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PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR OF 1861-65
[Illustration:
W. H. MORGAN]
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR OF 1861-5
[Illustration]
IN CAMP—EN BIVOUAC—ON THE MARCH—ON PICKET—ON
THE SKIRMISH LINE—ON THE
BATTLEFIELD—AND IN
PRISON
by
W. H. MORGAN
Lynchburg, Va.
J. P. Bell Company, Inc.
1911
Copyright, 1911
by W. H. Morgan
TO THE MEMORY OF
"THE LOVED ONES AT HOME"
WIFE—FATHER—MOTHER
THIS BOOK IS TENDERLY AND LOVINGLY DEDICATED
PREFACE
I launch this little volume upon the great ocean of books, craving the
indulgence of the kind reader for its shortcomings and imperfections,
with the hope that it will not be viewed with a critic's eye, and that
its imperfections may be charitably passed by. I have endeavored to
relate my experiences in the great war of 1861-5 just as events
occurred, as if I were detailing them to family or friends in private,
or, as I have sometimes done in the past, at gatherings of veterans and
friends during the past years.
The old huntsman delights to tell of his tracking game in the snow, the
chase through the woods and fields of the fox, deer and bear; the old
sailor spins his yarns of the adventures and perils of the deep; the old
fisherman will sometimes tell a big fish tale, and the old soldier is
wont to join in with the rest and tell of his life in camp and field.
This last I have endeavored to do in the following pages after the lapse
of many years. I might have spun out the story much longer, but
believing that brevity is often the soul of writing, as well as of wit,
I have endeavored to "be brief and to the point."
W. H. MORGAN.
_Floyd, Va._, January 23, 1911.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Personal—Organization—Roll of company.
CHAPTER II
Enter the service—Trouble about arms.
CHAPTER III
On to Manassas—The 11th Regiment—The 1st Brigade.
CHAPTER IV
Battle of Blackburns Ford—The battle begins—The enemy driven back—
Incidents of the battle.
CHAPTER V
Battle of First Manassas—General Johnston to the rescue—Gen. Kirby Smith
turns the tide of battle—The Rebel Yell—Under shelling—The news of
victory—The enemy not pursued—Gathering the spoils.
CHAPTER VI
To Centreville and Fairfax C. H.—Picket close to enemy—Exciting times on
picket—Back to Centreville—The fight at Drainesville.
CHAPTER VII
Fall back from Centreville—The Peninsular campaign—Yorktown lines
evacuated—The battle of Williamsburg—"Give it to them"—Into a hot fire—
Colonel Garland wounded—Incidents of the battle—Garland and Kemper
promoted.
CHAPTER VIII
Back to Richmond—Battle of Seven Pines—The brigade in reserve—Into the
fight at double-quick—Incidents of the battle—On the picket lines.
CHAPTER IX
Seven days fights around Richmond—Battle of Gaines' Mill.
CHAPTER X
Second Manassas and Maryland campaign—Sharpsburg—Back to Virginia—From
Winchester to Culpeper—To Fredericksburg.
CHAPTER XI
The battle of Fredericksburg—Kemper's Brigade in reserve—Spectacular
scene—Behind Marye's Hill—Sharpshooting—At home; sad loss.
CHAPTER XII
To Richmond, Chester Station and Petersburg—To North Carolina—Back to
Virginia at Suffolk—To Taylorsville—On to join General Lee.
CHAPTER XIII
Pennsylvania Campaign—Gettysburg—Back to Virginia—General Lee and the
army of Northern Virginia.
CHAPTER XIV
To Taylorsville—At Chafin's Farm—To North Carolina again—Marching
through swamps and sand—The capture of Plymouth—Companies C and G have
serious experience—Incidents of the battle—The gunboat _Albemarle_—Col.
James Dearing wins promotion—On to Washington, N. C.—Newberne again
invested.
CHAPTER XV
Back to Petersburg, Va.—Beast Butler—The battle of Drewry's Bluff—
General Gracie's courage—Into a heavy fire at close range—Col. Richard
F. Maury—Yankee brigade captured—General Whiting's failure—The Yankee
flags.
CHAPTER XVI
To Milford and to capture—Prisoner of war—On to Washington—To Fort
Delaware.
CHAPTER XVII
To Fort Delaware—Short Rations—Song—Prison rules.
CHAPTER XVIII
Off for Charlestown—Alleged retaliation—On shipboard—Run aground—Short
of water—In stockade—Under fire—Prison rules.
CHAPTER XIX
To Fort Pulaski—Rotten cornmeal and pickled rations—A plot laid.
