Not that "hegemonic": Washington County, TN

   Johnson City, Tennessee, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. There will be a wide variety of activities and events, and the Johnson City Press is coming out with some great articles! However, Brandon Paykamian's November 16 piece "Unionists in East Tennessee and beyond: the myth of Confederate hegemony in the South," disingenuously leads readers down a well-worn path that misses some very important steps. You can read the entire article here.

   Paykamian asserts that "Confederate hegemony during the Civil War is a historical revisionist myth." Just when did this myth begin? Jefferson Davis certainly knew that not everyone living in the South was a part of one big, happy family. He engaged in spirited correspondence with North Carolina's Zebulon B. Vance regarding the habeas corpus actions of Chief Justice Richmond M. Pearson; the election of 1863 ushered in several peace candidates into the Confederate Congress; and the September 29, 1864, letter from South Carolina Representative William W. Boyce claimed the President had created a "centralized military despotism" over constitution, state, and individual. Those are just a few examples. That's not to say that the North was also united in its prosecution of the war. Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the first days of the war, authorizing military commanders to arrest those suspected of disloyalty between Washington, D.C., and New York City. At one time, one third of the general assembly in Maryland was under arrest. Historians do not know exactly how many people Lincoln's administration arrested during the war, but estimates vary from just over 13,000 to as many as 38,000 people.  "Copperheads" in the North were, in some areas, quite numerous and outspoken in their opposition to the war and to the Union and, of course, draft riots like the famous New York violence speak to the complexity of the period.

Washington County from an 1865 map. 

   The idea that there were those in the South who were not supportive of the Confederate cause was evident early on in the historiography of the time period. Edward Pollard, writing in The Lost Cause in 1867, mentions "a certain Union party in some of the States of the Confederacy," and then comes down hard Governor Brown of Georgia. Joseph Denny, Story of the Confederate States (1898) and Henry Eaton, History of the Southern Confederacy (1966) both make mention of Southern Unionists. (This conversation could go on and on.) While there are undoubtedly some writers who gloss over the discord throughout the South during the war years, everyone understands that the South was not uniform in its support of the Confederacy, just as Northerners were also complex and diverse. 
 

   Paykamian continues: "During the Civil War, Washington County was a Union stronghold, much like other regions of Central Appalachia, where plantations were few and far between in comparison to the rest of the state." Wait... he just wrote about the "the myth of Confederate hegemony." Are we going to now lump all plantation owners, i.e., slave owners, as a hegemonous group fighting against the Union? That's problematic because there was a sizable chunk of Southern slave owners who fought against the Confederacy. Andrew Johnson owned slaves, as did T. A. R. Nelson and David Bell. In Washington County, Thomas Reeves, Federal recruiter, owned slaves. In fact, of all those counties in far eastern Tennessee, Washington County contained the most slaves: 1,268.

   "Washington County, in particular, was home to just as many — if not more — Unionists as it was to Confederates," Paykamian writes. And that may be true. But to my knowledge, no one has ever actually tried to count the number of Union and Confederate soldiers from Washington County. Washington County had a sizable pro-Confederate population. When the first Tennessee vote regarding secession was held on February 8, 1861, Washington County men cast 891 votes for secession, while 1,353 voted against. Research has shown that Lincoln's call for troops in April 1861 pushed many lukewarm Unionists over the edge and into the ranks of the Southern Confederacy. Company B, 19th Tennessee Infantry, Companies G and I, 29th Tennessee Infantry, and Company K, 63rd Tennessee Infantry were all made up of men from Washington County. There are probably others.

   As a sign of internal dissatisfaction with Confederate policy, Paykamian writes "In the same year of the conscription act, food riots broke out all over the south, when hordes of hungry rioters – some armed – ransacked stores and warehouses looking for anything to eat." Yes, food riots did break out, but not the same year that the Conscription Act was passed. It was passed in April 1862. The more famous food riots took place in Salisbury, North Carolina, in March 1863; Richmond, Virginia, in April 1863; and Burnsville, North Carolina, in April 1864. Despite much searching, I could find no food riots in Jonesborough or Washington County.

   Several years ago (2001), the Washington County Historical Association released a 1,290 page history of Washington County. In an era with fewer and fewer county histories being written, it is a superb book. My late friend Jim Maddox wrote the chapter on the War and Washington County. It is a great chapter. However, it would have been great to dig a little deeper into those numbers. Just how pro-Union was Washington County?

Peas!

   One of my favorite stories I have uncovered over the past 25 years of researching and writing has to do with the lowly pea. I used the story in both my first book, a history of the 37th North Carolina Troops, and in General Lee's Immortals, my history of the Branch-Lane brigade. The person who told the story was Pvt. David Dugger, Company E. He was from the mountains of western North Carolina. Being shelled by the Federals was a new experience for the Confederate soldiers below New Bern, where in March 1862, this story takes place. Dugger and another private had been sent to the rear to cook food for the men manning the front lines.

   On the return [to the company] we had about a half dozen camp kettles full of peas.  The kettles were strung on a pole, with George [Lawrance] at one end and I at the other.  We had to go through a pine grove, and while going through there, we heard our first bomb shells, and we did not know what they were, and there we stood looking and wondering what on earth they could be as they went whizzing through the air.  Presently one cut the top out of a pine, and then we found out what they were and forthwith proceeded to hug the earth without getting our arms around it.  As soon as the sound of the shell died away we gathered our pole and started to the Fort.  When we got there we had peas all over us, so that we could hardly be told from the peas. (Watauga Democrat June 18, 1891)

   Recently, I re-read Berry Benson's Civil War Book. This is one of those volumes I read decades ago, and I had forgotten that Benson had his own pea story. Benson's story comes at the end of the war. He's experienced "bomb shells" a plenty, but was captured, held prisoner, escaped, and just seen a good deal of the war. Benson and his comrades have evacuated the entrenchments around Petersburg, and are on their way to Appomattox Court House.

