© Copyright 2025
Richard “Rick” Chancey
John Newton Krimminger
18th South Carolina Infantry Regiment,
Company G, Confederate States Army
(South Carolina Volunteers )
This regiment was originally organized for 12 months service, but re-organized under the conscription act 5/5/1862, for three years from date of original enlistment.18th South Carolina Infantry Regiment
1862
January 2 1862
Organized for 1 year’s service under the command of Colonel James M.
Gadbury. Assigned to 2nd Military District of South Carolina,
Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Company G (Mountain Guards)
May 5 1862
Reorganized for three years service under the command of Colonel
Gadbury and Lieutenant Colonel William H. Wallace.
May 20 1862
John N. Krimminger enlists as private in Charleston under the conscription act.
June-July 1862
Company Assigned to 1st Military District of South Carolina, Department of
South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
July 1862
Company Assigned to Evans’s Brigade, Drayton’s Division, 1st Corps, Army of
Northern Virginia
August 2-8 1862
Reconnaissance from Harrison’s Landing and occupation of Malvern Hill—Fought on July 1st, 1862, Malvern Hill was the last of the Seven Days’ Battles, and one of the largest of that campaign. Yet a Second Battle of Malvern Hill took place a month later, one that is largely forgotten today. After the fighting at Malvern Hill, the Army of the Potomac retreated to a natural defensive position along the James River, commonly referred to as “Harrison’s Landing.”
August-October 1862
Company Assigned to Evans’s Independent Brigade, 1st Corps, Army of NorthernVirginia
August 23 1862
Rappahannock Station—The Rappahannock Station Civil War battles took place in and around Remington, Virginia, along the Rappahannock River. This area, now part of Fauquier County, was the site of two major engagements during the Civil War: the First Battle of Rappahannock Station in August 1862 and the Second Battle of Rappahannock Station in November 1863.
August 28-30 1862
Second Battle of Manassas (Second Bull Run)
The regiment brought 230 men to the field and lost 113 casualties.
Colonel Gadbury was killed
Captains John E. Hames of Company B, F.M.
Tucker of Company E and Lieutenant Edward B. White of Company H were killed.
September 14 1862
Battle of South Mountain (Boonsboro)
September 17
Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam)
The regiment lost 3 men killed and 39 wounded. Lieutenant A.H.Woods
of Company I was killed.
October-November 1862
Company Assigned to Evans’s Brigade, McLaws’s Division, 1st Corps, Army of Northern Virginia
October 14 1862
John N. Krimminger Appears on a Register of Medical Directors
Office Hospital: General Hospital No. 22—Admitted:
October 15 1862
John N. Krimminger Appears on a Register of Receiving and
Wayside Hospital or General Hospital No. 9, Richmond Virginia.
Transferred to General Hospital No. 22
October 16 1862
John N. Krimminger Appears on a Register of General Hospital
Camp Winder, Virginia—Disease: Debilitas Admitted: Oct 16
November-February 1862
CompanyAssigned to Evans’s Brigade, French’s Command, Department of North
Carolina and Southern Virginia
December 15 1862
John N. Krimminger Transferred to Danville —Complaint:
Nephralgia (pain in the kidney). To see when he was returned to duty, forward to March 24 1863
December 16
John N. Krimminger Appears on a Register of Medical Directors
Office Richmond Virginia. Hospital (?) Division 2.
Summary: 1862
In his first year of Confederate service, John Newton Krimminger followed a regiment that plunged into the difcultty of war. From Charleston to the hills of Virginia, he saw men fall in staggering numbers—113 at Second Manassas alone. Somewhere in the smoke and blood of Antietam, he may have begun to reckon with the contradiction of fighting for a cause he didn’t believe in. By fall, his body was faltering. "Debilitas" and "nephralgia" were more than diagnoses; they marked a man worn thin, perhaps by duty, perhaps by doubt. The professor in him endured, but the soldier was already beginning to fracture.
1863
February-March 1863
Assigned to Evans’s Brigade, District of Cape Fear, Department of
North Carolina and Southern Virginia
February 1 through February 28 1863 —John N. Krimminger Absent —in hospital — Va.
March 24 1863
John N. Krimminger Returned to Duty From December 15.
March 27 1863
John N. Krimminger Appears on a register of C.S.A. Military
Hospital, No. 4 Wilmington, N.C. —Hemorrhoids.
