Taking care of Burke County’s Destitute after the War.

   Burke County, North Carolina, has come up several times over the years here on Looking for the Confederate War. You can learn more about the county here and about the Avery brothers here. Morganton, the county seat of Burke County, served as one of the sub- districts for the Freemen’s Bureau after the war. Usually when people think of the Freedman’s Bureau, people think of schools and taking care of former slaves, which was one function of the organization. But after March 1867, it also administered foodstuffs to destitute people, both Black and White.

   Many times, we reach the end of the war in April and May 1865, and we don’t really think about the condition of people for the next few years. Those years are boiled down to Southerners, both White and Black, suffering “untold horrors.” Untold is a large part of it. Destitution in the South became so acute in the spring of 1867 that a joint resolution was passed by the US Congress authorizing the use of unexpended Freedman Bureau funds to purchase food supplies to prevent starvation and extreme want. There were an estimated 53,945 people thought to be destitute in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina.[1]

   It was the various Freedmen’s Bureau agents in the sub-districts who were responsible for distributing these rations. It is not clear just how word was spread, either by circular or word of mouth maybe, but in late June and early July 1867, people came into Morganton to apply for assistance. Many of the applicants were widows of Unionist men. Margaret Lail, supporting four children, applied. She told the agent that “My husband was a Union man, [and] was shot by one of Patterson’s home guard.” She was awarded twenty-four pounds of pork and 168 pounds of corn. Nancy York, taking care of an aged father and three children, told the agent that her husband William York, possibly of Company B, 11^th North Carolina State Troops, was a Union man, conscripted into Confederate service. He deserted and was “shot in Burke Co., by David Peter, a home guard, for deserting the Confederate army.” They had no land, no cow, no “creature.” She made her mark and received 28 pounds of pork and 196 pounds of corn. Myrah Cook had six children to take care of. Her husband, Edward Cook, was a Unionist, and was shot twice by the home guard. The second time, Cook “was shoot in the woods, where [Myrah] took care of him 8 days when he died.”[2]

   A couple of the destitute who came in had husbands that they claimed had served in the Union army and died during the war. Emeline Couch claimed that her husband, name unknown, was in the Union army when he was killed, “leaving me destitute” with one child. Likewise, Lucinda Summers, with one child, also lost a husband in Federal service.[3]

   The greatest number of applicants were rather tight-lipped about why they were destitute. Elizabeth Simpson, Mary Smith, and Louisa Petit were living with three dependent children. They told the agent that they were “landless and destitute, caused by the war.” They were given 30 pounds of pork and 252 pounds of corn. Likewise, Mary Clark, Rebecca Short, and Mary Brackett, with ten children, were all “widows and destitute, caused by the war.” Fanny Fraklin told the agent that her husband had been injured during the war in the head, and that they were destitute.[4]

   However, many of the destitute who came to Morganton to seek relief were connected to the Confederate army. Huldah Lewis told the agent that her husband was “crippled in the rebel service and [they were] destitute.” Elizabeth Sherill and Rebecca Matthews, trying to support two children, had lost their husbands “in the Rebel army.” Nancy Smith and Macey Bingham had husbands who had died in northern prison camps. Polly Chrisenburg was trying to take care of her aged father and five children. Her “husband had died in the war.” Williams Watts, with his wife, complained that he had “lost all my sons in the Confederate army.” Watts was over 60 years old “and destitute.”[5]

   Henry Goins was one of the few Confederate soldiers to come in. He enlisted at the age of 18 in Burke County on May 10,1861, and was mustered in as a private in what became Company E, 16^th North Carolina Troops. Goins was wounded in the left arm and right elbow and captured at Gettysburg in July 1863. He was paroled later in 1863 and rejoined his regiment in time to be paroled at Appomattox. Goins told the agent that he was “a volunteer in the Rebel army [and] lost an arm and the other [stiffened] at the battle of Gettysburg. Can’t feed myself and am entirely destitute.” Goins was given 16 pounds of pork and 112 pounds of corn.[6]

   If there were any applicants turned away, those files have not been made available to the public online, or they were not kept. Reconstruction as a whole is little understood in many communities. History does not end in the spring of 1865. In local history, the times are viewed as “untold horrors.” Just how much of this history is lost, versus what has yet to be explored, is another one of those horrors. Does your county or community have a history of reconstruction? There are several volumes of Reconstruction as a whole on my shelves. Only one, James W. Hagy’s After the War Over: Reconstruction in Washington County, Virginia, 1865-1870, covers a county. Are there others? These were real people, and their ordeals were real. Remembering them is important.

