Longstreet's other plan

Lt. Gen. James Longstreet

A lot of ink has been spilt over the decades on Gen. James Longstreet and the Gettysburg campaign. Believing that they were just fighting defensive battles, Longstreet was opposed to the attacks on July 2 and 3. He wanted to find a defensive position and let the Federals attack them. Frequently lost in the discussion is the fact that Longstreet did not even really want to be on this campaign.

Following Chancellorsville, Confederate Army of Northern Virginia commander Robert E. Lee sought to once again invade the North. He had many reasons, including a dwindling supply of foodstuffs and wanting to pull the enemy army out of Virginia. A Confederate victory on Northern soil might just galvanize the beginning peace party in the North to press for an end to the war. Elsewhere in the Confederacy, the primary Confederate army of the western theater was locked in a siege at Vicksburg, Mississippi. There were some who believed that a portion of the Army of Northern Virginia should be detached and sent to help defeat the Federal forces.

Longstreet was one of those who wanted to ship a portion of the Virginia army west. Writing in the Philadelphia Weekly Times in 1897, Longstreet recalled visiting the Secretary of War James Seddon as he passed through Richmond following his assignment in the Suffolk area. Seddon asked Longstreet his views on the matter of sending part of the ANV west. “I replied that there was a better plan, in my judgement, for relieving Vicksburg than by direct assault upon Grant. I proposed that the army then concentrating at Jackson, Mississippi, be moved swiftly to Tullahoma, where General Bragg was located with a fine army, confronting an army of about equal strength under General Rosecrans, and that at the same time two divisions of my corps be hurried forward to the same point. The simultaneous arrival of these reinforcements would give us a grand army at Tullahoma. With this army General Johnston might speedily crush Rosecrans, and that he should then turn his force towards the north, and with his splendid army march through Tennessee and Kentucky, and threaten the invasion of Ohio.”

When Longstreet met with Lee, “I laid it before him with the freedom justified by our close personal and official relations. . . . We discussed it over and over, and I discovered that his main objection to it was that it would, if adopted, force him to divide his army. He left no room to doubt, however, that he believed the idea of an offensive campaign was not only important, but necessary.”[1]

Longstreet brings up the same argument in 1896 when he pens his autobiography, From Manassas to Appomattox.[2]

Why not reinforce Pemberton in Vicksburg? “Grant seems to be a fighting man, and seems to be determined to fight. Pemberton seems not to be a fighting man. . . the fewer troops he has the better,” Longstreet wrote Wigfall on May 13, 1863.[3]

Historians are mixed on Longstreet’s motivation. Freeman speculates that “It is impossible to say how far his ambition influenced his proposal or to what extent his plan stirred his ambition. Perhaps he dreamed of supplanting Bragg and of winning the decisive victory.”[4] Piston found Longstreet’s proposal “strategically sound,” but questioned his motives. Did Longstreet wish to replace Bragg? Johnston out-ranked Bragg. Maybe Longstreet still preferred serving under Joseph E. Johnston. Piston goes on to agree with Jones and Connelly who wrote that Longstreet was a part of the “western concentration bloc.” This group of men feared that the industries in East Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama were susceptible to Federal attacks and Bragg should be reinforced by portions of Lee’s army. Longstreet actually wrote Texas Senator Louis T. Wigfall about such a proposal in February 1863 concerning this concentration of troops.[5] Wert argues that Longstreet was not a member of that “western concentration bloc.” He bases this assertion on the letter that Longstreet wrote Wigfall on May 13, 1863. Longstreet told the senator that if a forward movement was ordered, “we can spare nothing from this army to re-enforce in the West.” Instead, the Army of Northern Virginia should be reinforced. “If we could cross the Potomac with one hundred & fifty thousand men, I think we could demand Lincoln to declare his purpose. . . . When I agreed with the Secy & yourself about sending troops west I was under the impression that we would be obliged to remain on the defensive here. But the prospect of an advance changes the aspect of affairs to us entirely.”[6]

Would the proposal of a combination of men and commanders in central Tennessee have reaped the benefits that Longstreet proposed? Maybe. The plan of Lee moving north certainly did not work to the best advantage of the Confederates.

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[1] The Annals of War written by Leading Participants North and South, 416-17.

[2] 330-31.

[3] Wert, General James Longstreet, 245.

[4] Freeman, R.E. Lee, 3:20.

