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SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
The Boys in Gray of '61 - '65
CIVIL
WAR
MEMOIRS
OF A
SOLDIER
IN THE
FIRST FLORIDA
INFANTRY
REVISED EDITION
Henry William Reddick
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012
http://archive.org/details/seventysevenyear00redd
GEN G
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01771 4178
GENEALOGY 973.74 F66RE
SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
Other historical books published by SOUTH WALTON THREE ARTS ALLIANCE, INC.
The Way We Were: Recollections of South Walton Pioneers
Of Days Gone By: Reflections of South Walton County, Florida
This Is My Life by Walker H. Reddick Sr.
SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
The Boys in Gray of '61 - '65
Revised Edition
By
Henry William Reddick
A publication of COASTAL HERITAGE PRESERVATION FOUNDATION
A branch of SOUTH WALTON THREE ARTS ALLIANCE, INC. Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
Seventy-Seven Years in Dixie: The Boys in Gray of '61 - '65 was published by the author, H. W. Reddick, in 1910 in Santa Rosa, Washington County, Florida.
This revised edition was published in 1999 by Coastal Heritage Preservation Foundation A branch of South Walton Three Arts Alliance, Inc. P.O. Box 2042 Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN # 0-9666805-2-9
Thus ended the great American Civil War, which upon the whole must be considered the noblest and least avoidable of all the great mass conflicts of which till then there was record.
- WINSTON CHURCHILL
A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING PEOPLES
-V-
HENRY WILLIAM REDDICK Florida State Archives
CONTENTS
-
Foreword .
ix
Preface
xi
Introduction
xiii
Title Page to First Edition
1
3
Foreword to First Edition 5
I. The Enlisting .
1864 Map of Pensacola and Vicinity 6
II. The Battle at East Pass
11
Map of Reddick's Civil War Travels 18
III. Actual Service-The Kentucky Campaign
20
IV. The Mississippi Campaign
36
V. The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi
38
VI. The Battle of Missionary Ridge
41
VII. The Hundred Days Battle
47
VIII. The Battle of July 22nd
51
IX. The Battle of Franklin, Tennessee -
The Worst Battle of the War
54
X. The Battle of Nashville, Tennessee
64
XI. Our Last Battle in the War
68
XII. The Little Wonder That Never Was Satisfied
74
XIII. Summary
76
XIV. Civil War Poems 78
-vii-
FOREWORD
+
In 1910 Henry William Reddick published his collection of Civil War reminiscences, Seventy-Seven Years in Dixie: The Boys in Gray of '61 - '65. This privately printed book recounts the Civil War experiences of the author, who enlisted in the Walton Guards in 1861 and served the Confederacy throughout the war.
Henry W. Reddick (1833 - 1924) was from a prominent pioneer family of Walton County, Florida. After the Civil War - he operated a sawmill and lived near the community of Santa Rosa on the southern shore of the Choctawhatchee Bay, then a part of Washington County. Though written forty-five years after the actual incidents, Reddick's account of his wartime experiences is valuable and offers a splendid glimpse into the life of the ordinary soldier and the trials and tribulations of combat.
Reddick enlisted in the Walton County Guards in 1861 to defend Camp Walton on Santa Rosa Sound, and his account offers one of the few detailed descriptions of this little-known episode of West Florida's history. After Pensacola's evacuation Reddick found himself in General Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky. It was here that Reddick was captured by Union troops and remained a prisoner for several arduous months until he was paroled. Reddick then rejoined and served at Jackson, Mississippi, and Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga.
-ix-
FOREWORD
As Sherman pushed through North Georgia towards Atlanta in 1864, Reddick served under Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. By late 1864 he had participated in the fierce battles of Franklin and Nashville in Tennessee. By the time the war ended a few months later, Reddick was in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Reddick's observations provide interesting details of one southern soldier's perspective of the nation's worst conflict. Thus, for students of the Civil War, it is a pleasure to see H. W. Reddick's memoirs once more back in print and easily available to scholars and general readers alike.
BRIAN R. RUCKER, PH.D. PENSACOLA JUNIOR COLLEGE, FLORIDA
-x-
PREFACE
-
When a few members of South Walton Three Arts Alliance decided to research and write a book about South Walton County, Florida, in 1996, we came across a book titled Seventy-Seven Years in Dixie: The Boys of Gray of '61 -'65. It was written by a local man, W. H. Reddick, and printed in 1910 by A. P. Bjorklund. The little gem, with its forty-eight pages bound by a bright red cover, measured 53/4" x 81/2", about the size of this book. Only a few American Civil War memoirs were written by Northwest Florida soldiers, so we were excited about its historical value and vowed to get it back in print.
