Confederate Veteran
page 11

[ Up ] [ CV 1893 Pg 2 ] [ CV 1893 Pg 3 ] [ CV 1893 Pg 4 ] [ CV 1893 Pg 5 ] [ CV 1893 Pg. 6 ] [ CV 1893 Pg 7 ] [ CV 1893 Pg 8 ] [ CV 1893 Pg 9 ] [ CV 1893 Pg 10 ] [ CV 1893 Pg 11 ] [ Conf. Vet Pg 12 ] [ Conf. Vet Pg 13 ] [ 1893 pg 14 ] [ CV 1893 Pg 15 ] [ CV 1894 Pg 1 ] [ CV 1894 pg 2 ] [ CV 1894 Pg 3 ] [ Cv 1894 Pg 4 ] [ CV 1894 Pg 5 ] [ CV 1894 pg. 6 ] [ CV 1894 Pg. 7 ] [ CV 1894 pg 8 ] [ CV Prison Life Pg.1 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 1 ] [ CV 1911 pg 2 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 3 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 4 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 5 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 6 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 7 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 8 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 9 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 10 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 11 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 12 ] [ CV 1911 Pg 13 ] [ CV 1911 pg 14 ]

 You are our [an error occurred while processing this directive] Visitor  --  to this page!

Confederate Veteran June 1911

GREAT MUSIC PARADE IN LITTLE ROCK.

Fourteen bands, aggregating three hundred and ninety musicians, a large drum corps not included, combined ill one colossal band, marched through the streets of Little Rock, producing such a spectacle as was never seen before and making "a cyclone of melody." This feature was a pleasing surprise to the public. It was a happy thought of the committee on music so to combine the bands engaged for the Reunion. These bands assembled on the old Statehouse grounds and formed in solid phalanx on Center Street between Markham and Second.

At one time in the old Capitol grounds seven bands simultaneously played different airs, each ending with "Dixie," to the deafening cheers of thousands of listeners who packed the grounds and the adjacent streets.

The combined bands were formed under the direction of C. H. Becker, Charles Shoemaker, Prof. Wilbur Schurnacher, and Walter Harlan, the latter being given credit for the idea. A fanfare of bugles from the Robert C. Newton Drum Corps announced the starting of the parade, which proceeded past the Hotel Marion to Main Street, thence to Tenth Street, and from there to the City Park, where the consolidated organization disbanded.

The bands in line with the number of musicians was as follows: Bay City, Tex., 25, Van Buren, Ark., 20, Corinth, Miss., 15, Grand Saline, Tex., 35, Nowata, Okla., 35, Arkadelphia (Henderson College), 29, Arkadelphia (Ouachita College), 30, Fayetteville (Arkansas University), 30, Clarksville, Tex., 18, Sweetwater, Ark., 22, Louisville, Ky., 25: El Dorado, Ark., 15, First Regiment Band, Little Rock, 30, Saltillo, Miss., 15. Total, 344.

In addition, there were thirty members of the Memphis Drum Corps and the sixteen members of the Robert C. Newton Drum Corps, making a combined total of three hundred and ninety in this consolidated band parade, the like of which probably was never anywhere else on the earth.

A large silk flag that cost $150 was carried by James B. Dickinson in front of the grand procession. The flag was presented during the convention to the Robert C. Newton Camp, U. S. C. V., by a grandson of its namesake in a fine speech.

The formation of the great consolidated band was as ,of one band. The cornets, the trombones, the clarinets, the bass drums, the snare drums, and all instruments were grouped in the parade. Following the Robert C. Newton Camp Drum Corps came the trombones, of which there were thirty five, then followed more than one hundred cornet players, fifty clarinets, and a solid phalanx of drums. All other band instruments were appropriately placed in the parade so that, even though the entire column compactly filled a block of street space, the consolidated groups played as one grand band.

ORDER OF THE GRAND PARADE.

The grand parade of Confederate Veterans, Sons of Veterans, with. maids and sponsors, was as follows:

The parade formed on West Markham and the cross streets between Main and State. It moved east on West Markham to Main, down Main to Tenth, east on Tenth to the City Park. There by the fountain of the City Park appropriate songs were sung by several thousand school children. The parade then countermarched out Tenth to Main and back to Markham and west on Markham to the old Statehouse, where the veterans were reviewed by the Commander in Chief. The stand in the old Statehouse yard was reserved exclusively for veterans who were unable to march and their wives.

ORDER OF MARCH.

The following is the formation and assignment to positions in the parade: Mounted police, chief marshal and staff, parade committee, and band. The Commander in Chief, with staff, sponsors' carriages and band, formed on South State Street with head of column resting on Markham. Representatives of Southern mothers and Ladies' Confederate Memorial Association in carriages were followed by another band.

The Army of Northern Virginia came next in the following order: South Carolina Division, North Carolina Division, Virginia Division, West Virginia Division, and Maryland Division.

The Army of Tennessee moved on South Arch Street, head of column resting on Markham and followed by the Army of Northern Virginia, with Divisions in the order as follows: Louisiana Division, Tennessee Division, Florida Division. Alabama Division, Mississippi Division, Georgia Division, Kentucky Division, with a band.

The Trans Mississippi Department formed on South Broadway, and followed the Army of Tennessee, with the Texas Division leading, then Oklahoma Division, Missouri Division, Arkansas Division, Northwestern Division, Pacific Division, with a band.

The Sons of Veterans formed on Center Street, head of column resting on Markham and followed with a float of the Reunion queen, with first, second, and third departments.

The carriage conveying the Governor of Arkansas and staff took up position on Louisiana Street at the intersection of Markham and leading citizens in carriages in the rear of the Sons of Veterans.

MAJOR SCREWS, OF MONTGOMERY, REPORTS THE REUNION.

(Maj. W. W. Screws, editor in chief of the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, attended the Reunion at Little Rock and wrote to his paper.)

Confederate soldiers invaded the State of Arkansas during the past few days. Little Rock is a city of 45,000 people, according to the last census. Naturally there was doubt and misgiving as to whether or not it could handle such a crowd as usually attends these Reunions. Doubt and misgiving gave way to satisfaction and pleasure when it was seen to what extent the people of Little Rock had opened their hearts and purses to give a few days' pleasure to the veterans of, the gray.

This Reunion must have cost the people of this city in the neighborhood of $50,000 in actual money, to say nothing of the vast amount of hospitality that was extended in the homes to visitors.
All idea of the immense preparations that had been made can be gathered from the fact that the beautiful City Park was used as a camping place for those veterans who were not able to bear their own expenses at hotels or boarding houses. The camp was named Camp Shaver, in honor of Col. R. G. Shaver, a distinguished C. S. A. officer, who was present to help make the Reunion a success, and 11,000 men were there provided for. The best of United States army tents were loaned by the government for their shelter. Cots were provided for them all and splendid sanitary arrangements made by the citizens' committee. No better meals were provided anywhere in Little Rock than those which were furnished these men. It is no small job to take care of 11,000 men for four days, feed them. house them, and keep them in a good humor by good treatment accorded. This was all done

at Little Rock and without friction, and things worked so well that it seemed to be without effort.

The camp was crowded all day and until late at night with visitors from all over the Union who had friends there, and at all times everything was done decently and in order. To cap the climax of kind treatment, after breakfast at the last meal furnished before camp was abandoned, every veteran received a basket containing luncheon enough to last him until he reached his home.

There was no extortion in Little Rock. It seemed to be the consuming desire of the people to have visitors go away satisfied and pleased with their town. They succeeded. There is a soft spot for the town in the heart of every veteran who was inside the gates of Little Rock during the three and four days of the Reunion. It is rare that occasions like this occur, and attempts at cornering and holding up may be looked for, but it can be said to the credit of Little Rock that there has been as little of it practiced here as was ever undertaken in any city in the United States under similar conditions. The very best citizens of the town, young and old, acted as policemen and watchmen to look after any who might become disabled, to aid the police, to escort visitors, answer questions, to do anything and everything within their power for the convenience and comfort of the thousands who were in the city.

Railroads radiate from Little Rock in every direction, and from Sunday night until Thursday morning every one of them poured thousands into the city. Yet there was no congestion, no confusion. Everything worked with the regularity of a clock.

