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 2
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Brigadier-General George W. Gordon,
Brigadier-General W. M. Brown.
Brigadier General James R. Chalmers,
Brigadier-General Marcus J. Wright,
Brigadier-General J. C. Fizer, commanding brigade, ' Colonel C. R. Barteau, commanding brigade,
General Thomas Jordan,
Hon. Jacob Thompson, Isham G. Harris, the war Governor.
This is believed to be the oldest association of the kind in the South. For some years it maintained a relief fund, but this was finally discontinued. A general meeting was held at the Cotton Exchange, May 23, 1884, when it was deter- mined to effect a reorganization. C. W. Frazer was chosen President and J. Harvey Mathes, Vice-President. Major Frazer has continued as President ever since. Mathes was succeeded the next year by R. B. Spillman, who has since filled the position. An application was made for a new char- ter, omitting the word " relief" from the title. It was, signed by the following members, duly granted and recorded :
C. W. Frazer, A. J. MeLendon, W. F. Taylor,
John F. McCallum, R. J. Black, J. C. McDavitt,
J. P. Young, R. B. Spillman, W. A. Collier,
M. J. Miller,
J. Harvey Mathes,
Charles G. Locke,
James E. Beasley,
W. F. Shippey, G. V. Rambaut,
Daniel S. Levy,
John T. Willins, A. J. Murray,
Jno. W .. Waynesburg.
A few years ago this Association, without losing its iden- tity, became Camp No. 28, Bivouac No. 18, United Confed- erate Veterans of Tennessee, and it is therefore part of the general organization of which General John B. Gordon is Commander-in-Chief. An excellent hall for an armory and the collection of war relics was secured in 1893, and is used jointiy by the Association and its auxiliary, the Ladies' Con- federate Memorial Association, and is an attractive gathering place for Confederates and their friends.
Whilst only scant measure is given the services of many gallant Confederates named, they represent a class and must
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stand as types of the greater number not mentioned. It will be noticed that some who made the very best soldiers were born north of the Ohio river, and some were from other lands, thus showing that human sympathies and courageous qualities are not exclusive privileges for any particular people. It may be mentioned without partiality or invidious intent that. the Hebrews, who claim no country as their own, though usually good citizens wherever found, had many valiant sol- diers in the Southern armies, as well as a representative in the cabinet of the Confederacy. Several of them are active and honored members of this Association. One of the old- est members is Comrade David Flannery, the veteran tele- grapher, born in Limerick, Ireland, February 16, 1828, who rendered such valuable services during the war in his peculiar line. Another of the oldest is Comrade Daniel S. Levy, the artillerist, born in Prussia in the year 1826, a live, working member of Company A, Confederate Veterans, and was able to carry a gun and march in line many miles at Chattanooga. last year and at Richmond this year (1896), when younger men fell by the wayside. There are several others, however, who are full seventy years old. The present organization really dates back only to 1884, but it is practically a continuation of the parent society, and it may be accepted as a fact that few or none ever become members without proper indorse- ment. The strictest scrutiny has always been exercised with regard to applicants, as a matter of proper precaution. This, however, would hardly seem necessary, as no one unworthy of fellowship would be likely to seek it. It will not be many years before the old soldiers will pass away to their eternal rest ; others may come after to take up the threads of rem- iniscence and history as well as romance and poetry, and weave them into volumes of wider scope, to occupy space in the libraries of the future, and the descendants of Southern men and women will doubtless read in no narrow spirit the annals of their whole country's struggles with patriotic pride and satisfaction.
In a few years the ex-Confederates, still so active and poten- tial in all the affairs of life, will sleep peacefully beneath the
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sod, and no more be seen than their banner which was furled forever. Many names are yet on the rolls of the living, but the final Appomattox must come to each man, and not far over in the next century. A younger generation is succeed- ing us if it has not done so already. We hope to transmit' a respect for law and order and love of country to stronger arms and buoyant, noble hearts. May the sunset of every comrade leave a halo of soft, mellow light and memories of well-spent lives, worthy to be cherished and emulated in other days, is the sincere wish of
THE AUTHOR.