  Many thanks to Laura Dunning Elliott for helping me find the Burke County records on FamilySearch. Now to just discover some additional western North Carolina counties.

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[1] Beth, “The Freedmen’s Bureau in Alabama,” The Journal of Southern History 91948) 1:79.

[2] North Carolina. Freedmen's Bureau Records 1865–1872, M1909, Morganton Sub-Assistant Commissioner, Roll 32, Applications for rations, Jun-Jul 1867.

[3] North Carolina. Freedmen's Bureau Records 1865–1872, M1909, Morganton Sub-Assistant Commissioner, Roll 32, Applications for rations, Jun-Jul 1867.

[4] North Carolina. Freedmen's Bureau Records 1865–1872, M1909, Morganton Sub-Assistant Commissioner, Roll 32, Applications for rations, Jun-Jul 1867.

[5] North Carolina. Freedmen's Bureau Records 1865–1872, M1909, Morganton Sub-Assistant Commissioner, Roll 32, Applications for rations, Jun-Jul 1867.

[6] Jordan and Manarin, North Carolina Troops, 6:51; North Carolina. Freedmen's Bureau Records 1865–1872, M1909, Morganton Sub-Assistant Commissioner, Roll 32, Applications for rations, Jun-Jul 1867.

The Three Trials of William Holland Thomas

   Thomas’s Legion is one of those Confederate infantry organizations with almost mythical status. In a day and time when Native Americans in the United States had been maligned and unfairly treated, a group of Cherokee joined the Confederate cause. They were led into the fray by their white chief, William Holland Thomas. Yet Thomas was a poor military leader. Three times during the war, he was court martialed by his superiors for various offenses.

   Thomas was born in 1805 near Waynesville, North Carolina. He was raised by his widowed mother, was running a store by the age of thirteen, and later, dealt in real-estate.  Thomas also read law. In 1848, he won a seat in the state senate and held that seat until 1861, an unusual feat for a Democrat in the Whigish mountain counties. His political fortunes were tied to internal improvements, largely the railroad. Most Democrats were not in favor of internal improvements unless they benefited the eastern counties. Thomas owned thirty-nine slaves according to the 1860 census, was married, and had three small children at home.[1] 

Col. William H. Thomas, from Clark's.

      Thomas had a long and complex history with some of his neighbors, the Cherokee. He ran a store in Qualla Town in Haywood County, and was adopted by Yonaguska, one of the Cherokee chiefs. Some of the Cherokee had agreed to an 1819 treaty in which they accepted land outside of what was considered tribal lands.  Worried that they would be forced west like other Cherokee, this group chose Thomas as their agent in dealing with the Federal government.  Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, Thomas fought for the rights of this small group, going as far as to buy thousands of acres of land for what became known as the Lufty Cherokee. After Yonaguska died, Thomas was elected their chief.[2]

   Because of his role with the Lufty Cherokee, Thomas had the idea of raising a company or battalion of Cherokee warriors to fight for the South. His first attempt, a company called the “Junaluska Zouaves,” really did not go anyplace. Thomas was busy in Raleigh with the secession convention and did not appear to do much recruiting.

