I wish none but those who desire to be actively engaged. COME ON BOYS, IF YOU WANT A HEAP OF FUN AND TO KILL SOME YANKEES.
S.E. Louisiana
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Help the Gordonsville Grays erect a new 14' monument to General Lee on private property in Virginia.
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Shelby Foote as the Angel of Death
By: Chris Mackowski
I’ve been doing some research lately on Shelby Foote and his work on The Civil War: A Narrative. In his correspondence with his friend and fellow writer Walker Percy, Foote provided ongoing updates about his progress on the work, which stretched on for twenty years. “What I have to do is learn everything possible from all possible sources about a certain phase or campaign, then digest it so that it’s clear in my own mind, then reproduce it even clearer than it has been to me until I actually began writing about it,” he explained to Percy.
Early in the process, Foote mentions time and time again how amazed he is by what the war keeps teaching him. Later in the process, he talks about how much he appreciates what it teaches. Throughout, he talks about how difficult yet invigorating the writing process is.
Foote’s admiration for Nathan Bedford Forrest is well documented, so it’s no surprise that he mentions Forrest a lot in his correspondence. Sherman, particularly during the Atlanta campaign and the March to the Sea, gets a lot of attention, as does Grant (although less than Sherman). Foote frequently mentions Lee, too, and Jefferson Davis, who serve as a hero/antihero for the entire three-volume narrative—a literary conceit that makes everything come together for Foote. “I knew the last line from the time I started the book,” Foote told the Paris Review in a 1999 interview: “‘Tell the world that I only loved America,’ he said,” referring to Davis.
On the correspondence with Percy, Foote had a particular affinity for mentioning personal calamities that he happened to be working on at the time. He articulated those calamities with the same turn of a phrase that marked his more formal writing. I thought I’d share a few of my favorites, which come from The Correspondence of Shelby Foote & Walker Percy, Jay Tolson, editor (New York: W.W Norton & Co., 1997):
On Sept. 8, 1960:
By the end of the month I expect to have killed Stonewall Jackson dead as a mackerel; which makes an excellent stopping-place before I tackle the complexities of the Gettysburg Campaign. (122)
On Jan. 19, 1970:
[N]ow am finally back on pulse, crossing the Chattahoochee with Sherman and getting ready to send a bullet straight up James Birdseye McPherson’s ass. A good lodgment. . . . (139)
On Jan. 26, 1973:
For the past two months I’ve been deep into a Lincoln thing. . . . I got him back to Washington yesterday (Lincoln I mean) with five days left between Sunday and his Good Friday appointment with Booth’s derringer. He gets a wire that Sunday night from Grant: Lee kaput. . . . (169)
On May 13, 1973:
Lincoln about to get shot. First was Old John Brown; now there’s J.W. Booth—two madmen, one to start it, another to wind it up. Then Davis: Lucifer in Starlight. (174) [“Lucifer in Starlight” was the name of his last chapter, referencing Davis]
HBD to Lunsford Lindsay Lomax (November 4, 1835 – May 28, 1913.)
Biography
Born in Newport, Rhode Island, the son of a Virginia-born ordnance officer Mann P. Lomax, Lunsford Lomax was appointed "at-large" to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating in 1856 with classmate and friend Fitzhugh Lee. Assigned to the prestigious 2nd Cavalry regiment, Lomax fought on the frontier and served in Bleeding Kansas during the years immediately preceding the conflict, Lomax resigned from the army in April 1861, and shortly thereafter accepted a captain's commission in Virginia state militia and was assigned to Joseph E. Johnston's staff as assistant adjutant general. Lomax later served as inspector general for Benjamin McCulloch, becoming lieutenant colonel before transferring back to the Eastern Theater.