It took great executive ability to do these things, and to Judge William M. Kavanaugh, a gentleman well known to many in Montgomery and in the Southern States, must be accorded a great deal of this success. He was the real head of the executive management, and no man ever had better or more faithful assistants. Judge Kavanaugh is the President of the Southern Baseball League from the pure love of outdoor sports. He is also the president of one of the biggest trust companies in the city of Little Rock. For years he was probate judge of Pulaski County, and is one of the finest allround business men in Arkansas. All the old soldiers tip their hats to Judge Kavanaugh and to all the men and all the women who aided in making the Reunion such a complete success.
Of course the largest number of soldiers in attendance came from Arkansas and Texas, while Oklahoma poured in its thousands. It was not, however, a trans Mississippi affair, for Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Mississippi sent many thousand veterans. * * *

Little Rock is a modern commercial and manufacturing city. Veterans enter through the large and commodious passenger stations from which street cars and taxicabs carry them in all directions over smoothly paved streets, lined with substantial buildings. Several of the hotels are palatial, and many small ones are very comfortable. The public buildings are elaborate and private homes among the most attractive in the South.

On Markham Street stands the old Statehouse, whose grim walls recall the glory of the ante bellum times. The grounds are extensive and shaded. While the building to the casual observer is not very attractive looking, it has been said that a distinguished architect says that he had rather have the reputation of being the architect of the old building than of the new magnificent Capitol that is very nearly completed. There

are many things about it that make it unique, and no doubt those who have an eye for such things can find the great beauties to which the architect referred.

Thousands of dollars were spent in decorations of streets and houses for the occasion. Several miles of streets were draped with flags, and patriotic colors floated from almost every building, private and public. Confederate Way was the title given to the throughfare extending from the free bridge to Camp Shaver via Main and Tenth Streets, a distance of fifteen blocks. Along this way stood sixty Ionic columns, each six feet in circumference and sixteen feet high, resting upon a square pedestal and surmounted by a globe glowing with two transverse circles of red lights, which in contrast with the white lights on the cap of the column carried out the red and white emblematic color scheme. These columns were connected with more than 10.000 feet of electric garlands, and the trolley poles along the way were wrapped with Confederate and United States flags, gathered and held in place by shields bearing the portrait of Confederate commanders. By day and by night this thoroughfare presented a scheme of gorgeous light and colors.
Markham Street was similarly decorated from one main passenger station to another. Capitol Avenue from Main Street to the Statehouse was canopied with flags and bunting and strung with white and red lights. These decorations extended to all parts of the city, and it was indeed a city of gorgeous beauty.

Convenient headquarters were arranged for every State. That for Alabama was in the county courthouse, a splendid structure. Men from every State of the Confederacy called there constantly, inquiring for friends whom they hoped they might meet or for friends back in Alabama from whom they were seeking tidings. There were many pathetic incidents of brother meeting brother and friend meeting friend from whom they had been separated for many years.

The general meeting of the Reunion was in an immense auditorium. It adjoined the city hall, and a most unique plan of decoration for this immense building was adopted and carried out. The largest Confederate flag ever made was used as a drapery for the ceiling of the auditorium and covered the entire length and breadth of the building. The pillars were draped in flags, and each section of the hall was decorated in honor of some Confederate hero.

One of the most pleasant incidents of the Reunion was the greeting extended to the veterans by President Taft. (That greeting and the response are given in full in this VETERAN.)

There was not a word uttered during the Reunion that indicated anything else than the most fraternal relations between any of the people of this country. If there had been any other sentiment, the splendid words of President Taft would have changed the current of thought.

SUMMARY Of BATTLES IN TENNESSEE.

(From address delivered by Ernest Mead November 15, 1910, to H. P. Woodbury Camp, No. 149, Sons of Veterans, Manchester, Mass.)

At the outbreak of the Civil War the "boundary line" between the North and South may be given as follows: Starting from Chesapeake Bay and following the course of the Potomac River to its headwaters, then crossing over to the Ohio and thence down that river to the Mississippi.

Strenuous efforts were made by the government at Washington on the part of the North, and the government at Richmond on the part of the South, to win over the border States to their respective sides. The South especially desired to secure Kentucky, and planned to bring this State in and retain it within the Confederate lines. The victory of General Grant at Fort Donelson in February, 1862, which was the first Union victory of any importance in the war, shattered this hope and brought the State of Kentucky within Union control. The military operations of General Bragg during the summer and fall of 1862 were directed with the view toward recovering control of Kentucky, but without success. The importance of Nashville as a center of communication early made it the scene of military operations, and the close of the year, 1862, found two armies, one Union under Rosecrans, and the other Confederate under Bragg, facing each other at Murfreesboro, a pleasant town on Stone's River, about thirty miles southeast of Nashville.

For several weeks both armies watched each other, and finally both commanders took the offensive, and by a singular coincidence both generals prepared the same plan of battle. Rosecrans, holding his right as a pivot, proposed to swing his left heavily against Bragg's right and by driving it in gain control of Murfreesboro and the roads leading southward therefrom, thus cutting Bragg off from his lines of retreat and overwhelming his army. Bragg's plan was identically the same in purpose. Holding his right as a pivot, he preposed to move his left heavily against Rosecrans's right and, gaining control of the roads to Nashville, compel the surrender or destruction of Rosecrans's army. Both armies were equally matched, the Union army having a slightly greater strength. The figures, as nearly as can be estimated from the best authorities, placed Bragg's strength at about 38,000 and Rosecrans's at about 43,000.

Such was the situation on the morning of December 31, 1862, when both armies moved forward to battle. Both plans were excellent, but Bragg by striking first secured a very important advantage. The Union right was not as properly posted for defense as it should have been, particularly in view of the fact that Rosecrans intended it to hold its ground. Consequently Bragg's attack was successful. The Union right, after a day of incessant fighting, was overwhelmed and driven back with heavy losses in men and material.

While all this was going on the Union left had advanced against the Confederate right, but had not gotten into position to make their attack when word came to Rosecrans that his own right was being driven in and the safety of the Union army imperiled. The alarming nature of this news obliged Rosecrans to suspend the offensive and bend every effort to maintaining his own position, and accordingly the Union advance against the Confederate right was hurriedly recalled, while Rosecrans made every possible endeavor to restore and reform his broken lines.

Such was the situation at the close of the first day. The Confederates had gained much ground, but the Union army as an organization was still intact. On the second day of the battle the fighting was continued, though not so heavily as on the first day, and still without decisive result to either side. Throughout these two days Rosecrans displayed the utmost personal bravery, fearlessly exposing himself in the thickest of the fight, disdaining all thoughts of retreat, and infusing his personal spirit and courage into his army.

On the third day Bragg formed a heavy column of six thousand men in an effort to overwhelm the Union left. To meet this onset Colonel Mendenhall, the Union chief of artillery, massed a battery of fifty eight guns on a little knoll commanding the ford over Stone's River over which the Confederate lines advanced. The Confederate attack, though made with the utmost gallantry and spirit, was subjected to such a terrific fire from these guns, aided by infantry supports, that it was repulsed with a loss of between 1,800 and 2,000 men in forty minutes.

Thus ended the Confederate offensive, and that night a council of war was held by General Bragg, in which it was decided to retreat, and as a result the Confederate army fell back to Tullahoma, while the Union army advanced and entered Murfreesboro. Thus ended the battle of Stone's River. Both sides had claimed the victory. (Was not Rosecrans preparing to fall back also? ED. VETERAN.) When we look only at the losses on either side, the Confederate had the advantage, for the Union loss was 13,300 against a Confederate loss of 10,300, but when we judge the battle by its results, it was then a Union victory, because it saved the States of Tennessee and Kentucky from the Confederate invasion which would have followed if Bragg had driven back the Union army.

After this battle there were several months of inactivity, which were succeeded in the summer of 1863 by the advance of the Union army under Rosecrans in what is known as the "Tullahoma Campaign." The Confederates fell back, and after several months of maneuvering, the great battle of Chickamauga, in September, 1863 followed, and this battle in turn was succeeded by the operations around Chattanooga in November of 1863. After Chattanooga there were no further military operations of magnitude until the opening of the campaign of May, 1864, when Sherman began his advance against Atlanta, which, after four months of constant marching, maneuvering, and fighting, resulted in the fall of Atlanta in September of 1864, which was the cause of great rejoicing throughout the North, and was correspondingly realized as a great blow to the South.

We are justified in believing that the Confederate President Davis unwittingly gave the Union cause great assistance when he removed General Johnston, who had so ably resisted Sherman's advance, and appointed General Hood in his place. General Hood, while a brave and dashing officer, lacked the prudence which is so necessary a quality in an able commander. He was a bold fighter bold to a reckless degree and he wasted the strength of his army and the lives of his men injudiciously by assuming the offensive without due regard to consequences.

