Crossing the Rubicon of Loyalties, part 3

 

Part 3: True Faith & Allegiance: Piney Woods enlistees in the Union 1st N.O. Infantry

By Ed Payne

 

The Mississippians who joined the Union 1st New Orleans Infantry Regiment  in late 1863 and 1864 signed enlistment documents pledging “true faith and allegiance to the United States of America.”  The agreement specified a three year term of service and stipulated their military duties would be restricted to “the defences of New Orleans.”  In the wake of Gen. Nathaniel Bank’s failed Red River campaign, Southern forces remained active in central and northern Louisiana.  But the Union had achieved control of entire Mississippi River and New Orleans was secure.  Thus the Mississippians had every reason to feel confident that they would not have to shoulder their weapons against Confederate units.

Upon enlisting, the recruits received a bounty of $25.  An additional $75 would be collected when discharged.  In hardship cases soldiers could also request an advance on their first month’s pay of $13.  In July of 1864 the base pay for privates was raised to $16 per month.  However, payroll was issued at irregular intervals and sometimes months elapsed between payments.

The Piney Woods men came from a sparsely settled region where much of the population wrestled a frugal living from herding and small scale agriculture.  Several times a year herders drove their surplus livestock to Mobile, Alabama, so the soldiers may have had some exposure to city life.  But Mobile’s population of less than 30,000 paled in comparison to New Orleans’s 175,000.  Strong traces of the city’s French-Spanish heritage remained, combined with African-American influences from both slaves and a community of free persons of color.  During the 1840s and 1850s the city’s dominant role in the cotton trade prompted an influx of Northern businessmen and emigrants from Germany and Ireland.

The Mississippians serving in the 1st New Orleans Infantry performed their duties amid the many strange and unfamiliar aspects of life in New Orleans.  Records suggest they were housed in newly constructed barracks just north of the city.  Other soldiers in their regiment were a roughly equal mixture of Northerners and foreign-born recruits.  Military reports show that the 77th U.S. Colored Troops were under the same general command, suggesting at least some interaction between the two regiments.  Their normal duties also required the Mississippians to interact with the citizenry of an occupied city.  The fact that they were Southerners in blue uniforms meant many New Orleanians viewed them as traitors and scoundrels—and probably had little compunction about expressing this view.     

When all this is taken into account, it is not surprising that some Piney Woods men had second thoughts about their Union enlistment and departed; the actual wonder is that so many stayed.  And, by and large, they did stay.  Before delving into their service histories, it is pertinent to compare the Mississippi recruits with their compatriots.  We might suspect that the Piney Woods men, being mostly independent-minded yeoman—many of whom had deserted Confederate service—would not measure up to their fellow soldiers.  Such suspicions turn out to be wrong.

Military records reveal that, as a group, the 203 Mississippi soldiers performed better than their counterparts on two key measures.  A random sampling of 470 (40%) of the 1,174 soldiers with no Mississippi connection was used to make the comparisons.  Despite the alien environment and their proximity to home, far fewer Mississippi men failed to report for muster or desert prior to the end of the war.

The relative performance of the two groups is depicted in Table 1:

Service outcome comparison	MS	Other *
Not taken up on muster rolls	3.9%	8.1%
Deserted BEFORE end of war	8.4%	20.2%
Deserted AFTER end of war	21.7%	27.9%
Died in service	27.6%	4.5%

TABLE 1:  Service performance of 203 Mississippi enlistees in the 1st New Orleans compared with random sampling of 470 (40%) of 1,174 non-Mississippians.

Service outcomes are categorized as follows:  1) enlisted but failed to appear for muster; 2) deserted before the end of the war (defined by later Congressional acts as May 22, 1865); 3) deserted after the end of the war; 4) granted medical or other discharge; 5) died during term of service; and 6) completed service and discharged when the 1st New Orleans was decommissioned on June 1, 1866.  A breakdown of these outcomes is shown in Table 2:

MS service outcomes	No.	%
Not taken up on muster rolls	8	3.9%
Deserted BEFORE end of war	17	8.4%
Deserted AFTER end of war	44	21.7%
Medical discharges	12	5.9%
Other discharges	2	1.0%
Died in service	56	27.6%
Completed service	64	31.5%
Total enlistees	203	100.0%

TABLE 2:  Service outcomes of Mississippi soldiers who served in the 1st New Orleans Infantry.

Now let’s take a closer look at these outcomes and some of the men who exemplified each:

FAILURE TO REPORT FOR MUSTER – After a recruit signed his enlistment papers, there was often an interval of several days before he reported for muster.  Some men simply pocketed the $25 bounty payment and disappeared, resulting in a file entry of “Not taken up on muster rolls.” Eight Mississippians enlisted but were not mustered, or 3.9% of the total.  As shown in Table 1, this was less than half the rate found in the sampling of non-Mississippians.

It is doubtful any of the Piney Woods men enlisted with the intention of bounty jumping.  A more probable explanation is that these recruits experienced a culture shock which they could not tolerate.  Men such as James Dearman, John W. Rester, and William Spradley decided to take their chances with Confederate troops and headed back home.

DESERTION – In the period between their enlistment and the end of the war, 17 of the Mississippi men deserted.  Two of them, Irvin E. Elzey and Marion H. Ellis, left after serving only 93 and 99 days, respectively.  Marion Ellis, who enlisted at age 18, deserted on June 2, 1864 only to be arrested six days later.  He was charged with being absent without leave, having stolen a gold watch from a prisoner of war, and using insubordinate language.  Sentenced to 18 months confinement, he was released under a general order and given a dishonorable discharge on December 29, 1865.  At the other end of the age range, Irvin Elzey was grey-haired and 43-years-old when he signed up on April 28, 1864.  He received a promotion to Corporal on June 1, but was listed as having deserted on July 30.  Descendants report that he died in November 1864 as a result of a train derailment in New Orleans.

The remaining 15 men who deserted prior to the war’s end did so only after serving an average of 288 days.  Many made the unfortunate decision to leave in the early months of 1865.  The choice was unfortunate because in the 1890s Congress passed increasingly lenient pension legislation to curry favor with Union veterans.  Provisions were added allowing those who deserted on or after May 22, 1865 to apply to have the charges removed, paving the way for pension eligibility.  General Baron DeKalb O’Neal deserted on February 27 and Henry F. Davis on April 1 of 1865.  Both later sought to have their desertion charges removed, but their requests were denied.

The case of Albert Walters, on the other hand, illustrates how capricious military justice and the Federal pension bureaucracy could be.  On November 27, 1864, Albert left his company.  The 38- year-old Jones County native was apprehended a few days later, charged with desertion, and sentenced to one year’s confinement at Fort Jefferson, in the Dry Tortugas islands off the coast of Florida.  A few days shy of completing his sentence, he was subject to the general release of December 29, 1865.  Transported back to New Orleans, he was mustered out of service on February 21, 1866.  However, because his sentence did not stipulate a dishonorable discharge, forty years later he received approval for an invalid’s pension.

When the war ended, the Mississippi soldiers remain bound by their three-year enlistments.  For most that meant serving until the spring of 1867.  Wanting to return to their families, 44 Piney Woods men abandoned their posts between May 22, 1865 and June 1, 1866—when the 1st New Orleans was decommissioned.  Of these, 31 later made successful applications to have their post-war desertion charges removed.

Some men deserted and later returned to service.  All such cases have been counted among the desertions.  Robert Spencer  left his post on July 14, 1865 after learning that his step-father, who killed his mother in 1862, had returned to Jasper County.  Two weeks later Spencer turned himself in, was sentenced by a court martial panel to three months at hard labor, and afterward rejoined his company.  Seaborn Tisdale, detached to Mobile, deserted on June 17, 1865.  On November 6, he voluntarily surrendered in New Orleans.   He was sentenced to two months in the city jail and then completed his service.

MEDICAL DISCHARGES – Fourteen men received discharges prior to the end of their term of service, 12 of which were for medical disability.  An example is 18 year-old Harro Bellman from Jackson County.  On May 10, 1865, six months after his enlistment, he was admitted to the U.S. General Hospital for treatment of an unspecified illness.  Less than a month later, on June 6, he was discharged from the hospital and military service in compliance with recently issued general orders requiring those with chronic illnesses to be expeditiously removed from the military rolls.  Harro Bellman recovered, later qualified for a pension, and died in Mobile in 1920 at age 71. 

 DEATHS IN SERVICE – The death rate among Piney Woods men of the 1st New Orleans disputes arguments that recruits were motivated by the lure of U.S. greenbacks and easy duty.  Between April of 1864 and January of 1866, a total of 56 men died—27.6% of all who enlisted. 

The first recorded death was that of 25-year-old Augustus Lambert from Jasper County, who enlisted at Fort Pike along with 27 other men on March 25, 1864.  Lambert died at the fort on April 17.  Deaths mounted over the following few months:  four in July, six in August, seven in September, and five in October.  November, 1864, proved to be the peak month for mortality, witnessing the demise of 10 men.  By the end of 1864 the death toll had reached 36.  Since many of these men had enlisted with kinsmen, the Mississippians were well aware of the price they paid for their service.