CHAPTER XX
Back to Fort Delaware—Disappointment and great suffering—Deaths on ship
and burials at sea.
CHAPTER XXI
Yankee infamy—Conduct of the war—Sherman's march through Georgia—The
dismemberment of Virginia.
CHAPTER XXII
Lee's surrender—Lincoln's assassination—Out of prison and at home.
CHAPTER XXIII
Reconstruction and since.
INTRODUCTION
When I first undertook to write my war experiences, I had no thought of
ever publishing what I wrote. It was only intended as a family paper,
written at the solicitation of my children.
If I had undertaken to write a history of Kemper's Brigade, or the
Eleventh Regiment, or even of the Clifton Grays (Company C), the story
would have been far less personal than are these "Personal
Reminiscences," and doubtless more interesting to others, but of less
interest to those for whom the sketches were originally designed.
This is my apology for using the personal pronoun so often, and
referring so frequently to those who were nearest and dearest to me, all
of whom—wife, father, mother, and brothers—have passed away, and I am
left al—— no, not alone; I have friends and old comrades still living
whom I esteem highly and who I am sure esteem me, and children and
grandchildren whom I love and who I know love me.
And it was but natural that I should desire to transmit to these last,
recollections of those nearest and dearest to me, and of the comrades in
arms with whom I was most intimately and closely connected during those
years of blood and strife.
If I had undertaken to give in detail all the brave deeds performed by
the men of Company C, and those who made up the Eleventh Regiment and
Kemper's Brigade, this book would have been much larger than it is.
The Yankees had a custom of promoting men from the ranks for brave
conduct on the field of battle. If this custom had prevailed in the
Confederate army, as I have often remarked, there would have been more
officers than privates in that army; for no army ever had so many men so
deserving and so capable of being officers. Having, at the solicitation
of friends, determined to publish my REMINISCENCES, I now have only to
say as to the following pages. "What I have written I have written," and
will let it go at that; trusting that old comrades who may read this
book will find therein something to remind them that they were "there or
thereabout," and that they and their sons and daughters may find
something to interest, if not something entertaining, and perchance
instructive to the young.
To those who may be disposed to criticize the accuracy of dates and
incidents, and doubtless there are inaccuracies and errors, too, I beg
them to remember that nearly fifty years have passed over all our
"memory boxes" since these war scenes were enacted, and that the events
herein related are from my viewpoint and place on the stage of action,
and that they saw and heard many things I did not see nor hear, and vice
versa.
Any one who has heard witnesses testify in court as to a personal
difficulty between two men, if only a common assault and battery case,
or a more serious encounter with knives and pistols, know that no two
will tell exactly the same story; so it is with war stories. We all did
not see and hear and feel alike at the same time and place. What
impressed one and fixed an event or date indelibly on the mind, did not
impress another. And now "I don't remember," "I forget," "I was there,
but don't recollect," are common expressions heard from old soldiers
when they meet and talk over the old, old times.
To all comrades of Company C and all the other companies of the Eleventh
Virginia and of Kemper's Brigade and Pickett's Division, Longstreet's
Corps, and the army of Northern Virginia, to whom these greetings may
come, I extend the right hand of comradeship most heartily. We marched
and camped and bivouacked and fought together. We suffered and
sacrificed all save honor, and thousands of our comrades died for a
cause which we knew and still know was just and right and holy.
And know ye that we will not be forgotten as long as truth and chivalry
shall live upon the earth, and that generations yet unborn will be proud
to trace their genealogy back to the men who fought under Lee and
Jackson.
And now, old comrades, good-bye, and may God bless you all. At a reunion
some years ago, I heard a veteran say, "God will never send an old
Confederate soldier to hell!" My prayer is that none of them may ever
go, or be sent to that bad place; but let us not forget that, "By grace
are ye saved, through _faith_ in Jesus Christ."
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR OF 1861-5
—IN CAMP—EN BIVOUAC—ON THE MARCH—
ON PICKET—ON THE SKIRMISH LINE
—ON THE BATTLEFIELD—AND IN
PRISON.
CHAPTER I
PERSONAL—ORGANIZATION—ROLL OF COMPANY
After a lapse of more than forty years, I here record brief sketches of
my experiences as a Confederate soldier, beginning about the 1st of May,
1861, and ending the 21st day of May, 1865, and some things since. Many
of the occurrences herein related remain indelibly fixed on my memory
through all these years and can never be effaced.
The scenes and events of the battles are burned into the faculty of
recollection so deep that they remain more firmly fixed than any other
events in my experience. Amidst the rush and roar and crash of battle,
every fibre of the brain is intensified and highly wrought, and receives
the scenes and events of the hour with the accuracy and permanency of
the camera.
