USA > Tennessee > Shelby County > Memphis > The Old Guard in Gray. Researches in the Annals of the Confederate Historical Association. Sketches of Memphis veterans who upheld her standards in the war, and of other Confederate worthies.. > Part 13
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COL. HENRY C. MYERS.
MYERS, HENRY C., is the youngest of six brothers and . two half-brothers (his father having been married twice), all of whom were in the Confederate army. 1. George B. Myers was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Tenth Mississippi Infantry ; was shot through the right lung and captured at the battle of Munfordville, Ky., and afterward paroled ; he lost his left arm in the battle of Jonesboro near Atlanta in July, 1864, and was captured and held as a prisoner of war on Johnson's Island until June, 1865 ; he died at Holly Springs in the fall of 1879. 2. Calvin R. Myers resides at Byhalia, Miss .; was a member of Company A, Eleventh Mississippi Infantry, Army of North- ern Virginia ; he was wounded five times and wounded and captured at Gettysburg and paroled just about the close of the war. 3. Absalom G. Myers resides at Dallas, Texas ; was a member of Company B. Thirtieth Mississippi Infantry. Wal- thall's Brigade. 4. Albert Myers resides near Byhalia, Miss .;
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was a member of Company A, Eleventh Mississippi Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia ; was twice severely wounded. 5. Patrick S. Myers was a lieutenant in Company B, Thirtieth Mississippi Infantry ; was captured at battle of Missionary Ridge and was held a prisoner of war on Johnson's Island until the close of hostilities ; he died at Byhalia in 1880. His two half-brothers (6) Martin P. and (7) William R. Myers, were both in the Confederate army ; the former died at his home in Texas a few years after the war; the latter is still living and resides at Charlotte, N. C.
Henry C. Myers was born in Marshall county, Miss., and was the baby boy of the family. After some desultory service around home, which led to the conclusion that the front might be the safer place, he joined Company H. Second Missouri Cavalry, McCulloch's Brigade, in June, 1863, before he was fifteen years old, and served under Forrest and with the Army of Tennessee until the end of the war, participating in vari- ous engagements and hard campaigns. He was paroled with his command by General E. R. S. Canby at Gainesville, Ala., in May, 1865. HIe afterward edited and published The South., a paper at Holly Springs, Miss. ; married a daughter of Colo- nel H. W. Walter, the eminent lawyer who served as adju- tant-general on General Bragg's staff; took an active part in local and State politics, and held different positions, the most notable being that of Secretary of State for seven years. He removed to Memphis with his wife and young daughter, their only child, a few years ago, and has since been successfully engaged in business. He has attended different general reun- ions of United Confederate Veterans, and is quartermaster- general, with the rank of colonel, on the staff of General Stephen D. Lee, commanding Confederate Veterans, Depart- ment of Tennessee, and served as such at the Richmond reun- ion in June and July, 1896. He became a member of this Association in September, 1891.
MYERS, J., was surgeon-steward in the navy ; served on the receiving ship St. Philip and gunboat Gaines, and was wounded at Battery Gaines, Mobile Point ; paroled at De- mopolis, Ala., May 18, 1865. Joined C. II. A. June 30, 1894.
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169
CAPT. H. M. NEELY.
NEELY, H. M., is the son of Moses Neely, who married Jane P. McDowell, both parents being born and reared in Mecklenberg county, N. C .; was born in Madison county, Tenn., but since his childhood has lived in Shelby county, Teun., and grew to manhood on a typical ante bellum South- ern plantation, about fifteen miles east of Memphis. Judg- ing from his appearance, he must have been well taken care of in his young days; he is of splendid physique, florid both in style and manner, is six feet two inches tall, and weighs about two hundred pounds. When the war broke out he en- listed as a private in Company I, officered by Captain Wright, First Lieutenant Ad. Coulter and Second Lieutenant W. D. Ridout; the company joined the Thirty - eighth Tennessee Regiment, and had its first experience in the stern realities of war at Shiloh. On the reorganization of the army, Colo- nel Looney resigned as colonel and received a commission to
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raise a brigade, and Captain John C. Carter was elected col- onel and later promoted to the rank of brigadier - general ; First Sergeant O. M. Alsup was elected captain of the com- pany, and H. M. Neely was elected first lieutenant. Captain Alsup a few months later resigned on account of ill health, and Lieutenant Neely was promoted to the rank of captain and took command of the company.