Enlistment Document of Augustus (“Gus”) Lambert

The causes of death, where recorded, were typically camp diseases: small pox, chronic diarrhea, and pneumonia.  The high mortality rate among the Piney Woods men compared to others in the 1st New Orleans—six times greater—is a point of curiosity.  The most likely explanation is that most of the other soldiers were urban residents and/or Union veterans.  By the time they joined the 1st New Orleans—which did not begin recruitment until September of 1863—the more susceptible of their cohorts had already succumbed.  Although over half of the Mississippians had previously served in Confederate units, they clearly arrived in New Orleans more vulnerable to disease than their counterparts.

Riley J. Collins of Jones County was one of the fatalities.  Later informants spoke of his adamant opposition to secession.  When the first Confederate Conscription Act was enacted in April of 1862 he was exempted by age, being 36.  Later that year the act was amended to include men up through age 45, but he refused to enlist.  His wife Desdemonia died that same year, leaving him to care for their six children.  Nevertheless, when Col. Robert Lowry led troops into Jones County to force men into Confederate service, Riley Collins made his way to Fort Pike and enlisted on April 30, 1864.  He entered the U.S. General Hospital on August 20 and died 10 days later.  His orphaned children were taken in and raised by a brother.

The pre-war political views of John W. Axton are unknown.  A native of Alabama, he moved to Perry County where the 1860 federal census listed him with a wife and new-born son.  On April 4, 1862, John joined the 46th MS Infantry at Raleigh.  He was sent to a hospital in Brandon in November and deserted from there.  The next record of him is among the group of men who enlisted at Fort Pike on March 25, 1864.  The 28-year-old died at the regimental hospital on October 11 and was buried, like most of the others, in Chalmette Cemetery.  His widow successfully applied for survivor’s benefits.

As noted, many of the Mississippi soldiers shared kinship bonds.  There were several instances of two or more brothers joining and some cases of fathers and sons enlisting.  Disease and death did not respect such family ties.  David McBride, age 45, and his 18-year-old son William enlisted at Fort Pike on March 25, 1864.  In late May, David was admitted to the University Hospital where on July 24 he succumbed to chronic diarrhea.  One week later his son William died in the U.S. General Hospital of small pox.

COMPLETED SERVICE – Sixty-four of the Mississippi soldiers remained in the 1st New Orleans until mustered out on June 1, 1866.  The longest serving of the enlistees were Robert McIntire, who signed up on November 7, 1863 and Enoch E. McFadden, who joined two weeks later.  Within seven months of his enlistment Robert McIntire had gained a promotion to Corporal, only to be returned to the ranks in December of 1864.  Still, he displayed sufficient military tact to be assigned as an orderly at Regimental Headquarters in September of 1865.  After the war he was a peddler in Harrison County and died in Louisiana sometime after 1890.

Enoch E. McFadden exemplifies those whose military records indicate a dramatic shift in loyalties.  He enrolled as a 2nd Lieutenant in the “Gainesville Volunteers” on July 1, 1861 and was elected Captain on October 5.  The unit, thereafter identified as Company K or G, became a part of the 3rd MS Infantry.  When the company held a second vote for officers in May 1, 1862,   Enoch was not re-elected.  A muster card simply notes he was dropped from the rolls on that date.  Eighteen months later, on November 18, 1863, Enoch and two brothers, James and Milton, enlisted in the 1st New Orleans. Milton was 31 and Enoch 30, while younger brother James had just turned 18.

Milton H. McFadden, whose connection with the others I only recently uncovered, joined the CSA 8th Louisiana Infantry in March, 1862.  His regiment saw action in Virginia where he was taken prisoner and later exchanged.  In August of 1863 he was reported absent without leave and next appeared in New Orleans.  All three brothers were assigned to Company A of the 1st New Orleans.  In April, 1864, Enoch and Milton were both promoted to the rank of Sergeant.  On November 8 their brother James died of chronic diarrhea at Winn Island.  However, both Enoch and Milton completed their terms of service.  A pension application by his widow suggests Enoch died in 1894.  Milton moved to Texas, was granted an invalid pension in 1890, and died in 1922.

The McFadden brothers epitomize lingering questions about what motivated the Union enlistees.  Early organizers of Southern units felt entitled to command and, if elections for officers did not go their way, sometimes resigned as a point of honor.  But even if this were true of Enoch McFadden—and the evidence is meager—it hardly explains his change of allegiance.  Nor does it explain why his brothers demonstrated a similar rupture in Confederate loyalties.  For now, we can only publish these long ignored names of Union soldiers from the Mississippi Piney Woods and hope that further information will come to light.

 This concludes the first series of posts concerning research on the Mississippi enlistees in the 1st New Orleans Infantry.  At some point, I hope to return to this topic with a table listing those who died and, when known, their burial locations and also provide more stories about some of the individual soldiers.  E.P.

Read Full Post »

Ed Payne, “Crossing the Rubicon of Loyalties,” Part 2

Part 2: No better than runaway slaves:  Piney Woods enlistees in the Union 1st N.O. Infantry

 

By Ed Payne

Between November of 1863 and November of 1864, over two hundred Mississippi men—nearly all from the state’s southern Piney Woods region—trekked to Louisiana and joined the Union 1st and 2nd New Orleans Infantry regiments (Note 1).  The names of the men thus far identified and the methods used to discover them were discussed in Part 1 of this series Reviewing the list of names, a question naturally emerges:  what caused these men, many of them formerly in Confederate units, to join with the enemy?  

Descendants who acknowledge their ancestors’ service in the Union Army often cite financial motives, saying it was done purely for U.S. greenbacks.  While it is true that Confederate currency had collapsed, subsistence farmers and herders of the Piney Woods did not share our modern dependency on money.  Their lives were rooted in a self-sufficiency which we can scarcely comprehend.  The small amounts of money they obtained—usually from periodic sales of livestock in Mobile, Alabama—bought a few staple goods such as salt, sugar, coffee, flour and whiskey.  Larger amounts of money could buy land but, prior to the timber boom of the 1880s, the Piney Woods included large tracts of open range on which all livestock could be set loose to graze.  Yeoman herders only needed the modest acreage which they and their families could till.  Given the passions engendered by the war, if money played a role in their decision I think it was a minor one.   

It would be wonderful to discover a trove of letters or a diary written by one of these men.  Based upon the ability to sign their names on enlistment papers, it appears that 30% of the Mississippian enlistees had basic literacy skills. This did not imply, however, that they possessed either the capacity or desire to compose lengthy passages justifying their actions.  Elias Allen authored the single letter by a Piney Woods Union soldier that has come to my attention.  In it, he wrote his sister-in-law to report the death of her husband, Alvin Sumrall.  The letter contains a mere 180 words.

Elias A. Allen

Even without further documents from individual Union enlistees, the following factors emerge as motives for their change of allegiance:

UNIONISM (or at least anti-secessionism) – While the state of Mississippi ranked second only to South Carolina in secessionist fever, the fever did not afflict everyone.  Even so, it is difficult to identify those men who steadfastly held Unionist convictions simply because such opinions were rarely documented.  In Mississippi’s heated late antebellum period, voicing anti-secessionist sentiments could be dangerous—unless one lived in an area where such contrarian views were widely shared.  Several contemporary accounts point to Jones County as being one of those areas.  Researcher Jeff Giambrone recently uncovered a newspaper item describing an anti-secessionist meeting in the county. 

It should be noted that similar, if more muted, sentiments were also expressed by a number of wealthy slave-owners—although for very different reasons.  These individuals were dubious about Southern chances of winning a war and worried about the prospects for slavery in the event of a loss.  When the Mississippi Secession Convention was held in January of 1861, 15 delegates from 10 counties voted against leaving the Union.  These nay votes came from counties with both small and large slave populations (Note 2).

Evidence shows some pre-war Unionists among the men who signed up at Fort Pike and in New Orleans.  Riley J. Collins of Jones County was remembered by neighbors and kinfolk as an ardent defender of the Union, while documents found in the military file of Robert Spencer of Jasper County cast him in a similar light.  For many others, however, Union enlistment represented a drastic turnabout in loyalties.   

CONSCRIPTION & ENLISTMENTS – When the Civil War began in the spring of 1861, military service was—save for local social pressures—an entirely voluntary matter.  It seems reasonable to assume that men who enlisted in 1861 were motivated by “the cause” or at least by notions of participating in a brief, glorious military adventure.  One year later, an expanding war and mounting casualties forced the Confederate Congress to enact its first Conscription Act.  This law applied to able bodied men ages 18-35 and eventually extended to ages 17-50.  There were some occupational exemptions and provisions for hiring substitutes, but these applied to few men in the Piney Woods.  In the wake of the Conscription Act, men had three choices:  enlist in a locally raised company; await conscription, which was commonly viewed as dishonorable; or attempt to evade conscription, considered nearly unthinkable. 

Early on, I assumed that Mississippians who joined the 1st New Orleans had entered Confederate service in 1862 or later under pressure of conscription.  I expected an examination of Confederate records to verify this assumption.  Establishing matches can be difficult since the CSA files seldom recorded the soldier’s age or birthplace, and given names were often rendered as initials.  On the other hand, companies were typically raised within specific counties and retained their local identity.  Also, family members usually enlisted in the same company.  Using these clues, 101 strong matches were found between the New Orleans recruits and earlier Confederate enlistees (Note 3).