At this same time we came across another memoir written by Mr. Reddick's son, Walker H. Reddick. In Walker's 1977 book, This Is My Life, he told about growing up on Four Mile Point on the southern shore of the Choctawhatchee Bay, giving us insights about his father that are included in the introduction.
It is with great appreciation that I thank Walker's son and daughter-in-law of Macon, Georgia, Ann and W. Homer Reddick Jr., for giving their permission to reprint his grandfather's book, allowing it to be shared for the first time in ninety years.
Nancy Voith, a resident of Nashville and Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, provided the line drawings accompanying this revised volume. Her whimsical touch adds an old-time
-xi-
PREFACE
flavor to the text. The photographs of Henry and his wife, Elizabeth Reddick, were found in the Florida State Archives, and the photograph of Reddick's gravesite is by the editor.
A special thanks goes to Nancy James and Marilyn Schroer for their copyediting. I tried to keep the text as true as possible to the first volume while correcting misspellings and other grammatical errors. I inserted in brackets the dates of the battles when not mentioned and the name of the states of the lesser known towns to make the text more complete.
Two maps have been included. The first is a portion of the Department of the Gulf Map #47, Pensacola & Vicinity, 1864, with locations mentioned in Chapter I and II notated. The second map is labeled Reddick's Civil War Travels. On it you will find locations mentioned throughout the rest of the book, making easy reference for the reader.
KAREN SCHANSMAN EDITOR
-xii-
INTRODUCTION
Henry William Reddick fought through twenty-eight battles during the Civil War. Seventy-Seven Years in Dixie is his eye-witness account of his personal experiences as the bloody war between the states was carried on for four torturous years. When Reddick started writing his Civil War memoirs forty-five years after the event, his eyesight began to fail. So his daughter Ida wrote the first part with son Walker finishing the project, all from his dictation.
According to early census reports, Henry Reddick was the first child born (June 16, 1833) to Thomas Wiggins Reddick and his wife, Ursela Libbey Mobley. Henry was described as being 5'8" tall, having light colored hair and blue eyes. He enlisted in the Confederate States of America on March 1, 1861 at the age of twenty-eight.
Henry's first wife (name unknown) bore him two daughters, Ellen (b. July 18, 1870 - d. January 31, 1950) and Etta (b. September 6, 1873 - d. January 18, 1963). His second wife, Elizabeth G. McCormick O'Neal (b. January 29, 1855), had two children from her previous marriage, William A. O'Neal (b. August 28, 1871) and Marcus Lafayette O'Neal (b. August 2, 1872 - d. August 8, 1963). The story goes that Henry was passing by the McCormick home on horseback on his way to his sawmill and remarked to one of his employees that he "saw a darn good-looking widow and he intended to make a date with her."
-xiii-
ELIZABETH MCCORMICK REDDICK Florida State Archives
INTRODUCTION
Henry and Elizabeth were soon wed and built a home in Point Washington while adding eight more children to their family. Jefferson Monroe Reddick (b. July 2, 1875 - d. September 20, 1885), Henry Tilden (b. August 8, 1877 - d. November 29, 1920), Ida E. (b. April 6, 1879 - d. March 2, 1965), Annie Jeannette (b. April 11, 1881 - d. October 3, 1973), Millard Fillmore (b. December 10, 1884 - d. June 1, 1891), John H. (b. December 17, 1886 - d. December 6, 1974), Walker Homer, (b. March 5, 1889 - d. July 14, 1981), and Guy (b. April 1, 1897 - d. April 6, 1897).
The Reddicks built a large home on Four Mile Point (property now owned by Sandestin Resort) where the family would gather on the long front porch after supper and listen to Mr. Reddick tell about the fierce battles in which he fought. According to his son Walker, "The story for the night would be one that we had invariably heard him tell dozens of times, but it would be as new to us hearing him tell it as it was new to him to tell it."
In the early part of the twentieth century the Confederate veterans would hold annual reunions in the large cities of the South. Reddick attended every year, meeting old friends and reminiscing about the battles they fought together.
In the late 1910s Henry and Elizabeth decided to live at the "Old Soldiers' Home" in Jacksonville, Florida. It was described as a lovely place with many kinds of shade trees and old comrades of the Confederacy exchanging stories about the Civil War. But Reddick soon got restless, so they moved to Quincy, Florida, to be close to daughter Jeannette. Elizabeth died there on January 11, 1924, with her devoted husband passing away four months later on June 28, 1924.
-XV-
INTRODUCTION
Both are buried in Hatcher Cemetery west of Freeport, Florida.