Cow peas

   As I ran up the low hill, the shells bursting all around, I came upon a camp fire abandoned by its maker, and upon it sat boiling a pot full of peas. The fear of getting killed was strong, I admit, but hunger was a match for it. I saw Lieut. Hasell running by and called to him to come quick. Running the barrel of my gun through the handle of the pot, I gave him the butt, took the muzzle myself, and off we went amidst the crackling of the shells, bearing to a place of safety our pot of peas. But alas for human endeavor! When we finally reached a place where we could stop, we found the peas but half done, so turned the pot over to Owens to cook while we went on to the picket line with the Sharpshooters. When i next saw the pot... there was not a pea left to tell the tale." (197)

   We here at Confederate History Headquarters had a discussion about what type of pea this might be. Several soldiers mention cow peas in their correspondence. These differ from the garden pea in that the cow pea could be dried more readily.  According to seed catalogs, a cow pea is also known as black-eyed pea, southern pea, yardlong bean, catjang, and crowder peas. There are several varieties of this staple food, which is more like a bean than a pea. The cow pea grows in "sandy soil" with low rainfall. Soldiers seemed to eat them by the bucket full any occasion they could get. Looking at Francis P. Porcher's Resources of the Southern Fields and Forest (1863), Porcher writes that "Great use is made of the varieties of the pea on the plantations... as articles of food for men and animals. The species called the cow-pea is most in use." (194) As I work on the Feeding the Army of Northern Virginia project, peas and cow peas are mentioned frequently. Only once, in the reminisces of Col. William Poague, has someone mentioned black-eyed peas. (150). It could be that different areas had different names for the same pea. Certainly, none of the black-eyed pea-eaters I know (myself included) use the name cow peas.

   

So the next time you set down to a meal with cow peas (or black-eyed peas), remember for a moment David Dugger and Barry Benson, and all the other Confederate soldiers who ate these peas! Happy New Year!

"Almost" Christians: Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee

   Recently, I finished reading A Frenchman, A Chaplain, A Rebel: The War Letters of Pere Louis-Hippolyle Gache, S. J. (1981). Goche was born in France and later became a Jesuit priest. He immigrated to the United States in 1847, leaving behind a region smoldering in anti-Jesuit sentiment. Gache was recruited to work at Spring Hill College near Mobile, Alabama. However, he also served in various parishes in Louisiana. When the war came, Gache was assigned as a chaplain in the 10th Louisiana Infantry, and soon found himself on the Peninsula below Richmond. After a year of service, Gache was reassigned as a hospital chaplain in Lynchburg, Virginia. (His compiled service record, listing his last name as Guache, stated he was assigned to a hospital in Danville on August 29, 1862. However, all of his subsequent letters come from Lynchburg.)

   Without going into centuries' worth of religious history, it will suffice to say that Gache had no use for Protestants. Writing in January 1862 from a camp near Yorktown, Gache described to those back at Spring Hill College his encounter with a local pastor: "The Baptist minister visits me every time I stay at the Ewells. He tries to get me to come and visit him, offering me the use of his library and, if it had not been converted into a hospital, his church. He truly treats me as a brother, but I'm not going to give him any encouragement. I take advantage of every occasion to tell him and the others of his ilk that I don't see them under any other aspect than as gentlemen, but that certainly I don't consider them as ministers of the Gospel." (95)

   In another exchange between himself and Father Philip de Carriere, Gache chides Carriere for using the term "Catholic chaplain." "And what do you mean by 'the Catholic chaplain?' Are there any other chaplains than Catholic chaplains? Is it your intention to acknowledge an ecclesiastic character on the souls of the so-called Protestant ministers? If you do, you are simply a heretic..." (155)

   The death of Stonewall Jackson obviously presented a challenge to Gache. He had recently bemoaned the death of "Four or five" young men who had died "without making any express profession of Catholicism." (162) Jackson was a member of the Presbyterian church. Gache wrote that Jackson, "in his own way... was a very good Christian. The face of this austere Presbyterian expressed all the characteristics of a devout member of that sect; yet, he was not a bigot--at least so far as I have heard. He often remarked publically that it was in God that he put his confidence, and after each victory he always ordered the chaplains under his command to offer prayers of thanksgiving." Jackson, after his wounding, and being told that he would die, "expressed sorrow for his sins. Since he was probably in good faith, one can hope that his pious sentiments must have led him to an act of perfect contrition. Surely, He who so loves to bestow mercy, must have bestowed it abundantly on this man."

    Likewise, Gache took time to write about Robert E. Lee: "General Lee is also very religious, not in an ostentatious and wordy manner, but sincerely and genuinely... The general is an Episcopalian, but at the same time he is, as are almost all of the men of his class, very favorable toward Catholics and he has the greatest esteem for them." Gache goes on to talk about the Catholic leanings of Joseph E. Johnston, former secretary of War George W. Randolph, and Varina Davis. (176-180)

   Gache's disdain for Protestants never seems to fade after the mercy he almost shows for Jackson and Lee. He talks of "dethroning a Presbyterian minister" in June 1863, a man trying to work with wounded soldiers in Lynchburg hospitals.  (190) In December 1864 he makes mention of the two Catholic and four Protestant chaplains at work in the Lynchburg hospitals. The Protestant chaplains "have filled the hospital with an assortment of sectarian books and newspapers which are used by the sisters and myself for lighting our fires..." (210) In this same December 1864 letter, he speaks of a Protestant minister who invited himself to preach to the wounded and sick men. It was apparently against post regulations to preach in the wards. The post commander, a man Gache believed was "far from being a Catholic, but who is nevertheless a man who despises all Protestant ministers," agreed to allow the Protestant chaplain the use of the courtyard at 4:40 pm on Wednesday. After starting the service at 4:45, he was interrupted by the dinner bell at 5:00 pm. All "of the congregation was at the table and the preacher was left alone, his arms outstretched and his mouth gaping, still standing on the grassy mound. You ought to have seen the dismay and astonishment of that disciple of Calvin as he picked up his books, put on his hat and walked away." (211-212)

   It is not my purpose to reignite in this post the great schisms that have taken place over the centuries between the Catholics and Protestants. For generations, Catholics were treated with a great degree of skepticism in this country, and it was not really until the election of John F. Kennedy in 1961 that some of that skepticism began to fade. To be honest, save for the work of the Sisters of Charity, I'm really not very familiar with much of the role of the Catholic church in the South during the war. This is the first set of war-time letters that I have read from a Catholic priest. Are there others? (Yes, there are a few.) I am much more familiar with the works of Protestant chaplains such as Alexander Betts, Basil Manly, J. William Jones, and W. W. Bennett. It is interesting to note that Gache never makes mention the great revivals that swept through the Army of Northern Virginia in the winter encampments of 1862-1863 and 1863-1864. But then again, Jones, in Christ in the Camp, never makes mention of Gache or Catholic chaplains.

   Gache survived the war. He served in a number Jesuit colleges and parishes until 1904, but he never returned to the South. He died in 1907, at the age of 91, in the hospital of Saint Jean-de-Dieu, Montreal, and is buried at St. Andrew-on-Hudson near Hyde Park, New York.