Appointed colonel of the 11th Virginia Cavalry in time for the Gettysburg campaign, Lomax was promoted to brigadier general in the aftermath of the battle. Lomax fought his brigade under the division command of his old classmate Fitzhugh Lee from Culpeper Courthouse through the Wilderness and around Petersburg until promoted to major general in August 1864 when he was assigned to Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley. After escaping capture at the Battle of Woodstock, Lomax was given command of the Valley District. When Richmond was evacuated, Lomax tried to join forces John Echols's force at Lynchburg, Virginia, but unable to do so, Lomax finally surrendered with Joe Johnston in North Carolina.
Lesser known is Lomax's role in the formation of the partisan units that fought in Northern Virginia during the latter part of the War. In a statement made to Caroline Harper Long shortly before his death, published in the Baltimore Sun in 1920 by Beth Rhoades, entitled "Gray Ghost of the Confederacy," Mosby writes:
General Lomax was with McCulloch in West Tennessee and after McCulloch was killed he was with Van Dorn. In the Fall of 1862 he was ordered to Richmond on a special mission. He was then detailed back to Van Dorn just before Christmas. He was a Lt. Colonel and placed in command of the 11th Virginia Cavalry. When Lomax was in Richmond he learned of his future transfer to Virginia. He had a scout sent up from Tennessee to assess the military information situation and to set up partisan scouts in the valley. Up to that time everything in this area had been disorganized and difussed [sic] and relatively ineffective. Lomax wanted a scouting system identical with the very excellent system which existed in West Tennessee. He picked his men from amongst the scouts in West Tennessee and selected a man by the name of Boyd. He had been a railroad detective and he was among the best they had. He arrived in Richmond several days before Lomax left and Boyd proceeded on to Staunton where he was met by one of Winder's detectives by the name of Turner. Boyd recruited and trained some 35 to 40 men in Rockingham, Shenandoah and Augusta counties and formed them into the Linville Partisan Rangers. He taught them the fine points of scouting, telegraph line tapping, use of blasting powder, and all the other things a good scout needs to know. Boyd was one of Van Dorn's best scouts and did a fine job of setting up the partisans in the Valley.
Lomax had also arranged for me to begin independent operations in Loudon County to the North. I got started about the first of the year. At that time I only had a few men, less than a dozen but we soon expanded and trained the men we had. We never were a large group nor were we designed to be a large fighting force. We had to form up and dissolve into the countryside in a few minutes. Secrecy was our greatest ally. We didn't drill like regulars and we had no permanent camps to provide that camp drudgery so disliked by regulars. We used dinner bells and whistles to signal with and to cause assembly. ...
In June of that year my outfit was designated the 43rd Battalion Partisan Rangers. But..
on his way back to Tennessee Boyd was captured and in fact did not get back to Tennessee before Lomax was transferred to Virginia. In February, after the capture of Boyd became known, the Linville Rangers were put under the command of Jake Cook but they were never officially recognized by the Confederate government and they were never paid. But they were active throughout the valley and they provided good information to Lomax.
So it is clear that part of the opacity that surrounds Lomax's military career is the fact that he was the commanding officer of Mosby and more loosely, the other partisans units in the Valley that brought information to General Lee and others. In fact, Mosby tells Caroline Harper, an acquaintance who had been raised in the same aristocratic circles of Old Virginia, the illegitimate daughter of a prominent politician, that he had not felt he could even give the interview until Lomax's death, in order to protect him, for they were the closest of friends, both during and after the war.[1] After Appomattox, Lomax farmed in Caroline and Fauquier counties for over 20 years, then was appointed president of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1889. Serving for five years, Lomax later became a clerk in the War Department assembling and editing the Official Records of the war and was for a time commissioner of Gettysburg National Park.
Lomax died May 28, 1913 and was buried in Warrenton, Virginia
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The Sweetest Music
General Stonewall Jackson, November 4, 1861
By: Mort Kunstler
On November 4, 1861, newly promoted Major General Jackson said farewell to his Stonewall Brigade as he departed to take command of Confederate defenses in the Shenandoah Valley. Jackson delivered a moving speech to the soldiers, then galloped away to echoes of the Rebel Yell. He would later term the peculiar Confederate battle cry "the sweetest music I have ever heard."
