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 22
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TALLEY FOSTER D., was one of four brothers who entered the Confederate service from Memphis; saw much active service and lived through the war, while two brothers- in-law, who married their sisters, never returned. F. D. Talley left the railroad service and enlisted in Company A, Seventh Tennessee Cavalry ; was in the movement against Corinth in October, 1862; was with Van Dorn at Holly Springs, and under him when he was killed ; was under General Joseph E. Johnston around Jackson, Miss., and afterward on the Georgia campaign. After several days hard fighting on the New Hope Church and Dallas line he was detailed for railroad duty and stationed at Selma, Ala., until run out by Wilson's raid. His parole, which he still keeps, is dated Memphis, May 11, 1865. Hle has since been in business and has a home in Memphis. Joined the C. II. A. in October, 1896.
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TRASK, W. L., born in Jefferson county, Ky., in 1839, and identified with the western rivers and the sea in early life. He held a commission from Thomas Overton Moore, Gov- ernor of Louisiana, early in 1861, as Second Lieutenant of the Sumpter Grays, at New Orleans. In the early autumn of that year he commanded the sidewheel steamer Charm, serving the Confederates at and about Columbus, Ky. At the battle of Belmont, November 7. 1861, the Charm was busy conveying troops, stores and ammunition from the Kentucky side to the Confederates, who were driven back to the bank of the river. The Charm was exposed to the fire of the enemy and was considerably torn by cannon shot. Several on board were wounded, but the vessel was kept to her work, carrying wounded soldiers to the east shore and reinforcements to the western side of the river, until General Grant and his little army were driven from the field, the General leaving his mess chest, saddle horse and gold pen and other camp equipage in the hands of the Southerners. Captain Trask was permitted to write letters next day with the gold pen, and also to ride over the battlefield on the General's horse. None of the steamers in the combat were disabled, though several were considerably eut up. The masters of the vessels were compli- mented by General Polk in his report. After that Captain Trask commanded the Charm and the Prince in the service until the fall of Island No. 10, and on one occasion a fragment of a thirteen-inch shell from a mortar fell through the hurri- cane deck of his boat, making a straight line of holes through the cabin or boiler deck, the lower deck and on to the bottom plank of the hull. upon which it lodged without going through. As the Union forces moved down the river, planting heavy guns along the Missouri shore at intervals, the passing of the batteries by transport steamers proved a serious business. Captain Trask's boat run the gauntlet whenever it was deemed necessary. In May, 1862, the steamer Capitol, owned by the late Messrs. Bohlen, left this port with Captain Trask in charge, towing the unfinished gunboat Arkansas to a haven of safety in the Yazoo. The feat of piloting so large a steamer as the Capitol, with a heavy and helpless gunboat in tow, up
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the narrow and tortuous Yazoo, as far as Greenwood, then down again to Yazoo City, where the war vessel was finished, was regarded by practical river men as one of more than ordinary hazard and daring. This work was done by Captain Trask and a skilled Mississippi river pilot named John Hodges at the wheel, and without injury to the war ship. Soon after the boats that had sought refuge in the Yazoo, to the number of fifty or more, were scuttled, burned or otherwise destroyed. Captain Trask went to Kentucky with General Bragg, serving as Adjutant of Austin's Battalion of Sharpshooters, a con- mand of picked men from the Eleventh and Thirteenth Louis- iana Regiments. This command, under General D. W. Adams. formed the extreme left of the Coufederate line of attack at Perryville, Ky., and while in advance of the entire line of Confederates, as they fought with the Fifteenth Kentucky, the Tenth Ohio and Loomis Michigan Battery on their front, Wm. H. Lytle, a brigade commander of the Union forces, was taken by Adjutant Trask and one of his comrades. General Lytle was escorted to General S. B. Buckner, as a prisoner. by the adjutant, and General Buckner paroled him on the field. At Murfreesboro, and in the Atlanta campaign from Dalton to Lovejoy's station, Ga., including Resaca, New Hope, Kennesaw, Marietta, the Chattahoochee and the great combats in and around Atlanta the subject of this sketch bore a more or less conspicuous part, and made numerous escapes from very close calls. After the war he came to Memphis and engaged in business on Front Row, but soon became identified with the daily press, with 'which he has been con- nected almost ever since. He is a prominent Odd Fellow, and a solid, well-to-do citizen.
WALDRAN. C. M., one of the boy soldiers of the war, was born February 27, 1846, about six miles east of Memphis : he attended country schools until 14 years old; then was sent to the Iuka Military Institute. When Memphis fell. June 6, 1862, he came home and in July, 1862, went south and ope- rated with independent scouts until January 1, 1863. when he was captured by a German company of Federals about eighteen miles from Memphis, on the Pigeon Roost road ; he remained
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in the Irving Block but three days and nights, when he was released. On May 18, 1863, he left again for the army and joined Captain Flem. Sanders' company of scouts, with head- quarters at that time at Panola, Miss. ; served until November, 1864, when his company was ordered by General Forrest to report to him at once ; joined General Chalmers and started on the Hood campaign; surrendered with his company (L of the Eighteenth Mississippi Regiment) at Grenada, Miss., and was paroled May 18, 1865 ; has since lived in Memphis; was married February 15, 1876, to Miss Estelle Golibart of Balti- more, and they have six children.
