Cpl William John Turner Hutcheson
Company E of Infantry Battalion (Blue Ridge Rifles)

William John Turner Hutcheson was born December 18, 1839 to Curtis C. and Verlina Deadmon Hutcheson.

He joined the Blue Ridge Rifles in his hometown of Dahlonega, Ga. and was formally enlisted July 9th, 1861 as a private in the Rifle Battalion of the 4th State Brigade at Camp McDonald (located at present day Kennesaw, Ga.)

When the State Brigade was disbanded in early August 1861 they became Company E of the newly formed Phillips Legion. He served with the Legion in the late 1861 campaign into western Virginia and then returned with the unit, to Hardeeville, South Carolina in January of 1862.

After being strengthened by additional recruits and three new companies recruited in Cobb and Bartow counties, the Infantry Battalion of the Legion was assigned to a new brigade under General Thomas F Drayton and sent north to Richmond, Va. on July 18th, 1862 to join the Army of Northern Virginia.

Early 1862 had brought a promotion for W.J.T. Hutchenson as the May/June 1862 muster roll shows him as a 4th Corporal.

On August 29th, 1862 at the battle of Second Manassas a Federal shell scored a direct hit in the ranks of the Legion, killing two men and wounding two more. One of the wounded was Cpl Hutcheson, whose left thigh was badly lacerated by a shell fragment. We know the injury to have been serious by virtue of the fact that the December 31, 1862 muster roll shows him still absent due to this wound.

He returns to duty at the beginning of 1863 and received a promotion to 3rd Sergeant. Badly demoralized by a combination of short rations, inadequate winter clothing and what many soldier's perceived to be poor leadership, many soldiers decided they had had enough war for 1863 and simply went home to their families in north Georgia.

Sgt Hutcheson must have been one of these as he is shown as being AWOL as of December 4th, 1863 on a roll dated January 14th, 1864. We do know that he returned to the Legion sometime in early 1864 as the next entry in his record, a roll for April and May of 1864 dated October 5th, 1864, shows him as wounded in action at Spotsylvania Court House on May 12th.

He was admitted to Jackson hospital in Richmond on May 15th where the middle finger on his left hand is amputated. On May 23rd, 1864 he received a 60 day wounded furlough and returned to Georgia. He is carried on all further rolls as being AWOL so we know that he did not return from this wound.

After the war Hutcheson ran a grocery store and was the superintendant of the Battle Branch gold mine. He was married to Elizabeth Davis before the war and fathered twelve children. One son, born after the war, was named Rebel Lee Hutcheson. He also served as tax collector in Lumpkin County from 1877 through 1880 and was eighty two when he died on April 8th, 1922.

Sources; Written by: Kurt Graham
NOTE:
This photo can be dated to 1862 as the stripes on his sleeve show him as a Corporal and he was only at this rank during 1862.