[5] Piston, Lee’s Tarnished Lieutenant, 42, 44.

[6] Wert, General James Longstreet, 244-45.

The fighting Averys

   “Major, tell my father I died with my face to the enemy,” is a well-known last request made during the war. It was uttered by Col. Isaac Avery after he was mortally wounded at the battle of Gettysburg. Isaac Avery was just one of five Avery brothers who rose to prominence in the 19^th century. They were all the sons of Isaac and Harriet Erwin Avery. The Avery family were large landowners in western North Carolina.

William W. Avery

   The oldest brother was William Waightstill Avery. Born in Burke County in May 1816, W.W. Avery graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1837. He later studied law under Judge William Gaston and was admitted to the bar. Avery became a trustee of the University in 1850, and in 1857, became a director of the Western North Carolina Railroad. Avery served several terms in the General Assembly, and in the 1856-1857 term, was speaker of the North Carolina Senate. He, along with Thomas L. Clingman, was a strong advocate for secession. In 1858, he ran for a seat in the US House, but lost to Zebulon Baird Vance. In 1860, Avery was chairman of the state’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention, meeting in Charleston. Appointed Chairman of the resolution committee, Avery “favored the majority report denying the right of congress or territorial legislation to prohibit slavery in the territories, demanding federal protection for all property in those territories, upholding the Fugitive Slave Act, and advocating the acquisition of Cuba from Spain as soon as practicable.” Many delegates walked out, but not the North Carolinians. They would walk out when the convention met again in Baltimore. Once North Carolina left the Union, Avery served as a member of the provisional Confederate Congress and as chairman of the committee on military affairs. Avery failed to win an appointment to the Confederate senate and returned to western North Carolina, where he worked on raising a regiment for Confederate service. W.W. Avery was mortally wounded while leading local home guard in a skirmish with raiders in northern Burke County in late June 1864, dying on July 3, 1864. Avery was married to Mary Corinna Morehead, daughter of Governor John Motley Morehead, and they had several children.[1]

Clark M. Avery

   Clark Moulton Avery was the next son with a wartime connection. He was born in October 1820 and, like his older brother, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unlike his brother, he was not a politician, but instead farmed a large piece of property in Burke County. In February 1861, friends enticed Avery to run for the state secession convention, and election that he won. However, the convention did not meet. Avery would not serve when the actual convention met in May. Instead, when the principles of the foundation of the United States came under attack, Avery joined the military. On April 25, 1861, he was elected captain of Company G, 1^st North Carolina Volunteers, fighting at the battle of Big Bethel in June 1861. Then-colonel D.H. Hill wrote that "Captain Avery Company G displayed great coolness, judgment and efficiency in the battle of Bethel." As the regiment neared the end of its six-month term of enlistment, Avery was elected lieutenant colonel of the 33^rd North Carolina Troops, and then in January 1862, colonel. In March 1862, Avery was captured at the battle of New Bern, being released seven months later. He returned to his regiment and was wounded in the fighting at Chancellorsville and at Gettysburg. At the battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, Colonel Avery was struck in the left arm. When he refused to go the rear, a stretcher was brought forward, and he was carried along the lines, encouraging his men. Avery was eventually struck four times that day, including in the leg, neck, and through the body. Avery survived for six weeks before dying of his wounds on June 18, 1864. Avery was married to Elizabeth Tilghman Walton and was survived by four children.[2]

Isaac E. Avery 

   Isaac Erwin Avery was born in December 1828 in Burke County. For one year, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill but then left the school to help manage his father’s farms in Burke and Yancey Counties, North Carolina. He also worked with Charles F. Fisher and Samuel McDowell Tate to construct the Western North Carolina Railroad. When the war came, he worked on forming a company that became a part of the 6^th North Carolina State Troops. Avery was elected captain of Company E on May 16, 1861. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and then colonel of the 6^th NC and was wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill. On July 2, 1863, while leading Hoke’s brigade in an attack on the Confederate left, Avery was mortally wounded, penning the famous note after his wound: “Major, tell my father I died with my face toward the enemy.” Avery died the next day. Colonel A.C. Godwin, 57^th NC, wrote in his official report that, upon the death of Avery, “the country lost one of her truest and bravest sons, and the army one of its most gallant officers.” His slave, Elijah, began to return to Burke County with the body, but he was forced to stop and bury Avery in Williamsport, Maryland. Avery’s body was later moved to Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown.[3]