   In November 1861, a group of Unionist burned bridges in east Tennessee. Some of the arsonists were caught and imprisoned in Tuscaloosa (read more here). Others were caught and executed, while the majority escaped, some fleeing to western North Carolina. Alarmed at the influx of malcontents, Governor Henry Clark organized ranger companies along the North Carolina-Tennessee boarder. Thomas was slow in organizing his rangers. It was not until April 1862 that the Highland Rangers were mustered into service. Thomas’s command was ordered to East Tennessee to guard railroad bridges. He continued to  recruit, eventually having an infantry regiment, usually under the command of Lt. Col. James R. Love, Jr.; Walker’s battalion, under the command of Lt. Col. William C. Walker;  Levi’s battery, under the command of Capt. John T. Levi; and the Indian Battalion, usually under Thomas.[3]

   It was while in East Tennessee that Thomas first ran into trouble. Thomas’s Legion, because of the rate of desertion, was put under the command of Brig. Gen. Alfred E. Jackson. The two clashed. In August 15, 1863, Jackson placed Thomas under arrest for disobedience of orders. Thomas was sent to Knoxville for trial, and either the trial was interrupted by the arrival of Federals under Ambrose Burnside, or the charges were dismissed.[4]

   In September 1863, as the Confederates abandoned much of east Tennessee, Thomas had orders to join Jackson at Bristol, Tennessee. Instead, Thomas took his Indian battalion and headed for North Carolina. Thomas claimed he had orders to do so, but those don’t seem to survive.[5]

   In December 1863, Thomas moved his command into east Tennessee, possibly planning to spend the winter near Gatlinburg, or possibly in support (and under orders) of Longstreet. Thomas’s command was caught unaware by Federals at Gatlinburg, and after an hour-long fight, retreated back into North Carolina. Soon thereafter, Brig. Gen. Robert B. Vance headed into Tennessee where he was captured on January 14, 1864. New departmental commander Joseph E. Johnston ordered Thomas arrested. The court martial was held in Asheville on February 23, 1864. Once again, the outcome is not known, but Thomas retained his command.[6]

   Thomas continued to try to hold the mountain passes in the Great Smoky Mountains. He struggled to keep not only his men fed, but their families as well. Desertions were rampant, leaving Thomas with too few men. Federals frequently rode into the area, striking at places in Thomas’s rear. Thomas continued to try and recruit, leading to his third arrest and courts martial. The commanding officer of the 6^th North Carolina Cavalry charged Thomas on May 11, 1864, for “[k]knowingly entertaining and receiving for his command” over twenty deserters from that regiment. He was charged with both conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman and for conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline. The trial was held in Goldsboro, North Carolina, October 22, 1864. Thomas was probably found guilty of all charges. In all likelihood, Thomas, who immediately went to Richmond, got Jefferson Davis to drop all but one of the guilty verdicts.[7]

   Thomas and his legion are kind of heroes in Confederate service. His Legion, composed of both Whites and Cherokees, does lend even more credence to the idea of a more diversified Confederate army (you can check out more here and here). But Thomas had many detractors during the war. Congressman A.T. Davidson wrote the Secetarty of War that month asking that Thomas’s command be disbanded. Davidson believed that Thomas had “greatly transcended his authority to the prejudice of the service…Thomas’s Indians are worthless and never will do any good.” In March 1863, Col. Benjamin S. Ewell, assistant adjutant general to Joseph E. Johnston, believed that Legions, including Thomas’s, should be broken apart, formed into traditional regiments in regulation brigades. “In their present condition they are inefficient,” he wrote. Another North Carolinian wrote in 1864: “One North Carolinian wrote to Governor Vance: “It is true, W H Thomas is in Jackson [County]. But what does he do? No order ever reaches him or if it does, his own way is the best.”[8]

      Thomas was paroled in Waynesville on May 9, 1865. He was forced to resign as chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, and then was sued by them, some say reluctantly, in an effort to gain possession of some of their lands. Thomas suffered with mental issues and died at the mental hospital in Morganton in 1893.[9]

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[1] McKinney, “William Holland Thomas,” Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6:25.

[2] McKinney, “William Holland Thomas,” Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6:25.

[3] Brown and Coffey, North Carolina Troops, 16:31; Crow, Storm in the Mountains, 151.

[4] Brown and Coffey, North Carolina Troops, 16:72.

[5] Brown and Coffey, North Carolina Troops, 16:75.

[6] Brown and Coffey, North Carolina Troops, 16:128.

[7] Brown and Coffey, North Carolina Troops, 16:213.

[8] Brown and Coffey, North Carolina Troops, 16:213.

[9] McKinney, “William Holland Thomas,” Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6:25.

