Benjamin A. Pickren served in the Berrien Minute Men during the Battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864.
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.”
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.
Confederate POW Parole Slip signed by Sgt. Benjamin A. Pickren, 29th GA Infantry at Tallahassee, FL on May 16, 1865.
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.
When Georgia seceded from the United States on January 19, 1861, Benjamin A. Pickren was just a boy of 13 on his father’s farm in Muscogee County, GA. By the time of the 1864 Census for the Reorganization of the Georgia Militia, he was 16 years, 4 months of age, and for a desperate Confederacy that was old enough to fight. He was a big lad at 5′ 11″, blond-haired and blue-eyed. Within two months, he was married and was soon in service in the Confederate States Army. He was mustered in as a private the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment. Casualties were so high that by the time he was 17, he was promoted to sergeant.
Benjamin A. Pickren, of Muscogee County, GA mustered into the Berrien Minute Men and fought in the Battle of Atlanta at the age of 16.
From the late spring into the summer of 1864, the Berrien Minutemen and the 29th Regiment were in northwest Georgia with General Johnston’s Army of Tennessee. The Confederates had been forced to retreat before the relentless advance of General Sherman’s U.S. Army toward Atlanta. July 4, 1864 found the Berrien Minute in the line of battle at Marietta, GA. After dark, the Confederate forces fell back to the the Chattahoochee River. In a letter to his wife, John William Hagan wrote about the retreat and his confidence in the defensive earth works of General Joseph E. Johnston’s River Line. But again, the Confederates were forced to retreat to avoid encirclement. By mid-July with the loss of Atlanta imminent , General Johnston was relieved of command and General John Bell Hood took over. The Battle of Atlanta loomed.
The events of July 22, 1864 were still etched in Benjamin A. Pickren’s memory in 1905, even after four decades of work as a railroad engineer. In retirement, he wrote about his service in the Berrien Minute Men in a letter to the editor of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers’ Monthly Journal.
Experience of a Confederate Soldier. SPOONER, GA., July 22, 1905. EDITOR JOURNAL: Today is the forty-first anniversary of the great battle fought between General Sherman, of the Federal army, and General Hood, of the Confederate army, near the city of Atlanta, Ga., in 1864, in which I was a participant in gray uniform. Perhaps this narrative may interest some and not others. However, I thought I would give you a small outline of my experience in war, as railroading has become a thing of the past with me, though I feel as deep interest, it seems to me, as I ever did.
Major Arthur Shaaff (1831-1874) 1st Battalion GA Sharp Shooters. Image source: Maryland Center for History and Culture
On the day of the battle I was detailed on picket duty, which was an advanced line of skirmishers under command of Major Shoaff of the Second Georgia Battalion of sharpshooters [actually Major Arthur Shaaf, 1st Battalion GA Sharp Shooters].
The line of skirmishers was deployed in advanced line with a guide center march of nearly two miles through one of the greatest blackberry fields I ever saw. We had marched so far in fighting position and found nothing to fight until we became careless and commenced to pick and eat the delicious black berries.
At last, to our surprise, a gun was fired within fifty yards of our front, and one of our non-commissioned officers, Roland Griffin, fell dead within six feet of myself. [Rowland H. Griffin was a substitute who had been hired to take the place of John F. Parrish.]
At the same instance up jumped the boys in blue that had fired the fatal shot, endeavoring to reach their main line about one-quarter of a mile in our front, but they never reached it, as there were too many good marksmen in close range of them. The picket line was commanded to halt, lie down and shoot to hold the enemy in check until reinforcements came up from our rear. We did so, repulsing two picket charges. At the close of the second charge, we, the picket line, were ordered to hold our positions and not allow anyone to cross our line, unless wounded or a staff officer. I was at a loss to know what it meant, but soon after the order was given, my comprehension was clear. Looking back over the field we had marched and fought over, I saw a full line of battle advancing towards our enemy, although Major Shoaff and his pickets were between them. As soon as the advancing line reached our line and passed over it, the command was given to Major-General Walker to charge, and the heat of battle began. The booming of artillery, the rattling of small arms, and the yells of the advancing or charging line so enthused Major Shoaff that he also commanded the picket line to charge and the command was obeyed. There was a mill pond directly in front of our line which had been recently drained, and the men undertook to charge through it, and were mired down to their waists, and I had to give up the undertaking. The charge was successful both to the right and left of the pond; but we were repulsed on the center on the pond’s account, but were soon reinforced and surrounded the pond and gained possession in front of the battery of artillery that was direct in front of the pond that had slain so many of our comrades with grape and canister, together with our much beloved Division Commander, General Walker. We held the field of battle until dark, and in the shadow of the darkness the battlefield was evacuated, and a new line established back towards Atlanta in the edge of the woods we had previously marched through.
Poor me was detailed on vidette duty, which is the advanced part in hostilities. I was stationed in the midst of the battlefield, among the dead, still lying where they had fallen. Imagine, for a moment, the ghastly and horrible position I was placed in. I took a position upon my knees, so I could jump and run if necessary, with gun in hand, ready to throw it down and run, with my head near the ground in order to keep the light of the sky close down, so if the enemy did approach I could see them before they were upon me.
While in this position I took it for granted that my rear was guarded by my comrades, and had no fear of any rear approach; but here was my mistake, when I was spoken to by some one behind me that had crept up to me, but not looking for me, he was as badly frightened as I was. The first I knew of his approach was his addressing me, “Who is that?” I jumped up, wheeling around; with my gun in his face I demanded who he was. Oh, how it sounded when he told me his name, Richardson, of some Indiana regiment. He gave the number, but I did not care for it as he was my prisoner of war. He told me that he was hunting the body of a dead brother that had fallen near where he and I were, and begged me to let him go and hunt his brother, but at that time and place the Rothschild fortune could not have bought him from me, as the capture of a prisoner was the only excuse justifiable to allow a picket to leave his post, and I was determined to go clear to Atlanta with him if I could get there. So he and I started from the deadly battlefield to the rear.
We had gone but a short distance when I heard the familiar walk of Lieutenant Holcomb of General Stephen’s[Clement H. Stevens] staff, who had established the picket post and placed me where I was. I hailed him. [Twenty-five-year-old Josiah Law Holcombe was a native of Savannah and an alumnus of the Georgia Military Institute]. I knew his walk by the large rowels in his spurs tinkling on the gravel. He informed me that there was immediate danger of an attack from General Sherman and he was closing in the picket post and was glad he had found me. I have always thought only for me leaving the post with my prisoner, I would have been captured or killed where he had placed me, as I don’t think he would have ventured out to relieve me; but my hopes were all dismantled when he relieved me of my prisoner and directed me to a new post that had been established in the woods between the battlefield and General Hardy’s corps. He also said that the men were so fatigued that they had doubled the picket post; hence, he gave me directions to go and when about three hundred yards from where we stood, I must whistle. I did so and was answered.
When I reached the post under a large squatty oak I was glad to find one of my own company, John Peoples. He at once proposed to me to take turn about and one sleep at a time, as he was worn out. I told him he could sleep if he chose to, but my adventures up to that time had so enthused me I could not sleep if I tried. He removed his accoutrements and was soon snoozing to such an extent I had to keep prodding him. This was about midnight. I sat on the root of the big tree with my gun and back against it, listening with all my ears. At intervals I could hear commands given in the brush in front of me and they seemed so distinct at times, and so close, I was afraid to wake up John for fear the commands were imaginations as he was one of the greatest teases on earth. So I sat and listened. I could still hear the well understood commands-“Battalion, halt!” Heard it repeated down the line-could hear the command, “Attention, Battalion, guide center, forward, march!” At last the command to halt was so distinct and so close that I made up my mind to wake up my comrade, joke or no joke.
I had reached around the tree to where he lay asleep and given him a severe jerk; at that instant the pickets at our right line commenced a rapid fire down the line to the first one to our right. I threw down my gun at an angle of about forty-five degrees and fired, as instructed. Directly in front of me, not more than forty or fifty feet, I saw from the blaze of my gun in the dark bushes, a stand of U. S. collars and at least fifteen or twenty men’s faces. My comrade and I made for the rifle pit where the picket line was established. We had to face a regular fire of arms from our own comrades in going to the pits. Poor John had his right arm shot off when he reached the pit, or shot so badly it had to be amputated.
The Federals commenced digging and putting up fortifications where they were when the pickets fired upon them. The next morning rations were issued for the 29th Georgia Regiment for upwards of four hundred men, and I think one hundred and twenty-nine men drew them.
My company, G, was the largest in the regiment and ranked among the smallest after that day. I hope my brother soldier Richardson still lives and may read this article and verify the correctness of it.
Fraternally yours, B. A. PICKREN. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineer’s Monthly Journal, Volume 39
In the Battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, near Decatur, GA the 29th Georgia Regiment was decimated. In the Berrien Minute Men Company G, Captain Edwin B. Carroll, Sgt William Anderson, 2nd Lieutenant Simeon A. Griffin, 2nd Lieutenant John L. Hall, Captain Jonathan D. Knight were among those captured. James A. Crawford was mortally wounded. Levi J. Knight, Jr. was wounded through the right lung but would survive. Robert H. Goodman was killed. In the Berrien Minute Men Company K, Wyley F. Carroll, James M. Davis, James D. Pounds, William S. Sirmans, and Jonas Tomlinson were captured. John W. Hagan was reported dead, but was captured and sent to Camp Chase. Among many other soldiers captured from the 29th Georgia regiment were Captain John D. Knight, 2nd Lieutenant John L. Hall, Jonas Tomlinson.
Two companies of men sent forth in the Civil War from Berrien County, Georgia were known as the Berrien Minute Men. For the most part, both companies of Berrien Minute Men traveled with the 29th Georgia Regiment and kept the same campfires, although occasionally they had different stations. The campfires of the Berrien Minute Men were made for most of 1862 at coastal defenses around Savannah, GA.
In February 1862, Berrien Minute Men Company D, and other companies of the 29th GA Regiment were ordered to Camp Tattnall, near Savannah, GA. The Captain of Company D was John C. Lamb, he having been elected to that position October 14, 1861. The camp was south of Savannah and east of the White Bluff Shell Road. It was named in honor of old Commodore Tattnall, who was ‘the hero of the age” and the senior officer of the Navy of Georgia.
Many happenings at Camp Tattnall were recorded in a wartime diary kept by Washington F. Stark (1829-1897), Assistant Commissary of Subsistence for the 29th Georgia Regiment.
Washington Franklin Stark, Assistant Commissary of Subsistence for the 29th Georgia Regiment.
Stark had initially joined the 29th Regiment as a private in the Thomas County Volunteers, but as Assistant Commissary of Subsistence he held the rank of Captain. The Commissary Department was in charge of all food or subsistence supplies at a military post. Subsistence supplies were divided into two parts: subsistence stores, consisting of rations, such as meat, flour, coffee, candles, etc., and commissary property, which was the necessary means of issuing and preserving these stores, such as stationary, forms, scales, measures, tools, etc.
Stark’s diary frequently included his observations on men whose service was lost to illness and occasionally on those lost to vice. In the spring of 1862, he briefly ruminated on the fate of an unnamed soldier of Captain John Carroll Lamb’s company of Berrien Minute Men.
[Camp Tattnall] April 15th [1862] …One of Capt. Lamb[‘s] men got on a spree the other day, Visited some house of ill fame, got the venereal disease and was carried to the Hospital where he jumped out at the window and broke his leg which has to be amputated. There is not much chance for him to recover. He was one of the stoutest men that he [Captain Lamb] had. So much for Whisky & harlots.
Diary of Washington F. Stark, Assistant Commissary of Subsistence, 29th Georgia Regiment
Another soldier of the 29th GA Regiment from Captain Turner’s company, Berry Infantry, was sick in the hospital with Gonorrhea, first at Hospital No. 1 in Savannah, then transferred on April 7 to Guyton Hospital at Whitesville, GA.
Prostitution in Savannah
Historian Tim Lockley observes in his study of Savannah, “The large numbers of Confederate soldiers in the city…no doubt increased demand for the services of prostitutes,” while the disruptions of families and economic distress caused by the war forced more women to prostitute themselves for survival.
“Prostitute” was listed as the occupation of some Savannah, GA women in the Census of 1860. Enumerators were more apt, at least in some cases, to list known prostitutes under the guise of residents of “ladies’ boarding houses.”
Prostitution [was] a profession that was well established in Savannah. In 1808 the local Grand Jury abhorred “the various houses of ill fame in our city from which issue many of the mischiefs that interrupt our peace. it is here our youth are corrupted. It is here that the sacred ties of marriage are forgotten, and the foundation of diseases laid, which shall continue to be felt to the third and fourth generations.” As in many other port cities Savannah’s prostitutes found a ready clientele in the crowds of visiting sailors who spent their wages while on shore for a few days in the bars and brothels of Bay Street and Yamacraw.”The city authorities seem to have been fairly phlegmatic about prostitution. In 1855 the chief of police noted in his annual report that the easternmost wards of the city were home to “five large houses of ill fame, besides numerous small ones” while the western part of the city contained “four noted houses of ill fame.” Nothing in his report suggested that the chief of police intended to take action against these establishments. The following year the mayor replied to a request for information on prostitution in Savannah from New York physician William Sanger. He reported that ” In this city there are fifteen houses of prostitution, three assignation-houses, ninety-three white, and one hundred and five colored prostitutes.”
In July 1861, George Webb and other citizens of Savannah petitioned the City Council of Savannah to take action to remove brothels from the town.
Clipping from the Savannah Daily Republican July 17, 1861 regarding a petition to the city council requesting removal of a brothel.
Petition Of George S. Webb and others, stating to [Savannah City] Council that the occupants of the house of ill fame in State Street, between Drayton and Abercorn streets, have not been removed, and asking Council to take action in the matter. On motion, the above was referred to the Marshall for action in the premises.
Savannah Daily Republican, July 17, 1861
…It seems clear that brothels often masqueraded as ladies’ boarding houses. Mary Thorpe and Fannie Fall, for instance, were both indicted for “keeping and maintaining a lewd house” by the Superior Court in 1860, yet the census listed them as operating ladies’ boarding houses…The Grand Jury complained in 1864 about “the intrusion into the more public and respectable streets of the city, of houses of ill fame…subjecting our families to sights and scenes which disgrace their presence and outrage their feelings.”
Over the course of the Civil War, sexually transmitted infections reduced the effectiveness of fighting units in the US Army and the Confederate States Army.
Syphilis and gonorrhea, infections spread through sexual contact, were almost as dangerous to Civil War soldiers as combat. At least 8.2 percent of Union troops would be infected with one or the other before war’s end—nearly half the battle-injury rate of 17.5 percent, even without accounting for those who contracted a disease and didn’t know it or didn’t mention it—and the treatments (most involved mercury), when they worked, could sideline a man for weeks.
Edwin B. Carroll, Captain of the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th Georgia Regiment.
Edwin B. Carroll
In the Civil War, E. B. Carroll served in the leadership of the Berrien Minute Men, one of four companies of Confederate infantry sent forth from Berrien County, GA.
After serving on Confederate coastal artillery at Battery Lawton on the Savannah River the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th Georgia Regiment, finally ended their long detached duty in Savannah and went to rejoin the 29th Georgia Regiment at Dalton, GA. The 29th Regiment was to be part of the Confederate forces arrayed northwest of Atlanta in the futile attempt to block Sherman’s advance on the city. By this time the ranks of the 29th Georgia regiment had been decimated by casualties and disease. The 29th Regiment “in September, 1863, had been consolidated with the 30th Regiment. The unit participated in the difficult campaigns of the Army of Tennessee at Chickamauga, endured Hood’s winter operations in Tennessee, and fought at Bentonville. In December, 1863, the combined 29th/30th totaled only 341 men and 195 arms,” according to battle unit details provided by the National Park Service.
The Berrien Minute Men departed Savannah April 26, 1864 by train at the depot of the Central of Georgia Rail Road. (The building now serves as the Savannah Visitors Center). Col. Anderson saw the men off
Tuesday, 26th April… at 4 1/2 repaired to the CRR Depot to see the Lawton Batty Co’s go off – They parted with me with every demonstration of regard – Many of the men coming up & shaking hands with me.”
Four days later, the 54th GA Regiment was dispatched to Dalton GA to join the Confederate defensive positions against Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign. Anderson noted in his Journal:
Saturday, April 30, 1864 The 54th Regt, Col Way left this morning en route for Dalton. I understand they left many stragglers behind.
Apparently by June of 1864 Captain Carroll was present for at least part of the Battle of Marietta. By this time it seems an exaggeration to call the 29th Georgia a regiment. The unit was assigned to General Claudius Wilson’s, C.H. Stevens’, and Henry Rootes Jackson‘s Brigade in the Confederate Army of Tennessee, led at that time by Gen.Joseph E. Johnston. Henry R. Jackson in 1860 had attended the arrival of the first train to reach Valdosta, GA.
Sherman first found Johnston’s army entrenched in the Marietta area on June 9, 1864. The Confederate’s had established defensive lines along Brushy, Pine, and Lost Mountains. Sherman extended his forces beyond the Confederate lines, causing a partial Rebel withdrawal to another line of positions.
