Site Visit Saturday: Fort Macon

 
  Located on Bogue Banks on the North Carolina coast, Fort Fisher was the second fort constructed on this spot. The first was known as Fort Hamilton. Fort Macon was named in honor of Nathaniel Macon, a North Carolina politician who served in both the US House and Senate. The fort was seen as a way to protect the towns of Beaufort and Morehead City. (Blackbeard was known to sail in and out of Beaufort Inlet; Beaufort was captured by the Spanish in 1747 and the British in 1782.)

   Fort Macon was a part of the Third System of US fortifications and designed by Brig. Gen. Simon Bernard, US Army Corps of Engineers. Construction began in 1826 and was finished in 1834, costing $463,790. Because of poor management, the fort was in a sad state of affairs in 1861.

   The fort was under the command of Ordinance Sergeant William Alexander. He and his family were the only ones present on April 14, 1861, when the Beaufort Harbor Guards arrived to seize Fort Macon. By the next day, two other companies of North Carolina volunteers had arrived at the fort. On April 17, a force of sixty-one free and twenty-one slaves, all African-Americans, had arrived at the fort to begin maintenance work. Over the next few weeks, a railroad was laid to the wharf, and thirteen 24-pounder cannons were shipped, and in some way, mounted at the Fort. Various volunteer companies from the eastern portions of the state garrisoned Fort Macon, with Col. Charles C. Tew appointed commander. Then, that summer, Tew was replaced by Maj. William L. DeRossett, then Lt. Col. John L. Bridgers, followed by Col. Moses J. White. Later, the independent companies were mustered into traditional regiments or were designated as members of the 1^st North Carolina Artillery.

   Due to the threat of attack, the newly mustered 26^th North Carolina Troops was assigned to the fort in September 1861, along with the 7^th North Carolina State Troops, the latter staying for a month. This was followed by a company of the 3^rd North Carolina Artillery. In early 1862, Federal forces began a campaign that resulted in the capture of Roanoke Island and New Bern. The Federals turned their attention to Fort Macon next. Although hopelessly surrounded, the garrison at Fort Macon refused to surrender. On April 25, 1862, Federals began to bombard the fort, which was hit an estimated 560 times. The fort surrendered the next day.  

   Fort Macon was repaired and garrisoned by Federal soldiers for the rest of the war, including Company G, 2^nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, the last company to leave the fort in June 1865. Following the war, the fort was used as a civil and military prison. It was deactivated in 1877 but garrisoned by state troops during the summer of 1898. In 1903, it was abandoned and sold as surplus military property in 1923. It was acquired by the state of North Carolina in June 1924 for $1, and in 1936, became one of the state’s first state parks. The fort was leased to the US Army in World War II, maned by Coast Artillery troops.

   Fort Macon is still a state park, in an excellent state of preservation, with a fantastic museum and education center. For more information, see Paul Branch’s Fort Macon: A History (1999).

   I last visited the fort in June 2018.

Confederate Music – a quick primer

 

Robert E. Lee once remarked that “I don’t believe we can have an army without music.”[1] Lee was referencing the brass band of the 26^th North Carolina Troops which serenaded the general several times during the war. Yet brass bands were not the only type of music encountered by Confederates during the war. There were the drum and fife corps, the brass bands, and the informal music encountered around the campfire.

Field Music – Kautz, in his Customs of Service (1864) hits the nail on the head when he writes “The law with regard to drum-majors is obscure.”[2] That might be said of the enlistment of musicians as a whole. Confederate regulations state that those recruits “found to posses a natural talent for music, to be instructed (besides the drill of the soldier) on the fife, bugle, and drum… boys of twelve years of age and upward may…be enlisted for this purpose.” “Regiments will be furnished with field music on the requisitions of their commanders.”[3] It would appear that most infantry regiments had a drum and fife corps, while artillery and cavalry commands had buglers. It would seem that the position was appointed from the ranks. And in most cases, there appears to be no more than a handful of musicians at any time. They were typically not boys. In the 16^th North Carolina, there were 24 men listed as musicians; the youngest was 18 and the oldest 35. In the 18^th North Carolina, there were some boys, (12-16 years old), but they were later discharged. These musicians were some of the hardest working men in the army. Everything was regulated by a drum call: there were calls for assembly, first sergeant’s call, reveille, retreat, tattoo. Drumbeats were used to keep step while on a march, set the pace for a double-quick march, signal a halt, and could be used in battle to command both skirmish lines and regular battle lines. Concerning the latter, it is seldom that we find reference to firing by drums during a battle. Bugle calls, especially for the cavalry, were far more useful.