The fall of Atlanta was followed by two months of inactivity, the Union army under Sherman and the Confederate army under Hood watching each other, each one wondering what the other was going to do. Finally Sherman started on his march to the sea, and at the same time that Sherman was making his plans to march southward Hood was making his preparations to march northward, so that we have the unusual spectacle of two armies which had been facing each other for six months marching away from each other. It is the spectacular that appeals to us, and Sherman's march to the sea has always been considered one of the great spectacular events of the war, as it undoubtedly was, but I think that historians have never rated at its proper value the grand work of Thomas, assisted by Schofield, in repelling Hood's invasion of Tennessee, for there is no question that if Hood's movement had been successful and he had been able to carry out his cherished dream of occupying Nashville, Louisville, and possibly Cincinnati, his success would have more than counterbalanced the advantage to the North of Sherman's march.

When Hood started for Nashville he had a force of about 54,000 men, 41,000 infantry and artillery and 13,000 cavalry. At the outset of the campaign, and, in fact, all through, from the beginning to the end, he encountered great difficulties. In fact, it seemed as if everything in this campaign went against the Confederates, just as in the ill fated Fredericksburg campaign everything went against Burnside. In the first place, Hood had to face severe weather, which delayed him for about three weeks and greatly hindered the accumulation of the necessary supplies before he could begin his advance. Finally, this being accomplished, he began his advance about the middle of November. At this time the Confederate forces were much stronger than the Union forces. Thomas was at Nashville, where he had his headquarters, and the troops in the field directly opposed to Hood were in the immediate command of Schofield, with General Cox as second. Schofield did his utniost to retard Hood's advance. There was some sharp skirmishing, rising almost to the dignity of a battle at Columbia and also at Spring Hill, where Hood made an effort to cut off the Union army, but this effort failed from a combination of causes too lengthy to be given here in detail, and the Union army retired safely to Franklin, where they arrived between midnight and dawn of November 30, 1864.

Franklin is a little town located on the south side of the Harpeth River, twenty miles south of Nashville. It was Schofield's intention to retire to Nashville, but when he reached Franklin he found the bridges destroyed, and these had to be repaired before he could get his wagon trains and his troops across the river. Accordingly, while a portion of his soldiers were repairing the bridges to make a crossing, the remainder threw up a semicircular line of intrenchments, beginning at the river west of the town and continuing across to the river east of the town, forming a line about three miles in length. These intrenchments were occupied by six brigades of the 23d Corps and three brigades of the 4th Corps, while two small brigades were posted about half a mile in front of this line in observation.

The intrenchments hurriedly completed, the wearied soldiers lay down to get such rest and refreshment as they could. About noon the Confederate advance appeared. The afternoon wore on, until finally it looked as if no attack would be made. About four o'clock, however, the Confederates could be plainly seen from the Union lines forming for the attack, and they advanced about 4:30. The advance comprised two corps of Hood's army. Their strength has been variously estimated at from 20,000 to 27,000 men. General Hood reports the number at 22,000. It was a most beautiful afternoon, and those who were present say that the advance of these troops in perfect order and alignment was one of the most magnificent sights of the war, not even excepting Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. The two Union brigades posted in advance should have been withdrawn to the main line, but by an unfortunate mistake of their commander they were told to hold their ground, when every one could see the impossibility of their maintaining their position against the Confederate attack. As the Confederate advance came forward they received the fire from these two brigades, which retarded the center, but on the right and left the Confederates came on unchecked, and the two brigades were obliged to give way and retreated to the Union lines, closely pursued by the advancing Confederates. This mistake came near giving the Confederates the victory, for the Union troops in the center were obliged to hold their fire until the retreating Union soldiers had passed over the works, and the advancing Confederates followed so closely on their heels that they came over with them and made a break in the line on each side of the Columbia Pike for a distance equal in all to the front of three regiments, and for a moment the Confederates thought they had carried the works, but General Cox, who was in immediate command of the field, foreseeing the possibility of this occurrence, had stationed a strong reserve, and, seeing the peril of the situation, these troops, without waiting for orders, advanced and drove back the Confederates and reestablished the original line as far west as the Columbia turnpike. West of the turnpike for a short distance the Confederates held the original line, and the Union troops established a new line some twenty five or fifty yards in the rear of the first one. Across this interval the battle raged with the utmost fierceness, and eyewitnesses state that after the battle ended the dead were found lying from three to seven deep. One account states that a Confederate officer the next morning was found dead, standing upright against the bodies of his fallen companions, who were so piled up that he literally could not fall down. Another Confederate general was wounded, and before he could be carried away from the field was struck twice more and killed. One brigade came out of the battle with a captain as the highest officer unhurt. On the right and left of the Union center, where this temporary break occurred, the Union troops held the works firmly and repulsed every effort of the Confederates to carry them. The battle raged from 4:30 until about 7:30 P.M., though it was well on to ten o'clock when the firing finally ceased and the field became quiet.

The Confederate loss has been estimated by the best authorities at 1,750 killed, 3,800 wounded, and 700 captured. I am inclined to think that this estimate of wounded must be too low. The usual ratio of wounded to killed is four or five to one, occasionally even higher, and even if we put it at only four to one it would make the loss in wounded 7,000. In all, seven Confederate divisions were engaged, and the last one, Johnstori's division of Lee's corps, which was not put in until after dark, reported a loss estimated at 800, while the other six divisions must have lost from l,000 to 1,200 each. One competent authority estimates Hood's loss at not less than one third of his attacking force. It would seem, therefore, as though this destructive battle must have caused a loss to the Confederates of from seven to eight thousand men. The Union loss as reported 
Cavalry under Forrest. Upon visiting the battlefield with my brother, we engaged a carriage, and in company with these two gentlemen were taken over the field, and, upon seeing how interested I was, they took the utmost pains to explain to us every point of interest. They showed us the location of the Union lines and where the different generals fell. No account of this battle would be complete without mention of the gallantry of General Adams, commander of one of the Confederate brigades, who gallantly led his men forward and fell with his horse astride the breastworks, his body falling into the Union lines.

Another point of special interest in connection with this battle is the Carter house, located on the Columbia Pike right in the Union center, where the fiercest fighting took place. When the battle was over, some of the ladies of the family ventured out with a lantern to render what help they could to the wounded, of whom there were thousands, and almost the first one they came across was their own brother, mortally wounded, within a few yards of his own home. They carried him into the house, where he died the next day. This incident shows us how the Confederates were sometimes literally killed while fighting on their own doorsteps.

We in the North cannot fully realize and appreciate what the people of the South endured during this war their fields ravaged first by one army and then the other, their stock and crops carried off, their homes burned and destroyed, the members of their families killed or captured or perishing by the frightful waste of war. The North suffered the same loss of life as the South more, in fact, as far as numbers go though not more in proportion to the numbers engaged, but with the exception of some occasional raids of comparatively limited extent, the North was free from the physical horrors and ravages of the war. We cannot wonder, then, that these scenes are burned deep in the hearts of Southerners, especially of the women, who stayed at home and had to see and endure all these things, nor can we wonder that the generation who endured them does not forget them.

After showing us over the battlefield, our guides took us down to the Confederate Cemetery, a short distance outside of the town. Here are buried the Confederates who were killed at Franklin. Several of the States have monuments with the number lost inscribed thereon. For instance, the Texas monument has this inscription: "Four hundred and twenty four killed at Franklin." By actual count the total number of burials as taken from the inscriptions on the different monuments is 1,492. Besides these, there were many natives of Tennessee who fell on the Confederate side who were carried away and buried in their homes, so that it seems a reasonable statement to place the Confederates at 1,750 killed.

Mr. McGann told us of seeing the bodies of five Confederate generals which had been carried to one house, that of Col. John McGavock, and the lady had carefully covered the faces of these five dead generals with fine linen handkerchiefs. Following the battle of Franklin, the Union army retired to Nashville. The Confederates followed, but Hood detached his cavalry and a portion of his infantry to menace Murfreesboro, occupied by a strong Union detachment. These operations were without decisive results, and they so weakened Hood's army that his force was not sufficient for a proper investment of Nashville, In the meantime Union reenforcements had assembled from various quarters, but severe storms set in and rendered any movements impossible for several days. The weather finally clearing, General Thomas began the battle of Nashville on December 15. The first day's operations were entirely successful on the Union side, and resulted in driving the Confederates back in some parts several miles, when General Hood established a second line, and on the 16th the battle was renewed and resulted in complete success to the Union army. The Confederate army was driven back with heavy losses, and all further possibility of their continuing a successful offensive completely destroyed.