The Confederate records revealed—in utter disregard for my reasoning—that out of the 101 former Confederate soldiers, 31 enlisted in 1861.  These men joined local companies well before pressured to do so by conscription laws.  Another eight volunteered between January and March of 1862.  Of the 31 earliest volunteers, 14 joined Gulf Coast companies that became part of the 3rd MS Infantry in October of 1861.  Among them were  D.W. Bounds, Charles Cuevas, Enoch E. McFadden (Captain of the “Gainesville Volunteers”), G.T. Mitchell, Robert Page, and James L. Seal.  All would later serve in the 1st New Orleans.  Even in the heart of the Piney Woods, seven future Union recruits enlisted in the 8th MS Infantry regiment on May 4, 1861: Wiley Courtney, Hansford and James Dossett, William Holyfield, Eli Rushing, Martin V.B. Shows, and William Tippet.  To explain the change of heart in these men, we must examine their wartime experiences.

“RICH MAN’S WAR, POOR MAN’S FIGHT” – In October of 1862, six months after instituting conscription, the Confederate Congress passed the “20 Negro Law.”  The legislation granted planters one military service exemption for every 20 slaves owned.   In those sections of the South where slaves comprised a large percent of the population, whites were perpetually apprehensive over possible uprisings.  Lawmakers felt it prudent to retain a certain number of men on plantations to manage their bondsmen.  However, many non-slave owning soldiers took an understandably dim view of the law.  Those given to pondering such matters questioned whether the war had become one of poor men fighting to protect the slave property of rich men.  Some of these men began leaving the ranks in the winter of 1862. 

WAR FATIGUE AND FAMILY NEEDS – By the early spring of 1863 a scattering of yeoman farmers, now realizing the war would be a lengthy one, left their units to return home and plant crops—without which their families’ lives would be precarious.  The first report of a Piney Woods deserter problem came from 2nd Lieutenant H. C. Mathis of the 8th MS Infantry, who wrote Governor John J. Pettus on June 1, 1863 notifying him of “between seventy-five and one-hundred deserters” in Jones County.  Mathis, who had settled in the area prior to the war, said he received word of the situation from “responsible men” in his community. 

At the same time, other men from the region were huddled within the defensive perimeter around Vicksburg.  Confederate forces included the 7th Battalion MS Infantry and the 36th, 37th, 38th, 40th, and 46th MS Infantry regiments, all of which contained companies organized in the Piney Woods.  After enduring 47 days of constant bombardment and dwindling supplies, Confederate General John C. Pemberton finally surrendered on July 4, 1863.  Union commander Ulysses S. Grant, not wishing to assume responsibility for 30,000 prisoners, decided to offer paroles.  The parole documents pledged each man not to take up arms against the United States until properly exchanged for a Union prisoner (Note 4). 

The Piney Woods men saw a Union Army firmly in control of central Mississippi while contemplating the privations endured by their families.  These realizations caused a number of them to conclude that their obligation to the Confederacy had been fulfilled.   They began walking home.  Among them were later Union enlistees Richard D. Bound, John C. Culpepper, Asa Easterling, James Grantham, William McBride, Daniel Sumrall, and Hanson Walters.  Following the surrender, General Pemberton issued furloughs requiring the parolees to report to exchange camp by August 23.  The date appears in several records as the point from which these soldiers were considered absent without leave.

IN-KIND TAXATION – When war-weary soldiers returned home, they found another reason for distress.  In April of 1863 the Confederacy enacted in-kind taxation.  Regional quartermasters and their agents were authorized to seize 10% of agricultural produce and 10% livestock raised for slaughter.  They could confiscate more if they deemed the individual noncompliant.  The state troops enforcing these laws were frequently led by men of the planter class, who viewed the hard scrabble yeomen with disdain.  A Confederate officer who took part in Col. Robert Lowry’s campaign noted that such attitudes “have done more to demoralize Jones County than the whole Yankee army.” Since Federal troops made very few incursions into the Piney Woods, the poorer inhabitants began to view Confederate tax agents and state troops as greater enemies. 

HANGINGS AND DOGS – Desertions were a vexation for Confederate commanders, as they continue to be for Lost Cause devotees seeking unblemished Confederate pedigrees among their ancestors.  Because Southern military records grew more sporadic as the war continued, it is difficult to determine how many Piney Woods men left their units and how many remained in the ranks until the war’s end (Note 5).  By spring of 1864, however, reports describing the number of deserters and their influence goaded officials into ordering troops into the Piney Woods.  Back-to-back campaigns were mounted, the first led by Col. Henry Maury in March and the second by Col. Robert Lowry in April.  Their primary objectives were to restore Confederate authority and to force deserters back into service.

In a society grounded in a sense of personal honor, abandoning a military unit in which one’s relatives and neighbors also served must have been a wrenching decision.  Returning home to find one’s family in destitute conditions increased the strain.  Only a few years earlier these men had existed in a realm largely free of external authority.  Now they found themselves conscripted, taxed, and pursued by those who claimed to be protecting their rights.

Col. Robert Lowry felt stern measures were necessary.  His troops hanged seven men on April 15-16.  He took fathers hostage to coerce their sons into surrendering.  And he deployed dogs to track down the deserters.  Accounts handed down by member of the Newt Knight Band make frequent mention of these dogs—and for good reason.  Our modern sensibilities have been dulled by years of watching movie depictions of wily prison escapees eluding bloodhounds.  We fail to appreciate the way in which these men perceived the use of dogs.  Planters employed tracking dogs to hunt down fugitive slaves; now the same animals had been unleashed on those who took pride in being free white men.  The sounds of the pack hounds must have produced a bitter realization in the minds of the Piney Woods deserters:  Confederate authorities deemed them no better than runaway slaves. 

"Fugitive slave attacked by dogs" (Image reference NW0200; http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.php, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library.)

 

The above factors help us to understand the stresses that caused some men to make profound breaks with their past.  The timing of the influx of Mississippians into the New Orleans Union regiments clearly reflects the anger and humiliation evoked by the Maury and Lowry campaigns.  In the end, circumstances forced two hundred Piney Woods men—including some of the earliest volunteers in the Southern cause—to conclude that the costs of Confederate loyalty had finally become too onerous to bear.

__________________________________

Note 1:  As described in Part 1, the 2nd New Orleans Infantry was disbanded in August of 1864.  All but three of the 2nd New Orleans Piney Wood enlistees subsequently appear on the 1st New Orleans rolls.  Therefore, this and future posts will focus exclusively on the 1st New Orleans recruits. 

Note 2:  The vote was 84 in favor of secession and 15 opposed.  Mississippi counties casting votes against secession were:  Adams, Amite, Attala, Franklin, Itawamba (split vote), Perry, Rankin, Tishomingo, Washington, and Warren (split vote).  Jones County elected a representative, by a 166 to 89 margin, pledged to oppose secession.  However, after realizing the declaration of secession would pass handily, he cast his vote in favor.  

Note 3:  More problematic matches with Confederate military records were found for 29 other 1st New Orleans recruits.  In eight cases the commonality of the names produced too many possibilities.  No CSA service matches were identified for the remaining 65 New Orleans recruits.  Of these, 36 (55.4%) were under age 21—suggesting that as the war continued, some Piney Woods youths reaching conscription age failed to report and had local support in doing so.

Note 4:  Five days after the surrender of Vicksburg, the fortress at Port Hudson, Louisiana capitulated on July 9, 1864 following a 48 day siege.  Among the surrendering forces was the 39th MS Infantry, composed mostly of companies mustered in the Piney Woods.  As was the case in Vicksburg, the men were released on parole.

Note 5:  Those who enlisted in the 1st New Orleans were a minority, even among the population of Piney Woods deserters.  If we assume that 90% of men ages 15-39 on the 1860 census ended up serving in Confederate military units, Union enlistees would comprise 2.7% of the number from Jones and its bordering counties (98 of 3,668).  Using the same calculation applied to just Jones, Marion, and Perry counties, the percent of Union enlistees is 7.1% (90 of 1,261).

Read Full Post »

Crossing the Rubicon of Loyalties: Piney Woods enlistees in the Union 1st and 2nd New Orleans Infantry

Crossing the Rubicon of Loyalties: Piney Woods enlistees in the Union 1st and 2nd New Orleans Infantry

By Ed Payne

Part I

Two years ago I gave a presentation in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, a portion of which dealt with the Knight Band.  Afterwards, three attendees approached me saying they wished to register a complaint.  These ladies were not upset, as one might suspect, about my broaching the subject of Piney Woods dissent against Confederate authority.  Instead, they expressed good natured consternation that “Jones County gets all the attention.”  They told me there were family stories, more openly discussed in recent years, about men from Marion and Perry counties who also opposed the Confederacy and even enlisted in the Union Army.   I solicited names from them and, later, from others who made similar claims.  In each case, research into military and pension files proved the rumor to be true.

My small but slowly growing list of Piney Woods men who became Union soldiers was augmented by those uncovered by Shelby Harriel .  Even so, several contemporary accounts mentioned not dozens, but hundreds of renegades (see preceding article).  This raised two questions:  How extensive was opposition to Confederate authority within the Mississippi Piney Woods during the final years of the Civil War?  And can this resistance be accurately ascribed to the leadership of a single man?  Seeking a new frame of reference, I undertook a complete review of the two Union regiments most frequently cited as those in which Piney Woods men enlisted:  the 1st and 2nd New Orleans Infantry.  The results may be found in the list of names accompanying this article.

Readers of “Renegade South” will be familiar with the fact that in the spring of 1864 Confederate forces, most famously those of  Col. Robert Lowry, were sent into the Piney Woods to quell resistance and compel deserters back into their units.  Many of those not caught up in the Confederate dragnet fled south to the swamps of the lower Pearl River, a region known as Honey Island.  At this point the refugees were encamped a mere 10 miles from the Union garrison at Fort Pike, Louisiana. Communications were established and groups of men began arriving at Fort Pike.

