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.

Marking Lee’s Headquarters of Appomattox

A wooden board mark's Lee HQ

   Recently, I acquired a postcard of Robert E. Lee’s last headquarters at Appomattox. In the turn- of-the-century style, a board nailed to a tree marks the spot of Lee’s camp site. The post card is postmarked 1906, about two decades before the National Park Service acquired the property.

   Lee’s headquarters was about a mile east of Appomattox Court House. He spent the night of April 8, 1865, sans tent, sleeping under the stars with Longstreet, Fitz Lee, and John B. Gordon. Lee met with Grant the following day at the McLean House, surrendering the Army of Northern Virginia. The headquarters’ wagon arrived, and Lee’s tent was pitched. It was at this site that Lee’s headquarters’ flag was cut up, and where, in a wagon, General Order #9 was drafted, copied, and sent to the surviving corps and division commanders.

   There are not many descriptions of the camp compound. One came from Maj. Gen. Thomas F. McCory (US), who had known Lee during the war with Mexico. McCory recalled in 1888 that it was a challenge, but

“so favorable an opportunity may never again he presented, and would make the effort, so that we could have it to say that we spoke with the great Confederate General. The way to Lee’s headquarters we did not know, but we rode along the great rode leading through the Confederate camps, and as we advanced made inquerry, and for some time received but little satisfaction, but at length met an officer who very courteously said that Lee’s headquarters would be found ‘right out that road.’ Following the direction some distance in a wood we soon found ourselves in the midst of headquarters tents. On the right of the road we saw one of our Major-Generals, an old army officer, sitting beneath a tent-fly waiting for an interview with Lee. A little further on we noticed an officer in full uniform of the Confederate color standing before a fire in front of his tent, and I at once said to my companion that it was General Lee, whom I immediately recognized, although I had not seen him for nearly twenty years. It was suggested that we ride a little aside, hitch up our horses, and go right up to the General and not attempt a formal approach in the red tape style, or we might fail in our purpose.”[1]

   McCoy detailed his conversation with Lee, yet provided no other descriptions of the camp. One Tar Heel recalled that on the night of April 9, the regimental band of the 4^th North Carolina Infantry visited Lee’s headquarters, serenading him. The entire regiment was present, and “Gen. Lee came out of his tent, gave his hand to all and bid them farewell.”[2]

   There was a movement to start marking various spots connected to historical events related to the war. For some places, like Gettysburg, that movement started in 1864 with the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association. For the most part, it was not until the late 1800s that the movement picked up traction. Veterans were visiting the fields where they had fought, some attempting to mark prominent positions with painted boards, often nailed to trees.

  Joseph W. Kirkley and Calvin D. Cowles visited Appomattox in 1892. Both Kirkley and Cowles worked on commission producing the Official Records and are the authors of the atlas that accompanied the volumes. What they discovered was that the Grand Army of the Potomac, a veterans’ organization for Federal soldiers, had purchased much of the property. The idea was that summer homes could be constructed for “members who desired to revisit leisurely the scene of the surrender.” The venture, however, had failed.[3] A new courthouse was being constructed down the road at Appomattox Station, and the McLean house had been disassembled for shipment to Washington, D.C. for display. “It became at once apparent that Appomattox was being robbed of its most interesting architectural feature, and the commissioners at once regretted that steps had not been taken to prevent this act of vandalism, and measures taken to have the McLean house made some sort of memorial hall in perpetuity.”

 

  Kirkley and Cowles could find only one man, George Peers, who had lived in the area during the eventful days of April 1865. Peers had been the clerk of court since 1860. Kirkley and Cowles filed their report, and there was some movement to mark the important positions. This included support from former Confederate general John B. Gordon.

   Plans were made to produce several iron signs, much like those at Chickamauga. One sign denoted where Confederate artillery fired their last shot on the morning on April 9, 1865; another the apple tree that Lee and Grant met under on the morning of April 10; and yet another denoted the site of Lee’s final headquarters. These were apparently all in place by 1893.[4]

   But to the postcards, which still have the wooden sign image. These were apparently printed prior to 1893. Maybe they were made to support the failed Grand Army of the Republic enterprise.

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[1] The Free Lance-Star, June 5, 1888.

[2] The Charlotte Observer, March 17, 1895.

[3] The Times-Picayune, November 24, 1893.

[4] The Times-Picayune, November 24, 1893.

What Happened to the Food Sent to Amelia Court House?