HBD Brigadier General Turner Ashby Jr. (October 23, 1828 – June 6, 1862)
Known as the "Black Knight of the Confederacy", he was the son of Colonel Turner Ashby who served during the War of 1812 and grandson of Captain Jack Ashby from the Revolutionary War. Educated by private tutors and his widowed mother, he grew up on the family farm "Rose Bank." As an adult, he became a successful and wealthy planter and businessman. Already an accomplished horseman, he competed in English style tournements which he rarely lost. In 1857 he raised a company of volunteers with the task of protecting those working on the railroad through the Blue Ridge Mountains at Manassas, Virginia. In 1859 his volunteer cavalry company went to Harper's Ferry during John Brown's raid and remained in Charles Town until after the trail. When the Civil War broke out he was commissioned a Captain in the Confederate Cavalry and returned to Harper's Ferry with his company as "Ashby's Rangers" of 7th Virginia Cavalry. Shortly after arriving in Harper's Ferry, his brother Richard Ashby was killed by a Union patrol along the Potomac River. In June of 1861 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel commanding ten companies and employeed the first use of horse artillery in the war. Early in 1862 he was promoted again to Colonel and then in May of the same year became Brigadier General of the Ashby Brigade under General Stonewall Jackson. President Lincoln once asked of Union General Nathaniel Banks why his 15,000+ troops were held up crossing a creek, Banks responded simply "Ashby is here." During a skirmish with Union infantry on Chestnut Ridge near Harrisonburg, Virginia in June of 1862 he had his horse, "Tom Telegraph," shot out from under him. Continuing to lead his cavalry on foot he was shot through the heart and died instantly. His body was taken to the Frank Kemper House in Port Republic for viewing, which included General Jackson as one of the mourners.
"As a partisan officer I never knew his superior; his daring was proverbial; his powers of endurance almost incredible; his tone of character heroic, and his sagacity almost intuitive in divining the purposes and movements of the enemy." - Jackson
Ashby was buried at the University of Virginia Cemetery, but in October, 1866, his body was reinterred at the Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia next to the body of his younger brother Richard Ashby, who had died at Harpers Ferry in a skirmish with Union soldiers in 1861.
Turner Ashby High School in Bridgewater, Virginia and Ashby Hall at James Madison University are named in Ashby's honor.
"Gen Forrest, I wish to congratulate you and these brave men moving across that field like veteran infantry upon their magnificent behavior. In Virginia I made myself extremely unpopular with the cavalry because I said that, so far, I had not seen a dead man with spurs on. No one can speak disparagingly of such troops as yours." - D.H. Hill to Bedford Forrest
September 20, 1863 - Chickamauga – at United States
HBD to William Miller (August 3, 1820 – August 8, 1909.)
Biography
Miller was born in Ithaca, New York, but moved to Louisiana with his family while still a young child. He attended Louisiana College. He was a veteran of the Mexican-American War, serving in the army of Zachary Taylor and was awarded by the government for his service with 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land in Florida. He studied law, passed his bar exam, and engaged in a private practice in Santa Rosa County. He was engaged in the timber and lumber business in northwest Florida prior to the Civil War.
Miller formed a militia unit and was its major. He and his men eventually enlisted in the 1st Florida Infantry and became its first colonel in August 1862. Later that year, he fought at the Battle of Perryville, suffering a minor wound, and the Battle of Stones River, where he was severely wounded. He returned home to Florida to recuperate for several months. He was placed in charge of the Confederate Conscript Bureau for Alabama and South Florida.
On August 2, 1864, Miller was promoted to brigadier general and appointed to organize and coordinate the state's reserve troops as the new commander of the Florida District. He raised and commanded the 1st Florida Reserves, a regiment recruited to help defend the state, as most of the regular Confederate troops were serving elsewhere. His most prominent action came at the Battle of Natural Bridge in March 1865, where he served as the tactical field commander in defeating Union forces under John Newton. His men repelled three separate Union attacks during the 12-hour battle. The battle helped keep the state capital, Tallahassee, under Confederate control. It would prove to be the last state capital east of the Mississippi to remain in Confederate hands.