Pilfering Andrew Johnson's papers

   This next project, "Feeding the Army of Northern Virginia," has me reading a great number of letters, diaries, and reminiscences. Over the next few months, I'll probably be posting many shorter stories, things that I find interesting.

   A couple of days ago, I finished reading Last Order of the Lost Cause: The Civil War Memoirs of a Jewish Family from the "Old South." It was edited by Mel Young and looks at the Moses family of Georgia, most notably Maj. Raphel Jacob Moses, commissary on Longstreet's staff for part of the war.

   Longstreet and a portion of his corps spent the winter of 1863-1864 in east Tennessee, fighting Federals, some guerillas, and hunger pains. Moses left this story in his reminiscences:

Andrew Johnson

   "On another occasion in East Tennessee we stopped at Greenville, and I had my headquarters in the Capitol law library of Andrew Johnson, afterwards President of the United States, within site of his office, by the way, was in one of the side rooms of the Tavern. We were in sight of the little shop, still standing where Andy, as the Tennesseans called him, had his Taylor shop."

   "After leaving Greenville we went to Morristown, about fifteen miles, and while there I happened to mention a heavy box in Johnson's library, which was nailed up. Fairfax immediately 'snuffed, not tyranny but whisky, in the tainted air,' and exclaimed, "By George! Moses, why didn't you tell me before we left? Old Andy was fond of his 'nips,' and I'll bet that box was full of good old rye whiskey, and I mean to have it.' He immediately got a detail of soldiers and a wagon, and had the box brought to camp. When it arrived, Fairfax's eyes glistened with anxious expectation, soon followed by despondency, as on opening the box it contained, instead of old liquor, nothing but Andy Johnson's old letters and private papers..." (116-117)

   There the narrative ends. Did they leave the papers in Morristown? Were they used to start fires? Did Johnson ever get this box of papers back?

   The closest National Park to me having a strong war-time connection is the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greenville, Tennessee. I've been over there several times, and Johnson and some of his surviving papers were important in my own book, Kirk's Civil War Raids Along the Blue Ridge. I've always found Johnson's life interesting. He was not liked by the Democrats or Republicans once he became president upon the death of Lincoln. But I wonder what happened to those papers, not only his papers, but the reams of things lost during the war. Those stories told by the War Department clerks of the piles of burning documents in the streets of Richmond have always bothered me, as well as the county-level documents that were destroyed when the likes of George Stoneman rode through western North Carolina in early 1865. We would all be richer, historically speaking, if there had been a little more care taken with these pieces of the past.

The Unsuccessful International Escape of Jefferson Davis.

Johnston and Sherman at the Bennett Place

   On March 26, 1865, Federal general William T. Sherman met with US President Abraham Lincoln, General US Grant, and Admiral David Porter on the steamer River Queen near Grant's headquarters at City Point, Virginia. When Sherman asked Lincoln about what to do with Confederate president Jefferson Davis, Lincoln responded with a story: "A man once had taken the total-abstinence pledge. When visiting with a friend, he was invited to take a drink, but declined, on the score of his pledge; when his friend suggested lemonade, which was accepted. In preparing the lemonade, the friend pointed to the branch-bottle, and said the lemonade would be more palatable if he were to pour in a little brandy; when his guest said, if he could do so 'unbeknown' to him, he would not object." Sherman added "From which illustration I inferred that Mr. Lincoln wanted Davis to escape, 'unbeknown' to him." (Sherman, Memoirs, 2:324-328.)

   So Lincoln wanted Davis, and probably the Confederate cabinet, to simply disappear. To catch Davis and his cabinet would present unique problems for the Lincoln administration. If the leader of the "rebellious" Southern states was captured, indicted for treason, tried, found guilty, and executed, would this not be a driving factor for the resumption of the war? Or, if Davis was tried and found not guilty, well, that would lead to all kinds of other problems.

   Three weeks later, Sherman, back in North Carolina, had just met with his Confederate counterpart, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. They had discussed the surrender of not only the Army of Tennessee, but the civil officers as well. Sherman was in Raleigh, meeting with his top lieutenants. "We discussed all the probabilities, among which was, whether, if Johnston made a point of it, I should assent to the escape from the country of Jeff. Davis and his fugitive cabinet; and some one of my general officers, either Logan or Blair, insisted that, if asked for, we should even provide a vessel to carry them to Nassau from Charleston." (Sherman, Memoirs, 351-352).

Jefferson Davis

   Johnston does not come out and say that Sherman ever offered a ship to Davis and the cabinet to expedite their escape. Or does he? Meeting at the Bennett Farm outside Durham on April 18, Johnston writes that everything was agreed to "except that General Sherman did not consent to include Mr. Davis and the officers of his cabinet in an otherwise general amnesty. Much of the afternoon was consumed in endeavors to dispose of this part of the question in a manner that would be satisfactory both to the Government of the United States and the Southern people, as well as to the Confederate president; but at sunset no conclusion had been reached, and the conference was suspended..." (Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations, 403-404.) So what was satisfactory to the "Government of the United States"? The escape of Jefferson Davis? Neither Johnston or Sherman make mention of such an offer, and nothing appears in Davis's papers or in the Official Records that states such an offer was ever made. Yet, Sherman provides such a warning to John C. Breckinridge. Once the first set of terms were worked out, and sent to Andrew Johnson and Jefferson Davis, Sherman recalled telling Breckinridge "that he had better get away, as the feeling of our people was utterly hostile to the political element of the South, and to him especially, because he was the Vice-President of the United States, who had as such announced Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois, duly and properly elected the President of the United States, and yet that he had afterward openly rebelled and taken up arms against the Government. . . I may have also advised him that Mr. Davis too should get abroad as soon as possible." (Sherman, Memoirs, 353.)

   We know that Davis did not "get abroad" and was captured on May 10, 1865, near Irwinville, Georgia. Breckinridge did escape, making his way through Florida to Cuba, then Great Britain, and finally Cuba. Other Confederate cabinet members who fled the county include Robert Toombs, Judah P. Benjamin, and George W. Randolph (he fled in 1864). George Davis was attempting to flee when he was captured in Key West on October 18, 1865.

   Did Davis ever know that he might have escaped on a boat out of Charleston? Unlikely. Davis really didn't really seem to want to escape in the first place, holding on to the ideal of a Southern Confederacy when everyone else had already abandoned the attempt. He could have left Charlotte on April 24, when he learned of the rejection of the first set of terms between Johnston and Sherman. He could have pressed on harder when in the state of Georgia. Others, like Breckinridge and Benjamin, were able to escape successfully. But not Davis. It almost seems that Davis wanted to be captured.

