Julia E. Chastain | Ray City History Blog

Reverend Edwin B. Carroll

March 6, 2021 at 12:05 am (Baptists, Faith and Begorrah, Uncategorized)
Tags: Adiel Sherwood, B.F. Elliott, Benajah Harvey Carroll, Berrien Minute Men, Cairo Academy, Camilla Academy, Camilla Literary Club, Campbell Carlton Carroll, Carrollton GA, Charles Adiel Lewis Totten, Charles Gaulden Dilworth, China Grass, Columbian Exposition, Company G 29th Georgia Regiment, Confederate Memorial Day, Cora Ethel Carroll, E. L. Thomas, Edwin B. Carroll, Edwin B. Carroll Jr, Elisha Peck Smith Denmark, Elizabeth Carroll, Friendship Church, Gary Pittman, George I. Jones, Georgia Baptist Convention, Green Street Baptist Church, Hickory Head Baptist Church, Hickory Head GA, Hotel Georgia, J. A. Carey, J. T. Fender, James Albert Carroll, James Carroll, James H. Carroll, James S. Harris, Jesse Carroll, John Lane, John T. Carroll, Johnson's Island, Jonesboro GA, Josphine A. Carroll, Julia E. Chastain, Julia E. Hayes, Julia Emma Carroll, Luther Rice Christie, Madison FL, Mary Elizabeth Carroll, Mercer Baptist Association, Mercer University, Mount Enon Church, N. W. Waterman, Nettie Sherwood, Norman Institute, Ocklocknee Light Infantry, Okapilco Baptist Church, P. H. Murray, Patterson Carroll, Penfield Baptist Church, Pittsburgh Ramie Manufacturing Company, Ramie, Raymond S. Harvey, Robert Hamilton Harris, Robert T. Myddleton, Southern Baptist Convention, Stockton GA, Tenant Mack Robinson, Vineville Baptist Church, William Carey Willis, William J. Carroll, Young Female College

Edwin B. Carroll, Captain of the Berrien Minute Men, Company G, 29th Georgia Regiment.

Reverend Edwin B. Carroll

Rev. Edwin Benajah Carroll was born March 3, 1841 in North Carolina and died at his home in Carrollton, GA on October 13, 1903. He is buried in the Hickory Head Baptist Church Cemetery, Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia.

Edwin B. Carroll was a son of James Carroll and nephew of Jesse Carroll, brothers who were pioneer settlers of that area of old Lowndes County, GA cut into Berrien County in 1856, and which is now Lanier County, GA. Edwin was eight years old when they arrived. The Carrolls were prominent in establishing the Missionary Baptist church in this area.

“In 1857 Daniel B. Carroll (James’ son [and brother of Edwin B. Carroll]) and James S. Harris (James Carroll’s son-in-law) deeded land for a Missionary Baptist Church. Trustees to whom the deed was made were James Carroll, James Dobson, James’ sons John T. [Carroll] and James H. [Carroll], and James S. Harris. Rev. Caswell Howell, who had recently settled here, is said to have been its first pastor. [Rev. Howell was a brother of Barney Howell, who was a mail carrier on the Troupville route.] The church, directly north of today’s courthouse [present day site of Mathis Law office, 64 W. Church Street Lakeland, GA], was built of hand-split lumber with hand-hewn sills, and put together with wooden pegs. The ten-inch-wide ceiling boards were planed by hand.” – Nell Roquemore, in Roots, Rocks and Recollections

After attending local country school Edwin’s father sent him to Marshall College. In 1860 he entered Mercer University where he was a classmate of Robert Hamilton Harris; Both men left the college for service in the Confederate States Army and served in the 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment.

Edwin B. Carroll left the school in 1861 to join the Berrien Minute Men, a Confederate infantry unit in the 29th GA Regiment. He served on coastal artillery in Savannah and in the Atlanta Campaign. He was captured in July, 1864 and spent almost a year in Johnson’s Island Military prison before renouncing Confederate citizenship and taking the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America. When he was released in June 1865 he 24 years old.

