The 31st Georgia was organized in the Fall of 1861 as part of the great post-Manassas push to recruit additional soldiers for the Confederate war effort. It was formed of companies mostly from the South Western areas of Georgia around Columbus, but also included 1 company of all Alabamians. The regiment was initially designated as the 27th Georgia Infantry with only 9 companies and were sent to guard the coast around Savannah.

Company K, Bartow Avengers, were formed in the town of Dawson prior to the regiment in September 1861, and named for Georgian war hero Francis Bartow, who had been killed at First Manassas. They initially served for several months with Wise’s Legion in western Virginia before being relieved of service there. In January of 1862, they reorganized and were added as a tenth company to the 27th. The regiment was then reorganized as the 31st Georgia under the command of Clement Evans for service to the Confederate government, and assigned to Virginia as part of the 6 regiment “Georgia Brigade” of Alexander Lawton.

In Virginia, the 31st Georgia served as part of “Stonewall” Jackson’s Army of the Valley fighting its way up and down the Shenandoah before being transferred to Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia near Richmond. There it served in the battles of Gaines's Mill and Malvern Hill during the Seven Days Battles. For the duration of 1862, it basked in Lee’s seeming invincibility holding the railroad cut at 2nd Manassas; defending the Cornfield and Dunkard Church at Antietam, were the 31st Colonel Clement Evans served as commander of the Georgia Brigade when Lawton was wounded; and fighting valiantly again along the railroad at Fredericksburg.

In 1863, the brigade was placed under the command of John Gordon after Lawton was unable to return to service due to the wounds suffered at Antietam. The 31st would miss the grand assault at Chancellorsville, instead being detached with Jubal Early to hold off Union General John Sedgwick at Fredericksburg. In late June 1863, when Jubal Early’s division captured York, Pennsylvania, Colonel Evans received the honor of lowering the town’s flag as part of the capture. Two days later, they would be redirected to a sleepy town called Gettysburg, where they served as part of the late afternoon assaults on July 1st, that crushed the Union 11th Corps. Like the rest of Lee’s army they spent the rest of 1863 quietly recuperating, until late that fall when they participated in the oft overlooked Mine Run campaign in northern Virginia.

At the Wilderness in early 1864, the regiment was part of Gordon’s grand assault on the Union Iron Brigade that saved the Confederate right flank from collapse on May 5. Following the battle, with the promotion of John Gordon, the 31st’s Colonel Clement Evans assumed command of the Georgia Brigade and soon help repulse the attack at the “Bloody Angle” at Spotsylvania Courthouse. The regiment continued with Lee’s army in the rest of the Overland Campaign before being detached to Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley in June. With Early, they marched to the “gates of Washington” serving in the battles that raged that summer in the Shenandoah including Monocacy, Fort Stevens, and the heartbreaking loss of the valley at Cedar Creek in October. With the dispersal of the Army of the Valley, the Georgia Brigade returned to Petersburg and Lee’s Army.

In March 1865, Evans’ Brigade was one of four brigades involved in Lee’s last offensive at Fort Stedman, the assault whose failure marked the end of the Confederate’s hold on Petersburg and Richmond. The 31st then fled west before serving in the final assault of the Army of Northern Virginia, as they attempted to break out of Appomattox Court House on the morning of April 9th. There they surrendered with 120 men, 66 of whom were armed.