CIVIL WAR

This is a document that belonged to Mrs. Hyneman. It is unsigned. Mrs. Striplin doesn't know if the paper was prepared for typing by her grandfather D.J. Hyneman, who was one of Forrests' soldiers; or Judge W.H. Kilpartick who organized, drilled and was elected captain of the Corinth Rifles, or Judge W.M. Inge who organized a cavalry company here.

"History of Companies From Our Town Who Served in the Confederate States Army."

"In the Organization of the Confederate Army, Corinth contributed very liberally. We sent to the front five companies of as brave young soldiers as wore the gray. They marched away with high heads, high hopes and high expectations-many of them never to return-their bodies were left on the battlefields from Vicksburg to Gettysburg.

The first company to leave was the Corinth Rifles; commanded by that grand old warrior Capt. W.H. Kilpatrick. This company was put with the 9th Mississippi regiment and sent to Pensacola, Florida and were the first troops to leave the State. After remaining in Pensacola a year they returned to the army at Corinth just in time to take part in the bloody battle of Shiloh where they played a distinguished part. No regiment on that fearful Sunday of bloodshed did better execution than the 9th Mississippi. It was the 9th with Chambers Brigade that reached the nearest point to Pittsburg Landing and if the word had been given they would have gone there then there would have been a different tale to tell about bloody Shiloh.

The next company to organize was a company of cavalry commanded by Capt. W.M. Inge. It was a fine looking company and made a splendid show on their fine mounts. The first year of the war cavalry was not much in demand. They were so slow in ordering them out that many of the company including the captain drifted to infantry commands and went to the front. The remainder of the company commanded by Capt. J.N. Duncan consolidated with Capt. Roddy's Company and became a part of Roddy's command.

The next company was the Annie Terry Guards, commanded by Capt. H.C. Hyneman. This company was named for Miss Annie Terry of East Port, a young lady who manifested great interest in the organization of the company, as an appreciation of the honor of having the company named for her she uniformed it at her own expense. She afterwards married Col. D.M. Wisdom and is still living in Muskogee, Oklahoma. This compnay became a part of the 26th Mississippi and was sent to Fort Donelson, where they did their first fighting. They were in the thickest of the battle, had many killed and wounded. Capt. Hyneman was mortally wounded and died a short time afterwards. What was left of the regiment were captured and sent north, but were soon exchanged and sent to join the Virginia Army to fight with Lee and Jackson.

The next company to enlist was commanded by that hightoned Christian gentleman and soldier Capt. Wm. Irion. This company became a part of the 32nd Mississippi Regiment, commanded by Col. M.P. Lowery (afterwards Gen. Lowery), Capt. Irion received his death wound on the bloody field of Perryville, Kentucky. The regiment remained in Lowery's Brigade, Pat Claiborne's Division, Army of the Tennessee until the close of the war.

The fifth and last company to organize before the evacuation of Corinth in May 1862 was a Company of Cavalry, commanded by Capt. G.L. Baxter. This company was made up mostly of man who had served the first year of the war in Infantry. They were assigned to Gen. Van Dorn as scouts and remained as such until his death a year later at Spring Hill, Tennessee. They then became Co. H, 12th Mississippi Cavalry commanded by Col. Inge at the time the company was commanded by Capt. J.B. Hyneman and remained with the 12th until the surrender. It was with Joseph E. Johnston in his five months almost continuous fighting from Chattanooga to Atlanta. It was in the wake of Sherman on his famous march to the sea. It was a part of the escort of President Davis on his retreat from Richmond and was with him when he was captured.

In connection with the above I might mention an organized company of boys, 15 and 16 years of age. Our present townsman T.D. Duncan was Captain and D.J. Hyneman, Lieutenant. This company was regularly organized and well drilled. They tendered their services as a company, but of course were declined on account of their age. They disbanded at the evacuation of Corinth, but they all enlisted in other companies before the close of the war and became Confederate soldiers.

Now through the generosity and thoughtfulness of Mrs. Gene C. Striplin the people of this town have an authenticated record of the different companies that were organized in Corinth during the War between the States.