Miller and his men finally surrendered in Tallahassee in May 1865.
After the war, Miller returned to his timber business and also established a farm. He eventually settled in Port Washington in Walton County, where he became the justice of the peace. Miller served two terms in the Florida House of Representatives and the State Senate.
He was initially buried in Port Washington Cemetery, but in 1922, he and his wife were exhumed and reinterred in St. Johns Cemetery in Pensacola, Florida. – at Luling, LA
HBD to William Duncan Smith (July 28, 1825 – October 4, 1862)
Confederate Army Brigadier General. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1846, was commissioned an officer in the 2nd United States Dragoons. He served in the Mexican-American War, and at the start of the Civil War he resigned his commission and excepted an appointment as a Major in the Confederate 1st Georgia Regular Infantry Regiment. He was promoted Colonel in command of the 20th Georgia Regiment in July, 1861 and was confirmed Brigadier General assigned to the 1st Brigade of the Confederate District of Georgia in the Department of South Carolina and Georgia in March, 1862. During this period, he led a brigade at the Battle of Secessionville and after was then given command of the First District of South Carolina, where served until his death from yellow fever. – at Luling, LA
HBD to Thomas Lanier Clingman (July 27, 1812 – November 3, 1897)
Early life
Clingman was born in Huntsville, a small community in present day Yadkin County, North Carolina. His parents were Jacob and Jane Poindexter Clingman. He was educated by private tutors and in the public schools in Iredell County, NC. Clingman graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1832. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1834 and began practice in Huntsville.
Political career
Clingman was elected to the North Carolina State house of commons in 1835. In 1836 he moved to Asheville, North Carolina. He was a member of the North Carolina State senate in 1840. In 1843 Clingman ran as a Whig and was elected to the 28th United States Congress, however he was defeated in his reelection bid in 1845. In 1845 he fought a duel with a fellow congressman William Lowndes Yancey of Alabama. In Yancey's maiden speech on the House floor, he had impugned his opponent's integrity. Both duelists had missed. In 1847 he regained the seat and won reelection in 1849, 1851, 1853, 1855 and 1857. On May 7, 1858, he resigned after becoming a United States Senator as a Democrat the previous day, replacing the resigning Asa Biggs. He was reelected but was expelled from the Senate for support of the Confederacy.
Civil War
When he first entered the War, Clingman was the commander of the 25th North Carolina Infantry and took part in the Peninsula Campaign. He later commanded a brigade of infantry. Clingman's Brigade consisted of the 8th, 31st, 51st and 61st North Carolina Infantry. Clingman's Brigade fought at Goldsboro, Battery Wagner, Drewry's Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Globe Tavern, Fort Fisher and Bentonville.
Post-war career
After the Civil War, Clingman explored and measured mountains in western North Carolina and Tennessee. Tennessee's highest mountain, also partly in North Carolina, was named Clingman's Dome in his honor.
He died in Morganton, North Carolina and was buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina.
He never married. – at Luling, LA
July 21, 1908 - Scottsville,Virginia
The Confederate Reunion Dinner Committee, consisting of 40 ladies led by Mrs. W. D. Patteson and Chairman Samuel R. Gault,served a bountiful feast to the 128 veterans and a hungry crowd of over 2000 spectators. More than 300 food baskets were donated for the dinner, some of which can be seen on the food-laden tables in this photo. – at Luling, LA
Morgan's first Kentucky raid.