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. She is all that a preacher’s wife should be.

Minutes of Penfield Baptist Church show he was granted a letter of dismission on April 15, 1866.

The church at Stockton, Georgia, where he was teaching, gave him, unsought, a license to preach, and in 1868, he was ordained at Macedonia Church, without having requested it, by a presbytery consisting of Revs James Williamson and R.S. Harvey. He does not seem to have enjoyed preaching much, however, until 1873. He often made failures, as he thought, at times not speaking more than five minutes before he would take his seat. He has always felt it a cross, but one that he must take up.

The 1870 census of Berrien County, GA shows he was living in Milltown (now Lakeland), GA and working as a school teacher.

His first pastorate was in 1873, at Ocapilco. The same year he accepted a call to Hickory Head, of which he has ever since been pastor. For two years he preached two Sabbaths in the month for the church at Madison, Florida, and for the same length of time, at Valdosta, Georgia. He is now (1880) pastor of Hickory Head and Quitman churches. In these seven years, he has baptized about two hundred persons.

In 1874, he was tendered a professorship in the Young Female College, Thomasville, Georgia, but declined for fear he could not fill it satisfactorily, thus modestly distrusting his own abilities… He is a cousin of Rev. B.H. Carroll [Benajah Harvey Carroll] of Waco, Texas, and of Rev. J.L. Carroll, of Virginia.

Reverend Carroll served as pastor of the Okapilco Baptist Church from January 1873 to November 1875. He served as pastor of Hickory Head Baptist Church from 1873 to 1890. In July 1874, Rev. Carroll conducted a great revival at Hickory Head.

At the 2nd annual session of the Mercer Baptist Association, October 2, 1875 convened at Friendship Church, Brooks County, GA, he was elected clerk of the association. He was also preaching at Madison, FL and occasionally at Valdosta, GA. In addition to preaching, E. B. Carroll was principal of the Hickory Head Academy near Quitman, GA. In politics he favored increasing state funding for education and year round school.

In 1876, E. B. Carroll, along with James McBride, N. A. Bailey and R. W. Phillips formed the presbytery for the ordination of Richard A. Peeples; At the time, Peeples was judge of the County Court of Lowndes County, GA and had previously served as Clerk of the Court in Berrien County.

At the commencement of Mercer University in July 1876 the Board of Trustees conferred on Edwin B. Carroll the degree of Master of Arts. In 1878 he became pastor of the Valdosta Baptist church and preached his first sermon in that capacity on Sunday, February 3, 1878. The Christian Index reported, “He has charge of two churches, and a school, and controls, also, a fine farm.”

He is now [1880] living on his farm, in Brooks County, Georgia, preaching to his two churches and superintending his planting interests, quiet and contented. He is ever full of praise and gratitude to the Giver of all good, and seems to desire only the privilege of living to the glory of God and the good of his fellow-men.

Reverend Carroll and Julia Carroll were the parents of eight children.

James Albert Carroll (1867–1941)
Campbell Carlton Carroll (1870–1899) 1 September 1870 • Berrien County, GA
Mary Elizabeth Carroll (1873–1945) 24 June 1873 • Thomas County, GA
Julia Emma Carroll (1875–1881) 12 October 1875 • Brooks County, GA
Cora Ethel Carroll (1878–) Jan 1878 • Georgia
Edwin B. Carroll, Jr (1879–)Oct 1879 • Georgia
Josephine A. Carroll (1882-1966)
Patterson Carroll (1883-)

From 1879 to 1881 Reverend E. B. Carroll was pastor of the Quitman Baptist Church, preaching in the original frame building which stood on West Screven Street, Quitman, GA.

Reverend E. B. Carroll was one of the 71 Georgia delegates in attendance at the 1879 Southern Baptist Convention convened at Atlanta, GA, May 8, 1879. Among the other delegates were P. H. Mell, E. Z. T. Golden, and C. S. Golden. Rev. Carroll preached the Saturday service at the 1880 Sunday School Convention of the Mercer Baptist Association at Grooverville, GA; Rev. R. A. Peeples preached the Sunday service to a packed church. Reverend E. Z. T. Golden was president of the convention.