Harpers Weekly illustration – Sherman’s view of Kennesaw Mountain from Pine Mountain, from a sketch drawn about June 15, 1864. In the distance is a view of Marietta. Between the two mountains the smoke ascends from three Federal encampments, belonging to the armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, and the Tennessee. The Confederates under General Johnston hold a strong position on Kennesaw Mountain.
By June 15 1864, Sherman’s army was occupying the heights on Pine Mountain, Lost Mountain and Brushy Mountain. On that day H.L.G. Whitaker, Thomas County Volunteers, Company I, 29th GA Regiment wrote home telling of the death of his friend Chesley A. Payne. Payne was a private in Company B, Ochlockonee Light Infantry, 29th GA Regiment.
“Dear beloved ones, I will say to you that my dear friend C. A. P. [Chesley A. Payne] was cild [killed] on the 15 of June. Robert Reid was standing rite by him syd of a tree. Dear friends it is a mistake about his giting cild [killed] chargin of a battry, nothing more than a line of battle. So I cant tell you eny thing more about him.”
On the Federal line Pvt Charles T. Develling, 17th Ohio Regiment recorded the day’s of skirmishing.
June 17th, we moved to front line. Companies D. and H. skirmished all night. We built breastworks, and rebels attacked us but were repulsed. June 18th, Companies C. and F. charged rebel pickets capturing 4 and driving the rest into their breastworks, fighting nearly 2 hours without support, when our brigade came up and fought till dark. Company C had 1 killed and 2 wounded. J
On Saturday, June 18, 1864 the Confederate newspaper dispatches reported:
Three Miles West of Marietta, June 18 – The enemy has moved a large number of his forces on our left. Cannonading and musketry are constant, amounting almost to an engagement. The rains continue to render the roads unfit for military operations. The indications are that our left and centre will be attacked. The army is in splendid spirits and ready for the attack. A deserter came in this morning drunk. But few casualties yesterday on our side…
June 19. Rain has been falling heavily and incessantly the greater part of last night and all this morning. – Columbus Times, 6/20/1864
Pvt Charles T. Develling, 17th Ohio Regiment continued in his journal:
June 19th, daylight revealed the fact that the rebels had retreated [Johnston had withdrawn the Confederate forces to an arc-shaped position centered on Kennesaw Mountain.] We pursued them, day spent in skirmishing; very heavy artillery firing from our batteries. Night found us in front of Kenesaw Mountain fronting east, skirmishing with the rebels, and fortifying with dispatch. We advanced to within about 700 yards of the rebel’s works, and kept their artillery silent with musketry. Threw up a temporary fort at night for our artillery.
June 20th, our skirmish line, is within 15 or 20 yards of the rebels. We have three lines of works. Heavy skirmishing all along the line. Our artillery gave the rebels a terrific shelling this evening.
June 21st, the rebels got their artillery in position or the mountain and began shelling our camps, immediately our batteries opened and there was one of the grandest artillery duels of the war. Heavy skirmishing in our front just before night; our men held their ground.
“Kennesaw’s Bombardment, 64”, sketch of Union artillery in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, by Alfred Waud,
On the Confederate side of the line, on June 21st and 22nd John W. Hagan, of the Berrien Minute Men, wrote battlefield letters to his wife, Amanda Roberts Hagan, in which he refers to Captain Edwin B. Carroll.
Letters of John W. Hagan:
In Line of Battle near Marietta, Ga June 21st 1864
My Dear Wife I will drop you a few lines which leaves Ezekiel & myself in good health. James was wounded & sent to Hospital yesterday. He wounded in the left thygh. It was a spent ball & made only a flesh wound after the ball was cut out and he was all right. He stood it allright. I think he will get a furlough & he will also write to you when he gets to Hospital. We had a fight day before yesterday & yesterday on the 19th we had a close time & lost a grate many in killed & wounded & missing. The 29th [GA Regiment] charged the Yankees & drove them back near 1/2 mile or further. I cannot give a list of the killed & wounded in the fight. In Capt Carrells [Edwin B. Carroll] there was only one killed dead & several wounded. Lt J. M. Roberts [Jasper M. Roberts] was killed dead in the charge & Sergt. J. L. Roberts [James W. Roberts] of our company was killed dead & Corpl Lindsey wounded. Capt Knight is in command of the Regt. Capt. Knight & Capt Carrell is all there is in the Regt. The companies is all in commanded by Lieuts & Sergts. I have been in command of our company 3 days. Lieut Tomlinson [Jonas Tomlinson] stays along but pretends to be sick so he can not go in a fight but so long as I keep the right side up Co. “K” will be all right. The most of the boys have lost confidence in Lt Tomlinson. As a genearl thing our Regt have behaved well. If the casualties of the Regt is got up before I send this off I will give you the number but I will not have time to give the names. You must not be uneasey about James for he is all right now. Ezekiel stands up well & have killed one Yankee. I do not know as I have killed a Yankee but I have been shooting among them. You must not be uneasy about me and Ezekiel for we have our chances to take the same as others & if we fall remember we fell in a noble cause & be content that we was so lotted to die, but we hope to come out all right. Ezekiel hasent bin hit atal & I have bin hit twice but it was with spent balls & did not hurt me much. I was sory to hear of Thomas Cliffords getting killed for he was a gallant soldier & a noble man. I havent time to write much but if we can find out how many we lost in the 19th & 20th I will give a statement below. Ezekiel has just received yours of the 15th & this must do for and answer as we havent time to write now & we do not know when we will have a quiet time. You speak of rain. I never was in so much rain. it rains incisently. Our clothing & blankets havent been dry in Sevearl days & the roads is all most so we can not travel atal. I will closw & write again when I can get a chance. You must write often. Ezekiel sends his love to you all. Tel Mr. and Mrs. Giddins that Isbin is all right. Nothing more. I am as ever yours affectsionatly J. W. H.
P.S. as to Co. G being naked that is not so. All have got there cloths that would carry them. Some threw away there cloths but all have cloths & shoes yet. E.W. & Is doesn’t threw thayen away & have plenty. P.S. since writing the above another man of Co. G. is wounded.
♦
In Line of Battle near Marietta, Ga
June 22, 1864
My Dear Wife, As I have and opportertunity of writing I will write you a few lines this morning. I wrote to you yeserday but I was in a grate hurry & could not give you the casualities of the Regt. & I can not yet give you the names but I will give you the number killed wounded & missing in the Regt. up to yesterday 6 oclock P.M. we had 83 men killed wounded & missing & only 7 but what was killed or wounded. This is only the causalties since the 14th of this month & what it was in May I do not know. I do not beleave any of Co. “G” have writen to Jaspers [Jasper M. Roberts] mother about his death & if you get this before She hears the correct reports you can tell her he was in the fight of the 19th & was killed dead in a charge he was gallantly leading & chering his men on to battle and was successfull in driving back the Yankees. He was taken off the battle field & was burried as well as the nature of the case would permit. Our Regt suffered a grate deal on the 19th & some on the 20th. I was in the hotest of this fight & it seemes that thousand of balls whisled near my head, but I was protected. Heavy fighting is now & have been going on for some time on our right & left & I beleave the bloodiest battle of the war will come off in a short time & I feel confident that when the yankees pick in to us right we will give them a whiping, but Gen Johnston dos not intend to make the attack on them. Amanda, I want you to go & see John C. Clements & find out when he is coming to camps & I want you to sen me some butter by John in a bucket or gord or jar. You can not send much for John can not get much from the R. Road to our camps. You must not send me the book I wrote for some time ago. I can not take care of anything in camps now. You must be shure to go & see cosin Sarah Roberts & tel her about Jasper. I would write to her but I have a bad chance to write on my knee. This leaves Ezekiel & myself in good health & hope you and family are the same I am as ever your aff husband J. W. Hagan
P. S. if any of the old citizens from that settlement comes out here, you can send me some butter and a bottle or two of syrup by them. Parson Homer came out some time ago & brought Co. G a nice lot of provissions &c.
In the evening of the 22nd, on the Federal side of the line, Pvt Charles T. Develling, 17th Ohio Regiment wrote in his journal.
June 22nd, the rebels gave us a severe shelling this afternoon, from five different points. Our artillery replied promptly and with effect. Shortly after dark we moved to the right and into front line, already fortified, in an open field, in the hottest hole we have yet found, as regards both the sun and fire from the rebels.
General Sherman’s Campaign – The Rebel Charge on the Right, Near Marietta, GA, June 22, 1864. Harpers Weekly illustration of the Battle of Kolb’s Farm, four miles west of Marietta, June 22, 1864. On the Federal line, General Schofield held the extreme right; on his left, General Hooker commanded the Marietta Road; General Howard held the center; and Palmer and McPherson extended the Federal line to Brush Mountain, on the railroad. Nearly all day the rebels engaged Howard, to divert attention from the right, where they were massing troops on the Marietta Road against Hooker. A furious attack was made by the Rebels at this point at five P.M.
Southern newspapers claimed the fighting on June 27th as a victory for the South, reporting that Cleburne’s Division and Cheatham’s division had killed 750 federal troops along the front and inflicted another 750 casualties in the Federal lines. General Hardee’s Corps and General Loring’s corps were credited with inflicting nearly 8,000 casualties. “Five hundred ambulances were counted from the summit of Kennesaw Mountain to Big Shanty.” – Daily Chattanooga Rebel, June 30,1864
On June 28th, John W. Hagan wrote Amanda of more casualties in the Berrien Minute Men
I haven’t any news to write you that would interest you much. There hasent been much fighting neather on the right or left today & we beleave the Yankees are trying to flank us again. We have had a hard time & have lost about 100 killed wounded & missing. We had our Lieut of Co. “B” killed yesterday. Liut. Ballard of Co. “C” wounded and R. Bradford [Richard Bradford] of Co. “G” wounded & one leg cut off. I hope times will change soon &c. I hear today James had got a furlough for 30 days & was gone home. I hope it is true & I want you to send me a box of something the first chance you get. Send me some butter & a bottle of syrup & some bisket if you see a chance to get them direct through. Also send us some apples if you can get any in the settlement. John Clemants or James Matthis might bring it. Express it to Atlanta & then ship it to Marietta in care of the Thomas County Releaf Society. I think old Lowndes & Berrien is not very patriotic or they would dispach some man from that section with something for the soldiers who are fighting for them daley. Many things might be sent us & some one sent with it. Thomas County has its society out here & do a great deal for the sick & wounded & many boxes are shiped through them to fighting troops…
From the Front Further Particulars of Monday’s Fight Marietta, [Wednesday], June 29th [1864] –Unusual quiet prevails along the lines to-day, the enemy being permitted to bury his fast putrifying dead…
Following the retreat from Kennesaw Mountain, the Berrien Minute Men were in the line of battle at Marietta, GA on July 4, 1864. After dark, the Confederate forces withdrew to take up a new defensive line on the the Chattahoochee River. In a letter to his wife, John William Hagan wrote about the Confederate retreat to the Chattahoochee and his confidence in the defensive works of General Joseph E. Johnston’s River Line and the Shoupades. These earthwork fortifications along the north bank of the Chattahoochee, some of the most elaborate field fortifications of the Civil War, were constructed under the direction of Artillery Commander, Brig. General Francis A. Shoup.
In the Battle of Atlanta, Edwin B. Carroll was captured July 22, 1864 near Decatur, GA along with Captain John D. Knight, 2nd Lieutenant John L. Hall, Jonas Tomlinson and others of the 29th Georgia Regiment.
In the Berrien Minute Men Company G, Sgt William Anderson, 2nd Lieutenant Simeon A. Griffin, 2nd Lieutenant John L. Hall, Captain Jonathan D. Knight were captured. James A. Crawford was mortally wounded. Levi J. Knight, Jr. was wounded through the right lung but recovered. Robert H. Goodman was killed. In the Berrien Minute Men Company K, Wyley F. Carroll, James M. Davis, James D. Pounds, William S. Sirmans, and Jonas Tomlinson were captured. John W. Hagan was reported dead, but was captured and sent to Camp Chase.
In the Berrien Light Infantry, Company E, 54th Georgia James M. Baskin was wounded in the hip; he spent the rest of the war as a POW in a U.S. Army hospital.
In a letter written from camp near Atlanta, H.L.G. Whitaker reported Robert Reid, Ocklocknee Light Infantry, Company B, 29th GA Regiment was among those killed on July 22. In the Ocklocknee Light Infantry David W. Alderman, John L. Jordan, Thomas J. McKinnon, P. T. Moore were wounded; Mathew P. Braswell and Joseph Newman were captured.
Among the Thomasville Guards, Company F, 29th GA Infantry the wounded were Stephen T. Carroll, Marshall S. Cummings, Thomas S. Dekle, Walter L. Joiner. Private Green W. Stansell and Sgt D. W. McIntosh were killed; Ordinance Sgt R. A. Hayes was mortally wounded. John R. Collins was missing in action,
In the Alapaha Guards, Company H, 29th GA Infantry, Joseph Jerger was wounded and captured. In the Georgia Foresters, Company A, 29th GA, H. W. Brown and 1st Corporal Furnifull George were captured. Richard F. Wesberry shot in the leg, was sent to Ocmulgee hospital where his leg was amputated. In the Thomas County Volunteers, Company I, M. Collins, Alexander Peacock were wounded; Captain Robert Thomas Johnson and Ransom C. Wheeler wounded and captured. Thomas Mitchell Willbanks was wounded in the leg, necessitating amputation.
For Captain E. B. Carroll the fighting was over. A prisoner of war, he was put on the long journey to a northern prison camp.
On September 17, 1864 Captain E. B. Carroll was being held prisoner near Jonesboro, GA. A few days later on August 31 – September 1, 1864 remnants of the 29th Georgia Regiment were engaged in the Battle of Jonesboro. Apparently Captain Carroll’s kid brother, David Thompson Carroll, had joined the Berrien Minute Men by this time. Seventeen-year-old David T. Carroll had left school in the spring of 1862 and traveled to St. Marks, FL to enlist with the 5th Florida Infantry, but after 2 1/2 months of service had been discharged with a hernia and “epileptic convulsions.” Although the official service records of the Confederate States Army do not document that he re-enlisted, both Edwin B. Carroll and William H. Lastinger later reported that David T. Carroll was a soldier of the Berrien Minute Men and that he was among the men killed in the Battle of Jonesboro. Hundreds of Confederate dead, including men from the Berrien Minute Men and probably David T. Carroll, were buried in unmarked graves at Jonesboro in the yard of the train depot which is now Patrick Cleburne Cemetery.
In 1890 Edwin B. Carroll would return to the Battlefield at Jonesboro where he found rusting weapons still lying about the abandoned earthworks.
After his capture, Edwin B. Carroll and other Confederate prisoners were transported to the Louisville Military Prison at Louisville, KY then to the U. S. Military Prison at Johnson’s Island.
Prisoners were transported to Sandusky, OH and were conveyed by steam tugs across an arm of Lake Erie three miles to Johnson’s Island. Johnson’s Island contains about one hundred acres, twenty of which were enclosed in a stockade…Within this enclosure were fifteen buildings – one hospital, two mess halls, and twelve barracks for the prisoners. The stockade was rectangular, and there was a block-house in each corner and in front of the principal street…The guards… had five block houses with several upper stories pierced for rifles and the ground floors filled with artillery. Moreover, outside the pen there were enclosed earth-works mounting many heavy guns. and the gunboat Michigan with sixteen guns lay within a quarter of a mile.”
Despite the presence of the prison fortress, Johnson’s Island continued to be the destination of organized boat excursions from nearby towns, which brought picnickers to the island and a brass band for entertainment.
Sixty-two of the Confederates captured at Atlanta on July 22nd entered the Johnson’s Island prison population on August 1, 1864. The indignant prisoners were searched before being taken into the prison.
Sketch of U. S. Military Prison at Johnson’s Island, Lake Erie.
Arriving in the heat of summer, the men had the unfortunate experience of dealing with the bedbugs that infested the camp.
Any description of Johnson’s Island which contains no mention of bedbugs would be very incomplete. The barracks were cieled, and were several years old. During the cool weather the bugs did not trouble us much, but towards the latter part of May they became terrible. My bunk was papered with Harper’s Weekly, and if at at any time I struck the walls with any object, a red spot would appear as large as the part of the object striking the wall. We left the barracks and slept in the streets…When I get my logarithmic tables and try to calculate coolly and dispassionately the quantity of them, I am disposed to put them at one hundred bushels, but when I think of those terrible night attacks, I can’t see how there could have been less than eighty millions of bushels.
Men of the 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment already at Johnson’s Island included Lieut. Thomas F. Hooper, Berry Infantry.
Hooper had been captured June 19, 1864 at Marietta, GA. Details of Hooper’s capture were documented when a letter addressed to him reached the Berry Infantry days after he became a prisoner of war. The letter, addressed to Lieut Thomas F. Hooper, 29th Reg Ga Vol, Stevens Brigade, Walkers Division, Dalton, Georgia, was initially marked to be forwarded to the Army of Tennessee Hospital in Griffin, Georgia. But when it was discovered that the addressee had been captured, it was forwarded a second time back to Okolona, MS with ‘for’d 10’ added on the envelope for the forwarding fee. Lieutenant Thomas J. Perry, added a lengthy notation on the back of the envelope.