29 Cynthia Place, Memphis, Tenn., December 12, 1896.
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CONFEDERATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
ALBRIGHT, CALVIN H., was born October 9, 1846, in Old Orange county, N. C. His ancestors were of Scotch- Irish Revolutionary stock on one side, coming from the Me- banes, Andersons and Bryans of North Carolina, while on the other he came from sturdy Dutch Protestants who settled in Pennsylvania over two centuries ago. He quit school No- vember 4, 1861, and enlisted in Company H, Fifth North Car- olina Volunteers, afterward Fifteenth North Carolina Regu- lars ; served under Captain J. R. Stockard, Colonel Mckinney, Brigadier-General Howell Cobb of Georgia, and Major-Gen- eral Magruder ; was in the battle of Lee Mills, near York- town Peninsula, of Virginia, April 16, 1862, where the regi- ment lost heavily and Colonel MeKinney was killed. In this fight young Albright picked out and fired at a man, who was found dead at the spot where he had stood. Saw much hard service; was in the retreat from Yorktown to Richmond, and remembers vividly the encouragement given tired soldiers by General J. E. Johnston in the Chickahominy bottoms ; at end of three days, marching and starving, he was broken down, and went to a hospital until after Malvern Hill. August 12, 1862, was discharged from the army on account of his age; attended school at Davidson College, North Carolina ; re-en- tered the service in February, 1864, as clerk under Captain C. R. King at Graham, N. C .; remained until October 1. 1864; then enlisted in Company H, First North Carolina Cavalry, Captain George Dewy, Colonel W. H. Cheek, Brigadier-Gen- eral Rufus Barrington, Major-General W. H. F. Lee, Hamp- ton's Corps Army of North Virginia; was in several severe
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fights while in this command ; was at Wilson's Farm on Boyd- ton plankroad, October 27, which was a hot fight, lasting several hours, General Hampton losing a son, Preston Hamp- ton, killed in this fight; that night he was one of three men -
sent out on perilous service : next day he was highly compli- mented by Captain Dewy, who said, " Albright is too good a soldier to hold horses when there is fighting to be done." He was in several more engagements ; his last fight was at Five Forks, near Dinwiddie Courthouse, March 31, 1865 ; his reg- iment went into the fight that morning one hundred and forty-seven strong, and lost, killed, wounded and captured, eighty-seven men and officers, the Confederates driving Sher- idan's command back for nearly two miles. This was young Albright's last and hardest battle; after this fight he was ordered to take charge of horses belonging to men killed, wounded and captured, and he was not in any of the last fights of the few days left to General Lee before Appomattox; he did not surrender with General Lee's army, but escaped across the river with other soldiers, and was paroled at Greens- boro, N. C. He brought his cavalry sword home with him, has it yet, and will leave it to his children to remind them of their father's soldier days.
Mr. Albright left North Carolina January, 1866, with let- ters to Judge Archibald Wright and other prominent people. After various business experiments more or less successful, he engaged in the express business in 1871, first running as mes- senger between New Orleans and Humboldt, and in 1885 was made agent at Memphis, where he has lived since. He has shared in some degree the prosperity of the company he serves. lle is interested in various affairs; is president of a mining company, is a director in a building and loan association, com- missioner to the Tennessee Centennial, and a member of the Shelby County Commission; is also a worker in the church, being an elder in the Alabama Street Presbyterian Church, and is superintendent of a Sunday-school. He has been mar- ried twice; his first wife was Miss Ella Hastings Moore of Vicksburg, Miss., the daughter of Mr. Henry Moore, super- intendent of public education for so many years. His second
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wife was Miss Ellen Owen Stedman, the oldest daughter of Rev. James O. Stedman, D.D., of Memphis, Tenn. He had no children by his first wife; he has by his second wife three boys and one girl. - He became a member of the Association in the spring of 1896.
ALLEN, AARON, enlisted early in the war and served in the Trans-Mississippi. Came to Memphis, became a member of this Association soon after it was organized, and lived in Memphis many years; was connected with railroads and other business, and is now a resident of Little Rock, Ark.
ALLIN, PHIL. T., Major in Forrest's old regiment ; en- tered service early in 1861, and remained until the end. Pro- posed for membership by James E. Beasley, and elected Feb- ruary 3, 1870; died many years ago; is mentioned frequently on other pages of this work.
ANDERSON, JAMES H., enlisted May, 1861 ; was Major of the Nineteenth Mississippi Regiment Army North Vir- ginia ; served as Quartermaster Fifth Brigade, General For- ney commanding, also on the staff of General Wheeler as- Acting Quartermaster ; was captured while on leave of ab- sence and imprisoned at Helena, Ark; paroled without the right of exchange, but through the influence of friends in Memphis this was secured ; finally paroled June, 1865. Joined this Association June 13, 1894.