For the November 1880 term of the Superior Court of Brooks County, GA, Edwin B. Carroll served as foreman of the Grand Jury.

In early August 1881, the Carroll’s six year old daughter Julia came down sick. After an illness of five weeks, she passed away on a Saturday morning, September 17, 1881 at Hickory Head, GA.

In 1882, Rev. E. B. Carroll preached at the Thomasville Baptist Church, filling in for Rev. Mr. Golden who was on vacation. The town’s other clergy were Rev. Mr. Wynn, Methodist; Rev. Mr. Fogartie, Presbyterian; Rev. Charles C. Prendergast, Catholic; Rev. N. Waterman, African Baptist Church, Rev. J. A. Cary, African Methodist Episcopal.

By 1884, Rev. E. B. Carroll had given up management of the Hickory Head Academy, but continued to serve as pastor of the Hickory Head Baptist Church. He was also preaching at the Baptist Church in Boston, GA

In 1885 Edwin B. Carroll participated in the organization of a Farmer’s Club at Boston, GA. As an investment, he purchased ten acres of land from Mr. G. W. Garrison on the Jones Road near the Thomasville city limit.

In May 1885, he was a delegate at the Southern Baptist Convention held at Green Street Baptist Church, Augusta, GA. On July 4, 1885 it was announced that he had accepted the pastorate of the Baptist Church at Camilla, preaching there the first and third Sundays each month. He was also appointed Principal of the Camilla High School. Later that year he moved his family to Cairo, GA, there taking up the former residence of Mr. Griffin. He was appointed to manage the Cairo Academy, his predecessors being Rev. John Byron Wight and Robert Hamilton Harris, who wrote about his experiences as a lieutenant of the 29th Georgia on Sapelo Island where the Berrien Minute Men had stationed in 1861.

In January 1886 Edwin B. Carroll resigned the pastorate of Hickory Head Church, Brooks County, and accepted a call from Friendship Church in Thomas County. By June of 1886, the Baptist Church at Camilla had raised a salary sufficient to induce Reverend Carroll, of Cairo, to make Camilla his home, and there preach two Sunday’s a month. He also resumed teaching in Camilla with a school of some 70 students.

In Camilla, the Carroll’s social engagements included sponsoring the Camilla Literary Club which met in the parlor of their residence. Rev. Carroll’s school also put on an annual exhibition at Bennett Hall, and he was involved in organizing the Camilla lodge of the Knights of Honor. The Knights of Honor (K. of H.), a fraternal order and secret society in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, was one of the most successful beneficiary societies of its time. The order was created in 1873 specifically to charter lodges idolizing Confederate leaders, which other fraternal organizations had refused to do.

A year later, the Camilla Baptist Church provided Rev. Carroll an annual salary of $900 to preach four Sunday’s a month. He, with Rev. Powell continued to teach at the Camilla Academy. Rev. Carroll tendered his resignation from the pastorate at Hickory Head Church and moved his family into the Hotel Georgia at Camilla, renting some six or seven rooms on the second floor. The newly opened Hotel Georgia was said to be elegantly furnished, constructed at a cost of $68,946.84. It was a three-story, 68 room affair, situated on Broad Street in Camilla, GA. The hotel’s rooms included a gentlemen’s Parlor, a drummer’s sample room, and a very large dining room with the table setting of silver-ware costing $1856.16. The hotel was under the management of Col. George G. Duy and his wife, with assistant manager Capt. C. R. Parrish. The kitchen was staffed with three cooks and equipped with a $1,200 range. The carpet on the parlor floor cost $3.15 per yard. Rev. Carroll continued to host the meetings of the Camilla Literary Club in his parlor at Hotel Georgia.

The Pittsburgh Ramie Manufacturing Company planned to erect a large factory at Thomasville, GA to process ramie plants into fiber.

