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Confederate Veteran
1911
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1911
MAJ. JOSEPH W. ANDERSON, A VIRGINIAN.
In the spring of 1905 correspondence was had with relatives of Maj. Joseph W.
Anderson, of Virginia, and interesting data sent with photograph, and the long
delay is regretted.
Joseph W. Anderson, son of John T. and Cassandra M. Anderson, was born in
Fincastle, Va., December 19, 1836. He graduated at the University of Virginia in
1859, and was married very soon afterwards lo Susan W., daughter of Dr. J. M.
Morris, of Louisa County, Va. Although he was educated for a lawyer, that
profession was not congenial to his taste, while he was fond of the military
spirit and imbued with the chivalrous sentiment of military life.
In 1861 he entered the Confederate service as captain of an infantry company in
his native State, and served gallantly under Gens. J. E. Johnston and Beauregard.
Upon the recommendation
of General Beauregard he was transferred to the artillery service. During
the spring of 1862 he served under Gen, E, Kirby Smith in Kentucky and
Tennessee. In this service he was conspicuous in leading a gallant charge at
Tazewell, Tenn. In December, 1862, he was ordered to Vicksburg with his
artillery. Immediately upon his arrival he went into a fight December 29, and
gave the enemy some parting shots. In January he was promoted to major and to
chief of artillery to Stevenson's Division.
On May 16, 1863, was fought that sanguinary battle of Baker's Creek, about
midway between Jackson and Vicksburg. After five hours of conflict, an infantry
charge was ordered, and in it Major Anderson volunteered to lead the 40th
Georgia. The lines of the enemy were broken temporarily, but the gallant
Virginian fell mortally wounded. His friends were forced to leave him on
the field. Later he was found by Surgeon Van Dyke, of Georgia, who removed him
to the field hospital, but he had suffered so great loss of blood that he
expired during the night. The Surgeon spoke words of praise to Major Anderson
for his gallant service, and he replied: "I am prepared to die. I am
resigned to my fate."
A sister in law writes of him: "A nobler, more unselfish man never
lived." His father was in Mississippi at the time, but no coffin could be
procured, so his body was simply wrapped in a blanket. In November, 1863,
Colonel Anderson, accompanied by a servant, Albert, who had been with Major
Anderson from the time of the battle of Bull Run, went to Mississippi and took
the body to the grand old home in Botetourt County, Va., and buried it in the
Fincastle Cemetery, where a simple stone marks the grave.
Confederate Veteran February 1911
Town Gap, Md., and the bloody battle of Sharpsburg or Antietam on September 17.
Just before the battle of Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862, the
consolidation of State troops took place, and the 18th Georgia went to the
brigade of T. R. R. Cobb, who was killed in that battle.
In all of these engagements the 18th Georgia, with Hood's Brigade, fought
gallantly and lost heavily in killed and wounded. I will not say who commanded
the brigade in the battle of Gaines Mill, June 27, whether Wigfall or Hood, but
I saw General Wigfall on the field.
In the face of the facts how can any writer thus ignore the part the 18th
Georgia took in. all of these battles, where so many gallant Georgians fell? I
write in simple justice to our noble dead and the few living participants.
Should these lines meet the eyes of any of the surviving Texans, they will
verify facts. Who nicknamed the 18th Georgia the "3d Texas?"
(Without referring to the article criticized, the VETERAN will state that in all
that has been published there never has been manifest a purpose to ignore the
gallant men of other States who shared the perils and privations of those
gallant Texans. They may not have special mention in writing of Hood's Texas
Brigade, but it seems to have been so well understood that they merited equal
honor that it seems unfortunate to make such an issue.)
THE BLOUNT GUARDS FLAG.
BY GEN. J. M. ARNOLD, COVINGTON, KY.
'Last fall I sent notice to the VETERAN about a Confederate flag that was
captured at the fall of Fort Donelson which was marked "Blount
Guards." The notice brought a letter from a comrade at Water Valley, Miss.,
who stated that it belonged to the Blount Guards which had been organized in
Tippah County, Miss., and was named for the first captain.
I had some correspondence with Chancellor I. T. Blount, of Water Valley, who is
a brother of Captain Blount, who stated that the flag was made by his sister and
presented to the company when it started to the front.
The flag has been returned, and is now in possession of Chancellor Blount. He
writes me that some time during the summer there will be a reunion of the few
members of the Blount Guards that are living to rejoice over the return of their
flag. The flag was in a good state of preservation and was made of the finest
silk.
I. T. Blount, of Water Valley, Miss., sent the following communication: "In
a recent number of the CONFEDERATE VETERAN the following notice appeared: 'Gen.
James M. Arnold, of Covington, Ky., writes of a Confederate flag, 4x7 feet, in
possession of a gentleman of that city on which is inscribed "Blount
Guards," but no State is given.' * * * This notice attracted the attention
of Capt. A. C. Rucker, who notified Mr. Sam Miskelly, who was a member of the
Blount Guards. Mr. Miskelly conferred with me relative to the matter, and it is
my purpose to take steps at once to get possession of the flag. I will bear all
expense if any is incurred in its recovery, and as the flag belongs to the
surviving members of the company, it will be turned over to them to be disposed
of as they may direct. My brother, Capt. C. G. Blount, organized the Blount
Guards."
>From T. B. Yeates, Fort Worth, Tex.: "I am very grateful for the many
historical facts brought out in the VETERAN. I note a comrade's reference to
music on the battlefield of Franklin, attributing it to Cockrell's Brigade. I
state that it was made by the 28th Tennessee Regiment, which had been
consolidated with the 8th Tennessee. I was on detail as a skirmisher, Colonel
Fields being in command of the skirmish line. We charged and drove in their
pickets and drove also the first line of battle out of their works, then we
stopped until the coming of our main line. While waiting we heard the band
playing 'Dixie,' and a wounded comrade by my side exclaimed: 'My God! Listen to
that band.' I turned to see what band could be playing, and saw that it was our
own regiment band. About this time General Gist came up with his brigade
immediately in our rear and got behind the works, and while trying to get his
men to move forward he was killed and fell upon me. Cheatham's grand old
division swept over the works without halting and made a rush for the last
line,"
(The Editor of the VETERAN remembers distinctly that a band began to play on the
right of the Columbia pike almost immediately after General Hood decided to
"make the fight," as he said to a subordinate officer. That was on the
line of the Winstead Hill. Other bands evidently followed suit, and that is why
Comrade Yeates heard his regiment band playing. Others still may have heard
music before the carnage.)
THE CHICKAMAUGA CLUB.
In 1906 Colonel Bowser invited a number of men who had taken part in the battle
of Chickamauga, both Federals and Confederates, to dine with him to celebrate
the famous date of that engagement, the 20th of September. The following year
the same party met with another member, and it was suggested that a Chickamauga
Club should be formed. This was done, and the prosperous club has now been in
existence two years, and every meeting is eagerly looked forward to, for the
speeches from blue and gray alike are brilliant expositions of the friendship
between the one time enemies, and the stories of that eventful day never grow
old.
Confederate Veteran January 1911
MY FIRST PROMOTION.
BY A KENTUCKIAN.
Halt! Who comes there?
Friends with the countersign.
Advance one with the countersign.
Apple brandy and calico.
Pass, friends, with the countersign.
Say, boys, be sure to come back over this beat.
The Orphan Brigade had reeled up the bloody banks of Stone River out of the
murderous charge of Breckinridge's Division at Murfreesboro, and were camped on
the "Mule Shoe" bend of the Duck just opposite the village of
Manchester. At this point the Duck River runs like a thoroughbred, has a ten
or fifteen foot fall every two hundred yards, and at that season was absolutely
unfordable.
So the orphans were cut off from all the world except for the bridge over to
Manchester which was kept closely guarded. The company to which I belonged had
in its ranks twentyeight graduates of colleges, and so we had privates who knew
something about engineering themselves. One of B. B. Sayres's boys calculated
that a certain tree cut to fall a certain way would bridge the Duck, and a K. M.
I. boy calculated that he could cut the tree to fall just that way. The tree was
cut, and the night afterwards the sentinel on No. 4 sang out: "Halt Who
comes there?" The countersign I gave that Brigaade except when in
front of the enemy. That bridge, for that night at least, was the most popular
one ever built across the Duck. We were soon over, and in the woods beyond we
were brought to a stop by a crowd that was moving unpurposely about, not seeming
to know why they were there. "Hold on a minute while I scout," said
the gallant John G. (who afterwards fell at Chickamauga), and up a t!
ree he went and down he came. "What is it?" said the boys. "Three
calicoes and five hundred orphans," said he. "Let's flank'em, boys,
and charge the apple brandy." And so we did, good apple jack at $5 a
canteen, and then there was music in those woods. "Fall in, boys, form line
of battle," said the gallant scout, Bob W., who afterwards fell at
Peachtree Creek.
The line was formed facing the river, with the calico bunch directly in front.
"Attention!" rang out that clarion voice. "When the line reaches
the river, it will rally on the bridge. Forward, double quick, charge!"
Well, you have heard the "Rebel yell." If you haven't, you have heard
of it. The charge was made. My part of the line never saw calico. It was
reported but that's another story. When we gathered at the bridge, we
found that three orphans had progressed halfway over and sat down astraddle of
the bridge. The bridge was captured, ingress was blocked, daylight was coming,
our camp was on the other side. The three on the bridge sang "The Yaller
Rose of Texas Beats the Belle of Tennessee," "The Bonnie Blue
Flag," "Cheer, Boys, Cheer," and then by way of diversion they
sang all three at once, each one singing his favorite song.