39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry project off to the publishers.

   Yesterday afternoon, I submitted to the publisher my manuscript on the 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, also known as Lee's Headquarters Guard. It is always a sense of relief when a manuscript goes off. Those last two or three weeks are a challenge. The manuscript is done, and it's been read and reread, but getting the notes moved, the images just right, captions written, and index created, etc., just takes time, and honestly, by that point, I'm tired of working on it. You know: it's done. I've written it. I've typed that last period.

Longstreet and staff (Mort Kunstler)

   Many folks will be surprised that I've tackled a Virginia project. For the past twenty years (over, actually), I've been writing about Tar Heel soldiers and their state. I've built a career on it. I guess that is why I pursued this project: I needed a break from North Carolina. I wanted to prove I could write about another state. Now, this regimental history covers the same ground as General Lee's Immortals, my history of the Branch-Lane brigade. There are the same battles, like Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, etc., and some of the same famous characters of the war: Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, A. P. Hill. But the experiences of these men, the couriers, and clerks, and scouts, and guides, and teamsters are so vastly different from the Tar Heels, that it was a refreshing break.

   Along those lines, this is not the same book as General Lee's Immortals. There is not the depth of material to draw from. The 39th Battalion had fewer than 600 men on the books, and usually fewer than 200 in camp at any given time. There were almost 10,000 men that served in the Branch-Lane brigade. That's not to say that I didn't find good stuff. The account by Capt. William F. Randolph at Chancellorsville is one you don't often hear. Randolph was with Jackson the night Stonewall was wounded. And then there is Joshua O. Johns, who rode with Robert E. Lee and Charles Marshall to meet Grant at the McLean home in Appomattox.

   At the same time, on a professional level, I really want to advance the discipline or genre of regimental histories. It is not an easy genre. Not only does there need to be an understanding of multitudes of battles, but the writer must know about a plethora of other subjects, like military discipline, medical care, logistics, prisoners, etc. This new book on the 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry is yet another foundation stone or building block (at least I think it is). J. Boone Bartholomees, Jr., in his seminal work Buff Facings and Gilt Buttons: Staff and Headquarters Operations in the Army of Northern Virginia, considers the couriers, orderlies and escorts "almost historically invisible." (205) Hopefully, these men will not be quite so invisible as they have been in the past.

   Time to move on. Time to get some blogs up, and to read more for that next project, Feeding the Army of Northern Virginia. By the looks of this winter, I'll have plenty of reading time.

We Ride A Whirlwind - REVIEW

   I am always on the lookout for books about North Carolina and the War. The vast majority of the tomes I have written are on the subject, and I'm always looking for others to help increase awareness of what took place in the Old North State. Recently, I had a chance to pick up a copy of Eric Wittenberg's We Ride A Whirlwind: Sherman and Johnson at Bennett Place (Fox Run Publishing, 2017).

   Everyone who has studied the War is familiar with the surrender of Lee to Grant at Appomattox in April 1865. It is the subject of several books and the site of a National Park. The surrender of Joseph E. Johnson to William T. Sherman in North Carolina often seems to be a mere footnote, although Johnson surrendered more Confederate troops and a huge swath of territory. The literature of Johnson's surrender continues to grow, and might actually surpass that of the more famous episode in Virginia.

   We Ride A Whirlwind picks up the story following the battle of Bentonville. Following the March 1865 battle, Johnston moved his army back toward Raleigh, and eventually toward Greensboro. The victorious Federals moved on to Goldsboro for a brief rest and refitting. On April 13, 1865, Sherman's armies entered Raleigh. Jefferson Davis and the Confederate cabinet officers evacuated Richmond on the night of April 2, 1865, and moved to Danville, and then on to Greensboro, arriving on April 11, 1865. Davis and some of the cabinet met with Johnston and Beauregard in Greensboro and agreed to send a letter to Sherman, asking for a cease-fire so surrender terms could be worked out. Johnson and Sherman met at the Bennett Farm, outside Durham, on April 17 and 18, working out a set of terms that surrendered not only Johnson his army, but Davis and other civil officers as well. Copies of these terms were signed and sent to President Andrew Johnson in Washington, D.C., and to Jefferson Davis in Charlotte. Davis accepted the terms. However, Johnson rejected the terms, and Grant was sent to Raleigh to take over the negations. Sherman, thanks to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, was belittled by the press, a slight for which Sherman never forgave Stanton. Soon thereafter, Johnson and Sherman worked out new terms, based upon those Grant had given Lee at Appomattox. Despite the directives of Jefferson Davis, Johnson surrendered to Sherman at the Bennett Place on April 26, 1865.

   Unlike other volumes about the Confederate surrender at the Bennett Place, Wittenburg's goes into great detail about the Sherman-Stanton feud, outlining the missives that passed between Sherman, Grant, Stanton, and Union General Henry Halleck. He reprints letters and portions of memoirs completely, allowing readers to see for themselves the back and forth between top Federal commanders and their civilian handlers. Those letters are the book's greatest strengths, laying out the frustrations felt by Sherman as the capitulation of the entire Confederacy hung in the balance. But Andrew Johnston and Edwin Stanton were not interested in receiving the surrender of Jefferson Davis, believing to do so would have acknowledged the legitimacy of the Confederacy.

   My only real complaint would be the maps. There are four, three of which are really hard to read (maybe my eyes are getting old). There are numerous illustrations spread through the 292 pages. The book includes copious footnotes, a bibliography, and index. Overall, Eric Wittenburg's We Ride A Whirlwind is a fine, detailed edition to the literature surrounding the negotiations that led to the largest surrender of Confederate soldiers during the War. The events that transpired at the Bennett Place are just as important as those at Appomattox.  

The Jingling Hole

It is often said that there were 10,500 "battles, engagements, and other military actions" during the Civil War. That is somewhere around seven engagements per day, for those four years of the war. But at the same time, the war "happened" at tens of thousands of places. Troops mustered in front of courthouses, they boarded trains at depots and ship at wharfs. They were surprised and captured at sites where no shots were fired. As I have written before, the war happened locally, in my backyard, just like it happened at Chancellorsville and Chickamauga. Yet no one really ever talks about these minor events. While not on the same scale as say, Gettysburg, they were just as destructive to local communities.

The Johnson County-Ashe/Watauga County area from a 1865 map. 