On April 28, 1888, the Thomasville Times announced that Reverend Carroll had sold the ten acre tract in which he had invested three years earlier. The land was purchased by the Pittsburgh Ramie Manufacturing Company for the purpose of cultivating ramie. Ramie, or China Grass, is one of the oldest fiber crops, having been used for at least 6,000 years, and is principally used for fabric production. It was anticipated that ramie would become an important agricultural crop in the U.S., but the fiber found limited acceptance for textile use.

About the first of May, 1888, Rev. Carroll moved his family into houses owned by W. A. Hurst at Camilla, GA. Mr. Hurst moved into the Hotel Georgia. By October, the Carrolls moved into the new Baptist parsonage. Rev. Carroll’s preaching schedule changed to two Sundays a month at Camilla Baptist Church, and two Sundays a month at Flint and some other church.

In 1889 he took over preaching at Mount Enon Church, Cumming County, GA.

In 1890, Reverend E. B. Carroll was chosen as pastor of the First Baptist Church at Albany, GA. The Carrolls traveled by train to Albany. Arriving at the Albany depot on Tuesday February 18, 1890, the Carrolls were received by a large crowd. They occupied the residence of Mr. Gary Pittman. That year, Rev Carroll traveled to Jonesboro, GA to visit the Civil War battlefields where he had been a prisoner of war 25 years earlier, and where his brother died.

Rev. E.B. Carroll of Albany had a brother killed at the battle of Jonesboro in the “late unpleasantness,” and while there last week visited the old battle fields. The relic hunter has made but few invasions on this spot, and Mr. Carroll picked up an old musket barrel and bayonet, both marked by the ravages of the elements during the twenty-five years of peace, and will preserve them as relics of sacred memory.

♦

Rev. E. B. Carroll, of Albany, has found some interesting relics on the battlefield of Jonesboro. They consist of the barrel of a muzzle-loading musket that was pulled from the breastworks in a dilapidated condition, a bayonet, that has been placed on the muzzle of the barrel, and several bullets, battered by their contacts with objects on the field.

On April 26, 1890, he gave the invocation at the Albany, GA cemetery for the Confederate Memorial Day observation and fundraiser for a monument “to the sainted memory of the dead.”

“In 1874, the Georgia General Assembly [had] approved legislation adding as a new public holiday ‘The 26th day of April in each year – commonly known as Memorial Day.’ April 26 marks the anniversary of the end of the Civil War for Georgia, for it was on this day in 1865 that Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s surrender to General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina became official. Johnston had been in charge of Georgia’s defense, so this day marked the end of the war for Georgia…The day of observance may trace to the women of Columbus, Georgia, who on April 12, 1866 organized a memorial association and began a campaign to have a special day for “’paying honor to those who died defending the life, honor and happiness of the Southern women.’”

Rev. E. B. Carroll’s brother, Dr. William J. Carroll, was pastor of the Baptist church at Milltown, GA.

Edwin B. Carroll

In May 1891, Rev. Carroll attended the Southern Baptist Convention in Birmingham, AL representing the Mallary Association. In October that year the Baptist Church of Dalton, GA sought his services, but he remained in Albany. He was a leading figure in fundraising for the construction of a new church building for Albany. The Albany News and Advertiser reported, “Rev. E.B. Carroll deserves especial commendation for the interest he takes in this affair and the indomitable energy with which he is pushing the work.” The building was completed in February, 1892.

Rev. Carroll gave the introductory sermon at the Georgia Baptist Convention which convened in LaGrange, GA in 1892. The delegate from Valdosta was Reverend P.H. Murray.

When the Columbian Exposition was about to open in 1892, Rev. Carroll led a petition drive opposing the opening of the Exposition gates on Sundays. Public funds for the Exposition had been appropriated by U.S. Congress on the condition that the Expo would be closed on Sundays, but the organizers and the Chicago Women’s Club were lobbying to have that condition removed.

