USA > Tennessee > History of the Twentieth Tennessee regiment volunteer infantry, C.S.A > Part 34
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In Breckinridge's charge, two days later, Major Claybrooke was separated from his regiment by being ordered away on detached duty.
After the battle of Murfreesboro, Bragg's army fell back to Shelbyville and Tullahoma, and while at the latter place the Twentieth Tennessee was presented with a stand of colors by General Breckinridge as an appreciation of their gallantry on several fields, and no soldier of the regiment did more to win this compliment than the gallant Major Claybrooke.
The Twentieth Tennessee Regiment was soon after put in Bate's brigade, Stewart's division, and moved some ten miles northeast from Tullahoma to Fairfield, three miles from the south end of Hoover's Gap. It was here, on the morning of June 23, about IO A. M., that our long roll began to beat. The rain was coming down in earnest when General Bate received a courier who stated that the Yankees had attacked our pickets at the Gap, and had forced their way through. General Bate at once ordered the Twentieth Tennessee and Major Caswell's battalion of sharp- shooters, about four hundred men, to doublequick to the Gap, where we found the enemy's advance about one mile south of the
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Gap. The battalion and two companies, A and B of the Twen- tieth Regiment, were thrown forward, and soon drove the enemy back under cover of their batteries. It was here that Major Claybrooke, who was assisting in arranging the other eight com- panies of the regiment for an assault, was mortally wounded by the bursting of a shell thrown from one of the enemy's guns. The same shell killed and wounded several of his old company. He was carried to a near-by farm house, where he breathed his last before day next morning; and when that light went out, we could say that a nobler spirit, a truer patriot, a braver soldier, a more warm hearted man was never clad in a suit of gray.
A fuller description of the battle of Hoover's Gap is given in our Regimental History, in connection with Gen. W. B. Bate's official report.
MAJOR JOHN F. GUTHRIE.
Major John F. Guthrie was born Feb. 25, 1833, in the sixth civil district of Davidson county, Tennessee.
He was educated at Woodbury, Tennessee. Being the oldest .boy of the family, and his father having died when he was quite young, he had to a great extent the responsibility of the family upon him, and right worthily did he sustain that trust.
At the age of about twenty years, just arriving at young man- hood, John F. Guthrie gave his heart and his soul to his God, and joined the Missionary Baptist church at Concord, near Nolensville. He was elected one of the officers of his church, and continued one of its members until his death.
It was at a meeting of his old company at Concord that I saw the gallant young man march up to Capt. Joel A. Battle, and tell him to put down his name as a Southern soldier. The enrolling of that name meant something, for John F. Guthrie from that day until the 31st day of August, 1864, was as closely wedded to the cause of the South as he was to his Baptist church.
But just before he had given himself to his church and his country, he had also interwoven his life and fortune with one of the fairest and most modest of Tennessee's daughters, Miss Bettie Organ, daughter of Benjamin Organ, a school-teacher by
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profession. Many a day had I sat on the same slab bench with Miss Bettie, and made eyes at her younger sister, Miss Jennie, at the old school-house at Organ's Hill, just west of the old McMurray residence in Williamson county.
But, alas! this dream did not last; the Civil War came, and John F. Guthrie and at least half the young men and boys of the Concord neighborhood went with Captain Battle's company to Camp Trousdale, near the Tennessee and Kentucky line, on the L. & N. R. R., where we remained until we formed a part of the Twentieth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry.
We had not been in camp of instruction long before a vacancy for orderly sergeant of the company occurred. John F. Guthrie was elected to that responsible position, and filled it well and nobly until just before General Zollicoffer made his second move into Kentucky, about November, 1861, at which time Sergeant Guth- rie was stricken down with typhoid fever and sent home, and I, who by this time had been promoted to second sergeant, was called upon to fill the part of orderly sergeant.