“Marietta, Ga June 22, 1864 The Lt was captured on the 19th inst out on skirmish. He mistook the enemy for our folks and walked right up to them and did not discover the mistake until it was too late. As soon as they saw him, they motioned him to come to them and professed to be our men. I suppose Capt [John D.] Cameron has written you and sent Andrus on home. The Lt was well when captured. Thos J. Perry.”
Thomas F. Hooper, Berry Infantry, 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment
Thomas J. Perry writes about capture of Thomas F. Hooper near Marietta, GA on June 19, 1964
On the night of September 24, 1864 a tornado struck the Johnson’s Island prison, destroying half the buildings, ripping roofs off three of the barracks and one wing of the hospital, and flattening a third of the fence. But in the midst of the gale the Federal guards maintained a picket to prevent any escape. One of the mess halls was wracked and four large trees were blown down in the prison yard. Ten prisoners were injured, only one severely. The stockade fence was repaired by September 29; it was weeks before the camp was sound again.
As the war dragged on, outrage grew both sides over the treatment of prisoners of war. Following newspaper reports of the mistreatment of U.S. Army soldiers in Confederate prisons, the U.S. Commissary General of Prisons ordered that Confederate prisoners of war held at Johnson’s Island and other prisons “be strictly limited to the rations of the Confederate army.” Furthermore, the previous practice of allowing prisoners to purchase food from vendors on the prison grounds was disallowed. “On October 10, Hoffman ordered that the sutlers should be limited to the sale of paper, tobacco, stamps, pipes, matches, combs, soap, tooth brushes, hair brushes, scissors, thread, needles, towels, and pocket mirrors.”
A prisoner at Johnson’s Island wrote,
“Our rations were six ounces of pork, thirteen of loaf bread and a small allowance of beans or hominy – about one-half the rations issued to the Federal troops. The pork rarely had enough grease in it to fry itself, and the bread was often watered to give it the requisite weight. Such rations would keep soul and body together, but when they were not supplemented with something else, life was a slow torture. …the prisoners were not to buy anything [to eat]. The suffering was very great. Men watched rat holes during those long, cold winter nights in hopes of securing a rat for breakfast. Some made it a regular practice to fish in slop barrels for small crumbs of bread, and I have had one man to point out to me the barrel in which he generally found his “bonanza” crumb. If a dog ever came into the pen he was sure to be killed and eaten immediately.”
The prisoners provided all kinds of services for themselves; There were cooks, tailors, shoe-makers, chair-makers, washer-men, bankers and bill-brokers, preachers, jewelers, and fiddle-makers.
We had schools of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Theology, Mathematics, English, Instrumental Music, Vocal Music, and a dancing school. The old “stag-dance” began every day except Sunday at 9 a.m., and the shuffling of the feet would be heard all day long till 9 p.m.”
“Tailoring was well done at reasonable rates. Our shoe-makers, strange to say were reliable and charged very moderate prices for their mending. The chair-makers made very neat and comfortable chairs, and bottomed them with leather strings cut out of old shoes and boots. Our washer-man charged only three cents a piece for ordinary garments, and five cents for linen-bosomed shirts, starched and ironed. Our bankers and bill-brokers were always ready to exchange gold and silver for green-backs, and even for Confederate money till Lee’s surrender.”
We had also a “blockade” distillery which made and sold an inferior article of corn whiskey at five dollars, in green-backs, per quart. It was a very easy matter to get the corn meal; but I never could imagine how they could conceal the mash-tubs and the still, so as to escape detection on the part of the Federal officers who inspected the prison very thoroughly two or three times each week.
John Lafayette Girardeau, a slave owner and proponent of white supremacist theology, was famous for his ministry to enslaved people.
We had many preachers, too. Dr. Girardeau, of South Carolina, one of the ablest preachers in the South preached for us nearly every day. Our little Yankee chaplain was so far surpassed by the Rebs that he rarely showed his face.
Major George McKnight, under the nom de plume of “Asa Hartz,” wrote:
There are representatives here of every orthodox branch of Christianity, and religious services are held daily.
The prisoners on Johnson’s Island sent to the American Bible Society $20, as a token of their appreciation for the supply of the Scriptures to the prison.
We have a first-class theater in full blast, a minstrel band, and a debating society. The outdoor exercises consist of leap-frog, bull-pen, town-ball, base-ball, foot-ball, snow-ball, bat-ball, and ball. The indoor games comprise chess, backgammon, draughts, and every game of cards known to Hoyle, or to his illustrious predecessor, “the gentleman in black.”
There was a Masonic Prison Association, Capt. Joseph J. Davis, President, which sought to provide fresh fruit and other food items to sick prisoners in the prison hospital. The hospital was staffed by one surgeon, one hospital steward, three cooks, and seven prisoner nurses. Medical and surgical treatment was principally provided by Confederate surgeons.
On November 9, 1864, Sandusky bay froze over. In early December the prison got a blanket of snow. Monday, the 12th of December was the coldest day of the year, and perhaps one of the strangest at Johnson’s Island Prison. That day one of the POW officers gave birth to a “bouncing boy”; the woman and child were paroled from the prison. That night a group of prisoners rushed the fence, perhaps thinking they could make their escape over the ice. The guards managed to push them back; the next day four corpses were placed in the prison dead-house. Ohio newspapers reported Lt. John B. Bowles, son of the President of the Louisville Bank, was among the dead.
The cemetery at Johnson’s Island was at the extreme northern tip of the island, about a half mile from the prison.
Digging graves in the island’s soft loam soil was not difficult. However, between 4 feet and 5 feet down was solid bedrock. It was officially reported that the graves were “dug as deep as the stone will admit; not as deep as desirable under the circumstances, but sufficient for all sanitary reasons.” The graves were marked with wooden headboards. – Federal Stewardship of Confederate Dead
Major McKnight described funerals at the prison:
Well! it is a simple ceremony. God help us! The “exchanged” is placed on a small wagon drawn by one horse, his friends form a line in the rear, and the procession moves; passing through the gate, it winds slowly round the prison walls to a little grove north of the inclosure; “exchanged” is taken out of the wagon and lowered into the earth – a prayer, and exhortation, a spade, a head-board, a mound of fresh sod, and the friends return to prison again, and that’s all of it. Our friend is “exchanged,” a grave attests the fact to mortal eyes, and one of God’s angels has recorded the “exchange in the book above. Time and the elements will soon smooth down the little hillock which marks his lonely bed, but invisible friends will hover round it till the dawn of the great day, when all the armies shall be marshaled into line again, when the wars of time shall cease, and the great eternity of peace shall commence.
Two prisoners of Johnson’s Island were released by order of President Abraham Lincoln, issued on December 10, 1864. The Tennessee men were released after their wives appealed to the President, one pleading her husband’s case on the basis that he was a religious man.
When the President ordered the release of the prisoners, he said to this lady: “You say your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him that I say I am not much of a judge of religion, but that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men to rebel and fight against their Government because, as they think, that Government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men’s faces, is not the sort of religion upon which people can get to heaven.”
Berrien Minute Men Second Lieutenants James A. Knight and Levi J. Knight, Jr. arrived at the prison on December 20, 1864; They were captured at Franklin, TN on December 16.
December 22, 1864 was snowy, windy and bitter cold at Johnson’s Island. New arrivals at the prison on that day included Col. William D. Mitchell, 29th, GA Regiment; Lacy E. Lastinger; 1st Lieutenant Thomas W. Ballard; Captain Robert Thomas Johnson, Company I, 29th Regiment, arrived at the prison. Lastinger, 1st Lieutenant from Berrien Minute Men, Company K, 29th GA Regiment and Ballard, Company C, 29th GA had been captured December 16, 1864 at Nashville, TN. Other arriving prisoners from the 29th GA Regiment included 2nd Lieutenant Walter L. Joiner, Company F.
Edwin B. Carroll and the other prisoners passed Christmas and New Years Day on Johnson’s Island with little to mark the occasion. By February 1865, Confederate POWs at Johnson’s Island were being exchanged for the release of Federal POW’s imprisoned in the South.
On March 29, Major Lemuel D. Hatch wrote from Johnson’s Island,
For several months we suffered here very much for something to eat, but all restrictions have now been taken off the sutler and we are living well… The extreme cold of last winter and the changeableness of the climate has been a severe shock to many of our men. I notice a great deal of sickness especially among the Prisoners captured at Nashville. Nearly all of them have suffered with rheumatism or pneumonia since their arrival.
The end of the war came with Robert E. Lee’s surrender on April 9, 1865 and, for Georgians, the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate Army to General William T. Sherman at the Bennett Place, April 26, 1865.
After spending almost a year in the Johnson’s Island prison, Edwin B. Carroll was released in June 1865.
To leave Johnson’s Island a prisoner was required to take an Oath of Allegiance to the United States, as by accepting Confederate citizenship they had renounced their citizenship in the United States. The Confederate prisoners called taking the oath “swallowing the eagle,” and men who swore allegiance to the United States were called “razorbacks,” because, like a straight-edged razor, they were considered spineless.
The prisoner had to first apply to take the Oath. He was then segregated from the prison population and assigned to a separate prison block. This was done for the safety of those taking the Oath as they were now repudiating their loyalty to the Confederacy. Until 1865, only a small number of prisoners took the Oath because of their fierce devotion and loyalty to the cause for which they were fighting. However, in the Spring of 1865, many prisoners did take the Oath, feeling the cause for which they fought so hard was dead. The following letter written by prisoner Tom Wallace shows that “swallowing the eagle” (taking the oath) was not done without a great deal of soul searching.http://johnsonsisland.org/history-pows/civil-war-era/letters-to-and-from-confederate-prisoners/
Tom Wallace, 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Kentucky Regiment wrote from Johnson’s Island in 1865 about taking the Oath of Allegiance:
My dear mother, Perhaps you may be surprised when I tell you that I have made application for the “amnesty oath”. I think that most all of my comrades have or will do as I have. I don’t think that I have done wrong, I had no idea of taking the oath until I heard of the surrender of Johnston and then I thought it worse than foolish to wait any longer. The cause that I have espoused for four years and have been as true to, in thought and action, as man could be is now undoubtedly dead; consequently I think the best thing I can do is to become a quiet citizen of the United States. I will probably be released from prison sometime this month
Edwin B. Carroll swore the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America on June 14, 1865 at Depot Prisoners of War, Sandusky, OH. He was then described as 24 years old, dark complexion, dark hair, hazel eyes, 5’11”
When the War ended, and he returned home, he could find no employment but teaching, in which he has been engaged almost every year since… In October, 1865, he was married to Mrs. Julia E. Hayes, of Thomasville, Georgia.
According to Wiregrass historian Folks Huxford, the Carrolls were among several families that moved to Berrien County, GA from their home community in Duplin County, N. C. “Among these families were those of William J. Lamb, James Carroll, Jesse Carroll, William Godfrey, Andrew J. Liles, William Best, James W. Dixon and others. These all settled in or around the village then called Alapaha but now named Lakeland, Lanier County… John Bostick and family moved to what was then Lowndes County not long after.”
Edwin B. Carroll ~ Early Life
The early years of his life, up to seventeen, were spent on the farm, sometimes attending school and at other times, tilling the ground. At that age his father sent him to Marshall College, in Griffin, Georgia, then conducted by Dr. Adiel Sherwood.
Adiel Sherwood, slave owner and outspoken Baptist advocate for slavery.
Sherwood, probably the most important spiritual influence in the founding of Mercer University, owned enslaved people and was an outspoken advocate for slavery in the southern states. Sherwood and other Southern Baptists defended slavery as a biblical institution, and asserted that enslaved people in the south were better off than white northern farmers. Sherwood claimed that enslaved people had plenty of free time to work for their own profit, and “not infrequently, by the privileges granted them, they are enabled to purchase their own freedom.“
He [Edwin B. Carroll] entered the preparatory department, but in the autumn was admitted into college proper.
Reverend Jesse H. Campbell influenced Edwin B. Carroll to preach the gospel. Campbell was a slave owner and volunteered as an “evangelist” in the Confederate States Army.
When [Edwin B. Carroll] had finished his Freshman studies, he determined to gain a year. This he succeeded in doing, carrying on the course of both Sophomore and Junior classes at the same time. At the opening of the spring term of the Sophomore year, it was announced by the faculty that he was a regular member of the Junior class. He made this effort, not because his necessities forced him to it, but because he wished to do it and felt that he could. The year that he entered college, 1858, a revival wave swept over almost the entire country. In Griffin, there were numbers added to all the churches – to the Baptist Church, nearly one hundred – and he was among them. Dr. Sherwood, as pastor, of the church, baptized him. The night after his baptism, during an earnest prayer offered by Dr. Jesse H. Campbell, he felt impressed with a strong desire to preach the Gospel. The struggle between this desire and a sense of his own unfitness was fierce, and resulted in his putting the work away from him. To use his own language, he “fought against” this impression for fourteen years, and is now in the work because he feels he can not help it, and the cry of his soul is, “Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel!” In 1860, he entered the Junior class in Mercer University, and pursued studies there until May, 1861, when he returned home, and, though only twenty years old, joined a Regiment “for the War”, which was then just beginning.
On Sept. 8, 1860 Edwin B. Carroll was received into Church membership at Penfield Baptist Church by letter from the Baptist Church at Griffin, GA. Penfield was the old chapel of Mercer University.
At Mercer University, Edwin B. Carroll was a classmate of Owen Clinton Pope, who after the Civil War, would come to Milltown (now Lakeland), GA to teach at the Milltown Academy.
In the Confederate States Army
Edwin B Carroll served the Confederacy in the Berrien Minute Men, Company C (later Company G), 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment. This was the original company of Berrien Minute Men, formed by Captain Levi J. Knight, even before the election of Lincoln. Company Rolls show Edwin B. Carroll was mustered into Confederate States service in Savannah, GA on August 1, 1861. Enlisting as a private, he rose through the ranks.
By November 1861 Edwin B. Carroll was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant of the Berrien Minute Men. Thomas S. Wylly was Captain. Their coastal Georgia posts included Stations on Blackbeard Island; Camp Spalding on Sapelo Island; and Camp Security at Darien, GA. By early 1862 The Berrien Minute Men, having gotten “regulated” into the 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment , were sent to Camp Wilson, near Savannah. On the night of February 21, Captain Wylly’s Company of Berrien Minute Men were ordered from Camp Wilson to Fort Jackson to relieve the Savannah Republican Blues. By March 7, 1862 “Captain Wylly’s Company” was on Smith’s Island at Battery Lawton supporting Fort Jackson, defending Savannah against incursions by the ships of the U. S. Navy. Most of Edwin B. Carroll’s Confederate service would be in the Savannah River batteries at Battery Lawton on Smith’s Island,
Colonel E. C. Anderson, (November 8, 1815 – January 6, 1883) was a naval officer in the United States Navy, Mayor of Savannah, Georgia and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He commanded Fort James Jackson near Savannah before its capture in 1864. He was elected mayor of Savannah eight times, before and after the war, and on December 6, 1865, he became the first mayor to be elected after the war.
At the reorganization of the regiment on May 7, 1862 Edwin B. Carroll was appointed 1st Lieutenant with the notation that he was “deficient in battery and artillery drill.” In that same election of officers, May 1862, Levi J. Knight, Jr was elected Captain of Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th GA Regiment following the resignation of Captain Thomas S. Wylly.
Throughout May, June and July of 1862 Lieutenant Carroll, Captain Knight and Berrien Minute Men, Company G garrisoned Battery Lawton on Smith’s Island. In the summer time the soldiers’ daily routine at Battery Lawton, Fort Jackson and other Savannah River batteries under Anderson’s command began at 4:30 am and ended after sunset, approximately 8:30 pm. The conditions of summertime service on the mud island must have been among the worst in the Georgia coastal defenses. The annoyance of mosquitoes, sand flies, and fleas multiplied the discomfort. Captain George A Mercer, after visiting Smith’s Island on Sunday, June 22, 1862, wrote of the miserable experience.
[The] men, on Smith’s Island, are particularly uncomfortable; their tents are pitched on the muddy ground, beneath the blazing sky; not a dry spot of earth, not a shade tree is near; the tide frequently rises above the platforms of their tents, soaks their bedding and washes away all they have; they have positively been obliged to anchor their cooking utensils to prevent their being carried away. And yet these brave fellows must stay — and do stay cheerfully in this dreadful spot, where every comfort is denied them, and sickness and death must add their horrors to the scene…Indeed a sad necessity is imposed upon our troops; they must garrison spots where a white man can hardly live.
The Regimental Return for July 1862 shows Lieutenant Carroll at Camp Debtford, an encampment established by Col. Anderson near Causton’s Bluff to serve as a convalescent camp and respite for troops serving on the Advance River Batteries under his command. In August and September 1862, Lt. Carroll was present at Camp Anderson along with others of the 29th Georgia Regiment. Among Lt. Carroll’s more unpleasant duties, ordering coffins for deceased soldiers.