Brass band of the 26th North Carolina

Brass Band – the band was different from the field music. It would almost seem that one regiment in a brigade (a brigade was typically composed of four to five regiments) would have a brass band. The purpose of the brass band was more to provide entertainment and as a morale boast, over the field music. Bands often performed in the evenings, serenading the men, and the generals. According to Oliver Lehman, a member of the band of the 33^rd North Carolina Troops/Lane’s brigade, the brass band played every morning at nine for guard mounting duty, at dress parade about sunset, and for reviews. Also, when the weather was favorable, the band played for an hour every evening.[4]  Many of these bandsmen were “professional” musicians. Lehman came from the same Moravian community that produced members of the band for the 26^th North Carolina.

Camp Fire Music – the various states and communities across the continent were a musical people. People sang at home, at taverns, at churches. And the soldiers brought that musical heritage with them. They sang church songs, and tavern songs, and quite a few made-up songs themselves. Fiddles, fifes, and maybe a banjo or guitar were commonly employed. Soldiers spent an enormous amount of time in camp, and the scratch of a fiddle could be heard many evenings as the soldiers sang about the war, about home, about loved ones they had not seen in months or years. At times, musicians would form bands and put on concerts and minstrel shows for their fellow soldiers. A couple of songs, like “Home Sweet Home” and “Lorena” made some soldiers so home sick that it was rumored they were banned from camp. Probably the most famous musician in the Confederate army was Sam Sweeny, one of three musician brothers well-known before the war. Sweeny was on the staff of JEB Stuart, following the general around and plucking tunes on his banjo.

Sam Sweeny playing banjo in camp. 

All of these types of music could boost morale among the soldiers. Writing from Florence, Alabama, November 17, 1864, Captain Thomas J. Key, 28^th Battalion Georgia Artillery, wrote that “The whole earth resounded and echoed with music this morning before the rising of the sun. Band after band commingled their soft and impressive notes, melting the hearts of some and buoying up the spirits of others.”[5] Many could probably join with Captain Key, extolling the virtues of a well-played song in camp, on the march, or in battle.

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[1] Clark, NC Troops, 2:399

[2] Kautz, Customs of Service, 76

[3] Confederate Regulations, 393.

[4] O. J. Lehman, "Reminiscences of the War Between the States." 1862 to 1865." The Union Republican, October 19, 1922.

[5] Cate, Two Soldiers: The Campaign Diaries of Thomas J. Key, CSA, December 7, 1863-May 17, 1865, and Robert J. Campbell, USA, January 1, 1864-July 21, 1864, 150.

Hardtack v. flour v. corn meal

   A friend recently asked the question: “did Southern troops ever live off of Hardtack like Federal soldiers?” That’s a great question! And the simple answer is: sometimes.  (PS: this article is based on my research for my upcoming book, Feeding the Army of Northern Virginia.)

   Hardtack is made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. This mixture is rolled out and cut into pieces that are baked until, well, hard. They have been around for a long time and are also known as sea biscuits, or ship’s biscuits, or many other names. A standard issued of hardtack for Federal soldiers, for a day, was one pound, or about ten pieces. Hardtack is not a term frequently used in letters and diaries written during the war by Confederate soldiers in the East. It does appear more frequently in post-war writings. And, when the term hardtack is used, it usually denotes captured foodstuffs. For example, a member of the 13^th Virginia Infantry, writing after the war, noted that at Second Manassas, he drew from his haversack “a piece of fat pickled pork and some hardtack—the rations I had selected from the varied assortment at Manassas.”[1] While at Frederick, Maryland, in September 1862, one member of the 15^th Georgia complained that all of their hardtack was marked “’Cincinnati.’ It is a common remark that Banks is Jackson’s Quartermaster and Commissary.”[2]     

   More often, Confederates referred to their hardtack as crackers. A member of the 5^th Alabama Infantry, writing from a camp near Fairfax Court House on July 16, 1861, noted that he was stationed as a guard at the commissary tent, presumably just for his regiment. He reported that he was guarding twenty-five barrels of crackers. A few days later, this same soldier reported that there was no flour locally, and they had to make use of crackers instead, and that “they are hard almost as a rock.”[3] Many soldiers found their crackers almost inedible. A member of the 44^th North Carolina complained in October 1862 that the “Crackers you cannot brake them hardly with your hands. Yesterday Mr. Sykes had some Crackers beatting them up with a... hammer and said to me it is hard bread to have to take a hammer to brake it."[4]