Followers of Totten’s prophecies…

Charles Adiel Lewis Totten is listed in Who Was Who in America (1: 1247) as a professor of military science at Yale from 1889 to 1892, who resigned to spend more time on his religious studies. He was a British-Israelist, believing that the Anglo-Saxons were the lost tribes of Israel, and an Adventist, who predicted the reign of Antichrist would occur in the seven-year period from 1892 to 1899.

Rev. Carroll again represented the Mallary Association at the 1893 Southern Baptist Convention, met at Nashville, TN.

In 1894, Rev. Carroll accepted the pastorate of Vineville Baptist Church, Macon, GA, which had been founded in 1891 just a couple of miles from the campus of Mercer University.

In February 1895, a 10 acre parcel of land owned by Rev. Carroll on the Bainbridge Road in Thomas County was seized by the Superior Court and sold at auction to satisfy a debt he owed to Alice D. Tiller. On June 23, 1895, Rev. Carroll made a return visit to Camilla, GA where he gave the commencement sermon for the Camilla High School. That summer Mrs. E.B. Carroll was among the women of Macon who pledged to boycott stores that kept clerks working after 6:00 PM. The petition was published in the Macon Telegraph:

“Believing that for the sake of humanity that clerks who are on their feet all day should be allowed some recreation during the long summer days, and knowing that no merchant could possibly lose a cent if they will agree to close at 6 o’clock in the afternoon, we, the undersigned ladies, agree not to trade with any dry goods merchant who does not close his store at 6 o’clock p.m. (Saturdays excepted) from June 24 to September 1, 1895”

At the 1896 State Baptist Convention at Cedartown, GA, Rev. Carroll was elected to the Board of Trustees of Mercer University. From that membership, he was elected Chair of the Executive Committee of the Board. In October he issued the following:

The executive committee must have help or the young men who are in Mercer preparing for preaching the gospel must be told not to return after the Christmas holidays.
There are more than twenty of them receiving aid from the committee. Will not the churches send us money to keep these men here through the entire session?
The committee is greatly interested in this work, and indulges the hope that the brethren will respond to the call made.
Brother C.B. Willingham is treasurer of the committee, and he will be glad to receive your checks.

The Superior Court of Bibb County on December 14, 1896 appointed Rev. E.B. Carroll chair of a council of white church members of the First Baptist Church of Christ and the Vineville Baptist Church to supervise the election of a pastor at the African-American First Baptist Church, where a dispute had emerged among the congregation regarding the selection of a pastor.

The First Baptist Church on Cotton Avenue was established by African-Americans more than a quarter of a century before the adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation, which called for the freedom of all slaves on United States soil. Its origin was in the Baptist Church of Christ at Macon. For the first eight years, whites and African-Americans worshiped in the same building. Records indicate that at the time, there were two hundred eighty-three African-Americans and one hundred ninety-nine whites. In 1835, E.G. Cabiness, an early historian, wrote: “It’s thus seen that a majority of the church are slaves.” As members of the racially mixed church, the African-Americans were to a great extent, a distinct body. Alternate services were led under the direction of a licensed minister and deacons of their own color. Members exercised authority to receive and exclude persons as members of their church body. The ordinances, however, were administered by the pastor of the whole church. On March 1, 1845, land and building were deeded to the colored portion of the Baptist Church at Macon, “for religious services and moral cultivation forever.” -http://firstbaptistmacon.org/history.php

Through the Civil War the African-American First Baptist Church was under the pastorship of white ministers. Black congregations were required by law to have white ministers and supervision. The church’s first ordained African-American minister was not called until Reconstruction. In 1886, the church became a charter member of the National Baptist Convention. In this period, Black Baptists in the former Confederacy overwhelmingly left white-dominated churches to form independent congregations and get away from white supervision. Following the death of Reverend Tenant Mack Robinson in 1896, a disagreement among the deacons resulted in the church being closed by court action in November, 1896 and the appointment of Reverend Carroll to the supervising council.

In February, 1897 he made a visit to Griffin, GA, scene of his boyhood education and baptism:

The Macon Telegraph

February 16,1897
GRIFFIN.