As to many of the dates, marches and camps, my memory has been refreshed
by memoranda and data collected during the years, since the close of
that memorable struggle, and by the perusal of wartime letters, and some
assistance from old comrades.
I have headed these sketches "Personal Reminiscences," which I have
designed to be a simple narrative of what I saw, heard and felt, without
any desire to recount deeds of my own; but rather, at the solicitation
of my children and others, that they may know something of my comrades
and that I may leave to those who come after me some record of the part,
inconspicuous as it was, which I took in that fierce and bloody
conflict, my reasons, therefor, and my convictions and actions since.
These things alone have prompted me to undertake this task.
I find already that the personal pronoun will appear in the narrative
much oftener than I would wish. This seems unavoidable, according to the
plan and scope designed.
I read sometime ago Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's life of Gen. Robt. E. Lee. When
the book was finished, I remarked that I had a higher opinion of Fitz
Lee than ever before, for the reason that his modesty caused him to
leave himself out of the book, only a few times mentioning Fitz Lee's
Brigade or Division incidentally, showing him to be a great man. I would
like to do likewise, but this will be impossible.
ORGANIZATION AND ROLL OF COMPANY
In the year 1860, at Pigeon Run—now Gladys, Campbell County, Va.,—near
where I was born and reared, the young men of the neighborhood, catching
the military spirit that swept over the State and South immediately
after the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry the year before, organized a
volunteer infantry company, "The Clifton Grays," named after a small
stream near by, the name being suggested by my father, the late Richard
Morgan.
At the organization of the company, Adam Clement was elected captain;
Jos. A. Hobson, first lieutenant; H. H. Withers, second lieutenant; Jas.
A. Connelly, third lieutenant, and R. M. Cock, fourth lieutenant. When
mustered into service only three lieutenants were allowed. I was elected
orderly sergeant, which position I preferred at that time.
The following is as complete a roll of the company as I have been able
to make up from memory, and by the aid of old comrades from the
beginning to the end:
CAPTAIN
Adam Clement; promoted to major; wounded and disabled at Sharpsburg, Md.
LIEUTENANTS
Jos. A. Hobson; retired at the end of the first year.
H. H. Withers; retired at the end of first year.
Jas. A. Connelly; missing at Gettysburg.
Jabe R. Rosser.
Robt. M. Cock; captured at Five Forks, Va.
ORDERLY SERGEANT
W. H. Morgan; promoted to first lieutenant and captain; captured at
Milford, Va., May 21, 1864.
SERGEANTS
Thos. M. Cock; promoted to orderly sergeant; died since war.
E. M. Hobson; detailed as regimental ordinance sergeant.
E. G. Gilliam; badly wounded at Five Forks, Va.
Geo. Thomas Rosser.
Robt. M. Murrell.
Geo. W. Morgan; died since war.
CORPORALS
Ed. A. Tweedy; captured at Milford, on the 21st of May, 1864.
G. A. Creacy; wounded at Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864.
Chas. A. Clement; promoted to orderly sergeant; captured at Five Forks,
April 5, 1865; died since war.
W. T. Tynes; killed at Five Forks, Va.
W. H. Hendricks; killed at Second Manassas, August 30, 1862.
_Privates_
Allen, Chas.; killed at Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864.
Allen, Reuben; died since the war.
Brooks, John J.; died since the war.
Bailey, Allen; killed at Drewry's Bluff, April 16, 1864.
Bailey, Miffram; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Bailey, Harvey; died near Yorktown, April, 1862.
Bateman, Abner; wounded at Plymouth, N. C., April 18, 1864; died since
the war.
Barber, Silas; killed at Seven Pines, May 31, 1862.
Brown, Geo. A.; captured at Milford.
Brown, Jas. A.; captured at Milford.
Brown, W. Lee; wounded at Gettysburg and Milford on the 21st of May,
1864, and captured; dead.
Bell, Geo. W.; lost arm near Petersburg on March 30, 1865.
Blankenship, Chas. E.
Blankenship, Leslie C.
Cocke, Jas. B.; died since war.
Clement, Geo. W.
Creacy, Thos. C.
Caldwell, Daniel R.
Caldwell, Samuel; died since war.
Cary, Peter.
Callaham, Moses H.; captured at Milford, on 21st of April, 1864.
Callaham, Chas. M.
Dunnavant, Lee.
DePriest, Jno. R.; killed at Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864.
Daniel, John A; died since war.
Eads, Hairston; died since war.
Eads, William.
Elliott, Robt. A.; died since war.
Elliott, H. O.; color sergeant; killed at Second Manassas.