Johnson County, Tennessee, is tucked up on the border of Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. The 1860 census lists 5,018 residents. When it came time to vote on the secession issue, Johnson County voters voted 787 to 111 against secession. To my knowledge, no one has ever broken down the 1860 Johnson County census to examine who remained loyal to the Union, who joined to Confederacy, and who simply attempted to stay out of the conflict altogether. I will add that voting overwhelmingly to remain with the Union is not a good litmus test regarding military enlistment.  Neighboring Watauga County, North Carolina, voted 536 to 72 against calling a convention, yet sent 793 men (and one woman) to the Confederate army.

It is often written that Johnson County was a Unionist stronghold, and that might very well be true. The pro-Confederate clerk was reportedly forced to flee from the area. Captain Roby Brown supposedly led the Johnson County home guard (Confederate). He was a member of the group led by Col. George N. Folk who attacked a group of dissidents at Fish Springs on the Johnson-Carter County border. It was a group of Unionists or dissidents that raided into the Bethel Community of Watauga County in August of 1863, plundering the farms of George Evans, Paul Farthing, and Thomas Farthing. The latter was killed in the skirmish. Later, Levi Guy, the father of two of the raiders, was caught and hanged. John Hunt Morgan's men supposedly raided into Johnson County, burning the homes of thirty-seven Unionists. Bushwhacking was so bad that in 1864, local pro-Confederate residents petitioned Confederate officials for protection, writing that "our county is infested with several bands of bushwhackers, murders, and deserters, who are committing depredations upon the lives and property of Southern citizens to such an alarming extent that a great many of them had to leave their homes." (Tennessee Civil War Sourcebook)

One of the most famous stories about Johnson County and the war was published by Christopher Coleman in 1999. Coleman writes of a local geological feature known as "The Jingling Hole." The origins of the Jingling Hole are unknown. It could have been a natural formation, or an old mine worked by Native Americans or maybe even the Spanish (my speculation). Regardless, according to Coleman, an iron bar had been placed over the top, "just the right thickness for a man to wrap his hands around." "A prisoner would be taken to the Jingling Hole and at gunpoint made to grip the iron bar and hang suspended over the pit. At first they would just let the prisoner dangle there a while, laughing and making crude jokes as his hands gradually went numb. Then he would finally lose his grip and plunge into the blackness of the pit. After a time, though, this sport got a little dull, so they improved on it a bit. As the prisoner dangled over the abyss, the booted bushwhackers would proceed to stamp on his hands. First one hand, then the other, then back to the first. As they pounded their victim's hands with the boot heels, their spurs would jingle a sprightly rhythm punctuated by the occasional cry of pain from the poor prisoner. Hence the name Jingling Hole." (89)

Of course, this may all be just legend.  Coleman's book is entitled Ghost and Haunts of the Civil War: Authentic Accounts of the Strange and Unexplained. There is also a mention of the Jingling Hole in the 1970 book Tennessee Legends. There is also a Jingle Hole in Madison County, Kentucky, and a Jingle Hole near Stainforth, North Yorkshire, Great Britain.

We will probably never know if the Jingling Hole was really the site of nefarious deeds during the War years. As I have often said, there is probably some truth there someplace. The site, not far from Mountain City, is just one of thousands that have a war-time connection but that that don't exactly fit on the 10,500 list.

Revision: 1,500 Confederate regiments

I recently found the late Arthur Bergeron's Guide to Louisiana Confederate Military Units, 1861-1865, on my own shelf. Not sure why I did not look at it when I made my initial post a few weeks back. Crute's Units of the Confederate States Army lists 77 infantry, cavalry, and artillery organizations from Louisiana. Bergeron lists 111. So, the new number of Confederate regiments, battalions, and batteries raised during the war stands at 1,500. I image this number will continue to rise.

A couple of days ago, I received this question through my contact form, from Edgar: "I found many union regimental histories/biographies on the Hathi Digital website when I was researching Sherman's march campsites (Goldsboro-Raleigh) last winter, but I can't find much about Confed. regiments there." So, why not more Confederate regimentals? That's a question. The reason that a person cannot find more Confederate regimentals on online databases like HathiTrust is probably because they were not written.

Using North Carolina as a guide, we find in Stewart Sifakis's Compendium 233 Confederate regiments, battalions, and batteries. Of those 233 organizations, only seven had histories written and published by the veterans themselves. Those seven are:

Harris, Historical Sketches of the Seventh Regiment North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865 (1893)

Smith, The Anson Guards: Company C, Fourteenth Regiment North Carolina Volunteers 1861-1865 (1914)

Mills, History of the 16th North Carolina Regiment in the Civil War (1901)

Carr, History of Company E, 20th N. C. Regiment 1861-1865: Confederate Grays. (1905)

Underwood, The 26th Regiment N.C. Troops, Pettigrew's Brigade, Heth's Division, Hill's Corps, A. N. V. 1861-1865 (1901)

Sloan, Reminiscences of the Guilford Grays, Co. B 27th N. C. Regiment (1883)

Day, A True History of Company I, 49th Regiment North Carolina Troops (1893)

If my math is right, that is only 3 percent of North Carolina regiments, battalions, and batteries that had a book written about their service prior to the 1960s. To take this a step further, of the seven, only three are actually regimental histories. The others deal with companies. Now, to North Carolina's credit, the North Carolina Confederate Veterans Association, under the direction of Walter Clark, began to collect essays by veterans about their regiments at the turn of the 20th century. This was later published in 1901 in a five-volume set. To my knowledge, no other state has anything equal to this: a short history of almost every regiment, written by a veteran of that regiment. (By the way, all five of these volumes have been digitized and are online.)

   So to answer the question posed, the reason there is not more information on these regiments is because the veterans did not write down their histories. Union regimentals are plentiful. Confederates, not so much.

Examining new recruits.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Becoming a Confederate soldier

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

Confederate recruiting poster 

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

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

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

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

The way the Northern Press viewed Confederate enlistment.

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

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

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

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

1,466 Confederate regiments....

Company K, 4th Georgia Infantry. 

   Last night, during my facebook live Sunday Night History discussion, I mentioned about how we really don't know how many Confederate regiments or separate organizations there were during the war. In William Fox's Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, published in 1889, he advances the number of 1,069 regiments, battalions, or batteries of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Fox writes that there "were all troops of the line, and they served during the whole, or greater part of the war. The number does not include regiments which served a short time only; neither does it include disbanded or consolidated regiments, nor the State militia, Junior Reserves, Senior Reserves, Home Guards, Local Defense regiments, and separate companies."