Confederate Colonel John Hunt Morgan Reports of Col. John H. Morgan, Second Kentucky Cavalry (Confederate) commanding expedition. BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS, Tompkinsville, Ky., July 9, 1862. SIR: I have the honor to report that I arrived with my command at the Cumberland River and passed the ford at about 2pm yesterday, 8th instant. My forces consisted of Colonel Hunt's Georgia regiment cavalry, my own regiment, and a squadron of Texas Rangers; we were joined at the river by two companies under Captains Hamilton and McMillin. I received information that the enemy had passed the Cumberland River at Celina the day of my arrival with about 180 men, but did not deem it right to attack that force, as I was aware that a considerable body of cavalry, about 380 or 400 strong, were stationed at this town, and I thought by rapid night march I might succeed in surprising them. I left the river at 10pm on the 8th instant, and at 5am this day I surprised the enemy, and having surrounded them, threw four shells into their camp, and then carried it by a dashing charge. The enemy fled, leaving about 22 dead and 30 to 40 wounded in our hands. We have 30 prisoners and my Texas squadron are still in pursuit of the fugitives. Among the prisoners is Major Jordan, their commander, and two lieutenants. The tents, stores, and camp equipage I have destroyed, but a valuable baggage train, consisting of some 20 wagons and 50 mules is in my possession; also some 40 cavalry horses, and supplies of sugar, coffee, etc. I did not lose a single man in killed, but have to regret that Colonel Hunt, while leading a brilliant charge, received a severe wound in the leg, which prevents his going on with the command. I also had three members of the Texas squadron wounded, but not seriously. Very respectfully, JOHN H. MORGAN, Colonel, Commanding. – at Luling, LA
A Civilian Remembers the Battle of Monocacy
by Ryan Quint
The Battle of Monocacy, fought in 1864 between Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace and Lt. Gen. Jubal Early. Wallace’s badly-outnumbered Federals aligned themselves along the Monocacy River, hoping to hold off the Confederates in a last-ditch effort to slow the gray- and butternut-clad onslaught through Maryland. Fifty miles behind Wallace’s men lay the undefended Washington, D.C.
Beginning early in the morning of July 9, the two sides began to skirmish, the crackle of musketry and booming cannon continuing steadily through the day. As the armies came into contact, the civilians in the area took to basements for cover amidst the coming storm. One of those civilians was 18-year old Mary Addison ‘Mamie’ Tyler, a close friend of Alice Thomas, whose father’s property, the Thomas farm, soon became the epicenter of the battle. In 1913, for the battle’s 49th anniversary, Tyler, then Mrs. Ellicott Fisher, wrote the following letter subsequently printed in the Daily Frederick News on July 9, 1913. It stands as one of the best remembrances of the battle from a civilian’s perspective rather than a soldier’s or officer’s, though, as one might expect, has the dramatics of some 50 years added. Even with some of Mamie Tyler’s questionable additions, I figured the best way to remember the Battle of Monocacy on its 152nd Anniversary was through the thoughts of its 49th:
To Cellar For Shelter
At nine o’clock in the morning of July 9th 1864, Araby, the country seat of Colonel C. Keefer Thomas, where I was visiting his daughter. Alice, was a scene of restful beauty, under a cloudless sky. One hour later the scene had changed. Federal soldiers were assembling from every direction. Colonel Thomas was ordered to seek shelter at once, with his family in the cellar. It is needless to say we were not long obeying the command.
The Rebel line was near enough to be seen, and in a moment pieces of shell were flying too near to be pleasant. The battle had begun and continued six hours. Hours of suspense, anxiety, and at times, terror. There were some amusing episodes during those long hours of confinement. One of those seeking shelter, was an old colored “Mammy” who became quite indignant with the younger inmates for feeling the pangs of hunger. She remarked frequently, “Honeys, say your prayers, dis is no time to eat. Pray de good Lord to deliver us from this dreadful battle.”[1]
You can imagine how strange the sounds outside of those walls. Minie balls slashed the shrubbery, while the larger missiles of war’s fearful instruments twisted huge limbs from the trees, levelled down chimneys, and tore out an angle of the house. One of the Federal officers kindly brought us a bucket of ice water, and we conversed with him upon his ideas of the result of the battle. Of course he expected to drive the Rebels back in a short time, at which we very boldly expressed deep regret, and also requested him to let us have a wounded Confederate, who was lying outside the cellar window, between the fires, inside, with us. This he consented to do, perhaps in consideration of remark made by one of us, “Wouldn’t you rather have a live prisoner than a dead one?”[2]
This wounded man received our most devoted attention, our handkerchiefs were used in bathing the wounds with ice water. To him we were indebted for an explanation of the “Rebel Yell,” having once heard, never to be forgotten. A change came over his despondent face as he shouted, “There’s the cry of victory, raise me up.” A moment later the cellar door was opened by a comrade, who expressed deep sympathy for his condition, and carried him to the sunlight outside. Imagine if you can, the sight that greeted the eye when released from our prison cell. The soft carpet of grass had become the resting place of dead and dying soldiers, a battlefield in variety and truth. One poor soldier, as we passed, begged for a pillow to rest his dying brother’s head upon,.. – at Luling, LA
remarking “I am the last of five brothers, all slain in battle.”