   Alphonso Calhoun Avery was born in September 1835. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Avery studied law under Chief Justice Richmond M. Pearson and was licensed in June 1860. AC Avery helped his brother Isaac raise a company and was then elected first lieutenant in that company in the 6^th NCST. Following the battle of Seven Pines, he was promoted to captain, but by the end of 1862, he was transferred to the staff of Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill as assistant inspector general. Major Avery later served on the staffs of John C. Breckinridge, Thomas C. Hindman, and John B. Hood. At the end of the war, Avery was commanding a battalion in the western parts of North Carolina, attempting to curtail some of the damage being done by Federal raiding parties and bushwhackers. Avery was captured in Salisbury by some of Stoneman’s men and was imprisoned at Camp Chase until August 1865. After the war, Avery practiced law and was elected to the state senate; he lost his seat when the radicals came to power, served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1875, and then served as judge of the superior court. Trinity College (now Duke University) conferred upon him a MA, and the University of North Carolina honored him with an LL.D. In 1888, A. C. Avery was elected an associate justice of the Supreme Court, serving for eight years. In 1892, he assumed the position of dean of the law school at Duke University. Avery retired in 1897 and became a prolific writer, respected historian, and prominent member of the Southern Historical Society. His first wife was Susan Washington Morrison, daughter of the Rev. R. H. Morrison. His brothers-in-law included D.H. Hill, Stonewall Jackson, and Rufus Barringer. Avery’s second wife was Sarah Love Thomas, the daughter of Col. William Holland Thomas. A.C. Avery died in June 1913.[4]

   The last Avery brother to serve in the war was Willoughby Francis Avery, born in Burke County in May 1843. He was attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when the war broke out, and, leaving the school, he joined the 3^rd North Carolina Cavalry, where he was elected third lieutenant. When the company was reorganized, he failed to win reelection and resigned. Avery was then appointed a second lieutenant in Company C, 33^rd North Carolina Troops. Promotion to first lieutenant came on January 14, 1863, and on December 15, 1863, he was promoted to captain and transferred to Company E. A month later, he was transferred to Company I. Captain Avery was wounded in the mouth and throat at the battle of the Wilderness in May 1864, returned to duty in November 1864, and was captured at Salisbury on April 12, 1865. He was confined at Camp Chase and released in June 1865. After the war, Willoughby Avery edited newspapers in Charlotte and Asheville before returning to Burke County and establishing a newspaper in Morganton. He was married twice and died November 1876.[5]

   There are, of course, the Avery daughters as well. Adelaide Leah Avery (1822-1897) never married but became one of the first librarians in Burke County. Mary Ann Martha Avery (1831-1890) married Joseph Franklin Chambers. Harriet Justina Avery (1833-1902) married Pinckney B. Chambers, a major in the 49^th North Carolina Troops. The last daughter, Laura Myra Avery (1837-1912), never married.

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[1] Warner and Yearns, Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress, 9-10; Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1:67.

[2] Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1:111; Allardice, Confederate Colonels, 68.

[3] Jordan, NC Troops, 4:266; Allardice, Confederate Colonels, 47; The Herald-Mail, November 4, 2007.

[4] Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1:66-67.

[5] Manarin, NC Troops, 2:221; Jordan, NC Troops, 9:220; Powell, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1:72.

Guarding Prisoners During the Gettysburg Campaign

   The June 1863 battle of Winchester was a resounding Confederate victory and a good start to the Gettysburg campaign. Confederate forces under Richard Ewell were assigned the job of capturing or pushing out the 6,900 Federals garrisoning in and around Winchester, Virginia. The Federal force was under the command of Gen. Robert Milroy. One historian writes that the Federal soldiers, largely from Ohio and West Virginia, “had done little since their enlistments but guard duty on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and their fortifications were badly suited to resist a determined attack.”[1] 

Richard Ewell 

   Milroy believed that the gathering Confederate forces south of him were merely staging for a cavalry raid. When news arrived that a large Confederate force had near by, it was really too late to escape. The Confederates broke through the outer defenses on the evening of June 14, and Milroy ordered a retreat that began at 2:00 am the next morning. Four miles from Winchester, Milroy ran into Confederate forces at Stephenson’s Depot. It was an “ambush cleverly laid by Ewell.”[2] Leading the ambush were the three brigades under Allegheny Johnson. After three failed attempts to break through the Confederate lines, Milroy ordered his regiments  to each “leave to look out for itself, and what had once been Milroy’s command broke up in desperately fleeing fragments.”[3]

