The Project Gutenberg eBook, Personal Reminiscences of the War of 1861-5, by W. H. (William Henry) Morgan
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PERSONAL REMINISCENCES
OF THE WAR OF 1861-65
W. H. Morgan
Personal Reminiscences of
the War of 1861-5
IN CAMP—EN BIVOUAC—ON THE MARCH—ON PICKET—ON
THE SKIRMISH LINE—ON THE
BATTLEFIELD—AND IN
PRISON
By W. H. MORGAN
Lynchburg, Va.
J. P. Bell Company, Inc.
1911
Copyright, 1911
By W. H. MORGAN
To the Memory of
"The Loved Ones at Home"
wife—father—mother
this book is tenderly and lovingly dedicated
PREFACE
I launch this little volume upon the great ocean of books, craving the indulgence of the kind reader for its shortcomings and imperfections, with the hope that it will not be viewed with a critic's eye, and that its imperfections may be charitably passed by. I have endeavored to relate my experiences in the great war of 1861-5 just as events occurred, as if I were detailing them to family or friends in private, or, as I have sometimes done in the past, at gatherings of veterans and friends during the past years.
The old huntsman delights to tell of his tracking game in the snow, the chase through the woods and fields of the fox, deer and bear; the old sailor spins his yarns of the adventures and perils of the deep; the old fisherman will sometimes tell a big fish tale, and the old soldier is wont to join in with the rest and tell of his life in camp and field. This last I have endeavored to do in the following pages after the lapse of many years. I might have spun out the story much longer, but believing that brevity is often the soul of writing, as well as of wit, I have endeavored to "be brief and to the point."
W. H. Morgan.
Floyd, Va., January 23, 1911.
CONTENTS
Personal—Organization—Roll of company.
Enter the service—Trouble about arms.
On to Manassas—The 11th Regiment—The 1st Brigade.
Battle of Blackburns Ford—The battle begins—The enemy driven back—Incidents of the battle.
Battle of First Manassas—General Johnston to the rescue—Gen. Kirby Smith turns the tide of battle—The Rebel Yell—Under shelling—The news of victory—The enemy not pursued—Gathering the spoils.
To Centreville and Fairfax C. H.—Picket close to enemy—Exciting times on picket—Back to Centreville—The fight at Drainesville.
Fall back from Centreville—The Peninsular campaign—Yorktown lines evacuated—The battle of Williamsburg—"Give it to them"—Into a hot fire—Colonel Garland wounded—Incidents of the battle—Garland and Kemper promoted.
Back to Richmond—Battle of Seven Pines—The brigade in reserve—Into the fight at double-quick—Incidents of the battle—On the picket lines.
Seven days fights around Richmond—Battle of Gaines' Mill.
Second Manassas and Maryland campaign—Sharpsburg—Back to Virginia—From Winchester to Culpeper—To Fredericksburg.
The battle of Fredericksburg—Kemper's Brigade in reserve—Spectacular scene—Behind Marye's Hill—Sharpshooting—At home; sad loss.
To Richmond, Chester Station and Petersburg—To North Carolina—Back to Virginia at Suffolk—To Taylorsville—On to join General Lee.
Pennsylvania Campaign—Gettysburg—Back to Virginia—General Lee and the army of Northern Virginia.
To Taylorsville—At Chafin's Farm—To North Carolina again—Marching through swamps and sand—The capture of Plymouth—Companies C and G have serious experience—Incidents of the battle—The gunboat Albemarle—Col. James Dearing wins promotion—On to Washington, N. C.—Newberne again invested.
Back to Petersburg, Va.—Beast Butler—The battle of Drewry's Bluff—General Gracie's courage—Into a heavy fire at close range—Col. Richard F. Maury—Yankee brigade captured—General Whiting's failure—The Yankee flags.
To Milford and to capture—Prisoner of war—On to Washington—To Fort Delaware.
To Fort Delaware—Short Rations—Song—Prison rules.
Off for Charlestown—Alleged retaliation—On shipboard—Run aground—Short of water—In stockade—Under fire—Prison rules.
To Fort Pulaski—Rotten cornmeal and pickled rations—A plot laid.
Back to Fort Delaware—Disappointment and great suffering—Deaths on ship and burials at sea.
Yankee infamy—Conduct of the war—Sherman's march through Georgia—The dismemberment of Virginia.
Lee's surrender—Lincoln's assassination—Out of prison and at home.
Reconstruction and since.
INTRODUCTION
When I first undertook to write my war experiences, I had no thought of ever publishing what I wrote. It was only intended as a family paper, written at the solicitation of my children.
If I had undertaken to write a history of Kemper's Brigade, or the Eleventh Regiment, or even of the Clifton Grays (Company C), the story would have been far less personal than are these "Personal Reminiscences," and doubtless more interesting to others, but of less interest to those for whom the sketches were originally designed.