More Confederate diversity – the Bunker brothers

    Several years ago, I wrote a post about the way the Confederate army was racially integrated. Actually, I’ve written on that subject a couple of times, talking about the lives of free men of color like the Townsend brothers in the 26^th North Carolina and the Cozzens brothers in the 37^th North Carolina. These men volunteered to serve, and, according to the 1860s, they were not white. You can check out those posts here and here.

   Along those same lines is the service of Christopher Wren Bunker. However, Bunker’s father was not Black, but was born in Thailand, as was his uncle. The two brothers are better known as Chang and Eng Bunker, the famous Siamese Twins.

   The brothers were born in the fishing village of Mekong, Siam, now Thailand, in 1811. They were conjoined at birth, and in August 1829, came to the United States. Due to their being conjoined, they were seen as oddities and picked up jobs with Hunter and Coffin and later with P.T. Barnum, traveling around the United States. They decided to settle in the states, became naturalized citizens, broke with Barnum, adopted “Bunker” as a surname, and set out on their own. For a time in the late 1830’s, they quit touring and settled in the Traphill section of Wilkes County, North Carolina.  Eng and Chang met two sisters, Adelaide and Sarah Yates, whom they married in 1843. Eng and Sarah had ten children, while Chang and Adelaide had twelve children. They relocated to Surry County, North Carolina.[1]

   One of those sons was Christopher Wren Bunker, born to Chang and Adelaide in 1845. On April 1, 1863, in Wythe County, Virginia, Bunker enlisted in Company I, 37^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. He was mustered in as a private. Bunker was captured at Moorefield, Virginia, on August 7, 1864, and sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, arriving on August 24, 1864. A descriptive list described Bunker as having a dark complexion, brown eyes, and black hair, five foot eight, and twenty years of age. On March 4, 1865, Bunker was transferred to City Point, Virginia, where he was paroled.[2] 

Christopher W. Bunker (findagrave)

   But wait, there is another Bunker in the 37^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. Stephen D. Bunker, son of Eng and Laura Bunker, also served. According to his widow’s pension record, Stephen D. Bunker enlisted in July 1864. There is no clear record in the 37^th Battalion for Stephen, but there are a couple of pages for a D.C. Bunker who was absent wounded in 1864.[3]

   What about the 37^th Battalion Virginia Infantry? They were originally known as Dunn’s Partisan Rangers, organized in August 1862. Lt. Col. Ambrose C. Dunn was the first commander. The battalion saw duty during the Jones-Imboden Raid, the battle of White Sulphur Springs, the Siege of Knoxville, and the Valley Campaigns of 1864, including the battle of Moorefield and third battle of Winchester. The battalion disbanded in mid-1865.

   Chang and Eng Bunker passed away in 1874 and are buried at White Plains Baptist Church Cemetery in Surry County, North Carolina. Christopher Wren Bunker passed in 1932 and is buried at the Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery in Surry County.  Stephen D. Bunker passed in 1920 and is also buried at White Plains Baptist Church in Surry County.

   While there is probably not another story quite like that of Chang and Eng Bunker and their sons Christoper and Stephen, there are undoubtedly many other documented cases of diversity in the ranks of Confederate regiments.

 

 

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[1] Daniel Traywick, “Eng and Change Bunker,” Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1: 269-70.

[2] CMSR, RG109, M324.

[3] CMSR, RG109, M324.

The use of Black spies in Eastern North Carolina.

   While researching my upcoming book on the battle of Plymouth (Savas Beatie), I came across one of the few accounts of the execution of a Black man for spying. A member of the 1^st Virginia Infantry, the morning of the battle, recalled that they found a Black man “wearing the dress of a field hand, and having a red handkerchief tied around his head.” Under these clothes was “the full uniform of a Yankee soldier.” The spy was “hung on the spot,” his identity unknown. Most people would either discount this story, or add it to a somewhat questionable list of atrocities committed by Confederate soldiers during the Plymouth Campaign.[1]

From Colyer.