    Soldiers were likely to be issued flour than hardtack. Earlier in the war, the Confederate government had purchased a bakery in Richmond to bake loaves of bread to be shipped to the men in the field. This really did not work, as the “light bread” as the soldiers called it, went moldy before it could arrive in the camps. Instead, the commissary department switched to grinding flour and shipping it to the front ranks. Ideally, flour would be issued to troops in camp, while crackers would be issued to men on the march. Most of the crackers which the men mention eating while on campaign seem to have been captured by the Federals. Instead, the men had to make do with flour, and usually no cooking utensils. From Manassas in July 1861, a member of the 10^th Alabama complained that they had to bake their dough on planks and boards.[5] At Beverly Ford on August 22, a member of the 12^th Georgia wrote of baking their dough on flat boards and stones before the fire.[6] On the way to Gettysburg in June 1862, a member of the 26^th North Carolina wrote home that they were drawing flour. They stopped at 4:00 pm and commenced cooking.[7]  

   That’s not to say that the flour also did not come from the Federals. There are mentions of barrels of flour captured at Ball’s Bluff, during the Rominey Campaign, Seven Pines, Manassas Junction, and Williamsport, and taken from civilians during the Gettysburg campaign and Early’s Washington campaign in 1864.

   Not everyone was in favor of the flour. A member of the 53^rd Georgia wrote from near Hagerstown on July 13 that he had eaten so much flour bread that he preferred corn bread.[8] Corn meal was a third option. A member of the 1^st Maryland wrote from Fairfax Court House in early August that they were able to make first-rate cornbread.[9] Yet even this wore on some. South Carolinian Barry Benson wrote after the war that they were issued so much corn meal in the winter of 1863 that “our teeth staid on edge; even freshly cooked, the bread would taste sour.”[10] While cornbread might seem like a Southern staple, the corn meal ground during the war, epically, late in the war, was full of husk and kernels. “Often the corn meal issued to us… [was] so bad that hardtack… was hailed with delight,” wrote a member of the 17^th Virginia in 1864.[11] From camp near Orange Court House in March 1864, one Tar Heel told the people at home that they were drawing “tolerable good rations,” including corn meal. However, he wished he could draw flour. “We are tired of meal."[12]

   As the war grinned on, there was never enough, whether it be crackers, wheat flour, or corn meal. Most of it really depended on the environment. (But that’s another post.)  A soldier simply had to draw “his waist belt a little tighter… and waited with bated breath the order to clear our works and charge the enemy.” If the charge was successful, then the “enemey’s camps furnished the rations we failed to get in the morning…”[13]

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[1] Swank, Raw Pork and Hartack, 34.

[2] Ivy W. Duggan Diary, UGA, 95-96.

[3] Hubbs, Voices from Company D, 18, 25-26.

[4] Wright, The Confederate Letters of Benjamin H. Freeman, 14.

[5] Rourke, "I saw the Elephant, 15

[6] Ivy W. Duggan Diary, UGA, 87-88. 

[7] Smith and Price, “Your Affectionate Husband Until Death" Company Front, 55.

[8] Ronald, ed. The Stilwell Letters, 188.

[9] McKim, A Soldier’s Recollections, 46.

[10] Benson, Berry Benson's Civil War Book, 55.

[11] Toalson, No Soap, No Pay, 94-95

[12] Hancock, Four Brothers in Gray, 253.

[13] Herbert, “The Seventeenth Virginia Infantry,” SHSP, 12:294.

The Blalocks, again.

This article appeared in the Herald Dispatch from Huntington, West Virginia, on April 1, 2019. Overall, it's not a bad piece. My thoughts, like this introduction, are in red. You can read the original article here:

A walk through an Appalachian graveyard

By DEREK HALSEY

West Virginia will forever be connected to the Civil War. It was created when it became the first and only state to secede from the Confederacy on June 20, 1863, after years of neglect by the plantation-owning aristocracy in greater Virginia that was determined to continue slavery instead of paying their southern brethren a living wage. That is how some would view the conflict anyway, as others fought for the South and what they viewed as their besieged homeland.

West Virginia was also the perfect example of brother fighting brother and cousin fighting cousin during the War Between the States. The truth is that Union sympathizers and soldiers could be found in every Confederate state except for South Carolina. The Free State of Jones existed in Mississippi, the thousands-strong Hill Country Militia was located in Texas, the Mountain Feds were based in Arkansas, the Jayhawker fighters fought in Louisiana, the Winston County soldiers came out of Alabama, the Independent Rangers held court in Florida, the Pickens County brethren were from Georgia, and thousands of Eastern Tennessee fighters fought with the Union forces.

Western North Carolina was no different, and that history includes the true story of Sarah Malinda "Sam" Blalock. "Sam" Blalock was one of only two female soldiers who disguised themselves as men and fought during the Civil War. Her story is well-documented throughout history.

Only two? There are scores of others with well-documented histories, many even more interesting than Mrs. Blaylock's!