   Based upon returns from the Federal regiment, the loses were approximately 3,856 captured, although it is unclear just who was captured in Winchester and who was captured at Stephenson’s Depot. The heaviest-hit were the 67^th Pennsylvania Infantry, losing 714 men, the 18^th Connecticut, with 513 men captured, and the 123^rd Ohio, losing 445 men captured.[4]

   Following the battle, the prisoners were marched to the recently captured Federal forts. It would take several days to move all of the prisoners to Richmond. On June 16, captured Federals began to make the trip to Richmond. They, with their guards, would travel over 200 miles, part of it on foot, and part via rails. The 58^th Virginia and the 54^th North Carolina were assigned the task of escorting the prisoners. Colonel Francis H. Board, 58^th Virginia, addressed the guards: “Men, these Yankees have fallen into our hands by the fortune of war. I want them treated like gentlemen. If I hear of any insults or abuse, it will be punished.” The men would walk from Winchester to Staunton, where they boarded the cars to Richmond. According to one Federal, it took six days, from June 18 to June 24, to reach Staunton.[5]

   The Federals often had harsh words about their captors and the citizens they met. The chaplain of the 12^th Pennsylvania Cavalry complained that turnpike seemed to burn and blister his feet. “Half-clad, many shoeless and hatless and unfed, the cavalcade was a sorrowful one. The sufferings of the trip I cannot express. Nothing to eat but what we begged or bought off citizens who hated us intensely, shut their doors in our face, and from appearances would have been far better pleased with a visit from even his Satanic majesty himself. Indeed, unless the guard had [not] interfered in our behalf, we should have fared very badly.”[6] A captain in the 123^rd Ohio was even harsher, writing that during the march to Staunton, “we were necessitated, by our unfortunate condition as prisoners of war, to submit to the most contemptible treatment, and outrageous insults, that an enraged and diabolical enemy could heap upon us. This detestable treatment was not confined, neither was it most rampant among the soldier guards; but the citizens outrivaled even the soldiers in the exhibition of hate and virulence. They seemed to take great intense delight in hurling their anathemas upon us with unmitigated fury, such as ‘d----d Yankees,’ Milroy’s thieves and robbers,’ ‘black abolitionists,’ ‘every one of you, out to be hung,’ &c. &c.” Of course, some vitriol might be expected. But at one point, the colonel of the 58^th Virginia asked if their were any musicians among the Federals captives. When the answer was yes, he ordered them to the front, provided them with a fife and drum, and allowed them to play what ever airs they wanted, which included “Yankee Doodle” and “The Star Spangled Banner.”[7]

   David Parker, 54^th North Carolina, was one of those detailed to guard the prisoners. He wrote home that his column contained 2,200 Federal prisoners. “We had to march ninety two miles by land to Stanton. It took us five days. . . I tell you that we have had a hard time getting them here [Richmond]. We scarcely got to sleep any on the road. We had to stand guard two hours and only sleep two hours through the night and then march hard the next day.” On arriving in Staunton, the prisoners were placed in the cars, fifty per car. The guards were likewise divided up. Parker was assigned to continue the trip on to Richmond. “They then detailed twenty eight out of our regt to guard seven hundred of them to Richmond. We left Staunton a Tuesday evening about half an hour by sun and landed here the next evening.”[8] The Federal officers were sent to Libby Prison, while the enlisted men were sent to first to Castle Thunder, and then to Belle Island.

   The almost 4,000 men captured during the second battle of Winchester are not often counted as Confederates captured during the Gettysburg campaign. As Gettysburg concluded, General Lee placed “several thousand” Federal prisoners in charge of Maj. Gen. George Pickett, with orders to escort these men back to Virginia.[9] Kent Masterson Brown places the number at 4,000.[10] Stephen Sears places the number at 3,800.[11] If coupled with the 1,300 that Lee had paroled, and the couple of hundred that JEB Stuart had captured and paroled, the number of Federal soldiers captured during the Gettysburg  campaign probably came close to 10,000.

   If you are interested in this part of the Gettysburg Campaign, let me highly recommend The Second
Battle of Winchester: The Confederate Victory that Opened the Door to Gettysburg (Savas Beatie, 2016) by Eric J. Wittenberg and Scot L. Mingus, Jr. It is a fantastic book at this overlooked part of the history of the war.