The reckless loss of life in the battle of Franklin had so impaired the morale of Hood's army and destroyed the confidence of his soldiers in his ability as a commander that any further successful offensive was out of the question, and while General Thomas has been given and deserves great credit for the battle of Nashville, the real victory was won two weeks earlier at Franklin by the courage of Schofield and his command who were there engaged in deadly combat with their own countrymen.

The battlefields of Nashville, Franklin, and Stone's River, three of the most important battles of the war, are entirely unmarked save only two monuments at Stone's River, one of which has been placed there through the interest of the late John W. Thomas, who was President of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad. It would seem that the importance of these battlefields should entitle them to be suitably and properly marked, and I am taking this matter up with the Commander in Chief of the Massachusetts G. A. R., and also with the national Commander in Chief, with whom I have had a conference in an effort to interest them in this undertaking, and hope may be successfully carried out.

My Dear Captain Gibson: In reference to the foregoing account would say that while I do not of course claim to state facts with the accuracy and detail of a historian, yet I have endeavored to give a truthful account of the matters treated, endeavoring to deal fairly with both sides.

The story of the Civil War should be told with perfect truth, which, perhaps, was not always done, and perhaps could not be done before the heat of the conflict had died away.

BRIG. GEN. T. J. HENDERSON, U. S. A. The National Tribune reports the death of Brevet Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Henderson, of Princeton, Ill., who was born at Brownsville, Tenn., in 1824. He went to Illinois in early life. He was admitted to the bar in 1852. He was an ardent politician and one of the original Republicans. "He raised and commanded the 112th Illinois, but much of the time he was in command of a brigade. He was in the thick of the operations when Schofield tried to arrest Hood's advance across the Tennessee, and the opening of the battle of Franklin found him in bed, prostrated from illness and fatigue. As soon as he heard the firing he arose, resumed command of his brigade, and fought through the battle with the greatest gallantry. He was brevetted a brigadier general for this. Returning to Illinois, he became a leader in the Republican party, was presidential elector in 1868, and then served ten consecutive terms in Congress. He was a prominent candidate for Speaker of the Fifty Third Congress "

IDENTITY OF THREE BROTHERS ESTABLISHED. The identity of the three soldiers appearing in the pictures on page 70 of the February VETERAN has been established through this publication. A letter and clipping come from Orangeburg, S. C., staling that the three soldier boys are W. V. Izlar, Theo Kohn, and Ben P. Izlar, who enlisted from that community. Only one of them now survives, Maj. W. V. Izlar, of Orangeburg, who is now in correspondence with Dr. Jones in regard to the pictures.

Confederate Veteran June 1911

SERVICE OF COL. W. O. COLEMAN.

HIS OWN ACCOUNT, WRITTEN FROM SAN BENITO, TEX.

In the October (1910) VETERAN an article from Capt, A. B. Barnes speaks of me at the battle of Wilson Creek erroneously in several particulars which I wish to correct.

I was adjutant of Wingoe's Regiment, McBride's Brigade, Missouri State Guards, in Price's army. Capt. Archibald McFarland was adjutant of the 2d (Foster's) Regiment, McBride's Brigade, and Col. E. Y. Mitchell was adjutant general of the brigade or seventh division of Missouri State Guards. Col. E. Y. Mitchell, father in law of Dick Bland ("Silver Dick"), lives at Waynesville, Mo.

General Price's army had been camped on Wilson's Creek five days before the battle which came off on the 10th of August, 1861. General McBride's brigade was camped on Wilson's Creek, the balance of Price's army was farther up the creek toward Springfield. General McCulloch's command was farther down the creek toward the Arkansas line. The Federal army, under Lyon and Sigel, was in Springfield, Mo., ten miles away.

On the night before the battle we received orders to be ready to march toward Springfield at a moment's notice, it was very cloudy and dark. We received the order at nine o'clock, and then at 1 A.M. we received orders to turn in, it still being dark and cloudy. Just at daybreak I mounted my horse and went to a spring, about half a mile southwest of the camp, to water my horse, take a wash, and fill my canteen with good water. I was just in the act of mounting when General Lyon's artillery fired their first gun. I ran my horse to our camp, where I found the men trying to form line. I saw none of our field officers but General McBride. I rode up to him and said: "General, what disposition do you wish to make with the men?" He replied, "You had better move them off in that direction and take a position," pointing to the west, which was directly across the Springfield and Arkansas road. 
I gave the command accordingly to form into line. I sent Sergeant Meese to Captain McFarland, adjutant of the 2d Regiment, to follow us. Then I gave the command to "Left face, march!" Directly we crossed the Springfield road we came into the range of the Minie rifle balls and artillery shot of Lyon's command. I gave the command to "Double quick," and sent Capt. Douglass McBride, son of the General and aid de camp, back to the rear end of the column to see that the line kept up and then for him to report to General McBride, naming the position I was going to take, as I knew the ground.

There was a steep ridge, fifteen to twenty feet high, directly in front and parallel with the front of the Federal troops and about one fourth of a mile from them. It was steep on the south side, and then level or rather a little inclined to the north clear up to the position of Lyon's Federal forces and Totten's Battery (six guns). By the time that both regiments got under cover of this ridge and in position I saw that Lyon's forces were moving on us. I rode down and met Captain McFarland. No field officer was in sight, both Colonel Wingo and Colonel Foster had been wounded in getting to the position. Captain McFarland and I decided to have the men withhold their fire (our men were armed with shotguns and squirrel rifles) until the Federals got close to us. I took position about the middle of the 1st Regiment with my horse high enough up the hill so I could see the movements of the enemy, and when they got close to our line, some of them within fifty or seventy five feet of us, I gave the command, "To the top of the ridge and fire!" which they did, both regiments with the precision of old trained veterans. This volley of slugs, chunks of lead, buckshot, and balls completely upset the line, and just as we fired Major Woodruff, of the Little Rock Battery, which was stationed on a hill east of the creek, turned loose on them, which completed the rout of the enemy. In that position our part of the fight lasted about six hours. They charged us six different times, but with the assistance of Woodruff's Arkansas Battery and General Parson's ("Gibbons") Missouri Battery, we completely repulsed every attack that they made.

General McBride never made his appearance on the battle line during the day. His aids, Capt. Douglass McBride and Lieutenant Colonel Asbury (now of Higginsville, Mo.), came up several times. General McBride had established his headquarters somewhere in the rear. General Price came around to us once, just as Captain McFarland and I had coneluded to flank Totten's Battery and try to capture it, but General Price directed us to remain in the position that we were then in, as it was the key to the battlefield. He said that we had checked General Lyon's advance on General McCulloch's rear. The rest of Price's army fought to our right, our line forming an "L" to the rest of the Missouri line. General McCulloch was south of us, and whipped Genera) Sigel in short order.

After the third or fourth charge on McBride's Brigade, Colonel Churchill's regiment came up and formed a line directly in our rear. Some of them moved forward through our lines to the top of the ridge and undertook to advance on the enemy from that position, but the firing was too heavy so they moved off to our left, northwest of us. Captain Har. per, the adjutant of Churchill's Regiment, was killed near the right. flank of our line. Soon after Churchill left General Price with the Arkansas Regiment came up and moved off in 
the same direction that Churchill had taken, which placed them to the west of General Lyon, and the most of Price's Missouri army was to the east of Lyon. McBride's Brigade and a part of General Parson's Missouri Brigade, were both southeast of Lyon, General Lyon's last charge faced west and south. General Lyon was killed directly in front of McBride's Brigade, not over three hundred yards from our line. Just about the time he was killed his forces commenced to retreat. We discovered it at once, and moved forward at quick time to follow them. Captain Armstrong's company of the id Regiment moved right over General Lyon's body. His gray horse was about thirty to fifty feet from him. Lieutenant Armstrong was the first man to discover his body, not knowing who he was, but saw that he was an officer, and started to cut a button off of his coat. A wounded German sitting up against a tree close by him called out: "Don't do that, that's General Lyon," I turned immediately to the spot. In less than a minute's time a hundred men or more got around him and his horse, cutting souvenirs buttons off Lyon's coat and hairs from his horse's tail. The men that were near took a look and moved on at a rapid gait. We followed them for perhaps a mile, and as no one else followed close or near to us, and as the men were all tired and worn out and about one third or more of them were barefooted, I marched them back to our camp.

I had two horses killed under me, the first one a noted race horse. Totten's whole battery got a broadside shot of grape and canister into him, striking him from his head to his tail, and the left stirrup and left bridle rein were shot in two. I jumped over his head, and one jump took me down the ridge. The horse fell sidewise over the ridge, and the men counted sixty seven bullet holes in his hide. The quartermaster, Col. Joe Love, sent me another horse, and I started to look over the ridge when a Minie ball struck him squarely in the forehead and passed through the rim of my hat about one inch from my head, making a hole about three inches long in the rim of my hat.