Death claimed one of the two remaining Confederate Veterans in Alcorn County yesterday after noon when George Washington Voyles, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. A.D. Harrison, Glen, Route 1, following a short illness. Death came about 6:30 yesterday afternoon.

A native of Georgia, born March 1, 1847, Mr. Voyles came to Mississippi while a child and settled with his parents in the section of northeast Mississippi where he continued to reside during his entire lifetime. Mr. Voyles received his education in the common schools of the area where he resided and after reaching manhood became a Baptist minister, serving many of the churches in the northeastern part of the state, including Farmington, Shady Grove and Cook's Chapel. He was a member of the Baptist Church and was regarded as a highly consecrated Christian. Mr. Voyles was in the work of the ministry for 50 years.

He was first married to Miss Maggie Henderson who preceded him in death about 27 years ago. Later in life he was wed to Sara Frank Jones, who passed away about 4 years ago. After the death of his wife he had made his home with a daughter, Mrs. A.D. Harrison.

During the war between the states Mr. Voyles enlisted in the Confederate forces and served with the company of Captain Dan Watley, although he was never actively engaged in conflict.

In addition to his duties as a pastor, Rev. Voyles found time to engage in agricultural pursuits, but due to infirmities of age, had retired 7 years ago from participation in ministerial of farming operations. Funeral services was held this afternoon at the Farmington Church. Rev. Dewey Wallis, pastor of the West Corinth Baptist Church, conducting the rites. Burial was in the Farmington Cemetery with McPeters Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.

A large gathering of friends and relatives was present at the funeral service and beautiful floral offerings attested the esteem in which the aged minister was held by his neighbors and friends.

Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Ruthie Wood of Shiloh Park and Mrs. A.D. Harrison of Glen, Route 1; a sister, Mrs. Emily Crawford of the Gift Community; and a half sister, Mrs. Albert Essary of the Hightown Community, west of Kossuth. Fourteen grandchildren and ten great grandchildren and a number of great great grandchildren also survive.

The story today will be about the Confederate soldier who supervised the construction of the 500 coffins Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston ordered before he galloped away to Shiloh, at the head of an army of 44,000 volunteers.

The order was obeyed with haste and long before the last regiment had marched out of Corinth hundreds of hammers and saws were ringing and buzzing in the town.

As fate willed it Gen. Johnston's body was among the first to be brought back from the battlefield and placed in one of the plain pine coffins he had ordered.

The coffin that received the body of Johnston was made by this Confederate soldier. It was the model coffin for the workmen, and the one selected by an officer and sent to Rose Cottage where the body lay on a couch.

This home was Johnston's headquarters before he left Corinth for Shiloh. It was the home of Mrs. W.M. Inge. When Johnston's body arrived Mrs. Inge and a neighbor, Mrs. Ellen Polk prepared it for burial. Mrs. Polk's daughter Eugenia cut a few locks of hair from Johnston's head. One was sent to the widow, one placed in the cornerstone of the old courthouse, and one in the cornerstone of the Confederate monument at Shiloh.

This Confederate soldier who built the coffins was a Corinthian. His full name was Jackson Carroll Daniel. He was a member of Co. B., 32nd Mississippi Regiment. Before he joined the army he was a cabinet maker, and during his enlistment he was called on many times to construct buildings and do repair work at army camps.

This information was given to me several years ago by the late Mrs. Joe Daniel, who was a faithful member of the local U.D.C. and held many important offices in this organization. She also kept clippings and other news about the history of Corinth, along with stories about the war, its soldiers and events that occurred throughout the southland in her many scrapbooks, which she was glad to show to anyone. Mrs. Daniel also kept records of her own family as well as the records of her husband's family.

Soldier Daniel was the father of the late Joe C. Daniel who served this city as an official for 26 years-six years as a member of the city council and 20 years as Chief of Police. Chief Daniel was known and loved by everyone, both white and colored.

Soldier Daniel was also the father of James B. Daniel, William H. Daniel, Anna Corrine and Martha Ugenia Daniel, Thomas J. Daniel, D.Q. Daniel, and Marvin Daniel, all deceased.