A Macon Minister Preached to a Large Congregation Sunday.

Griffin, Feb 15. – Yesterday the pulpit of the First Baptist church here was filled by Rev. E. B. Carroll of the Vineville Baptist church, and a large and appreciative congregation gathered to hear him, and some who were unable to attend had their residence connected by telephone and listened to his discourse in the quiet of their homes. Mr. Carroll is not a stranger to Griffin, for it was here that he received a portion of his education and was converted and joined the Baptist church thirty-nine years ago, and, as a singular fact, he was the guest of the only man that was present in the congregation who had been a member as long, and that gentleman was Col. George I. Jones. Other singular coincidences connected with his visit are these: The first night here was spent under the first roof that ever sheltered him in Griffin in 1858, when he came to enter the school as a pupil at the old Marshall College. His Sunday was spent at the home of Mrs. R. C. Jones, whom he boarded with for two years and a half, and he found that not a death in the family in all those years. The organist of the Baptist church was Miss Nettie Sherwood, a niece of Rev. Adiel Sherwood, who was pastor of the church at the time that he joined, and also president of the Marshall College. Mr. Carroll’s visit here was the occasion of recalling many pleasant reminiscences of his school days, and the tenor of them seemed to mark the beginning of the future of the minister. Among those who he had known then he was simply the Ed Carroll of boyhood days, lovable and companionable; but to the younger generation that listened to the after-dinner talk, he was the grand man that he is – a worthy minister to the court of heaven.

A funny thing happened on the way to the Convention. In April 1897, the Baptist and Reflector shared the amusing anecdote.

Edwin B. Carroll catches train in Macon, GA, April 29, 1897 Baptist and Reflector

In May 1897 he was a Georgia delegate at the Southern Baptist Convention at Wilmington, NC. And in 1898 he attended the convention at Norfolk, VA.

He was a delegate in attendance at the 1899 Southern Baptist Convention in Louisville, KY. In September 1901, he accepted a call to preach at the Baptist Church at Carrollton, GA.

In 1903 Rev. Carroll served on the Nominations Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, convened at Savannah, GA. The pastor of the Ray City Baptist Church, Reverend H.C. Strong, was among the delegates. Other delegates from the area included: E. L. Thomas, J.T. Fender, attorney Elisha Peck Smith Denmark, planter John Lane, Robert T. Myddleton, Reverend Luther Rice Christie and William Carey Willis, Valdosta; B.F. Elliott, Adel; Reverend Charles Gaulden Dilworth, Tifton. On May 24, 1903 he preached the commencement sermon at Norman Institute, Norman Park, GA. While there he made a visit to Berrien county, his old home. In July he returned to hold services in some of the old churches he had served in this section.

On Sunday, April 10, 1904 memorial services were held at his old church at Hickory Head, GA with his widow in attendance.

1 Comment

Captain Edwin B. Carroll and the Atlanta Campaign

September 7, 2020 at 12:09 am (Berrien Minute Men, Civil War, Uncategorized)
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Atlanta Campaign, Battle of Jonesboro, Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Battle of Marietta, Berrien Minute Men, Central of Georgia Rail Road, Charles T. Develling, Charlton H. Way, Chesley A. Payne, Company G 29th Georgia Regiment, Dalton GA, David T. Carroll, David Thompson Carroll, Depot Prisoners of War, Edward Clifford Anderson, Edwin B. Carroll, Elizabeth Carroll, Ezekiel Roberts, Furnifull George, H. W. Brown, H.L.G. Whitaker, Henry Rootes Jackson, James Aaron Knight, James Carroll, James D. Pounds, James Madison Baskin, James Mathis, James W. Roberts, Jasper M. Roberts, John D. Knight, John L. Hall, John W. Hagan, Johnson's Island, Johnson's Island OH, Jonas Tomlinson, Joseph E. Johnston, Julia E. Chastain, Julia E. Hayes, Lacy E. Lastinger, Lake Erie, Lemuel D. Hatch, Levi J. Knight Jr, lice, Louisville KY, Louisville Military Prison, Oath of Allegiance, Ocklocknee Light Infantry, Patrick Cleburne Cemetery, R. A. Hayes, Richard Bradford, Robert Thomas Johnson, Sandusky OH, swallowing the eagle, Thomas Clifford, Thomas County Relief Society, Thomas W. Ballard, Tom Wallace, Walter L. Joiner, William D. Mitchell, William H. Lastinger

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.