Captain Neely followed the fortunes of the Army of Ten- nessee under Generals Albert Sydney Johnston, Beauregard, Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston and Hood, and was present and fought in all of the important engagements except the battle of Stone River, being absent at the time on account of a severe wound received while storming a battery at the battle of Per- ryville, Ky .; in that engagement his position in the Confed- erate lines brought him directly in front of the battery, but just before the enemy's position was taken he was shot down by a minie ball, and still carries the lead comfortably in his shoulder; he was often hit with bullets, but never severely hurt except in this instance. In 1864 he was appointed act- ing adjutant-general on the staff of Brigadier-General Jno. C. Carter, and served the last year in that capacity conspicuously in Northern Georgia and during Hood's raid into Tennessee. He was at the battle of Franklin, and was by the side of Car- ter in his reckless ride in front of his brigade in the assault upon the enemy's breastworks, but when within about one hundred and fifty yards of them he received a mortal wound, from which he died a few days after. Noticing General Car- ter reeling in his saddle, Captain Neely leaped from his horse and amid a perfect shower of shot lifted him to the ground and turned him over to a couple of soldiers, with orders to take him to the field hospital ; by that time the brigade had passed on and reached the breastworks, but in such shattered condition that it was unable to go over or dislodge the enemy. Impressed with the necessity and duty of notifying the next ranking officer of General Carter's condition, Captain Neely remounted his horse, intending to ride on, but was scarcely in his saddle before he was slightly wounded and his horse severely shot four times; he then abandoned his horse and,
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amid the dead and dying strewn thickly upon the ground, footed it to the breastworks, but speaks of it as the lone- somest and most uncomfortable walk of his life. He was in the fighting around Nashville, and with the Tennessee troops under the command of Major-General E. C. Walthall, selected by General Hood as a breakwater against the pursuing col- umns of General Thomas and to protect the main army in its retreat. Everyone with that rear guard has a vivid recol- lection of the privations and trials to which they were sub- jected, but all were cheerful, brave to a fault, and able to appropriate to themselves a strange and reckless pleasure wrung from the hard and desperate conditions by which they were surrounded.
Throughout the war Captain Neely was known as an ener- getic and conscientious officer, who would dodge no duty nor responsibility ; a good disciplinarian, who at all times won the respect and confidence of the men and his superior offi- cers. In September, 1865, he settled in Memphis, and the next year, having gathered together the remnants left him out of the wreck wrought by war, was admitted as a partner in the then established mercantile house of Brooks, Neely & Co., which firm is still in existence, and has done a large and successful business. Some years ago he married a charming lady, Mrs. Mary B. MeCown, daughter of William Morgan Sneed of Vance county, N. C. Since his residence in Mem- phis he has held positions in the highest business and social circles, and it can be truthfully said of him that he has made as good a citizen in time of peace as he did a soldier in time of war. lle became a member of the old Confederate Asso- ciation September 9, 1869.
NABORS, T. P., private Company I, Seventeenth Missis- sippi, Barksdale's Brigade, A. N. V .; enlisted March, 1862; was wounded twice - at Gettysburg and Corryville; served throughout the war in the same command, and was in every battle in which it was engaged, except two; paroled April 7, 1865. Admitted to the C. H. A. February 12, 1895.
NEALE, THOMAS R., enlisted in Captain MeNeal's com- pany, and to enable him to get through the Federal lines was
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transferred to Company D, Bell's Virginia Cavalry, with which he served till the close of the war; was wounded three times, and paroled at Clarksburg, W. Va., about May 1, 1865.
NELSON, F. M., enlisted as a private in Company A, Sev- enth Tennessee Cavalry, April, 1862; re-enlisted in Alabama Infantry, and was paroled at Gainesville, Ala., in May, 1865. Joined the C. H. A. at an early day.
NETHERLANDS, J. J., private Company E, Fourth Vir- ginia Regiment; enlisted in spring of 1861 and was always in the same regiment. On the day before the surrender of General Lee he was sent by his captain with several others to Lynchburg, where they heard of the surrender ; they started west, but could not get through the Federal lines on railroad ; went home and afterward to Richmond, and was paroled in June, 1865.
NEWBORN, JOSEPH L., Second Lieutenant Company B, Thirteenth Tennessee ; enlisted May 28, 1861 ; served first as a private in the State service, and when mustered into the C. S. A. was elected lieutenant ; was in the battles of Bel- mont, Shiloh, Richmond, Perryville, Murfreesboro and Chick- amauga, besides numerous smaller engagements and skir- mishes. Admitted to this Association August 14, 1894.