Sergeant Guthrie, on his recovery, returned to his command, and followed its fortune as sergeant of Company B until after the battle of Shiloh, and on that bloody field he distinguished himself as one of the coolest and best soldiers of his regiment. At the reorganization of the Confederate Army, May 8, 1862, John F. Guthrie was elected captain by the men who had seen him tried on several fields, and his conspicuous gallantry had won their confidence and esteem. Captain Guthrie commanded his company in the skirmishes about Corinth, Miss., just before Bragg's retreat to Tupelo, and from there to Vicksburg, Miss .; and during the siege of that place in 1862, I remember well that. Captain Guthrie and myself were lying on a blanket in an old warehouse when a large shell from the Federal fleet burst above the building, and a piece of the shell weighing nearly one hundred pounds came crashing through the roof and fell on the blanket between us.
Captain Guthrie was with his company in the Louisiana cam- paign at the battle of Baton Rouge, and afterward came with his regiment to Murfreesboro, Tenn., and from there to the advance
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post of the Confederates at Stewart's Creek, and while here, in the fall of 1862, he received several recruits for his company.
In the great battle of Murfreesboro, Captain Guthrie added fresh laurels to his already well-earned reputation. On Friday evening, while leading his company in the ever-memorable Breckinridge charge, he had his sword belt shot off of him, but was not injured himself.
After this engagement, Bragg's army fell back to Shelbyville and Tullahoma, and in June, 1863, the hot battle of Hoover's Gap was fought, in which Maj. Fred Claybrooke was killed, and Captain Guthrie, senior captain of the regiment, was promoted to major, and right worthily did he deserve it. In this capacity he went into that greatest of all the battles fought during the war- Chickamauga. He came through this terrible struggle unscathed, but had his sword scabbard shot in two.
Major Guthrie was with his regiment at the battle of Mission- ary Ridge. A few days before that battle, while on duty on top of the Ridge, and looking westward across that great expanse in the direction of his home, mother, wife, and tender babe, he composed a piece of poetry which he afterward showed me, but I do not know if it was preserved through the war. If so, I would like to embody it in this sketch. It was full of love and emotion for his wife and mother. But alas! this was the nearest that he ever came to them. Major Guthrie was with his com- mand in all the battles and skirmishes in the Georgia campaign from Dalton to Jonesboro.
On the 31st of August, 1864, this gallant young major, who was a knight among knights, and the equal of any in cool courage that ever donned the Gray, gave up a life that was well rounded in Christian virtues. Distinguished by patriotic devotion and courageous acts on the field of battle, he was a most Christian soldier whose soul was always overflowing with love for his beautiful Southland, for whose cause he was ever ready to do or die. In the death of Major John F. Guthrie on the fatal field of Jonesboro, Ga., Aug. 31, 1864, the Southland laid upon her sacrificial altar one of her best and bravest soldiers.
May the laurels grow green over his grave, and his ashes rest amidst much love. May also the genial rays of our Southern
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sun keep the magnolias, which are an emblem of our Southland, perpetually blooming over its gallant dead.
MAJOR H. CLAY LUCAS.
Major H. C. Lucas was born in Elizabethtown, Ky., Aug. 9, 1834, and was educated at Nashville, and attended the Law School at Lebanon, Tenn., 1858-59.
About May 1, 1861, he joined a company that was being raised by Capt. Jas. L. Rice, in and around Nashville, which was named the Sewanee Rifles. It was afterward Company C of the Twentieth Tennessee Infantry Regiment, and was the color company of the regiment.
" Clay " Lucas, as he was called, was a noted personage, not only in his own company, but in the regiment at large. He began his military career as a private, but was soon detailed from the ranks and attached to the staff of that venerable old soldier, Major Lucien Brown (with the rank of sergeant), who was brigade commissary of Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer's brigade. This worthy detail was made on account of Lucas' superior qualifica- tions, for he was splendidly educated and well versed in literature. His memory of events and his description of what he had seen and read would challenge the admiration of almost any one.
I first became acquainted with Sergeant Lucas under rather peculiar circumstances. In the latter part of 1861, I was second sergeant of Company B of the Twentieth Tennessee Infantry, but was acting in the capacity of orderly sergeant, whose duty it was to draw the rations for the company and divide them among the men. It was the duty of Sergeant Lucas to issue the rations to the different regiments by companies, and each company was called alphabetically, such as A, B, C, and if the sergeant of Company A was not promptly on time, Company B's sergeant would take his place, and so on through the ten companies. Sergeant Lucas said that as a number of sergeants representing their companies were so often behind time, and that the sergeant of Company B was always on hand, he would call Company B first all the time. This I took as a reward for promptness in duty, and it gave Company B a big advantage
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over the other companies, which resulted in some dissatisfaction, but Company B got her rations first from that time on.