It was at this point that W. B., the greatest dare devil in the brigade, arrived
on the scene. He took in the situation at a glance. "Hurry down, boys, and
fish them out if you can," he called out. I had just reached the bank when
the first man struck the water. Did he get the other two? Not on your life. They
were over that bridge on the camp side long before we had fished out No. I. Then
a solid column struck that bridge, but it was too late. "Old Payne's"
bugle was sounding the reveille, and some hundreds of the best soldiers who ever
fired an Enfield rifle were marked down for extra duty. At ten o'clock that day
I was standing guard on the bridge leading over to Manchester, when the gallant
colonel of my regiment came galloping down the road. Standing erect, heels
together, I brought my Enfield to a "present" with a motion that made
the wood ring. The courtly salute of that grand officer we all loved was given,
but just then he recognized the sentinel. In three jumps he !
had stopped his horse and was riding back. "What are you doing here?"
he asked. "Standing guard, my first extra duty in this war," I
replied. Then the colonel's face relaxed, and in a moment from commanding
officer he changed to my old chum. "Tell me all about it, 'honest Injun,'
" he said.
I knew the colonel liked a good thing, so, coming to parade rest, the story was
told. The colonel laughed some on the horse, and then he got down and laughed on
the ground. Then he mounted and at once assumed the face I had seen on the field
at Shiloh and Murfreesboro. "Extra duty," he said, "serves you
right. Call the corporal of the guard, sir." "Corporal of the guard.
Post No. 8," I sang out, and he sat there with a face on him that meant
guardhouse till the corporal came. Then came his order: "Private
is excused from guard duty. He has been promoted." Then he hesitated a
moment and added, "For distinguished services known to the colonel of his
regiment," and before I could doff my cap or utter a word of thanks that
horse was across the bridge on the way to Manchester.
WAR TIME EXPERIENCES IN THE WEST. BY F. COLEMAN SMITH, COLLINS'S BATTERY,
SHELBY'S BRIGADE. In 1861 the Southern force in Missouri was known as
"General Price's army." It was the Missouri State Guard, organized by
legislative enactment, and consisted of one brigade from each congressional
district. General Rains commanded nearly half of the army because he had the
district in Southwest Missouri which had already been at war with the Kansas
free soilers for several years, and where the men were safer in the army than at
home. Jim Lane, of Kansas, was considered as deadly a personal as well as a
public enemy.. The Missouri State Guard was a well organized mob which did
effective work as an army, but the men could come and go as they pleased, and
there was no semblance of discipline. Many Missourians known as bushwhackers
wandered at will, doing as they pleased, and joining the army whenever they
thought it expedient to do so for safety from the enemy.
In September, 1861, when Colonel Mulligan surrendered to General Price, I lived
on a farm about six miles south of Lexington and was a private in Bledsoe's
Battery. About thirty days after General Mulligan's surrender General Price
moved his army to McDonald County, in the southwest corner of the State. I
started with the battery, but became ill, and was left near Greenfield at the
home of Colonel Coffee, who commanded a regiment in General Rains's brigade. My
brother, Dr. Robert B. Smith, was the surgeon of Colonel Coffee's regiment, and
through him I was left in comfortable quarters. My brother also left his
servant, a negro boy about my age, as a nurse for me. Without his excellent
service I certainly should have died. He did all that could be done for me, and
I believe would have risked his life to save me from the enemy.
This was the 1st of November, 1861. General Fremont was moving on General Price
from Sedalia with an army estimated at forty thousand men and a large amount of
field artillery and crossing the Osage at Warsaw, while Gen. Jim Lane was also
moving southward and, we understood, was crossing the Osage at or near
Papinville. When I had been at Colonel Coffee's house about ten days, my brother
returned from the army with an ambulance to take me on South, but after seeing
my serious condition he took me home. We expected to go between the armies of
Fremont and Lane and cross the Osage at Osceola. When we were about twenty five
miles south of Osceola, we met two or three men on the prairie in citizens'
clothes armed with shotguns. We believed they were Southern men. We told them
promptly who we were and that we were aiming to go between Fremont and Lane.
They said that Lane was then crossing at Osceola and would be along in a short
time, and that they were watching their advance so as to give notice to the
people and armies of the South.
We, deeming it certain death to fall into the hands of Jim Lane, concluded to
risk the leniency of General Fremont, hoping that he would at least spare our
lives and perhaps not send us to prison. So we turned due east without road or
guide and traveled as fast as we could. We took dinner at the only house we saw
after turning east. Our host, a farmer, said he understood that Fremont was then
on the road from Warsaw to Bolivar, only a mile or so east of his house. We
traveled due east and came into the Warsaw and Bolivar road in the timber. There
was no one in sight, and we could see that several thousand men had already
passed south on the road. We concluded to try the trick of passing as Fremont's
men going back.
We determined if halted or arrested we would ask to be taken directly to General
Fremont. But fortune favored us in a peculiar way. The doctor and the negro boy
sat on the front seat of the ambulance, while I, very weak, sat on the floor.
The first soldiers that we met were simply stragglers. They gave us the road,
and we bowed and passed on. We met afterwards during the afternoon several
regiments of infantry and batteries of artillery. In each case we gave them the
road, bowed, and passed on without being molested in any way. The country was
sparsely settled. We had no trouble in passing the soldiers who were going in
the opposite direction until late in the day, when we came to a narrow, short
lane in which a train of wagons had stopped, and the train extended out in the
prairie nearly a quarter of a mile. We were on the west side of the train, and
could not go through the lane without getting to the east side. My brother left
the negro boy on the seat of our ambulance an!
d went to get one of the drivers to move a team. Soon the wagon master of the
train rode up and asked the negro boy in a loud voice: "Whose ambulance is
this?" The boy answered: "Dr. Smith's." "Is he going
back?" asked the wagon master. "I reckon so," said the darky.
"Was he ordered back?" "I don't know." The next question
was: "Who is in there?" The answer was: "It is Dr. Smith's
brother, he is sick." "Where is Dr. Smith?" The negro pointed
over the road and said: "He is over there talking to the drivers.."
The wagon master then galloped off as if to interview Dr. Smith, but just then
one of the drivers came with the Doctor and let us through the train.
To avoid an interview with the wagon master, we started on at once. Soon we
reduced our speed, but continued to meet stragglers and commands until nearly
sundown, but no one asked us a question. Then, seeing a comfortable house on the
roadside, we asked permission to stay all night, which was readily granted. We
were scarcely settled in the house when a train of several wagons was driven
into the stable lot, and the men went into camp. A nicely dressed man in
citizen's clothes called at the door and asked permission to stay in the house.
The proprietor told him that he had given us the only room he had, but my
brother, having noticed that there were two beds in the room, said: "Come
right in, there are two beds here and plenty of room for all three of us."
The man was a sutler following the army with goods to sell, and I think his name
was Tatur. The next morning he asked if he could go with us to Sedalia, and we
told him we would be glad of his company, and although Sedalia!
was not directly in our course, we would go by there for his
accommodation. Soon after we started we told him that we were members of General
Price's army, and he remarked that he had suspected that for some time, and he
preferred to ride with Southern men through Missouri at that time on account of
bushwhackers. He used his papers to pass us across the river and out of the
lines of Fremont's army at Warsaw.
On our way to Sedalia we stopped at a neat looking farmhouse for dinner. While
at the table my brother learned that he and the lady of the house had lived in
the same county in Kentucky, and that he was acquainted with many of her friends
and relatives, all of whom were Southern sympathizers. He asked her if she was
"Union or Secesh," a common question in those days, and she answered
that she was Union. He told her that Mr. Tatur, the sutler, belonged to
Fremont's army, but that he and I belonged to Price's army. The woman was angry
and frightened, and told my brother that she did not believe him, and that he
was only setting a trap to catch her and that she knew all of us were from
Fremont's army because we came right from Warsaw, where his army was. We were
satisfied that she was a Southern sympathizer and suspected us as spies. If that
lady is living, I would be glad for her to know that we told her the truth.
We left her home about four o'clock in the afternoon and traveled all night,
reaching before daylight the next morning Sedalia, where the sutler's papers
again passed us through the Union guards. We went to a hotel and breakfasted
together, and Mr. Tatur went to St. Louis on the train and we drove to our home,
near Lexington, that day, making the distance from near Hermitage, in Hickory
County, to Lexington in two days. My brother returned to the army in McDonald
County, avoiding the Federal armies, and reported for duty with his ambulance
and negro boy within the next week. I remained at home about eight months, and
then joined Collin's Battery, in Shelby's Brigade, and served with him during
the remaining three years of the war, winding up in August, 1865, in Mexico, on
the Pacific Coast, at the city of Mazatlan.
Confederate Veteran January 1911
FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN.
The Fayetteville (Tenn.) Observer gives the following sketch: "The first
passenger train to reach Fayetteville arrived in the town on August 19, 1859,
fifty one years ago. At that time locomotives were designated by names instead
of numbers, and the engine pulling the train was the Belle Kelso, called in
honor of a popular belle of that day and now Mrs. Belle Kelso Allison, of
Memphis. The railroad from Decherd was originally intended to be built to some
point in Alabama and chartered as the Winchester and Alabama Railroad. It was
built to Elora, and no other town applying for it, Fayetteville raised the
required amount, and it was built to this place. At that time the State offered
aid to any line of road not less than forty miles in length. It was claimed that
this road was the required mileage, and the State contribution was secured. The
sidings were probably measured, but for years the passenger rate from
Fayetteville to Decherd was computed on a forty mile trip. An accu!
rate survey shows the distance to be 38.9 miles."
It was the rule in those days to name engines for persons. A delightful memory
is revived now in the christening of an engine on the Mobile and Ohio for Miss
Phie Chester, of Jackson, Tenn. The engine was gorgeously decorated and a party
in an elegant car was taken by it from Jackson to Humboldt, Tenn., at the
frightful speed of "a mile a minute."
GENERAL TYLER NEAR CHICKAMAUGA STATION.
Many amusing incidents occurred during the war that would be enjoyed by the old
soldiers if they were written up. You asked some time ago for any incidents in
regard to General Tyler. After our lines were broken at the ridge, General Tyler
rode up to a fire where a lot of wounded were lying and asked some one to lift
him from his horse. Some one lifted him tenderly and laid him down. We could
hear the blood in his boot, as it was full from the wound just below the knee.
He told us that his brigade never gave way until surrounded, and would never
have done so but for his right support. Tennessee never sent a braver or more
gallant soldier to fight for the cause. He sleeps sweetly in his soldier grave.