General Price learned after the battle that General McBride was not with his men during the battle.

General Price moved back to Southwest Missouri, and finally back to Springfield, Our term of service, six months, was up in December. We were then discharged, and nearly all of our men went into the Confederate army. General Price sent for Captain McFarland and me and told us he would like for us to go with him into the Confederate service. We assured him that we intended to do so. He had his inspector general to make out a commission to each of us to raise a regiment for the Confederate service. Mine was to be cavalry, as I had served in the United States cavalry, and Captain McFarland, having served in the English army, his regiment was to be infantry. Each of us organized a regiment. Colonel McFarland's regiment moved with General Price east of the Mississippi River, had one of General Price's crack regiments at Corinth, and at Iuka was severely wounded in the head. The last I ever heard of him he was warden of the Missouri State Penitentiary at Jefferson City. My regiment was left in North Arkansas and South Missouri. My record and my regimental service can be learned by reading the "Records of the War of the Rebellion" in all the volumes that relate to Missouri and Arkansas. (The "Records" above referred to contain elaborate reports of Colonel Coleman. An inspection of them shows much of the prodigious service he rendered the Confederacy,)

QUANTRELL'S DEATH VERIFIED.

BY O. L. JOYNER, GREENVILLE, N. C.

Last fall I read in the VETERAN an article by a Colonel Coleman, from Texas, in which he gave an account of the Operations of guerrilla warfare in Missouri, and incidentally stated that Quantrell, captain of the band, was still alive and prosperous and was living somewhere on the southwestern border of Texas, near Brownsville. Now I have repeatedly seen this statement in the newspapers during the past twentyfive years. Much has been said concerning the fate of this man, and I have always felt a keen interest concerning it.

Several years ago some one purporting to have been a member of Quantrell's raiders wrote an article in which he stated that Quantrell, after witnessing an almost complete annihilation of his band in some battle in Missouri, made his escape across the continent, and finally settled on a sheep ranch in Australia, where he had become immensely wealthy. Two years ago I was in Southwest Oklahoma, and spent two hours most pleasantly with Frank James, one of the noted followers of Quantrell. Learning that Mr. James lived near Fletcher, Okla., I secured two Texas ponies, and with a friend rode out to his farm. It is one of the most beautiful spots I have ever seen, nestled on the side of a gently sloping plateau of prairie land, from which to a distance of twenty five to thirty miles the vision is unobstructed. We found Mr. James sitting on a riding cultivator, plowing his corn. He conversed freely on almost any topic, especially was he well versed and his memory vivid as to the events of the Civil War. Realizing that he might know as well as any living man the fate of Quantrell, I asked him to tell me. He writes:

FLETCHER, OKLA., 
November 14, 1910. 

O. L. Joyner, Esq.

Dear Sir: Your favor of October 27 received some time ago. As to statement in the CONFEDERATE VETERAN that Quantrell is alive, it is not true. Two comrades and myself were the only ones of the command that saw him alive after he was wounded at Major Wakefield's, in Nelson County, Ky. Quantrell with a small detachment of his command was scouting in that section. Being attacked by Capt. Ed Terrill's troop of cavalry in a blinding rain storm, they were routed. Each man then took care of himself. At that time Richard Glasscock and Clarke Hockersmith were both killed while attempting to save Quantrell. At that time I was at Judge Alex Sayers's, near Samuels's Depot, Ky., about twenty miles from the scene. About sundown two of the boys rode up to where I was and informed me what had happened. They soon procured fresh mounts. We ate supper at the Judge's and started back for Major Wakefield's house, where we arrived at 2 A.M. My two comrades kept guard, I went immediately into the house, and found Quantrell lying on a trundle bed. He immediately said: 'Frank, I have run a long time, but they have got me at last.' I urged upon him to let us move him to 'Knobs,' a rough and broken section of country near Samuels's Depot. 'No,' he said, 1 will die, and it is no use,' So I bade him good by, went out, and the two boys went in and said their farewell.

PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS AT GETTYSBURG. BY WM. YOUNGBLOOD (LONGSTREET'S STAFF), FLORENCE, ALA.

In June, 1863, Lee's army commenced the movement to Pennsylvania. I was then a private soldier in the 15th Alabama Regiment, commanded by Col. William C. Oates. Our division crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains at Ashby's Gap, and soon came to the Shenandoah River, where our commander. General Hood, was sitting on his horse directing the crossing, I approached General Hood and asked for permission to take off my clothes before wading the river, but was told to go in. so in I went with the rest, and although it was a hot day, the water was so cold that I crawled upon a projecting rock in the middle of the stream, and stayed there until I was forced to leave it. We moved down the river, where we camped for several days. At Millwood, in the valley of Virginia, I went to General Longstreet and appealed to him to detail me to his headquarters as courier upon his staff. (Comrade Youngblood had a grievance against his colonel, Oates, and for that reason sought a change. ED.) He sent the order to General Lee fur approval, making it special. I was given ten days' leave of absence to obtain better clothes and to mount myself. Within the ten days I joined Longstreet six miles to the north of Hagerstown, Md., on the pike to Chambersburg, Pa., where we halted. In few days we moved on toward Gettysburg, less than a day's ride. We were near where the line of battle was being pitched about four o'clock in the afternoon.

General Longstreet looked over the field and surroundings that evening (the 1st of July), went back behind Cashtown, and pitched tents for the night. The troops had approached to within three or four miles of Gettysburg, arriving about night, and had gone into camp. I had not unsaddled my horse before Colonel Sorrell called me to his tent and told me I must go back to Chambersburg for General Pickett, that I would find him on the east side of the town. and await orders. I asked for time to feed myself and horse, and was given thirty minutes, after which I started on my dark night's ride to Chambersburg. The ride was lonesome, although a few hours before our army had passed. I found General Pickett, as I expected. His sentinel called out: "Halt! Who comes there?" I answered: "A courier hunting General Pickett."

A man lying upon the ground at the foot of a tree arose to a sitting position and said: "Here is General Pickett. From whom do you come?" I replied: "General Longstreet." One of his staff struck a match, and the General read the dispatches which I had brought and said to the staff officer: "We must move at once to Gettysburg. Order the men into line and lead the movement."

There was not ten minutes' time consumed in this movement. Pickett and staff and I all rode off together, the men following silently in a steady tramp behind. I had been in the saddle from early morning till then, except the thirty minutes referred to. It was about one o'clock in the morning. About four o'clock I turned my old jaded horse into a clover field, dropped his rein upon the ground, lay down in a fence corner, and in a few minutes was sound asleep. I was awakened about six o'clock by the tramp of soldiers going by. I hurried into a long trot until I overtook General Pickett, told him of the road in front of him, and as he was instructed to halt near Cashtown, I forced my horse on to General Longstreet, who was in a wheat field. That was about 8 A.M. Some of the troops were passing into position on the battle line. ) begged food from one of the couriers. My horse ate the heads of wheat.
In the afternoon, about two o'clock, General Barksdale's Brigade of Mississippians having taken position. General Wofford, with his brigade of Georgians, filed in on Barks('ale's right, and a South Carolina brigade passed very near to General Lee. I was sitting on my horse within hearing of Generals Lee, Longstreet, and Hood. General Lee was standing upon the ground, an orderly holding his gray near by, while the others were in their saddles. General Hood said to General Lee: "My scouts report to me that there is a wagon road around Round Top at its foot (which has been used by farmers in getting out timber) over which I can move troops. I believe I can take one of my brigades, go around this mountain and attack from the rear, and capture Round Top." General Lee asked General Longstreet's opinion, Longstreet said: "I have great faith in General Hood's opinions and his ability to do whatever he plans to do." This was all. the reply Longstreet made. General Lee stood with head bowed, apparently in deep thought, for, it seemed, a long time. When he raised his face to look at Generals Longstreet and Hood, he said: "Gentlemen, I cannot risk the loss of a brigade. Our men are in fine spirits, and with great confidence will go into this battle. I believe we can win upon a direct attack." Extending his hand to General Longstreet, he said: "Good by, General, and may God bless you!" Then shaking General Hood's hand in farewell, he said: "God bless you! General Hood, drive them away from you, take Round Top, and the day is ours." And with tears in his eyes he turned, mounted the iron gray, and rode away.