This is my apology for using the personal pronoun so often, and referring so frequently to those who were nearest and dearest to me, all of whom—wife, father, mother, and brothers—have passed away, and I am left al—— no, not alone; I have friends and old comrades still living whom I esteem highly and who I am sure esteem me, and children and grandchildren whom I love and who I know love me.
And it was but natural that I should desire to transmit to these last, recollections of those nearest and dearest to me, and of the comrades in arms with whom I was most intimately and closely connected during those years of blood and strife.
If I had undertaken to give in detail all the brave deeds performed by the men of Company C, and those who made up the Eleventh Regiment and Kemper's Brigade, this book would have been much larger than it is.
The Yankees had a custom of promoting men from the ranks for brave conduct on the field of battle. If this custom had prevailed in the Confederate army, as I have often remarked, there would have been more officers than privates in that army; for no army ever had so many men so deserving and so capable of being officers. Having, at the solicitation of friends, determined to publish my Reminiscences, I now have only to say as to the following pages. "What I have written I have written," and will let it go at that; trusting that old comrades who may read this book will find therein something to remind them that they were "there or thereabout," and that they and their sons and daughters may find something to interest, if not something entertaining, and perchance instructive to the young.
To those who may be disposed to criticize the accuracy of dates and incidents, and doubtless there are inaccuracies and errors, too, I beg them to remember that nearly fifty years have passed over all our "memory boxes" since these war scenes were enacted, and that the events herein related are from my viewpoint and place on the stage of action, and that they saw and heard many things I did not see nor hear, and vice versa.
Any one who has heard witnesses testify in court as to a personal difficulty between two men, if only a common assault and battery case, or a more serious encounter with knives and pistols, know that no two will tell exactly the same story; so it is with war stories. We all did not see and hear and feel alike at the same time and place. What impressed one and fixed an event or date indelibly on the mind, did not impress another. And now "I don't remember," "I forget," "I was there, but don't recollect," are common expressions heard from old soldiers when they meet and talk over the old, old times.
To all comrades of Company C and all the other companies of the Eleventh Virginia and of Kemper's Brigade and Pickett's Division, Longstreet's Corps, and the army of Northern Virginia, to whom these greetings may come, I extend the right hand of comradeship most heartily. We marched and camped and bivouacked and fought together. We suffered and sacrificed all save honor, and thousands of our comrades died for a cause which we knew and still know was just and right and holy.
And know ye that we will not be forgotten as long as truth and chivalry shall live upon the earth, and that generations yet unborn will be proud to trace their genealogy back to the men who fought under Lee and Jackson.
And now, old comrades, good-bye, and may God bless you all. At a reunion some years ago, I heard a veteran say, "God will never send an old Confederate soldier to hell!" My prayer is that none of them may ever go, or be sent to that bad place; but let us not forget that, "By grace are ye saved, through faith in Jesus Christ."
Personal Reminiscences of the War of 1861-5
—In Camp—En Bivouac—On the March—
On Picket—On the Skirmish Line
—On the Battlefield—and in
Prison.
CHAPTER I
Personal—Organization—Roll of Company
After a lapse of more than forty years, I here record brief sketches of my experiences as a Confederate soldier, beginning about the 1st of May, 1861, and ending the 21st day of May, 1865, and some things since. Many of the occurrences herein related remain indelibly fixed on my memory through all these years and can never be effaced.
The scenes and events of the battles are burned into the faculty of recollection so deep that they remain more firmly fixed than any other events in my experience. Amidst the rush and roar and crash of battle, every fibre of the brain is intensified and highly wrought, and receives the scenes and events of the hour with the accuracy and permanency of the camera.
As to many of the dates, marches and camps, my memory has been refreshed by memoranda and data collected during the years, since the close of that memorable struggle, and by the perusal of wartime letters, and some assistance from old comrades.
I have headed these sketches "Personal Reminiscences," which I have designed to be a simple narrative of what I saw, heard and felt, without any desire to recount deeds of my own; but rather, at the solicitation of my children and others, that they may know something of my comrades and that I may leave to those who come after me some record of the part, inconspicuous as it was, which I took in that fierce and bloody conflict, my reasons, therefor, and my convictions and actions since. These things alone have prompted me to undertake this task.
I find already that the personal pronoun will appear in the narrative much oftener than I would wish. This seems unavoidable, according to the plan and scope designed.
I read sometime ago Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's life of Gen. Robt. E. Lee. When the book was finished, I remarked that I had a higher opinion of Fitz Lee than ever before, for the reason that his modesty caused him to leave himself out of the book, only a few times mentioning Fitz Lee's Brigade or Division incidentally, showing him to be a great man. I would like to do likewise, but this will be impossible.