   Looking at Joseph H. Crute, Jr.'s Units of the Confederate Army, I find 1,324 Confederate regiments, battalions, or batteries of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Crute does include, at least in North Carolina, the junior reserves, but not the senior reserve companies.

   Going a step further, Stewart Sifakis's Compendium of the Confederate Armies: North Carolina (the only volume I have), lists 233 Confederate organizations from North Carolina. That differs somewhat from Crute. He only listed 91 separate organizations from North Carolina (compared with 240 for Virginia). Crute lumped all of North Carolina's  artillery batteries into their respective regiments - i.e., ten batteries in the 1st North Carolina Artillery. The 1st North Carolina Artillery never functioned as a regiment. If we subtract 91 from Crute's 1,324, and add 233, we have 1,466 regiments, battalions, etc. I wonder if, after going through Sifakis's other volumes, what number we might come up with?

   None of these numbers includes the militia and home guard battalions. Should they be included? Both the militia and home guard were used to enforce Confederate Conscription law. And at times, they battled regular Federal forces, such as the skirmish in Boone, North Carolina, on March 28, 1865.

   

Will we ever know how many Confederate regiments, battalions, or batteries of infantry, cavalry, and artillery there were during the 1860s? Probably not, but I'd like to come close.

The Senator from Tennessee Accompanied Stonewall Jackson's Remains.

For the past few weeks, I've been spending a great deal of time reading deeply into the history of the Army of Northern Virginia. Most of that reading has centered around the staff of various high-ranking generals. I've perused the letters or reminiscences of Francis Dawson, Charles Marshall, Moxley Sorrel,Thomas Goree, Campbell Brown, Jed Hotchkiss, Walter Taylor, Henry Kyd Douglas, and maybe one or two others.

This past week, I've been reading Bean's biography on Sandie Pendelton. While I have read on Jackson and his death (and written about it on several occasions) something caught my eye and gave me pause. Pendleton was one of the officers who escorted Jackson's remains from Richmond to Lexington. Also in the party, according to Bean, are Jim Lewis, James Power Smith, Dr. Hunter McGuire, Governor Letcher, and Confederate Senator Gustavus A. Henry of Tennessee. (124) Why the Confederate Senator from Tennessee? Why not Allen T. Caperton or Robert M. T. Hunter, senators from Virginia, or maybe George Davis or William T. Dortch, senators from North Carolina? Mary Anna Morrison Jackson was from North Carolina, and the idea of burying Jackson in Charlotte was briefly considered. But why Henry?

Sen. Gustavus A. Henry

So I went looking into the biographies of Jackson. James I. Robertson only mentions Governor Letcher and his wife, and other "friends," but does not mention Henry. (728) Vandiver, in Mighty Stonewall, ends with his death and does not include burial. Neither does Farwell in his biography, nor Henderson in his. Burke Davis does, but not who escorted the remains. The same is true for Gwynne's Rebel Yell. Chambers writes that the party consisted of members of Jackson's staff, General Ewell, Governor Letcher and an aide, Col. S. Bassett French, "and a number of others boarded the train," but no mention of Henry. (2:455) Dabney simply states that the widow and General staff accompanied Jackson's remains, but makes no mention of anyone else. (731) Cocke makes no mention of who accompanied the remains to Lexington.

Bean gives two sources for this information. The first is an article from the Lynchburg Virginian, published May 12, 1863. I checked all three of my online sources, and apparently, that newspaper has not been digitized. The second is the diary of William M. Blackford, which also does not appear digitized. (It is held by the University of Virginia.) Online research can only take us so far.

Who was Gustavus A. Henry? First off, there does not appear to be biography of Henry. His papers are held on microfilm at the Southern Historical Society at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, as well as a few other institutions. Turning to Warner and Yearns' Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress, we learn that Henry was born in Scott County, Kentucky in 1804. Henry graduated from Transylvania University in 1825, studied law, and practiced in Georgetown, also serving in the Kentucky legislature. Later, he moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, and became a leading member of the Whig party. Known as the "eagle orator of Tennessee," Henry served in the Tennessee Senate, and was twice defeated for the governorship by Andrew Johnson. Henry was one of the two Confederate senators from Tennessee, the other being Landon Carter Haynes. After the war, Henry retired from politics, died in 1880, and is buried in Clarksville. (116-117)

None of that gives any indications that Stonewall Jackson and Henry, or Mary Anna Morrison Jackson and Henry, had ever met. Yet one of those two war-time sources mentions that Gustavus A. Henry was along for the train ride from Richmond, at least to Lynchburg. Maybe the next time I get to Virginia, I can track down these two sources.

PS: Since Jefferson Davis and Henry were friends, did Davis ask Henry to be the Government's representative? Just a thought. 

Whatever happened to Joshua O. Johns?

On April 9, 1865, Pvt. Joshua O. Johns rode into the village of Appomattox Court House. He was one of three Confederates on the grounds of the McLean home as Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia. Johns held the horses, his, Lee's favorite mount Traveler, and that of Col. Charles Marshall, as the details were worked out. Following the surrender, Johns rode out of the village, and pretty much out of the pages of history. What happened to Johns after the war?

Joshua O. Johns was a member of Company C, 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry. His compiled service record from the National Archives is really short. It states he joined the Battalion on December 21, 1863, at Orange Court House. He was present in September and October 1864 and November and December 1864. On April 9, 1865, Johns was paroled at Appomattox Court House.

It appears that Joshua Johns was born in Mississippi, and then enlisted on July 11, 1861, at Camp Perkins, Virginia, in Company E, 8th Louisiana Infantry. He was present or accounted for (sometimes sick) until January-February 1862, when he was "Detailed as Courier for Genl. Jackson." In August 1863, that detail changed to "Courier for General Ewell." Johns was reported present in September-October 1863. Was he back with the 8th Louisiana Infantry? The next card in his file states that on December 11, 1863, he was  "Transferred... to Capt. Taylor Co. C. Bat of S. G., and C. [Scouts, Guides, and Couriers]". Who is Captain Taylor? Yet another card, this time stating that he was 23 years old when he enlisted, that he was born in Mississippi, and living near Winnsboro, Louisiana, adds that he was "Transferred to Richardsons Batt. of Cavalry Dec 1863." Johns was captured on May 2, 1863, sent to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D. C., and paroled in June 10, 1863. It also appears that when he was captured, he was also wounded - "Flesh R. side of scalp battle minie..." On the hospital card it sates "Rank: Courier, Co. For Stonewall Jackson." Many believe he was with Jackson the night he was wounded.