Montezuma Cemetery is located on highway 181 in-between Linville, North Carolina and Newland, North Carolina, sitting up on a hill on the southern slope of Sugar Mountain. This area in the western third of the Tar Heel State features the highest mountains east of the Rockies. Just a few hundred yards from the cemetery is a turn in the road that unveils a beautiful view of nearby Grandfather Mountain, which is 5,945 feet in elevation.

In the old cemetery is a tombstone that reads "Sarah M., wife of William Blalock, Born March 10, 1839 - Died March 9, 1903." Commonly known as Malinda Blalock, she grew up in a time period when life was very hard. The life expectancy in the 1800s was short, even during the times when there was no war. A few feet away from Blalock's grave are headstones that tell that story.

A couple known as L.B. and E.L Townsend, for instance, lost a nine day old infant in 1892, lost a two year old daughter named Doshia in 1896, and they lost another infant in 1908. A few yards away are the tombstones of the Bumgarner family, which sadly includes four gravestones depicting the death of the infants born to W. and C.E. Bumgarner. Wife Celia E. Bumgarner, says her epitaph, was born in 1857 and died just 37 years later. The couple did raise a son into adulthood named Ira, but he died just a few months shy of his 20 birthday in 1892.

As for Sarah Malinda Pritchard, according to an article by Kelley Slappie for northcarolinahistory.org, she met and married William 'Keith' Blalock in 1839, even though the Pritchard and Blalock families had been feuding for over 100 years. Keith was by all accounts a bit of a rough cob and ten years older than Malinda when they joined forces. Once married, they lived on and around Grandfather Mountain, where there was plenty of game and fresh water.

So, Keith and Malinda got married the same year she was born? Also, according to the 1860 Watauga County, North Carolina, Federal census, they were exactly the same age: twenty-two. The 1870 Mitchell County, North Carolina, Federal Census, listsKeith as being 32, while Malinda is 29. His tombstone, right beside Malinda's, gives a birth date of November 21, 1837.

As the Civil War approached, both Keith and Malinda Blalock became Northern sympathizers. What happened next has not only become a part of American lore, it is also a matter of historical fact. An important witness named James Moore recalled this true tale in The Morning Post newspaper in February of 1900.

Moore was a Confederate soldier in charge of rounding up draftees as a member of Captain Rankin's Company F of the 26th North Carolina Regiment, and that was when he came across the Blalocks.

It is interesting that Moore's record states something a little different. Moore was medically discharged from Company F, 26th North Carolina, on December 6, 1861. He re-enlisted in the company on March 20, 1862. Now, that's not to say that Moore and Colonel Vance were not talking about new recruits for the regiment, but Moore was not in the army until March 20, the same day that the Blalocks joined. Furthermore, everyone who joined on March 20 was a volunteer. No one was being drafted at this time. While there was  talk of a Conscription bill, it had not passed Congress yet, and would not be enforced until August-September of 1862.

Keith Blalock had a plan. The goal was to join the Confederate forces and then defect to the Union troops once they were engaged in battle somewhere north. Joining him in the Army was his brother Samuel Blalock and they were now led by Colonel Zeb Vance, a future governor of North Carolina.

As it turned out, "Samuel" Blalock was in fact Malinda Blalock, Keith's wife. She wrapped down her breasts and cut her hair short and successfully passed as a male soldier.

Said Moore in his sworn newspaper account, "I was not present at the battle of New Bern, being absent on detail at home to get recruits. I brought back with me about 45 men, among whom was a young man who went by the name Samuel Blalock. It turned out that he was a woman, the wife of Keith Blalock, but no one in the company knew of it until she and her husband confided it to me in secret at Salisbury (NC) on our way to Kingston to join the regiment. They told me of this, as they said, because, from my remark that 'this recruit resembles Keith's wife so much,' that I suspected she was his wife, and they concluded it was best to make me their confidant so I would not tell anyone about it. I never told anyone about it except my brother-in-law, Isaac N. Corpening, who was also in the Company."

It is safe to say that Malinda "Sam" Blalock was already well-versed in all things firearms and holding her own, probably both due to training with her husband and living the backwoods life of the 1800s. We know this because she was a soldier in good standing for at least two months in the company of men.

Said Moore, 119 years ago. "Sam Blalock's disguise was never suspected. She drilled and did the duties of a soldier as any other member of the company and was very adept at learning the manual and drill."

The Blalocks never found themselves near any Union troops, however, so they decided to find a way to leave the Confederate Army. Keith came up with an idea that was crazy and agonizing, yet it worked. He found some poison ivy, some say poison oak, and rubbed it all over his body. Once the welts and rash had become horribly obvious, he played it off as a disease along the lines of small pox and they quickly let him go. "Sam" wanted to leave as well so she could follow her husband, but her furlough was initially denied. It was then that she confessed to being a woman and proved it to Col. Vance.

So why not slip just a few miles down the road towards New Bern, where the Federal army is in April 1862?