By October 1862 the Berrien Minute Men Company G were back at Lawton Battery on Smith’s Island, where they were again under the direct observation of Col. Edward C. Anderson. An animosity developed between Captain Knight and Col. Anderson. Anderson saw Levi J. Knight as an incompetent officer, an irresponsible and demoralizing “evil example” to the men. By December 1862, Levi J. Knight, Jr was relieved of command. Knight was brought before an Officers Examining Board on December 4, 1862 and was “suspended from rank and commission by order of General Beauregard.” Knight’s rank was reduced to private.
Captain Carroll
With Knight busted to private, Edwin B. Carroll was promoted to Captain of the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th GA Regiment. Under Captain Carroll, Berrien Minute Men Company G remained on post on the Savannah River through the end of 1862.
March 1, 1863 found the company at Camp Young, Savannah.
In March, deserters from Causton’s Bluff and Thunderbolt batteries at Savannah were communicated in Union newspapers as reporting that Confederate troops were on subsistence rations.
The daily rations of sesesh soldiers. A Hilton Head letter of the 27th says: We have received into our lines several deserters from rebel defences at Causton’s Bluff and Thunderbolt, who affirm that the daily rations of troops consist only of four ounces bacon and seven of cornmeal. Many of the rebel troops are falling sick and all are fearing illness. Deserters assert that only for the fact that they are kept on inside post duty the entire regiments to which they belong would desert. From what is deemed a source entirely trustworthy, I learn that all the women and children have been ordered out of Savannah. – They left the city on Monday and Tuesday. This measure is induced not more by fear of attack than by the inability of commanding General to subsist his troops while there are so many non-combatants to be fed. -Fall River Daily Evening News 01 Apr 1863
In April,1863 food shortages in Savannah drove profiteering and inflation. In the market for enslaved people profiteers were getting $1100 to $2200 per person. Conditions for white civilians worsened. An appalled Lieutenant George Anderson Mercer, Assistant Adjutant General, 1st Georgia Infantry, blamed immigrants, northern sympathizers, draft dodgers and especially Savannah’s Jews.
“A mad fever of speculation – a rabid thirst for wealth – appears to have seized those who are not in the service; a fearful, gambling, corrupt spirit is abroad which is sufficient to call down the denunciations of the Judge of the Universe; all “make haste to be rich,” and they are not innocent. These speculators have done, and are doing, us incalculable harm. They are depreciating our currency and starving the poor…Think of a suit of fatigue uniform clothes costing over $200 in Savannah, and of a Barrel of Whiskey selling for $1600…the sordid speculators, composed chiefly of German Jews, of Aliens, of Yankees, and of our own people who have bought substitutes [to take their place in military service]…The Jews, who nearly all claim foreign protection, and thus avoid service, are the worst people we have among us; their exemption from military duty, their natural avarice, and their want of principle in this contest, render them peculiarly obnoxious; they are all growing rich, while the brave soldier gets poorer and his family starve.
April 1863 newspapers reported food shortages, hoarding and profiteering in Savannah, GA (Lancaster Gazette [England], April 18, 1863)
The Savannah Republican says: – The want of provisions in Savannah is becoming most important. The city authorities have requested the railways to refuse to carry provisions out of the town. This may do good as far as rice is concerned, but it is questioned whether there is anything else in Savannah. For the last few days it has been difficult for families to buy bacon, and many persons could not find Indian corn meal even in small quantities. The evil is that retailers of provisions have been forced to go or send up the country for supplies. They succeeded in buying small quantities, but their entry was stopped by government agents at the Gulf road. Even small parcels remain. Families require them.
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“By the summer of 1863, conditions in Savannah were horrendous. Scarlet fever, typhoid, and small pox ran rampant, and corpses piled in the streets. The Union blockade created a powder keg among the urban poor. Food ran low while enterprising merchants and blockade runners kept warehouses full to the brim.” – David T. Dixon
Eventually “bread riots” would erupt in Savannah and other southern cities.
Berrien Minute Men Drill on Coastal Artillery
On November 10, 1863, Edward C. Anderson reported a cold front moved through Savannah in the morning with ice and bitter cold winds out of the northeast. Monday, Nov 23, 1863 was a blustery day on the Savannah River, with cold winds from the north east. Col. Anderson visited Fort Lawton on Smith’s Island and “Drilled Carroll’s men [Berrien Minute Men, Company G] at the guns & fired shell from the 10 & 8 inch guns & blank cartridge from the latter only.” Morris’ company moved up from Proctor’s Point to join the Berrien Minute Men on Smith’s Island.
Civil War artillery drill.
With warmer weather and cloudy skies, on November 24, 1863 Col. Anderson ordered that the ordnance magazine at Battery Lawton be overhauled and the gun cartridges be arranged; he sent over all the ordnance men to assist with the work. The following morning, a dreary, rainy day, the men on the Savannah River batteries heard that the Confederate States Army had abandoned Lookout Mountain and was retreating before Sherman’s assault.
On December 18, Captain E. B. Carroll requested a leave of absence.
Lawton Battery December 13th, 1863
Brig, Genl Jordan Chief of Staff
General I have the honor to apply through you to the General Comdg. for twenty (20) days leave of absence. I would not make the application for so long a time, could I do what I wish in a shorter period and I promise, if Savannah is attacked during my absence to return immediately. All the officers of the company are present & able for duty. Very Respectfully Your Obt Svt E.B. Carroll Capt. Co G. 29th Ga.
Captain Carroll got to spend his Christmas at home. He was absent with leave From December 19, 1863 to Jan 19, 1864. Around this time, late 1863 to early 1864, it appears the Berrien County Company E, 54th Georgia Regiment returned from South Carolina to man the Savannah River defenses along with the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th Georgia Regiment.
A communique of December 23, 1863 from George Mercer informed the Savannah River Batteries that “the enemy were about to raise the siege of Charleston and concentrate everything on Savannah.” Col. Anderson ordered Major McMullen, commanding the garrison at Smith’s Island, to “burn off the marsh in front of Battery Lawton, which he neglected to do.” Fortunately, the feared Christmas attack did not materialize.
The new year emerged raw and blustery with bitter cold in Savannah. Days of heavy rains swelled the Savannah River until about January 8, 1864 Smith’s Island was overflowed and Battery Lawton flooded. During the first half of the year, Confederate engineers continued work on Battery Lawton; Like all of the Advance River Batteries around Savannah, it was being built by the labor of enslaved people. The ground was so soft that pilings had to be driven into the mudbanks to support gun platforms. In the late spring sand was hauled to Fort Jackson by train, dumped onto flatboats and ferried to Smith’s Island for the construction of earthworks for Battery Lawton. It was as if the Confederate States Army was attempting to build a sand castle on a mudbank to stand against the tide.
On Monday, April 4, 1864, Edward C. Anderson reported the tides were the highest he had seen in the Savannah River in 30 years, “overflowing Smith’s Island, drowning its magazine and shell house.” On April 6, 1864, Col. Anderson wrote,
“The high tides of last night again flooded Lawton Battery, depositing within its enclosure a mass of rubbish & trash which the hot sun will soon germinate into miasma. The officers and men have applied to be removed up to the city…Thursday, April 7, The flood tide of last night again overflowed Smith’s Island. On visiting it today I found everything afloat & the evidence of the tides having risen fourteen inches into the mens quarters. Ordered them to move up to the City and telegraphed Suley to prepare for their reception.“
CSS Ida ferried the Berrien Minute Men from Smith’s Island to Savannah.
The two companies from Lawton Battery loaded onto the steamer Ida and were ferried to Savannah. “At nine pm visited the quarters of the men on the Bay – Carroll has the [Republican] Blues drill room for his company & Morris for the present is in Husseys [Georgia Hussars] old quarters, next to McArthurs men.“
Col. Anderson wrote that “the Spring tides continue to drown Smith’s Island.” Heavy rains in the early spring of 1864 kept the Savannah river full, and kept the Berrien Minute Men, Company G in the barracks in the city.
The Berrien Minute Men were thus quartered in Savannah when the “bread riot” occurred in the city on April 17, 1864. Reported in the Augusta Chronicle and Sentinel , April 22,1864
A small “bread riot” occurred in Savannah [Georgia] on Tuesday last [April 17, 1864]. The News says that a combination of women numbering from fifty to one hundred, appeared at a grocery store on Whitaker street, when their demand for provisions being made, the proprietor was in the act of distributing bacon among them, when others of the party made a rush into the store and helped themselves to whatever they wanted. The same crowd also went to two other places on the same mission, where they obtained bacon, etc. Three of the women were arrested and taken to the guard house, and would be brought before the Mayor Thursday morning.
In relation to this affair, the News says:
That the present high prices of provisions have provided distress no one can doubt, and it is probable that some who participated in the riotous proceedings of yesterday were goaded to their course by pressure of want, but if we are rightly informed many if not the majority of them, had not even that excuse for the commission of acts of lawlessness. Be this as it may, there can be no necessity or justification for such acts of outrage and robbery. It is not generally the truly worthy deserving poor who resort to such measures, and those who thus set the laws and public propriety at defiance forfeit the sympathy of the community. If there is indeed want and suffering let the sufferers make their condition known in the right quarter, and a community that has never turned a deaf ear to the appeals of the helpless and needy will give them relief.
We trust that our city authorities will investigate this matter, ascertain who they are that truly need assistance, and take the proper steps for their relief. Such action is not only due to the wives and children of soldiers in the service, to the helpless poor, and to the peaceful and good name of our community, but also to the best interests of our city. While the mob spirit should be met with firmness, we should, in these times, act in accordance with the maxim of “help one another.” Let the turbulent be rebuked, but let not the worthy and law abiding poor suffer.
It appears that Captain E. C. Carroll’s company of Berrien men never did return to Lawton Battery on Smith’s Island. On the 20th of April, 1864 Col. Anderson visited “the quarters of Capt. Carroll on the Bay.” On the 25th, he noted that Headquarters had ordered the reassignment of the companies in “the Lawton Battery Command.”
At last, the Berrien Minute Men, Company G would end their long detached duty in Savannah and rejoin the 29th Georgia Regiment at Dalton, GA. The 29th Regiment and Edwin B. Carroll were to be part of the Battle of Atlanta, as Confederate forces were arrayed northwest of Atlanta in the futile attempt to block Sherman’s advance on the city.
On Wednesday, June 22, 1864, both companies of Berrien Minute Men were in the line of battle at Marietta, GA. It was a hot summer day.
That morning John W. Hagan, of Berrien County, GA, wrote his wife Amanda there was “only 7 but what was killed or wounded” in the 29th Georgia Regiment. That made the total count of men killed, wounded or missing in the past week an even 100 from the 29th GA Regiment. Hagan reported that among the dead was Jasper M. Roberts, of the Berrien Minute Men. He asked his wife to tell Jasper’s mother, “he was killed dead in a charge he was gallantly leading & chering his men on to battle and was successfull in driving back the Yankees. He was taken off the battle field & was burried as well as the nature of the case would permit.“
In the evening, on the other side of the line, Pvt Charles T. Develling, 17th Ohio Regiment wrote in his journal.
June 22nd, the rebels gave us a severe shelling this afternoon, from five different points. Our artillery replied promptly and with effect. Shortly after dark we moved to the right and into front line, already fortified, in an open field, in the hottest hole we have yet found, as regards both the sun and fire from the rebels.
That same day, the Columbus Times, Columbus, GA published a Civil War poem by an anonymous author, a poem apparently not ever appearing elsewhere in print before or since.
For the Times. There is Nobody Killed but a Private or Two.
The crack of the rifle in the distance is heard, From the hills far away comes the shriek of the shell Through the valley re-echoes the huge cannon’s roar, Mingling its deep thunder with the victor’s wild yell.
At last we are told that ’twas only a skirmish, That again to their colors our gallants were true ; Tho’ around them flew thickly the shot and the shell, “There was nobody killed but a private or two.”
At the dawn of the morrow a squad is detailed, ’Tis supplied with no arms but the shovel and spade; To the scene of the conflict their steps are now turned, Where their comrades lie sleeping in death’s gloomy shade, The dead are wrapp’d hurriedly in the cold, wet sod, Uncoffin’d, unshrouded, scarcely hidden from view, Their task is soon over, to the camp they return, For “there’s nobody killed but a private or two.”
The telegraph columns of the papers, announce Another slight skirmish just in front of our lines; The report is scarce read, and the public complain. That there’s so little news, considering the times, Ah ! yes, there is one who has scanned the dispatches, In her hands her pale face is now hidden from view, Great God! she exclaims, ’tis my husband they have slain, Tho’ “there’s nobody killed but a privateer two.”
That mother sits weeping alone in her cabin, The low mourning winds in the tree-tops are sighing, Her four little children stand gazing around her, Wondering the reason why mamma keeps crying. “Your papa, my darlings, never more will return, Never more the fond ties of affection renew, In the cold distant grave his body’s reposing, But there’s nobody killed but a private or two.”
How lonely and sad is the cold world to them now ! Ah ! who can portray the deep sorrow that is there! Four orphans so desolate, left drifting alone, A mother’s heart wrapp’d in the black gloom of despair! When they think of the grave where that father’s now sleeping. Recall to the memory his last fond adieu, How sad to be told with such wanton indifference, That “there’s nobody killed but a private or two.” B***. – Columbus Times June 22,1864
Two companies of men sent forth in the Civil War from Berrien County, Georgia were known as the Berrien Minute Men. For the most part, both companies of Berrien Minute Men traveled with the 29th Georgia Regiment and kept the same campfires, although occasionally they had different stations. They made their campfires most of 1861 at coastal defenses of Georgia, at Brunswick, GA, on Sapelo Island and then around Savannah, GA.
The Berrien Minute Men arrived on Sapelo Island around October 1, 1861, just a month before the final storm of the 1861 hurricane season. Undoubtedly, they experienced a gale on the night of October 31, 1861, as the hurricane, later known as the Expedition Hurricane, passed about 120 miles east of the Island. This hurricane had formed in the Gulf of Mexico and traversed south Florida before moving up the eastern seaboard. By the morning of November 1, 1861, the hurricane passed about 255 miles east of Savannah; the outer bands of the storm were already reaching Savannah with “driving clouds and heavy falling rain.” The USS Savannah and USS Monticello, blockading the port of Savannah, GA were forced to move away from the Savannah Bar and proceed to seas as a measure necessary to their preservation.
USS Savannah. On Nov 1, 1861, the Savannah was stationed off Tybee Island, blockading the port of Savannah.
On the Monticello, the storm damage disabled the engine forcing the ship to make for a safe harbor. That night the storm provided cover for the Confederate blockade runner CSS Bermuda escape from Savannah.
On November 2, 1861, following the 1861 Expedition Hurricane, the Confederate blockade runner CSS Bermuda escaped from the Savannah River bound for England. On the return trip it was captured by the US Navy & renamed the USS General Meade.
In the direct path of the hurricane was the largest fleet of ships that had ever been assembled by the United States Navy. It had been widely reported in newspapers that the great fleet had assembled at New York, and that General Sherman’s forces had embarked at Annapolis, MD. Among the “Expedition Corps” was the Forty-Sixth New York Volunteer Regiment, Colonel Rudolph Rosa commanding, aboard the steamship USS Daniel Webster. Later in the war the 46th NY Regiment would occupy Tybee Island, GA opposite the Berrien Minute Men garrisoning Causton’s Bluff near Savannah, GA
USS Daniel Webster, 1861, transported the 46th NY Regiment through the Expedition Hurricane to the Battle of Port Royal.
This was the largest naval expedition that had ever sailed under the U.S. flag. Its destination was “supposedly a military secret.” Reporters aboard the USS Atlantic in the Expedition fleet provided various cover stories: a demonstration would be made upon Sewell’s Point, or the fleet would practice an amphibious assault on Fort Monroe. In Savannah, and probably on Sapelo Island, it was expected the expedition would make an assault on the Confederate shores. After sailing on sealed orders it was speculated that the squadron would attack New Orleans, Charleston, Pensacola, Wilmington, Beaufort, Galveston or James River.
The expedition did practice an amphibious landing on the Virginia Peninsula at Fort Monroe, where it also expected to embark a contingent of African Americans – escaped from enslavement – to be employed as support for the mission.
It was believed by the War Department that there were at least 1,000 slaves, or ‘”contrabands,”’ at Fortress Monroe, able to perform a certain sort of labor necessary to the accomplishment of the purpose of the expedition — such work as throwing up entrenchments and adding to the comfort of the officers. Six hundred of these negroes were to have accompanied us, but there is scarcely that number at the fortress, and Gen. Wool has plenty of employment for all of them there. We therefore do not take any. – New York Times Correspondent aboard USS Atlantic
After the exercises at Fort Monroe, the fleet continued on to its unstated destination.
The Great Lincoln Naval Expedition. FULL PARTICULARS OF ITS STRENGTH. Rumored theft of its Maps, Charts, and Sealed Orders.