ORGANIZATION AND ROLL OF COMPANY
In the year 1860, at Pigeon Run—now Gladys, Campbell County, Va.,—near where I was born and reared, the young men of the neighborhood, catching the military spirit that swept over the State and South immediately after the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry the year before, organized a volunteer infantry company, "The Clifton Grays," named after a small stream near by, the name being suggested by my father, the late Richard Morgan.
At the organization of the company, Adam Clement was elected captain; Jos. A. Hobson, first lieutenant; H. H. Withers, second lieutenant; Jas. A. Connelly, third lieutenant, and R. M. Cock, fourth lieutenant. When mustered into service only three lieutenants were allowed. I was elected orderly sergeant, which position I preferred at that time.
The following is as complete a roll of the company as I have been able to make up from memory, and by the aid of old comrades from the beginning to the end:
CAPTAIN
Adam Clement; promoted to major; wounded and disabled at Sharpsburg, Md.
LIEUTENANTS
Jos. A. Hobson; retired at the end of the first year.
H. H. Withers; retired at the end of first year.
Jas. A. Connelly; missing at Gettysburg.
Jabe R. Rosser.
Robt. M. Cock; captured at Five Forks, Va.
ORDERLY SERGEANT
W. H. Morgan; promoted to first lieutenant and captain; captured at Milford, Va., May 21, 1864.
SERGEANTS
Thos. M. Cock; promoted to orderly sergeant; died since war.
E. M. Hobson; detailed as regimental ordinance sergeant.
E. G. Gilliam; badly wounded at Five Forks, Va.
Geo. Thomas Rosser.
Robt. M. Murrell.
Geo. W. Morgan; died since war.
CORPORALS
Ed. A. Tweedy; captured at Milford, on the 21st of May, 1864.
G. A. Creacy; wounded at Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864.
Chas. A. Clement; promoted to orderly sergeant; captured at Five Forks, April 5, 1865; died since war.
W. T. Tynes; killed at Five Forks, Va.
W. H. Hendricks; killed at Second Manassas, August 30, 1862.
Privates
Allen, Chas.; killed at Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864.
Allen, Reuben; died since the war.
Brooks, John J.; died since the war.
Bailey, Allen; killed at Drewry's Bluff, April 16, 1864.
Bailey, Miffram; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Bailey, Harvey; died near Yorktown, April, 1862.
Bateman, Abner; wounded at Plymouth, N. C., April 18, 1864; died since the war.
Barber, Silas; killed at Seven Pines, May 31, 1862.
Brown, Geo. A.; captured at Milford.
Brown, Jas. A.; captured at Milford.
Brown, W. Lee; wounded at Gettysburg and Milford on the 21st of May, 1864, and captured; dead.
Bell, Geo. W.; lost arm near Petersburg on March 30, 1865.
Blankenship, Chas. E.
Blankenship, Leslie C.
Cocke, Jas. B.; died since war.
Clement, Geo. W.
Creacy, Thos. C.
Caldwell, Daniel R.
Caldwell, Samuel; died since war.
Cary, Peter.
Callaham, Moses H.; captured at Milford, on 21st of April, 1864.
Callaham, Chas. M.
Dunnavant, Lee.
DePriest, Jno. R.; killed at Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864.
Daniel, John A; died since war.
Eads, Hairston; died since war.
Eads, William.
Elliott, Robt. A.; died since war.
Elliott, H. O.; color sergeant; killed at Second Manassas.
Franklin, Samuel T.
Franklin, Edmond L.; died since war.
Farris, Benjamin; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Frazier, John B.; now blind.
Gardner, John.
Hobson, W. H.; mortally wounded at Dranesville, Va., January, 1862.
Hobson, Nathaniel R.; died since war.
Hughes, Andy.
Hughes, Crockett; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Harvey, Richard C.; died since war.
Hall, Stephen; died since war.
Harvey, Thos. W.; died since war.
Hendricks, Joseph.
Holcome, Ellis H.
Jones, Robt. H.
Jones, Geo. W.
Jones, Joshua.
Jones, Jas. T.; captured at Milford, April 21, 1864.
Jones, J. Wesley; captured at Milford, April 21, 1864.
Jones, Chas.; killed at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.
Jones, Walker; wounded at Gettysburg.
Jones, Jas. Chap.; lost arm at Gettysburg.
Jones, Linneous; killed at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.
Jones, Robt. W.; wounded at ——.
Jones, Jasper; died since war.
Jennings, Monroe; died since war.
Kabler, Fred; captured at Milford, April 21, 1864.
Kabler, W. S.; captured at Milford, April 21, 1864.
Kabler, Jack.
Kelley, Len.; died since war.
Keenan, John; detailed as drummer.
LeGrand, Peter A.; died since war.
Layne, David; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Layne, John; died near Fredericksburg, January 1863.
