Forty years after the Civil War, Benjamin A. Pickren reflected upon his time in battle with the Berrien Minute Men. During Reconstruction Pickren obtained a position with the Southern Pacific Railway Company and became a locomotive engineer in Texas. He faced train robbers, gunfights, and railroad strikes. He survived two train wrecks, in the second of which he “was mangled and maimed, but never lost consciousness.” Recuperation brought him back to the area of his boyhood home in Georgia, where he reflected upon his Confederate military service. Pickren had mustered into the Berrien Minute Men at the age of 16. The previous post related Pickren’s experiences in the Battle of Atlanta.
Historian J. D. Ricci, described the situation leading up to the Fall of Atlanta:
“A nearly eighty-mile retreat through the late spring and early summer brought Sherman and Johnston’s armies within twelve miles of the south’s last major logistical center by July 10, 1864. The operational capability to conduct warfare throughout the Confederacy faced grave danger. To lose Atlanta meant that the flow of ammunition, food, and clothing, not only to Johnston’s army, but to departments in Alabama and the Carolinas, would grind to a halt.”
The Fall of Atlanta
Benjamin A. Pickren’s follow-up letter to the editor of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers’ Monthly Journal recalled the role of the Berrien Minute Men in the final defense of Atlanta.
Experience of a Confederate Soldier.
(Continued from Previous Post.)
SPOONER, GA., Aug. 31, 1905. EDITOR JOURNAL: Immediately after the great battle [Battle of Atlanta] of July 22, 1864, the siege of Atlanta commenced and lasted about two weeks. During the siege there was no fighting to amount to anything between the two infantries, but some of the greatest artillery duels known to occur up to that time. I have lain in the trenches or breastworks and have had the earth torn from beneath me. We were in such close lines or quarters to each other that it was impossible to raise our heads above the top of the breast works on either side. We were even close enough to hello to each other from the breast works, and without the consent being given from headquarters, the boys on both sides agreed to cease firing on each other and we had a few days’ armistice. The two armies looked like a lot of birds, both sitting on top of the breastworks joshing each other and hunting their clothes for intruders, commonly called greybacks.
We were comfortably quartered until the morning of the 31st of August, 41 years ago today, when to our dismay the long roll began to beat; the sound was too well known to all of us, and the officers began to holloa out, “Fall in, boys!” We were soon in ranks, and immediately after being organized a forced march began, we knew not where nor for what purpose until we arrived at Jonesborough, Ga., I thought clear away from the fighting line of Sherman, but as soon as we were in the little town which was all in a bluster, the women and children running and screaming in every direction, we learned that Sherman had made a flank move from Atlanta and his forces were within two miles of the little city, so we were formed into line of battle, and General Hardy’s corps began to march out to meet our enemy. They were formed in line in one of the finest cornfields I ever saw. The corn was so high that neither side had much warning of the approaching danger until the roar of musketry began. It was a short fight, but destructive to both sides. I also fell in the fight, wounded on the top of my head with a fragment of shell and in the left hand with a ball from a musket, and when taken to the rear to the Division Hospital, I there saw several wounded ladies. Though they were not participants in the fight, they were so close to it that they were wounded by stray balls that were fired perhaps one and a-half miles from them. One of the ladies wounded then is now a resident of San Antonio, Texas. I met her there several years ago.”
During the Battle of Jonesborough on August 31, U.S. Army forces blocked the Macon and Western Railroad which was the last uncut railroad leading into Atlanta. With Atlanta’s railroad lifeline severed, the Confederate Army evacuated the city on the evening of September 1, 1864. Atlanta was occupied by U.S. Army troops the following day.
Confederate Military Service Records show that by Sept 13, 1864, Pickren was at Lumpkin Hospital at Cuthbert, GA, about 160 miles south of Atlanta. The hospital had been relocated to Cuthbert after its former location at Covington, GA was destroyed by raiders from U.S. general William T. Sherman’s army on July 22, 1864 during the Battle of Atlanta. The trains brought carloads of sick and wounded Confederate soldiers to the hospitals in Cuthbert. Some were dead on arrival.
“I was one of the disabled for a long time, and returned to the ranks only a short time before the surrender of General Lee, … “, wrote Pickren.
After the final surrender of the Confederates, Benjamin A. Pickren signed a Prisoner of War parole slip, foreswearing any further engagement in insurrection against the United States.
His reminiscences continued, “…and shortly after that I commenced my career on a railroad.”
I have thought and dreamed of the part I took in the war, and wondered how it is, and for what purpose I escaped death up to the present time. I passed through seventeen battles and came home, and I also passed through two disastrous wrecks and am still alive. My last wreck came near ending it all, but today I am enjoying the benefits of a beautiful home and farm.
My good old mother tells me it was her prayers that brought me safely through and begs me to be a better boy. I was at a good old-fashioned Baptist general meeting yesterday, and heard the minister tell my feelings as though I had told him. I cast a glance at mother and she was gazing at me, and I almost felt condemned. There were two brothers and two sisters of mine at the meeting and all present seemed to enjoy the sweet benefits of a Christian spirit, and I, the oldest of the five, said wondering to myself, “Am I the scapegoat of the family, or am I deceived in myself?” I have the belief they have; I put more confidence, it seems to me, in the protecting hand of a just Ruler than they have any right to, because I have experienced more disasters and come through. Why should I not place more confidence than they, after passing through what I have? I know it is through His kind and loving hands I was spared -not for anything towards keeping His commands that I merited His protection, but it seems as though I had aroused His vengeance to such an extent as to have let me fall through with the rest of the trash. I believe in Him as strongly as the strongest, and put all my confidence in Him, but I have proof of it only in my word. I am not a member of the church, because I am not fit to be. I wish I were, but to join any church without feeling my worthiness I could not do, as I have conscientious scruples against such acts. Instead of bettering my condition, I fear I make matters worse, and before I commit myself I had better close this narrative.
With best wishes to the B. of L. E.,
I remain Yours fraternally,
B. A. PICKREN.
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VIVIAN FROST said,
March 9, 2024 at 6:32 pm
These stories are very interesting. Thanks for sharing.