Hood went to his command. Longstreet dismounted and held his reins over his arms, and dispatched his staff officers and couriers along the line of battle to watch the movements and report to him. He ordered me to remain with him. The South Carolina men had passed and the line was formed, and thirty minutes after General Lee left us. The cannonading gave the signal for attack. General Longstreet quickly mounted. I followed suit, and we spurred to the front, the men were upon the charge. Just as we rode from the timber into the open, which brought us face to face with the Union army, I noticed that we were riding in front of Wofford's men. I called General Longstreet's attention to this, and suggested the danger of being shot down by our own troops. He checked his horse and waited until Wofford's men had gotten in front of us. The Union army was found between our people and the peach orchard upon a road along which they had piled rails and whatever else they could get in making a breastworks, and were lying behind these rails awaiting our attack. The peach orchard was on Wofford's left and Barksdale's right. General Longstreet from the minute he came into the open where he could see Round Top had his field glasses constantly upon that end of his line, deeply interested in Hood's movements. Upon approaching the peach orchard the Union forces had fallen back beyond the orchard. Our people were driving them, but General B.arksdale's brigade had halted behind the small breastworks which the enemy had abandoned, while Wofford's men had gone on. I called General Longstreet's attention to this, and said: "Do you want General Barksdale to halt?" He looked and said: "No. Go tell him to retake his position in the line." I turned my horse and dashed to Barksdale, jumping a fence to do so, when I fell, pulling myself back into the saddle by my horse's neck. I found General Barksdale on his horse standing behind a brick milk house and gave him the order from General Longstreet. He put spurs to his horse, dashed a little way along his line, gave an order to "charge at double quick," when I distinctly heard a shot strike him and saw him fall from his horse. I went back to General Longstreet and told him of Barksdale's fall, when he said: "Go on beyond this orchard and tell General Alexander 
to advance his artillery and to keep in touch with Wofford's left." I hunted my way to this battery through the smoke, hissing of balls, noise of shells, and thunder of cannon. One of the artillerymen led my horse to General Alexander, whom I found a few feet in front of his own guns, his glasses to his eyes, standing the bravest of the brave. I gave him the order, and he pointed and said: "Tell General Longstreet that as soon as I drive back this column of the enemy I will advance." The enemy was entering the space caused by Barksdale's halt.

Simultaneously Wofford's men, seeing that they were not supported on the left, had begun to retreat, which Longstreet's and Wofford's personal appearance prevented from becoming a panic. I aided in rallying Wofford's men, got the line reestablished, and rested for the night. Just at this moment Major Walton, of Vicksburg, a member of Longstreet's staff, came up to me, face powder stained from biting off the cartridges, told me that his horse was killed, and, being afoot on the battlefield, he got a gun from a fallen Confederate and went into the fight. He asked me for my horse, telling me to go seek the headquarters and wait there for him. I gave him my horse, and as he rode away I looked around, when a Georgia soldier directed my attention to a horse saddled and bridled grazing between the two lines of battle. I told him how dangerous it was to get that horse. He laughed and said: "It is easy." So I went upon hands and knees, keeping the horse between me and the enemy. The horse was to tired and hungry to scape. I mounted him and put both spurs into his flanks, and was soon out of range.

The next day (July 3) General Longstreet took his position in full view of both lines, and upon the booming of one hundred guns which our side had placed to open upon the enemy's line General Pickett was to attack. He and his men rushed to the charge. Later General Pickett was seen coming back in a gallop, his long black hair waving in the wind, and he asked: "Where is General Longstreet?" I was dispatched to intercept him, and as he approached General Longstreet in agony, he cried out: "General, I am ruined. My division is gone, it is destroyed." General Longstreet consoled him with the assurance that it would not be so bad as he thought, that in a few hours he would get together quite a number of his men. What occurred after that I know not. That night about midnight I was called to Colonel Sorrell's tent, and he told me that I was to hunt up some officers along the line and give them sealed orders. It was then drizzling, and the night was dark. I had but little trouble in finding the officers I was sent to except Colonel Walton, chief of artillery, Longstreet's Corps.

On my return to the Black Horse Tavern I found General Longstreet's wagon, and he and staff in the road waiting for somebody or for some signal. We moved on in the rain for an hour or more. We did not know but had a presentiment that our move was a retreat. It was a hard, very hard march. The roads were muddy, wagon ruts deep, the night awful. We had besides our own army about about 7,000 prisoners to take care of. After a hard march of a day and night, we approached Falling Water on the Potomac, where the pontoons had been laid to cross into Virginia. The rain had swollen the Potomac, and all had to cross on the pontoon. I had been doing courier work all day and night, and arrived a little before midnight at the pontoon, where General Longstreet was on the ground directing the men, wagons, artillery, etc., across, I moved off to one side out of the way and out of sight, tied my bridle reins to my arm, and slept by the root of a tree until after daylight, when to my horror I found myself within a few feet of the river, and my horse so close that one step more would have put him over the bank. I made my way to the bridge and crossed over. I went up the bluff into the main road. I saw General Lee on his horse, accompanied by some of his staff, watching the men cross the pontoon.

While there a man whom I did not know rode up and said: "General, there is a rumor throughout the army that General Longstreet's failure in his duty is the cause of our disaster at Gettysburg." General Lee with firmness and fire replied: "It is unjust. Longstreet did his duty. Our failure is to be charged to me."

Thus ends what I know of the battle of Gettysburg. Who knows what might have happened if General Hood had been permitted to make the flank movement he suggested? Who knows what might have happened if General Barksdale had not lost his position in the line of battle when we had the Union army going to the rear? No State ever furnished braver or better soldiers than that grand old State of Mississippi. No troops were ever commanded by a braver man than General Barksdale, while Wofford's, Kershaw's, and Law's Brigades were beyond reproach, as game and true as ever carried sword or gun. This was Hood's Division, "that could cut their way through any line that could be formed against them," so boasted General Hood.

FUN IN CAMP.

BY CLARENCE KEY, PIKESVILLE, MD.

When the 2d Texas Cavalry were camped on Skull Creek, near San Antonio, Tex., a Mexican appeared in the camp and complained that a hog had been stolen from him by one of our men and that he could identify the thief. The adjutant of the regiment had the only tent in the command, and the Mexican was directed to go there and enter his complaint. He went immediately to the tent, and there at a table covered with papers sat the thief, bedizened with gold braid. The Mexican at once proclaimed the fact to the astounded camp, and demanded payment for the hog and that the thief be punished.

In vain he was assured that he was mistaken, that it was absurd, and that such a thing could not be. He persisted in his statement, and finally became so violent that he was summarily kicked out of camp.

Thereafter "oft in the stilly night, ere slumber's chain had bound us" and the camp fires were burning low, a stentorian voice might be heard asking the question, "Who stole the Mexican's hog and wouldn't pay for it?" and equally strident and stentorian came the reply, "Adjutant P !"

Some fellows from another regiment stopped at our camp fire and entered into conversation with us. Somehow the question of graybacks came up, and our first sergeant began to speak, and suddenly stopped, saying: "Wait a moment, I will not tell this story without witnesses." He looked around and called two men whom he saw, and when they came, he resumed the story. "One of our fellows," he said, "had a pair of buckskin trousers, and the graybacks in them were so numerous that they almost drove him crazy. One day when we camped at noon he took advantage of the hot New Mexican sunshine and laid off his trousers. A few moments later he looked for his trousers, and the graybacks had dragged them into the shade of a wagon. Is not that so?" he asked his witnesses. "Yes," they said, "it is true, for we saw it." 
Seated around a camp fire one night an old fellow who had begun his military career in the East (he was about forty, but we youngsters called that old) said: "I liked to soldier in Ferginny." "Why ?" said some one. " 'Cause you could always get good water to drink and good terbacker to chaw."

NCIDENTS OF WHEELER'S RAID. BY W.G. ALLEN, ASHBY'S COMMAND.

About August 11, 1863, under orders from General Hood, Wheeler's Cavalry rendezvoused at Carter's Station, on the Chattahoochee River. Here Colonel Ashby was ordered to keep well in front of the cavalry. I was sent with a hundred men to the Western & Atlantic Railway, south of Dalton, Ga., with orders to tear up the road and to destroy the Federal store of commissaries at Dalton. We filled our haversacks with all we could carry, and were setting fire to the depot when the Yankees opened fire upon us with two pieces of artillery, and the grape and canister striking the iron roof of the station made a terrific noise.