Richmond, Nov. 2.—A special order for the Lincoln fleet, dated on board the steamer Atlantic, Oct. 28, says the expedition will be under command of Commodore Dupont, that it is intended to make a descent on the enemy’s coast, and probably under circumstances demanding the utmost vigilance, coolness and intrepidity on the part of every man in the expedition. The surf boats and other means of debarkation are believed to be capable of landing at once from three to four thousand men. Some of them carry a hundred men. The expedition consists of three brigades commanded by Generals Wright, Stephens, and Viele, each with artillery. Full orders are given as to the mode of landing. They have to conquer the ground and succeed. They are directed not to go beyond supporting distance from shore.
Fortress Monroe, Oct. 28.—The fleet will sail to-morrow. One hundred thousand rations have been distributed among the fleet, and sealed orders have been given to the Captains of the several transports. The men and horses are on board. Several of the transports have suffered greatly from the gale during the last few days. The New York Herald of the 29th says the objects to be accomplished by the expedition are as follows : First, to carry the war into the Cotton states, which are chiefly responsible for the rebellion, and produce a disorganisation of the disposition of the Immense Confederate army in Virginia. Second, to secure winter quarters for the Federal troops, and harbors for the refuge the Federal naval and commercial marine. Third, To open our Southern ports to commerce, and thus satisfy all the demands and obviate all difficulties about the supply of cotton and the efficiency of the blockade. Fourth, to form a nucleus in the Confederate States near which the long suppressed loyalty and good sense of the people may find a safe expression and encouragement, and to stimulate this reactionary feeling, of which we have seen such remarkable and encouraging manifestations in North Carolina. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, in a letter to the expedition, gives them authority to employ negroes in the Federal service, but assures all loyal masters that Congress will provide a just compensation for all losses thus incurred by them.
The New York Tribune says one of its correspondents on board the Federal expedition writes from Hampton Roads that the Private Secretary to Commodore Dupont had absconded, carrying off with him the maps, charts, and even the sealed orders of the Expedition.
The Naval Expedition.—Our telegraphic column contains important information. There is no doubt that the whole composition, plan, and private instructions of the expedition are now in Richmond, else how should the information given and the Tribune’s report of the absconding Secretary tally so squarely? Say no more of Yankee shrewdness!
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A Naval Expedition Sails for Port Royal, S. C.
October 29, 1861, the great naval expedition, which had been fitting out for several weeks, sailed for the southern coast. It consisted of seventy-five vessels of various sizes and descriptions, and 15,000 troops; the former under command of Commodore Dupont; the latter under command of General William Tecumpseh “Cump” Sherman.
The Great Expedition, in Lat. 34 degrees, 37 minutes N., Long. 75 degrees, 50 minutes W., on the way to Port Royal Inlet. – Sketched at noon on 31st October, 1861, from the deck of the Steamer “Matanzas.” At the time, the fleet was 600 miles north of a tropical storm passing over Florida. Image Source: House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/33007.
The Savannah papers noted with glee that the storm would likely strike the US Fleet which had departed NY on October 30 on its mission to attack Confederate force.
“The season is not very propitious for their enterprise…they will be scattered to the four winds, and many of them sunk or stranded…We imagined the “nice time” the Yankees were having in their heavy laden and crowded ships and thought of their chances between treacherous waves and the inhospitable shores to which they were coming and if we indulged a wish that they might all be blown to Davy Jones’ locker, it was only that they might be spared the fate that awaits them whenever they land upon our southern shore.”
That evening, the U.S. Navy expedition encountered the tropical hurricane—which wreaked havoc on the organization of the fleet. Aboard the steamer USS Atlantic a Union soldier wrote in his journal on the rising storm.
November 1, 1861.
Wind continued to rise till at 11PM it blew almost a gale. Went on deck at 11 1/2 PM. The scene was fearful, but magnificent. The ship was tossing and pitching in a manner not at all pleasant. The waves were rolling at least 20 feet high and as far as the eye could reach seemed to be capped with silver, while in the track of our wheels millions of stars were dancing and flashing…
Nov 2nd Last night was the worst I ever saw. I could not sleep, for I had as much as I could do to hold myself in my bunk. Reynolds got thrown out of his and he had a top one too…8AM Our quarters presented a sorry sight. Window in stern got stove in the night. before it could be stopped the water was 3 or 4 inches deep. Shoes, guns, knapsacks, shirts, etc floating round in fine style. Went on deck…10A.M. Wind going down some. Struck green water at 4P.M.
John Call Dalton, M.D., rode out the 1861 Expedition Hurricane aboard the troopship USS Oriental.
On board the USS Oriental, John Call Dalton, Medical officer, rode out the storm with the 7th New York Militia. He vividly recalled the storm in his memoir:
On Friday, November 1st it began to get rough. The sky was overcast, the ship rolled and pitched, and the wind howled in a way that gave warning of worse to come. As the day wore on, there was no improvement, and before nightfall it was a blowing gale…All that evening the wind increased in violence. Every hour it blew harder, and the waves came faster and bigger than before. The see was no longer a highway; it was a tossing chaos of hills and valleys, sweeping toward us from the southeast with the force of the tornado, and reeling and plunging about us on every side. The ship was acting well and showed no signs of distress thus far; but by midnight it seemed as though she had about as much as she could do. The officers and crew did their work in steady, seamanlike fashion, and among the soldiers there was no panic or bustle. Once in a while I would get up out of my berth, to look at the ship from the head of the companion way, or to go forward between decks and listen to the pounding of the sea against her bows. At one o’clock, for the first time, things were no longer growing worse; and in another hour or two it was certain that the gale had reached its height. Then I turned in for sleep, wedged myself into the berth with blankets, and made no more inspection tours that night.
♦
The SS Governor was overwhelmed by the storm and foundering with a battalion of 385 marines on board, Major John George Reynolds commanding, and 15 crew. In the gale, the gunboats USS Young Rover and USS Isaac Smith, both damaged by the storm, were unable to take the Governor effectively in tow. Finally, the frigate USS Sabine arrived, and a daring rescue ensued at the height of the raging hurricane. Before the SS Governor sank, the entire complement of the ship was saved with the exception of one corporal and six privates who, attempting to jump from the deck of the Governor to the Sabine were drowned or crushed between the decks of the two vessels. The reports of the captains of the USS Sabine, USS Isaac Smith, USS Young Rover, and the acting master of the SS Governor were published in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies.
1861 Expedition Hurricane. Rescue of Major Reynolds’s Battalion of Marines from the Foundering Steamer “Governor.”
The awesome force with which this hurricane struck the fleet is evident in Major John G. Reynolds’ report to Commodore Samuel F. Du Pont.
Flag-Officer Saml. F. Du Pont, Commanding U. S. Naval Expedition, Southern Coast.
The marine battalion under my command left Hampton Roads on transport steamboat Governor on the morning of Tuesday, the 29th of October, with the other vessels of the fleet, and continued with them near the flagship Wabash until Friday, the 1st of November. On Friday morning about 10 o’clock the wind began to freshen, and by 12 or l blew so violently we were obliged to keep her head directly to the wind, and thereby leave the squadron, which apparently stood its course. Throughout the afternoon the gale continued to increase, though the Governor stood it well until about 4 o’clock. About this time we were struck by two or three very heavy seas, which broke the port hog brace in two places, the brace tending inward. This was immediately followed by the breaking of the hog brace on the starboard side. By great exertions on the part of the officers and men of the battalion these braces were so well stayed and supported that no immediate danger was apprehended from them. Up to this time the engine worked well. Soon after the brace chains [guys] which supported the smokestack parted, and it went overboard. Some 3 feet of it above the hurricane deck remained, which enabled us to keep up the fires. Soon after the loss of the smokestack the steam pipe burst. After this occurrence we were unable to make more than 14 pounds of steam, which was reduced as soon as the engine commenced working to from 3 to 5 pounds. The consequence was we had to stop the engine frequently in order to increase the head of steam. At this period the steamer was making water freely, but was easily kept clear by the pumps of the engine whenever it could be worked. About 5 o’clock we discovered a steamer with a ship in tow, which we supposed to be the Ocean Queen. To attract attention we sent up rockets, which signals she answered. When our rockets, six in all, were gone, we kept up a fire of musketry for a long time, but, the sea running high and the wind being violent, she could render us no assistance. She continued on her course, in sight the greater part of the night. About 3 o’clock Saturday morning the packing round the cylinder head blew out, rendering the engine totally useless for some time. The engine was finally put in running order, although it went very slowly. The rudder chain was carried away during the night, the water gaining constantly on us and the boat laboring violently. At every lurch we apprehended the hog braces would be carried away, the effect of which would have been to tear out the entire starboard side of the boat, collapse the boiler, and carry away the wheelhouse. Early in the morning the rudderhead broke, the engine was of very little use, the water still gaining on us rapidly, and we entirely at the mercy of the wind. It was only by the untiring exertions of our men that we were kept afloat. Nearly one hundred of them were kept constantly pumping and bailing, and the rest were holding fast the ropes which supported the hog braces. Toward morning the weather, which during the night had been dark and rainy, seemed to brighten and the wind to lull. At daybreak two vessels were seen on our starboard bow, one of which proved to be the U.S.S. Isaac Smith, commanded by Lieutenant J. W. A. Nicholson, of the Navy. She descried our signal of distress, which was ensign halfmast, union down, and stood for us. About 10 o’clock we were hailed by the Smith and given to understand that if possible we should all be taken on board. A boat was lowered from her and we were enabled to take a hawser. This, through the carelessness of Captain [C. L.] Litchfield, of the Governor, was soon cast off or unavoidably let go. The water was still gaining on us. The engine could be worked but little, and it appeared that our only hope of safety was gone. The Smith now stood off, but soon returned, and by 1 o’clock we had another hawser from her and were again in tow. A sail (the propeller bark Young Rover) which had been discovered on our starboard bow during the morning was soon within hailing distance. The captain proffered all the assistance he could give, though at the time he could do nothing, owing to the severity of the weather. The hawser from the Smith again parted, and we were once more adrift. The Young Rover now stood for us again, and the captain said he would stand by us till the last, for which encouragement he received a heartfelt cheer from the men. He also informed us [that] a large frigate was ahead standing for us. He then stood for the frigate, made signals of distress and returned. The frigate soon came into view and hope once more cheered the hearts of all on board the transport. Between 2 and 3 o’clock the U.8. frigate Sabine (Captain Ringgold) was within hail, and the assurance given that all hands would be taken on board. After a little delay the Sabine came to anchor. We followed her example, and a hawser was passed to us. It was now late in the day and there were no signs of an abatement of the gale. It was evident that whatever was to be done for our safety must be done without delay. About 8 or 9 o’clock the Sabme had paid out enough chain to bring, her stern close to our bow. Spars were rigged out over the stern of the frigate and every arrangement made for whipping our men on board, and some thirty men were rescued by this means. Three or four hawsers and an iron stream cable were parted by the plunging of the vessels. The Governor at this time had 3 feet water, which was rapidly increasing. It was evidently intended by the commanding officer of the Sabine to get the Governor alongside and let our men jump from the boat to the frigate. In our condition this appeared extremely hazardous. It seemed impossible for us to strike the frigate without instantly going to pieces. We were, however, brought alongside and some forty men succeeded in getting on board the frigate. One was crushed to death between the frigate and the steamer in attempting to gain a foothold on the frigate. Shortly after being brought alongside the frigate the starboard quarter of the Sabine struck the port bow of the Governor, and carried away about 20 feet of the hurricane deck from the stem to the wheelhouse. The sea was running so high, and we being tossed so violently, it was deemed prudent to slack up the hawser and let the Governor fall astern of the frigate with the faint hope of weathering the gale till morning. All our provisions and other stores, indeed every movable article, were thrown overboard, and the water casks started to lighten the vessel. From half past 3 until daybreak the Governor floated in comparative safety, notwithstanding the water was rapidly gaining on her. At daybreak preparations were made for sending boats to our relief, although the sea was running high, and it being exceedingly dangerous for a boat to approach the guards of the steamer. In consequence the boats laid off and the men were obliged to jump into the sea, and were then hauled into the boats. All hands were thus providentially rescued from the wreck with the exception, I am pained to say, of 1 corporal and 6 privates, who were drowned or killed by the crush or contact of the vessels. Those drowned were lost through their disobedience of orders in leaving the ranks, or abandoning their posts. After the troops were safely reembarked every exertion was directed to securing the arms, accouterments, ammunition, and other property which might have been saved after lightening the wreck. I am gratified in being able to say nearly all the arms were saved and about half the accouterments. The knapsacks, haversacks, and canteens were nearly all lost. About 10,000 round of cartridges were fortunately saved, and 9,000 lost. Since being on board of this ship every attention has been bestowed by Captain Ringgold and his officers toward recruiting the strength of our men and restoring them to such a condition as will enable us to take the field at the earliest possible moment. Too much praise can not be bestowed upon the officers and men under any command. All did nobly. The firmness with which they performed their duty is beyond all praise. For forty eight hours they stood at ropes and passed water to keep the ship afloat. Refreshments in both eating and drinking were passed to them at their posts by noncommissioned officers. It is impossible for troops to have conducted themselves better under such trying circumstances. The transport continued to float some three hours after she was abandoned, carrying with her when she sunk, I am grieved to say, company books and staff returns. In order to complete the personnel of the battalion, I have requested Captain Ringgold to meet a requisition for several privates, to which he has readily assented. I considered this requisition in order, as I have been informed by Captain Ringgold it is his intention, as orders were given for his ship to repair to a Northern port; in which event he can easily be supplied, and my command by the accommodation rendered complete, in order to meet any demand you make for our services. Under God, we owe our preservation to Captain Ringgold and the officers of the Sabine, to whom we tender our heartfelt thanks for their untiring labors while we were in danger and their unceasing kindness since we have been on board the frigate. This report is respectfully submitted. I am, commodore, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Jno. Geo. Reynolds, Commanding Battalion Marines, Southern Division.
P. S.—List of noncommissioned officers and privates drowned and injured by attempting to leave the U. S. transport steamer Governor without orders: Corporal Thomas McKeown, Privates Manus Brown, Timothy Lacy, Lawrence Gorman, Thomas Walker, Robert Campbell, drowned; Private Edward H. Miller, cut in two by collision with Sabine; Private Gustave Smith, arm broken by collision with Sabine. Jno. Geo. Reynolds, Major, Commanding Battalion.
♦
On Hatteras the storm surge was so high the entire island was inundated. Fort Hatteras was the only thing that remained above water. Federal troops evacuated the island and withdrew to Fort Monroe. USS Union went ashore about 13 miles south of Fort Macon.USS Osceola went on the rocks near Georgetown during the storm. The USS Peerless went down after a collision with the Star of the South. The confederate press reported that USS Winfield Scott had gone down with two Federal regiments, but that was wishful thinking; the Winfield Scott was badly damaged but remained afloat.
♦
After ripping through the fleet, the hurricane made landfall on November 2, 1861, at 10:00 am at Morehead City, NC with sustained winds estimated at 70 mph, and proceeded up the coast.
When the fleet arrived at Port Royal “many showed the marks of their rough treatment at sea. The big sidewheel steam, Winfield Scott, came in dismasted, and with a great patch of canvas over her bows, looking like a man with a broken head. Other had lost smoke-stacks, or stove bulwarks or wheel-houses.” – John Call Dalton
USS Winfield Scott, dismasted in the Expedition Hurricane of 1861, made port at Port Royal, SC.
Some of the other ships were forced to return home for repairs, but the majority rode out the storm successfully.
The expedition proceeded onward to Port Royal Sound for the Battle of Port Royal. Among the ships joining the rendezvous at Port Royal Sound was the USS St Lawrence. The St. Lawrence had come from blockade duty off St. Simons Island, GA.
USS St Lawrence, US Southern Blockade Squadron, was stationed off St. Simons Island, GA
The expedition arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina, November 4th, when it was greeted by Commodore Tattnall and his mosquito fleet; which soon withdrew in disgust. On the following day, Commodore Tattnall renewed his “attack,” but a few shots from our big guns effectually disposed of him. The 6th, the weather being stormy, nothing was done.
On the morning of November 7th, Commodore Dupont engaged the Confederate forts, Beauregard, of 32 guns, and Walker, of 15 guns; the Wabash leading the way, and the other war ships and gunboats following. The batteries from the shore replied with spirit. The action commenced at twenty minutes past nine, A. M., and lasted until half-past two, P. M., when the batteries were silenced, the forts evacuated, and the Stars and Stripes planted on South Carolina soil. Soon after, the Seventh Connecticut regiment landed and took possession of Fort Walker; and on the following morning our flag waved over Fort Beauregard. Beaufort was also temporarily occupied, the whole white population, with the exception of one man, having fled. The Confederate troops, estimated at full 5,000, retreated before the Federal troops could land, leaving arms, baggage, and personal valuables behind. The Federal loss was 8 killed and 23 wounded –Edgar Albert Werner
We are now enabled to give the names of all the vessels engaged in this great expedition. The gunboats are all well armed and manned. Vessels like the Unadilla, Seneca, Pembina and Ottawa, each carry one 11-inch Dahlgren, one Parrott rifled gun, and two 24-pound howitzers. The names of the gunboats are:
USS Vandalia……………. (20,) Commander HAGGERTY, recently off Bale’s Bay, S.C., but just returned to Hampton Roads;
Governor……………. (transport,) Capt. C.L. LITCHFIELD, with Major REYNOLDS’ Battalion of Marines. The entire armament of the fleet is about 400 guns.
