Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/764

Rh After the surrender of Vicksburg he and his men were for several months on parole, but early in 1864 he was in command of his brigade, and on March 1st was promoted to brigadier-general. In April, being stationed at Selma, he was ordered to report to General French at Tuscaloosa, Ala., and in the following month reached Rome, Ga., in command of a brigade composed of the Fourth, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-ninth and Forty-sixth regiments and Seventh battalion Mississippi volunteers. Sent to Resaca on May 16th, the brigade took a conspicuous and gallant part in the famous campaign of May to September, 1864. During the battles around Atlanta in July he was disabled by illness. In General French's final report of the campaign General Sears was commended for valuable services. It was his fortune, in Hood's north Georgia campaign in Sherman's rear, to be engaged in the desperate fight at Allatoona, in reporting which French acknowledged his indebtedness to Sears' bravery, skill and unflinching firmness. At the battle of Franklin, Tenn., his brigade won new honors, many of the men and officers gaining the main line of the Federal works in the famous charge. Subsequently he co-operated with Forrest in the siege of Murfreesboro, whence he was ordered to Nashville, where he commanded his brigade with skill and firmness until late on the 15th of December, when he was severely wounded, losing a leg, and fell into the hands of the enemy. The surviving fragment of his brigade was surrendered by Gen. Richard Taylor in May, 1865, and General Sears was restored to his home at the close of hostilities.

Brigadier-General Jacob H. Sharp was born in North Carolina in 1833, and reared from infancy in Lowndes county, Mississippi, where he now resides. He was educated at Athens, Ga., a classmate of Gen. John B. Gordon. Entering the Confederate service as a private in Blythe's regiment, the Forty-fourth Mississippi, he was