The grave of Joshua O. Johns in Mississippi? 

Looking at the 1860 US census, there is a Joshua Johns, age 22, living with the R. J. Pricket family in Franklin County, Louisiana.  This Johns was born in Mississippi, is unmarried, an overseer, and quite wealthy: $2,400  in real estate and $13,475 in his personal estate (probably a slave owner, but I've not researched that out yet).

Looking at the 1870 census, there is Joshua O. Johns, Franklin County, Louisiana. He is 26 years old, a farmer with $100 real estate and $369 in his personal estate, and he is now married to Susannah E., who is 27 years old.

In 1880, it appears that Johns has returned to Mississippi. He is (I believe) listed as living in Meadville, Franklin County, age 47, and married to Sousanna Johns. He is listed as J. O. Johns, and as a farmer. There is a black man living with them as a servant. (First name Harry?, last name Beal.) The 1880 census states he was born in Mississippi, his father was born in Alabama, and his mother was born in Mississippi.

Rooting around on ancestry (I don't usually trust ancestry), I find a Joshua Oliver Johns, born 1834 in Wilkinson, Mississippi. His mother was Rebecca Harriet Wilkinson and his father was James Johns. Joshua married Susannah E. McDaniel.

Looking at newspapers, there was a J. O. Johns appointed the first sheriff of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1891. (Hattiesburg American January 31, 1982.) As an aside, there was a decision rendered by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1883 - J. O. Johns v. John McDaniel. It seems that Johns was leasing property from McDaniels (in Franklin County) since 1867 and was later kicked off that property. (Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of Mississippi, Vol. 60, page 486-7). (It also appears this case first started in 1872)

I lose track of Joshua O. Jones about 1890 - no 1890 census, and I can't not find him in the 1900 census, or beyond. I also do not see a pension application for him. There is a J. O. Johns buried in the Oaklawn Cemetery in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The stone has no dates, and I cannot find a wife nearby.

So did Joshua O. Johns, private, Company C, 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry return to Mississippi after the war, get married, and lease land in Franklin County? Did he marry Susannah McDaniel, and then get into a legal battle with a member of the McDaniel family? Did Johns lose his land and move to Hattiesburg where he became chief of police? Is he buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Hattiesburg? Got any details you can add?

Who Rode with Lee at Appomattox?

Lee, Marshall, and Johns. 

   I'm not sure of the source of this scene that is floating around in my head. Maybe it is a painting, or some clip from a movie or show (Civil War Journal?). It shows General Lee at Appomattox, with an officer and courier in tow, leaving the McLean house. Lee we all recognize. But who were the others?

   The common story is that Lee was accompied by Col. Charles Marshall, of his staff, and Sgt. George W. Tucker, A. P. Hill's former chief of couriers. That is the way that Charles Marshall wrote the story many years after the war, and it is a story often repeated. Charles Marshall was present, and why shouldn't his account have credence? But maybe the years were catching up to Marshall when he wrote. There is no doubt that Lee was present, as was Marshall, but what about that courier?

   Marshall writes that "early on the morning of April 9, General Lee... directed me to come with him and go down on the Lynchburg road to meet General Grant... An orderly by the name of Tucker, a soldier from Maryland and one of the bravest men that ever fought,--he was with A. P. Hill when he was killed and brought Hill's horse off... accompanied us. The flag of truce was a white handkerchief, and Tucker road ahead of us carrying it." The three rode ahead, passing through the Confederate battle and skirmish lines. They eventually rode to the Federal skirmish line and halted. "As soon as Tucker was halted, General Lee directed me to go forward and seek the Federal commanding officer," Marshall wrote. For the next four paragraphs there is a discussion between Marshall and a couple of different Federal officers. After agreeing to a suspension of hostilities, Lee heard artillery, mounted, and rode  toward the sound of the guns. Arriving at the section of the lines where Fitz Lee was in command, Lee ordered them to cease firing.  Lee then retired to an apple orchard to await word from Grant. An hour later, word arrived that Grant was on his way. Marshall continues: "General Lee... at last called me and told me to get ready to go with him... I mounted my horse and we started off - General Lee, Colonel Babcock, Colonel Babcock's orderly, one of our orderlies, and myself." Notice that this time, Marshall does not use Tucker's name, simply, "one of our orderlies." (268)

   Freeman, in volume four of his biography of Lee, picks up this story. The party heading to see Grant is composed of Col. Walter Taylor, Charles Marshall, George Tucker, and Lee. This is based upon a letter that William H. Palmer wrote to Taylor on June 24, 1911. Palmer was on Hill's staff until the latter's death, and was now serving under Longstreet. (124)  Later that morning, while still waiting for word from Grant, Taylor was sent with a Federal Assistant Adjutant General with a message. When word arrived from Grant, according to Freeman, Lee, Marshall, and Tucker set off. (133, using Marshall as his reference.) Then, according to Freeman, Marshall and an orderly rode off to Appomattox to find a place suitable for a meeting. When the McLean house was selected, Marshall sent the orderly back to inform and guide Lee. (134) Eventually, Grant showed up, and the terms were worked out.

   Then Freeman turned to an account by George A. Forsyth, a Federal general and witness to the proceedings at Appomattox, who published his account in April 1898. Forsyth recalled seeing "a soldierly looking orderly in a tattered gray uniform, holding three horses..." (708) Eventually, Lee emerged from the McLean parlor. According to Forsyth, Lee, not seeing his horse, called out "Orderly! Orderly! "Here, General, here," was the quick response. The alert young soldier was holding the General's horse near the side of the house..." (710)  Forsyth never mentions the name of the "orderly," or courier.