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[1] Guelzo, Gettysburg, 60.

[2] Coddington, Gettysburg, 89.

[3] Guelzo, Gettysburg, 62.

[4] ORs, Vol. 27, pt.  2, 53.

[5] Wittenburg and Mingus, The Second Battle of Winchester, 379.

[6] Wittenburg and Mingus, The Second Battle of Winchester, 385.

[7] Wittenburg and Mingus, The Second Battle of Winchester, 382-383.

[8] Henry, Pen in Hand, 91.

[9] Hess, Pickett’s Charge, 354.

[10] Brown, Retreat from Gettysburg, 177.

[11] Sears, Gettysburg, 479.

Transferring prisoners across the South.

   According to the Library of Congress’s Civil War Desk Reference, there were 211,411 Federal soldiers taken prisoner during the war. Of those, 16,668 were not incarcerated. They were paroled without going to a prisoner of war camp. That leaves 194,743 who did time in one of numerous prisons across the South. Considering the prisoners of war camps were spread out across the South, how did the Confederate government move these prisoners from camp to camp?[1]

   After a Federal soldier was captured, he was taken to a secure location to the rear of the battlefield and corralled together with other prisoners. Charles Mattocks of the 17^th Maine Infantry was captured on May 5, 1864, during the battle of the Wilderness. Mattocks wrote in his journal that he was sent to the rear “and delivered to the Provost Guard.” That evening, the group, composed of 10 officers and 150 men, was moved a mile and a half further back. The next morning, the prisoners were started on foot to Orange Court House. Their escorts were “Lee’s Body Guard,” the 39^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. Mattocks considered his escorts “very nice chaps. They showed us every favor possible and even allowed us to ride their horses when we were tired.” It was on the morning of May 7 that Mattocks writes of being searched by the Provost. On May 8, Mattocks and his companions were loaded on the railroad and shipped to Lynchburg, Virginia. Mattocks mentions almost escaping “owing to the smallness of the guard,” but the attempt was foiled. He was eventually moved via Danville, through the Carolinians, and then to Macon, Georgia. Mattocks says little of his guard while on his journey.[2]

   It appears that different regiments were utilized to escort prisoners to holding areas. The 16^th Alabama Infantry was detailed to escort prisoners to the rear during the battle of Shiloh in April 1862.  A member of the 9^th Alabama Infantry reported that his regiment escorted a large number of Federal prisoners to the provost marshal following the battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. Also following Chancellorsville, the 52^nd North Carolina, late in arriving at the battlefield, was sent back to Richmond guarding 2,000 Federal prisoners. Following Gettysburg, Picket’s depleted division became a large provost escorting prisoners toward Maryland and Virginia, much to the chagrin of the Virginians.[3]

Train Of Prisoners Approaches Savannah River, Drawing is a drawing by Quint Lox.

   The 39^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry was frequently used to transport Federal prisoners from the battlefield to a railhead. At Fredericksburg, Company A assigned to guard the prisoners actually boarded the train, continuing into Richmond. At Chancellorsville, Company D was reported escorting 650 prisoners to Guinea Station on the night of May 3. Following the battle of Spotsylvania Court House, the battalion moved with about 400 Federal prisoners in front of them, and corralled prisoners following the battle of Cold Harbor. It is possible that the duty continued through the siege of Petersburg, but the mundane assignment seldom appeared in their letters or diaries. The 39^th Battalion Virginia Cavalry was not the only force to escort prisoners. Capt. Edward A.H. McDonald, 11^th Virginia Cavalry, recalled escorting prisoners from the battle of Cedar Run, Virginia, in August 1862, to the rail station at Orange Court House.[4]

   It would be a common thought that the task of moving prisoners would fall under the duties of the Army Provost. However, Kenneth Radley tells us in his book on the subject that “Escorts for prisoners as they filtered back along the chain were only infrequently provided by the provost because of their severely limited strength; that duty had to be performed by whatever other troops were available.”[5]

   It is unclear if escort companies listed in the Army of Tennessee performed the same duty as those in the Army of Northern Virginia. It seemed that every division, corps, and army commander was listed as having such a company. For example, for the battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, two companies are listed as escort for Braxton Bragg: Dreux’s Company Louisiana Cavalry and Holloway’s Company Alabama Cavalry (Crocheron Light Dragoons), both under the command of Capt. Guy Dreux. After Bragg’s departure, Joseph E. Johnston retained both companies as escorts.