Aerial view of Fort Pike as it appeared prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005

Fort Pike was one of a series of fortifications, including Fort Sumter, built by the federal government in the wake of the War of 1812 for coastal defense.  The massive brick and mortar structure was completed in 1827. Situated on a peninsula of land, it guarded the Rigolets—a strait connecting Lake Pontchartrain with the Gulf of Mexico.  Louisiana militia occupied the fort at the outbreak of the Civil War, but it was abandoned by the Confederacy after New Orleans fell into Union hands in April of 1862.

When Piney Woods men made the decision to be ferried across the Rigolets and enter Fort Pike, they were also crossing a personal Rubicon of loyalties.  Henceforth, they were no longer simply resisting Confederate conscription and taxation; they were joining a Union Army whose mission, in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation, was to banish slavery.  If any were unclear about this fact, the sight of United States Colored Troops training at Fort Pike must have quickly educated them.

In counterintuitive military fashion, the 2nd New Orleans began enrolling troops in October of 1863, six months prior to the 1st New Orleans.  Never reaching full strength, it was disbanded in August of 1864 and its men transferred into the 1st New Orleans.  The 2nd New Orleans Infantry rolls cover 267 men, totaling 1,813 documents.    Those of the 1st New Orleans Infantry account for 1,377 men and comprise 20,829 documents.  The military files have been digitized and are available via the subscription service Footnote.com.  For purposes of this study, the records of every man in the two regiments were reviewed and summarized on spreadsheets.

At the outset my expectations were modest.  Several decades ago researcher Jean Strickland compiled information on 34 Union Army pension applications filed from Jones County.  During preliminary research, I located nine additional applications filed from other counties.  It seemed possible that by reversing the focus and examining all 1st and 2nd New Orleans records, perhaps another 30 or 40 names might be revealed.  But this proved to be a sizable miscalculation.  The records yielded the names of 206 Mississippians who enlisted in these regiments between November of 1863 and November of 1864.  Out of this total, 201 (97.6%) can be identified as inhabitants of the Piney Woods region (see note 1).

The names in the accompanying tables were ascertained by several methods: first, a table was created of all enlistees who reported Mississippi nativity.  It should be emphasized that enlistment documents recorded the birthplace of the recruit, not his pre-war residence.  Therefore, an attempt was made to crosscheck names against the federal censuses of 1850 and 1860.  It was not possible to establish matches in all cases, but the effort revealed the first evidence of kinship ties mirroring those explored by Victoria Bynum in Free State of Jones:  Mississippi’s Longest Civil War.  Of the 178 men whose military records identified them as native Mississippians, 170 reported Piney Woods nativity and census records indicate three others had apparently settled in the region by 1860.  These individuals are listed in Table 1 (see note 2).

To identify enlistees from Mississippi who had been born elsewhere, or whose files lacked nativity information, required delving deeper into census records.  Nearly all the military files recorded the date and location of enlistment.  It became evident early in the study that a large majority of Mississippians (84%) enlisted at Fort Pike, whereas other enlistees more typically joined at the New Orleans recruiting depot.  Therefore, census crosschecks were done on all men who enlisted at Fort Pike between January and August of 1864 using name, age, and state of birth.  This method identified men born in other states, but who later settled in the Piney Woods.  An example is John W. Axton, a 28 year-old farmer who enrolled at Fort Pike on March 25, 1864.  His enlistment papers state he was born in Morgan County, Alabama.  Census research shows that by 1850 his family had moved to Lauderdale County, Mississippi.  In 1860 he is found residing in Perry County with a wife and infant son.

Enlistment doc. of John W. Axton, who resided in Perry Co., MS in 1860, joined the 1st N.O. Infantry on 25 Mar. 1864, and died the following October.

About one-third of the regimental files are missing nativity information.   Still, the names and ages of those who enlisted at Fort Pike from January to August of 1864 provided some basis for crosschecking against 1850-1870 federal censuses of Mississippi.  In practice this method was less capricious than it may sound.   Common names that yielded too many possible candidates were excluded.   Of the names included, 70% can be verified through later pension applications.  Table 2 lists the 25 Mississippi recruits ascertained by these methods, along with census identification.  All lived within the Piney Woods region.

To determine if reliance on enlistment at Fort Pike as an indicator had been too exclusionary, a further check was made.  This focused on 63 men, all with records lacking nativity information, who enrolled between January and August 1864 at locations other than Fort Pike.  Among this group, only one emerged as a possible Piney Woods resident.

Fifty-one of the Mississippians identified on the 1st New Orleans rolls were initially assigned to the 2nd New Orleans.  As mentioned, this unit was disbanded in August 1864 and the men transferred to the 1st New Orleans.  However, the 2nd New Orleans records proved useful in establishing nativity for several men whose birth information was missing in the 1st New Orleans files.  Only three Piney Woods men appear in the 2nd New Orleans files but not subsequently on the 1st New Orleans rolls.  Their names are listed in Table 3, but they were excluded from all analysis pertained to the 1st New Orleans Piney Woods enlistees.

Finally, Table 4 lists other men who reported southern or even Mississippi nativity, but who are currently excluded from the count due to lack of supporting evidence.  While most probably resided in neighboring states, a few may be candidates for inclusion pending further research.  For example, Benjamin B. Patricks joined the 1st New Orleans at Fort Pike on March 25, 1864, stating he was 45 years-old.  Also attempting to enlist that same day was Edward Patricks, who claimed to be 17.  Both reporting being natives of Orangeville, South Carolina.  While Edward was rejected as underage, Benjamin was accepted and served until his desertion after the war.  The 1860 census of Jones County listed Richard Patrick, age 45, and a son named Edward, age 12—both natives of South Carolina.  Did Richard adopt “Benjamin B. Patricks” as a nom de guerre and if so why?  He later successfully applied for a pension and his file may provide an answer.

It should be kept in mind that the 206 men thus far identified formed a distinct minority among all those from their region who served during the Civil War.  Many others remained within the Confederate ranks, however faithfully or begrudgingly.  But the current research suggests that dissenters were more numerous and diffuse than previously thought.  While some might have harbored Unionist sympathies from the outset of the war, most probably developed growing resentment towards Confederate authority as the war dragged on.  The campaigns by Col. Henry Maury and Col. Robert Lowry in the spring of 1864, aimed at forcing them back into southern service, instead provoked a final severing of loyalties.

There is surprisingly little overlap between the men listed on the Newt Knight rosters and those who joined the Union regiments.  Of the 99 names associated with the Knight Band, only ten appear on the rolls of the 1st New Orleans.  In the years following the war, Newt Knight stated that he periodically revised his roster to eliminate men whom he felt had not maintained a proper Unionist stance.  Perhaps so, but given his efforts to obtain federal compensation for himself and his men, Knight may have also culled those he knew to be eligible for pensions based on their service in New Orleans.  This would help explain why over two dozen names on Union pension applications filed from Jones County are absent from Knight Band rosters (see note 3).

If Newt Knight chose to rewrite history according to his own dictates, he was neither the first nor the last to do so.   But the re-discovery of these 206 names provides testimony that opposition to Confederate authority in the Piney Woods extended well beyond the ranks of the Knight Band and far outside the boundaries of Jones County.  Newt Knight can be accurately credited with organizing the largest band of renegades in the region; however, it seems increasingly counterfactual to portray him as the sole prophet of Piney Woods dissent.

I believe that the list of names is substantially complete.  As noted, I am working to clarify the status of several other recruits, but possible additions are likely to number less than a dozen.  It seems worth noting that, even at the present count, the Piney Woods enlistees account for nearly 15% of all 1st New Orleans Infantry recruits.

In future posts in this series I will discuss some of the general characteristics of the enlistees, compare their performance as soldiers with others in the 1st New Orleans, and delve into some of the many individual and family stories that are coming to light.  I hope that by sharing the names of these Union enlistees, more descendants may come forth to share family lore and possibly documents which will help us to better understand this little known but intriguing chapter of Civil War history in the Deep South.

Note 1:  There are differing definitions of the area that comprises the Mississippi Piney Woods.  For purpose of this study, I included all Mississippi counties traversed by or south of a line from Vicksburg to Meridian, with the exception of those directly bordering the Mississippi River (Adams, Claiborne, Jefferson, Warren, and Wilkinson).  This encompasses 23 counties:  Amite, Clarke, Copiah, Covington, Franklin, Greene, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, Jackson, Jasper, Jones, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Marion, Newton, Perry, Pike, Rankin, Scott, Simpson, Smith, and Wayne.

Note 2:  As a general rule, enlistees reporting Mississippi nativity but found to be residing outside the state on pre-war censuses were excluded from the list.  Exceptions were made in three cases, all owing to kinship ties with other enlistees.  In the first case, the family of Ellis Bounds moved to St Helena Parish, Louisiana shortly before the 1860 census. Ellis was related to several other Bounds men who enlisted.  The other two cases involved brothers Martin Van Buren Parker and Thomas Jefferson Parker.  Their family moved from Jones County, Mississippi to Washington County, Alabama (across the state line from Wayne County, Mississippi) in the late 1840s.  The censuses of 1850 and 1860 show them residing there.  However, they were cousins of several other Parkers who enlisted in New Orleans and Martin Parker resettled in Jones County after the war (his brother Thomas died while serving in the 1st New Orleans).