This is a great story, and oft-repeated, but his military record says poison sumac and a hernia. It was the latter that really got him out of the army in April 1862. In February 1863, the Confederate government revised  its enlistment policy. It now said that if you had a "single reducible hernia" you still had to serve; you were not exempt for medical reasons.

Once back home, the Confederate draft enforcers soon realized that the Blalocks were healthy as well as deceptive and they tracked them down near their hideout on Grandfather Mountain, a craggy and thick-wooded summit. The couple escaped, albeit with Keith getting a bullet wound for his troubles. It was then that they became guerilla fighters, known then as "bushwackers." Some say they crossed into Tennessee and joined another bushwacker group known as Kirk's Raiders." Michael C. Hardy, however, the author of the book "Kirk's Civil War Raids Along The Blue Ridge," says that there is no official record of the Blalocks and Kirk ever meeting each other.

This paragraph kind of compresses a couple of different events. Keith and Malinda are thought to have been at their home in Coffey's Gap when someone (militia or home guard) arrived. They were forced up Grandfather Mountain to hide in a hog pen under an overhang (or rock house.) Keith's first wounding took place in August 1864, maybe a year later. He claims in his Federal Pension application that he was out scouting, alone.

Either way, Keith and Malinda "Sam" Blalock engaged in lethal raids together all over western North Carolina during the second half of the Civil War. As fate would have it, one of their raids involved James Moore's family.

Actually, their raids were confined to lower Southern Watauga and Northern Caldwell Counties, and maybe a little of Mitchell,  not all over western North Carolina.

"One night while I was home on furlough from wounds received at Gettysburg, in the spring of 1864, her husband and his gang attacked my father's home at the Globe in Caldwell County," said Moore, 35 years after the end of the war. "We had a regular battle with them, in which my father was severely wounded. And, we wounded two of them, one of whom, it was said, was this one-time member of my Company who I enlisted, Malinda Blalock."

Malinda was believed to have taken bullets to her shoulder. After Moore left to return to the war, the Blalocks raided his homestead again in the fall of 1864. This time, Keith had his left eye shot out of his head and the Blalocks soon left North Carolina for, as Moore remembers, 'either Colorado or Montana."

I'd sure love to find where the story of Malinda's wounding starts. Usually it is during the battle of New Bern in March 1862. This time, it is during the raid on Moore's farm. Of course, the Blalocks were not actually with the 26th North Carolina during the battle. How much she was actually with Keith is a great mystery. They had a son in 1863 [Columbus]. I would hazard a guess that she was out-of-commission for at least part of that year.

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the Blalocks came home to western North Carolina, settled down and started a family that included five kids. Malinda "Sam" Blalock died of natural causes in 1903 at 64 years of age. Her husband Keith died a decade later in Hickory, NC.

Actually, Keith killed John Boyd on February 8, 1866. Keith blamed Boyd for the murder of his step-father during the war. Keith was put on trial for the murder, only to have the case dismissed. They were in Mitchell County in the 1870 and 1880 census. At some point after that, they went  to Texas for a while, and maybe Oregon.  

How the folks of that area dealt with each other immediately after the end of the war is left to history. It was probably hard to b  e cordial to a couple that shot bullets at you just a few months earlier. One thing is for sure, however, no matter what side of the conflict you were on; Malinda "Sam" Blalock was a force to be reckoned with during a very dangerous time in our nation's history.

I really appreciate the nod in this article. Overall, the article is not bad. It is much better than the piece that appeared in Our State during the sesquicentennial. What solid information we have about the Blalocks is extremely limited. Everything else comes decades after the war, like the piece by James Moore (1900), and John Preston Arthur (1915).

Examining new recruits.

Once a young man (or sometimes an older man) joined the army, he was supposed to be examined by a surgeon or doctor.

Turning back to the Confederate regulations and the recruiting service, new recruits were required to be examined. Article #1453 states: "The superintendent or commanding officer will cause a minute and critical inspection to be made of every recruit received at a depot, two days after his arrival; and should any recruit be found unfit for service, or to have been enlisted contrary to law or regulations, he shall assemble a Board of Inspectors, to examine into the case. A board may also be assembled in a special case, when a concealed defect may become manifest in a recruit, at any time during his detention at the depot." (Regulations of the Confederate Army, 1863, 394)

William M. Whisler, Asst. Surg. 1st SC (Orr's)

Article #1455 reads: "Recruits received at a military post or station shall be carefully inspected by the commanding officer and surgeon, on the third day after their arrival; and if, on such inspection, any recruit, in their opinion, be unsound or otherwise defective, in such a degree as to disqualify him for the duties of a soldier, then a Board of Inspectors will be assembled to examine into and report on the case." (Regulations of the Confederate Army, 1863, 394)