My orders were to keep open the road leading out of Dalton. A short distance from there we encountered the advance guard of General Steedman's negro brigade. We drove them back until they were reenforced by other commands. Their line formed with about a four hundred yard front, and our men were in a field head high with hogweed. After about an hour's skirmishing, they charged our lines, in which charge we lost several killed and wounded. We then retreated. Leaving Cleveland, Tenn., we cut the telegraph wires and tore up the road between Cleveland and Charleston, On the Hiwassee River we met Colonel Morrison's infantry, which was posting the ridge across the river. We crossed the Ocoee River near the mouth and tore up the road at Riceville. Here I was ordered to meet Colonel McKenzie, my regimental commander, at Blevin's Mills, on Goldfield Creek, to unite with the other portion of the regiment in the capture of a detachment at Stewart's Landing, on the Tennessee River. I moved at once, but missed Colonel McKenzie, and when about a mile above Stewart's Landing, I heard firing and hastened forward. We met a squad of fleeing Yankees, who killed my horse. 
Colonel McKenzie captured about three hundred men and with them released twelve of his own men who were prisoners. At daylight I tried to cross the Tennessee River, but had no boat. A Miss Jane Luske told me there was a hog trough hidden in the willows, and in this .1 crossed over and made my way toward my old home in Washington in search of a horse. I managed to get one that could hardly walk, and I was woefully tempted to go on to Washington, where my wife was, but I rode back to find my command at Pine Gap, Walden's Ridge. My confiscated horse was so poor that I sent it back.

I was in an orchard filling my hat with apples when I heard some one coming, and recognized one of the 9th Tennessee Battalion. When I told him I was trying to get to Ashby's Brigade, he said they were at Pikeville, and took me on his horse with him. We met others of the 9th Battalion who said our men were at People's College, eight miles below Pikeville. There I found Major Atkin, commander of the 9th Battalion, who gave me something to eat, as I had eaten nothing but apples for two days. He also promised me a horse. The next morning I rode with the battalion to Altamont, in Grundy County, to join Colonel Anderson, of the 4th Tennessee Cavalry, who was preparing to attack Col. Bill Stokes in his fortified stockade. Colonel Anderson called for volunteers to scale the stockade, and Lieutenant McLain and a number of men, including myself, responded. We stormed up the side, but were repulsed, and Lieutenant McLain was killed. Some one struck a* me with a saber, splitting my horse's ear. I took shelter behind the stone house in my retreat. As I rode away I saw a negro in full Federal uniform, captured him, and took him to Colonel Anderson's headquarters. Shortly after we started for Winchester we saw a wagon train and at once gave chase. In their efforts to get away boxes of crackers were broken open and wagon beds rolled down the mountain, till the whole place was strewn with provisions of every sort. At Winchester we came again to the railroad, which we tore up, and destroyed all the enemy's provisions that we could find. Riding from this place, I was with Dr. McLain at the rear of the column. It was very dark, and when those in front of us halted, we waited also, until I became impatient and went forward to see what was the matter. I found some of the men asleep on their horses, quietly awaiting orders to move on. They were the most surprised men imaginable when we awakened them, but the command was gone, and we had to follow as best we could. Dr. McLain and I rode around in the dark until we came to what we thought was Colonel Anderson's camp. We went to it and asked for Colonel Anderson before we found that it was a Yankee picket post. Then we got out in a hurry, followed by several shots.

Shortly after this we heard a train coming, and we put a lot of crossties on the track, thinking to wreck it. Instead, it only stopped the train, and the whole load of Yankee soldiers jumped out and swarmed all over the place to see what had stopped them. I knew they would get me, so I hid in the river, with only my head sticking out. They got my horse, and possibly Dr. McLain, as I did not see him again, but found Colonel Anderson about daylight.

General Williams, with his Kentucky brigade and Colonel Anderson's regiment, determined to attack Murfreesboro and burn the stores there, and while preparing for this assault we heard General Wheeler's guns at La Vergne. We were repulsed, and just then General Robertson, of Texas, came up and took command, but we were again repulsed, and moved on to Cornersville, trying to effect a junction with General Wheeler. Leaving Pulaski at our left, General Williams, General Robertson, General Dibrell, and Colonel Anderson held a council of war. I acted as guide for General Williams across the country, while the other generals joined General Wheeler.

DIED IN HOSPITAL AT WIN ON A, MISS. In the shadow of the monument erected by the B. F. Ward Chapter, U. D. C., of Winona, Miss., are the graves of over fifty Confederate soldiers who died in the hospital there. This list, which was found in the Mayor's office, was kept by Dr. Holman, surgeon in charge (1862 63), but is not complete, as only thirty names are given:

T. S. Hooper, Co. G, 34th Miss. Regt., E. Mullens, 1st Miss. Bat., F. W. Evans, Co. K, 5th Miss. Regt., Christian Cantoline Co. E, 42d Ala. Regt., Irwin McGilise, Co. K, 28th Miss. Regt.,' P. McGowing, Co. K, 28th Miss. Regt., Young C. Dunbar, Co. B, 2d Bat. Tex. Legion, G. T. Holles, Co. K, 42d Miss. Regt. A P. Smith, Co. H, 6th Miss. Regt., R. P. Gray, Co. B, 20th Miss. Regt., James L. Click, Co. F, 1st Bat. Tex. Legion, G. P. Williams, Co. C, 43d Tenn, Regt., J. A. Thomas, Co. K, 6th Miss. Regt, A. Guyton, Co. C, 1st Corps Bat., J. B. Hucabee, Co. 37th Miss. Regt., Ed Jarrall, 1st Corps Bat., James Rankin, Co. A, 1st Ark. Cav., E. D. Wise, Co. L, 12th La. Regt., G. W. Hudspole, Co. B, 40th Miss. Regt., H. James, Co. A, 41st Tenn. Regt., Patrick Gallobo, Co. H, 5th Mo. Regt., B,. F. Rodgers, Co. E, 1st Miss. Regt., Moses G. Hays, Co. H, 1st Ark. Regt., W. H. McCroy, Co. G, 8th Ky. Regt., Sandy Malone, Co, D, 1st Tenn. Cav., John A. Goss, Co. I, 1st Tenn. Cav.

Without company or regiment are the names: E. M. Furguson, J. W. Beville, Elihu Kacy, and J. W. Skinner.

HOW I BECAME A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER.

BY K. M. HEATER.

I was born in Kentucky October 24, 1842. My father died, leaving one other boy besides me and two girls. One sister died, one married, and my brother joined the 30th Tennessee Regiment. This left my mother and me alone on the farm. Up to this time I had never done anything radically wrong. I felt that I was a servant of the Master, and had strong leanings toward becoming a preacher of the good old Baptist Church, of which Church my father was a devout member.

At this time it was very hard to hear from those in the army or to get a letter to them. My brother had a chance to send a letter to us, which letter, together with many from his regiment to friends in Robertson County, Tenn., was sent by private conveyance. These letters reached Pleasant Hill Meetinghouse one meeting day and were laid on the horse block. There they were discovered by J. W. Swan, who proceeded to act as postmaster. Among these letters was one for me, but I never received it. Not far from the church lived a man who reported the letters to Col. Sam Johnson, the commander of the Federal troops at Franklin, Ky. Colonel Johnson ordered the arrest of Swan, and found on his person the letter addressed to me. He subsequently ordered my arrest, and had me carried to Franklin and put in jail. Subsequently he offered me release if I would join the Yankee army, which I refused.

A few days after this offer I was carried to Bowling Green, Ky., and put in the military prison. There were about thirty prisoners, and every few days some were taken out. What was done with them, I don't know, but shortly there were only eighteen of us left. I was very impatient in prison, and determined to do all I could to escape. I took into my confidence one O. W. Laney, of Scott's Louisiana Cavalry, and John Gafford, a member of Morgan's command. Working together, we pulled the lathes and plastering from the ceiling overhead, catching the litter in a blanket, so it would not make a noise. We crept through this hole up into a garret, which had a back window. From there we got onto a roof next door, then to a shed roof, and onto the ground. (After we had been gone some time, eleven other prisoners escaped through the same hole.) We got out about one o'clock in the morning. I followed Laney and Gafford up the bank of Big Barren River. They said they were making for Floyd Lick, Jackson County, Tenn., on the Cumberland River.