NORFLEET, F. M., private Company C, Eighteenth Mis- sissippi, Wirt Adams' Brigade ; enlisted in 1863 ; served for a short time in Berton's Regiment of Infantry and in Fourth Mississippi ; was wounded at Plantersville, Ga., in an engage- ment with the Seventeenth Indiana ; paroled May 13, 1865. Joined the Confederate Historical Association June 13, 1894.
NORRIS, J. W., private Company F, Third Mississippi Cavalry, Adams' Brigade ; enlisted February 1, 1864; served with same command to the end, and was with it in every engagement after he enlisted; paroled at Gainesville, Ala., April, 1865. Admitted to C. HI. A. February 12, 1895.
NUTZEL, CONRAD, born in Kretz, kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, in 1838, and came to Memphis in 1853; enlisted June 5, 1861, in the old Washington Rifles, Fifteenth Ten-
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nessee Regiment. When the army was reorganized at Cor- inth comrade Nutzel was elected second lieutenant of his company. The regiment went into Kentucky with Bragg, and suffered very heavily in the battle of Perryville, losing nearly half its men, also sustained severe losses in the battle of Murfreesboro. After the battle of Murfreesboro Lieuten- ant Nutzel was assigned to the staff of Colonel Ben. Hill. Provost Marshal, and when the army was at Dalton he com- manded the guards as military conductor on the Western & Atlantic Railroad. After the fall of Atlanta Lieutenant Nutzel and two other officers from his regiment, Captain Harry Rice and Lieutenant John Dwyer, were ordered to Augusta, Ga., and around there they recruited a good-sized regiment of 600 men, half of it from the different Federal prisons. Lieutenant Nutzel made up a company 100 hundred strong, nearly all Germans, who could not speak a word of English. They had only been in this country three or four months, and were easily induced to take the oath of allegiance to the lost cause. The new regiment was known as the First Confederate Gal- vanized Yankee Regiment, and it was no doubt the last. It was commanded by Colonel Jno. G. O'Neal, with Lieut .- Colonel Burke second in command, and Lieutenant Seymour, an old soldier from the Crimean war, as adjutant. This grotesque command was sent to Mobile, and then ordered to follow Hood's army into Tennessee. About one-half the regiment moved off by rail, but was ordered to stop off at Egypt sta- tion. Captain Nutzel's company was thrown out on picket duty the same afternoon and remained in the woods over night. Early next morning Grierson's scouting force came in sight and they opened fire. Captain Nutzel and three or four men were wounded, but not very seriously. The gal- vanized rebels made a gallant fight behind a railroad em- bankment, without loss, for three or four hours, repelling several charges, but finally were forced into a small stockade, where their ammunition was exhausted in about one hour and they surrendered late in the afternoon. The prisoners were marched across to Vicksburg, and from there Captain Nutzel and a host of others were sent up the river by boat.
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At Memphis he was permitted to see a brother, get a good outfit and some money. He was sent to prison at Johnson's Island, where he was released on the 18th of May, 1865. He joined the C. H. A. January 8, 1895, and became a member of Company A, Confederate Veterans, in which he takes great pride.
O'BERST, C., private Company A, First Tennessee Artil- lery; entered service early and remained to close of the war. Proposed for membership in this Association by T. N. John- son and C. W. Frazer, and elected May 12, 1870.
PAPE, A. R., private Company A, Fourth Tennessee ; en- listed in May, 1861; was in the signal corps, but returned to Company A and fought in the battle of Shiloh, then back to the signal corps, in which he served until the end of the war. He was captured at Perryville; was exchanged and rejoined the army at Shelbyville, Tenn .; paroled April, 1865.
PEARSON, R. V., private Company F, Fifteenth Missis- sippi, Adams' Brigade, Lowry's Division; enlisted May 27, 1861 ; was wounded twice, first at the battle of Fishing Creek, where the regiment was in command of Lieutenant - Colonel E. C. Walthall, and the second time in front of Atlanta July, 1864; paroled May, 1865. He was admitted to this Associa- tion September 14, 1864.
PERKINS, A. H. D., was a private in Company E, Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, Rucker's Brigade, Forrest's Cavalry ; en- listed in November, 1862, and was paroled May 2, 1865.
PERSONS, C. P., private Company C, Fourth Tennessee Infantry ; enlisted May 15, 1861 ; was wounded April 6, 1862, and discharged from the service; recovered and joined Por- ter's Company, Ballentine's Regiment, Forrest's Cavalry, in 1862 ; was captured at Water Valley, Miss., December 1, 1863; released in February, 1864, and joined Forrest's old regiment about three months before the close of the war; paroled May 11, 1865. Admitted to the C. H. A. December 11, 1894.
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WM. GARNETT PARKER.