An intimacy sprang up between Lucas and myself that lasted through the war, and until Major Lucas' death in 1874.
At the reorganization of the Confederate Army at Corinth, May 8, 1862, Clay Lucas was elected captain of Company C, and well did he and his company carry and defend the colors of the grand old regiment for three long and bloody years. I have on more than one occasion seen Captain Lucas dressed in full uniform of Confederate gray, and thought him to be as fine a type of Confederate chivalry as marked the earth. He would carry himself so proudly on the eve of battle that he would remind you of a game cock entering the ring for a death struggle.
Captain Lucas and the colors were the center guide of the regiment. Captain W. G. Ewin, of Company A, who was the embodiment of courage, was the right guide, and I was the left guide; and how it would make my heart throb as we would go into battle, and keep in line with those two heroes.
Captain Lucas commanded his company in the battles of Vicksburg, Miss., Baton Rouge, La., Murfreesboro, Hoover's Gap, Chickamauga, and in all of the battles of the Georgia cam- paign, to Jonesboro, where the knightly Major Guthrie was killed, and Captain Lucas being senior captain, was promoted to major. He acted in that capacity on the bloody fields of Franklin and Nashville. In the latter Col. Wm. Shy was killed, and that left Major Lucas as senior officer. He carried the remnant of the old guard out of Tennessee, and followed Gen. Joe Johnston into the Carolinas.
He returned home after the war, and began farming near Nashville, at which occupation he continued until his death in 1874.
ALBERT ROBERTS. Written by PAUL ROBERTS.
Albert Roberts was born in Nashville, April 11, 1835. His father was John Roberts, an Englishman who had learned the printing business in London, and was regarded as the best printer
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who ever came to Nashville. He was one of the proprietors of the Republican Banner, one of the old Whig papers published at the capital of Tennessee.
Albert received his education at the "old field schools" in and around Nashville, having by his sixteenth year acquired as thor- ough a knowledge of the classics and mathematics as would at this day have entitled him to an A. B. if not an A. M. degree.
He entered his father's office as an apprentice, and thoroughly learned all that was practical in the "art preservative." Upon reaching his majority he spent part of one year in the capitals of Europe, serving as correspondent of the Banner, and other periodicals. Upon his return home he became a city reporter on the Banner, and many of his sketches, especially his humorous "Police Court Reports," are well remembered by the survivors of those times.
In 1861, as Second Lieutenant of Company A, Twentieth Tennessee Regiment, he was mustered into the army. He was placed in charge of the company school of the officers of the regi- ment, and to him and Thos. B. Smith, a lieutenant of Company B, was due the proficiency in military drill and discipline attained by the Twentieth which added so much to its prestige and efficiency.
At the battle of Fishing Creek, in the absence of Captain Foster of Company A, and on the death of Lieutenant Bailey Peyton, who fell early in the action, the command of Company A devolved on "John Happy," as he was then far and widely known through- out army and civil circles, by reason of his witty newspaper correspondence over this nom de plume. He gallantly led his company throughout the remainder of the battle, and on the weary and trying retreat to north Mississippi. Just prior to the battle of Shiloh, he was promoted to the captaincy of the com- pany, and headed it in its gallant and heroic discharge of duty from the beginning to the end of that fearful contest.
When the Twentieth was re-organized, in May, 1862, in front of Corinth, he with his company was out on the picket line, and the field and staff were elected in his absence and that of his company. Declining to remain in command of Company A, he resigned his position, and after serving a few months as a volun- teer with Gen. John Morgan, being with his command when he
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captured Gallatin and also when Gen. Adam Johnson was cap- tured at Hartsville, he turned his attention to his life-work, for which he was so admirably adapted by nature and inclination. He was associated with Frank M. Paul and Henry Waterson on the Chattanooga Rebel until it fell by the wayside. He next accepted a position on the editorial staff of the Southern Confed- eracy, published at Atlanta. On the surrender of Atlanta and the collapse of that paper, he was attached to the Montgomery Mail, and was a member of its editorial corps when the war ceased.