   Yet in 1864, Vincent Colyer published an interesting account of using slaves as scouts and spies in Eastern North Carolina. Colyer, born in New York in 1824, was an artist. During the war, he served with the United States Christian Commission. In March 1862, after the battle of Roanoke Island and New Bern, Federal General Benjamin Butler appointed Colyer Superintendent of the Poor. He was ordered to employ up to 5,000 Black men, offering them $8 a month, one daily ration, and clothes. These men, mainly former slaves, constructed forts, unloaded cargo vessels, repaired bridges, built cots for hospitals, and operated as spies and scouts. Colyer writes that up to fifty Black men were employed as scouts and spies. “They went from thirty to three hundred miles within the enemy’s lines; visiting principal camps and most important posts, and bringing us back important and reliable information.”[2]

   Colyer then gives us a few names and exploits. One spy, Charley, made three trips to Kinston. W.M. Kinnegy also scouted for the Federals in Kinston. Two freemen who came into the lines were used to scout in the Beaufort area. 

   Spies are seldom mentioned in official correspondence. When they are, their race is almost never mentioned. Major General J.G. Foster, wrote from New Bern on January 20, 1863 to Henry Halleck, “I have just received information from a spy, who has been within the enemy’s lines and conversed with their soldiers, to the effect that the rebel force in this State has been largely increased; that the main body intended to be thrown by railroad either to Weldon or Wilmington… The rebel soldiers reported to the spy that 75,000 men were at Goldsboro.”[3] Writing from Suffolk on March 21, 1863, Maj. Gen. John J. Peck asked Major General Dix: “Is it not time for your peddler [spy] to return?”[4] Writing from Wilmington in August 1863, Maj. Gen. W.H.C. Whiting complained to the Secretary of War that he had too few men. The few that he did have were busy, among other things, in the “detection of spies.”[5]

   Spies were even used in the greater Plymouth area. Major General John Peck, commanding the eastern North Carolina district, gave several accounts of using the local population to gather intelligence on Confederate operations.  In February 1864 Peck mentions a letter from Brig. General Wessels, commanding at Plymouth, that Wessel’s “spy has just come in from Halifax. He came from Wilmington, and 25,000 pounds of iron was on the same train.” It was iron for a gun boat. On March 18, Peck reported that Wessels had reported on the “return of a man sent out … to procure information concerning the ram at Halifax.” On March 29, Peck wrote that “My spy came in from Kinston last evening, having been out seven days.” There is little clue about the race of each of these spies, although Peck adds that in March, an officer had examined “all the contrabands” and that they “agree that there is a large force at Kinston, and also at Greenville, and that the obstructions below Kinston are being removed.”[6]

   The use of Blacks as spies, both free and formerly enslaved, was something of which even the Confederate high command was aware. In May 1863, Robert E. Lee, in writing to Lt. Col. J. Critcher, 15^th Virginia Cavalry, noted that "The chief source of information to the enemy is through our Negroes."[7]

   Was the treatment of the Black man caught wearing a Federal uniform under other clothes unusually harsh? Maybe not. Execution has been the normal punishment for spies caught by the enemy for quite some time. We need only to mention names like Timothy Webster and Sam Davis. There were other Black spies, probably the most famous on the Northern side being John Scobell, who worked for Pinkerton. Overall, the work of Black men and women as spies is one that needs to be explored more. That is a challenge. If spies are successful, no one, except their handlers, know of their accomplishments.

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[1] The Daily Dispatch, April 23, 1864.

[2] Colyer, Report, 9.

[3] OR, 18: 524.

[4] OR, 18:566.

[5] OR Vol. 29, pt. 2, 670.

[6] OR, Vol. 33, 291.

[7] OR. Vol. 25, Pt. 2, 826.

Samuel Johnson and the Plymouth Massacre

    Major General Benjamin F. Butler was in a tizzy. He had received a deposition from the provost marshal bearing incredible news, a note he had forwarded to General Grant. The deposition was from the orderly sergeant of Company D, 2^nd United States Colored Cavalry (USCC), Samuel Johnson. Johnson claimed that he was in Plymouth, North Carolina, with a “Sergeant French.” French was a recruiting officer and was in Plymouth “to take charge of some recruits.” Johnson claimed to have witnessed the April 1864 battle of Plymouth, the most successful combined Confederate army-navy venture of the war. On learning that the Federal garrison was going to be surrendered to the Confederate command under Brig. Gen. Robert F. Hoke, Johnson

Pulled off my uniform and found a suit of citizen’s clothes, which I put on, and when captured I was supposed and believed by the rebels to be a citizen. After being captured I was kept at Plymouth for some two weeks and was employed in endeavoring to raise the sunken vessels of the Union fleet.