The latter requirement is reiterated elsewhere. Article #1194 states "As soon as a recruit joins any regiment or station, he shall be examined by the medical officer, and vaccinated when it is required, vaccine virus being kept on hand by timely requisition on the Surgeon General." (Regulations of the Confederate Army, 1863, 238)

Chisolm's A Manual of Military Surgery stated that new a recruit "before he is received undergoes a critical examination by the recruiting medical officer, who rejects all blemishes as well as those conditions showing a predisposition to disease..." (16)

Just what did that critical examination look like? Turning again to the Confederate Army Regulations, article #1192: "In passing a recruit, the medical officer is to examine him stripped; to see that he has free use of limbs; that his chest is ample; that his hearing, vision, and speech are perfect; that he has no tumors or ulcerated or extensively cicatrized legs; no rupture, or chronic cutaneous affection; that he has not received any contusion, or wound of the head, which may impair his faculties; that he is not a drunkard; is not subject to convulsions, and has no infectious disorder, nor any other that may unfit him for military service." (238)

Obviously, some surgeons faithfully did their jobs. There were 27 men rejected from the 37th North Carolina Troops. Not once do the compiled service records list why these men were rejected. Usually, it has their enlistment date, and simply that they were rejected. It is unclear if they were examined by a local doctor, or if they were rejected once they arrived at camp and were examined by a post surgeon. Many of these men later joined other regiments. Soldiers seldom wrote home about the process of being inspected by a surgeon.

Surg. Walter T. Adair 2nd Cherokee Mnt. Vol.

But there were obviously lapses in the inspection process. Sarah Malinda Blalock joined the 26th North Carolina Troops in March 1862, under the name of "Sam Blalock." She posed under the guise of her husband's younger brother. She was in the army for a month, apparently never examined by a surgeon. It was only her disclosure, after her husband's discharge, which led to her dismissal from the army.

As time went on, reason for being rejected decreased. In February 1863, orders informed examining officers that defects such as "general debility," "slight deformity," partial deafness, speech impediment "unless of a very aggravated character," functional heart trouble, muscular rheumatism, epilepsy-unless clearly proven, varicocele-"unless excessive," myopia, hemorrhoids-"unless excessive," "opacity of one cornea, or the loss of one eye," "loss of one or two finger," and "single reducible hernia" were "not deemed sufficient and satisfactory for exemption." (Cunningham, Doctors in Gray, 164)

It would be interesting to note (or track) any upticks in a regiment's members on a sick list, before and then after February 1863. Of course, new regiments suffered from measles, mumps, and a host of other calamities that ran rampant through the camps. Was there an uptick of new recruits (post February 1863) hospitalized for one of the ailments listed above? A more serious question would be: how did the revised regulations strain the Confederate hospital system?

I'll be watching for mentions of new recruits being examined as I continue my read through Confederate letters and diaries.

Becoming a Confederate soldier

The title of this post seems to have a simple answer: join the Confederate army, or, as the song says, "Jine the Cavalry." But it is a little more complicated. There were certain steps that had to be taken for a person to be recognized as a Confederate soldier. He had to enlist, be sworn in or take an Oath, and be read the Articles of War.

Confederate recruiting poster 

Several years ago, I was reading through the Federal pension applications for William M. "Keith" Blalock. Yep. That Blalock. He enlisted in the Confederate army (Company F, 26th North Carolina Troops) on March 20, 1862, and discharged by reason of "hernia" and "poison from sumac" on April 20, 1862. In that month, he had time to get from his home in the mountains of western North Carolina, all the way to Kinston, down toward the coast. In his pension application, Blalock states that he was never officially enrolled in the Confederate army. Now, Blalock might have been lying (he certainly stretched the truth regarding his war-time wounds, at least in the eyes of the pension board), but his statement regarding his enrollment shows that there was a process that had to be followed for an individual to be considered a Confederate soldier.

Step one in that process was to enlist or enroll. Early in the war, this was in a local company. Often, a member of the community would get permission to raise a company. When the company neared the number of required men, there were elections for officers. Usually (but not always), the person who had permission to raise the regiment was elected. Local men in the community volunteered to serve, or enlisted in the company. Usually, some type of sheet was signed, the volunteer agreeing to serve for a certain amount of days - six months, or a year. The man was then enrolled.

Step two was being mustered into service. When a new company had enough men, the captain wrote a letter to the governor or state adjutant general, stating that there were enough men present for the company, and offering their services to the state. Soon a letter would arrive, ordering the company to one of the training camps. The new soldiers would load up and march to the nearest railroad depot, then embark for a training camp. (Usually, but there are always exceptions). Once there were 10 companies at one of these camps, the company officers were authorized to get together and elect a colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major. The regiment was created and then men mustered into service. A company could spend two or three months in a camp before enough companies were present to create a regiment. Once this was finalized, the regiment was mustered into Confederate service.