Note 3:  The figure of 99 names associated with the Knight Band comes from my cross-compilation of three rosters:  1) The 1870 roster Newt Knight submitted as part of his claim for federal compensation, 2) the roster included in Thomas J. Knight’s Life and Activities of Captain Newton Knight (p 16-17), and 3) the roster published in Ethel Knight’s Echo of the Black Horn (p 89-89, 161).

TABLE 1:  1st New Orleans enlistees with Mississippi nativity recorded in their military files (refer to Note 2).

					Died
Name	Enlisted	Co	Age	Birth Co	CW
Elias A. Allen	05/19/1864	E	34	Perry
Willey Allen	05/19/1864	E	30	Lawrence
Elisha Anderson	05/23/1864	G	31	Perry	X
John Anderson	05/23/1864	G	29	Perry
James W. Arnold	06/11/1864	H	20	Jackson
Nora Belland	02/20/1864	F	20	Jackson
Harro Bellman	11/04/1864	I	18	Jackson
James O. Bennett	07/02/1864	H	22	Jasper
Henry Bond	06/24/1864	H	24	Harrison
William Boon	05/29/1864	H	19	Marion	X
Addison Bounds	03/30/1864	D	21	Marion
Daniel W. Bounds	06/24/1864	H	24	Perry
Ellis Bounds	05/23/1864	G	20	Perry	X
James Bounds	03/30/1864	D	23	Marion
John Bounds	04/21/1864	G	20	Hancock	X
Richard D. Bounds	03/25/1864	D	20	Jasper
William Bounds	04/21/1864	I	28	Hancock
William P. Boutwell	06/15/1864	I	18	Pike
James F. Braddy	06/21/1864	E	26	Jones
William Braddy	05/29/1864	H	20	Covington
Daniel Breland	05/19/1864	E	34	Perry
Meridy Broome	05/19/1864	E	27	Covington
John R. Burge	04/28/1864	E	19	Hancock
Prentice Bynum	05/26/1864	E	18	Jones
Joseph Byrd	12/23/1863	F	30	Jasper
Thomas Cameron	05/29/1864	H	19	Marion
James Clark	03/25/1864	C	19	Perry	X
Joel T. Clark	05/15/1864	H	20	Perry
Newton R. Clearman	04/18/1864	D	24	Newton
Riley J. Collins	04/30/1864	E	37	Jones	X
Isaac Cook	03/30/1864	D	19	Newton
Wylie C. Courtney	05/22/1864	G	24	Smith
Jacob Cox	04/18/1864	D	38	Jones
Elisha Crane	07/05/1864	H	19	Rankin	X
Rankin Crane	07/05/1864	H	18	Rankin
Charles J. Cuevas	02/02/1864	F	21	Harrison
John Culpepper	03/25/1864	D	18	Jones
Jessie Cunningham	05/19/1864	E	37	Jasper	X
William Dailey	04/28/1864	E	23	Wayne	X
Able Davis	05/26/1864	E	30	Jones
George W. Davis	05/23/1864	H	20	Perry	X
Henry F. Davis	06/29/1864	H	22	Copiah
James A. Davis	05/23/1864	G	23	Perry	X
Leroy T. Davis	05/03/1864	G	23	Harrison
James Dearman	05/29/1864	#	26	Perry
Allen DeBose	06/24/1864	H	23	Jefferson *	X
Riley DeBose	08/23/1864	H	30	Perry	X
Andrew Dement	04/19/1864	D	26	Jones	X
Hansford Dossett	03/25/1864	D	23	Jones
James A. Dossett	05/22/1864	G	24	Jones
Johnson Ellis	03/14/1864	A	36	Lowndes *	X
Marion H. Ellis	02/23/1864	C	18	Lauderdale
Asa B. Esterling	04/30/1864	E	21	Perry
William J. Finney	12/29/1863	C	32	Pike	X
Jessie T. Ford	06/11/1864	I	18	Perry
John Fortinbery	05/21/1864	E	24	Marion
Eugene Garcia	02/02/1864	F	16	Hancock
James Grantham	06/24/1864	H	24	Perry	X
Jesse R. Grice	04/18/1864	D	31	Rankin
John W. Gummell	06/15/1864	H	20	Harrison
Rutilles Harold	04/21/1864	G	25	Jasper
Jordan Harrington	04/28/1864	E	20	Jones	X
William J. Hatley	04/15/1864	G	25	Lawrence
Jeremiah Henley	05/19/1864	E	38	Hancock
Samuel D. Herron	06/25/1864	H	31	Marion
John Hester	06/14/1864	H	20	Harrison
John Hickman	06/14/1864	G	20	Harrison
William Hickman	05/03/1864	G	21	Harrison
George Hogan	05/03/1864	G	20	Jasper
John Holder	05/26/1864	E	18	Jasper
Brasille Holliman	05/12/1864	E	18	Perry	X
James Holliman	05/12/1864	E	18	Perry	X
Oliver Holliman	05/12/1864	E	26	Smith
Thomas Holliman	03/25/1864	D	33	Perry	X
William Holyfield	05/26/1864	E	24	Jones
Alexander Inman	06/20/1864	K	25	Clarke	X
Stephen Jenkins	03/25/1864	D	23	Wayne
Thomas Johnston	05/15/1864	E	24	Jones	X
William Jones	03/25/1864	D	32	Marion
William Knight	04/28/1864	E	24	Jones
Henry Landrum	03/25/1864	D	18	Jones
John Landrum	03/25/1864	D	19	Jones	X
Thomas Landrum	03/25/1864	D	43	Jones
William P. Landrum	03/25/1864	D	28	Jones
Nathaniel Lathiner	07/10/1864	H	18	Hancock
James W. Lee	04/13/1864	D	29	Wayne	X
Uriah Lee	05/03/1864	G	20	Marion
Ezekial Loftin	05/26/1864	E	23	Lauderdale
Thomas Loftin	05/26/1864	E	18	Jasper
Rutilles Loper	04/23/1864	G	32	Jones
Francis M. Lott	06/14/1864	H	20	Harrison
Bailey Martin	05/21/1864	E	18	Attala *	X
Caleb Martin	05/27/1864	H	34	Perry	X
Loth McArther	03/05/1864	H	18	Hancock
Enoch E. McFadden	11/18/1863	A	30	Hancock
James W. McFadden	11/18/1863	A	17	Hancock	X
Daniel McInnis	03/25/1864	D	19	Greene
George T. Mitchell	06/29/1864	K	21	Hancock
Mark W. Mitchell	03/30/1864	D	27	Clarke
John P. Myrick	04/21/1864	G	20	Jasper
William C. Nelson	07/05/1864	H	41	Lowndes *
John J. Newell	05/12/1864	E	26	Perry
Jacob Nicholson	04/28/1864	E	25	Hancock	X
General D. O Neal	07/08/1864	H	39	Perry
William Oadum	04/30/1864	E	18	Perry	X
Hezekiah Page	05/26/1864	G	22	Jones
Louis Page	05/26/1865	G	20	Jones
Robert Page	05/20/1864	G	24	Jones
John W. Parker	05/26/1864	E	23	Newton
Little B. Parker	07/13/1864	H	19	Jasper
Marion Parker	12/20/1863	F	27	Jasper	X
Obediah Parker	12/20/1863	F	40	Wayne
Pearson Parker	05/19/1864	E	34	Coahoma *
Thomas J. Parker	05/14/1864	B	19	Clarke	X
Elisha Perkins	07/08/1864	H	22	Perry
Daniel Pitts	03/25/1864	D	19	Jones
Elias Polk	03/25/1864	C	23	Marion
Calvin Raburn	05/21/1864	E	29	Covington
Thomas Redman	05/25/1864	G	20	Jasper
John W. Rester	06/14/1864	#	20	Marion
Ashberry Reynolds	05/12/1864	E	19	Perry
Charles Roberts	05/21/1864	H	19	Lawrence
Joseph Rowell	06/25/1864	#	25	Marion
William Rowell	06/25/1864	#	33	Marion
Samuel Sanders	05/26/1864	E	30	Jasper
Randolph Saucier	05/26/1864	G	21	Harrison	X
Anthony Seals	05/19/1864	#	18	Hancock
Thomas Shivers	06/25/1864	K	22	Marion
Martin V. Shows	03/25/1864	D	22	Jones
Jesse Slade	05/29/1864	B	19	Marion	X
Samuel Slade	05/29/1864	H	27	Marion
Andy Smith	04/19/1864	D	19	Clarke
Asbery Smith	03/25/1864	D	18	Clarke
Ira Smith	04/19/1864	D	18	Clarke
James Smith	05/12/1864	E	23	Perry
John L. Smith	06/20/1864	H	22	Harrison	X
Thomas R. Smith	05/26/1864	G	21	Harrison
William Spradley	06/14/1864	#	22	Simpson
Joshua Stafford	05/27/1864	#	26	Perry
William Steavenson	03/25/1864	D	19	Wayne	X
Alvin Sumrall	06/11/1864	F	29	Perry	X
Daniel Sumrall	06/11/1864	H	19	Perry
James Sumrall	03/25/1864	C	23	Perry
James Taylor	06/15/1864	H	29	Monroe *
Jones R. Temple	06/25/1864	K	33	Marion
Henry Thomas	05/29/1864	#	28	Perry
William M. Thompson	11/11/1864	I	18	Marion
Joseph Tillman	07/13/1864	H	20	Jasper
Seaborn Tisdale	04/30/1864	E	23	Perry
James Truss	03/25/1864	C	19	Jones
Dreyden Tucker	03/25/1864	D	19	Jones
James Tucker	05/15/1864	E	18	Jones
John Tucker	05/15/1864	E	36	Jones	X
Martin Tucker	05/15/1864	E	23	Jones
John Underwood	05/18/1864	E	30	Covington	X
Robert Underwood	05/19/1864	E	35	Warren *
Andrew Walker	12/24/1863	B	37	Warren *
Albert Walters	04/28/1864	E	38	Jones
Archy Walters	05/15/1864	E	19	Jones	X
Drury Walters	05/15/1864	E	25	Jones	X
Joel W. Walters	03/25/1864	D	26	Jones
Hanson A. Walters	05/24/1864	G	27	Jones
Marada M. Walters	05/15/1864	E	23	Jones	X
Richard Walters	05/15/1864	E	22	Jones
James P. Watts	07/02/1864	H	21	Covington
Frank Weatherbee	05/29/1864	H	26	Lawrence	X
Richard T. Welch	04/28/1864	E	21	Jones
Elijah Wilborn	04/30/1864	E	20	Smith
Tolbert F. Wilborn	05/26/1864	E	20	Jasper	X
William Wilborn	05/26/1864	E	32	Jasper
James Williams	04/21/1864	G	23	Marion	X
John Williams	07/02/1864	H	21	Jones
Joshua G. Williams	05/04/1864	G	26	Perry	X
Thomas Williams	05/03/1864	G	22	Perry
Frank Wilson	07/20/1864	H	28	Lawrence
John Worden	03/30/1864	D	19	Marion
Benjamin F. Young	05/23/1864	G	21	Jackson
Thomas Young	05/14/1864	G	20	Jones	X