Layne, Miffram; died since war.
Morgan, Robt. W.; wounded at Second Manassas and Gettysburg; captured at Milford; dead.
Moorman, Thos. E.
Martin, James; detailed as cook; died since war.
Monroe, John; killed at Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864.
Monroe, William; killed at Plymouth, April 18, 1864.
Monroe, William T.; captured at Milford, May 21, 1864.
Martin, Henry; killed at Second Manassas, August 30, 1862.
Murrell, Chas.; killed at Second Manassas, August 30, 1862.
Moore, Richard; died since war.
Murrell, Emory.
Matthews, William; died since war.
Mason, Maurice M., Jr.; killed at Gettysburg.
Miles, Chas.; shot accidentally; died since war.
Organ, Jas.; died since war.
Organ, John; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Pillow, Daniel; missing at Gettysburg.
Pillow, William; detailed as cook.
Puckett, John; died since war.
Phillips, Thornton; died in service.
Pugh, James.
Pugh, Nat.
Quilly, Michael.
Rosser, Walter C.; wounded at Williamsburg and Drewry's Bluff.
Rosser, Alfred S.; killed at Drewry's Bluff.
Rosser, Granville; killed at Williamsburg.
Rosser, Thos. W.; died since war.
Rosser, John W.; captured at Five Forks.
Rice, Joe; killed at Sharpsburg, September, 1862.
Roberts, Pleasant; deserter.
Rice, Alec W.; captured at Milford; died in prison; buried at Arlington.
Terrell, James; killed at Seven Pines, May 31, 1862.
Tweedy, G. Dabney; killed at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.
Tweedy, Bennett; killed at Plymouth, July 18, 1864.
Tweedy, Ferdinand.
Tweedy, Joseph; died since war.
Tweedy, Robt. C.
Walthall, Isaac; company commissary; died since war.
Walker, Geo. W.; mortally wounded at Drewry's Bluff.
Wood, Wash. W.; killed near Petersburg, 1865.
Woody, Bruce; killed at Drewry's Bluff, 1864.
Wood, John; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Watkins, James L.; died since war.
Woodall, Jno. J.
Wilkerson, W. A.; captured at Milford, May 21, 1864.
Williams, Whit B.; wounded at Williamsburg; dead.
Wilson, Wm. H.; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Withers, W. S.; detailed as hospital steward.
Wingfield, W. H.; died since war.
Wood, James; killed at Seven Pines.
No doubt several names have been omitted, and others were killed or died from wounds and disease not now remembered. It has been impossible to give the number and names of all the killed and wounded in the battles in which the company was engaged. From three to five wounded to one killed is about the average, I think.
One man on this roll has "deserter" written after his name. He was a good soldier while with the company. Unfortunately he was a nullius filus; I suppose he thought he had nothing to fight for. We heard later he went to Ohio, where he drove a stage during the war. I have never heard of him since.
I wish I could mention by name each one of these men, what they did, and how faithfully they served their country; but time and space and lack of memory as to many interesting incidents will not permit this. I can only say that, with very few exceptions, they were good and faithful soldiers.
The uniform of the company was steel-gray, with cap of same color.
CHAPTER II
Enter the Service—Trouble about Arms—Cause
of Secession
The company was drilled from time to time, but was not armed until it entered the service about the 1st of May, 1861, at Lynchburg, Va., enlisting for one year. It was mustered into service by (then) Col. Jubal A. Early, as one of the ten companies of the Twenty-eighth Regiment of Virginia Infantry, Col. Robt. T. Preston, commanding. At that time there were about eighty-five men in the company, made up of the young men from several miles around Pigeon Run. I had one brother, Geo. W., called "Coon"; a brother-in-law, Robt. M. Cocke, and many kinsmen and connections in the company; the young Joneses, the Hobsons, the Baileys, and others were relations of myself or wife. We were all friends and neighbors, and many were former schoolmates. Most of them young unmarried men, many in their teens. I had been married not quite five months when the war came on.
None of the officers or men had any military education, but little training in drilling and none in camp life, and were all, officers and men, quite green and inexperienced in military affairs generally. But we all knew how to handle guns and how to shoot straight.
These young men made as brave and faithful soldiers as any in the army; always ready to do their duty, to go wherever ordered; standing firm in action. But I think none of them liked to fight just for the fun of it; I did not for one, I well know. It was of this class of men that the army of Northern Virginia was made up.
That army was composed of the very pick and flower of the Southern youth, and made a name and fame that will live always.
At the beginning of the war, at Manassas, Gen. G. T. Beauregard issued a general order, in which he said that strict military rules of discipline would not be enforced, that the general commanding would depend upon the good breeding of the men, rather than harsh military discipline, to insure good order and efficiency in the army. This kind of discipline prevailed all through the war. General Grant soon after he met Lee in the Wilderness said in a dispatch to Washington that the Rebel army was very hard to drive, so well was it disciplined. It was not discipline that made this army so effective, but rather the courageous and patriotic spirit of the men who carried the guns.
