Phillips ' Legion Phillips ' Legion or Phillips ' Georgia Legion was a unit of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War . Background and formation . With the outbreak of the war , Georgia Governor Joseph E . Brown gave the task of organizing and training the 4th Brigade to his friend , attorney and militia general William Phillips . Phillips chose as his training base " the old Smyrna Camp Meeting Ground located 4 miles south of Marietta " , renaming it " Camp Brown " . By April 15 , 1861 , two heavy infantry regiments and three battalions ( one each of light infantry , cavalry and artillery ) had been organized . However , Brown clashed with Confederate President Jefferson Davis over states ' rights and control of military formations . Under much pressure , he was eventually forced to yield the two regiments to Davis and abandon his plan to place Phillips in charge of the brigade . Brown formed a legion ( which meant at the time a combined arms unit ) from the remaining light infantry and cavalry battalions , commanded by Phillips . It initially consisted of a six - company infantry battalion , including the late addition of an all - Irish company known as the Lochrane Guards from Macon , and a four - company cavalry battalion . Brown ' s request for the artillery battalion to be included was denied by Davis . The legion was accepted into state service in July 1861 , and Phillips appointed its colonel the following month . Civil War . In late 1861 , Phillips ' Legion was ordered to join the Army of the Kanawha in the western part of Virginia , where the pro - Union residents had seceded from the state . General Robert E . Lee , in his first field assignment in command , was handicapped by the bitter acrimony between his subordinates , Generals Henry A . Wise and John B . Floyd . The campaign did not go well for the South , for which Lee was roundly criticized . Colonel Phillips contracted typhoid fever . In December 1861 , Special Order 268 directed the Legion and the 20th Mississippi to proceed to Coosawhatchie , South Carolina . There , under the command of Brigadier General Thomas Drayton , it guarded railway lines and recuperated from a harsh Virginia winter to which Georgians were unaccustomed . The cavalry was stationed at Hardeeville . Some of the officers went home to recruit replacements for their losses . Phillips , authorized to expand his unit , added three infantry and two cavalry companies by the end of May 1862 . In July , the Legion infantry boarded a train and headed north to join the Army of Northern Virginia as part of Cobb ' s Brigade . The cavalry followed later , and was assigned to a different brigade . They would remain separated for the remainder of the war ( a common fate for Confederate legions ) , a situation made official by Special Order 104 . The cavalry , under Major General J . E . B . Stuart , and the infantry , along with the rest of Cobb ' s Brigade , both participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg in December . Phillips resigned in 1863 . The Legion fought in the Gettysburg Campaign and was mentioned in Brigadier General Wade Hampton ' s report to the Assistant Adjutant - General , dated August 13 , 1863 , as having helped repulse a July 2 Union attack between Hunterstown and Gettysburg , Pennsylvania . The cavalry fought in the Battle of Trevilian Station in June 1864 , and the Carolinas Campaign in January 1865 , while the infantry joined McLaws ' Division for the rest of the war .