THE TRANSPORT FLEET STEAMSHIPS.
Vessel. Tonnage. Commander.
Baltic………………2,723……………Comstock.
Ocean Queen……….2,802……………Seabury.
Vanderbilt…………..3,360……………La Favre.
Illinois…………….2,123……………Rathburn.
Star of the South…… 960……………Kearnly.
Marion…………….. 860……………Phillips.
Parkersburgh………. 715……………Hoffman.
Matanzas………….. 875……………Leesburg.
Cahawba…………..1,643……………Baker.
Empire City………..1,751……………Baxter.
Ariel……………….1,295……………Terry.
Daniel Webster……..1,035……………Johnston.
Coatzacoalcos………1,953……………Botcock.
Roanoke……………1,071……………Conch.
Ericsson……………1,902……………Cowles.
Oriental……………. — ……………Tuzo.
Potomac…………… 448……………Hilliard.
Locust Point……….. 462……………French.
Philadelphia………..1,236……………Barton.
Spalding…………… — …………… —
Winfield Scott……… — …………… —
Atlantic…………….2,815…………… —
Belvidere………….. — ……………Phillips.
Ben. Deford…………1,080…………… —
Mayflower, (ferryboat.)
Philadelphia, (ferryboat.)
Baltimore, (ferryboat.)
Eagle, (ferryboat.)
Star, (ferryboat.)
Pocahontas, (ferryboat.)
Commodore Perry, (ferryboat.)
SAILING VESSELS.
Vessel. Tonnage.
Great Republic….. 3,356
Zenas Coffin…….. 338
Ocean Express…..1,697
Golden Eagle…… 1,128 All these transport vessels are armed. They carry ordnance and Quartermaster’s stores, two houses in frame work, bricks in large quantity, about 1,500 shovels, the same number of picks, sand bags, horses, boats for landing men and guns through the surf, and every other article likely to be required for a campaign.
In 1862, Captain Levi J. Knight, Jr was detailed to take Berrien Minute Men Company C to Battery Lawton, where they joined the Brunswick Rifles manning artillery defenses of Savannah, GA. The Berrien Minute Men and Brunswick Rifles had encamped together at Brunswick. (Berrien Minute Men Company D was manning the battery at Causton’s Bluff and other posts around the city.) Battery Lawton had also been the 1861 post of the Berry Light Infantry, a company which joined with the Berrien Minute Men and other companies in the organization of the 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment.
Battery Lawton was part of the complex of Advance River Batteries supporting Fort Jackson on the Savannah River, which were under the command of Col. Edward C. Anderson.
Colonel Edward Clifford Anderson (November 8, 1815 – January 6, 1883) was a naval officer in the United States Navy, Mayor of Savannah, Georgia and a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He commanded Fort James Jackson near Savannah before its capture in 1864. He was elected mayor of Savannah eight times, before and after the war, and on December 6, 1865, he became the first mayor to be elected after the war.
Anderson had been educated at a Massachusetts prep school, a former mayor of Savannah and a former officer of the United States Navy. He had participated in numerous naval and amphibious operations in the Mexican-American War. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was sent as a Confederate envoy to England and styled himself as the Confederate Secretary of War. Upon his return he was placed in command of the Savannah River artillery,
Col. Anderson was somewhat of a stickler for military discipline. Orders for a typical day at Battery Lawton, Fort Jackson and the Savannah River Batteries as per Colonel Edward C. Anderson:
The daily routine for the observance of this command will be as follows:
Reveille
4:30
Sick Call
5:30
Breakfast Call
6:00
Preparatory Call for Guard Mounting
6:30
Battery or Siege Drill
8:00
Dinner Call
12:00
Company Drill
6:00 P.M. (In the Summer)
Preparatory Call for Dress Parade
10 Minutes before Sunset
Dress Parade
Sunset
II Immediately after Reveille, the tents and quarters will be policed & put in complete order.
III Battery… Drill will be superintended by at least one Commissioned Officer
IV Company drills will be attended by all the Commissioned Officers…
XII No man will be allowed to go over a half mile from this post without special permission…
XIII The firing of small arms is strictly forbidden & every man will be held responsible for the care of his arms, ammunition & accoutrements…
XIV Bathing in the river is restricted to three times a week…
Additional orders for clarification:
II The sick are required to report promptly at Sick Call every morning, otherwise they will be held to duty & in no instance will any man be excused from duty except on Surgeon’s Certificate.
III On occasion of Dress Parade & inspection both officers & men are required to appear in uniform with jackets buttoned up & after the command attention, will remain fixed in the position of a soldier. Moving of the body or changing of attitude while in ranks & at attention will not be allowed. Also on all inspections the men must appear in marching order with arms accouterments, etc. complete.
On the night of April 16, 1862, the Berrien Minute Men, Company D, 29th Georgia Regiment moved to Causton’s Bluff, between Savannah and Tybee Island. They came along with other companies of the 29th Georgia Regiment to reinforce the 13th Georgia Regiment which had fought an engagement with Federal troops of the 8th Michigan Infantry the evening before on Whitemarsh Island. Causton’s Bluff was also the site of Camp Stonewall Jackson, the encampment of the 47th Georgia Regiment.
The Berrien Minute Men Company D, under command of John Carroll Lamb, was the second of two companies of that name going forth from Berrien County, GA in 1861. They had made their campfires most of the previous year at coastal defenses of Georgia, first on Sapelo Island and then around Savannah, GA.
The Berrien Minute Men Company D had been encamped at Camp Tattnall, Savannah, GA and from that vantage point had witnessed the Federal bombardment and recapture of Fort Pulaski by U.S. Army forces from Tybee Island on April 11, 1862, exactly one year to the day from the Confederate seizure of Fort Sumter. Within the week the Federal forces were probing the Confederate pickets on Whitemarsh Island, prompting the move of the 29th GA Regiment up to Causton’s Bluff.
Causton’s Bluff Part 4: Arrival of the 29th GA Regiment
Causton’s Bluff Part 5: Tidewater Time
Harmon Neal Baldree served with the Berrien Minute Men, Company D (K), 29th Georgia Regiment at Causton’s Bluff near Savannah, GA. In June 1862 he went on detached duty as a ferryman on St. Augustine Creek at Causton’s Bluff
The Berrien Minute Men had arrived at Causton’s Bluff in the middle of the night on April 16th, having been aroused by an alert and summoned as reinforcements. After a quick march in darkness, they took up a position at the bluff, only to find by morning it was to be their new encampment. Their equipment was sent down the next day.
In the following days, men of the Berrien Minute Men stood two-hour watches to guard against any further actions by the U.S. forces. On Saturday, April 19, 1862 Angus McDermid wrote,
We are in site of fort Pulaski now and I sorrow to look at it for I think of them pore boyes that is in the hands of the enemy and I dont expect to see them any more nor hear from them … I dont no how many is dead nor a live but the reports saies that they was not many kilned at the fort and I hear that the officers at the fort did not fite and give it rite up. I dont no how true it is but that is what I hear. Some thinkes that the fort was given up on purpose but I dont no.
So we are rite hear in site of them all the time nearly and in site of Fort Pulaski. We can see them around it with their vessells and they will get in small boates and slip up on our men and shoot them. About 3 weekes ago they come 15 and I saw some of them. They got one cannon for it was hear on our battery. It is a small one but it can shoot a mile or so. . . . The Yankis is now in site since Dinner. I saw them for I went and looked at them since I cooked Dinner. They will tri us soon shore for they ceepe a shooting our men that goes on picket guard.
Berrien Minute Men Company D (K) and most of the other companies of the 29th Regiment spent May of 1862 at Causton’s Bluff. The Ocklocknee Light Infantry, Company E, was at Debtford Plantation adjacent to Causton’s Bluff. Berrien Minute Men Company C (G) continued to serve at Battery Lawton on the Savannah River.
In some ways, the arrival of the Berrien Minute Men must have been similar to the experience described by Walter Augustus Clark upon his arrival at Thunderbolt battery, overlooking the marsh just south of Causton’s Bluff:
My earliest recollections of Thunderbolt is associated with a fruitless effort to mix turpentine soap and salt water. We had reached the place tired and dusty and dirty. As soon as the ranks were broken, the boys divested themselves of their clothing and soaping their bodies thoroughly plunged into the salt water for a bath. The result may be imagined. The dirt and dust accumulated in streaks, which no amount of scrubbing could dislodge for it stuck closer than a postage stamp.
For some men, the prospect of duty on the river batteries was unbearable. On April 21, in a downpour, two men deserted their post at Thunderbolt Battery and made their way to pickets of the 48th NY Volunteer infantry, where they surrendered. The deserters carried word that there was a reign of terror in Savannah. The deserters were taken down to General Egbert L. Viele‘s U.S. Army headquarters on Daufuskie Island.
The 29th Regiment’s move to Causton’s Bluff may have presented a welcome distraction to Lieutenant Thomas J. Perry of the Berry Light Infantry. At Camp Wilson, a previous encampment of the 29th Regiment, Lt. Perry had gotten into a Regimental Feud with an officer of the 25th Georgia Regiment, publicly condemning gambling and loose discipline among the men of the 25th Regiment. Lieutenant W.P.M. Ashley of 25th Regiment had Perry hauled before a military tribunal to be court martialed. Lieutenant Perry was still awaiting the sentencing of the court. In early May, he was relieved to learn that the sentence from his court martial was a mild one: a reprimand from the Colonel and one week’s suspension. Ready to get on with the business of the regiment, Perry wrote:
Causton’s Bluff, near Savannah, GA May 8, 1862
Our Regiment is on picket duty on Oakland [Oatland] and Whitmarsh Island [Whitemarsh Island], in connection with the 13th Regiment and 11th Battalion. We have had no fighting yet, though we are sometimes in shooting distance of the Yankees…There are no prospects of a fight here soon…The weather is remarkably pleasant. Days moderately warm and nights cool. The sea breeze is delightful. There is but a few cases of sickness in our company. It is much more healthy here than our up country friends would suppose. We have good water, but not so good as you have in Floyd [County].
Perry’s assessment of the healthfulness of the camp at Causton’s Bluff would turn out to be overly optimistic. The 29th Georgia Regiment had yet to face the oppressive heat and pestilence of summer on the marsh. Causton’s Bluff was rife with Civil War epidemics. The men at Causton’s Bluff would suffer with mosquitoes, fleas, sandflies, fever, malaria, measles, tonsillitis, mumps, wounds, typhus, dysentery, pneumonia, tuberculosis, syphilis, hepatitis, and rheumatism. In June of 1862, the Savannah Morning News reprinted “Every Soldier His Own Physician” providing dubious recipes to cure many camp ailments.
At Thunderbolt Battery, Walter Augustus Clark wrote further of summer conditions on the marsh:
We fought and bled, it is true, but not on the firing line. The foes that troubled us most, were the fleas and sand flies and mosquitoes that infested that section. They never failed to open the spring campaign promptly and from their attacks by night and day no vigilance on the picket line could furnish even slight immunity. If the old time practice of venesection as a therapeutic agent was correct in theory our hygienic condition ought to have been comparatively perfect. During the “flea season” it was not an unusual occurrence for the boys after fruitless efforts to reach the land of dreams, to rise from their couches, divest themselves of their hickory shirts and break the silence of the midnight air by vigorously threshing them against a convenient tree in the hope of finding temporary “surcease of sorrow” from this ever-present affliction. It was said that if a handfull of sand were picked up half of it would jump away. I can not vouch for the absolute correctness of this statement, but I do know that I killed, by actual count, one hundred and twenty fleas in a single blanket on which I had slept the preceding night and I can not recall that the morning was specially favorable for that species of game either. I remember further that as we had in camp no “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” I corked up an average specimen of these insects to see how long he would live without his daily rations. At the end of two weeks he had grown a trifle thin, but was still a very lively corpse. But these were not the only “ills, that made calamity of so long a life,” for as Moore might have said, if his environment had been different,
“Oft in the stilly night, Ere slumber’s chain had bound me, I felt the awful bite Of ‘skeeters buzzing ’round me “
Their bills were presented on the first day of the day of the month and, unfortunately, on every other day. At our picket stations on Wilmington and Whitemarsh Islands and at the “Spindles” on the river where the young alligators amused themselves by crawling up on the bank and stealing our rations, there was a larger variety known as gallinippers, from whose attacks the folds of a blanket thrown over our faces was not full protection.
But there were still others. On dress parade in the afternoons, while the regiment was standing at “parade rest” and no soldier was allowed to move hand or foot until Richter’s band, playing Capt. Sheppards Quick step, had completed its daily tramp to the left of the line and back to its position on the right, the sandflies seemed to be aware of our helplessness and “in prejudice of good order and military discipline” were especially vicious in their attack upon every exposed part of our anatomy Capt. C. W. Howard, I remember, was accustomed to fill his ears with cotton as a partial protection. I have seen Charlie Goetchius, while on the officers’ line in front of the regiment, squirm and shiver in such apparent agony that the veins in his neck seemed ready to burst. Neither whistling minies, nor shrieking shells, nor forced marches with no meal in the barrel nor oil in the cruse ever seemed to disturb his equanimity in the slightest degree. Quietly and modestly and bravely he met them all. But the sandfly brigade was a little too much for him. In addition to these discomforts, the salt water marsh, near which we were camped, never failed to produce a full crop of chills and fever… Of the one hundred and fifteen men in our ranks only three escaped an attack of this disease. The writer was fortunately one of the three. One man had fifty-three chills before a furlough was allowed him. Quinine was scarce and boneset tea and flannel bandages saturated with turpentine were used as substitutes. Whiskey was sometimes issued as a preventative. In pursuance of a resolution formed on entering the service I never tasted the whiskey and as soon as my habit on this line became known, I was not subjected to the trouble of looking up applicants for the extra ration.
At Causton’s Bluff in May 1862 Joel J. Parrish, Berrien Minute Men, went out on sick furlough; despite his absence he was promoted to Sergeant on May 13th. Charles R. Oliver, Alapaha Guards, was absent sick, but returned and in August was on special duty as a nurse; he later deserted. Reuben Dollar and Isaac B. Stroud, Berry Infantry, came down sick and went home. Dollar was sent to the convalescent camp at Springfield, GA & never returned to the unit. John G. Stroud and John L. Tanner, Berry Infantry, were at hospital in Augusta, GA. James Sellars, 17th Patriots, contracted measles and was sent to Guyton Hospital at Whitesville, GA. On May 11, 1862, Isaac Watson, Thomas Volunteers, was certified disabled at Causton’s Bluff because of fever and rheumatism. On May 12, 1862, Joseph N. Singletary, 17th Patriots, died at Screvens Ferry, and George W. Fletcher, Alapaha Guards, was sent home with an “indolent ulcer” on his right leg that went clear down to the bone. Richard M. Aycock, Berry Infantry, was discharged on May 14, by reason of a severe cut across his foot with an axe which he received before he came into the service. W. E. Carter, Thomas Volunteers, died of pneumonia May 15, 1862. Daniel M. Banks, Berry Infantry, got sick and was sent to Savannah where he died of fever May 15, 1862. William Ferris, Berry Infantry, on May 15 was at Augusta and died of fever.
Letter from Headquarters of the 29th Georgia Regiment, Causton’s Bluff, Savannah, GA supporting discharge of T. S. Gregory on account of consumption. Written May 17, 1862, by Captain George P. Burch, Thomas Volunteers.
James H. Archer, Thomasville Guards, got sick and went home; he died of typhoid dysentery in his mother’s house on May 18, 1862. On May 20, 1862, Frederick Green Thompson, 17th Patriots, died of pneumonia at Screvens Ferry. T.S. Gregory, Thomas Volunteers, who being too weakened and incapacitated for duty had been serving as a nurse for the previous two months, was discharged at Causton’s Bluff on May 21, 1862, with consumption. James Jones, Alapaha Guards, was discharged May 22, 1862, on account of chronic nephritis. Wesley A. Pugh, Ocklochnee Light Infantry was discharged May 23, 1862, with tertiary syphilis, chronic rheumatism, and chronic hepatitis. On May 24, Lewis J. Collins, Thomas Volunteers, died of typhoid fever at Causton’s Bluff. Philip Schiff, 4th corporal of the Thomasville Guards, 29th GA Regiment, was found physically unfit for duty and discharged on May 26, 1862. Robert A. McKinnon, Ocklochnee Light Infantry, died of typhoid fever on May 27,1862. John E. Dickey, Ochlocknee Light Infantry, got sick in May, went to the hospital and never returned. On May 28, 1862, Waldo McCranie, Berrien Minute Men, was discharged on account of rheumatism; he reenlisted in 1863. On May 29, 1862, Cpl. R. M. Hancock, Thomas Volunteers, died of typhoid fever at Causton’s Bluff. James N. Winn, Ocklochnee Light Infantry was sick at hospital in Savannah; the following month he furnished John E. Bryan as a substitute and received a discharge. Jasper M. Luke, Berrien Minute Men, was discharged about this time with chronic rheumatism. Matthew Godwin, Thomas Volunteers was discharged on account of tuberculosis on May 31, 1862; the regimental assistant surgeon was of the opinion Godwin suffered from “a hereditary taint in his blood” since his mother also had tuberculosis.