The fight between the Yankees and Confederates was in the cedars at Stone's
River near Murfreesboro known as "Hell's Half Acre." On Saturday night
we were ordered to make a charge in the cedars, I suppose to cover our retreat,
which commenced in a short while. While lying down I had a dead Yankee for
breastworks.
Mrs. T. M. Andersen, of Pickens, Miss., Route No. 3, has the following numbers
of the VETERAN which she will sell at ten cents each, the purchaser to pay
postage or express. The proceeds will be donated to the Jefferson Davis memorial
and the monument to the "Immortal Six Hundred:" 1900, May, June,
August, November, December, 1901, all except April, May, September, 1902, all
except January, August, September, 1903, complete, 1904, all except October,
1905, all except August', 1906, all except January, 1907, 1908, 1909, complete.
Capt. George W. Christy, now at the Soldiers' Home, Beauvoir, Miss., writes that
he believes he and Dan C. Whitney, of Morristown, Tenn., are the only survivors
of Wheat's Battalion. He states that Capt. Alex White and Whitney were wounded
at Gaines's Mill, where Major Wheat was killed. Captain Christy was with the
command at Gettysburg, where he had his nose broken by a piece of shell and his
middle finger shot almost off. Captain White was also wounded there after
putting the flag on a ramrod and leading the boys in the fight at Gulp's Hill,
Seminary Ridge. He was captain of the steamer Magnolia and Christy was engineer
When the war began. White enlisted him in his company in 1861.
Confederate Veteran January 1911
SUGGESTIONS FOR HISTORIC REVIEWS.
BY LAMAR FONTAINE, LYON, MISS.
My Dear Comrade: Knowing that the many histories taught in our public schools in
the South have all been "blue'penciled" by interested parties, who are
inimical to us, and who have permitted just enough of the truth to creep into
their pages to make the lies stick and to place the Confederate soldier, as well
as our entire people, in a false light before the world, don't you think that it
would be a good idea for the principals or teachers of all our public schools,
colleges, and institutions of learning to devote, say, one or two Friday
evenings of each month during the school term to the teaching of Southern
history? In nearly every community there are a few old Confederate soldiers left
alive, some one of whom could be selected to relate to the children some
incident of their experience, some battle scene or chapter that would illustrate
the spirit that animated the soldiers of the South in the cause for which we
contended in those dark days of the sixties. On each occasi!
on the subject for the subsequent day could be selected and the facts be
carefully prepared in advance. In this way a deep interest could be
aroused and the whole school and the community brought to a correct knowledge of
our righteous cause.
Some of these lecturers would improve rapidly by experience and some would
attract the attention of other com munities, who would secure their
dissertations. Thus a deep interest would soon be taken, the
impressive minds of the youth of our common country would be alert, and the
stories of these old soldiers would take deep, patriotic root.
(Comrade Fontaine's suggestions are well worth consideration. Such action would
be helpful to the veterans. There are men in Soldiers' Home who would be
benefited by the diversion and comrades of more successful careers who could do
much in this way. Primary work would be for teachers to confer with veterans and
show them the text books in use, calling attention to historic data upon which
they would like comment. In commending this suggestion the fact is not
overlooked that many comrades are illiterate and cannot be expected to make
talks worthy except in the mention of facts with which they are familiar. In
this teachers, especially of country schools, might take the lead and much good
be accomplished. How much better this than the prevailing acrimony about
politics in which so much of ill will is engendered ! Concerning this latter
theme, let us stand on the same pedestal from which we can see that the motives
of those whom we have known so long arc just as correct as ever before.
ED,)
GRACIE'S BATTALION AT WILLIAMSBURG IN 1862.
DATA FURNISHED BY HIS SON, ARCHIBALD GRACIE.
In compliance with your request I relate what I know about that period in the
history of my father, Gen. Archibald Gracie, Jr., early in the great war when as
major of the 11th Alabama Regiment he was assigned an independent command of a
battalion composed of details from the various regiments of Wilcox's Brigade.
The sources of my information are derived from my correspondence with various
veterans who were companions in arms of my father at that time. In particular I
refer to Capts. N. J. Floyd and John C. Featherston. The former has written a
historical novel, the first edition of which is entitled "Thorns in the
Flesh," and the second edition appears under the title, "The Last of
the Cavaliers" (Broadway Publishing Company, 835 Broadway, New York). In
both of these volumes, written in the form of a historical novel, are given a
detailed description of this battalion and of its major, which, the author
assures me, is taken from life, and that the important incidents menti!
oned therein are absolutely true as regards Major Gracie and his command.
During the spring of 1862 Wilcox's Brigade was encamped near Centerville, Va.,
when it was ordered to move to the Yorktown Peninsula, where a small force of
Confederates were opposed to the advance of McClellan's great army. This special
command of Major Gracie's was made up of parts of companies taken from the first
reenforcements sent to General Magruder, and was given the special duty of
holding the extreme right wing of his defensive line across the Yorktown
Peninsula and along the Warwick River, while General McClellan was rapidly
extending his left with a view of outflanking the Confederates and throwing a
force across the Warwick River before the arrival of the bulk of General
Johnston's army.
In his letter of March 27, 1906, Captain Floyd writes me about this small
battalion's part taken in this "siege of Yorktown," as it is called,
and says: "It was a bold bluff, a few scattered platoons against a solid
column which McClellan was using to feel his way, but it was skillfully played
and prevented an attack which would have annihilated the special battalion and
turned our right flank. Our only firing was some lively sharpshooting from day
to day, from March 20 until the 3d of May. On the night of the latter date Major
Gracie quietly called his scattered platoons together, and we took the line of
march for Williamsburg , The main body of the Confederate army was ahead of
us."
Captain Featherston on March 10, 1906, writes to the same effect: "Major
Gracie, of the 11th Alabama, was put in command of a special battalion of five
companies of Wilcox's Brigade, one from each regiment. Lieutenant Featherston,
adjutant of the 9th Alabama, was ordered to report to Major Gracie with his
detail of Company F, commanded by Capt. T. H. Hobbs, in which company Floyd
(since author of 'Thorns in the Flesh' and other books) was a lieutenant. This
battalion was posted on the Warwick River near its confluence with the James
River. These companies were selected by chance and not because of their fitness
for any special duties, because they had never been tried effectually, but a
finer body of soldiers were not to be found."
Some of my information is derived from clippings from newspapers of war times in
which Major Gracie's command is spoken of as a battalion of sharpshooters which
were given the post of honor on Warwick River, Major Gracie being thus honored
by the commanding general who gave him this special command. Captain Featherston
says that Major Gracie brought this battalion to a high degree of efficiency by
frequent drills and target practice, yet they were not especially qualified as
sharpshooters, armed as they were with old smoothbore muskets.
It was while my father was stationed at this point that there occurred an
interesting incident of a longrange conversation across the river with a Federal
soldier from Elizabeth, N. J. It was through this medium that he obtained the
latest news about his family in New York. The incident is of interest in
connection with the description in Captain Floyd's book of the details of a
conversation which formed the basis for the account in his book. On the
assurance of Captain Floyd of the historical accuracy of the statements made in
his book on all main points which concern Major Gracie I take the liberty of
transposing his account into a historical narrative:
In the early spring of the next year (1862), while the country was full of
rumors of the impending advance of the 'finest army on the planet' upon the
camps of the Confederates around Manassas and along Bull Run, Wilcox's Brigade
was hurried from its winter quarters and sent by long and hasty marches through
Richmond and beyond to the Yorktown Peninsula. When the few troops first ordered
to move turned their backs on the comfortable log cabins which had been their
homes during the winter, the members of the 9th Alabama Regiment believed the
movement to be the beginning of a general withdrawal to defensive lines around
Richmond.
But when without a moment of delay they were hurried through that city and on to
the vicinity of Yorktown, their hearts thrilled with joy, as they recognized
that they were being used as a pawn in a wise and bold defensive move in the 'On
to Richmond' international game of chess. General Wilcox's advance column found
in the rifle pits near Yorktown and along the Warwick estuary less than 11,000
troops, under General Magruder, holding a defensive line of more than twelve
miles, extending from the vicinity of that ancient and historic town to the
James River. In their front, and rapidly arriving and extending their solid
lines, were three Federal army corps comprising ninety thousand infantry, ten
thousand cavalry, and four hundred pieces of artillery. The necessity of making
a show of strength along this lengthy defensive line until additional troops
could arrive compelled the hasty formation of temporary battalions.
Companies were divided into independent platoons, platoons!
into sections, and all scattered under commissioned officers to guard
extra vulnerable points."
Before ending this account of Gracie's Battalion on the Warwick River, it may be
of interest to record an instance of how frequently members of the same family
were opposed to each other in battle on opposite sides in the two armies
After much investigation, I finally received a letter from Col. Charles Suydam
which gave me the desired information as to the identity of the relative with
whom Major Gracie had the interesting conversation across the Warwick River. An
excerpt from this letter reads as follows: "The event in 1862 to which you
refer was this, as my memory serves me: Keyes's Corps, of which I was chief of
staff and assistant adjutant general, had the left of the army, with
headquarters at the Warwick Courthouse, covering Warwick Creek (or River) from
its source to its confluence with James River, the center of the line being
opposite to Lee's Mills. One evening there came to headquarters Lieut. Philip
Clayton Rogers, just relieved from duty as officer of the day, who reported to
me that while on picket duty he had had a pleasant conversation across the lines
with your father, from whom he had received a message of invitation to me to
talk with him. Personally I would have been glad to do so, but General Keyes
thought it not wise, so I did not press the subject, and it ended there."
Reference is here made to a second cousin of Major Gracie. Colonel Suydam, the
writer of the letter, was also a cousin by marriage.
>From March to May this little Confederate army in their intrenchments
confronted McClellan's army, making preparations for advance, with pick and
spade digging their rifle pits and waiting for reenforcements, for McClellan
asked of his government to send him sixty thousand more troops before he
prosecuted his movement on to Richmond via the Yorktown .Peninsula. Unable to
get these, he finally determined to advance, but the Confederates were on the
watch, and on the very night before the Federal advance was planned the whole of
the small Confederate army withdrew toward Williamsburg, the ancient capital of
Virginia.