Col. William D. Mitchell, 29th Georgia Regiment. Image Source: Tim Burgess https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26944690/william-dickey-mitchell

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.

The surrender of Genl. Joe Johnston near Greensboro N.C., April 26th 1865
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.09915

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.

Edwin B. Carroll, Captain of the Berrien Minute Men

August 23, 2020 at 12:50 am (Berrien Minute Men, Civil War, Uncategorized)
Tags: Adiel Sherwood, anti-semitism, Battery Lawton, Berrien Minute Men, Camp Debtford GA, Company E 54th Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Company G 29th Georgia Regiment, CSS Ida, Duplin County NC, Edward Clifford Anderson, Edwin B. Carroll, Elizabeth Carroll, Ezekiel Roberts, George Anderson Mercer, James Carroll, Jesse H. Campbell, Johnson's Island, Julia E. Chastain, Lakeland GA, Marshall College, Mercer University, Milltown GA, Ocklocknee Light Infantry, Penfield Baptist Church, Savannah Bread Riot, Smith's Island GA, Thomas S. Wylly

Updated

August 21, 2023

Captain of the Berrien Minute Men
The Atlanta Campaign
POW on Johnson’s Island
Missionary Baptist

E. B. Carroll was born in Kenansville, North Carolina, on the 3rd of March, 1841. His parents [James and Elizabeth Carroll of Duplin Co., NC,] were both Baptists – his father an active deacon and his mother a consistent Christian woman. They came to Georgia when he was eight years old and settled at a place now known as [Lakeland, in preset day Lanier County.] He was a cousin of Mary E. Carroll, who later married 1) William Washington Knight and 2) William J. Lamb. His brother, Daniel B. Carroll, donated land for the construction of the Milltown Baptist Church in 1857.

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 was a slave owner and volunteered as an "evangelist" in the Confederate States Army. — 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.

At Savannah, the campfires of the Berrien Minute Men were initially made at Causton’s Bluff, overlooking St. Augustine Creek and Whitmarsh Island. By August 20, 1861 the Berrien Minute Men were sent to Brunswick, GA with the 13th Georgia Regiment at Camp Semmes, Brunswick. In due course, the Berrien Minute Men were placed in the 29th GA Regiment. On October 11, 1861 three companies of the 29th Regiment, including the Berrien Minute Men, were stationed on Sapelo Island. They were manning Sapelo Battery, an earthworks and gun emplacement on the south end of Sapelo Island defending Doboy Sound. The Civil War letters of Private John Hagan described Battery Sapelo as armed with five cannons, the largest of which was a 160 pounder.

Sketch of Civil War Earthwork on Sapelo Island

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 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. — 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.

All the Savannah River Batteries, including Company G’s position on Smith’s Island were under the command of Col. Edward Clifford Anderson. A product of the U.S. Navy, Col. Anderson was a disciplinarian, critical of subordinates and superiors alike. Captain L. J. Knight, Jr., in particular, drew the censorious scrutiny of Col. Anderson.

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 [Enland], April 18, 1863) — 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.

♦

“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 soldiers practice firing artillery cannon. — 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. — 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.

Ray City History Blog

Reverend Edwin B. Carroll

Captain Edwin B. Carroll and the Atlanta Campaign

Edwin B. Carroll, Captain of the Berrien Minute Men

Edwin B. Carroll ~ Early Life

In the Confederate States Army

Captain Carroll

Berrien Minute Men Drill on Coastal Artillery

Ray City History

Email Subscription

Contact the Editor

Recent Posts

Categories

Blogroll

Archives

Meta