   It is a fairly well known story about the war. In 1865, Robert E. Lee asked that rations for his army be sent to Amelia Court House. After being forced from the trenches protecting Richmond and Petersburg, Lee found not rations awaiting him, but ammunition.

   Writing in 1875, just ten years after the events, George C. Eggleston recalled an interesting turn of events concerning those provisions. Born in Indiana, Eggleston was living in Amelia County when the war began and joined Lamkin’s Battery on May 9, 1861, serving as a first sergeant and then as sergeant major. At the battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina, in October 1862, Eggleston was wounded by “concussion of shell.”[1] Lamkin’s Battery, Virginia Light Artillery, saw service in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, until returning to Virginia in October 1863. The rest of their service was connected to the Army of Northern Virginia.

Marker in Amelia (HMdg.org)

   Eggleston accompanied his battery on at least part of the retreat toward Appomattox Court House, although it appears he was not present for the surrender, coming in for his parole at Burkeville on April 21, 1865. Eggleston had a great deal to say about food and rations in a chapter entitled “Red Tape” in his 1875 memoir. Concerning the waiting train of provisions at Amelia Court House, Eggleston wrote:

   When the evacuation of Richmond was begun, a train load of provisions was sent by General Lee’s order from one of the interior depots to Amelia Court House, for the use of the retreating army, which was without food and must march to that point before it could receive a supply. But the president and his followers were in haste to leave the capital and needed the train, wherefore it was not allowed to remain long enough to be unloaded, but was hurried on to Richmond, where its cargo was thrown out to facilitate the flight of the president and his personal followers, while the starving army was left to suffer in an utterly exhausted country, with no source of supply anywhere within its reach.”[2]

   While Lee had been warning those in Richmond that his ability to defend the entrenchments was nearing its end, the breakthrough on April 2, 1865, caught many by surprise. J.H. Averill wrote after the war that he was serving as trainmaster for the Richmond and Danville Railroad at the time. His first telegraph note on April 2 was to hold all trains at Danville. Averill asked for clarification but got no response. He believed that raiders might have cut the line between Burkeville and the Staunton River. The next message over the wire was: “Come to Richmond with all engines and empty passenger and box-cars you can pick up. Bring no freight or passengers.” Averill readied the four engineers and whatever rolling stock he could find. Asking for further instructions, he was told “Too late. Richmond is being evacuated. We will all leave this P.M. Arrange for all track room possible in Danville.” Averill also wrote that in Danville “were large government storehouses…all filled to the ceiling, as well as many loaded cars, awaiting shipment.”[3] It is interesting to note that the telegram told Averill to bring “all engines and empty passenger and box-cars you can pick up.” Since the rations would have been in between Danville and Amelia, they certainly would have fallen under the “all you can pick up” order.

   There appears to be an even older version of this story. Writing in 1866, James D. McCabe, Jr., wrote that the “the trains which had been sent from Danville [to Lee at Appomattox] had been ordered to Richmond to help carry off government property, and that, through inexcusable blundering of the Richmond authorities, the cars had been sent on to the Capital without unloading at the stores at Amelia Courthouse.”[4]

   Lee went as far as to say in his final report to Davis in April 1865 that “Not finding the supplies ordered to be placed there [Amelia] twenty-four hours were lost.” The same was repeated on April 4, when Lee sent his appeal to “the Citizens of Amelia County, Va.” The army had arrived at Amelia Court House “expecting to find plenty of provisions, which had been ordered to be placed here by the railroad several days since…”[5]

   These reports obviously rankled Jefferson Davis in the postwar years. In July 1873, Isaac M. St. John, who had replaced the inept Lucius Northrop as commissary general in the last months of the war, wrote Davis on the resources of the Confederacy. St. John could recall or find “No calls by letter or requisition from the General Commanding [Lee], or from any other source, official or unofficial, had been received, either by the Commissary General or the Assistant Commissary General; nor…was any communication transmitted through the Department channels to the Bureau of Substance—for the collection of supplies at Amelia Courthouse. Had any such requisition or communication been received at the Bureau as late as the morning of April 1^st, it could have been met from the Richmond reserve.”[6]

   Eggleston certainly remembered seeing the discarded rations or hearing this story, as did McCabe. Based upon his appeal to the farmers in Amelia County, and his final report to Davis, Lee expected rations to be waiting for his army in Amelia Court House when he arrived on April 4. Would the rations and the lost twenty-hours have made a difference in Lee’s ability to outpace the Federal army? Maybe the    war might have lasted a little longer.