It was very amusing to read about the pleasantries which were exchanged between
the "Johnny Rebs" in their trenches and the "Billy Yanks" in
the rifle pits in the Warwick marshes. The topography of the country was much
changed by the construction of great earthworks, the remains of which are to be
seen in that locality to day. Very few casualties occurred, as the pickets of
the two armies thus early in the war had agreements not to fire on each other
under certain conditions.
Gracie's Battalion, according to the "War Records," was brigaded under
General Kershaw, and the newspaper clippings of the time, which are in my
possession, besides information obtained elsewhere, show that this small
battalion was the rear guard of the Confederate army on its withdrawal up the
peninsula. The masterly manner in which Major Gracie performed this service
elicited the praise of the commander in chief, Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.
Major Gracie profited by this experience in his ability to perform similar
services as a brigade commander under General Bragg in the fall of this same
year, 1862, and in 1863.
In October of this year his brigade was the Tear guard of the whole of Bragg's
army in its withdrawal from Kentucky. So well was the service performed that
General Bragg remembered it, and in the following year called upon this same
brigade, then stationed at Knoxville, to join his army for the purpose of
covering his retreat from Tullahoma.
After twilight on May 3, 1862, while the Confederates with bayonets and tin cups
were still working on their fortifications, the distant sound of heavy wheels
indicated that artillery was being placed in position. Major Gracie had at this
time received his orders to withdraw his battalion. The camp fires were left
burning as usual, but the rumbling of wagon trains indicated the retirement of
the whole army.
The account of what followed I now quote again from Captain Floyd's book,
substituting Major Gracie's name as the commander of the battalion: "All
night the march was kept up, the only command being, 'Close up, boys, we will
rest in the morning.' As the sun was about to rise the battalion emerged from a
forest into a wide field containing two newly constructed redoubts. Many broad
acres were already covered with weary troops cooking, eating, smoking, joking,
but the great majority seeking in profound slumber the rest so greatly needed by
all. Major Gracie was handed written orders that his battalion was to resume the
march at noon and was to perform the duty of rear guard to the army, and he
immediately gave his own orders that his men should he down for a six hour
rest."
This rest, however, was only of short duration, and at the first roll of the
drum the troops seized their guns and accouterments. Captain Floyd
continues his description as follows:
As the battalion, now constituting the rear guard of the army, ascended the long
hill rising to the plateau on which stands the ancient town of Williamsburg ,
founded one hundred years before the birth of George Washington, a solitary
scout, who had come from beyond the forest, now nearly a mile to the rear,
dashed by without deigning to notice the witty inquiries as to the cause of his
haste and fired at him from the ranks. The command had entered the town, and,
finding the balconies, doors, and windows filled with enthusiastic ladies, had
commenced a rendition of the melodious and patriotic song of 'Dixie,' when this
rider from the rear, evidently a courier, dashed by. To the shout from the
ranks, 'Don't run. Bud, we'll not let them hurt you,' etc., he only responded
over his shoulder: 'Where's General Johnston?' In the midst of the shouts of
humorous information, 'Huntin' up the Buttermilk Rangers,' 'Tryin' to catch up
with the Fried Chicken Squadron,' etc., a staff offic!
er, coming from the opposite direction, halted the courier for a few hasty words
and sent him speeding on his way again, as he himself spurred his horse forward
and shouted to Major Gracie: 'Right about! Double quick!'
At the same moment a shell, that had evidently come from a long distance, as the
sound of the gun which sent it had not been noticed, burst in the air. In an
instant everything was changed. The men wheeled in their tracks and set out on
the double quick, changing the musical strains of their song to the wild,
discordant shout which had already been noised around the world as the 'Rebel
Yell.' Ladies wept and laughed alternately, wringing and clapping their hands
hysterically, while a few, more impulsive than the majority, ran out on the
pavements and, waving handkerchiefs, scarfs, and Confederate sunbonnets, added a
musical mite to the hoarse roar from the masculine lungs.
Soon a cry came from the rear, Clear the way for the artillery!' and the rushing
mass drifted to the left as a battery of four field guns, with their caissons
drawn by six and four horses respectively, came thundering down the street at a
full gallop. As the guns mounted the slight elevation southeast of the town a
similar battery, belonging to the foe, dashed out of the forest beyond the field
that had been the resting place of the troops, and bent its swift course toward
the same redoubt which was the objective point of the Confederates.
Then commenced a desperate race between the two batteries with the advantage, so
far as distance and a smooth way were concerned, in favor of the foe. The staff
officer, who had posted himself on the elevation to await the coming of the
battalion, shouted to the captain the gallant John Pelham
of the battery as the guns swept by: 'Drive into the redoubt! Lock wheels with 'em
if you must and fight 'em hand to hand until the infantry gets there!'
But the wild shouts of the twenty drivers as they lashed their straining horses
told that they comprehended the situation and had already determined to stake
all on the race. Leaving the road, which, in order to lessen the steepness of
the grade, makes a wide detour to the right, the battery dashed down the hill in
a straight line for the redoubt, over obstructions of briers, bushes, stones,
and gullies which it seemed, considering the speed at which they were moving,
should have appalled the hearts of any human creature not daft from excitement.
A few minutes after the battery left the road the battalion arrived on the hill
from which the race could be seen, and kept up a continuous shout that was a
spur to their own speed and cheered the artillery as the guns floundered swiftly
along, swaying from side to side in crossing gullies diagonally, as first one
wheel and then the opposite one would plunge halt out of sight in a gully, and
instantly spring aloft, scattering showers of red earth and gravel, while
spinning for an instant in the air free of contact with the ground.
The opposing battery, probably appalled by such daredevil recklessness, and
seeing that a continuation of the race would result in a hand to hand struggle,
gave up the contest, and, sweeping around in graceful curves, they formed
battery, unlimbered, and delivered a round before the Confederate battery could
rush its detached horses out of and behind the redoubt. The rapid firing and
bursting of shells from the Federal battery made a quick tattoo to the rhythm of
which the Confederate gunners unlimbered, loaded, and delivered fire.
But instead of firing at the opposing battery they sent their shells over their
heads to demoralize a blue line of infantry which was coming forward at a lively
pace, and was apparently forming for a charge. The Federal battery
immediately adopted the same idea, and, training their guns on the battalion.
racing pellmell down the hill, * * * they sent shot and shell screaming and
bursting overhead.
'On the left by file into line!' shouted Major Gracie. The order was repeated by
company officers, and at the word 'March' a sergeant, who was leading the race,
sprang to the left, bringing his gun to a 'present' with his back to the
approaching tide of humanity and stood as rigid as a statue. This action brought
instant order out of apparent chaos. The human statue, which one might fancy had
been turned into stone by a gaze at the Medusa of War, seemed to act as a hook
upon which the drifting mob had caught. They whirled by, but halting in quick
succession and facing to the left, an orderly line. grew out from him, as a
tangled streamer is straightened by the wind, and every man and officer was in
his proper place.
The order was given to lie down, and was obeyed with at least the customary
alacrity. * * *
A few moments later Major Gracie galloped along the line and said to the men:
'The infantry are about to charge, boys. They expect to drive us and get our
battery. If we repulse and drive them, we shall get their battery.'
As the Major spoke a line, apparently one full regiment, was seen advancing at a
quick step, evidently with the intention of charging. The Confederate battery in
the earthwork, seeing the danger, commenced to throw grape and canister, but the
angry swish of the small missiles seemed only to add to the speed and
determination of the advancing foe.
At this moment Major Gracie called, 'Attention!' and in an instant every man was
on his feet and the order given to advance. The officers cautioned their men to
reserve their fire for close range, as their guns were but little better than
pop crackers, and rely chiefly upon the bayonet. 'Fire and charge!' shouted the
Major, and the noise from over four hundred blunderbusses and yells from as many
throats mingled with the din.
The advancing masses of the enemy reel and stagger, a starry banner falls, a
gallant officer is unhorsed, military cohesion is lost, friends and foes mingle
and struggle for one brief moment, while the iron throated monarchs of battle
are awed into silence.
Amid the din a shout is heard: 'Rally on the battery!' Blue and gray commence a
headlong race for the Federal guns, but there is to be no rally for the
blue. To the rear is heard the thundering tr'amp of horses, and a squadron of
Confederate cavalry that had ridden five miles in twenty minutes on the return
track dashes upon the scene, sweeps the field, and with wild yells carries the
pursuit to, through, and beyond the forest, until the angry front of heavy
columns of infantry compels a halt and necessitates a reconnoissance.
Soon returning columns of Confederate infantry on the double quick begin to
arrive and to form a hasty Lattle line eastward of the redoubts, while squads of
prisoners are brought in from beyond the forest, where the sound of skirmishing
by the cavalry is still heard.
When the battalion returned to the redoubt to collect the wounded who were able
to march, they were ordered to move forward and camp in a large field five miles
beyond Williamsburg. As they ascended the hill they met General Longstreet and
his staff returning ahead of his corps to the scene of the skirmish, there to
hold three Federal army corps in check for forty hours and to teach them in a
bloody battle on the next day what terribly destructive power an outnumbered
Confederate force could put into a Parthian blow.
The next morning as the battalion moved out of camp the men heard the heavy roar
of artillery five miles in their rear, where Longstreet was commencing his
brilliant battle which was to be a desperate struggle for nine mortal hours, and
miles ahead they heard the boom of heavy artillery from gunboat batteries on the
York River near Barhamsville, where the Federal commander was making an earnest
effort to block the only line of march available for the Confederates, and thus
cut them off from Richmond."
In the foregoing sketch of this battalion in regard to the accuracy of the
information which has been obtained from Captain Floyd's book I quote the
following statement from a letter that he wrote to me about it: "In
describing it I used the novelist's license to only a limited extent, and every
word said of your father is literally true."
Captain Floyd makes, however, one exception, for in his book he describes the
frantic charger ridden by Major Gracie as having been shot under him, such not
being the case.