TROUBLE ABOUT ARMS
As before said, the company had not been armed up to the time of enlistment. The company was organized as a rifle company; we expected to be armed with the "Mississippi Rifle."
Soon after we got to Lynchburg it was learned that rifles could not be procured, the only arms available being old flint-lock muskets changed to percussion. All guns in those days were muzzle-loaders; the breech-loaders had not been invented.
We were much disappointed, and many of the men very much disgruntled, at the prospects of going to war with those antiquated, cumbersome and inferior arms. Other companies were in the same predicament, and many of the men threatened to disband and go home. The companies had not yet been mustered into service. It was a very critical time in the military experience of all. The companies were formed in line and addressed by some of their officers. Captain Clement made a speech to his company, and I spoke briefly and earnestly to my comrades, telling them that the State of Virginia was doing the very best she could to arm and equip her soldiers, that they might go forth to meet the invaders of her sacred soil; that it was our duty to go to the front with the best arms available, even if armed with nothing but "rocks and sticks," and closed by calling on every man who was willing to go to war under the existing circumstances to follow. I marched out through the camp; the whole company following.
THE CAUSE OF SECESSION
I had fully determined if the company disbanded to join another immediately, as I knew it was the duty of every son of Virginia to enlist under her banner when called. I have never been of any other mind since, and if it were all to do over again I should act in the same manner. I never thought of deserting to the enemy during the war nor since. While I was not an original secessionist and voted for the Union candidates for the Convention, yet when the North determined to wage war on the South; when Lincoln called on Virginia for her quota of troops to coerce the seceding States, and when Virginia seceded, it did not take me two seconds to cast my lot with Virginia and the other Southern States. Here I took my stand then, now and forever, and will never give aid in any way to those who were enemies to my State and section, many of whom are still haters and traducers of the Southern people, the avowed purpose at the close of the war being to put the negro, the late slave, over the white people of the South, to rule and govern as brave and chivalrous a people as ever lived on God's green earth. To make the highest type of the Anglo-Saxon subject to the African! Ye gods! What a crime was attempted! And for a time the outrage was in force. This, if nothing else, justified the South in its attempt at separation from the North. The people of the South had gotten tired of the sectional and domineering, hectoring spirit of the North, especially the New England Yankees, manifested in many ways before the war, and determined to sever the bonds that bound them together; peacefully if they could, forcibly if they must. They did not want war, but the North forced the issue. The question of slavery in the Southern States was not an issue at the beginning of the war, as many believe.
In the presidential election of 1860, the right of the slaveholder to take his slaves—property recognized by the Constitution and laws of the land—into the territories, was an issue made by the Republican party, but no question as to slavery where it already existed, was involved. On the other hand, Lincoln, in his inaugural address on the 4th of March, 1861, expressly declared that he had no authority to interfere with slavery in the States, and no intention of doing so. And not until the promulgation of Lincoln's emancipation proclamation, which went into effect on the 1st of January, 1863, made without shadow of right or law, and in direct violation of his solemn declaration and oath of office, was this issue raised, as a war measure, to strengthen the Union cause, which was then on the wane, among the abolitionists at home and abroad. The New England Yankees, who first imported the negro to America, and who had sold their slaves to the Southern planters, because slave labor was unprofitable at the North, and who had engaged in the African slave trade until this was prohibited by law, at the instigation of the South and against the protest of New England shipping interests which was largely engaged in the African slave trade, and had become rabid abolitionists, now demanded emancipation as the price of their loyalty to the Union cause.
France had all the while been friendly inclined towards the South, and was urging England to join her in the recognition of the Southern Confederacy as an independent nation. England, who had years before abolished slavery in all her provinces, and was known to be a nation of abolitionists, was now appealed to, and urged to stand for emancipation in not recognizing the independence of the South. The cotton factories of England were closed, the Southern ports being blockaded, the operatives were clamoring for work or food; bread riots prevailed in the manufacturing cities, the people urging the recognition of the South, so that the ports could be opened and cotton, work, and food procured.
Henry Ward Beecher and other abolitionists went to England, faced and spoke to these howling mobs, appealing to them in behalf of the Union cause and the Southern slaves. Not so much, I opine, for the good of the slaves as for the success of the Union cause. They all knew if the Southern ports were opened the South would be victorious.
