Castleman's Ferry and Kernstown. At the battle of Winchester, September 19, 1864, just after inflicting a severe repulse upon the foe, "in the very moment of triumph and while conducting the attack with great gallantry and skill," as General Early says, he was struck behind the ear by a fragment of shell and died within a few hours. In Early’s book, "Memoirs of the Last Year of the War," that general says that General Rodes "was a most accomplished, skillful and gallant officer, upon whom I placed great reliance."
Brigadier-General John C. Calhoun Sanders was the son of Dr. Sanders, a native of Charleston, S. C., and his wife, daughter of Dr. Matthew Thomson, of Anderson district. The parents moved to Tuscaloosa, Ala., where their son was born, April 4, 1840, and named in honor of South Carolina’s great statesman. The parents soon after settled at Clinton, Greene county, and here their son was reared until he entered the State university in 1858. At the beginning of the war the young man gave way to the patriotic impulse which took possession of so many of the young men of the South, and, in spite of the opposition of the family, left the university halls for the army. He was elected captain of a company organized at Clinton and entered the Eleventh Alabama infantry. It was not until the spring of 1862 that they had their first experience of fierce battle. At Seven Pines, Gaines' Mill and Frayser's Farm he led his company. In the last named of these battles the regiment made a famous charge across an open field upon a battery strongly supported by infantry. Though severely wounded in this bloody struggle by a fragment of shell, which badly tore the deeper tissues of his leg, he remained on the field until after dark. August 11th he rejoined the regiment and took command of it. At the battle of Sharpsburg he was wounded in the face by pebbles thrown up by a cannon ball. On the return to Virginia he was commissioned