   Whole regiments were used to move prisoners. LeGrand J. Wilson, 42^nd Mississippi, recalled being sent to guard prisoners on Belle Island, Richmond. The men found the duty “very disagreeable.” Finally, the prisoners were paroled and sent out to be exchanged. The 42^nd Mississippi detailed 300 soldiers to escort the 5,000 prisoners to Varina Landing. The Confederates had to walk in front of the Federals, keeping a slow pace due to the heat. Even with those safeguards, several Confederates and Federals fell out, with several of the Federals dying.[6]

   At times, prisoners were moved through the interior of the Confederacy to other prisons. Railroads were utilized for these transfers. It was easier to secure the prisoners within box cars, thus reducing the amount of guards needed for each trip. Captain Benjamin F. Grigg, Company F, 56^th North Carolina, was reported absent on detail “guarding prisoners” in January-February 1864. According to family, Grigg was in charge of a fifty-man detail escorting prisoners from Richmond to Andersonville. The 5^th Georgia Reserves, or at least part of the regiment, escorted prisoners into Savannah. In December 1864, the 58^th North Carolina moved 1,200 prisoners from Columbia, Tennessee, to Corinth, Mississippi. The trip was arduous, with the regiment (numbering about 311 men) moving their 1,200 prisoners partially on foot and partially via rail.[7]  

   There were undoubtedly many regiments, or portions of regiments, detailed to move Federal prisoners across the South during the war years. Some of these men might have welcomed the diversion, a chance to escape the boredom of winter camp or just to see a different part of the country. Others probably found the duty laborious and were happy to be free of their charges. One thing is for certain: this is a portion of the war that needs to be explored more.

This article is a part of a 2021 series exploring the fringes of military prisons in the South. You can check out the other articles below:

Federal Prisoner of War Camps in the South

Federal Prisoners and Southern Ministers and Chaplains 

The Types of Prisoners at Salisbury Prison

  

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[1] Civil War Desk Reference, 583.

[2] Mattocks, “Unspoiled Heart”: The Journal of Charles Mattocks of the 17^th Maine, 138-152.

[3] Barrett, Yankee Rebel, 102; OR, Vol. 10, 1:597; 15:969; Jordan, NC Troops,12:399.

[4] Hardy, Lee’s Body Guard, 23, 34, 60, 64; Rolph, My Brother’s Keeper, 94.

[5] Radley, Rebel Watchdog, 164-65.)

[6] Wilson, The Confederate Soldier, 93-94.

[7] Munson, North Carolina Civil War Obituaries, 158n.133; Speer, Portals to Hell, 268;  Hardy, The Fifty-eighth North Carolina Troops, 146-47.

Site Visit Saturday: Marietta Confederate Cemetery, Georgia

 

   A battle produced ghastly numbers of dead: 3,100 at Gettysburg; 2,843 at Second Manassas; 1,900 at Franklin. Bodies needed to be interred as quickly as possible, a task usually left to the victor that held the field. Sometimes the dead were buried where they fell, and at other times they were gathered and interred in trenches.

   The battle of Chickamauga was fought in September 1862. While it was a Confederate victory, almost 4,000 soldiers from both sides were killed. Confederate forces buried the vast majority after the battle was over. Once the conflict ended, the war-ravaged landscape was littered with more than 700,000 graves. The Federal government was quick to establish a program to disinter Federal soldiers from various battlefield and hospital sites and re-inter their dead in what became National cemeteries. (National cemeteries were established by an act of Congress on July 17, 1862.)

   Confederate dead were untouched by the hands of the government. Instead, Southern civilian organizations were formed for the purpose of finding and relocating the graves of fallen soldiers. Because of laws that prevented former Confederate soldiers from gathering, much of the work fell to women. A group of thirteen women met in July 1866 in Resaca, Georgia, and formed a “Ladies Memorial Association.” About this same time, Mary Green, instrumental in the formation of the Ladies Memorial Association, began working on a cemetery for Confederate soldiers killed and buried near her home in Resaca. When the project was finished in October 1866, over 450 soldiers had been reinterred.