A pound sign (#) in the regimental company (“Co”) column on this and subsequent tables indicates the enlistee failed to report for muster and therefore was never assigned to a company.

An asterick (*) appearing after the nativity county indicates that it is located outside the Piney Woods region.  The 1860 census records suggest that Bailey Martin, James Taylor, and Andrew Walker had relocated to the Piney Woods.

TABLE 2:  1st New Orleans enlistees with Mississippi residency established through cross-checks of the 1850, 1860, and 1870 federal census records.

				Census		Died
Name	Enlisted	Co	Age	Year	County	CW
John Adams	03/25/1864	D	19	1860	Jones
John W. Axton	03/25/1864	D	28	1860	Perry	X
Irvin E. Elzey	04/28/1864	E	43	1860	Jones
William Ford	06/11/1864	K	43	1860	Jasper	X
Hamilton Haden	03/25/1864	D	24	1860	Clarke
John M. Jones	04/30/1864	E	19	1860	Jones
Willis B. Jones	04/30/1864	E	21	1860	Jones
Augustus Lambert	03/25/1864	D	25	1860	Jones	X
Blakely Lambert	03/25/1864	D	32	1860	Jasper	X
James C. Law	05/05/1864	E	26	1860	Jones	X
William Martin	05/26/1864	H	40	1860	Perry	X
William Mauldin	04/30/1864	E	27	1860	Jones	X
David McBride	03/25/1864	D	45	1860	Jones	X
William McBride	03/25/1864	D	18	1860	Jones	X
Robert McIntire	11/06/1863	C	35	1850	Smith
Lorenzo D. Nobles	03/14/1864	C	33	1860	Jackson
Martin Parker	12/20/1863	F	28	1870	Jones
Eli Rushing	05/23/1864	G	23	1850	Jones
James L. Seals	04/28/1864	D	27	1850	Hancock
Robert Spencer	05/03/1864	G	22	1850	Clarke
James Swilley	06/20/1864	K	37	1870	Harrison
Henry F. Taylor	04/30/1864	E	19	1860	Perry
Pleasant P. Terry	04/18/1864	D	34	1860	Newton
William J. Tippet	03/14/1864	C	44	1860	Smith
Aaron T. Wilborn	05/23/1864	G	27	1860	Jones

TABLE 3: 2nd New Orleans enlistees with Mississippi nativity who did not subsequently appear on the 1st New Orleans rolls.

					Died
Name	Enlisted	Co	Age	Birth Co	CW
Elijah G. Brown	05/23/1864	B	31	Perry
James R. Davis	05/22/1864	B	29	Perry	X
Thommas Simons	05/23/1864	B	22	Perry

TABLE 4:  Other 1st New Orleans enlistees who reported southern nativity, but for whom evidence of later Mississippi residency is currently lacking.

Name	Enlisted	Co	Age	Birth Co / State
John A. Allen	01/23/1864	A	20	Franklin, AL
Josiah A. Allen	06/13/1864	H	32	Columbus, MS
Thomas  Bonner	03/30/1864	D	19	Monroe Co, AL
William Cameron	05/29/1864	#	na	(Not listed)
John  Cody	03/30/1864	C	25	Mobile, AL
John  Cotton	07/05/1864	#	18	Mobile, AL
John A. Graham	03/25/1864	D	20	Butler, AL
William  Graham	04/30/1864	H	18	Montgomery, AL
John W. Haley	04/17/1864	D	19	Pike, AL
David D. Hanscum	06/06/1864	#	na	Natchez, MS
William  Hull	02/18/1864	C	26	Augusta, GA
Joseph  Kelly	04/12/1864	D	23	Carroll Co, TN
Thomas  Kelly	02/23/1865	E	19	Natchez, MS
John Martin	05/02/1864	G	20	(Not listed)
John P. Moseley	02/23/1864	A	24	Butler Co, AL
Frank  Nata	10/09/1863	B	20	Biloxi, MS
Edward  Patricks	03/25/1864	#	17	Orangeville, SC
Benjamin B. Patricks	03/25/1864	D	45	Orangeville, SC
Warner B. Pittman	03/25/1864	E	47	Washington, GA
William  Pittman	03/25/1864	E	17	Washington, GA
Stephen H. Tourne	04/17/1864	D	19	Macon Co, AL
William  Wasdon	03/12/1864	C	23	Jefferson Co, GA
John H. Watson	04/27/1864	E	20	Perry Co, AL
Jucalion  Wedgeworth	07/08/1864	H	20	Green Co, AL
Jacob W. White	03/25/1864	D	34	Steward Co, Ga
Pleasant L. Williams	04/14/1864	G	28	Hinds Co, MS
William J. Williams	03/11/1864	G	20	(Not listed)

Read Full Post »

Searching your ancestors’ Civil War records? You never know what you might find!

Note from moderator: Some time ago, before my move to Missouri temporarily engulfed my life, I had an interesting set of exchanges with Shelby Harriel, who had posted a comment beneath Ed Payne’s post, “Jasper Collins and the Ellisville Patriot.” After conducting extensive research on her family,  Shelby was astonished to discover that several of her Mississippi ancestors had fought for the Union during the Civil War. “Being a Southerner to my very soul, it’s been difficult to understand and accept,” she wrote. Determined, however, to understand rather than dismiss (or hide) her kinfolk, she quickly realized that the Civil War South was anything but unified over secession from the Union.  In email messages to Ed and me, she further digressed on her fascinating journey into the past. With her permission, I am publishing her letter describing what she learned about the Civil War service of her Smith, Harriel, and Bounds ancestors.

Vikki Bynum

First of all, this all started when my paw paw’s first cousin, Mr. Hollis Smith, began sharing with me the history of our families.  He was born in 1915 and actually remembered talking to his Civil War relatives.  When asked why they fought for the Union, he looked at me as if I were crazy and replied, “They didn’t believe the Union should be dissolved!”  He provided me with a copy of the picture I have attached.  Sadly, Mr. Hollis passed away in September at the age of 95.

From left to right:  Telfair (Mr. Hollis’ grandfather), Thomas R., Nimrod “Peter” (standing), John Lampkin, and Sherrod Smith.

I have the service and pension records for all of these men.  I have service records for a Sherrod Smith of the 17th Battalion Cavalry but am not sure if the soldier was the man in the picture or their first cousin, also named Sherrod.

Thomas rose to the rank of sergeant in Co. G, 1st New Orleans Infantry (Union). He was 5’8″ with light colored hair and green eyes and was 21 when he enlisted.  I have found a T.R. Smith of Co. B, 7th Battalion MS Infantry from Jackson County which is next to Harrison County where the Smiths were from at the time, so I have assumed this is “my” Thomas R. Smith.  His enlistment is given as April, 1862 but his record states “absent without leave having never reported.  Nor correctly reported….should be marked deserted.”

John Lampkin was 22 when he enlisted in the same regiment, Co. H. He was 5’11″ with black hair and blue eyes. He died in a hospital in Carrollton  of small pox in January, 1865. There is a rumor that he wasn’t actually the soldier that died of small pox in the hospital but switched identities with another soldier and went on to be a professional gambler in New Orleans when he was shot in the back and killed over a game of cards. For some reason, I don’t feel that is true.   There appears a John L. Smith of Co. B, 7th Battalion MS Infantry with the same information as Thomas’.