However, at sunup the next day as we were making for the timber we were overtaken by a squad of cavalry and ordered back to Bowling Green under their escort. When we reached Bowling Green, we were carried before Colonel Maxwell, the commander of the post, and very roughly received. He cursed and swore vengeance against us, and told Laney and Gafford that he was very much inclined to have them both shot. He said to me that my looks showed I was a country boy, and if I had not attempted to escape he would have sent me home in a day or two, but now he did not suppose I would ever see my home. He sent us to a blacksmith's shop and had a thirty pound ball and chain put on my leg and handcuffs on my wrist's. The other two he had handcuffed together and their legs chained together, for he said he "would fix us so he could find us when he wanted us." We were then put in a small cell in jail, with guards all around. I soon began to realize that Colonel Maxwell was in earnest when he said' he would put us where he could find us when he called for us. Vick Potter, a Campbellite preacher, was the jailer. He locked the doors of the cells every night about nine o'clock. In the morning when he went to feed the prisoners he would turn some of them out in the hall of the prison, but he always kept locked the small inside cell in which we were confined. With the assistance of some of the prisoners who were turned into the hall we opened the door of our cell one dark night in December and hid ourselves to wait for the coming of the jailer. I had managed to slip the handcuff over my hand, and with the heavy ball I beat off the chains, but could not get the band off my leg. With the same ball I managed to free both my companions, though they also had the shackles still on their legs. We had planned for Laney to knock down Potter and make the break, but when he heard the jailer turn his key in the great door, an ague struck him, and he began to back down the hall. I was desperate, so when the 'jailer priest had opened the door and stooped to pick up his lantern, I jerked open the door and threw myself upon him. So utterly unexpected was the onslaught that he fell in a heap on the floor, and we three escaped through the open door, Laney came last, and Potter grabbed him as he rushed by, but Laney was a very stout man, and succeeded in tearing loose from him. We knew that the guard house was next to the jail, and the sentinels were then making their rounds. We knew too that if they failed to stop us they would shoot us down, so we ran with all our might up the road, and if any fellows ever made good time we did. We ran about half a mile, and being entirely breathless, we hid in a dark place in a field to rest. Lying there concealed, we could hear the sentinel calling "Halt!" and then some shooting, I supposed, after us.

It was a dark night, and this time I was leading. We started for what I thought was the South, and I was right, for presently we struck the Louisville and Nashville Pike. Gafford and I were wearing boots, but Laney had on shoes, and the shackles rubbed and galled so that he stopped to try to stuff his pants in between the iron and his leg. While in this position stooping over we heard cavalry coming at full speed right in the direction we were going, so we crawled into the woods and hid in the bushes. I knew that they would guard the turnpike and railroad, so we left the pike, went on the east side, and traveled all the rest of the night, as we thought, southward. In some way we must have turned round, for at daylight next morning we heard the drum and fife for roll call at Bowling Green. We were just a mile from where we started, and it was snowing fast. We stayed hid in the bushes all that day, and if the land has not changed very much, I know I could find the path I walked up and down all day to keep from freezing.

We started again on our tramp at dark, and struck the railroad twelve miles from Bowling Green, traveled the ties till nearly to Frankfort, Ky., made a detour around the town, and again made the railroad our guide. We followed this till near daylight, when a short walk through the woods brought us to my brother in law's house and in a short distance of my mother's home. My brother filed the shackles from our legs and gave us the best breakfast I ever did eat. After breakfast we separated. Mr. Short took Gafford and Laney through Macon County down to the Cumberland River, and that night's journey was the last I heard of them. I went down into what is known as the Greenbrier country, which is in Robertson County, Tenn., where I spent the rest of that winter, and in the spring of 1864 I joined a Confederate company commanded by Capt. George Page. This is how I entered the army, how I got out is another story.

Confederate Veteran June 1911

THE MAXWELL HOUSE DISASTER IN WAR TIMES.

BY JOHN M. DICKEY (44TH TENN. REGT.), KELSO, TENN.

I was one of the four hundred Confederate soldiers confined in the Maxwell House (Zollicoffer Barracks), Nashville, Tenn., when that terrible disaster of September 29, 1863, occurred. The accident is described in a Banner of recent date, and the writer says the victims fell to the third floor, also that some of the prisoners were at breakfast. That is incorrect. I was standing near the head of the stairway when breakfast was announced, and the hungry men were crowding when they were stopped by the guard. All at once the floor gave way, and down we went to the first floor. We fell near where the pool tables were. I fell lengthwise between two joists, and a man fell across me. His brains were scattered over my coat, and the spots were on it when I left prison in 1865. I lay pinned down until the rest of the wounded and dead were cared for. When they prized the rubbish off of me, I was carried into the lobby.

There were one hundred and twenty six of us in the fall, forty five killed outright or died in a short time. One man, a Mr. Dodd, went with me to Rock Island, and died there of his wound. I had this statement from the best authority. John P. White, whom I had known all my life, visited me almost daily. He was a merchant in Nashville at the time and long afterwards. He said there were one hundred and twenty six. I was surprised to see in the Banner that we fell only to the third floor. (That evidently was intended to mean that they fell three floors.)
I was taken to the Central Baptist Church, which was used as a hospital, and it was twenty two days before I could stand up. After sixty five days, I was sent to the penitentiary, and from there to Rock Island Prison, Barrack No. 44, from which I was discharged May 4, 1865.

(Colonel Overton built the Maxwell and named it for his wife, who was Harriet Maxwell.)

(W. C. Jennings, in Tennessean and American.) There were one hundred and four Confederates who fell. There were four killed in the fall and four died within a few minutes. Fifty were sent to the hospital, several of whom died. Several of my company fell: R. A. McGill, who died in Texas some years ago, Burrell Brown, who died in prison at Chicago the next year, Thomas Lain, who died at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Ind., the next year, T. H. Woods, who is a conductor on the N., C. & St. L. Railroad, Shelbyville, G. B. Harral, of Beech Grove, and myself of Hillsboro, Tenn., of Company G, 17th Regiment, were captured in the battle of Chickamauga, September 19, 1863. We were on the top floor of the Maxwell House, and every floor fell through to the bottom. A guard standing on the second step with his gun was slightly injured. Realizing the danger, I kept back.

I will never forget how the guards pushed the good women of Nashville with their bayonets (they were bringing bandages and trying to relieve the crippled men), but they were ordered to do so by the officers. I always have loved the women of Nashville, and hope they will be rewarded for their goodness in trying to relieve those poor sufferers. We left there Friday morning for Camp Douglas, Chicago. I was the first volunteer from the third district of Coffee County and the last one to get home after the war was over. I am in my seventieth year and badly crippled. I know of but eight of my company now living five in this county, one in California, and two in Texas. I have a complete roll of the company. A. S. Marks was colonel of the regiment.

(This was one of the noted calamities of the war. The Maxwell has ever been and still is one of the best hotels South.)

GENERAL ARMISTEAD AT GETTYSBURG. Gen. Louis Addisom Armistead, on foot, his hat waved on the point of his sword as a conspicuous guidon for his heroic followers to rally around, crossed the stone wall at Bloody Angle, and rushed forward to attack the battery, exclaiming: "Who will follow me? Who will follow me?"

With a hundred and fifty devoted men who would have followed the General anywhere, he pierced the mass of combatants, passed the earthworks, and reached Cushing's guns. He laid his hand upon a cannon, called out to his followers, ''Give them the cold steel, boys," and just then fell, pierced with balls, at the foot of the clump of trees which marks the extreme point reached by the Confederates in that battle. Where Armistead fell is where the tide of invasion stopped.

Louis Addison Armistead was born in Newbern, N. C., February 8, 1817. His father, Gen. Walter Keith Armistead, and four of his brothers served in the War of 1812. He was appointed a cadet to West Point in 1834, and on July lo, 1839, he became second lieutenant in the 6th United States Infantry. He served in the Mexican War, and was brevetted to captain and then to major. He continued in the United States army until the beginning of the Confederate war.

He was made major in the Confederate army on March 16, 1861, then colonel of the 57th Virginia Regiment, and on April 1, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general. On September 6, at the outset of the Maryland Campaign, he was assigned to duty as the provost marshal general of Lee's army. In his report of Gettysburg General Lee stated that Armistead, Barksdale, Garnett, and Semmes "died as they had lived, discharging the highest duties of patriots with devotion that never faltered and courage that shrank from no danger."

COPYRIGHT  NOTICE: These electronic pages may  NOT be reproduced in any format for or presentation by any other organization or persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, submitter, or the legal representative of the contributor, submitter, and contact Margie Daniels  with proof of this consent.  1996 -2006

Material on located on this site belongs to the contributor, copyrighted for their compilation and many are private records not found in any public domain records.  The data remains the sole property of the submitter and does not become a property of any organization.  The submitters have not entered into any agreements with the CC's of this site or their space provider to have permanent use of any material on this site.

Margie Daniels , Millie Stewart  and   Davine Cambpell  County Managers

Last date updated 04/10/2006

This site is part of the Georgia GenWeb