He accompanied a body of leading citizens of Montgomery to Washington, just after the cessation of hostilities, in order to see what could be done toward rehabilitating the South, which he loved so well. He returned to Montgomery, and served on the staff of the Mail until the summer of 1866, when he with his father, Henry Waterson, and Geo. E. Purvis, resusticated the old Daily Republican Banner. After the death of his father and the removal of Mr. Waterson to Louisville, he with his brothers and Mr. Purvis consolidated the Banner with the Nashville Union and American, then under the control of Col. John C. Burch. He · continued with the newspaper, the Nashville American, until shortly after the death of Colonel Burch, when he was appointed United States Consul at Hamilton, Ontario, by President Cleve- land, to fill a vacancy. He held this position to the close of Pres- ident Cleveland's first term, receiving most flattering testimo- nials from the citizens of Hamilton, among them being a hand- some gold watch and chain, and a series of "Resolutions" beauti- · fully engrossed on parchment, and signed by the leading citizens.
After his term as consul was completed, he returned to his native city, and purchased an interest in the Southern Lumber- man, becoming one of its editors, on which he was engaged until his death, which occurred at his residence near Nashville, July 15, 1895. His widow, a daughter of Dr. John Scott, of Montgomery, Ala., a surgeon in the C. S. A., and five children, two sons and three daughters, with four grandchildren, all living in Nashville, survive him.
The American, in its editorial mention of his death, said of him :-
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"As a journalist, a representative of his country in a foreign land, and a citizen and patriot, there was no truer man. Long one of the brightest of Tennessee's galaxy of newspaper men, he left his impress on the history of the times, and he will be missed by many who knew him in the days when he held sway in the columns of the old Republican Banner of blessed memory, and later in the American. Mr. Roberts became known to thou- sands of people by his writings under the nom de plume of ' John Happy,' and up to this good day there has been no writer con- nected with the Tennessee press who enjoyed a larger clientele than the ever genial 'John Happy.' However Mr. Roberts' fame was not built so much on his ability as a satirical, pungent, and witty writer, as upon the fact that he was a journalist with a clear head, sound judgment, and a forceful pen."
Among the many tributes paid him after his death, the follow- ing extract from the " Resolutions " adopted by the representa- tive newspaper writers of Nashville, is added :-
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" The schooling received by Mr. Roberts in the printing office was in the days of Tennessee's great men, who frequently made headquarters in the editorial rooms of the newspapers of that time. Boy as he was, the spirit of patriotism and love of country was instilled into his young heart, and the words of statesmen opened up before him a path that he seemed more than willing to follow.
"The life of Mr. Roberts in the army, his various composi- tions for opera and song, and his connection with the daily press of this city, have been lengthily referred to in the notices of his death by the American and the Banner, and it is unnecessary to say more. At all times he was an honor to the profession of journalism. As editor, he was painstaking and conscientious. As a writer, he wielded a vigorous pen, exhibited great force in what he penned, never vindictive, but on the contrary, was ever conservative, and endeavored by facts and persuasive evidence to touch upon the event of the times, relying upon the reader to give a verdict for his side of the question. As a humorist, he enjoyed the field to himself for a long time, and in this he made his reputation. It was, in fact, his specialty, and unfortu- nate was it for him that he discarded the humorous for something
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in another line. Had he continued in that field for which he seemed gifted, no man in the whole land would have been his equal during his palmy days. But for this he was not responsi- ble. He was called to another place, where his services were demanded by fellow-associates, and he responded to the call of duty. He never shirked from any position, and as managing editor and editorial writer he enlisted all the ability and talent which he possessed. He was always a hard worker, and had such a love for journalism that he was seldom absent from his post."
There is a profound lesson in the career of this Southern gentleman and ex-Confederate. He ran the gamut of human experience, and covered every phase of life in the short space allowed him. He quickly and entirely responded to all demands made upon him, from seeing a friend through a duel to writing a humorous travesty with a view of raising revenue to " buy all the cork legs in Cork " for his unfortunate fellow Confederates. He possessed many elements of greatness, yet withal such mod- esty as caused him to withdraw from the field of opportunity, public applause, and public favor, which his own genius and ability had created. .