ANDERSON, KELLAR, Captain Company I, Fifth Ken- tucky Infantry, Hanson's Brigade ; enlisted April, 1861, and served in the Army of Virginia; was discharged with First Kentucky Infantry at the expiration of enlistment at Camp Winder, near Richmond; re-enlisted June, 1862, and was transferred from the Ninth Kentucky to the Fifth Kentucky Infantry, Hanson's Brigade ; was wounded at Chickamauga ; captured at Jonesboro, Ga., September 1, 1864; exchanged September 22, 1864; was sent to Kentucky April, 1865, to recruit for the Kentucky Brigade; surrendered and was par- oled at New Castle, Ky., May 21, 1865. Afterward married
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in Helena, Ark., and has since lived in Memphis, and been prominent in connection with local military and State affairs, and commanded the State forces during the Coal Creek riots and troubles with a coolness and efficiency that gave him great distinction. He now holds (1896) a revenue appoint- ment under President Cleveland, with headquarters in Mem- phis, but his duties extend over a wide field.
ANDERSON, PATTON, rank Major-General, entered the Confederate Army, from Florida, May 3, 1865; commanded Anderson Division Army of Tennessee; entered the service March 26, 1861, and was parcled May 3, 1865; was in the life insurance business in Memphis several years after the war, and died here. Was admitted to this Association upon his own application on the 1st of July, 1869.
ANDERSON, W. L., was First Sergeant of Company A, First Virginia Cavalry, Stuart's Regiment during the first year of the war ; transferred to Company D, Southern Virginia Infantry, Hilton's Brigade, Pickett's Division, in June, 1863; commissioned in Confederate States Navy in autumn of 1863, and served in James River Squadron until the evacuation of Richmond; fell back with naval brigade and surrendered with it at Greensboro, N. C., April 26, 1865. Admitted to this Association November 4, 1869.
AUSTIN, J. A., Adjutant Thirty-First Tennessee Regi- ment, enlisted April, 1861 ; was appointed Adjutant by Gen- eral Strahl; was wounded at Jonesboro, Ga .; served two years as Sergeant-Major ; was ordered on detached service by General Hood after the battle of Franklin; paroled May, 1865; has since been an active and successful merchant of Memphis. Joined this Association October 9, 1894.
AVENT, B. W., Surgeon in General Rucker's command ; entered the service May 7, 1861, and retired May 7, 1865; practiced his profession in Memphis after the war. Proposed for membership in this association by Dr. R. W. Mitchell and elected July 1, 1869. Has been dead for several years.
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CAPT. T. H. ARNOLD.
ARNOLD, CAPTAIN T. H., was born in Brunswick county, Va., and reared in Mecklenburg, the adjoining county. In his early youth he took up his residence in Somerville, Tenn., a few years before the war. He joined Captain Wm. Bur- ton's company, the Fayette Greys; was elected Second Lieu- tenant of this company; went into camp at Jackson, Tenn., where they were assigned to the Thirteenth Tennessee Regi- ment. Lieutenant Arnold, then in command of this company, drew the position of Company A in the regiment. From Jackson, Tenn., this company was ordered to Randolph, Tenn., then to New Madrid, Mo., and thence to Columbus, Ky. His company was engaged in the battle of Belmont, and by his side fell the gallant Matthew Ray ; a braver soldier never drew a sword or gave a command. The company lost several killed and a number were wounded. Lieutenant Arnold him-
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self was wounded, but he remained on the field until 2 o'clock in the night, removing the dead and wounded of his company to his camp on the east side of the Mississippi river.
Captain Wm. Burton resigned soon after the battle of Bel- mont, and Lieutenant Arnold was unanimously elected Cap- tain. His company was engaged in the battle of Shiloh. Several of his company were killed and a number wounded. It was in this battle he lost his first lieutenant, the gallant Hamilton Whitmore, a scholar and a soldier. The army fell back to Corinth, Miss. About this time the Congress of the Confederate States of America passed the conscript law, wherein it was provided that all officers of the army were permitted to join any branch of the service they chose. Captain Arnold was granted leave of absence, on a sick fur- lough, and returned to Somerville, Tenn. After his furlough expired he was again offered his former command, but de- clined, preferring the cavalry branch of the service, and in company with Colonel Columbus Wilbourn of LaFayette, Miss., organized two companies of cavalry. By order of Colonel Hughes of Port Gibson, Miss., A. C. MeKissick of Oxford, Miss., was elected Captain of one of these companies and T. H. Arnold First Lieutenant. This battalion of cav- alry, under command now of Colonel Wilbourn, was ordered by General Pendleton to report at Port Hudson, La., to Colo- nel Logan, then in command of the cavalry of that depart- ment.