As Captain Floyd was among the sick and wounded on the 6th of May, he set out
for Richmond. "I never had the pleasure," he says, "of meeting my
gallant friend again. ea went to the 43d Alabama as colonel, and later I went to
the Trans Mississippi Department as a captain of the general staff. As a soldier
and as a gentleman your gallant father had the highest respect and admiration of
every officer and man in the battalion."
Capt. J. C. Featherston was the one who first wrote to me and called attention
to Floyd's book (Floyd and Featherston are brothers in law), and his
correspondence with me shows that he is in full accord with all the statements
of fact therein set forth, and I have still further confirmation in a letter by
a comrade who probably never saw the book in question
viz., Sergt. G. I. Turnley, now an attorney at law at Cold Springs, Tex., who
wrote to me as follows:
I noticed in the CONFEDERATE VETERAN that you desire to hear from some of the
men who served under your father, General Gracie. in the War between the States.
I remember him very well when he was in the Army of Northern Virginia in the
campaign from Yorktown retreating up the Peninsula to Richmond. There were, I
think, two companies detailed from my regiment, the 10th Alabama of Wilcox's
Brigade, which, with three other companies from other regiments of the brigade,
were united and placed under command of Major Gracie and called Grade's
Battalion. It was called upon to
30 Confederate Veteran January 1911
cover the rear of our army on its retreat. The companies from the 10th Alabama
were Company G, to which I belonged, and commanded, I think, by Capt. Crogg G.
Whatley, and Company D, commanded, I think, by Capt. Frank Woodruff.
We reached Williamsburg late in the evening, and had marched a short distance
into the city along the sidewalk when all at once we heard a small cannon from
the enemy. Then we saw a courier dash down the street toward the open field from
which we had just marched and from which direction the enemy were coming toward
us. Following this courier came a Georgia regiment (I think it was) with a full
brass band in front, all moving at a double quick, the band playing. After they
passed us, we were about faced and double quicked down the same street out into
the field and formed line of battle, while the Georgia brigade had formed on the
left of the road, we being on the right. Your father commanded us and formed the
line in person. Bullets then began to whistle by us. Just at this time the enemy
came into open view across the field. Pelham's Artillery then came flying down
the road, Pelham himself leading in full gallop, passing through our lines of
battle right up to the front, w!
here he planted his guns and opened fire on the enemy, drawing their artillery
fire nearer in our direction. I well recall that one of the enemy's cannon balls
passed directly over the neck of the large iron gray horse ridden by your
father. The concussion of the ball shook the horse terribly, so much so that
your father came very near falling, but grasped the horse with both hands by the
neck and held on. He was directly in front of the company to which I belonged, I
was then, I think, only a sergeant. He was within five or ten steps and just in
front of our line watching Pelham place his battery a few yards in advance of
us. According to my recollections, this all occurred within one hour of sundown.
We remained in line until about midnight, when we were relieved and marched back
through the city, stacked arms, and slept till the next morning.
All our men were very fond of Major Gracie. Col. William H. Forney, who
commanded the 10th Alabama and was wounded and captured in that battle, was also
a great friend of Major 'Archie' Gracie, as he called him. I could not help
liking any man so highly spoken of as your father was by Colonel Forney.
The battalion remained with him on the retreat the rest of the way to Richmond,
when the various details of it were returned to the regiments to which they
belonged, and having served its purpose, the battalion was disbanded."
The battalion, as we note, did not participate in the battle of Williamsburg.
While the men were very much exhausted in consequence of severe marching through
the worst of muddy roads, it was not for this reason that they did not join
Longstreet's men in this rear guard action. After the skirmish, in which the
Federals were repulsed and driven back, the Confederate cavalry came up and one
of Longstreet's brigades was thrown into line of battle in rear of Gracie's
Battalion, whose functions as the rear guard of the army were now ended. The
field on which the battalion was ordered to camp was within a mile or so of a
bend in the York River, up which the Federals were sending heavy forces upon
boats for the purpose of landing a force higher up the Peninsula and cutting off
the retreat in whole or part of the Confederate army. Major Gracie placed a
picket line along the river, and, according to the information which Captain
Floyd obtained from comrades, some lively sharpshooting!
prevented an attempt of the enemy to land during the night at the point
where the battalion was posted.
As the "Official Records" contain no information about Gracie's
Battalion or this skirmish which preceded the battleof Williamsburg , it seems
proper that we should collect from all authoritative sources whatever
information we can in order to preserve in history the memory of the gallant
deeds of these heroic Alabamians.
I find in the "Southern Historical Society Papers," Volume X., pages
32 to 45, a "Sketch of Longstreet's Division Yorktown and
Williamsburg , by E. P. Alexander." The whole of this article is of great
interest, but I will only refer to parts of it that concern the statement made
in this article and which also appertain to the history of Gracie's Battalion.
He says that General Magruder's forces scarcely numbered 11,000 men, 6,000 of
whom formed the garrisons of the intrenched camps at Gloucester Point, Yorktown,
and Mulberry Island, while the remaining 5,000 were distributed on the line of
the Warwick Creek, which headed within a mile of Yorktown and flowed across the
Peninsula, here over twelve miles wide, and emptied into the James. Below Lee's
Mill, six miles from Yorktown, no roads crossed the Warwick, and the tide ebbed
and flowed in its channel. Above this point three dams, each defended by a
slight earthwork, inundated the swamp nearly to its source, but the inunda!
tions were frequently fordable, though averaging nearly one hundred yards in
width. Such is the description of the locality where Gracie's Battalion was
posted.
On the 4th of April General McClellan arrived at Fortress Monroe and took
command in person. He then had 58,000 men and one hundred guns. With the small
force at his disposal for maneuver General Magruder marched and countermarched
from point to point, and made such a parade and put on so bold a front that
General McClellan, who seems invariably to have seen Confederates double,
imagined himself in the presence of a large force. By the 12th of April the
Federal force present for duty exceeded 100,000 men. The Army of Northern
Virginia, as Johnston's force was now designated, was moved to the support of
Magruder's small force on the Peninsula, and the united Confederate forces now
numbered 53,000.
These forces were positioned as follows: D. H. Hill's division at Gloucester
Point, Yorktown, and the adjacent redoubts, Longstreet in the center, and
General Magruder's division on Longstreet's right, holding the Warwick and
embracing what was known as Dam No. 1 and Lee's Mill. General Smith's division
was held in reserve.
General McClellan did not take the offensive, but started on a regular
siege after suffering a small repulse on the l6th of April. Meanwhile the
Confederates devoted themselves to strengthening their position in every way,
duly expecting to be attacked. The sufferings and hardships endured during this
period are best described in General Magruder's official report: "From the
4th of April to the 3d of May this army served almost without relief in the
trenches. Many companies of artillery were never relieved during this long
period. It rained almost incessantly. The trenches were filled with water. No
fires could be allowed. The artillery and infantry of the enemy played upon our
men almost continuously, and yet no murmurs were heard. The best drilled
regulars the world has ever seen would have mutinied under a continuous service
of twenty nine days in the trenches, exposed every moment to musketry and
shells, in water up to their knees, without fire, sugar, or coffee, withou!
t stimulants, and with an inadequate supply of cooked flour and salt meats. I
speak of this in
31 Confederate Veteran January 1911
honor of those brave men whose patriotism made them indifferent to suffering, to
disease, to danger, and to death."
General Alexander adds his corroboration of the fact that these statements
"are not exaggerated in a single word." He says: "The trenches,
which were principally on the flat and swampy land bordering the Warwick, filled
with water as fast as opened, and could not be drained. Yet the continuous
firing compelled the men to remain in them, and at points where they were
visible to the enemy a hand or a head could not be exposed for a moment without
receiving a bullet from the telescopic target rifles with which many of the
Federal sharpshooters were armed and which could be relied upon to hit a button
at two hundred and fifty yards. The trenches were, moreover, so hastily
constructed that they barely afforded room for the line of battle to crouch in,
in many places egress to the rear being impossible from the severity and
accuracy of the sharpshooters' fire, and locomotion to the right and left being
extremely difficult through the crowds huddled together in the water, they soon!
became offensive beyond description. Fires were strictly prohibited by day
and night. The scanty rations, generally miserably cooked at the camps, were
brought into the trenches at night and distributed. False alarms at night were
of common occurrence, and would often result in tremendous volleys of musketry.
The sick list increased by many thousands, and cases occurred where men actually
died in the mud and water of the trenches before they could be taken out to the
hospitals. And not only was there no murmur of complaint, but in the midst of
all this the terms of enlistment of a large part of the army expired, and they
at once reenlisted for 'three years or the war."'
This description of the trenches along the Warwick River had its counterpart two
years later in Petersburg, and calls to my mind what is said of the men of
Gracie's Brigade occupying the line of Hare's Run who frequently during times of
freshet were compelled to stand in water at times for more than twenty four
hours nearly up to their waist with their camp equipage floating around, and
"their only concern being to keep their powder dry." (Shaver's
"History of the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, Gracie's Brigade.")
The experience here gained by Major Gracie was undoubtedly most valuable to him
in the construction of the lines and trenches east of Petersburg with which he
had to do from their first inception on June 17 until the time of his death, on
December 2, 1864, for these lines east of Petersburg from the Appomatto:
River to the Jerusalem Plank Road, all of which he commanded at one period, bear
such names as "Gracie's Dam," "Gracie's Mine,"
"Gracie's Mortar Hell," and "Gracie's Salient," indicating
the amount of construction work fathered by him, in the building of which he had
previously obtained practical experience two years before in the trenches on the
Warwick River.
It is a pleasure to turn from General Alexander's account of these hardships to
the story of Mrs. Sallie A. P. Putnam, "Richmond During the War," page
118, where she describes the passage of the Army of Northern Virginia through
Richmond to the relief of Magruder's forces enduring such unparalleled hardships
at Yorktown.