These are the true facts and the reasons for Lincoln's emancipation proclamation, as I verily believe, and well known at the time. New England was always jealous of the South, opposed everything that would extend the influence and power of the Southern States: fought bitterly the acquisition of the Louisiana territory and also the annexation of Texas, because it would tend to destroy the "balance of power," as they called it; and one of these states, Massachusetts, threatened to withdraw from the Union, boldly claiming the right so to do. As all know, New England was the manufacturing section of the country—the South, the agricultural section. New England wanted to control the policy of the government as to the tariff, and thereby protect their industries, and could not brook the extension of Southern influence and power against their protection policy. They still to this day maintain this policy, but now we are beginning to hear the rumblings of discontent in the West, and I am curious to know what will be the result. I know one thing—that the Yankees of New England will hold on to their pet policies, "like grim death to a dead nigger." What the great West will do, future events only can develop. The North has held the West in political slavery, by abusing and vilifying the South, and by waving the "bloody shirt"; but that old rag is about worn out. I repeat, I am curious to know the result, and want to live to see the end of it.
We remained in Lynchburg until about the 1st of June, 1861, doing camp duty and drilling. Several of the company, including my brother and myself, had negro cooks the first year, after which, few, if any, remained, except ours, who stayed until the last. Rations became too scarce to divide with cooks, so the men did their own cooking, forming messes of from four to six and eight men to a mess, cooking by turns when in camp. We also had two or three company cooks detailed from the company, who did much of the cooking when not in permanent camp, one of whom, Isaac Walthall, acted as company commissary, drawing the rations from the regimental commissary and distributed them to the messes, when in camp, or cooking them and distributing to men when in line of battle or near the enemy.
Our camp equipments, as far as cooking facilities were concerned, were very poor, and never much better.
At first, we had only sheet-iron pans and boilers, called camp kettles, which did very well for boiling beef, but the sheet-iron pans were very poor for baking bread and frying meat. No wonder the biscuits were called "sinkers," being burned on the outside, tough and clammy through and through. We afterwards got ovens and skillets, "spiders," as the Tar Heels called them, and had better bread. We were in camp in a grove west of College Hill, which was afterwards the fair grounds, and is now Miller Park.
CHAPTER III
On to Manassas—The Eleventh Regiment—The
First Brigade
About the 1st of June, 1861, the regiment was ordered to Manassas, which name afterwards became historic as a great battle-ground. The first battle of Bull Run, on the 18th of July, 1861, and the ground on which the first battle of Manassas was fought on the 21st of July, 1861, and the second battle of Manassas on the 30th of August, 1862, are all in close proximity, and General Jackson, a few days before the last-named fight, by a bold movement captured the place, which was then Pope's dépôt of supplies, burning what his soldiers could not eat and carry off, which no doubt was a plenty.
The place was occupied by one side or the other during nearly the whole war, being, in the beginning, considered a strategic point in the defence of Richmond by the Confederates, and for the defence of Washington and for the advance on Richmond by the Yankees.
At Lynchburg we had no equipments except the old muskets, no belts, cartridge or cap boxes, only some little cotton-cloth bags such as mothers make children to gather chinquapins in, little tin shop-made canteens, home-made haversacks of cotton cloth or cheap oilcloth, home-made knapsacks of poor material and very cumbersome, the latter packed full of clothes, hair-brushes and shoe-brushes, needle cases, and many other little tricks which mothers, wives, and sweethearts made for their soldier boys. Many of these things were superfluous and were not carried after the first year of the war; for the next three years about all a Confederate soldier carried was his gun, cartridge and cap box, a blanket, an oilcloth captured from the Yankees, and an extra shirt—very often not the latter.
Many a Confederate soldier has taken off his shirt, washed it, hung it on a bush, lying in the shade until it was dry. He also carried a haversack which was often empty.
There was considerable excitement when it was known we were to go to the front, to meet the enemy; hasty preparations were made, tents were struck, which, with the cooking utensils and all camp equipment, were sent to the dépôt for shipment.
At the appointed hour the regiment, with Colonel Bob Preston mounted on his big nicked-tailed bay horse, handsomely caparisoned, at its head, marched through the city down to the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, now the Southern. The streets were lined with people, the men cheering, the ladies waving their handkerchiefs to the soldiers as they marched in proud array to martial music—the fife and drum. Boarding the train, in box cars, we rolled away to the seat of war.
The train was stopped at Culpeper Court House, the troops detrained, and marched out into a field northwest of the town and prepared to go into camp; very much disappointed that we had been stopped before reaching Manassas. I remember it was a very windy day, and we had great difficulty in raising the tents. Before this was fully accomplished, orders came to strike tents at once, board the cars and hurry on to Manassas. The rumor was that the Yankees were advancing on Manassas and we were to rush forward as fast as possible, to meet and drive them back. All was now bustle and excitement; in an incredible short time the tents were struck, rolled up, taken to the dépôt, placed on the cars, and the regiment was soon off again for the front. Of course, discussion as to the probability of soon being in a battle went on as we sped along.