This is the article written by the Rev. Robert J. Burdette, who was a Union Soldier. This incident occurred at the Battle of Corinth. The writer found this article in a book at the local library, and it was taken from the Booneville Banner, Booneville, Mississippi, in the July 11, 1912 issue of their newspaper.

The viewpoint of the Union soldier of an incident that occurred at the battle of Corinth is worthy of being included in this scrapbook history of Corinth, as it reveals the physical condition of the soldiers in gray who fought in this battle.

"We found a dead Confederate soldier lying on his back, his outstretched fingers stretched across the stock of the rifle lying by his side. He was one of the Rogers' Texans. Fifty seven of them we had found lying in the ditch of Fort Robinette. I covered his face with a slouch hat and took off the haversack slung to his neck, that it might not swing as we carried him to his sleeping chamber, so cool and quiet and dark, after the savage tumult and dust and smoke after that day of horror.

"Empty, isn't it?" asked the soldier working with me. I put my hand in it and drew forth a handful of roasted acrons; I showed them to my comrade. "That's all," I said.

"And he has been fighting like a tiger for two days on that forage," he commented. We gazed at the face of the dead soldier with new feelings. By and by he said:

"I hate this war and the things that caused it. I was taught to hate slavery before I was taught to hate sin. I love the Union as I love my mother-better. I think that this is the wickedest war that was ever waged in modern times. But this, and he took some of the acrons from my hand-"this is what I call patriotism."

"Comrade," I said, "I am going to send these home to the Peoria Transcript. I want them to tell the editor this war won't be ended until there is a total failure of the acron crop. I want the folks at home to know what manner of men they and we are fighting." "That was early in my experience as a soldier. It never changed my opinion of the cause of the Confederacy."

"I was more and more devoted to the Union as the war went on. But I never questioned the sincerity of the men in the Confederacy again. I realized how dearly a man must love his own section who would fight for it on parched acrons. I wished that his love and patriotism had been broader, reaching from the Gulf to the Lakes, a love for the Union rather than for a State. But I understood him, I hated his attitude toward the Union as much as ever but I admired the man. And after Corinth I never could get a prisoner half way to the rear and have anything left in my haversack.

"Oh, I too have suffered the pangs of hunger for my dear country, as all soldiers have done, now and then. But not as that Confederate soldier did. We went hungry at times when rain and mud or the interference of the enemy detained the supply train. But that man half starved. That's different.

"Other haversacks we found that night on Corinth field with a slight ration in them. Sometimes it was a chunk of corn pone. I used to think hard tack filled the order for concrete breakfast slab.

But cone pone a week old reconciled me to soft food. Hard tack for mine."

"So the Southern people loved the states for which they suffered." This is signed by the Rev. Robert J. Burdette, a gallant Union soldier.

Not all Confederate soldiers, were young men, Major Green Cumby, who lived at Farmington, left Corinth with a volunteer company, when he was 53 years old.

Mr. Cumby wanted to do his part, and he did by plying his trade, as a saddle maker with the volunteers, which his great grandchildren living in Corinth today believe was the cavalry company organized by Col.W. M. Inge.

The rigors of camp life, plus his age and illness forced Mr. Cumby to return after a year in service to his home at Farmington, a town older than the railroad settlement of Corinth. And Mr. Cumby was with his family when the Federals marched into Corinth from Shiloh by way of Farmington and took over their home as a hospital.
Farmington Hospital

From information given by the great grandchildren of Major Cumby, and reading an account of a hospital established at Farmington in a recent book, "Cyclone in Calico," written by Nina Brown Baker, this writer believes the hospital the Federals established at the Major Cumby homeplace at Farmington is the same hospital mentioned in the best seller.

The book is a recorded account of the life of a Union army nurse, Mrs. Mary Ann Bickerdyke. She was, according to a clipping pasted in the front of the book, "a vital, courageous salty, come-hell-or-high-water woman who worked tirelessly for the common soldiers during the war, and a morale-builder long before that term came to be a commonplace in army parlance."