It was a day,
she says, "which will long be remembered by those who were in the city. It
was known that they were on their way to the Peninsula, and for days they had
been expected to march through the streets of the capital. The greatest interest
and excitement prevailed. The morning was bright and beautiful in the early
spring, balmy with the odors of the violet and hyacinth, and the flaunting
narcissus, the jonquil, and myriads of spring flowers threw on their party
colored garments to welcome the army of veterans as they passed. From an early
hour until the sun went down in the west the steady tramp of the soldiers was
heard on the streets. Continuous cheers went up from thousands of voices, from
every window fair heads were thrust, fair hands waved snowy handkerchiefs, and
bright eyes beamed 'welcome.' Bands of spirit stirring music discoursed
the favorite airs 'Dixie's Land,' 'My Maryland,' 'The Bonny
Blue Flag,' and other popular tunes and as the last regiments
were passing,!
we heard the strains of 'Good By,' and tears were allowed to flow and
tender hearts ached as they listened to the significant tune. Soldiers left the
ranks to grasp the hands of friends in passing, to receive some grateful
refreshment, a small bouquet, or a whispered congratulation. Officers on
horseback raised their hats, and some of the more gallant ventured to waft
kisses to the fair ones in the doors and windows."
>From this picture scene we return again to the seat of war and General
Alexander's description of it. On the night of Saturday, the 3d of May, two days
before the day appointed by McClellan for opening his batteries, the Army of
Northern Virginia was quietly withdrawn from its intrenchments and put in motion
up the Peninsula, whither for several days its impedimenta had been preceding
it. A few hours before the evacuation commenced Gen. D. H. Hill opened a
bombardment of the enemy's lines, which somewhat reduced the ammunition on hand
and also served to prevent any suspicion of his departure.
The enemy did not discover the retreat until sunrise on the 4th, when they
advanced with some caution to investigate the unusual quiet of the Confederate
lines.
The terrible condition of the roads rendered the night march very slow and
laborious, and it was three o'clock on the 4th when the rear of the infantry
reached Williamsburg , twelve miles distant. Meanwhile McClellan had organized a
vigorous pursuit. The skirmish which ensued has already been described from the
view point of Gracie's Battalion and Pelham's Battery. The battle of
Williamsburg occurred there on the next day, May 5, but, as already explained,
Gracie's Battalion had been hurried on up the Peninsula in anticipation of the
enemy's efforts to cut off retreat by landing a force higher up.
After Longstreet had delivered his Parthian blow, no pursuit was attempted by
the enemy beyond sending a small force of cavalry, who followed the line of
retreat for a few miles, picking up broken down skirmishers.
As General Johnston expected to be attacked by the divisions which McClellan had
thrown ahead of him at Eltham's Landing, near West Point, the march was hurried
as much as possible, and on the 7th the whole army was concentrated at
Barhamsville. It was at this time and place that an incident occurred, the truth
of which I have been many years in verifying. The story was first told to me by
my aunt, Mrs. James K. Gracie, a daughter of Governor Bullock, of Georgia, and
an aunt of Ex President Roosevelt, who married my father's brother. From this
most excellent source I learned that she had met some member of General Lee's
family who recounted the services rendered at a critical period.
The Lee family home was in the vicinity of the enemy, and some suggestion was
made by the Federals of capturing the ladies and sending them North as prisoners
of war. Such at least was the story as told to me by my aunt as coming to her
from a daughter of General Lee, but perhaps it represented only the fears of the
ladies that they might meet with some such fate. Major Gracie with his battalion
was in the vicinity, and when he heard of this proposed act of the enemy
against innocent noncombatants, contrary to the laws of war, he threatened in
retaliation to put to death the Federal prisoners within his hands. The ladies
were then promptly delivered to Major Gracie, and according to the description
given by Miss Lee, she well remembers feelings of gratitude and the respect
shown to her as the daughter of the future chieftain of the Confederacy when
this gallant young officer called his battalion to attention and saluted her
with a "present arms."
There must still be living some member of this battalion who ought to remember
this occasion, but my efforts to find one have thus far been unsuccessful. It
was, however, only recently that I obtained some confirmation of the incident
through a member of the Lee family residing in Alexandria, Va., who wrote:
"It was Mrs. General Lee, Agnes, and perhaps Annie whom Major Gracie
escorted from the White House en route for Richmond." From other
authoritative sources, including a letter to me from Gen. G. W. C. Lee, I also
have information that Mrs. General Lee was for a short time within the enemy's
lines during the movement against Richmond in May and June, 1862.
During the fall and winter of 1861 Major Gracie had been authorized by the
Confederate Congress to raise a regiment in Alabama, and during the spring of
1862 this 43d Alabama Regiment was organized while he was still on the Peninsula
at Yorktown and on the Warwick River. Consequently we find among the
"Official Records" of the Adjutant and Inspector General's office the
following:
SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, RICHMOND, May 7,
1862.
Special Orders No. 105, Paragraph XII. Major A. Gracie, Jr.. is relieved from
further duty with the 11th Alabama Volunteers, having organized a regiment, and
will immediately join said regiment in Alabama."
After the receipt of these orders, he remained with the battalion until it
arrived at the Chickahominy, where it was disbanded and the various companies
returned to the regiments of Wilcox's Brigade, to which they belonged, and in
June Colonel Gracie (having received this promotion) returned to Alabama.
REPORT OF MRS. ROY W. M'KINNEY. TREASURER SHILOH MONUMENT COMMITTEE U. D. C.,
FOR YEAR ENDING NOVEMBER., 1910.
ALABAMA DIVISION, U. D. C.
Chapters: Marengo Rifles, Demopolis, $2.50, Raphael Semmes, Auburn, $2.50,
Alabama Division, U. D. C., $10, the Tuscumbia, $5, the Tuskegee, $2, the
Mobile, $5, Alabama Chapter, Camden, $1, James D. Webb, Greensboro, $2, the
Troy, $5, Pelham, Birmingham, $2, Virginia Clay Clopton, Huntsville, $2, Father
Ryan, Greenville, $1, James Canty, Scale, $2, John B. Gordon, Wetumpka, $1, Mat
Mahon, Hartsells, $1, Josiah Gorgas, Montevallo, $1, R. E. Rhodes, Tuscaloosa,
$3, Cradle of Confederacy, Montgomery, $2, John T. Morgan, Talladega, $2.
Personals: Mrs. A. W. Newsom, Huntsville, $5, check through Mrs. A. B. White,
Director General, $8.
A Camp recently organized at Corpus Christi, Tex., with some twenty one members
has been named for Capt. H. R. Sutherland, who was of the 9th Alabama Infantry,
Wilcox's Brigade.
LIEUT. WILLIAM R. BYERS.
Lieut. William R. Byers, one of Maryland's most gallant sons, died in Baltimore
on July 26, 1910, after a brief illness. At the outbreak of the war, in May,
1861, Comrade Byers, with his father, Stanley Byers, and two brothers, Stanley
and Charles Byers, left Maryland and went to Richmond, Va. where they all
entered the Confederate army. Lieutenant Byers enlisted in the 47th Virginia
Infantry, remaining in that command and participating in all of its engagements
until the organization of the 2d Maryland Infantry in the early fall of 1862.
Having completed the period of enlistment in the 47th Virginia Infantry, he
reenlisted in Company C, 2d Maryland Infantry, commanded by the gallant Capt.
John Torsch. In a short while he was appointed second lieutenant of the company,
and held that position to the end of the war. His two brothers were in the same
company with him. Charles was killed at Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864,
On two occasions Lieutenant Byers had hand to hand contests with officers on the
Federal side, but being a skilled swordsman, he defeated each and saved his
life.
Lieutenant Byers was born in Baltimore, and was seventy years old. He is
survived by a sister and brother, living in Baltimore, and a daughter and two
sons, living in St. Louis, Mo. His remains were interred in the Confederate lot
in Loudon Park Cemetery, the pallbearers being some of his old comrades from the
Confederate Home at Pikesville, Md.
LAST ROLL LIST OF COBB DELANEY CAMP, ATHENS, GA. Since
the Memorial Day of 1909 there have been added to the last roll of Cobb Delaney
Camp the following names: Howell Cobb, J. L. Davenport, J. W. Gilliland, W. H.
Hae, A. L. Hull, J. H. Jorden, Henry Childress, L. H. Burch, W. S. Bassenger,
George T. Murrell, George K. Smith, W. W. Sims, R. W. Pitman.
DEATHS OF COMRADES AT LAKELAND, FLA.
U. H. Hane, Adjutant Camp No. 1543, U. C V., Lakeland, Fla., reports the
following deaths in that Camp since November, 1909: F. T. Dunklin, G. D. Turner,
Z. B. Trammell, AA. Scott, E. Martin, William Knowles, W. J. Murry. Other deaths
since the organization of the Camp were: J. J. Balderic, L. M. Ballard, H. C.
Poteet, H. A. Prine, A. H. Smith, J. W. Lanear, A. A. Canton.
JONES. John A. Jones, member of Holmes County Camp, U. C. V.,
Durant, Miss., died on February 10, 1910. He served in Company F, 11th
Mississippi Infantry, one of the late Maj. A. M. O'Neal's famous Mississippi
sharpshooters, and was captured at Petersburg, Va., April 2, 1865. He was sent
to Point Lookout, Md., where he was kept until some time after the surrender. He
was twice wounded.
CLARK. James F. Clark, of Jefferson City, Mo., died on
November 8 after a long and useful life of more than fourscore years. He
enlisted in July, 1862, in the Confederate army as a private of Company H, loth
Missouri Infantry, Parsons's Brigade, Price's Division, and served to the close.
He was a splendid soldier, a devoted husband and father, and was universally
respected.
RICHARD WATSON WEAKLEY,
R. W. Weakley was born July 24, 1841, and died March 29, 1910, at Nashville,
Tenn. He was the son of Dr. B. F. and Mary E. Weakley. He was educated in the
Davidson County schools. In 1858 he entered Wesleyan University, Florence, Ala.,
and graduated in June, 1860.
Soon after the War between the States came on he entered the company of Capt. H.
