty-fourth Regiment of Georgia Volunteer Infantry.
He served with that regiment throughout the war,
being promoted to the rank of Colonel in 1863. After the war he was extensively engaged in banking and the mercantile business. He was president of the State Banking Company, of Gainesville.
During the war he took part in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, Chanoellorsville, Harper's Ferry, Crampton's Gap, South Mountain,Sharpsburg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and many others.
At Sharpsburg, he was temporarily in command of Wofford's
brigade. The Confederate batteries had been destroyed, and
the space in front was swept by deadly minie balls, which
mowed down whole lines of soldiers. The Federals were advancing with fixed bayonets, and the Confederates sprang forward to meet them. The death grapple took place at a post and plank fence, which the Confederates held, but at a terrible cost of forty-eight per cent of the five regiments engaged in the charge.
At the Wilderness, Colonel Sanders's Regiment, at fearful
loss, aided in driving back the right wing of the Federals commanded by Grant. The First Army Corps succeeded in hurling Grant's right wing from the field.
At the "Death Angle" at Spottsylvania Court House Colonel
Sanders's command suffered fearfully, and he himself was
wounded. The second battle of Cold Harbor and the fight at
Sailor's Creek were the last in which he took part. He was
captured at Sailor's Creek on May 6, 1865, leaving only sixtyfour men to be surrendered at Appomattox under Lieutenant Jim Hill.
Colonel Sanders was a prisoner in the old Capitol building in Washington City the night of President Lincoln's assassination. He was later transferred to Johnson's Island, Ohio, and was released July 25, 1865, from his fearful sufferings.