When General Banks besieged Port Hudson the cavalry operated in the rear of General Banks' army. Colonel Powers, in command of one of the regiments under Colonel Logan, conceived the idea to burn and destroy the camp and stores of General Banks on the Mississippi river. With one hun- dred picked men, traveling all night, they reached the banks of the Mississippi before day. Colonel Powers, Lieutenant Arnold and Lieutenant Buck of Port Gibson dismounting, approached on foot within sight of the enemy's pickets with twenty detailed men. Lieutenant Arnold was charged to capture their pickets without firing a gun, which command was carried out accordingly, and the pickets were captured.
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The command then closed up, and Lieutenant Arnold was ordered by Colonel Powers to make a charge on the encamp- ment and burn and destroy their stores and equipment. This order was promptly executed. It was a desperate but a suc- cessful effort, with the loss of but one officer, a lieutenant.
None but those who have traveled in the lowlands of Lou- isiana at about twilight, when the surrounding scenery was hiding from view the sun's departing rays, to faintly spot the hills and die away behind the king of the forest, can fully appreciate the somber, weird feeling that steals unconsciously over one as the sighing zephyrs creep through the long, wav- ing moss that hangs from every tree, and seems to moan a requiem of departed joys of other days spent with home and friends, and the hoot of the owl tells of the approaching night.
It was in this land that Captain Arnold, on a night like this, was on the outpost picket duty. At the solemn hour of midnight the Sergeant woke the Captain up, for the last grand round to the vidette picket. The horses being saddled they were off to duty. Passing the first and second picket it was but a short while when the word Halt, who comes there ? rang out on the stillness of the night. It was the vidette picket guard. Dismount; advance and give the countersign. This being done with bated breath they discussed the situa- tion of the outer post, it being pretty close to General Banks' picket, as it was proved the next morning the picket was shot while on duty. He now sleeps in the land of the palms, and beneath the long, waving moss.
It was on this memorable night that Captain Arnold says he witnessed one of the grandest sights his eyes ever beheld. It was the bombardment of Port Hudson by General Farra- gut's fleet-hundreds of guns on each side-all sounds gave place to booming cannon; the shells like flaming serpents chased each other in such rapid succession that the elements became one blaze of fire. The shells seemed to meet some- times in midair with their long fiery tails, and with the deadly hiss of reptiles to grapple as it were for the mastery. Finally a shell from our guns struck the magazine boat of the enemy, and such a terrific explosion he has never heard before or
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since. The heavens were lighted up for miles around, and after a little all was quiet. They folded their tents like the Arab and silently stole away.
Subsequently his command was in several engagements with Grierson's cavalry, and demoralized them to such an extent that they were obliged to keep close to their infantry. His company was engaged at Oxford, Miss., and falling back in front of Grant's army encamped at Grenada.
Lieutenant Arnold was with General Van Dorn in his fam- ous raid on Holly Springs, Miss. His company was among the first to enter the place. It was here that Lieutenant Ar- nold captured a Federal cavalryman, depriving him of his saber, which trophy he still has. He was also with General Forrest on his raid to Johnsonville, Tenn., subsequently was ordered to report to General Wirt Adams, and was assigned to duty as Provost Marshal of his brigade. Afterward Gen- eral Adams was appointed to the command of a division of the army, and General Mabry succeeded him. Lieutenant Arnold acted in the capacity of a Provost Marshal until the close of the war. Was in several engagements under Gen- eral Forrest, and surrendered at Gainesville, Ala., on May 10, 1865. Since the war he has lived in Memphis, and been almost continuously connected with one leading house, in which he still holds a desirable and pleasant position. He became a member of this Association September 9, 1869, under the presidency of ex-Governor Isham G. Harris.
ASHFORD, JAMES A., Captain Company B, Second Con- federate Tennessee Regiment ; discharged before the close of the war on account of ill-health upon certificate by Surgeon Holcomb.