On May 11, 1862, the Federals made another showing on Whitemarsh Island opposite Causton’s Bluff:
Savannah Republican
More Prisoners. – Our pickets on the marsh opposite Causton’s Bluff captured another respectable batch of Yankee Prisoners yesterday afternoon [May 11, 1862], and without firing a gun. It seems two detachments were sent out from the 13th Georgia, and stationed in the marsh near Augustine creek. During the afternoon a boat was heard coming from towards Wilmington, when the nearest party threw themselves down in the marsh and awaited its arrival opposite them. Unconscious of danger, the Federals rowed up to within a few yards of the pickets, when the latter suddenly sprang to their feet and ordered a surrender. Taken by surprise, and unarmed, the entire party, numbering fifteen, gave up and came ashore. They were taken in custody by Colonel [Marcellus] Douglass and brought to town for safe keeping. The prisoners are fifteen in number – six officers, good looking, well dressed men, and the remainder seamen, all from the steamer Sumter, stationed off Wilmington. They were doubtless reconnoitering, but say they were bound for Fort Pulaski, on a trip of pleasure. The capturing party consisted of only four.
Federal gunboats periodically challenged the Confederate batteries, trying to navigate through the marshes into St. Augustine Creek. Cannon fire from the batteries overlooking Whitemarsh Island was easily heard by the men of the Berrien Light Infantry, Company I, 50th Georgia Regiment encamped some three miles west near Fort Brown. On May 18, 1862, Sergeant Ezekiel Parrish of the Berrien Light Infantry wrote of hearing the cannonade of Thunderbolt Battery:
May 18, 1862, Savannah, GA
We heard some heavy firing of cannon last night about 9 o’clock. There was ten or fifteen fired in quick succession and then at intervals of ten or fifteen minutes I heard some four of five of the heaviest guns I ever heard in my life. Some thought the fight had commenced but up to this time all is quiet here as far as regards a general engagement with the common enemy. I heard that the shooting we heard was at Thunderbolt battery firing at one of the enemy’s gunboats that was trying to poke by our batteries and reports say she made the best of her way back to her own quarter.
Confederate Picket Station. The Berrien Minute Men, and the 29th Georgia Regiment were stationed at the post on Causton’s Bluff and did picket duty on Whitemarsh Island and at Caper’s Battery.
Men from Causton’s bluff were constantly rotated on picket duty or patrolling on Oatland and Whitemarsh Island and the surrounding creeks. A ferry was kept at a dock below the bluff to move the men across St. Augustine Creek. In June 1862, Pvt Harmon N. Baldree, Berrien Minute Men, and Pvt Mitchell Griffin, Thomas Volunteers, were among the men on detached duty as ferrymen. Lieutenant Thomas J. Perry of the Berry Light Infantry wrote on May 20,
Causton’s Bluff, Near Savannah, Ga.
May 20, 1862
Since my last letter we have lost, by death, two more member of our company – Daniel M. Banks and W. N. Farris, the former died in the city at St. John’s Hospital, the latter in the Augusta Hospital. This makes four we have lost. The entire company deeply sympathise with the friends and relatives of each, although they did not die on the battlefield, in the defense of their homes and firesides, yet they fill a soldier’s grave and are justly entitled to the Honor as tho’ they did, for they have been found in the line of battle more than once, for the purpose of meeting the enemy in a deadly conflict. When sickness did not prevent, they were true and trusty. There is but few on the sick list at present, none seriously so. Our duties are laborious at present. Our company have to go on the Island every four days, in addition to working on the fortifications. While on the island today we saw a large balloon go up from Fort Pulaski, several times, and remain up several minutes at a time. There does not seem to be any prospect of a fight here soon, if ever. If there is any it will doubtless be a river fight, and if we don’t whip the fight, it will not be because we had not time to prepare for it. Recruits are coming in rapidly to the different companies, swelling their ranks to a respectable size. Floyd.
In June 1862, Colonel Claudius C. Wilson, was present on special duty as commander of the post at Causton’s Bluff; his regular duty was commander of the 25th Georgia Regiment.
In June 1862, sickness at Causton’s Bluff continued to take a toll on the effectiveness of the 29th Georgia Regiment. Jacob Marks and John T. Barker of the Berrien Minute Men were among many who were absent sick. Isaac Baldree, Berrien Minute Men, was at the general hospital at Guyton and J.S. Massey, Thomasville Guards, was “absent sick in hospital”; both were discharged by civil authority in August. William W. Spencer, Captain of the Ocklochnee Light Infantry, who had been on station at Camp Mackey went on sick furlough. Abel A. Braswell, Seventeenth Patriots, went on sick furlough and was discharged by civil authority in September. John W. Callahan, Berry Infantry, was furloughed on sick leave and was absent sick for seven months. William Shores, Berry Infantry, was absent sick in June and July. John Johnston, 1st Lt of the Stephens Volunteers was sick at Causton’s Bluff, then under arrest for two months before going back on the sick roll; in December 1862, he was detailed as an enrolling officer. Isaac H. Carter, 17th Patriots, went on sick leave in June and died of disease October 10, 1862. Council Singletary, 17th Patriots, was on sick furlough. Benjamin P. Singletary, Thomas Volunteers, was absent sick, then detailed to work in the regimental hospital. Asa C. Crowe, Stephens Volunteers, discharged with disability at Causton’s Bluff, June 3, 1862, because of an old accidental gunshot wound to his left hand. On June 9, 1862, Corporal John A. Money, an over-age soldier of the Berrien Minute Men, was discharged at Causton’s Bluff, being disabled by frequent attacks of intermittent fever. Lt Robert Thomas Johnson, Thomas Volunteers, went home sick from Causton’s Bluff on June 10 and Lt. John Green Lindsey, Seventeenth Patriots, died of disease that same day. Sgt Sherod S. Little, Ocklochnee Light Infantry, was discharged for disability on June 22, 1862, after suffering an acute attack of rheumatism and pericarditis. William G. Price Ocklochnee Light Infantry, reported as a substitute for Michael H. Young, but was detailed June 26, 1862, as a tailor. William Cowart, Berrien Minute Men, enlisted November 18, 1861, and was discharged for disability on June 26, 1862; Captain J. D. Knight said he has “been unfit for duty two thirds of the time since he has been in the service, has had measles, tonciliatus, mumps, fever, and seems to have indication of dropsey.” Tim G. Whiddon, Thomas Volunteers went to St. John’s Hospital, Savannah and died of typhoid fever on June 26, 1862. Daniel B. Lammons, Ocklochnee Light Infantry, went on sick leave in June and died of typhoid fever in Thomas County on the 4th of July, 1862. On June 30, 1862, Samuel Staten, Alapaha Guards, was reported sick in an Augusta, GA hospital.
On June 11th, 1862, the Chatham Artillery joined the garrison at Causton’s Bluff, having moved from their previous station at Camp Hardee on Cedar Hammock. (A detachment of the Chatham Artillery had been captured at the fall of Fort Pulaski.) The camp of the Chatham Artillery at Causton’s bluff was named Camp Stonewall Jackson. A Historical Sketch of the Chatham Artillery provides a complete roster of the company on arrival at the bluff and describes the conditions of the encampment:
Situated as was the camp in the vicinity of the rice fields, low grounds, and brackish marshes of the Savannah river, and therefore in the midst of a truly malarial region, the men suffered so generally and so severely from fevers, that at one time there were scarcely cannoneers enough in camp to perform guard duty, or drivers to attend to stable duties. Several deaths occurred…
Junior 1st Lieutenant John E. Wheaton of the Chatham Artillery wrote:
June 11th – Vacated the camp at Cedar Hammock and camped at Causton’s Bluff, in company with a brigade of infantry in command of Col. C.C. Wilson. The guard and picket duty there was severe, and the situation one of the most unhealthy in Chatham county. A large number of the men were made sick. Privates Wylly J. Cash and James Rafferty died in hospital at Savannah, August 7th, and Private W. H. Elliot at Cartersville, Ga., August 12th. – Reminiscences of the Chatham Artillery during the war 1861-1865
In mid-June the first tropical storm of the 1862 season moved off the coast of Georgia. It formed approximately 340 miles (550 km) east of Savannah, Georgia on June 15 and moved slowly north before dissipating a few days later. The Savannah Morning News reported: Rain and Thunder Storm. – We had a heavy fall of rain last night, accompanied with high wind, vivid lightning and thunder. Between ten and eleven o’clock the storm raged with great fury, the rain descending in torrents, the heavens continually illuminated with the flashing lightning, followed by teriffic peals of thunder. While sheltered from the storm we could but think what a terrible night it was for our soldiers in camp.
At Causton’s bluff, the Confederate men passed the 4th of July, 1862 with ambivalence. But the U.S. Army troops occupying the coastal areas of Georgia still celebrated Independence Day with vigor. At Fort Pulaski, Pvt. William B. Howard, 48th NY Volunteers, wrote in his Journal:
July 4th, 1862 Beautiful day. not much of a fourth in Dixie[.] fired a salute of 13 guns. Went over to Dawfuskie [Daufuskie] Island in the afternoon, took a walk around our old camp ground. Co B doing picket duty over there. returned about Sun down. Major O. T. Beard made a speeck [speech] to the Regt. fiew [Few] fire works in the evning [evening].
The Demilune – embanked area outside the main gate at Fort Pulaski. In 1863, under federal occupation the demilune enclosed a kitchen, officers’ mess, hot shot furnace and guard house.
Private Ned Holmes, 25th Georgia Regiment garrisoned at Causton’s Bluff, wrote home:
I had almost concluded there was no Yankees about here till I heard them shooting on the 4th. There is plenty of cannon whether there are any Yankees with it or not. I suppose they fired some 2 hundred big guns at 1 o’clock at 2 or 3 different points.
The officers’ examination conducted July 1862 at Causton’s Bluff officially confirmed the election of officers held in May, 1862. This examination officially confirmed Jonathan D. Knight as Captain, Company D (later K).
In the heat of summer, picket challenges from the Federal troops had largely subsided. In the Berrien Minute Men the soldiers were hot, tired, sick, bored and squabbling. Elbert J. Chapman, called “Old Yellow” by the men, had been in confinement for going absent without leave.
On July 6, 1862 Angus McDermid wrote,
“Old Yellow is out of the guard tent. He told the Col. that if he did not let him out of there he would whip every sentnal that guarded him shore.”
“I have got a few more friends hear yet and I have got some good friends as any body, and I have got some foes. I am glad some of them hates me for I hate them so bad … The yellow jaunders [jaundice] is hear thick. I want to no what is good for it if you no in your next letter.“
Outbreaks called “Epidemic Jaundice,” or “Campaign Jaundice” were actually viral hepatitis infections that plagued both Confederate and U.S. army forces. “Local epidemics of jaundice with fever and diarrhea [were] largely attributed to the insanitary conditions of the battlefield.” Although the mortality rate from “Campaign jaundice” was low, outbreaks of the disease incapacitated significant numbers of troops on both sides, according to research in the Harvard Medical Student Review.
Regimental returns for July 1862 from the Berrien Minute Men Company D are sparse, but it seems the health of the company suffered as much as any at Causton’s Bluff. Angus McDermid wrote from the hospital on July 15, 1862 that he was sick with fever but recovering. A number of his friends from the Berrien Minute Men were in the same sick ward; “One man lyes hear and cuses all the time.” McDermid attributes the general sickness in the camps to “bad water.” He complains that there is not adequate food for the sick soldiers in the hospital,
“Now I will tell you what a sick man gets to eat hear. They get one craker and a cup of coffee and a sick man cant eat that for I cant when I am well. You may no that we fair like dogs hear.”
On July 27, 1862, Sergeant John W. Hagan wrote from Causton’s Bluff, “The company is very sickly & dose not seem to improve. The health of the troops at this post is very bad. We have had 3 deaths in 24 hours & others expecting to die evry day.” That month, Stephen Roberts and Guilford Tomlinson, Alapaha Guards, were at a convalescent camp; Roberts died of pneumonia the following month at the Springfield convalescent camp. Lt. Thomas J. Perry, Berry Infantry, was absent sick, but returned in August. James Rhodes, Berry Infantry, went to hospital and was furloughed home to recover; he was back in November, detailed as a ferryman. James W. Ferris, Berry Infantry, was sent to Springfield convalescent camp, then to hospital and eventually deserted. Thomas Allen and George W. Kirk, Stephens Volunteers, were at convalescent camp; Allen spent the rest of the year in the hospital or furloughed sick. Merritt A. Chandler, Stephens Volunteers, was sent to Guyton Hospital at Whitesville, GA then was in and out of hospitals until February, 1863, when he was diagnosed with “Tertian Fever,” a type of malaria in which the fever spikes every three days. Calvin H. Kytle, Stephens Volunteers, went to a hospital in Savannah. Nathaniel Bryan, Seventeenth Patriots, went on sick furlough. John D. Hires, Wiliam F. Southwell, Lt William Pendarvis, Moses W. Spence, James H. Hodges John T. Strickland, William Thornton and William F. Southwell, Georgia Foresters, were sick in the hospital. Hodges would be out for four months, Strickland six months, Southwell and Thornton never returned. Spence was detailed as a nurse. Randall Phinnie, Thomas Volunteers, was absent sick. F. M. Rawls and J. S. Rawls went to the convalescent camp. F.M. Rawls headed home without leave and died December 9 in Thomas County. J. S. Rawls was sent to Springfield and never returned. James W. Farris, Berry Infantry, went to a convalescent camp and was out five months. Toliver Trapp, Berry Infantry, was at convalescent camp; he had been working as a nurse in the Savannah hospital. Reuben R. Pyles, 17th Patriots, was at the Convalescent camp. Barry Scoggins, 17th Patriots was under arrest at Oglethorpe Barracks, Savannah; he escaped in November 1862. On July 2, 1862, John Muller reported as a substitute for John G. Fondren and deserted the same day. Hayes Singletary, who had enlisted in the 17th Patriots in May, died of pneumonia on July 3, 1862, at Causton’s Bluff. On the 4th of July, 1862, James Sellars, 17th Patriots, died of pneumonia at Guyton Hospital. On July 10, John Tomlinson, Alapaha Guards, furnished a substitute to serve in his place. J. Peacock, 17th Patriots, died of fever, July 10, 1862. On July ll, 1862, Lewis Ebbinger, who worked in the company commissary of the Ocklochnee Light infantry, died of congestive chill. J. Kilby Carroll was discharged at Causton’s Bluff on July 16, 1862, as “incapable of performing the duties of a soldier because of chronic ulceration of the leg“; he later was sent to Ocmulgee Hospital, Macon, GA and worked in the Confederate States Laboratory, the center of Confederate States Ordnance testing and production. Patrick W. McKinnon, Ocklochnee Light Infantry, died of typhoid fever July 18, 1862. William J. McKinnon, Ocklochnee Light Infantry, went to a hospital at Whitesville, GA; he died August 28th, 1862. B.F. Fudge, Thomasville Guards, was at a convalescent camp; he was discharged in August for being over age. Thirty-six-year-old Jarrod Johnson, who joined at Darrien, GA, had been incapacitated by rheumatism every single day of his enlistment and was discharged on certificate of disability on July 19, 1862. On July 22, 1862, Dempsey Griffin, Thomas Volunteers, died of pneumonia at Causton’s Bluff. G. W. Martin, Thomasville Guards, caught Typhoid pneumonia and received a certificate of disability for discharge at Causton’s Bluff on July 23, 1862. That same day, July 23, Cpl. William T. Connally and Wilber W. Williams, Stephens Volunteers, and Duncan R. McIntosh, 17th Patriots, died of fever in Savannah. James C. Smith, corporal of the Ochlockonee Light Infantry got sick and was sent to Guyton Hospital at Whitesville, GA where he died of intermittent fever on July 25, 1862. Greenberry Holt, 17th Patriots, enlisted at Causton’s Bluff on May 16 and died of jaundice and fever on July 28, 1862. William Harper and James H. Lester, Thomasville Guards, got sick in July. Harper spent four months in the hospital but eventually returned to the regiment and served until the end of the war. Lester went home and on July 28, 1862, died of typhoid fever.
In August 1862 Josiah Goode, Stephens Volunteers, went sick to a Savannah hospital and after several months of illness was furloughed home; he died September 14, 1863, of chronic diarrhea. In Stephens Volunteers, Sgt William J. Poole left camp in August and died of fever in Franklin County, GA on September 16, the same day Sgt Lowrey G. Patterson died of fever at Causton’s Bluff. S. R. Taylor was assigned to duty as a hospital steward; the following month he was discharged, overage.