J. Cheney, Company C, Bate's 2d Tennessee Regiment, and was elected lieutenant
of the company. The command was sent at once to Virginia, and served along the
Potomac for the first year. The command reenlisted for the war, and was
transferred to the Western Army and fought at Shiloh. He left his old command
after going to the Western Army, and joined Capt. James Briton's "Cedar
Snags," Col. Baxter Smith's 4th Cavalry Regiment, serving under Wheeler and
Forrest until the surrender in North Carolina.
The war over, he returned to his home, in Nashville, Tenn., and assumed the
duties of citizenship.
For many years he was Superintendent of Education for Davidson County.
Afterwards he was associated with Dr. John H. Callender at the Tennessee State
Asylum for Insane. He was Deputy County Trustee under W. B. dark.
After the death of his father, he returned to the old home to look after the
farm and his mother and sisters. He spent the remainder of his life leading a
gentle and quiet time in the bosom of his loved ones. He had no taste for
political life, and was possessed of qualities and abilities that would have
honored high positions of trust and honor. He was a man of splendid education,
and took great pleasure in reading and literary pursuits. He was a true, brave,
and loyal Confederate soldier, and has left a record worthy of imitation. He was
a member of a large family of brothers and two sisters. He never married. In
Mount Olivet Cemetery he rests among those of his family who have "crossed
over."
Lieut. R. H. Baker, of Company H, 6th Texas Regiment, Ross's Brigade of Cavalry,
died at his home, in Lexington, Miss., on September 5, 1910. For thirteen
years he had been the loved Commander of the Holmes County Camp, U. C. V. Born
and bred a Kentuckian, he volunteered as a private in 1861 from the town of
Belton, Tex., and took part in all the battles in which his brigade engaged, and
was known as a fearless and intrepid officer. Toward the close of the war he was
detached and served with Harvey's famous scouts. Shortly before the close, while
he and his men were in hot pursuit of the retreating enemy, Lieutenant Baker's
horse fell and broke his back. Some of the scouts stopped to assist him, but he
pointed toward the retreating foe and said: "Forward ! There is your place
of duty." Duty continued to be his watchword in the peaceful avocations of
life, and it was performed with the same devotion that had characterized him as
a soldier.
DEATHS IN GATESVILLE (TEX.) CAMP, No. 135, DURING 1910.
Elisha Mayo was born in Stewart County, Ga., in 1838, and died at Gatesville,
Tex., in September, 1910. He served in Company F, 47th Alabama Infantry.
J. S. Kelso was born in Spartanburg District, S. C., in 1846,. and died at
Gatesville in October, 1910. He served in Company E, 2d South Carolina Cavalry.
M. L. Bland died at Osage, Tex., in August, 1910. He enlisted at Nashville,
Tenn., in May, 1861, in Company F, 7th Tennessee Infantry, with the rank of
sergeant, and served in the Virginia Army.
JOSEPH HUTCHINSON.
Joseph Hutchinson, a veteran of two wars, passed away at his home, in St.
Petersburg, Fla., on October 26, 1910. He was well known in his community, and
was highly respected by his business associates. He had served in the Indian and
Civil Wars, in the latter for four years as a member of the 10th Florida
Regiment. He was an enthusiastic member of Zollicoffer Camp, U. C. V., of St.
Petersburg, and a devoted member of the Church. He was seventy two years old.
ENOCH COOK.
Enoch Cook, an unfaltering veteran to the end of the cause dear to every
Southern heart, quietly passed away from the Providence Hospital, in Washington,
D. C., on Monday morning, December 14, 1910, in his seventy fourth year. He was
a native of Virginia, and enlisted in Company F, 6th Virginia Cavalry. He
subsequently joined Col. John S. Mosby's Rangers. Having been captured, he was a
prisoner of war at Point Lookout. He gave two sons to the Spanish American War,
and his favorite daughter married Capt. W. Roberts, U, S. A., who has served the
Union for thirty years.
Previous to the War between the States Mr. Cook was caretaker of the Robert E.
Lee estate, which is now Arlington National Cemetery. In the Confederate section
of this beautiful cemetery he was buried, and went to his final rest with the
Confederate and Union flags entwined about his bier.
Comrade Cook was a man of sterling worth and possessed many noble
characteristics. As a citizen and soldier his conduct was ever marked by
integrity, geniality, and courage. In fine, he represented that type of
civilization that is fast passing away that beautiful,
chivalrous life that flourished in the days of the dear old South.
(Sketch sent by John A. Crowley, 1118 Virginia Avenue, Southwest, Washington, D.
C.)
DR. JOHN HUTCHINS.
Dr. John Hutchins, of Natchez, Miss., died on September 28, 1910, after a long
life spent in serving others. As a physician he won the confidence of those for
whom he labored and the respect and friendship of his medical brethren.
Dr. Hutchins entered Princeton for the class of '63, but left that university
and entered the Confederate army as a member of the 10th Mississippi Regiment
after the fall of Fort Donelson. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Murfreesboro,
Chickamauga, and Franklin. He had been on detached service, but joined his
regiment after the fights around Atlanta, and was with General Hood in his
Tennessee campaign, surrendering at Gainesboro, Ga., April 26, 1865.
Dr. Hutchins graduated from LaGrange, Tenn., after the war, and later entered
the University of New Orleans, graduating from its medical department in 1868.
He was a devoted Church member. His wife and four sisters survive him.
RICHARD NORFLEET HARRIS.
Richard Norfleet Harris, II., was born at Rosedale, near Laneville, Hale County,
Ala., September 15, 1844. His parents were R. N. and Amanda Banks Harris, both
representatives of fine old North Carolina families. The early part of his
boyhood was spent on the plantation, but later on the family removed to
Tuscaloosa, Alaä where he entered school. He was in the Junior class of the
university when the war began, and though but seventeen years old, he answered
his country's call. He was sent first to Auburn, Alaä where he acted as
drillmaster for the 37th Alabama. He was made orderly sergeant of his company,
and was first lieutenant when the war closed. He then returned to his plantation
home, and was engaged in planting until his death, on September 27, 1910.
On June 30, 1869, Lieutenant Harris was married to Miss Sallie Melville Minge,
of Norwood, Marengo County, Ala., a daughter of David and Elvira Adams Minge,
representatives of an old Virginia family.
A friend of Comrade Harris said, "God might have made a few as good men,
but he never made a better," and this sentiment found echo in the hearts of
others who knew him. Bearing a name that has ever stood for all that is
honorable and upright, he fulfilled his every duty toward God and man. His
tender heart never failed to respond to the calls of the needy, and not only
throughout the State, but over the entire South are those who were cheered by
his generosity and kindness.
C. P. REEVES.
Columbus Palestine Reeves was born in Charlottesville, N. C., December 19, 1830.
His father, Rev, Thomas Reeves, removed with his family to Missouri when this
son was a youth. The father was brilliant and blessed with ample means.
Columbus Reeves received a thorough education, the latter part of his collegiate
course being spent at Masonic College, in Lexington, Mo., where he was a
schoolmate with Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). In 1861 Mr. Reeves went to
California, but after a year he returned to Missouri on account of his father's
impaired health. He was the youngest of eleven children. He engaged in the
mercantile business successfully in St. Joseph, and in 1856 he married a
daughter of Rev. W. W. Redman, after which he removed to Richmond, Mo.
He was among the first to answer General Price's call for troops, and entered
the Confederate army as aid de camp to General Slack. He was taken prisoner in
the battle of Springfield, but was subsequently released on parole. Afterwards
he settled in Suisun, Cal., where he continued to reside until his death. For
many years he was quite successful in business, during which time he did much
for the upbuilding of Suisun.
Mr. Reeves was a man of strong personality and great sagacity, a generous and
true friend, devoted to his family. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Mary J.
Reeves, an adopted son, W. W. R. Reeves, grandchildren, and a great grandchild.
In sending the above sketch Comrade J. P. Goodman states:
I am getting old and shaky and can't write it myself. You can get the facts from
clipping. I am the only Confederate left in this town, yet there are quite a
number of G. A. R.'s.
It appears from Volume L., Serial No. 106, "War Records," that after
Comrade Reeves went to California he was still engaged for the cause of Dixie
Land. The President of the Suisun Union League wrote Brig. Gen. J. S. Mason,
suspecting him as cooperating with James Gibson, "formerly a Rebel
colonel," "organizing for purposes unknown to the League."
DR. FELIX F. PORTER.
Dr. Felix F. Porter was born near Paris, Tenn., March 22, 1838, a son of
Nathaniel Porter, who was a prominent citizen of Henry County. He was elected to
the Legislature just after the war, but was expelled by that loyal ( ?) body for
alleged disloyalty. Dr. Porter was a brother to Mrs. M.. H. Howard, whose
husband was the founder of the Howard School of Nashville and of the Howard
Library, and he was also a distant relative of Hon. James D. Porter, also of
Paris and former Governor of Tennessee.
Felix Porter read medicine under Dr. J. H. Travis, and afterwards graduated from
the Medical Department of the University of Pennyslvania in 1859. He began the
practice in Henry County.
When the Civil War broke out, in 1861, he joined the 5th Tennessee Regiment, and
was commissioned assistant surgeon of that regiment. Soon after the
war he resumed the practice of medicine in Paris, and continued in it until a
few years ago, retiring on account of age and ill health. Dr. Porter was the
author of a number of renowned prescriptions, and as a physician he had the
confidence of all who knew him.
He was married DR. F. F. PORTER.
tie Loving, of a prominent family in the county, who died in 1864, and in 1867
Dr. Porter married Miss Willie Burgess, of Lebanon, Tenn., who survives him with
five children, one of whom is the wife of Frank D. Caruthers, Assistant Business
Manager of the New York World.
Dr. Porter was a devout Church member, and he was super. intendent of his Sunday
school for about a quarter of a century. He was also a Mason, and was buried by
that fraternity. His death occurred in November, 1910.
REUBEN NUNNERY.
(A tribute to Reuben Nunnery, of Liberty, Miss., is sent by Adjutant George A.
McGehee, of the Amite Camp, No. 226, U. C. V., at Liberty.)