During the mustering process, when the regiment was actually formed and then given to the Confederate States Army, the soldiers swore an Oath to the Confederacy. (Confederate regulation states the Oath had to be taken within six days of enlisting in Confederate service. Before this time, they still belonged to the state.) The Oath went:

The way the Northern Press viewed Confederate enlistment.

   "I ____ _____, do solemnly swear or affirm, that I will bear true allegiance to the Confederate States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or opposers whatsoever, and observe and obey the orders of the President of the Confederate States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the rules and articles for government of the armies of the Confederate States." (From Regulations for the Army of the Confederate States, 1863, 386.)

Step three  involved being read the Articles of War. The Confederate (and Union) army was governed by the 101 Articles of War. These rules governed the soldier and meted out punishments for those who broke these rules. These articles were supposed to be read to new recruits and to regular soldiers every month, "after the inspection." Parts of the articles that dealt with "the duties of non-commissioned officers and soldiers will be read to them every week." (From Regulations for the Army of the Confederate States, 1863, 364.)

Once these three steps were completed, the new recruit was considered as having been "duly enlisted and sworn" into Confederate service. Information about the actual process, documented in the writings of Confederate soldiers, seems to be rather slim.  (From Regulations for the Army of the Confederate States, 1863, 408.)

Back to old Keith Blalock. He wrote in his pension files that he was never officially enrolled in the Confederate army. He obviously volunteered and enlisted, but maybe he never swore that oath or was never read the Articles of War. While I do not think we can ever be sure, he obviously made that distinction. He did join the Confederate army, but he was never properly enrolled in the Confederate service.

Who shot Jackson?

Ok. That one is pretty easy. Almost everyone agrees it was the 18th North Carolina Troops who shot Jackson. It was not their fault: it was dark; Jackson should not have been out in front of his men that close to the front lines, etc., etc. Scott Ellis recently asked me a much harder question: what company of the 18th North Carolina shot Jackson? We don't actually know, which leads to a much harder, technical question: how were companies deployed in a line within a regiment?

from Hardee's Light Infantry Tactics (1861). 

Some basics: A standard infantry regiment during the war was composed of ten companies. Each company was composed of 100 men, at least early in the war. By mid-1863, it was probably half that. Each company, once a regiment was created, was given a letter designation - A through K, skipping the letter J because it looked too much like the letter I. Traditionally, when ten independent companies were gathered at a training camp, they were given permission to form a regiment and elect their colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major. Then the independent companies were given letter designations. It would be nice to assume that Company A was the oldest company in the regiment, Company B the second oldest, etc., but that does not appear to be true. In looking at three regiments, the 16th North Carolina, 26th North Carolina, and 37th North Carolina, the companies are not lettered chronologically. It is possible that the Company lettering was based upon when they received permission to organize from the governor. (That would take more research to prove.)

We could then assume that Company A would be the first company in line, followed by Company B, Company C, etc. But that's not the way the period manuals laid out the regiment. The very first paragraph in the 1861 edition of Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics... by W. J. Hardee reads: "A regiment is composed of ten companies, which will habitually be posted from right to left, in the following order: first, sixth, fourth, ninth, third, eighth, fifth, tenth, seventh, second, according to the rank of captains." (5) The last little phrase "according to the rank of captains" is what makes this confusing.

Going back to the 37th NC, the regimental line, based upon the seniority of the captains, should look like this on November 20, 1861 (this is from the right): A, E, C, G, K, H, D, I, F, B. That changes on November 21. Capt. William M. Barber (Company F) is promoted to lieutenant colonel and Capt. John G. Bryan (Company G) is elected major. Their successors are now the junior captains in the regiment. 1st Lt. James Reed replaces Captain Bryan, and Pvt. Charles N. Hickerson replaces Captain Barber. Since Hickerson is elected from the ranks, he is the junior captain of all the company commanders in the 37th NC. Now the companies are in line, from the right: A, E, C, G, K, I, D, F, H, B. Usually, the companies on the far right and far left are designated flank companies, or skirmish companies. At times, they are armed with rifles, while the rest of the companies are armed with smoothbore muskets.

Now, this raises a serious question that I have never been able to answer. During the war, when captain turnover was frequent, did the companies change position in the line? I could see this in the old US Army, prior to war. Companies were rarely together to begin with, often stationed at various posts some distance away. Looking at the 37th NC on May 1, 1863, right before the battle of Chancellorsville, the companies should be, from the right, A, E, H, I, D, G, F, K, B, C. And even this may not be right. Captain John Hartzog of Company A was originally elected as captain on August 27, 1861. He resigned and went home on July 15, 1862, but was re-appointed as captain of Company A on February 9, 1863. Does his previous rank come into play?