Franklin, Samuel T.
Franklin, Edmond L.; died since war.
Farris, Benjamin; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Frazier, John B.; now blind.
Gardner, John.
Hobson, W. H.; mortally wounded at Dranesville, Va., January, 1862.
Hobson, Nathaniel R.; died since war.
Hughes, Andy.
Hughes, Crockett; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Harvey, Richard C.; died since war.
Hall, Stephen; died since war.
Harvey, Thos. W.; died since war.
Hendricks, Joseph.
Holcome, Ellis H.
Jones, Robt. H.
Jones, Geo. W.
Jones, Joshua.
Jones, Jas. T.; captured at Milford, April 21, 1864.
Jones, J. Wesley; captured at Milford, April 21, 1864.
Jones, Chas.; killed at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.
Jones, Walker; wounded at Gettysburg.
Jones, Jas. Chap.; lost arm at Gettysburg.
Jones, Linneous; killed at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.
Jones, Robt. W.; wounded at ——.
Jones, Jasper; died since war.
Jennings, Monroe; died since war.
Kabler, Fred; captured at Milford, April 21, 1864.
Kabler, W. S.; captured at Milford, April 21, 1864.
Kabler, Jack.
Kelley, Len.; died since war.
Keenan, John; detailed as drummer.
LeGrand, Peter A.; died since war.
Layne, David; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Layne, John; died near Fredericksburg, January 1863.
Layne, Miffram; died since war.
Morgan, Robt. W.; wounded at Second Manassas and Gettysburg; captured at
Milford; dead.
Moorman, Thos. E.
Martin, James; detailed as cook; died since war.
Monroe, John; killed at Drewry's Bluff, May 16, 1864.
Monroe, William; killed at Plymouth, April 18, 1864.
Monroe, William T.; captured at Milford, May 21, 1864.
Martin, Henry; killed at Second Manassas, August 30, 1862.
Murrell, Chas.; killed at Second Manassas, August 30, 1862.
Moore, Richard; died since war.
Murrell, Emory.
Matthews, William; died since war.
Mason, Maurice M., Jr.; killed at Gettysburg.
Miles, Chas.; shot accidentally; died since war.
Organ, Jas.; died since war.
Organ, John; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Pillow, Daniel; missing at Gettysburg.
Pillow, William; detailed as cook.
Puckett, John; died since war.
Phillips, Thornton; died in service.
Pugh, James.
Pugh, Nat.
Quilly, Michael.
Rosser, Walter C.; wounded at Williamsburg and Drewry's Bluff.
Rosser, Alfred S.; killed at Drewry's Bluff.
Rosser, Granville; killed at Williamsburg.
Rosser, Thos. W.; died since war.
Rosser, John W.; captured at Five Forks.
Rice, Joe; killed at Sharpsburg, September, 1862.
Roberts, Pleasant; deserter.
Rice, Alec W.; captured at Milford; died in prison; buried at Arlington.
Terrell, James; killed at Seven Pines, May 31, 1862.
Tweedy, G. Dabney; killed at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.
Tweedy, Bennett; killed at Plymouth, July 18, 1864.
Tweedy, Ferdinand.
Tweedy, Joseph; died since war.
Tweedy, Robt. C.
Walthall, Isaac; company commissary; died since war.
Walker, Geo. W.; mortally wounded at Drewry's Bluff.
Wood, Wash. W.; killed near Petersburg, 1865.
Woody, Bruce; killed at Drewry's Bluff, 1864.
Wood, John; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Watkins, James L.; died since war.
Woodall, Jno. J.
Wilkerson, W. A.; captured at Milford, May 21, 1864.
Williams, Whit B.; wounded at Williamsburg; dead.
Wilson, Wm. H.; killed at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862.
Withers, W. S.; detailed as hospital steward.
Wingfield, W. H.; died since war.
Wood, James; killed at Seven Pines.
No doubt several names have been omitted, and others were killed or died
from wounds and disease not now remembered. It has been impossible to
give the number and names of all the killed and wounded in the battles
in which the company was engaged. From three to five wounded to one
killed is about the average, I think.
One man on this roll has "deserter" written after his name. He was a
good soldier while with the company. Unfortunately he was a _nullius
filus_; I suppose he thought he had nothing to fight for. We heard later
he went to Ohio, where he drove a stage during the war. I have never
heard of him since.
I wish I could mention by name each one of these men, what they did, and
how faithfully they served their country; but time and space and lack of
memory as to many interesting incidents will not permit this. I can only
say that, with very few exceptions, they were good and faithful
soldiers.
The uniform of the company was steel-gray, with cap of same color.