Helping the Wounded
General J.S. B. Gordon was the first to greet us, with the exclamation, “What, women and children here?”[3] To Alice Thomas and myself he said, “Girls you must be brave, and do what you can for these poor men, we have not surgeons enough here.”
.
And we did what we could with loving hands, and eager feet, and when night descended on that camp, the scene was a novel one. All through the dark hours we heard the voices of dying men, some singing, some praying, and a few cursing in their delirium. Outside of our room we found a dead man lying but that was a small matter, at the close of so fearful a day. Excitement and enthusiasm had filled every move with courage and desire to help our cause.
At daylight next morning we arose from a sleepless bed to see what else we could do for our men. The first act was a most solemn one[,] General Gordon was looking for us to attend the burial of two of his staff officers, Colonel Lamar and Major Von Valkenberg.[4] He said it would comfort the families of those men to know that a little band of friends had gathered to witness the performance of so solemn a right. It was an impressive scene, the sun was rising in the east, “giving color to all manimate objects, as only Nature can.” The birds seemed to be chanting a requiem in the grand old tree under which we stood. The spot was selected to mark the graves of the two brave men whose remains would be removed later. Around those graves stood General Gordon, the chaplain, Alice Thomas and myself, and the body servant of Colonel Lamar, with the bullet-torn hat of his master pressed to his heart, weeping bitterly.[5]
Won General Gordon’s Approval
The most gratifying memory to our hearts, was General Gordon’s approval of our conduct. “You have been brave girls, I will never forget you.” The Confederates only held possession of that part of Maryland twenty-four hours, then returned to Virginia.
Child that I was I can never forget the scenes on that battlefield, and General Gordon’s surprise at seeing us come out of the cellar. I wore a short gingham dress and my hair was curled. Years later in a fashionable New York hotel, an evening dress and of course a different dressing of the hair, imagine my surprise when General Gordon came up and said, “Is this Mamie Tyler, the little heroine of Monocacy?” And then we enjoyed a long talk over that memorable July day on Monocacy field.
Soon the Confederates marched away from the Monocacy battlefield, leaving the plots of dead underneath freshly-turned soil. But the memories of the “Battle that Saved Washington” remained forever with the soldiers and civilians alike. – at Luling, LA
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On July 7,1864, Sherman reported to his superiors in Washington... "I have ordered General Garrard to arrest for treason all owners and employees, foreign and native (of the Roswell Mills), and send them under guard to Marietta, whence I will send them North."
On July 7, 1864, Sherman wrote to General Garrard..."I repeat my orders that you arrest all people, male and female, connected with those factories, no matter the clamor, and let them foot it, under guard to Marietta, then I will send them by cars to the North."
A northern newspaper correspondent reported on the deportation... " only think of it! Four hundred weeping and terrified Ellens, Susans, and Maggies transported in springless and seatless army wagons, away from their loved ones and brothers of the sunny South, and all for the offense of weaving tentcloth."