The foreword for the original publication was written by A. P. Bjorklund, a character in his own right. Born in Sweden, Bjorklund immigrated to America in 1890 at the age of seventeen by borrowing money from his family to pay for his boat ticket. He made his way to Minnesota to be close to relatives, but left after three years for Pensacola, Florida, because of the cold winter weather. He taught himself English from a dictionary and often pronounced words as they were divided, i.e., com-for-ta-ble. Bjorklund was a voracious reader, writer, and tinkerer. While living in Freeport, Florida, he was the editor of the Freeport Observer, the only socialist newspaper in Florida at the time. (The Observer printed the original Seventy-Seven Years in Dixie book.)
A December 17, 1908 article on Walton County's newspapermen printed in the DeFuniak Herald quotes A. P. Bjorklund as saying, "I was always of a rebellious nature .... The church and state is united in Sweden, trying to paste their old mildew-covered views on every individual who accidentally happened to be born in the country. I rebelled against that order of things; and while yet only twelve years old, resolved to leave Sweden just as soon as I was able to do so. . . . [I] started the Observer in Freeport in April 1906, and you all know the rest. Of course I am a Socialist, and have been ever since I was writing rebellious matter for the press in dear old Sweden. So there you are."
The reader might find it interesting that one of the two thirty-pound cannons sent by General Braxton Gragg to W. H. Reddick's regiment while it was stationed at Camp Walton
-xvi-
INTRODUCTION
is displayed in front of the Indian Temple Mound Museum in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. In Chapter II, The Battle at East Pass, Reddick states, "One was mounted upon a mound near the water's edge and pointed towards the little hill on the island behind which the Yankees had placed their guns when they fired on us in camp. The other never was mounted, and when we evacuated the camp it was buried about fifteen paces from the water's edge." This cannon was saved from its sandy grave and donated to the City of Fort Walton Beach by Frances and W. C. Brooks.
A historical marker next to the cannon states:
FORT WALTON
Originally called Camp Walton, this Confederate Installation, constructed in 1861 to guard East Pass, was garrisoned by a company of Florida militia called the "Walton Guards." Several small skirmishes with federal landing parties occurred near here. The Camp was abandoned following the Confederate evacuation of Pensacola and the garrison, a part of the First Florida Infantry Regiment, was assigned to duty on the Tennessee front in early 1862.
Two local men mentioned in Reddick's book were William Miller and Simeon Strickland. Born in 1820, William Miller commanded in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky. On August 2, 1864, he was commissioned Brigadier General. At the end of the war he returned to Point Washington, Florida, then a part of Washington County. General Miller is remembered for donating the land for the Community Cemetery and Methodist Church in town.
Simeon Strickland was also a Point Washington resident. According to his daughter Julia, who was ninety-six when interviewed in 1996, Strickland was a boy of sixteen when he
-Xvii-
1
INTRODUCTION
joined the Confederate Army. He was injured during the Battle of Mobile Bay (August 5-23, 1864) and walked with a slight limp until his death on January 10, 1910. Julia's younger sister Helen, born less than a year before her father's death, still resides in the family home that her father built in the 1890s.
H. W. Reddick elected to include seven Civil War poems at the end of his recollections, some original pieces and others selected by friends and family members. The first, "The Good Old Confeds," was written by Walker, his youngest surviving son. Walker was only twenty-one at the time he wrote this poem. Sixty-six years later Walker wrote his own memoirs, This Is My Life, also reprinted by Coastal Heritage Preservation Foundation, a branch of South Walton Three Arts Alliance, Inc.
The second poem, "The Boys in Gray of '61 - '65," was selected by another son, John. Ida Davis from Meridian, Mississippi, penned "The Gray and Blue." Miss Davis later married John Reddick but died a few years later along with her newborn baby. "The Parting Volley" was selected by Lilla Gunn of Santa Rosa, Florida. Lilla's father ran the hotel at Santa Rosa, and Lilla had attended school at Point Washington with Walker and John.
The sources for this introduction include Freeport Archives, which researched the 1870, 1880, 1900, and 1910 Federal Bureau of the Census reports, 1885 Florida Bureau of the Census report, and pension applications; Pioneers in the Panhandle (1976) by William James Wells; M. A. Bjorklund of DeFuniak Springs, Florida, grandson of A. P. Bjorklund; This Is My Life (1977) by Walker Homer Reddick
-xviii-
INTRODUCTION
Sr .; March 1996 interview with Julia and Helen Strickland; and Coastal Heritage Preservation Foundation archives.
Henry William Reddick's headstone at Hatcher Cemetery west of Freeport, Florida. Birth - June 16, 1833 Death - June 28, 1924
-xix-
The original title page (right) was identical to the cover except the cover was printed on dark red paper.