   From Plymouth I was taken to Weldon and from thence to Raleigh, N.C., where I was detained for about a month, and was forwarded to Richmond, where I remained until about the time of the battles near Richmond, when I went with Lieutenant Johnson, of the Sixth North Carolina, as his servant, to Hanover Junction. I did not remain there over four or five days before I made my escape into the lines of the Union army and was sent to Washington, D.C., and then duly forwarded to my regiment in front of Petersburg.

   Upon the capture of Plymouth by the rebel forces all the negroes found in blue unforms, or with any outward marks of a Union soldier upon him, was killed. I saw some taken to the woods and hung. Others I saw stripped of all their clothing and then stood upon the banks of the river with their faces riverward and there they were shot. Still others were killed by having their brains beaten out by the butt end of muskets in the hands of the rebels. All were not killed the day of the capture. Those that were not were placed in a room with their officers, they (the officers) having previously been dragged through town with ropes around their necks, where they were kept confined until the following morning, when the remainder of the black soldiers were killed.

   The regiments most conspicuous in these murderous transactions were the Eighth North Carolina and, I think, the Sixth North Carolina.[1]

   Johnson’s account is often used as an example of the brutality of Confederate soldiers toward Black Federal soldiers captured during the war. Yet, Johnson’s account has numerous problems. First and foremost, there is no Orderly (or First) Sergeant Samuel Johnson in the 2^nd USCC.[2] Maybe the regiment was wrong. There was a Samuel Johnson in the 3^rd USCC. He did not enlist until July 11, 1864, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Another Samuel Johnson enlisted in the 4^th USCC in New Orleans on March 1, 1864. Yet another Samuel E. Johnson enlisted in Columbus, Ohio, on December 20, 1864, in the 5^th USCC. This soldier was appointed sergeant on February 1, 1865.[3] Maybe the provost marshal in his deposition got the first name wrong. There was a corporal Berry Johnson, but he was in Company G; Corp. Henry Johnson served in Company B; Sgt. Joseph Johnson served in Company L, but did not actually enlist until March 9, 1865; Pvt. Kuggs Johnson is the only Johnson in Company D, but he did not enlist until March 14, 1865; Richard Johnson enlisted on December 24, 1864 in Prince Anne County, Virginia. He was also a private, and his compiled service record states he was in various engagements like Petersburg, Virginia, on May 9, 1864; Richard R. Johnson was a sergeant in Company C but is reported present from March to June 1864. Maybe his service record was lost. But why not a pension record?[4]

   If Johnson’s service cannot be substantiated in the Company D, 2^nd United States Colored Cavalry, then that should end the conversation right there. Digging a little further, there is a record for a George N. French somehow connected to the 2^nd USCC. He does not seem to have been officially mustered into the regiment until March 18, 1866, at the rank of second lieutenant. In July (25^th or July 2, ‘65?) a B.H. French writes to the government asking about a son who was a lieutenant in the 2^nd USCC, stating he had been captured at Plymouth. B.H. French was living in Chicago at the time she wrote. There appears to be no prison record, no parole record, and no pension. What became of French?

   Johnson stated that after two weeks in Plymouth and a month in Raleigh, he was sent to Richmond, remaining an undisclosed time, when he was sent to be the servant of a “Lieutenant Johnson, of the Sixth North Carolina.” There is no Lieutenant Johnson/Johnston in the 6^th North Carolina. By the time that Samuel Johnson arrived with the 6^th North Carolina, that regiment had been ordered to the Shenandoah Valley.  From the vicinity of Hanover Junction, Johnson stated he escaped into Federal lines.