His most conspicuous trait was great goodness of heart, and constant amiability. Here, at least, was a gentle but valiant soul who loved his country and his fellow man, his work and not applause, the doing of good things with no thought of the rewards, duty well performed, with a fine scorn for material profit. As a friend Waterson said of him, "There are lessons and lessons, and the modern newspaper with its myriad hands and eyes, and its reckless disregard of things that ought to be sacred, may take a hint from this simple and wise man, who knew more about the practice and ethics of the craft than many who flourish in the temples and call themselves great."
CAPTAIN WILLIAM G. EWIN.
Written by REV. J. H. McNEILLY, of Glen Leven Church, Nashville, Tenn.
William Goodwin Ewin was the second son of Mr. John H. Ewin, who was for many years the head of a wholesale drug
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business in Nashville; and who gave two sons to the cause of the South in her struggle for independence.
The older son, Colonel Henry Ewin, was mortally wounded in the battle of Murfreesboro, where his conspicuous courage won for him promotion to a position which he did not live to fill.
The younger son was born in Davidson county, Tennessee, Jan. 17, 1842, and received the usual education of a youth in his circumstances: After leaving school, he managed his father's farm for a short time, until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861.
He was a young man of fine address and winning manners, very popular with all who knew him. He had been brought up to regard honor and duty above all else, and when Tennessee seceded and the governor called for troops to defend the South from invasion, he recognized the call as the voice of patriotism, and responded at once with all the ardor and enthusiasm of a brave and generous spirit.
He enlisted as a private in the Hickory Guards, and was made orderly sergeant of the company, which afterward became Com- pany A of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment of Infantry. He was with his company in the arduous service of the first year of the war, where the battles of Fishing Creek and Shiloh tested the qualities of his regiment, and gave it a reputation for courage second to none.
When the army was reorganized after the battle of Shiloh, Sergeant Ewin was elected captain of his company, a tribute to his character as a man and a soldier. He showed his fitness for command, not only by his coolness and courage on the field, and his kind care for his men, but also by the strictness of his disci- pline, so that his company was accounted one of the best drilled in the army. He shared all the privations and hardships of his men with bright cheerfulness, and was with his regiment in the many engagements in which it won renown as the best regiment in the division. In the bloody battles of the Army of Tennessee from Fishing Creek to Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, and in the long-drawn conflict from Dalton to Kennesaw, Captain Ewin led his company with distinguished courage.
In the battle of Kennesaw Mountain on the 27th of June, 1864,
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he was severely wounded, making it necessary to amputate his leg. He was thus rendered unable for future service in the field, but for the remaining months of the war he continued his connec- tion with the army, unwilling to be discharged, and ready to render any service he could to the cause he loved so dearly.
When the end came, in May, 1865, he came home as a paroled prisoner, and cheerfully set himself to do his duty as a citizen under the changed conditions. With the same courage which had marked his career as a soldier, he went to work with energy to make a living under adverse circumstances.
On Nov. 23, 1865, he was married to Miss Sallie House, the daughter of Mrs. John Thompson of Davidson county, Tennessee. She lived only a few years, leaving at her death a daughter, now Mrs. E. L. McNeilly. Captain Ewin was afterward married to Miss Martha Hillman, a daughter of Mr. George Hillman. She with several children survive him.
Captain Ewin's popularity with his fellow citizens was attested by his being twice elected clerk of the county court of Davidson county. The duties of the office were discharged with character- istic fidelity.
After his retirement from office, he engaged for a while in the hardware trade. He then removed to Humphreys county, Ten- nessee, and took charge of the Hurricane mills, a large establish- ment for manufacturing woolen cloth. He continued at the mills until his death, on the 30th of July, 1882.
Captain Ewin was a fine type of the class of men who defended the South in the great war. He was a man of unflinching cour- age, of devotion to principle, of strict integrity, of a high sense of honor. He was genial, warm hearted, kind, and courteous. He won and held friends.
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