Life in Dixie during the War, 1861-1862-1863-1864-1865. Gay Mary Ann Harris

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ what of the fate of these gallant young men, going forth so full of hope and courage, with tender and loving farewells lingering in their hearts?

      Soon, ah! so soon, some of them fell upon the crimson fields of Virginia. James L. George (“Jimmie,” as his friends lovingly called him) was killed in the first battle of Manassas. “Billy” Morgan died soon after the battle, and was buried with military honors in a private cemetery near Manassas. Two years after, his brother, De Witt Morgan, worn out in the siege of Vicksburg, was buried on an island in Mobile Bay. At the second battle of Manassas, James W. McCulloch and James L. Davis were both killed. Later on W. J. Mason, William Carroll, John M. Eads, H. H. Norman, Billy Wilson, and Norman Adams, were numbered among the slain. Among the wounded were Henry Gentry, Mose Brown, John McCulloch, W. W. Brimm, Dave Chandler, Riley Lawhorn, and Bill Herring.

      A volume could easily be written concerning the bravery and the sufferings of the DeKalb county troops; but I must forbear. Concerning Warren Morton, of the 36th Georgia Regiment, who went into the service at the age of fifteen, and suffered so severely, I will refer my readers to a sketch in the latter part of this book. Of William M. Durham, so young, so gallant, who enlisted in Company K., 42nd Georgia Regiment, much of interest will be found in another chapter.

      Among the Decatur members of Cobb’s Legion was Mr. John J. McKoy, who went out in the Stephens Rifles when not more than nineteen years old. He was in the battle of Yorktown, Seven Pines, and in the Seven Days Fight around Richmond. Owing to illness, and to business arising from the attainment of his majority, he came home in 1863, and, hiring a substitute when the conscript law was passed, went to work at the Passport Office in Atlanta. In this same year he was married to Miss Laura Williams of Decatur. Having raised Company A., for the 64th Georgia Regiment, Mr. McKoy was with it when it was sent to Florida, and was in the battle of Olustee or Ocean Pond, in February 1864, where General Alfred H. Colquitt won the title of “The Hero of Olustee.” Mr. McKoy remembers to have seen on that eventful day, Col. George W. Scott, then of Florida, but now of Decatur. At the battle of Olustee, Col. Scott was in command of a regiment of Cavalry. The banner of the regiment is now in possession of his daughter, Mrs. Thomas Cooper.

      The 64th Georgia was then sent to Virginia in General Wright’s brigade. A few days after “The Mine Explosion,” or undermining of the Confederate works, an engagement occurred at Deep Bottom. Here, General Girardy, of Augusta, was killed, and several hundred of the Confederates were captured, among the number being Mr. McKoy. This was in July, 1864. He was sent to Fort Delaware, where he remained in prison until the close of the war. Here he spent a whole winter without a fire, and was subject to all that Fort Delaware meant. To escape the horrors of that prison, many of the two thousand officers there confined, took the oath not to fight against the United States. But Mr. McKoy and thirty-four others remained in prison, firm and loyal, even after the surrender, believing and hoping, up to July, 1865, that the war would be carried on west of the Mississippi river.

      The soldiers who went to Virginia knew from their own experience the scenes of Manassas, Malvern Hill, Fort Harrison, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and the Wilderness. Yet some of them were left to be surrendered by Lee at Appomatox Court House. The companies which were in the Western Army were in the leading battles of that Division, and were equally brave and abiding in their devotion to the cause.

      For many of the foregoing facts concerning the troops from DeKalb, I am greatly indebted to Mr. Robert F. Davis, who went with DeKalb’s first company, and who, after braving the perils of the war, came off unscathed. He still lives near Decatur, and is an elder in the Presbyterian Church.

      I greatly regret my inability, even if I had the space, to give the names of all the soldiers who went from DeKalb, and to tell of their deeds of bravery and endurance. It has not been intentional that many are wholly omitted. It has been my privilege to see but one muster-roll of our county troops – that of Company K, 38th Georgia Regiment, kindly furnished by Mr. F. L. Hudgins, of Clarkston, a brave soldier who was in command of the Company when Lee surrendered. This muster-roll shows that out of the 118 names, forty-six were killed (or died), and seventeen were wounded; that its first Captain, William Wright, resigned, and that three other Captains by promotion were all killed, i. e., Gustin E. Goodwin, George W. Stubbs and R. H. Fletcher. Indeed, in nearly every instance, promotion in this Company meant death upon the battle field. And can we wonder that both the commissioned and the noncommissioned fell, when some of the principal battles in which they were engaged bore such names as Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Winchester, Gettysburg, The Wilderness, Spottsylvania Courthouse, Mechanicsville, Fisher’s Hill, Cedar Creek, Louise Courthouse and High Bridge?

      In memory of the dead, for the sake of the living and for the descendants of all mentioned therein, I copy the muster-roll of this company:

      Company K., 38th Georgia Regiment:

      Captain William Wright – resigned July, 1862.

      1st Lieutenant Julius J. Gober – Died July 26th, 1862.

      2nd Lieutenant Gustin E. Goodwin – Promoted captain; killed August 28th, 1862.

      3rd Lieutenant George W. Stubbs – Promoted captain; killed July 24th, 1864.

      1st Sergeant John S. Johnston – Killed June 27th, 1862.

      2nd Sergeant W. R. Henry – Promoted to 1st Lieutenant; lost a leg December 13th, 1862.

      3rd Sergeant J. A. Maddox – Killed at Wilderness, May 5th, 1864.

      4th Sergeant F. L. Hudgins – Promoted 1st Sergeant; wounded at Malvern Hill; shot through the body at Gettysburg.

      5th Sergeant E. H. C. Morris – Promoted 3rd Lieutenant; killed at Second Manassas, August, 1862.

      1st Corporal F. M. Gassaway – Killed at Second Manassas, August, 1862.

      2nd Corporal J. M. Walker – Died in camp.

      3rd Corporal W. A. Ward – Died in camp.

      4th Corporal James L. Anderson – Wounded at Manassas and Spottsylvania court house.

      John H. Akers – Killed at Second Manassas, 1862.

      A. W. Allman – Killed at Cedar Creek, October 19th, 1864.

      John Adams – Died in camp.

      Enos Adams —

      Isaac W. Awtry —

      W. A. Awtry —

      H. V. Bayne – Disabled by gunshot wound. Still living.

      Allen Brown —

      Lewis Brown —

      Killis Brown —

      William M. Brooks —

      H. M. Burdett —

      J. S. Burdett —

      John S. Boyd —

      James E. Ball – Killed at Gettysburg, July, 1863.

      W. H. Brisendine —

      L. R. Bailey – Transferred to Cobb’s Legion.

      John E. J. Collier —

      James Collier – Died at Charlottesville, Va., 1862.

      Z. J. Cowan —

      J. J. Cowan СКАЧАТЬ