May 1863
Assigned to Evans’s Brigade, 1st Military District of South Carolina,
Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida
May 2 1863
John N. Krimminger Returned to Duty from march 27
June 1863
Company Moved to Mississippi and assigned to Evans’s Brigade, Breckinridge’s
Division, Department of the West
June-July
Company Assigned to Evans’s Brigade, French’s Division, Department of the West
July 1 or 2 1863
Jackson, Mississippi— John N. Krimminger Deserts the Confederacy: 1st shows on one report, 2nd shows on another report.
Summary: 1863
If 1862 wore down his body, 1863 tested his convictions. By spring, Great-Grandfather Krimminger was still in and out of hospitals, enduring persistent illness that showed the strain of serving a cause he never embraced. But it was the brutal siege of Jackson, Mississippi, that offered both chaos and cover. With Union artillery bearing down and Confederate lines collapsing, he vanished—not as a coward, but as a man choosing conscience over compulsion. He was never captured, never court-martialed. He simply walked away. And with that quiet act of defiance, the professor became a fugitive—with the war, and with himself.
For 7 months Great Grandfather John Kimminger Disappeared
1864
Co. D, 1st Reg’t Florida Cavalry
February 15 1864
I John N. Krimminger born in Cabarrus County. in the state of North Carolina aged forty seven years, and by occupation a Pro Latin & Greek Do Hereby Acknowledge to have volunteered this Fifteenth day of February 1864, to serve as a Soldier in the Army of the United States of America for a period of three years.
March 27 1864
John N. Krimminger, Private Co. D, 1 Reg’t Florida Cavalry Appears on Company Muster-in and Descriptive named above. Roll dated Barrancas, Fla. March 27 1864 —Where Born: Cabarrus Co. N. C. — Age 47 years; —Occupation: Professor of Latin and Greek—When enlisted: February 15, 1864 Where enlisted Barrancas. For what period enlisted: 3 years.—Eyes-dark; hair: dark- Complexion: dark; height 5 ft. 10 in.—When mustered in :March 27 1864,—Where mustered in Barrancas. Due $300 —Credited to Covington Co. Ala. 8th Cong District Andalusia. (Alabama)
John N. Krimminger. —Present Company Muster roll—March 27 to April 30 1865 appointed 6th Serg’t by S. O. No. 24, hdqrs 1st Fla. Cav. April 1st 1864.
May and June 1864—John N. Krimminger. —Present Company Muster roll
May and June 1864 —John N. Krimminger. —Present Company Muster roll
September and October 1864—John N. Krimminger. —Present Company Muster roll
November and December 1864 —John N. Krimminger. —Present Company Muster roll—
Summary 1864
He re-emerged not in shame but in service—no longer a Confederate conscript, but a Union volunteer. On a February day in Florida, John Newton Krimminger took back the pen and wrote his own terms: age forty-seven, a professor turned sergeant. His past illnesses disappeared from the record. For nine straight months, he served without absence, his signature steady on every roll. And in place of artillery fire, his new campaign was order, logistics, and quiet resolve. After all the pain, all the shifting ground—this year, finally, there was no hospital bed. Just duty he could believe in.
1865
January and February 1865—John N. Krimminger. —Present Company Muster roll
John N. Krimminger. —Present Company Muster roll≈
May and June 1865—John N. Krimminger. —Present Company Muster roll
July and August 1865—John N. Krimminger. —Present Company Muster roll
November 17 1865
John N. Krimminger Appears on Co. Muster-out Roll, Tallahassee Fla. Nov. 17, 1865 —Muster-out to date Nov 17 1865 —Last paid to June 30, 1864. —Due soldier $29.78 —Bounty paid, $180; due, $120.00 —Joined as private, appointed Serg’t April 1 1864
Mustered Out
Summary: 1865
The final year of the war brought no drama, only discipline. For nearly eleven months, great-grandfather Krimminger showed up, quietly and without interruption. No hospitals. No complaints. Just steady hands, a trusted rank, and the duties of a base commissary sergeant. On November 17, 1865, in Tallahassee, he was honorably mustered out of Union service. From conscript to deserter to sergeant, he had not just survived the war—he had rewritten his place in it.
Final Reflection
John Newton Krimminger’s military record isn’t a neat tale of glory—it’s something far rarer. It’s the story of a man who made a break others would fear to make, and found his way back to service on his terms. He wasn’t just a soldier or a scholar; he was a man who wrestled with loyalty, and the weight of conscience during a time when clear choices were hard to come by. From his records, you can read something deeper—a transformation and the quiet kind of courage that history often overlooks.
© Copyright 2025
Richard “Rick” Chancey