   Resaca was just one small portion of the fighting in North Georgia during the war. Mary Green approached the Georgia Legislature for funding, which, despite the impoverished condition of the state government, agreed to help. They not only agreed to pay off what remained of the bill for re-interring Confederate dead from the Resaca battlefield, but also agreed to an additional $3,500 for a cemetery for the Confederate dead from the Chickamauga battlefield. A site was chosen in Marietta, Georgia. The site was adjacent to the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and was an already established Confederate cemetery, begun in 1863, next to the Marietta City Cemetery. There were soldiers buried here who had died in a train crash, and some who had died in area hospitals. Mrs. Jane Porter Glover of Marietta donated the property for the cemetery expansion.

   There were three different groupings in which the work was carried out. The first took place in July and August 1867, when fourteen graves were removed. Beginning in October 1867, 151 more soldiers were removed from the Chickamauga battlefield. In 1869, a third group of removals began, and eventually, 615 Confederate soldiers killed at Chickamauga were reburied at the Marietta Confederate Cemetery. The group then began searching for burials in and around Ringgold, Kolb’s Farm, Tunnel Hill, and parts of the Atlanta Campaign.

   Besides holding the remains of graves of Confederate soldiers who died during the war, the Marietta Confederate Cemetery was also the burial location for some of the men who died in the old Confederate soldier’s home in Atlanta. The Marietta Confederate Cemetery is one of the largest in the South, probably behind Hollywood Cemetery (18,000 graves) and Oakwood Cemetery (17,000 graves), both in Richmond, and Blandford Church Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia, with 30,000 Confederate graves. At the Marietta Confederate Cemetery, there are markers for some of the soldiers, markers for various states represented in the cemetery, and a statue honoring Mary Green.

   I last visited this site in May 2008.

Site Visit Saturday: The Rowan Artillery at Gettysburg

 

  The men of the Rowan Artillery have two distinctions at Gettysburg. They were one of the few North Carolina units in Longstreet’s corps, and they made up the far right of the Confederate line.

   Lt. Gen. James Longstreet had no North Carolina Infantry regiments in his corps. His men came from Alabama, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Virginia. He did have three North Carolina artillery batteries: Manly’s, Latham’s, and the Rowan Artillery under Captain James Reilly. Captain Reilly himself is an interesting story. Born in 1823 in Ireland, he ran away and joined the army, then deserted and came to America. He enlisted in the US Army and was assigned to the 2^nd US Artillery, serving in the Mexican War. Eventually, he was promoted to ordnance sergeant, and in 1859, was assigned to Fort Johnson in Southport (then Smithfield), North Carolina. At the start of the war, he resigned and joined the Confederate army. Reilly was commissioned a lieutenant in the First North Carolina Artillery, and a month later, promoted to captain and assigned to command the Rowan Artillery.

   At the time of the battle of Gettysburg, the Rowan Artillery was a part of Hood’s division, and with the division moved through Culpeper Court House, Upperville, and crossed the Shenandoah River at Snicker’s Ford. On June 27 they were at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. They went into action on July 2 on the extreme right of the Confederate line. One member of the battery, about two weeks after the battle, wrote about the fight on July 2, 1863:

“We halted that night at about 12 o’clock and on the morning of 2d at about 2 o’clock we again took up the line of march and arrived at the border of yesterday’s battle field early in the forenoon. Here we remained till near noon, then our Division (Gen. [John B.] Hood’s) marched to the extreme right of the Confederate forces and opposite to the strongest point of the enemy’s line. The Division arrived at this point between three and four o’clock. The batteries commanded by Capt. [James Reilly], [Alexander] Latham and [Tyler] Jordon were immediately placed in position and opened fire on the enemy who replied with spirit, but in a short time two of the his was silenced, and after a brisk fire of some fifteen to twenty minutes on our side the order to cease firing rang out as the long line of infantry came on a line with the batteries. The Artillery ceased to belch forth the missiles of death, but held their position though under fire, to resume the work of destruction as soon an opportunity should offer. After waiting for some time and no opportunity offering to renew the fire, the guns were withdrawn, except one of Capt. Reilly’s, which had an axle shot off. About five o’clock Capt. Reilly’s Battery took a position some two or three hundred yards to the left of its first position, and sent forth a destructive fire of shells over the heads of our infantry into the yankee lines, and continued the fire until the Confederate troops ascended up near the top of the first hill. During the firing from this position, one of the three inch guns bursted [sic], and fortunately, wounded slightly but one man. Night soon closed the bloody drama for that day, and the success of our division was the capture of three 10 pounder Parrott Rifle Guns, and driving the Yankees from the top of the first hill, which was from forty to fifty feet elevation above the low ground between the two armies to the second, which was some fifty or sixty feet higher than the first, and immediately in its rear. The front of both hills was very steep, amounting almost to cliffs. Before dark, Captain Reilly’s disabled gun was brought off the field and next day repaired, and one of the captured guns took the place of the bursted gun and the Battery was again ready with its full compliment of guns for the fight on the third.”