Pete is a mystery. When I sent off for his papers, I received records for an “N.J. Smith” of Co. B, 3rd Mississippi Infantry. Those were his initials, and that was a unit raised in this area, but this particular soldier was listed as having been “severely wounded” on July 20, 1864 at Peach Tree Creek and died on July 24, 1864, in a Macon hospital. But Pete survived into his 80′s. Mr. Hollis swore up and down that Pete never served, but yet he applied for a pension in 1924 where he claimed to have enlisted in the 3rd MS Infantry in 1863 (he would have been 16 even though he definitely doesn’t look that young in the picture!). The officers listed on the application are correct, and the pension was granted. Two Confederate headstones were applied for, one for the 4th MS Cavalry. According to the application, he enlisted in 1861 with no discharge date. And then there’s another application for a headstone where the regiment is the 3rd MS. According to this document, he enlisted in October, 1863, and was discharged April 26, 1865. I sent away and received papers for a “Peter Smith” of the 4th MS Cav. But I don’t think this is the same person because this unit was formed in another part of the state. However, it was at Camp Moore, Louisiana, which is about an hour and a half away from here. I suppose he could have served in both. So that leaves the question of the soldier “N.J. Smith” who was killed outside Atlanta. Even though Mr. Hollis said he didn’t fight, he was granted a pension in 1924. At any rate, I’ve concluded that Pete did fight due to the fact that the pension was granted, and his two older brothers fought against him for the Union, one of whom, Thomas of course, signed as a witness on his pension application!

The Smiths had two first cousins, Reuben and Rufus, who served in the 3rd MS Infantry.   Both appear as AWOL at certain times, but they also show up as having been sick.  So it doesn’t appear that they deserted and joined the 1st NO like their cousins.  It seems that Unionist loyalties are connected through family ties.  However, this doesn’t seem to be the case with this branch of my family.

While doing this research, I took a look at the rosters of the Union unit Thomas and John Lampkin joined out of New Orleans. Lo and behold, there appeared the name of one Reutilus Hariel, Jr. in Co. G (The army misspelled my paw paw’s name by putting an extra “r” in it when he went to fight in WWII. He liked it and kept it.). His name was spelled every way imaginable, but that was him, the man of whom I am directly descended. He went with the Smith brothers to New Orleans and joined with them.  Unlike the Smiths, I could not find him in a Confederate unit prior to his enlistment in the 1st NO.  At any rate, after being told my entire life that we had no direct ancestors who fought, I found out three years ago that wasn’t true. After telling Mr. Hollis of my discovery, he just laughed because I think he knew all along but didn’t want to tell me that my direct ancestor fought for the Union. As for my direct family, I think it was known at some point but was covered up over the years until it became forgotten. Reutilus, after all, died in his 40′s.  His father, Reutilus Sr. is another family mystery.  We don’t know where he came from or what happened to him.  He rode off to work on the telegraph lines one day and never came home.  Neither he nor his horse were ever discovered.  We believe he was robbed and murdered because he is rumored to have always ridden the finest horses and wore the finest clothes.

There was another man named William Bounds whose sister married Reutilus Jr. While looking for his Confederate records, I kept coming up empty. Later, I found his name with those of the Smith brothers and Reutilus. Now it made sense why his headstone wasn’t pointed. He wasn’t a Confederate. He was in Co. I of the 1st NO and was listed as a deserter as of Jan. 13, 1866.  He was cleared of the charge in 1886.

Thomas, Reutilus, and William are all buried together in a cemetery about five miles from where I live. It’s kind of funny because they’re buried in the middle of the little cemetery while everybody else is buried along the fence row and away from them. I wonder if that’s on purpose. At any rate, according to Mr. Hollis, the Smith’s mother made it known she did not want to be buried near her Yankee son, and she’s not. She’s buried in another cemetery a couple of miles away, along with Pete, her Confederate son.  I don’t know where, exactly, in New Orleans John Lampkin is buried.

After doing more research on William Bounds, I have found out that he is the son of John E. Bounds and Nancy Sumrall.  Rumor has it that John was harboring Confederate deserters and run out of the county because of it.

I have discovered that William had two brothers who joined the 1st NO with him:  James and Addison, both of whom were 6’3″! James had red hair and black eyes. I hope I can find a picture of him one day. Addison had light colored hair and blue eyes. William was just under six feet with red hair and green eyes.

Addison made corporal.  As a part of the provost, he was detailed to escort prisoners to Fort Jefferson in the Tortugas, beginning in February, 1866. I read where most prisoners there were Union deserters. Talk about irony…..my Southern-born ancestor fighting with a Union unit based in New Orleans and guarding Yankee deserters.   Addison himself appears to be a Confederate deserter as I found an “A. Bounds” of Co. B, 17th Battalion Cavalry from Harrison County.  He was enrolled in April, 1862 and listed as present.  However, that’s where the records for that particular unit end for him.

In addition to housing Yankee deserters, Fort Jefferson was also the prison where Dr. Samuel Mudd was sent. He was there the same time as Addison.

I could not find a Confederate unit for James unless I overlooked something.

These Bounds had first cousins, Richard and John Clark Bounds of Jasper County, who were in Co. K, 37th MS Infantry.   They were the sons of Addison Bounds, brother of John E.  Richard was wounded in 1862 and sent to a hospital in Holly Springs.  He was paroled after Vicksburg and then was listed as AWOL February 9th, 1864.   I don’t have his 1st NO records yet, but they’re on the way.  John was on detached service and missed out on the whole Vicksburg experience.  His records show he was paroled at Meridian in May, 1865.   So why did he choose to remain loyal to the Confederacy instead of deserting and joining the 1st NO like his brother?  I wonder if he knew that Richard had deserted and joined the Union.

I have in my notes a Joseph A. Bounds listed as a brother of Richard and John Clark.  There is a Joseph A. in Co. F, 19th MS who served in Virginia throughout the war, but I don’t think these are the same men.

There were other relatives to the Bounds listed above:

There is a Stephen, Solomon and George Washington Bounds who all served in Co. H, 3rd MS Infantry.  George Washington was discharged due to disability.  Nathaniel Bounds of the 38th MS Cavalry died at a hospital in Okolona in June, 1862.  I could not find any of them in the NO unit.  I have also found a W. S. Bounds whose name is given as Woodward on one of the cards.  He was also in Co. H, 3rd MS and detailed as a teamster in 1863.  His records don’t indicate what happened to him after that year.  There is a D.W. Bounds in the same company.  He is listed as AWOL since November, 1863.   I don’t know who the D.S. is but I have found a Daniel Woodward in my genealogy notes.  There is a D.W. Bounds of the 2nd NO, a unit that failed to organize resulting in soldiers being transferred to the 1st.  And there is a Daniel W. Bound listed in Co. H of the 1st.  Furthermore, there is an Ellis Bounds in Co. G.  I could not find a Confederate unit for him although his father filed for a pension where he listed the 3rd MS as his son’s unit.  In my notes, I have Ellis’ death date as 1864.   There are also John and Henry of Co. G of the 1st NO.  In my notes, I have a John Riley and James Henry listed as brothers of Ellis and that they were twins.  No Confederate unit could be found for them either even though their father, Gillium, (2nd cousin of John E.) was in Co. H, 3rd Battalion MS State Troops.  He is listed as present in August, 1862 but deserted a few months later in January, 1863.  All of these Bounds were from the Coastal area.

I have the Confederate service records for this set of Bounds.  Their Union service records, where applicable, are on the way.

In addition to these Smiths and Bounds, I have a Uriah Lee of Co. G, 1st NO.  I could not find a Confederate unit for him.  His service records are on the way as well.

If it’s one thing you can say it’s that the Bounds family was torn in two.  Speaking of being divided, I have always felt for my great-great-great aunt, Nancy.  She married Elijah Lee whose headstone says he was in the 4th MS Cavalry.  However, I think this was a mistake and that he did not fight at all or maybe in a unit I haven’t discovered yet.  But his brother, Uriah, fought in the 1st NO.  Their first cousin, Eli Lee, however, fought in the 7th Battalion MS Infantry and was paroled after Vicksburg.  So Nancy’s brother and brothers-in-law fought for the Union while her cousin and possibly her husband fought for the Confederacy.  No Confederate unit could be found for Uriah and Eli did not join the 1st NO after paroled.  As a sidenote:  these Lees are third cousins to Robert E. Lee.

This is what I have discovered in my research so far.  I haven’t been able to find much on the 1st NO other than the brief history available on the Internet and have assumed it was more or less a type of home guard unit for the protection of New Orleans from all the guerrilla warfare going on in southwestern Louisiana.

I appreciate you taking the time to read through this.  I’d be interested in learning anything you have to share.  Thank you for your time.

Kindest regards,
Shelby Harriel

Read Full Post »

Part 2: Ed Payne on Jones County Civil War Widows

Martha Rushing Walters Sumrall

by Ed Payne

The life of Civil War widow Martha Rushing Walters Sumrall was short.  Born in 1844, she would be laid to rest in a now forgotten Texas grave in the mid-1870s.  It might well have been otherwise.  When she married George Warren Walters in late 1860, the event seemed a promising union between the offspring of two of the more prominent families in the area:  the Powell and Walters lines.  In the Piney Woods ‘prominent’ did not equate to ‘wealthy’ in any sense that the term would have been understood in, say, Natchez.  But both families had risen to the upper rungs of the yeoman-farmer society of Jones County.

Martha was the grand-daughter of John Hathorn Powell, who was born in Edgefield County, South Carolina, in 1800.  By 1819 he had moved to central Georgia, a way station for many who would eventually settle in the Mississippi Piney Woods.  There he married and continued to live until 1843, when he resettled in Jones County.  He served as post master for three years before moving to the Gulf Coast.  But after several years he returned to Jones County, where he remained until events forced him to leave the state.