PARKER, W. G., son of Robert A. and Lamira Parker, born at Somerville, Tenn., May 1, 1841 ; enlisted in Company A, Shelby Grays, Fourth Tennessee Regiment, May 15, 1861, and served throughout the war, surrendering at Goldsboro, N. C., April 26, 1865; was wounded at the battles of Shiloh and Franklin. Returned to Memphis June 1, 1865, and en- gaged in the cotton warehouse business. Died at the home of his mother, No. 187 Vance street, March 8, 1878. He was a brave and loyal soldier; sincere, tender and true in all his friendships ; a loving and devoted son and brother. Joined this Association December 16, 1869.
PERSONS, RICHARD J., was born February 5, 1843, and is descended from a prominent old Revolutionary family of his name in North Carolina. The Persons family came to Shelby county early in this century. He was graduated from
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the Kentucky Military Institute at Frankfort, after four years attendance, in 1861, with the rank of captain in the Kentucky State Guards. He left college for the camp, and soon became Captain of Company B, Twenty - first Tennessee Regiment. and was afterward major of the famous fighting Fifth Con- federate Regiment of Cleburne's Division, composed almost entirely of Irishmen. Major Person was in the battles of Belmont, Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and nearly all the heavy fighting on down to the front of Atlanta, where he was captured July 22, 1864, and after that was con- fined at Johnson's Island until the end of the war. He had been in command of the regiment from December, 1863. He was a thoroughly trained soldier, and the writer, who fought almost by his side more than once, regards him as one of the most intrepid men in the army. He was married in 1863 to Miss Annie E. Finnell of Lexington, Ky. ; she died in 1866. He was again married in 1868 to Miss Alice Winchester, daughter of Major George B. Winchester, a prominent lawyer of this city, since dead. They have four children, two of whom are sons. Major Persons joined the Confederate Relief and Ilistorical Association in 1869.
PETTIGREW, JAMES L., private in Company C, Second Mississippi, Army of Northern Virginia; enlisted March 8. 1862; was wounded three times-at Antietam, September 17. 1862; Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, and at Petersburg, October 14, 1864. After the wound at Petersburg he was furloughed and went home to Mississippi, and was never able to return to Virginia; was paroled at Okolona, Miss., May 29, 1865. Admitted to the Confederate Historical Association January 8, 1895.
PEPPER, S. A., was born in Johnson county, Mo., Octo- ber 27, 1842, and taken to Virginia when very young by his parents, who had gone west only a few years before; was reared near Big Spring (now Elliston station), Montgomery county ; there had good social and educational advantages. When the war broke ont he enlisted June 5, 1861, as a private in Company F, Eleventh Virginia Infantry, and afterward
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S. A. PEPPER.
served in the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-ninth Mississippi Regiments, Army of Tennessee, He went all through the war and was in a number of great battles, including Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and smaller fights ; was wounded at the battle of Williamsburg, Va., and at Jones- boro, Ga., but never lost much time from the service. He was paroled when Johnston's army capitulated at Greens- boro, N. C., and has his parole yet carefully framed as a souv- enir of the great war, of whose history it is a part. He came to Memphis in November, 1865; went to Huntsville in De- cember same year; remained there four years and returned to Memphis in January, 1870. He was married to Miss Anna Lee Polk of Helena, Ark., February 17, 1887, and there are three children from this union - Misses Allan Polk, Zelda Fontaine and Anna Fitzhugh Pepper. Mr. Pepper was one of the early members of the Confederate Historical Associa- 12
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tion, and for many years was an active member of the Chick- asaw Guards; became Orderly Sergeant of Company A, Con- federate Veterans, about a year ago, and attended the reunion U. C. V. at Richmond June-July, 1896.
PHELAN, JAMES, Colonel and Judge of Military Court in 1864-65. Proposed for membership in this Association by Jefferson Davis and Isham G. Harris, and elected May 26, 1870; has been dead eighteen or twenty years.