Seventy-seven years in DIXIE
THE BOYS IN GRAY OF 61-65
By
H. W. REDDICK,
Price 50 Cents. Published by H. W. Reddick,
Santa Rosa. Washington County, Florida.
1910.
FOREWORD TO FIRST EDITION
Captain Henry W. Reddick is too well known to need any introduction from me. His life work and history are part of the history of Walton and Washington Counties, Florida, and the development of agriculture around the beautiful Choctawhatchee Bay.
His active participation in the Civil War is vividly illustrated within the pages of this book, and the history of that epoch-making struggle would not be complete if Captain Reddick had not put his experiences from the battlefield down in black and white, and thus made it possible to preserve it for coming generations.
Everybody interested in the history of the war should read this book, everyone whose ancestors struggled for victory on Dixie soil should read this book and keep it as a memento from the past; young men who don't know what war is should read this book and learn. It will teach a lesson those fancy volumes, written in perfume-laden parlors, by professional writers, at so much per word, never can teach. All honors to those professionals, but they have not had the experience of forced marches, starvation, exposure to rain, cold, hunger and bullets of the men who shouldered the musket and with their spirit fired by patriotism went to the front to fight battles for which they received no pay, nor ever expected to receive pay.
-3-
FOREWORD TO FIRST EDITION
They fought for principles, and if those principles were wrong, it was because the teachings had been led into wrong channels, not by the men of the field and forest but by the parlor professional who lived upon the toil of the men at work.
It is to be hoped that in the future the light of truth and justice will penetrate deep enough into the hearts of men, so that struggles like those portrayed in this little volume will not have to be repeated; that workers will not be arrayed against workers; brothers against brothers in deadly combat over something not tangible to either side, but that the words "united we stand" will be engraved in the hearts of men in a common united human brotherhood, for the peace and prosperity and happiness of all mankind.
A. P. BJORKLUND FREEPORT, FLORIDA SEPTEMBER 1910
-4-
CHAP. I
THE ENLISTING
W HEN I first enlisted in the army of the Southern Confederacy, it was for one year-in 1861-our company was called the Walton Guards, on detached service, guarding East Pass [Destin, Florida] and the Narrows [Ft. Walton Beach], which had been bombarded by a United States gunboat.
The first flag I saw hoisted calling for volunteers to go to war was at old Eucheeanna, Florida. The ladies of the county hoisted that flag and marched around old Eucheeanna and made a direct appeal to each man in these never-to-be- forgotten words: "Go, boys, to your country's call! I'd rather be a brave man's widow than a coward's wife." To those loyal women is due the honor that sixty of us volunteered that bleak March day at old Eucheeanna.
In about a month we met again, organized and elected our company officers-Billie McPherson, Captain; Chas. L. Mckinnon, 1st Lieutenant; H. W. Reddick [author], 2nd Lieutenant; A. B. McLeod, 3rd Lieutenant. We then appointed the hour for moving to the front, bade farewell to all who were near and dear to us, and designated the spot from which to embark, which was Alaqua Creek, just below Berry's little mill.
-5-
F
o
SAC
Departnun MAJ
PENSACOLI Prepare CAP! P. AC! CHIE
G
MAJOR D
DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF Map No. 47
Pensacola and Vicinity
August 1, 1864
A Alaqua Creek
B Bluff Springs
C Boggy Bayou
D Camp Walton / Ft. Walton Beach (to
E Destin (today)
G
.
----
U
+
Cx
CTAW
HATCHE
L
H
Y
WAT
F Escambia River
L Joe's Bayou
G Eucheeanna
M The Narrows
H East Pass
N Niceville (today)
Pensacola
P Valparaiso (today)
Warrington
I Fort Barrancas
J Fort Pickens
K Garnier's Bayou
F
CA
LY
O
Departn'
PENSACI
Prepe CAP AC! C
MAJOR
G
DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF Map No. 47
Pensacola and Vicinity
August 1, 1864
A Alaqua Creek
B Bluff Springs
C Boggy Bayou
D Camp Walton / Ft. Walton Beach (
E Destin (today)
3
C
0.021,
MAP Nº/*
PENSACOLA CITY
Prepared hy CAP: P C. H ACT CHIEF F
WA
G
MAJOR D.C.ON
0
DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF Map No. 47
Pensacola and Vicinity
August 1, 1864
A Alaqua Creek B Bluff Springs
C Boggy Bayou
D Camp Walton / Ft. Walton Beach (toda
E Destin (today)
F Escambia River
G Eucheeanna
H East Pass
I Fort Barrancas
Pensacola
J Fort Pickens
K Garnier's Bayou
L Joe's Bayou
M The Narrows
N Niceville (today)
P Valparaiso (today)
C Warrington
CT.