Mr. Cumby's home was one of the larger homes of early Farmington. It was a two story structure on a ridge in a grove of trees and was built in the style of the day. Mr. Cumby owned many acres of land, and had hundreds of slaves. He also operated a leather tanning shop near his home. In his young days he drove a stage coach from Athens, Alabama to Brown's Ferry in Alabama, where he met and married Elizabeth Tillman of Athens while she was a student at the Athens Female College.

Mr. Cumby and his young bride came to Tishomingo County like many others when they heard about the opportunities in the "Empire County" and they settled near Farmington, where they both lived and died.
The Federals

When the Federals took over the Cumby homeplace they considered the Negro slaves as their contraband, took the strongest and let the others go. Two of the slaves, a mother and daughter, chose to remain with the Cumbys, and these two left secretly with the family when the Federals took over the place and ordered the family to leave. These two Negroes stayed with their master, his wife and her mother until each died. The slave daughter, now nearly 100 years old, is still living and from last account the Cumby great grandchildren had of her she is in St. Louis at the home of her daughter.

Now back to the Union army nurse and the book.
Gen. Grant gave her (Mrs. Bickerdyke) 40 army wagons to haul hospital equipment over the Corduroy Road to Farmington. She took along half a dozen of the best washermen among the contrabands. (She was being moved from the Savannah hospital after the Battle of Shiloh.)

"The Farmington hospital, when the wagon train reached it, proved to be a group of tents pitched on a ridge, sheltering nearly 1,400 men." (From information furnished by Mr. Cumby's great grandchildren and inquiries made by this writer, these tents were pitched on the land surrounding Major Cumby's home, and the lower floor of the home was used by the army doctors to perform operations and the upper rooms were for sick officers.)

These patients, according to the book, "were suffering from cases of typhoid, malaria and old wounds that would not heal." Mrs. Bickerdyke's Stove.

"Mrs. Bickerdyke arrived at Farmington on July 9, 1862. She had pestered Gen. Grant while at Savannah for a cook stove, and two weeks after she arrived at Farmington a huge sanitary shipment came by rail to Corinth. Among other badly needed supplies there was a wood range, a giant of a stove. It had been specially manufactured for a new Chicago hotel, now unfinished because of the war. It was a shiny black with nickel trim, it had an enormous cooking surface, a gigantic oven, and a storage tank for heating water. Mrs. Bickerdyke had never seen a stove so big."

And on page 123: "Late in August, word came that the Confederate General Price was advancing in an attempt to retake Corinth. He was reported to be within five miles of Farmington, a rest depot that could not be defended. Orders were given to evacuate the camp, including the hospital, to Corinth. Overnight the patients were loaded into wagons and hauled to Corinth. The need of haste was so great that the officers ordered "non essential" hospital supplies left behind. Mother Bickerdyke would not have that. (And through trickery, described in this paragraph, she managed to get the stove to the Corinth hospital.) This hospital must have been at Corona College, as this is the description given of the new hospital at Corinth in the book:

"The charming columned building had been a young ladies' seminary, exclusive and fairly expensive. It had wide airy dormitories, spacious parlors and plenty of room to move around."

Major Cumby, like others in Corinth no matter what their business, had to "work" for the Federals after they took possession of the town. Mr. Cumby's saddle and harness shop in town was a busy place. Many of the soldiers, officers and, perhaps, some of the Generals visited his shop for repairs to their gear and to buy new gear. This shop, according to his relatives, was located on the site where the Alcorn Wholesale Co. has its business today.

The saddle hammer Major Cumby used in his shop is at the home of Mrs. Bertha McNeely, one of his great granddaughters. She also has the snuff box her great grandmother Cumby used. And Morgan Taylor, a great grandson who lives on the old Cumby homeplace at Farmington, has the "sticking horse" Major Cumby used to tan leather. He also has Major Cumby's old muzzle loading shotgun. He kept warm in the coldest weather by filling his pockets with hot baked sweet potatoes, which his children clamored for after a hunting trip.