Comrade Reuben Nunnery died November 6, 1910. passing away as gently as if he
were going to sleep. Comrade Nunnery was a member of Company C, 7th Mississippi
Regiment, and no soldier did his duty better in battle on march, on guard duty,
or in bivouac. He was severely wounded at Murfreesboro, Tenn., but on recovery
he returned to his post, and at the end he returned home. He married Miss Lizzie
Harvey in the fall of 1865, with whom he lived and who was a true helpmeet in
all the vicissitudes of life, and who now, with their five sons and four
daughters, mourns his absence.
In farming he was successful, and as a neighbor he was loved for his principles
of doing the right and just thing.
Comrade Nunnery had seven brothers in the Confederate army, five of them
belonging to the Amite Rifles, Company C, 7th Mississippi, two only living now.
All these brothers were model soldiers, one of whom, W. J. Nunnery, being
promoted for gallantry on the field of battle, and was killed in battle near
Atlanta July 22, 1864, bearing the colors of his regiment.
The following members of the Camp sign a worthy tribute to him: R. J. Stewart,
W. J. Lea, D. C. Wilson.J. A. Carraway, N. B. Cockerham, D. W. Fenn., E. C.
Andrews, Samuel Nunnery, George Nunnery, George A. McGehee.
GEN. GEORGE D. JOHNSTON.
George Doherty Johnston was born in Hillsboro, N. C., May 30, 1832, of a long
line of noble ancestry. When he was two years old his father moved to
Greensboro, Ala., and afterwards to Marion, where George was educated in the
private schools, and graduated at Howard College in 1849, taking the degrees of
A.B. and A.M. He was one of her noblest and worthiest sons, and the oldest
at the time of his death. He attended Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tenn.,
for the law course degree in 1852. He practiced law at Marion, was elected Mayor
of the town in 1856, and represented Perry County in the General Assembly during
the years 1857 58.
As a Confederate soldier he had a brilliant career, and was ever loyal to the
cause he fought for. He ever took a deep interest in Confederate affairs, and
was Commander of the local Camp of Veterans. He was the Alabama member of the
Board of Trustees of the C. M. A.
General Johnston enlisted in the army on April 15, 1861, as second lieutenant of
Company G, 4th Alabama Regiment. His promotion was fine, being made major of the
25th Alabama on January 29, 1862, lieutenant colonel of the same regiment in
April, 1862, and its colonel September 6, 1863. He was made a brigadier general,
C. S. A., in April, 1864, and served gallantly in that office until the close of
the war.
After the war he held a great many distinguished public positions. He was the
commandant of cadets in the University of Alabama from 1871 73, and from 1885 90
was Superintendent of the South Carolina Military Academy at Charleston.
Under Cleveland's administration he was appointed United States Civil Service
Commissioner, living in Washington with his family, serving with Theodore
Roosevelt He was always a stanch Democrat, and after returning to Tuscaloosa to
live, he represented his county as a State Senator. He was a wise and trusted
leader in all public affairs.
In religious faith he was a stanch Presbyterian from his early years. His faith
was serene and his confidence in a blessed future life was steadfast. Some time
before his last illness he had made arrangements for his funeral services, even
designating the hymns to be used. ...General Johnston was married three times.
His first wife was Miss Euphradia Poellnitz, of Marengo County, whom he married
in 1853. They had three sons and one daughter. His second wife was Miss Maria
Barnett, who left no children. He married Mrs. Stella Searcy Harris in 1876,
who, with their son, George D. Johnston, Jr., survives him. Mrs. Johnston's
other children mourn a father's death.
General Johnston was an eloquent speaker and a popular lecturer. His
"Memories of the Old South" and "The Women of the South" are
remarkably fine. General Johnston was a true Southern gentleman of the old
school, the soul of courtesy and chivalry, and a most delightful companion. He
was a man of the highest integrity and profound convictions. The entire
community feels its loss, and his friends are numbered in all the walks of life,
among the rich and poor alike.
General Johnston was honored and revered at home and abroad. The South and the
nation possessed in him all that is noblest in soldier, scholar, and man.
General Johnston's Funeral.
(The Tuscaloosa papers had elaborate reports of General Johnston's career and
the funeral. From the News's account of the funeral extracts are made.)
To pay tribute to the memory of the man they loved and admired, Confederate
veterans who fought with him in the sixties, ministers of the gospel who had
been inspired by his beautiful faith, public men who had counseled with him in
important crises, students who had listened to his eloquent lectures, and men,
women, and children from all walks of life crowded the Presbyterian church,
where lay the remains of Gen. George Doherty Johnston.
Dr. J. G. Snedecor conducted the services and delivered a beautiful eulogy of
General Johnston, saying in part: "Generally death brings to sorrowing
friends the keenest pangs because of its untimeliness and the unreadiness of
those called to go, but neither cause for sorrow exists here to day. There was
no untimeliness in the departure of this beloved man. Born in 1832, it is given
to few to come to such a good old age, possessed of all faculties, and
preserving to the last, as he did, his soldierly bearing and grace. Nor was
there any
Confederate Veteran January 1911
lack of readiness. He faced his end with the composure of the great apostle, who
declared, I am ready to be offered, and the tittle of my departure is at hand,'
and with humble sincerity he could have added: I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course. I have kept the faith.' Any one who was in the presence
of General Johnston during the past few years saw that he was no timorous mortal
standing by Jordan's brink and fearing to launch away. Never have I seen such
supreme composure in the prospect of death. He welcomed it as the crown of life.
He was an implicit believer in those things which 'eye' hath not seen, nor ear
heard.' It was a joy to be in his company and an inspiration to those of weaker
faith. He solved our doubts and kindled anew our love to God. His favorite
expression was: 'The good God will do all things well.'. A strong man who was
with him in his last illness said: I have had my times of doubt, but nevermore
.shall I doubt that the unseen world i!
s a. world of reality.' So, my friends, he, being dead, yet speaketh to us of
the better life and the surer faith. I should like to refer to the bravest act
of his life. To do this I pass by his splendid record on the field of battle,
though he was the peer of any there. I come to his own home, to a time about
fifteen years ago, when there was from this very pulpit an appeal made for some
one to volunteer to superintendent a Sunday school to be established for the
instruction of the negroes of the town. Though he had since early manhood been a
member of the Church, he had worn his profession of religion with, modest
reticence and had taken little active part in public services. But when this
call was made, he rose in his place and said: I suppose I am about the only one
here who could afford to do this. I will take the Sunday school.' Until recent
months, when the infirmities of advancing age prevented, he was there in his
place every Sunday, and God alone knows what poor, b!
enighted souls he has enlightened and uplifted. To his companion and sons,
therefore, I hold up the consoling promises of God's Word, and over their
sorrow we draw the veil of sympathetic love,"
Following Dr. Snedecor's address, the Rev. Dr. D. D. Little delivered an
eloquent tribute to the man who had been a great help and inspiration to him in
his own work in behalf of the negro. Dr. Little said that General Johnston was
preeminently a man of the Old South, the embodiment of all the honor, chivalry,
and hospitality preserved in romance and tradition. He referred to the exemplary
character of the deceased, and declared that if he had been surrounded by all
his friends his last message to them would have been: "Be true to the Old
South and its ideals, be good to the black man in our midst, and keep faith in
God"
REV. JAMES ALLEN WOODS.
After a lingering illness, Rev. J. Allen Woods died at his home, in Bolivar,
Tenn., on June 24, 1910. No man of that community ever shared in a higher degree
the love and respect of its people. He was born in Belfast, Tennä September 30,
1837, and was a member of a large and happy family of seven sons and five
daughters, three brothers and two sisters surviving him. His education was
completed at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennä where he took the literary
course.
He afterwards taught school at various places, and at the call of his country he
entered the Confederate army, and served to the end. He then enlisted as a
soldier of the cross, and after a theological course at Union Seminary,
Virginia, he entered upon the work of the ministry, serving various Churches in
Tennessee and Texas, his service covering nearly forty years.
He was married in December, 1868, to Miss Clemmie L. Orr, who is left with a son
and daughter to mourn the loss of a devoted husband and father.
(The above group represents three brothers: J. Allen, Rev. Samuel O. Woods, of
Crowell, Tex., and Thomas H. Woods, of Shelbyville, Tenn. Sam and Allen, twins,
both of whom entered the ministry soon after the war, were officers in the 41st
Tennessee Infantry. Although belonging to different companies, Lieut Allen
Woods, Capt. Sam Woods, and the Editor of the VETERAN for a long while messed
together, therefore the tribute in the VETERAN is given with more than ordinary
interest. While Allen became a Presbyterian minister, Sam became a Cumberland
Presbyterian. All three in the group were Confederate soldiers.) SENATOR SAMUEL
DOUGLAS McENERY.
Delay occurred in the notice of the death of Senator Samuel D. McEnery, of
Louisiana, in anticipation of a picture to go with the sketch. His death
occurred at his family residence, New Orleans, June 28, 1910.
Senator McEnery had been prominently identified with the history of Louisiana
for almost half a century. He served as a lieutenant in the Confederate army,
and as a young lawyer Louisiana immediately following the war was active in the
work accomplished by the "White League" in overthrowing the
carpetbaggers and negro rule. He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1879, and
succeeded Governor Wiltz upon the latter's death in 1881. He was elected
Governor in 1883. In 1896 he was elected to the United States Senate, where he
served continuously until his death. His last term would have continued to March
3, 1915 Senator McEnery was educated at Spring Hill College, Alabama, and the
University of Virginia. He is survived by his wife, who was Miss Elizabeth
Phillips, of Monroe, La., his daughter, Mrs. Warren B. Parks, and two sons,
Charles P. and Dr. Douglas W. McEnery. Vice President Sherman upon hearing of
Senator McEnery's death sent the following telegram to Mrs. McEnery: "I am
!
deeply grieved by the startling news of Senator McEnery's death. Close
association with him engendered affection and respect. I feel a personal loss.
His State and his country lose a firm and faithful servant. To you and his
family I offer tender sympathies."
The funeral was attended by delegations of Senators and Representatives in
Congress.
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