 

The site today is marked by two cannon and an iron plaque, just feet from another marker showing the far right of the Confederate line.

   I last visited the site in July 2018.  

Site Visit Saturday: The grave of Lewis Powell, alias Paine, Geneva, Florida

 
 The war is full of interesting stories. (All of history is full of interesting stories.)  Cemeteries also provide many bizarre tales of the past. The lovely Geneva Community Cemetery in Geneva, Florida, hosts a part of one such story. The cemetery is well maintained and boasts many graves of veterans of various conflicts. There is some nice tombstone art displayed on some of the graves. However, one of the most unobtrusive markers helps to tell a truly strange story of history. Lewis Powell, a member of the 2^nd Florida Infantry and later, of Mosby’s Rangers, is buried in two different places. Of course, stories abound regarding strange partial burials. The two that come to mind are the burial of Stonewall Jackson’s arm at Locust Grove, and the case  of Dan Sickles (US), who lost a leg at Gettysburg and then proceeded to regularly visit the leg at the Army Medical Museum.

Lewis Powell (LOC)

   Lewis Powell was born in Randolph County, Alabama, in 1844. His father was a pastor who moved around, pastoring or starting churches in Georgia and Florida. The Powell family appears to have been living in Hamilton County, North Carolina, when Lewis enlisted on May 30, 1861. He was mustered in as a private in the Hamilton Blues. The Hamilton Blues became Company I, 2^nd Florida Infantry. The 2^nd Florida Infantry served in the Eastern Theater of the war, in Longstreet’s corps. Powell was wounded at Gettysburg – shot in the right wrist. He was captured and spent time in at the hospital at Pennsylvania College and at Camp Letterman. Later, he served as a nurse at various Federal hospitals in Baltimore, where, on September 7, he escaped.

   Powell did not return to the 2^nd Florida. Instead, he joined Mosby’s Rangers, earning the nickname of “Lewis the Terrible.” He participated in a number of engagements through 1864. Around the first of January 1865, Powell made his way to Richmond, then to Alexandria and into Union lines, using the alias, “Lewis Payne.” In Baltimore, he met David P. Parr, a Confederate agent. Powell went on to meet John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Southern sympathizer. Booth was already planning to kidnap US President Abraham Lincoln and recruited Powell to help. Booth’s plan later changed to assassinating Lincoln. Powell’s role was to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. On the night of April 14, Powell entered the Seward home in Washington, D.C., and attacked Seward in his bed. Powell was apprehended three days later at the Surratt boarding house and imprisoned, first on the USS Saugus, then at the Washington Arsenal.

   At the ensuing trial, Powell was found guilty and sentenced to death; he was executed with three others on July 7, 1865. The four, along with the body of Booth, were buried at the Washington Arsenal. They were moved in 1867 to another spot within the Arsenal grounds, and then in 1869, President Andrew Johnson agreed to turn the bodies over to the families. What actually happened to Powell’s body is not clear. It is possible it is buried in a mass grave at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C… except for his skull. In 1991, Powell’s skull was discovered at the Smithsonian Institution. It appears Powell’s skull was removed by A.H, Gawler in 1869 or 1870, and then donated to the Army Medical Museum in 1885. It was given to the Smithsonian on May 7, 1898. The Smithsonian found a great-niece, who claimed it, and two years later, his skull was buried next to the grave of his mother, Carolina Patience Powell, at the Geneva Cemetery in Seminole County, Florida.  If you visit the cemetery, you’ll find the marker, pictured here, near the stone dedicated to Powell’s mother. They are both located under a tree in a quiet spot that belies the strange nature of the partial burial here.   

Lewis Powell's grave in Florida.

   The literature surrounding the Lincoln Assassination is vast. For more information on Powell, check out Betty J. Ownsbey’s Alias “Paine”: Lewis Thornton Powell, the Mystery Man of the Lincoln Conspiracy (1993).

   I last visited this site in December 2020.