L
Departnuut
SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
The night before our departure we met at a little cottage known as the Belcher Place, and I believe that nearly all the people of Walton County were present to bid us farewell. We danced all night, and as I was busying around it appeared to me that everywhere I went I found horses and buggies standing.
Next morning after breakfast, the program was to get on board the schooner Lady of the Lake, which was lying in the creek just below Berry's mill alongside the bank. We fell in line and marched down to the schooner. The crowds of people who had gathered to see us off followed us down to the bank, and when leaving time came the scene was one long to be remembered. Some were laughing, some were crying and some were making speeches. The order was given to get on board and we sailed down the Choctawhatchee Bay, arriving at Garnier's Bayou [Ft. Walton] next day, but stayed on board all night and until after breakfast next morning. The boys were feeding themselves and furnishing their own guns and ammunition and were in high spirits.
After breakfast a detail of twelve men was sent ashore to reconnoiter. They returned in about two hours, badly frightened, with the report that they had found a horse tied out in the woods. This was supposed to be a Yankee spy and the Captain gave the order, "Boys, all hands on deck! Leave your guns below and every man see that his shoes are well tied!" At least that is the story told on him.
Another detail was made, this time of twenty-four men, who were sent ashore and returned after a time with a man and a horse, but the man was not a Yankee spy, but old Bob Bell, who was charged with murder and was hiding from the sheriff.
-8-
THE ENLISTING
1
ELICHEEANNA,'
HONORS
NOUR VOLUN ER
60.16
The next day we sailed on down to the Narrows where a site for the camp was selected, which was named Camp Walton. We soon had the camp ground and drill grounds cleared up and set to work building our houses, and in about a week we were well fixed and had a jolly good time.
For about two weeks as I remember we furnished our own rations and after that drew them from General [Braxton] Bragg at Warrington Navy Yard [Pensacola]. We had nothing
-9-
SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
but camp duty and drill to perform and were there for over a month before we were mustered into the service by an officer sent up by General Bragg for that purpose. We were mustered in for one year and signed the declaration of war.
-10-
CHAP. II
THE BATTLE AT EAST PASS
D URING our stay at Camp Walton it was reported to Captain McPherson that a Yankee gunboat was lying off at East Pass on blockade duty and that she was landing troops there. This was reported to General Bragg at Ft. Barrancas [west of Warrington Navy Yard] and he instructed Captain McPherson to send a force over there and drive them off. Under these instructions Captain McPherson ordered a detail of forty men to go over there with the best guns we had, which were long-range muskets. When the men were lined up he gave them a little speech, and it must be admitted that some of the boys turned white, for it was known that this meant a fight and that at the time was a new business to them. However, they were ready to go, but when the matter was investigated, it was found that a part of the men who had the muskets were on picket duty, and so there were twelve of the force who were only armed with shotguns.
We had a long-boat with twelve long oars or sweeps and with these the boys pulled over to the head of Joe's Bayou [Destin] and, disembarking, marched two miles through the thick brush to the big red bluff opposite the pass where they lay in ambush watching the enemy. From this point they
-11-
SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS IN DIXIE
saw two boats leaving the gunboat, one some little distance in advance of the other. Our boys waited until they were within about 150 yards when the command was given to fire, and our boys poured in a volley which killed or wounded nearly every man in the boat, but the wind blowing off-shore drove the boat up on the island. A number of volleys were fired at the other boat but it was further off and not so much damage was done to it.
It was the Yankees' turn next and the gunboat turned her big guns loose in their direction, and Captain McPherson ordered a retreat to the boat and back to Camp Walton where the boys arrived without loss. We learned afterward that every man in the first boat except two was either killed or wounded, though some of our shotgun crowd told me that they saw their buckshot strike the water far short of the boat. I was on picket duty that day and did not get to go, though of course, the boys had my best wishes.
On their return, the Yankees got their guns on the beach and fired twenty-one shots at our schooner, Lady of the Lake, which was bringing up our supplies and was becalmed at the time and could not get out of the way. Lieutenants Chas. L. Mckinnon and A. B. McLeod and eight men were on board of her at the time and, in addition, General William Miller, who at that time had no command, not having been mustered into the Confederate service. The men said that when the shots began coming, General Miller got up on the taffrail of the boat and shook his hat at them and gave them the rebel yell, but others of the men got down in the hold of the boat. Old Lee Ranier got behind the center case for better protection and when things were quiet would stick his head
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