Up to this time, no cartridges had been issued to the men; some cases or boxes of ammunition were now placed aboard each car, but were not opened. The men were very anxious to be supplied with cartridges, fearing the Yankees would be on us before the boxes could be opened and the guns loaded.
In due time, the train reached Manassas without running into the enemy or the enemy running into us. It was said a scouting party had come out from the Yankee lines near Alexandria, and hence the false alarm which caused our hasty and exciting exit from Culpeper.
The regiment went into camp at Manassas station, a short distance to the right of the railroad, where we remained for about two weeks, drilling and doing guard duty around the camp and at General Beauregard's headquarters not far away. Not long before the first battle, Captain Clement's company, and Captain Hutter's company from Lynchburg, were transferred to the Eleventh Virginia Regiment, commanded by Colonel Samuel Garland, Jr., of Lynchburg, a V. M. I. man, and a fine officer. In the regiment there were already three companies from Lynchburg and one from Campbell County.
THE ELEVENTH REGIMENT
The Eleventh Regiment, which was camped immediately on the north side of the railroad, just west of the dépôt, was now composed of ten companies, with the following named field and staff officers and company commanders:
Colonel, Sam Garland, Jr., of Lynchburg; Lieut.-Colonel, David Funston, of Alexandria; Major, Carter H. Harrison, of Lancaster County; Adjutant, J. Lawrence Meem; Sergeant Major, Chas. A. Tyree; Chaplain, Rev. J. C. Granberry; Surgeon, Dr. G. W. Thornhill; Assistant Surgeon, Dr. Chalmers; Quarter-Master, R. G. H. Kean; Commissary, L. F. Lucado; Commissary Sergeant, W. L. Akers.
Company A, Capt. Morris S. Langhorne; Company B, Capt. Robert C. Saunders; Company C, Capt. Adam Clement; Company D, Capt. D. Gardner Houston; Company E, Capt. J. E. Blankenship; Company F, Capt. Henry Foulks; Company G, Capt. Kirk Otey; Company H, Capt. J. Risque Hutter; Company I, Capt. —— Jamison; Company K, Capt. Robert Yeatman.
Colonel Garland was promoted to brigadier-general in May, 1862, and was killed at Boonsboro Mountain, Md., in September, 1862. Lieutenant-Colonel Funston succeeded Colonel Garland in command of the regiment, and was disabled by wounds at Seven Pines, on the 30th of May, 1862, and retired from the service; he was later elected to the Confederate Congress, and I think still later was in the service again. Major Harrison was mortally wounded at Bull Run, July 18, 1861. Captain Langhorne succeeded him as major and was afterwards promoted lieutenant-colonel. He was disabled by wounds at Seven Pines on the 30th of May, 1862, and never returned to the army.
Captain Clement was promoted to major just before the Seven Pines fight, was disabled at the battle of Sharpsburg, Md., the 17th of September, 1862, while in command of the regiment, and never returned to the field.
Captain Saunders retired at the end of the first year, and was afterwards in the commissary department as collector of tax in kind.
Captain Houston was killed at Gettysburg on the 3d of July, 1863.
Captain Blankenship retired at the battle of Blackburn's Ford on the 18th of July, 1861; he secured a position in the engineering corps, I think.
Captain Foulks was killed at Seven Pines. I was in a few feet of him when he was shot dead.
Captain Yeatman resigned.
Lieut. G. W. Latham succeeded Captain Langhorne in command of Company A, and he was succeeded by Lieut. Robt. M. Mitchell, Jr. Lieut. Thos. B. Horton succeeded Captain Saunders of Company B, and I succeeded Captain Clement of Company C; Lieut. Thos. Houston succeeded his brother, D. G. Houston, of Company D; Lieut. C. V. Winfrey succeeded Captain Blankenship of Company E; Lieut. Robt. W. Douthat succeeded Captain Foulks of Company F; Lieut. J. Holmes Smith succeeded Captain Otey of Company G; Lieut. Jas. W. Hord succeeded Captain Hutter of Company H; Lieut. A. I. Jones, I think, succeeded Captain Jamison of Company I; Lieut. Andrew M. Houston, a brother of the other Houstons already mentioned, succeeded Captain Yeatman of Company K; Captain Otey was promoted to major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel. Captain Hutter was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and was in command of the regiment at the battle of Five Forks on the 5th of April, 1865, when he and nearly all of the regiment were captured.
Capt. C. V. Winfrey, of Company E, was afterwards succeeded by Lieut. John C. Ward. Several of these officers were V. M. I. men, as I now remember, as follows: Garland, Harrison, Otey, Hutter, Blankenship, Ward, D. G. Houston, and perhaps others.
