Company B, 57th Georgia Infantry

This regiment was originally the 2nd Regiment, Georgia Infantry, State Troops, and was mustered into service in May 1862. They were re-desinatated as the 54th Georgia Confederate Infantry Regiment. In early 1863, they were re-designated as the 57th Georgia Confederate Infantry Regiment. They served in the Army of Tennessee in Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia. They fought at the Battle of Champion Hill and were surrendered when Vicksburg fell in 1863. After being exchanged they served briefly as guards at Andersonville Prison and were active in the Atlanta campaign. Only a handful of this regiment remained to surrender on April 26, 1865. Company B formally enlisted from Laurens County, apparently as Company I of the 2nd Regiment, 1st Brigade, Georgia State Troops. At the end of the war, they were merged with Company A to form the Company F of the Consolidated Georgia Infantry Regiment for their surrender at Greensboro, NC, April 26, 1865. A series of letters written by Wright Vinson (Company F), 1862 - 1863 is in collection AC63-107 at the Georgia Department of Archives and History. A good memoir of Company B, 57th Georgia, by John L. Keel, is on Microfilm reel 283/30 at the Georgia Department of Archives and History.

Alexander R. Beasley, enlisted May 9, 1862, private, age 29; captured at Vicksburg, July 4, 1863; surrounded at Greensboro. He was born in Laurens County, November 1832, and died in Montgomery County, January 1907.

James M. Beasley, enlisted August 20, 1862, private; died March 10, 1864 in Savannah Hospital of "chron. affection lungs." His mother was Jane Beasley

James Westley Beasley, enlisted May 9, 1862, corporal and later 1st sergeant, age 27; captured Vicksburg, July 4, 1863; died at Savannah, March 10, 1864 (while a prisoner of war?).

John R. Beasley, enlisted May 9, 1862, private, age 18; died Savannah Hospital, November 10, 1862 of "lenoirs erysipelas." He was born in Laurens County.

Joseph M. Beasley, enlisted May 9, 1862, corporal, age 23; surrendered at Vicksburg, July 4, 1863; died of disease in Enterprise, MS, July 31, 1863.

John B. Daniel, enlisted May 9, 1862, private, age 32.

John Hester, enlisted May 9, 1862, private, age 23; surrendered at Vicksburg, July 4, 1863.

Riley Hester, enlisted August 7, 1863, private. He was born in Laurens County in 1826.

John Joyce, enlisted May 9, 1862, private, age 32; died in Jackson MS, in 1863.

William W. Joyce, enlisted May 9, 1862, private, age 39; promoted to 3rd corporal in February 1864; captured at Vicksburg, July 4, 1863; surrendered at Greensboro. He was born in Dublin, GA, May 3, 1832.

Moses Lucien Pope Sr., enlisted May 9, 1862, private, age 22; captured at Vicksburg, July 4, 1863. He was born in Laurens County in 1838.