McLean House 

   Was it Sgt. George W. Tucker? Probably not, or, probably not by the time they arrived at the court house. On April 14, 1865, the New York Daily Herald  ran an account of the surrender proceedings. This account was written and published thirty years before the others. According to this account, "General Lee was accompanied only by Colonel Marshall... at present an aid-de-camp on his staff, and Orderly Johns, who has served him in that capacity for fourteen months." There is only one member of the 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry with the last name of Johns: Joshua O. Johns.  While he did not officially join the 39th Battalion Virginia Cavalry until December 1863, he was reportedly with Jackson, and wounded by the same volley that mortally wounded the General on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville. He also surrendered at Appomattox. Lewis B. Ellis, also a member of the 39th Battalion, wrote another account in 1876. In his article, Ellis is refuting the idea that Lee surrendered under an apple tree. Instead, Lee was in the apple orchard awaiting word from Grant. When word arrived, Lee "called for his horse, and attended by Col. W. H. Taylor and Special Courier Johns, rode away in the direction of Appomattox Court house. He returned in about two hours and told us he had surrendered. I was a courier on duty with him at the time." (The Coffeyville Weekly Journal March 11, 1876)

   My two cents’ worth on who rode with Lee: When the group started off the first time on the morning of April 9, 1865, the party consisted of Lee, Marshall, and Tucker. At some point after returning from the first attempt to meet Grant, Tucker is ordered away. On setting out a second time, Tucker is not present, and Johns carries the white flag through the lines. Marshall mentions Tucker by name in the first attempt, but does not in the second ride to Appomattox. We know that other officers were present, like Colonel Taylor, at various times, and it is likely that other couriers were milling around.

Sources: Maurice,  An Aide-De-Camp of Lee (The writings of Charles Marshall. The Appomattox piece was originally published in 1894)

Freeman, R. E. Lee, Volume 4 (1935)

Forsyth, Harper's Magazine, Volume 96, 1898

New York Daily Herald   April 14, 1865

The Coffeyville Weekly Journal March 11, 1876

Stonewall Jackson's Requiem

Attending church services was one of the activities Confederate soldiers could choose to break the monotony of their day-to-day lives. At the peak of the revivals in the Army of Northern Virginia (and to an extent, the Army of Tennessee), soldiers could attend services almost every evening (and probably twice on Sunday).  There were never enough chaplains or colporteurs to meet the needs of the soldiers. Truly, the harvest was great, and the workers few.

Not long ago, I began wondering what messages were being delivered about the time of Stonewall Jackson's mortal wounding. He was mistakenly shot by his own troops during the night of May 2, 1863. As the army was fighting the battle of Chancellorsville on May 3, there were no church services held in Confederate camps. Many of the chaplains were busy at various field hospitals. The next church service was held on May 10. We, of course, know that Jackson only had hours to live.

J. K. Hitner, a member of the Rockbridge Artillery, wrote a "Brief Compend[ium] of the Religious History of the Rockbridge Artillery." It appeared in Jones's Christ in the Camp: "It was the first quiet Sabbath after the battles [Chancellorsville and Second Fredericksburg]--Sabbath, May 10. The services were conducted by Rev. B. T. Lacy, who preached from the text, "All things work together for good to those that love God," etc.: Rom. viii. The attendance was very large--between 2,500 and 3,000--consisting of privates and officers of all grades, from General Lee down. I never witnessed such thoughtfulness and seriousness depicted on the face of any auditors. The preacher stated this was General Jackson's favorite text--then unfolded the doctrine and the peculiar comfort to be derived from it by those who were truly children of God. At the same time, the condition of General Jackson was very critical, and the men seemed to feel that much depended on his recovery. At the conclusion of the sermon, Mr. Lacy stated that it might be God's will to spare his life in answer to our prayers, and called upon all to join him in an earnest petition to the throne of grace that God would be pleased to spare him to us. I heard many broken utterances and ejaculations during the prayer, and some declared they tried to pray then, while they thought they had never tried to pray in earnest before. Deep and solemn earnestness appeared written on every countenance. At the conclusion, an impressive pause followed; then the preacher said a few words in application of the text--that if would be all for the best, whatever God would determine in reference to the event; and then the crowd quietly dispersed to their camps, ever to retain in their memories this impressive proceeding." (484)

Lexington Presbyterian Church

Jones adds that once the service concluded, Lee and Lacy met privately about Jackson's condition. Lacy had left Jackson's deathbed to lead the service. Lee inquired about Jackson's condition, and being told that Jackson would probably not live through the day, Lee exclaimed, "Oh! sir, he must not die. Surely God will not visit us with such a calamity. If I have ever prayed in my life I have pleaded with the Lord that Jackson might be spared to us." "And then his heart swelled with emotion too deep for utterance, and he turned away to weep like a child." (75-76)

Jedediah Hotchkiss, Jackson's topographical engineer, makes mention of the sermon in his diary, but did not seem to be present. However, he did attend service the following Sunday. Lacy was again present, and "preached the funeral sermon for General Jackson." Lacy's sermon was based on 2 Timothy 4:7-8: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." Hotchkiss goes on to add: "The audience was large, but it looked strange not to see the earnest face of General Jackson there..."(Make me a Map of the Valley, 144, 146)

Francis Kennedy, chaplain of the 28th North Carolina Troops, also preached both on May 10 and May 17. Members of Lane's brigade, to which Kennedy belonged, had been the troops who mistakenly mortally wounded their beloved Stonewall Jackson. The pain they felt was undoubtedly as great as that expressed by Lee. On May 10, Kennedy selected Psalms 103:2 as his text: " Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:" The following Sunday, May 17th, he selected Ecclesiastes 8:11: "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Unfortunately, Kennedy, a Methodist, does not elaborate upon the passages.

Last Tribute of Respect - Mort Kunstler

Turning toward Jackson's "official" funerals, we can examine the passages used at services where Jackson's remains were present. At a private service inside the Virginia Governor's mansion on May 13, the Rev. Thomas V. Moore, pastor of Richmond's First Presbyterian Church, used Isaiah 2:22: "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 758) Jackson's funeral train was soon on its way to the Shenandoah Valley. That evening, the train stopped in Lynchburg and a service was held in the First Presbyterian Church. Dr. James B. Ramsey officiated, and Miss Massey sang "Come, Ye Desolate." (Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 759) On Thursday, the party boarded a canal boat and began traveling toward Lexington. On arriving, Jackson's remains were transported to the Virginia Military Institute and placed in his old classroom. On May 15, Jackson was taken to the Presbyterian Church, where Dr. William S. White preached on I Corinthians 15:26: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." (Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 761) Then, White read a letter that Jackson had written to him on the death of his son, killed fighting at Second Manassas: "The death of your noble son and my much esteemed friend... must have been a severe blow to you, yet we have the sweet assurance that, whilst we mourn his loss to the country, to the church, and to ourselves, all has been gained for him... That inconceivable glory to which we are looking forward is already his..." (Chambers, Stonewall Jackson, 2:457)

There are undoubtedly other passages used by other chaplains in the army. It would also be interesting to see what passages pastors of churches across the South were using on May 17. Did they mention the death of Jackson? Always something more to research....

(All Scripture passages used come from the Authorized Version[sometimes referred to as the King James Version].)