Company G, the old "Home Guard," was the crack company of the regiment. Company A, the "Rifle Grays," also of Lynchburg, was a close second to Company G, armed with the Mississippi rifle, and generally acted as skirmishers, and one of these rifles brought down the first Yankee on the 18th of July, 1861, as hereinafter related.
Company D was also armed with Mississippi rifles and was often on the skirmish line. Company B was made up of men from the western section of Campbell County; Company C, as before said, from the Pigeon Run section, Mt. Zion, and Falling River neighborhoods. Company D came from Botetourt County—large, hardy, hale fellows they were too, many of them with German names. Company E was made up largely of college boys from Lynchburg College, its first captain being one of the professors.
Company F, a sturdy lot of men, came from the hills of Alleghany Mountains in Montgomery County around Christiansburg.
Company H was a new Lynchburg company, recruited by its captain, then in his teens, with many sons of Erin in its ranks.
Company I was made up of men from Culpeper County.
Company K was from the James River section of Rockbridge County—its commander, a canal freight-boat captain, and many of the men boatmen on the canal when the tocsin of war was sounded. All classes, from the college-bred and the professional man to the country schoolboy, were represented in the regiment.
The following are the rolls of the four Lynchburg companies of the Eleventh Regiment. I have been unable to get the rolls of the other companies of the regiment:
THE RIFLE GRAYS, COMPANY A
- First Captain, M. S. Langhorne.
- Second Captain, G. W. Latham.
- Third Captain, Robt. M. Mitchell, Jr.
- First Lieutenant, G. W. Latham.
- First Lieutenant, John W. Daniel.
- Second Lieutenant, Robt. M. Mitchell, Jr.
- Second Lieutenant, H. C. Chalmers.
- Second Lieutenant, James O. Thurman.
- First Sergeant, Joseph A. Kennedy.
- Second Sergeant, Elcano Fisher.
- Third Sergeant, Henry D. Hall.
- Fourth Sergeant, Peter B. Akers.
- First Corporal, Geo. T. Wightman.
- Second Corporal, Samuel R. Miller.
- Third Corporal, Lucas Harvey.
- Fourth Corporal, Jas. O. Thurman, Jr.
Privates
- Allman, William H.
- Akers, William L.
- Bailey, James H.
- Bailey, James W.
- Benson, Henry G.
- Brown, Leslie C.
- Beckwith, Henry C.
- Burroughs, Henry A.
- Ballard, James F.
- Bagby, George W.
- Cheatham, Thos. F.
- Cochran, Robert L.
- Cooney, Thomas.
- Camp, Albert G.
- Crumpton, James A.
- Crumpton, Joseph A.
- Clinkenbeard, Wm. E.
- Conklen, Thomas A.
- Connolly, Jerry M.
- Devine, Frank.
- Diuguid, Edward S.
- Davis, Thomas N.
- Delano, Joseph S.
- Dady, David.
- Evans, William H.
- Edwards, James M.
- Elam, H. F.
- Feyle, Frank H.
- Fulks, James W.
- Frances, Joseph M.
- Furry, William H.
- Gooldy, John F.
- Henry, Charles W.
- Henry, John L.
- Harvey, Charles C.
- Hollins, John G.
- Hollins, James E.
- Heybrook, L. G.
- Hersman, Wm. B.
- Hunt, William R.
- Johnson, Shelbry.
- Jones, William B.
- Jones, Charles J.
- Kennedy, Michael.
- Kidd, George W.
- Latham, Robert F.
- Linkenhoker, Sam'l.
- Mitchell, John R.
- Mitchell, T. Holcomb.
- Mitchell, John J.
- Mitchell, William H.
- McKinney, Sam'l H.
- McCrary, Wm. B.
- Marks, James L.
- Milstead, William.
- McDevitt, C. P.
- Norris, Michael A.
- Norvell, Otway B.
- Omorundro, T. A.
- Porter, Thomas D.
- Pendleton, William.
- Price, N. Leslie.
- Parrish, Booker S.
- Pugh, Charles E.
- Peters, John I.
- Rucker, Edward P.
- Raine, John R.
- Robertson, Thomas D.
- Rainey, Charles W.
- Rogers, James B.
- Rock, John J.
- Rector, Thomas S.
- Sims, Robert F.
- Sewell, George W.
- Stubbs, Robert F.
- Stewart, Philip H.
- Slagle, John H.
- Slagle, David H.
- Sholes, Thomas C.
- Stewart, Stephen P.
- Stabler, Thomas S.
- Shepherd, Joseph H.
- Tyree, Charles H.
- Taylor, William H.
- Thurman, Powhatan.
- Turner, John H.
- Truxall, Andrew J.
- Tyree, Wm. D. R.
- Tyree, John R.
- Taliaferro, Rhoderick.
- Torrence, William H.
- Victor, Henry C.
- Wren, Peter R.
- Warfield, Thomas.
- Williams, William H.