AVERY, W. T., originally Lieutenant-Colonel First Regi- ment Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi Infantry ; after- ward Superintendent of Postoffice Department in Trans - Mississippi Department. Proposed for membership by Isham G. Harris and R. Dudley Frayser, and elected March 20, 1870 ; was afterward Clerk of the Criminal Court, but has been dead many years.
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COL. C. R. BARTEAU, In 1864.
BARTEAU, CLARK RUSSELL, was born April 7, 1835, in Cuyahoga county, near Cleveland, Ohio. His mother died in 1846, and his father. Russell W., in 1858, leaving four chil- dren-two sons and two daughters. C. R. Barteau remained on his father's farm until he was about sixteen years old, then entered the Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, where he remained four years, then came South with some fellow stu- dents from Kentucky to learn something of Southern society and of slavery as it really existed. He became principal of the Male Academy at Hartsville, Tenn., in 1856, and continued as such for two years. In 1858 he began to edit and publish the Hartsville Plaindealer, ultra-Democratic and States-rights paper. He threw himself heart and soul on the side of the South, and denounced the anti- slavery crusade as the out- 3
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growth of jealousy, falsehood and fanaticism. On the 20th of January, 1859, he was married to Miss Mary Cosby of Smith county, established a home, and continued both to teach and edit his paper until the outbreak of the war. In the meantime he had been studying law under Jno. W. Head, Esq., an eminent member of the bar. Having cast his lot with the people of the South, at a fearful cost of early friend- _ ship and family ties, he promptly espoused the cause of the young Confederacy, and risked his life and his all in its behalf. Hle arranged his affairs at home as best he could, and enlisted as a private in Company D. Seventh Battalion Tennessee Cav- alry, on the 17th day of October, 1861, and became a favorite at once with all the men. In a few weeks he was transferred to Company F, same battalion ; this and the First Battalion were consolidated near Fulton, Miss., June 12, 1862, and pri- vate Barteau was elected Lieutenant - Colonel, and placed in command of the Second Tennessee Cavalry.
A pathetic incident is related in Hancock's Diary of Colo- nel Barteau's last interview with his wife. It was after the fall of Fort Donelson ; he rode home, and on the 17th of February, 1862, spent one hour with his dear wife and infant child. The army was falling back ; he could remain no longer. It was their last kiss and farewell. Mrs. Barteau lived to hear of her husband's promotion, but never to see him again.
Colonel Barteau was promoted to the full rank of eolonel in 1863, and frequently commanded a brigade, so often indeed that he was known in the army as General Barteau, though never commissioned as such. He was known as a fighter from the start, and had the confidence of every man under him and officers above him in rank. If he cared for promotion or rank, he never made any sign ; he was as modest as he was brave, and seemed to have no aspiration save to do his whole duty. He was mentioned frequently in official reports and in the various histories and accounts of the operations of Forrest's Cavalry. He was a very cool man, but impetuous in action, and always in the thick of the fight, and wounded in many battles, including Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Franklin. Harrisburg and Okolona. At the last-named place he was knocked from
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his horse while leading a charge through the town. In Hood's campaign he was so seriously wounded, December 6, 1864, that he was disabled for the rest of the war. After that he went to Aberdeen, Miss .; was paroled July 26, 1865; was admitted to the bar in 1866; removed to Bartlett, Shelby county, Tenn., in 1870, where he still has a home, and prac- tices law in Memphis.
Colonel Barteau, or General, as he is known, has attended several reunions of the survivors of the " Old Second" at Gal- latin and other places, and been received with open arms, not only by his comrades and followers, but by the people at large. He is an eloquent speaker, of fine physique, and well pre- served, looking very young for his age, and his appearance at such reunions always creates the greatest enthusiasm. He was married the second time, near the close of the war, to Miss Zura Eckford of Macon, Miss., a young lady who had given up five brothers to the Southern cause and faced many hardships and dangers, and once at least was in the smoke of battle, as well as many times afterward in the hospitals, on missions of mercy and good deeds. He has three daughters grown and happily married, and the colonel has more than his share of welcomes and homes, and as the evening of life comes on he can look back over an eventful and honorable career of which any man or family might be justly proud.
It happened that his only brother fought in some of the same battles that he did, on the other side. After the war they corresponded, and the most cordial brotherly relations were restored.
The picture of Colonel Bartean above is from an old am- brotype taken in 1864, when he was recovering from a wound in the wrist and a severe illness. The mark of the bullet can be seen in his sleeve.
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