On July 10, 1864 General Thomas reported the arrival of four to five hundred mill hands, mostly women, in Marietta. Other documents indicate that an undetermined number of children accompanied their mothers. – at Luling, LA
At Big Falls in North Carolina there lives a former Confederate soldier whose heroism will be sited by poets and orators as long as heroism is cherished by men. He was a color bearer of his regiment, the 13th North Carolina. In a charge during the first days battle at Gettysburg, his right arm with which he bore the colors was shivered and almost torn from its socket. Without halting or hesitating, he seized the falling flag in his left hand, and with his blood spouting from the severed arteries and his right arm dangling in shreds at his side,he still rushed to the front shouting to his comrades forward! Forward! The name of that modest and gallant soldier Is W.F. Posset.
Source : Reminiscences of the Civil War by : John Brown Gordon.
Below : battle flag of the 13th North Carolina infantry – at Luling, LA
A recollection of the 2nd day of Gettysburg
By : Major George B. Gerald
18th Mississippi Infantry, Barksdale's Brigade
When William Barksdale's Mississippi brigade charged into the Peach Orchard, Major Gerald lead a party of men to clear Federal marksmen from the barn of the nearby Sherfy farm. Gerald survived a wound at Cedar Creek in 1864 and settled in Waco, Texas, five years later. there he held the office of county judge and postmaster, and edited a local newspaper. In 1897 he killed the editor of a rival newspaper and his brother in a gunfight in Waco. He died in 1914 and his cremated remained were scattered in the Gulf of Mexico.
The order was given to "strip for the fight." The men carried their scanty change of clothing wrapped in their blankets and thrown over their shoulders; each regiment piled these in a heap and each left a man with the baggage. The field officers dismounted from their horses, the reason for this that an order had been issued some time before that no officer below the rank of brigadier or acting brigadier-general should ride into battle, because of the fact that government had a great deal of difficulty replacing the horses killed. I gave my horse and watch as well as some other belongings to my servant. After these orders had been complied with the order was given "Dress to the colors and forward to the foe!"
After moving through the woods a short distance, we came to a fence around a field of grain; the battle was progressing. Before us lay open fields dotted with houses and right in our front were some farm houses with a grove of trees to the left and he enemy drawn up in a double line of battle some five or six hundred yards distance and supported by artillery. We steadily advanced, driving the enemy before us until we reached the houses with the trees on the left, the trees proves to be a peach orchard. On the end of the orchard was a bard in which a part of the enemy had taken refuge. . . . I with most of the regiment was directly in front of the barn. . . . I called to the men that the barn must be captured and to fallow me and I would open the door. They fallowed m e with a rush and I forced the door open, and within less than two minutes we had killed, wounded or captured every man in the barn. The barn was filled with smoke so dense that it was very nearly impossible to distinguish a man's body in it, such a continuous fire had the enemy within kept up.
We left the barn and the brigade moved through the orchard towards the heights, still driving enemy before them. General Barksdale encountered the men by shouting, "Forward men, forward," which was the only command that I ever heard him give after the battle commenced. By this time we had been under heavy fire from two lines of battle and their artillery and our losses had been very heavy, and recognizing the impossibility of the breaking these fresh lines of battle, we fell back to the orchard, where we spent the night. – at Luling, LA
Private David Parker, 14th Vermont described General Barksdale's sentiment in the letter to the general's brother Ethelbert Barksdale.
Parker found Barksdale mortally wounded on July 2nd - Gettysburg.
I put his head on my lap and gave him coffee from a canteen, his mind was clear.... He commenced to tell me he was dying and that he was leaving a good and loving wife and two sons and said "Oh my wife. It will be hard for her. Tell her that my last words were words to love for her. But my boys, oh it seems that I cannot leave them. Their loss they will not fully comprehend. They need a father. Many times have I thought and planned for their future And oh I love them! So to leave them is the hardest struggle I ever knew. But tell them that I died like a brave man, that I led my men fearlessly in the fight. Tell them all, all my friends, my wife and children. I do not regret giving my life in a cause that I believe to be right, but one thing I do regret is that I could not have lived to have done more for the cause. Oh that I might again lead my men, but tell them that I died content that my last days work was well done. I feel that I am most gone, may God ever watch over and take care of my dear wife, and oh my boys, may God be a father to them. Tell them to be good men and brave always defend the right." – at Luling, LA