By August, the 25th Georgia Regiment had joined the garrison at Causton’s Bluff. This was probably to the consternation of Lieutenant Perry although he apparently refrained from further commentary on the morals of the 25th.
On August 10, 1862, Edward “Ned” Holmes, a 2nd Lieutenant in the 25th Regiment, wrote to his family from Causton’s Bluff:
Camp Costons Bluff, [Near Savannah] Aug. 10, 1862
Dear Mat and Viney, I write you a few lines that leaves me about well except my mouth. I never was in such a fix with fever blisters before. I received a letter from you, Santanna just a few minutes ago. Alex Gamble is going to start home tonight. I will send this by him. I think my fever is broken entirely up. I have not had any since Friday morning so I feel as well as I did before I was taken. There is a deal good of sickness around —– but they are also not dying as fast as they were ten or fifteen days ago. There is a heap of heavy shooting going on today in the direction of Fort Pulaski. I don’t know what it means. they are fixing up a volunteer company right now to go to Wilmington Island, a place we have never scouted. It’s beyond Whitemarsh and from where we are camped and on the way to Fort Pulaski. I don’t know what information they expect to obtain by going to Wilmington. It’s all under the General of the Fort and they never expect to hold it unless the fort is retaken which will never be done for there is nothing here to take it with. Morris is well. Miles is getting well. John Nobles is right sick. Washer Nobles came into our company this morning to stay. I may get off home when Sim gets back. I don’t know. Everbody has been here longer than I have. I will be there by the first of September anyway if I keep well. And I am not afraid of being sick anymore this summer.
Love, Ned
P.S. Tell Mike if there are any of Cook’s pills there to send me some. And I can manage my own cases.
The Chatham Artillery vacated Causton’s Bluff on August 13, 1862, moving to White Bluff. The Berrien Minute Men, Company D, 29th Georgia Regiment would remain at Causton’s Bluff through the first week of October.
Company D, was the second of two companies of men raised in Berrien County, GA and known as the Berrien Minute Men during the Civil War. This company was enlisted October 1, 1861, traveled to Savannah, GA where they were mustered into service. It appears the men arrived in Savannah over October 5-7, 1861. The campfires of the Berrien Minute Men were made with the 29th Georgia Regiment.
MUSTER ROLL OF COMPANY D, 29th REGIMENT GEORGIA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY (Became Co. K, at reorganization May 7, 1862.) ARMY OF TENNESSEE C. S. A. BERRIEN, CLINCH & LOWNDES COUNTIES, GEORGIA BERRIEN MINUTE MEN
Lamb, John C., Captain October 1, 1861. See Private, enlisted, Co. C.
Staten, James W., 1st Lieutenant November 20, 1861. Retired May 7, 1862. Elected Captain of Staten’s Company, 11th Regiment GA State Guards Cavalry (6 months troops), August 4, 1863. Mustered out, expiration term of service, about February 1864. Appointed on Relief Committee and served in that capacity until close of war.
Parrish, Joel J., 2d Lieutenant November 7, 1861. See 3d Sergeant, Co. C.
Knight, Jonathan D., Jr. 2d Lieutenant November 7, 1861. See Private, enlisted, Co. C.
Knight, William W., 2d Sergeant October 1,1861. Died of chronic diarrhea at Milltown, GA December 27, 1863.
Hagan, John W., 3d Sergeant October 1, 1861. Captured near Atlanta, GA July 22, 1864. Paroled at Camp Chase, OH and transferred to City Point, VA for exchange, March 4, 1865. Received at Boulware & Cox’s Wharves, James River, VA, March 10-12, 1865. No later record.
Millican, Thomas J., 4th Sergeant October 1, 1861. Discharged by civil authority at Savannah, GA August 19, 1862.
Money, John A., 1st Corporal October 1, 1861. Discharged at Causton’s Bluff, GA June 9, 1862. Enlisted as a Private, enlisted in CO. H, 4th Regiment GA Cavalry (Clinch’s), September 1, 1863. Roll for June 1864, last on file, shows him present. No later record.
Parrish, Henry E., 2d Corporal November 4, 1861. Died of typhoid fever at Lauderdale Springs, MS September 8, 1863.
Knight, Barzilla, 3d Corporal November 4, 1861. Elected Jr. 2d Lieutenant May 7, 1862; 1st Lieutenant May 13, 1862. Killed at Chickamauga, GA September 19, 1863.
Lastinger, Peter C., 4th Corporal October 1, 1861. On special duty at Camp Young December 1862. Paroled at Thomasville, GA May 24, 1865. (Born in Lowndes County, GA in 1834.)
Baldree, Harmon N., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. On detached duty, ferryman at Causton’s Bluff, GA, June 1862. Pension records show he was wounded at Chickamauga, GA September 19, 1863. (Born in Tattnall County, GA in 1840.)
Baldree, James H., Private, enlisted December 21, 1861. Died of pneumonia at Florence, SC January 2, 1863.
Barker, John T., Private, enlisted December 13, 1861. Captured at Nashville, TN December 14, 1864. Released at Camp Douglas, IL June 18, 1865.
Boggs, Ezekiel L., Private, enlisted January 3, 1862. Wounded in right hip at Jonesboro, GA August 31, 1864. Admitted to Ocmulgee Hospital at Macon, GA September 8, 1864, and transferred November 18, 1864, place not given. Pension records show he was in Atlanta, GA hospital, wounded, close of war. (Born in Clarke County, GA in 1842.)
Brown, James J., Private, enlisted December 25, 1861. Died of camp fever at Savannah, GA April 14, 1862.
Browning, Pierre (or Perry), Private. Captured at Franklin, TN December 17, 1864. Forwarded to Camp Chase, OH January 14, 1865, and died there of pneumonia February 12, 1865. Grave #1206, Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery.
Carroll, Wyley F., Private, enlisted September 3, 1862. Captured near Atlanta, GA July 22, 1864. Paroled at Camp Chase, OH and transferred to City Point, VA for exchange, March 4, 1865. Received at Boulware & Cox’s Wharves, James River, VA, March 10-12, 1865. (Born in Alabama in 1837.)
Chapman, Elbert J., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. On furlough December 31, 1861. Absent without leave December 31, 1862. Delivered to headquarters of regiment as a deserter May 30, 1863. Executed by firing squad.
Clements, John C., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. On sick leave December 31, 1861. Wounded at Jonesboro, GA August 31, 1864. Paroled at Thomasville, GA May 25, 1865.
Couey, Samuel, Private, enlisted 1862. Captured near Nashville, TN December 16, 1864. Released at Camp Douglas, IL June 18, 1865.
Cowart, William, Private, enlisted November 21, 1861. Discharged at Causton’s Bluff, GA June 26, 1862.
Cox, Thomas W., Private, enlisted March 18, 1862. On duty as teamster December 31, 1862. No later record.
Davis, James M., Private, enlisted November 21, 1861. Pension records show he was captured near Atlanta, GA July 22, 1864, and was paroled at Camp Chase, OH March 4, 1865. Furloughed for 60 days at Richmond, VA March 1865. (Born in Greene County, GA November 4, 1845.)
DeLoach, James, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Wounded through both thighs at Jonesboro, GA August 31, 1864. Admitted to Ocmulgee Hospital at Macon, GA September 6, 1864, and transferred September 7, 1864. No later record. (Born December 25, 1844.)
Duren, Richard, Private, enlisted December 6, 1861. Wounded at Chickamauga, GA September 19, 1863. Admitted to Floyd House & Ocmulgee Hospitals at Macon, GA October 1, 1863, and furloughed for 30 days October 31, 1863. Pension records show he was at home on wounded furlough close of war. (Born in Lowndes County, GA in 1838.)
Finley, Alfred B., Private, enlisted December 25, 1861. Contracted measles and erysipelas in service, which resulted in loss of left eye. Captured near Nashville, TN December 16, 1864. Released at Camp Chase, OH June 12, 1865. (Born in GA January 15, 1840. Died at Nicholls, GA October 18, 1921.)
Funderburk, Isaac C., Pension records show he enlisted October 1863, and surrendered at Greensboro, NC April 26, 1865. (Born in Gwinnett County, GA January 30, 1823.)
Garrett, Benjamin S., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Deserted. Said to have been shot for being a spy. Back in 1856, Benjamin Garrett had been charged in old Lowndes County, GA with drunk and disorderly “public rioting,” along with his brothers Drew and William Garrett, and their cousins John Gaskins, William Gaskins, Gideon Gaskins and Samuel Gaskins; the venue was later changed to the Court of the newly formed Berrien County, but never went to trial.
Gaskins, Harrison, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Pension records show he was wounded in both feet at Jonesboro, GA August 31, 1864, and furloughed for 60 days. Unable to return to command. (Born in GA)
Giddens, Hardeman, Private, enlisted November 4, 1861. On extra duty as mail carrier October 31, 1862. On special duty at Camp Young December 31, 1862. No later record.
Giddens, Isbin B., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Roll for December 31, 1861, last on file, shows him present. No later record.
Giddens, John, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Died at Savannah, GA September 19, 1862.
Giddens, John W., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Died of camp fever at Savannah, GA April 2, 1862.
Giddens, Thomas C., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Died of camp fever at Savannah, GA March 26, 1862. Buried in Cave Hill Cemetery at Louisville,KY
Giddens, William H., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Died of pneumonia at Springfield, GA September 14, 1862.
Griffin, John M., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Appointed Sergeant in 1861. Roll for December 31, 1861, last on file, shows him on sick leave. No later record.
Harrell, Hiram F., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Died of measles at Darien, GA February 4, 1863.
Henry, John, Private, enlisted March 1862. Captured at Nashville, TN December 16, 1864. Released at Camp Douglas, IL June 19, 1865. (Born in Georgia in 1842.)
Herndon, John, Private, enlisted December 25, 1861. Killed at Chickamauga, GA September 19, 1863.
Hodges, Jesse (or Hodge), Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. On expired sick furlough October 31, 1862. Pension records show he was captured at Nashville, TN December 16, 1864, and sent to Camp Chase, OH or to Camp Douglas, IL No later record. Died in Berrien County, GA December 7, 1893.
Hodges, William (or Hodge), Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Captured at Nashville, TN December 16, 1864. Died of pneumonia at Camp Chase, OH January 26, 1865. Grave #901, Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery.
James, John A., Private, enlisted November 4, 1861. Sick at Springfield, GA September 30, 1862. Admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital at LaGrange, GA June 19, 1864. Killed at Murfreesboro, TN December 7, 1864.
Johnson, Jarred, Private, enlisted December 5, 1861. Discharged on account of chronic rheumatism at Causton’s Bluff, GA, July 19, 1862.
Lastinger, Elias, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. At Camp Young on special duty December 31, 1862. Killed at Peachtree Creek, GA July 20, 1864.
Lastinger, Lacy E., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Captured at Nashville, TN December 16, 1864. Released at Johnson’s Island, OH June 16, 1865. (Born in Ware County, GA August 3, 1843. Died December 4, 1936. Buried at Adel, GA)
Lindsey, M. R., Pension records show he enlisted May 10, 1862, was wounded in right shoulder at Kennesaw Mountain, GA June 27, 1864; was furloughed for 60 days in 1864 and was unable to return. (Born in GA)
Luke, Jasper M., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Received pay for services from October 1, 1861, to February 7, 1862, on May 2, 1862, and was discharged, disability, date not given.
Luke, John B., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. On detail, nurse in hospital, December 30, 1862. No later record.
Mainer, Lovett B., Private, enlisted December 5, 1861. Died of chronic diarrhea in Lowndes County, GA December 5, 1863.
Marks, Jacob, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Absent, sick, June 1862. Pension records show he was wounded and permanently disabled at Chickamauga, GA September 19, 1863.
McCranie, Elijah, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Roll for December 31, 1861, last on file, shows him present. Pension records show he was wounded and permanently disabled near Atlanta, GA August 7, 1864, and was on Provost Guard duty close of war. (Born in Lowndes County, GA December 6, 1839.)
McCranie, Neil, Private, enlisted November 4, 1861. Died of pneumonia at Yazoo City, MS June 7, 1863.
McCranie, Waldo C., Private, enlisted November 4, 1861. Discharged on account of rheumatism, at Causton’s Bluff, GA May 28, 1862. Pension records show he reenlisted in 1863 and was in Columbus, MS hospital close of war. (Born in Lowndes County, GA July 16, 1840.)
McCutcheon, John, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Paroled at Thomasville, GA May 20, 1865.
McDermid, Angus, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. On furlough September 30, 1862. Killed at Murfreesboro, TN December 7, 1864.
McNabb, Daniel R., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Wounded at Chickamauga, GA September 19, 1863. Died of wounds near Dalton, GA September 22, 1863.
Morris, Edward, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Died of camp fever and measles at Savannah, GA March 5 or 15, 1862.
Nickens, William W., Private, enlisted October 5, 1861. Died at Montgomery, AL October 3, 1863.
O’Neil, James L., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Absent, sick, December 31, 1862. In French’s Division Hospital at Lockhart, MS August 31, 1863. No later record.
Parrish, John A., Private, enlisted November 1, 1861. Absent, sick, December 31, 1861. In Convalescent Camp August 31, 1862. Wounded at Pine Mountain, GA June 14, 1864. Never returned to command.
Parrish, Redding B., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Died of measles at Darien, GA December 17, 1861.
Patterson, John R., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Appointed Sergeant. Wounded near Atlanta, GA August 1864. Died in Ford (or Foard) Hospital at Forsyth, GA August 14, 1864.
Peeples, Joseph H., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Died of chronic diarrhea at Lauderdale Spring, MS September 10, 1863.
Peeples, William H., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Paroled at Thomasville, GA May 25, 1865.
Pounds, James D., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Appointed Sergeant. Captured near Atlanta, GA July 22, 1864. Paroled at Camp Chase, OH and transferred to City Point, VA for exchange, March 4, 1865. Received at Boulware & Cox’s Wharves, James River, VA, March 10-12, 1865. No later record.
Richardson, Eli T., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. At Convalescent Camp August 31, 1862. Pension records show he was at home on furlough close of war. (Born in Thomas County, GA in 1841.)
Richardson, M. J., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Roll for December 31, 1861, last on file, shows him present. No later record. (Born in Coweta County, GA in 1834.)
Sirmans, William S., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Captured at Atlanta, GA July 22, 1864. Paroled at Camp Chase, OH and sent via New Orleans, LA for exchange, May 2, 1865.
Smith, George Pinkney, Private, enlisted 1862. Received within Union lines as a Confederate deserter June 18, 1864. Took oath of allegiance to U. S. Government, at Louisville, KY June 18, 1864, and was sent to be released north of Ohio River. (Born in South Carolina.)
Strickland, Elias, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. On extra duty as teamster September 1862. No later record. Pension records show he contracted pneumonia on march with General Hood into TN Died at home.
Strickland, Joseph, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Discharged by civil authority at Camp Young November 26, 1861.
Tomlinson, Jonas, Private, enlisted November 21, 1861. Elected Lieutenant. Captured at Decatur, GA July 22, 1864. Released at Johnson’s Island, OH June 15, 1865.
Tomlinson, Leonard H., Private, enlisted November 21, 1861. Absent, sick, December 30, 1862. No later record.
Tomlinson, Samuel, Private, enlisted November 21, 1861. Wounded in right eye, resulting in loss of sight, and captured at Nashville, TN December 16, 1864. Released at Camp Chase, OH June 12, 1865.
Touchstone, Charles S., Private, enlisted December 25, 1861. Discharged by civil authority at Camp Young November 28, 1862. Enlisted as a Private, enlisted in Co. H, 4th Regiment GA Cavalry (Clinch’s), September 20, 1863. Appointed 2d Sergeant. Paroled at Thomasville, GA May 10, 1865.
Touchstone, Richard, See Private, enlisted, Co. C.
Truett, Jacob, Private, enlisted December 5, 1861. Wounded in left shoulder at Murfreesboro, TN December 7, 1864. Admitted to Way Hospital at Meridian, MS, on account of wounds, January 19, 1865. Pension records show he surrendered at Greensboro, NC April 26, 1865. (Born in South Carolina February 9, 1834.)
Watkins, W. F., Enlisted as a Private, enlisted in Co. D, 2d Battalion. GA Cavalry December 3, 1861. Transferred to Co. D, 29th Regiment GA Infantry January 7, 1862.
Wheeler, Evans, Private, enlisted November 4, 1861. Roll for December 31, 1861, last on file, shows him present. No later record.
Wheeler, William W., Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Captured at Nashville, TN December 16, 1864. Paroled at Camp Chase, OH and sent via New Orleans, LA for exchange, May 2, 1865. Received at Vicksburg, MS May 12, 1865.
Williams, Joshua, Private, enlisted October 1, 1861. Deserted at Camp Young, December 28, 1862.
![April 1863 newspapers reported food shortages, hoarding and profiteering in Savannah, GA (Lancaster Gazette [Enland], April 18, 1863)](https://raycityhistory.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/1863-4-18-lancaster-gazette-savannah-food-shortage.jpg?w=477)
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