   What of the murder of Black Union soldiers so graphically described in Johnson’s affidavit?  One challenge is this: there were no Black regiments stationed in Plymouth during the battle. There were some recruiters and Black recruits for Black regiments. And it is possible that some were killed. However, one Richmond newspaper reported on April 27, 1864, that “two negroes in Yankee uniforms,” arrived with General Wessells (the Federal commander) and the other federal officers in Richmond.[5] Obviously, not all Black men found in uniform were executed in Plymouth.

   Black men, women, and children were held for some time in Plymouth. One newspaper reported that citizens from the surrounding area were “hastening” to Plymouth to “to reclaim the property stolen from them by the Yankees. Besides a large number of negroes, horses and other articles identified by their owners.”[6] On April 23, Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard telegraphed Gov. Zebulon B. Vance, instructing him to send “the slaves captured” at Plymouth “to Wilmington,” to work on the fortifications.[7]

   It is interesting that Samuel Johnson never mentions James Dearing. Dearing’s ad hoc cavalry command plays a role in hunting down both Blacks and local unionists in many other accounts (many post-war, or contemporary to our time) of the battle. Many had escaped to the swamps where Dearing was sent to hunt them down. One report stated that 300 to 400 actually gave themselves up, and Lt. Charles French, with the U.S.S. Miami, picked up “many escaped soldiers . . . who had taken to the swamps.”[8] Yet Johnson never brings those in the swamps up in his affidavit.

   After the war was over, the members of the 101^st and 103^rd Pennsylvania Infantry, who fought at Plymouth and were captured, considered the matter at one of their reunions. They came to the conclusion that men like Samuel Johnson, and the veterans who wrote about the “massacre” after the war, were “mistaken.” They believed that “many negroes and native North Carolina Union soldiers were killed, and perhaps an occasional one brutally murdered, by individual soldiers, but the victims, apprehending cruel treatment, were attempting to make their escape, when by the laws of war, the victors are justified in shooting even an unarmed man.” They believed that Union soldiers, placed in the same situation, might enjoy the “same kind of sport.” They believed that Wessells, who was still in Plymouth when this supposedly took place, “would have instantly taken issue with the Confederates, had he any suspicion of such atrocities.” Considering that the 101^st and 103^rd finished the war in Andersonville Prison and had every right to be embittered against their foe, they declined to endorse the idea of a large-scale massacre of Black soldiers following the battle.[9]

   It is interesting to note that Samuel Johnson claimed to belong to the 2^nd USCC. Just a few weeks prior, the 2^nd USCC ambushed portions of Ransom’s brigade near Suffolk, Virginia, killing and wounding several. When Confederates discovered the house the sharpshooters were using, they set fire to it, with the Black soldiers inside, later declaring that “Ransom’s brigade never takes any negro prisoners…”[10] On passing along Johnson’s affidavit, Butler told Grant that “something should be done in retaliation for this outrage.” He had several prisoners from the 8^th North Carolina and, if in independent command, “I should take this matter into my own hands.” Grant ignored him and the testimony of Samuel Johnson.[11]

   It is entirely possible that Confederate soldiers, in the heat of the moment, killed fellow combatants after they had surrendered. It happens in all wars and not just with Confederate soldiers. Federal officers lost control of their soldiers at the battle of Fort Gregg in April 1865 (read more here). But the idea that Wayne Durrill advanced that “roughly six hundred U.S. soldiers, most of them black, whom the Confederates failed to take prisoner,” were killed, along with the testimony of Samuel Johnson, should be seen as unsubstantiated myth.[12]  

 

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[1] OR, Ser. 2, 7:459-460.

[2] Both compiled service records on Fold3 and Ancestry were checked, along with pension records. I also had someone else double check this.

[3] Various compiled service records.

[4] CMSR, Roll 0024, M1817, RG94.

[5] Richmond Whig, April 27, 1864.

[6] Richmond Examiner, quoted in the Memphis Daily Appeal, May 9, 1864.

[7] Papers of Vance, 3:185.

[8] The Daily Confederate, Apr. 30, 1864; ORN 8, 641.

[9] Dickey, History of the 103d Pennsylvania, 269-70.

[10] Charlotte Daily Bulletin, March 18, 1864.

[11] OR, Ser. 2, 7:459-460.

[12] Durrill, War of Another Kind, 206-8.