Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: 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 by Morgan W H William Henry
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 1312 lines and 73822 words, and 27 pages
Personal--Organization--Roll of company.
Enter the service--Trouble about arms.
On to Manassas--The 11th Regiment--The 1st Brigade.
Battle of Blackburns Ford--The battle begins--The enemy driven back-- Incidents of the battle.
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.
To Centreville and Fairfax C. H.--Picket close to enemy--Exciting times on picket--Back to Centreville--The fight at Drainesville.
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.
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.
Seven days fights around Richmond--Battle of Gaines' Mill.
Second Manassas and Maryland campaign--Sharpsburg--Back to Virginia--From Winchester to Culpeper--To Fredericksburg.
The battle of Fredericksburg--Kemper's Brigade in reserve--Spectacular scene--Behind Marye's Hill--Sharpshooting--At home; sad loss.
To Richmond, Chester Station and Petersburg--To North Carolina--Back to Virginia at Suffolk--To Taylorsville--On to join General Lee.
Pennsylvania Campaign--Gettysburg--Back to Virginia--General Lee and the army of Northern Virginia.
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.
To Milford and to capture--Prisoner of war--On to Washington--To Fort Delaware.
To Fort Delaware--Short Rations--Song--Prison rules.
Off for Charlestown--Alleged retaliation--On shipboard--Run aground--Short of water--In stockade--Under fire--Prison rules.
To Fort Pulaski--Rotten cornmeal and pickled rations--A plot laid.
Back to Fort Delaware--Disappointment and great suffering--Deaths on ship and burials at sea.
Yankee infamy--Conduct of the war--Sherman's march through Georgia--The dismemberment of Virginia.
Lee's surrender--Lincoln's assassination--Out of prison and at home.
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 , 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.
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.
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.
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.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page