The reason I use the 37th NC for an example is this: I actually have a listing of companies in line. Noah Collins, in his post-war writings, lays out the company line in late 1861 (from the left): D, B, E, C, K, I, H, G, A, F. As you can see this is nothing like how it should be, according to the rank of the captains.

Along those lines, has anyone ever seen another account of a Confederate regiment where the companies were designated in line? I've been reading letters, diaries, and regimental histories, and I don't recall seeing this any other place.

So, to go back to Scott Ellis's question, no, I don't know which company of the 18th NC shot Jackson. I'm not sure we will ever know the answer to that question. 

Confederates beyond the War - Governors

One of those questions floating around my mind on Sunday as I drove to Raleigh was how many governors in North Carolina had Confederate service behind them: several, it turns out. An even greater question is how the military experience of these men influenced their lives and hence the direction of the state. We'll save that one for another post.

Brogden

William W. Holden (1865) was appointed military governor at war's end by US President Andrew Johnson. He was a newspaper editor and had no military experience.

Jonathan Worth (1865-1868) was elected in late 1865. He was a strong Unionist and never really supported the war. Worth was appointed state treasurer by the General Assembly in 1862, and he held the post until elected governor.

William W. Holden (168-1871) was elected to serve a regular term, but was impeached in 1871.

Tod Robinson Caldwell (1871-1874) took over after the impeachment of Holden. The new state constitution of 1868 provided for a lieutenant governor, and Caldwell was the first to hold the position. Like Worth, Holden was a Unionist, but had served as a solicitor of Rutherford County during the war years.  

Curtis Hooks Brogden (1874-1877) was state comptroller during the war years. He was a Democrat at the start of the War and supported Vance for governor, but like Holden and Worth, moved toward the Republican party once the war ended. Brogden was Caldwell's lieutenant governor, and took over the governorship when Caldwell died in office.

Jarvis

Zebulon Baird Vance (1877-1879) was the first Confederate military officer to hold the position of governor after the War ended. Vance had served as a company officer in the 14th North Carolina State Troops, and as colonel of the 26th North Carolina Troops, before being elected governor in 1862. He was reelected in 1864, but arrested in May 1865, and unable to hold political office for a number of years after the end of the war. His third term as governor only lasted a couple of years, he was sent to the United States senate in 1877.

Thomas Jordan Jarvis (1879-1885) was originally a private in Company L, 17th North Carolina Troops, joining on May 4, 1861. Two weeks later, he was appointed a lieutenant in the 8th North Carolina State Troops and transferred. Jarvis was captured when Roanoke Island fell on February 8, 1862, but was back with the army by November 1862. In April 1863, he was promoted to captain of Company B. He was wounded in the right shoulder at Drewry's Bluff in ay 1864, and reported absent wounded the rest of the war.

Scales

Alfred Moore Scales (1885-1889) was elected captain of what became Company H, 13th North Carolina Troops on April 30, 1861. In October, he was elected colonel of the same, replacing William Dorsey Pender, who was appointed colonel of the 6th North Carolina State Troops. Scales was wounded in the right thigh at Chancellorsville, and then promoted to brigadier general on June 13, 1863.  Scales was again wounded at Gettysburg, then fought through the Overland Campaign, but appears to have been sick the last months of the war.

Daniel Gould Fowle (1889-1891) was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 31st North Carolina Troops on September 19, 1861. He was also captured when Roanoke Island fell in early 1862. Fowle was defeated for reelection when his regiment was reorganized in September 1862. Fowle served in the General Assembly, then as adjutant general, then was back in the General Assembly after a disagreement with Vance. He also died in office while serving as governor.

Thomas Michael Holt (1891-1893), lieutenant governor, filled the unexpired term of Fowle. Holt does not appear  to have served during the war. Instead, he stayed and managed part of his family's textile interests, namely the Granite Mill on the Haw River.

Elias Carr (1893-1897), as the story goes, was a private in Company G, 3rd North Carolina Cavalry, serving from September 1861 through June 1862. He was then called back to North Carolina to manage his very large farm. It appears that Carr later served as a sergeant in Company K, 67th North Carolina Troops, and possibly as a private in Company A, 8th Battalion North Carolina Partisan Rangers.

Daniel Lindsay Russell (1897-1901) was appointed a 1st lieutenant in the "Lamb Artillery" on May 5, 1862. The battery was also known as Company G, 2nd North Carolina Artillery. He was promoted Captain in January 1863, but was court martialed for assaulting another officer. He was later restored to his command, but resigned in February 1865. He was also a Republican.

Russell was the last Confederate veteran to serve as governor of North Carolina.