PITTS, J. M., born July 29, 1840, in Meriwether county, Ga .; lived with his parents in Alabama and Mississippi, and went with them to St. Francis county, Ark., in 1856; enlisted June 10, 1861, in Company B, Fifth Arkansas Regiment, and was elected first lieutenant; was at the battle of Belmont, crossing the river under fire, and there took a prisoner and sent him to the rear. He was in the fight at Tompkinsville and afterward at Bowling Green, Ky .; was sent to hospital at Nashville. After the fall of Fort Donelson was given charge of eighty convalescents and sent to Atlanta ; returned to his command about the time of the battle of Shiloh; was in the battle of Farmington. At the reorganization at Cor- inth was elected first lieutenant; resigned and refused trans- fer, and served the rest of the war as a private in the same company ; was ordered from Tupelo to report to Dr. West- moreland at Atlanta; was refused permission to leave, but left anyhow to follow the army into Kentucky. His captain, L. R. Frick, asked for his papers, and as he had none told him he would be reported as a deserter from the hospital. He sent for Lieutenant-Colonel J. E. Murray and General Hardee, stated the case, and they said they wished they had 20,000 such men. He was at Munfordville, Perryville and Crab Orchard with his regiment and back to Knoxville; was sent to hospital again, but escaped in time to be at the battle of Murfreesboro, where he took two stands of colors. After the battle of Liberty Gap, in which Captain Frick was killed, Mr. Pitts was again sent to the hospital at Atlanta, but got out in time for the battle of Chickamauga, and was in the Georgia campaign; was taken prisoner near Atlanta and
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placed in an old church, but escaped the first night, leaving a guard hors du combat ; was wounded in the right hand on July 22 in front of Atlanta ; was in the battle of Jonesboro and captured, but escaped with his clothing and accoutrements full of bullet holes; was also in the battle of Franklin and the fight at Nashville, and was in the last fight of the war at Bentonville, N. C., and was on guard with his company at General Joseph E. Johnston's headquarters at Greensboro, and was surrendered there May 10, 1865. Since the war he has lived both in Arkansas and Memphis, having been here since 1880. He married after the war, but his wife died years ago, and a married daughter is their only surviving child. Mr. Pitts is an all-round mechanic, and has been quite pros- perous at times, but of late years he has suffered much with rheumatism and not been able to work at all times. He lives with and supports his aged mother, now (1896) in the eighty- first year of her age. He is a member of Company A, Con- federate Veterans, under Captain W. W. Carnes, by whom he is highly regarded, and in spite of his sickness and rheu- matism he attended the great reunion of veterans at Rich- mond, Va., in June-July, 1896.
PODESTA, LOUIS E., born near Genoa, Italy, June 9, 1846; came to this country with his parents in 1847; grew up in Natchez, Miss., and enlisted there April 9, 1861, in the Natchez Fencibles, an old company that had served in the Mexican war, and became Company G, then under Captain Ed. Blackburn, of the Twelfth Mississippi Regiment; went with the company to Jackson, Corinth, Union City and Lynchburg, and reached the battlefield of Manassas at 4 P.M. on the 21st of July. He served in Ewell's Brigade and Van Dorn's Division ; afterward in Rhodes' Brigade, Longstreet's Corps ; was next in Roger A. Pryor's Brigade ; then Feather- stone's, Posey's, and last in Harris' Brigade in Anderson's and Mahone's Divisions ; was wounded at New Turkey Ridge, sixteen miles below Richmond, June 6, 1864; at Boydton Plank Road, below Petersburg, October 27, 1864; at Hatcher Run, where Pegram was killed, February 6, 1865, and at Fort Gregg, near Petersburg, April 2, 1865; was on crutches
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for twelve months. The last ball was cut out long afterward. He was in all engagements of any consequence with his regi- ment from Williamsburg, Va., 1862, to the surrender at Pe- tersburg April 2, 1865, and has his parole dated June 16, 1865. He was in both the campaigns across the Potomac, and was barefooted much of the time; still he survived to enjoy robust health in spite of lameness for life. He came to Memphis soon after the surrender and engaged in business on Front Row, and joined the old Confederate Relief and Historical Association July 15, 1869. In 1872 he was mar- ried to Miss Parmelia Perasi (Rocco), the latter being an adopted name. From this union were born four boys and four girls, all fine young people, one of whom is a teacher in the public schools.
POLLARD, W. J., rank Major in the ordnance depart- ment ; entered the service February 1, 1861, and paroled 10th of May, 1865. Elected a member of this Association upon his own application July 1, 1869.
POSTON, D. H., enlisted early in the war as a private in Company A, Fourth Tennessee Infantry, and was in most of the battles in which that regiment took part; was severely wounded in the leg at the battle of Perryville by a wounded Federal soldier to whom he had just given a drink of water. It is charitable to suppose that the man was crazed by heat. and thirst or fright, and was not responsible. After the war Mr. Poston, although quite young, soon became the law part- ner of General W. Y. C. Humes, and had a large practice as long as he lived. His death was caused by a shot fired on the street by a brother lawyer and ex-Confederate. The tragedy greatly shocked the public mind and will be remem- bered for a generation. Mr. Poston was twice married. His last wife and children by the first survive him. Joined this Association August 12, 1869.
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