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[1] George C. Eggleton, CMSR, Roll 0318, M324, RG109. NA.

[2] Eggleston, A Rebel’s Recollections, 228.

[3] SHSP, 25:267-9. Originally in the Nashville Banner.

[4] quoted in Freeman, R.E. Lee, 4:509.

[5] Confederate Veteran, 7:233.

[6] SHSP 3:101-2.

Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and biographer Frank Alfriend

   Recently, on one of the online auction sites, a letter from Robert E. Lee to Jefferson Davis was listed. Lee, writing on April 2, 1868, thanks Davis for a copy of Frank H. Alfriend’s The Life of Jefferson Davis. Born in Richmond in January 1841, Alfriend was a graduate of William and Mary College and taught school in Richmond during at least part of the war.[1] By early 1863, he was writing for the Southern Literary Messenger, publishing a piece entitled “The Great Danger of the Confederacy.”[2] In December 1863, it was announced that Alfriend was now the editor of the publication.[3]

Lee to Davis letter on eBay in 2026.

   Alfriend continued writing after the war, becoming a contributor to the Raleigh-based Field and Fireside.[4] Some of his pieces were biographical in nature, such as a piece on Italian revolutionary Garibaldi.[5] All the while, Alfriend was working on a biography of Jefferson Davis. The Biblical Recorder reported in January 1868 that Alfriend, “an attractive writer,” was working on as biography of Jefferson Davis. “The time for that book has not yet arrived, but we feel sure that Mr. Alfriend will execute the work in a manner fully equal to the expectations of his numerous admirers.”[6]

   Alfriend’s book was not the first. Alfred Taylor Bledso released Is Davis a Traitor, or was Secession a Constitutional Right Previous to 1861 in 1866.

   Alfriend reached out to Davis on July 22, 1867, about the biography. Davis confessed that he had “always been very reluctant to give an account of my own deeds.” Sketches that had been released to date were “very defective and often erroneous.” Davis then writes about his time in the U.S. Senate, the Missouri Compromise, working with President Buchanan, and the Crittenden Compromise. Concerning treason, with which Davis was being charged, he wrote “The first congress of the Confederation defined treason, and there was unmistakably declared the doctrine to which the founders of the Union steadily adhered, the paramount allegiance of the citizen to his state. The departure from that creed has been the source of all our ills.” Davis confessed that he had “no books to which to refer and write from memory entirely.”[7] Davis wrote in 1888 that he had only this one “conversation” with Alfriend prior to the publication of the biography.[8]

   The Life of Jefferson Davis was released by the National Publishing Company in March 1868. It was not widely available, and readers needed to subscribe to obtain a copy. The Cincinnati Commercial considered it possibly the best book on the life of Davis, but noted Alfriend’s confession that he was writing from a Southern viewpoint. Despite this bias, the Ohio newspaper believed Alfriend’s work “will excite a lively interest and have a permanent historic value. . . All in all, this volume is the most valuable contribution yet made to the history of the war by any Southern author.”[9] While some praised Alfriend’s biography, it did not meet the approval of everyone. In the December 1868 issue of D.H. Hill’s The Land We Love came a scathing review. “We regard this book as a great misfortune to Mr. Davis,” wrote the editor. “This is much of real value in this book, and it is to be regretted that Mr. Frank H. Alfriend did not confine himself to matters he understood. His military criticisms are not worth a button.”[10]

   Obviously, Davis either asked Alfriend to send a copy of the book to Lee, or Alfriend took it upon himself to send a copy to Lee. On April 2, Lee wrote to Davis: “I am very much obliged to you for the copy of your “Life of Jefferson Davis” which you have kindly sent me. I will take pleasure in its perusal.” Did Davis actually mail the book to Lee? Probably not. Writing to Alfriend in April 1871, Davis confessed that he had “not seen your biography of myself and have failed in my efforts to get a copy.”[11]

   Alfriend continued to work for various newspapers, including the Wilmington Star, the Louisville Courier-Journal, and the Atlanta Constitution. While in Atlanta, he befriended John B. Gordon. When Gordon went to Washington, D.C., as a senator, he got Alfriend a job as an assistant librarian. Alfriend was working on a revised biography on Davis when he died on May 3, 1887. He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.[12]

      While this letter has recently come to light, does Lee’s copy of The Life of Jefferson Davis survive?