Martha’s husband was a member of the large Jones County Walters clan.  Originating with the arrival of four males from South Carolina into the Piney Woods in the early 1800s, it had expanded by 1860 to 125 individuals in 21 households.   One of the four progenitors was Willoughby Walters.  His son, George Willoughby Walters, had married Sarah Collins in 1830.  The couple prospered for two decades, to the extent that by 1850 their livestock holdings and agricultural yields were among the largest in the county.  This even though George Willoughby, like the majority of those in the Walters and Collins lines, did not own slaves.  But during an 1853 epidemic, George Willoughby Walters and three of the six children died.  His widow then undertook a brief, disastrous marriage to James Parker.  She abandoned Parker after one year and operated her own farm with her sole surviving son, George Warren, and hired men.  When faced with the prospect of her son’s marriage, Sarah Collins Walters Parker purchased a slave couple as farm laborers.  She thereby entered the small circle of Jones County slave owners that also included John H. Powell.

Like her new husband, Martha Rushing Walters had experienced the childhood loss of her father.  Her mother was Samantha Powell, born in Georgia in 1824, who married Joel Eli Rushing there around 1840.  Based on the birth states listed for their children, the couple remained in Georgia until sometime after 1846.  They then followed the trail of Samantha’s father to Jones County.  By the time of the 1850 census, however, Joel had died and left Samantha as the head of household with five children ranging in age from one to ten years old.  The middle child was Martha, age six.

Within two years Samantha had embarked on a new marriage.  And, compared to the second marriage of George Warren’s mother Sarah, this one proved more successful.  Samantha wed widower Marton W. Owens around 1852 and the couple started a second family.  Three of her unmarried daughters by Joel Rushing moved in with their grandfather, John H. Powell, with whom they were recorded living on the 1860 census. A short time after the October census enumeration, Martha Rushing married George Warren Walters. She had just turned seventeen; he was nineteen.

Although John H. Powell was a minor slave owner—he possessed a female slave and two children—he opposed secession.  When voting was held to elect delegates to the state convention on secession in December of 1860, Powell ran on an anti-secessionist platform and won by 166 to 89 over his secessionist opponent.  Upon his arrival in Jackson, however, he quickly judged that the sentiment for secession was overwhelming.  After siding with his fellow anti-secessionist on two test votes, Powell joined with the majority in the final 84-15 vote for secession—much to the displeasure of those who had elected him.

Once war became a fact in the spring of 1861, the opportunity to test one’s courage in combat which often motivates young men resulted in the formation of several volunteer companies in Jones County.  But most males in the Walters and Collins families were not swept up in this initial wave of enthusiasm.  George Warren and his bride had given birth to a daughter, Isabelle, in February of 1862.* When the Confederate conscription law went into effect that April, however, he had little option but to enlist.  He joined Company K (the Ellisville Invincibles) of the 8^th Mississippi Infantry regiment.  After nine months of service, he returned home for the holidays in late 1862.  This brief stay produced a second child, Warren Vinson Walters, who would be born in August of 1863.

George Warren Walters remained with his unit throughout 1863 and 1864 as it took part in the Battles of Chickamauga and Atlanta.  But he was captured at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, and had the misfortunate to be shipped to Camp Douglas, Illinois.  The grim, protracted nature of the war had provoked increasing brutality on both sides and Camp Douglas mirrored some of the deadly aspects of its Southern counterpart, Andersonville.  Over the winter of 1864-65 Confederate prisoners were inadequately clothed and fed, which resulted in high death rates from exposure and disease.  George Warren Walters arrived in early December, 1864, and was listing as having died of “Genl Debility” on February 6, 1865.  He was buried in a mass grave along with 6,000 others who died at Camp Douglas.

Plaque showing George Warren Walters as among POWs who died at Camp Douglas, Illinois, during the Civil War

Martha’s brother, Eli Franklin Rushing, demonstrates the way in which Jones County Civil War paths could converge and diverge.  Eli was among the early volunteers in the spring of 1861, when he joined Capt. Samuel Prince’s company of the 8^th Mississippi Infantry regiment.  It was the same company, re-designated as Company K, which George Warren Walters would join a year later.  In April of 1862 Eli re-enlisted for two years and was promoted to 3^rd Corporal.  But on February 28, 1864, he deserted and within three months enlisted as a sergeant in the Union 1^st New Orleans Infantry regiment.  He remained with the unit until his discharge in June of 1866.  He moved to Texas in 1869 and died there in 1903.

Excerpt from Eli Rushing’s Union pension file

At war’s end Martha Rushing Walters faced life as a 21-year-old widow with two children.  Her grandfather, who in late 1862 had been appointed to the thankless and hazardous post of Provost Marshall of Jones County, left for Texas before the end of the war.  Her mother Samantha had lost her second husband in the war and was now managing a household with four children, ages nine through fifteen.  The carnage of the war had affected a significant portion of the adult male population.  If widows hoped to remarry and thereby gain some measure of security for themselves and their children, their choice of men was limited.  The men who survived the war unscathed were often those who had been either too old or too young to serve as combatants.  May-December marriages, certainly not unheard of in the antebellum Piney Woods, became much more common in the years following the war.

Martha Rushing Walters was more fortunate than many of the war widows.  Within three years she was able to remarry to Jacob Sumrall.  On the 1870 census, Jacob listed himself as age eighteen.  This implies he was no more than thirteen at the end of the war and probably about sixteen, compared to Martha’s twenty-four, when they wed.  Perhaps trying to minimize this eight-year age difference, Martha deducted two years from her reported census age.  In addition to Martha’s two children by George Warren Walters, the couple had a one-year-old son, Joel.

The background of Jacob Sumrall (Jacob Theodore Sumrall, according to some genealogical accounts) remains something of a mystery, due in part to the frequency with which the members of the Sumrall line bestowed the names Jacob and Elisha.  The most reasonable lineage is that he was the son of an Elisha Sumrall who married Nancy McCary in Wayne County.  This Elisha Sumrall was a son of a Jacob Sumrall born circa 1804 in South Carolina who had married Mary Ann Friday.  Elisha was born in Mississippi around 1831.  Confusing things further is the fact that Elisha’s mother gave birth to a son named Jacob in 1849.  It seems likely that the Jacob Sumrall who married Martha Rushing was the eldest son of Elisha, rather than his uncle of the same name who was only three or four years older.  The 1860 census might have offered support for this hypothesis, but no records have been found for the Elisha Sumrall family.   However, it can be noted that on the 1870 enumeration Elisha’s widow, who had remarried to Moses Holyfield, was listed with four Sumrall sons just seven households down from the farm of Jacob and Martha.

Shortly after the 1870 census, Jacob loaded up his family and set out for Texas.  They settled in Kaufman County, southeast of Dallas.  It was less than 70 miles east of the community where Martha’s grandfather and family had settled.  John H. Powell had died in Alvarado, Johnson County, Texas in 1867 but his wife and several other members of the family continued to reside there.  The year before, in 1869, Martha’s brother Eli had moved to Falls County, about 90 miles to the south.  But rather than settling near either of Martha’s relatives, the Sumrall family chose to set up housekeeping in Kaufman County.

Martha gave birth to another son, Eli Theodore, soon after their arrival.  In May of 1873 she gave birth to a daughter, Mary Magdalene.  But within two years, as later census records reveal, Jacob had remarried to Lucy Jane Williams.  It is apparent that Martha Rushing Walters Sumrall, mother of five and Piney Woods Civil War widow, had died of unknown causes.  Efforts to find any information concerning her burial site have thus far been unsuccessful.

Jacob Sumrall with second wife, Lucy, and daughter Martha Elizabeth, about 1898. Courtesy of Timothy Sumrall

The two Walters children who accompanied their mother and step-father to Texas remained there for several years, but by 1880 were back in Mississippi living with their 70-year-old grandmother, Sarah Parker.  Also listed in the household was two year old Carley (Charley) Walters, born in Texas.  He was cited, like Isabelle and Warren, as Sarah’s grandchild, but circumstances suggest he was Isabelle’s son.

Isabelle Walters married James Bush and gave birth to another thirteen children.  The couple did not attempt to obscure the chronology of Charley Bush’s birth.  On the 1900 census they identified themselves as having been married for eighteen years, while Charley’s age was given as twenty-one.  Isabelle Walters Bush died on March 4, 1915 at age fifty-three.  Her brother Warren Vinson Walters married Jessie Hattie Pack in 1890.  They had two children, only one of whom survived to adulthood.  Warren Walters served in various elective posts in Jones County before moving to Hattiesburg, where he died on August 26, 1937 at age seventy-three.

Although the two families of Martha Rushing Walters Sumrall had separated in Texas nearly sixty years before, there is evidence in Warren Walter’s obituary of his continuing bond with his half-sister.  It listed Mrs. W. E. Roundtree of Vera Beach, Florida as his surviving sister.  Mrs. Roundtree’s maiden name was Mary Magdalene Sumrall.

* Note:  On the 1900 census, Isabelle Walters Bush gave her birth month and year as February, 1863.  On the same census Warren Walters gave his birth month and year as August, 1864.   However, their gravestones list 1862 and 1863, respectively, which other circumstances suggest are the more reliable dates.

Eli Theodore Sumrall with wife, Lenora Rountree, and family. Courtesy of Timothy Sumrall.

Read Full Post »