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[1] Richmond Dispatch, August 26, 1862, September 24, 1863, September 12, 1864.

[2] Staunton Spectator, February 3, 1863.

[3] Richmond Dispatch, December 30, 1863.

[4] Field and Fireside, January 6, 1866.

[5] The Field and Fireside, July 28, 1866.

[6] The Biblical Recorder, January 22, 1868.

[7] The Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12:239-43.

[8] Ibid, 12:244n20.

[9] quoted in the Clarion-Ledger, March 7, 1868.

[10] Book Notes. The Land We Love (December 1868): 179-181.

[11] The Papers of Jefferson Davis, 13:20-21.

[12] The Papers of Jefferson Davis, 12:243.

Robert E. Lee’s Railroad Gun

   The War brought some emerging technology to the forefront, innovations like repeating rifles and ironclad ships. The railroad was used to funnel troops and supplies, and then the wounded from battlefields to hospitals in cities. One of the new technologies was the use of armored railroad cars bearing large cannons.

(Library of Congress)

   Rumors filtered into Army of Northern Virginia command in early June 1862 that the Federal army was building a mobile battery to operate on the railroad. Due to their close proximity to Richmond, Lee believed that the only way that the enemy could get large cannons close to the Confederate capital was to use the York River Railroad.[1] On June 5, Robert E. Lee, who just three days prior had been assigned command of the principal Confederate army in Virginia, wrote Maj. W.H. Stevens, his chief engineer, concerning the vulnerability of the railroad. If the Federals constructed “a railroad battery, probably plated with iron,” they could “sweep the country.” While a fixed battery could be constructed, Lee wanted Stevens to explore the idea of their own “railroad battery…plated and protected with a heavy gun.”[2]

   That same day Lee wrote to Col. J. Gorgas, chief of the Ordnance Department: “Is there a possibility of constructing an iron-plated battery mounting a heavy gun, on trucks, the whole covered with iron, to move along the York River Railroad?” Lee asked. He told Gorgas to inquire with the Navy Department. Lee also mentioned using mortars on the railroad as well.[3]

   A third note went out from Lee that day to Capt. George Minor, Chief of Ordnance and Hydrography. “I am very anxious to have a railroad battery,” Lee wrote, mentioning he had written Gorgas and Confederate naval Lt. John M. Brooke on the subject. “Till something better could be accomplished I proposed a Dahlgren or Columbiad, on a ship’s carriage, on a railroad flat, with one of your navy iron aprons adjusted to it to protect gun and men. “If I could get it in position by daylight to-morrow I could astonish our neighbors.”[4]

   Lee did not get his cannon until June 24. The design was one by Brooke, who also designed both cannons and armament for the CSS Virginia. Minor reported that a rifled and banded 32-pounder had been mounted on a railcar, and supplied with 200 rounds of ammunition, including 15-inch solid bolts, all under the command of Lt. R.D. Minor, C.S. Navy.[5]

   The cannon was used at least once during the Seven Days campaign, during the battle of Savage Station. Private Robert K. Sneden, 40^th New York, wrote that during a lull in the battle, “a shrill locomotive whistle was heard… soon appeared coming down the tracks toward us a nondescript car, which was roofed over at sides with railroad iron set at an angle, and from which in front projected a heavy gun… While all eyes were directed toward it, [its] big gun opened fire suddenly, and everyone looked for some place of shelter.” The “heavy gun,” according to Shenen, fired several shots before being withdrawn half a mile back up the tracks where it continued firing till dark. Also noted was that the Confederates had placed cotton bales on the cars, with infantrymen behind them, to protect the gun. As the gun withdrew, the Federals commenced to tear up the York River Railroad, preventing the gun from advancing any closer.[6]

   Following the action at Savage Station, the armored battery disappears for a couple of years, probably stored at the rail yard in Richmond. There is a rumor that the gun saw action at Drewry’s Bluff in June 1864. The cannon was obviously captured at the end of the war, maybe in Petersburg. An armored railroad battery was photographed at the end of the war. Some historians believe that the imaged  cannon is Lee’s Railroad Gun.[7]

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[1] OR 11, pt. 3, 573.

[2] OR 11, pt. 3, 574.

[3] OR 11, pt. 3, 574.

[4] OR 11, pt. 3, 576.

[5] OR 11, pt. 3, 615.

[6] Bryan and Lankford, Eye of the Storm,76-77.

[7] see also David H. Schneider, “Lee’s Armored Car.” Civil War Times, February 2011.