WHEATLEY, WILLIAM ARTHUR, was born in Mem- phis, Shelby county, Tenn., January 4, 1843, and educated at Randolph Macon College, Mecklenburg county, Va .; in May, 1861, he joined Captain Stockton Heth's infantry company, the Culpepper Riflemen, Thirteenth Virginia Regiment (A. l'. Hill's), Elzer's Brigade, Joe Johnston's Division, at Win- chester, Va., and after the battle of Romney, in Virginia, participated in the first battle of Manassas July 22, Sunday, 1861, serving two years in the Virginia campaign in the val- ley ; he joined a wing of N. B. Forrest's cavalry under Captain Ned Sanders at Memphis, Tenn., in 1863, and fought at the battles of Corinth. Inka, Courtland, Holly Springs and others, and on a thirty-day furlongh went to his plantation in Carroll Parish, La., to refugee his slaves to Western Texas, having put a substitute in his place, and rejoined the Confederate army under his old commander, General E. Kirby Smith, of Shreveport, La., and surrendered, and was paroled by General E. O. C. Ord, U. S. A., at Shreveport, La., in April, 1865, at final end of the war. October 1, 1867, Mr. Wheatley married Miss Elizabeth Bowen near Front Royal in the valley of the Shenandoah, Va., and ever since has been in real estate busi- ness in Memphis, Teun., and is also a United States com- missioner.
WILKINS, W. G., enlisted May 5, 1861, in Company B, Blatt City Grays, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee Regiment : took part in the battles of Belmont and Shiloh, and was wounded the second day at the latter place : he was
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engaged in the battle of Richmond, Ky., August 31, 1862; rejoined the main army in time to take part at Perryville ; was in the battle of Murfreesboro December 31, 1862, and also in the engagements there from January 1 to 4, 1863. The company was mounted February 15, 1863, and placed in the Eleventh Tennessee Cavalry, commanded by Col. J. H. Edmondson, their former captain. This company was thrown in with a remnant of General Forrest's old regiment and or- ganized as McDonald's Battalion, and as part of the Eleventh Tennessee Cavalry; took conspicuous part in the battle of Chickamauga September 18, 1863, (see Lindsley's Annals, p. 693), as well as in many other battles. At Tupelo this battalion was recruited to a regiment commanded by Colonel Kelley, and designated as Forrest's Old Regiment. In this the company remained until the surrender. Mr. Wilkins was paroled at Gainesville, Ala., May 11, 1865 ; returned to Mem- phis and engaged in business ; married a daughter of the late Judge J. T. Swayne, and has lived here ever since.
WILKINS, CHAS. W., enlisted in the same company as his brother; served as corporal; was wounded at Murfrees- boro, and wounded and captured at Athens, Ala., in Septem- ber, 1864; was sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, and paroled just before the close of the war. Returned to Memphis, engaged in business, and died in 1870; never married.
WILLIAMS, JAS. M., born September 1, 1841, four miles east of Bartlett, Shelby county, Tenn. Later his father, Esq. Hal Williams, settled two miles south of Brunswick, on the L. & N. R. R., where he was brought up on the farm, receiving a country school education, with the addition of two years, 1859 and '60, at Shelby Military Institute, near Germantown, Tenn. He was the second child and only son of Henry and Mary A. Williams, his father being a native of Pitt county, N. C .; his mother, Mary A. Black, a native of Giles county, Tenn., near Pulaski.
He enlisted June 2, 1861, and was one of the organizers of the Yancey Rifles, Captain R. W. Pittman, and was elected orderly sergeant of that company, and attached to the Thir-
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J. M. WILLIAMS.
teenth Tennessee. In June, 1862. at his own request, he was transferred by General Polk to cavalry service, and assisted in raising, mounting and equipping a company of cavalry in Shelby and Fayette counties, about 200 strong, commanded by Captain Ed. E. Porter of Memphis, which became a part of Ballentine's Seventh Mississippi Cavalry Regiment, Arm- strong's Brigade. About six months before the close of the war this company, then only about thirty strong, was trans- ferred to Forrest's famous old regiment, which surrendered May 11, 1865, near Gainesville, Ala.
He was, for the greater part of these three years of cavalry service, specially detailed with Captain Ad. Harvey's Scouts, which rendered valuable service to Generals Armstrong and W. H. Jackson. Being always well mounted, cool and delib- erate, but determined and fearless, he was among the first to respond to a call for a volunteer to undertake a daring and 19
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perilous scout within the enemy's lines, and oftentimes in the enemy's camp. Harvey's Scouts and Armstrong's Brigade made a record that will yet be vivified by the historian's pen and will thrill the hearts of future generations. He was in many - battles and skirmishes, including Shiloh, Guntown, Holly Springs, Raymond, Big Black, Natchez. Brandon, Selma, Dalton, Ringgold, Big Shanty, New Hope, Atlanta, Jones- boro, etc. He was slightly wounded once, captured once and sent to Camp Chase, but escaped and rejoined his command.
He married Miss Sallie R. Wooten of Holly Springs, Miss., in 1872; has resided in Memphis since July, 1869; actively engaged in business since 1884, assisted by his son, Heber Williams, a promising young man of 20 years. He is prom- inently connected with several commercial, fraternal and be- nevolent organizations of the city of Memphis, and is well and favorably known; takes life philosophically, never sees the dark side, is genial, social, and of a happy disposition ; is a member of the Confederate Historical Association, and an active member of Company A, Confederate Veterans of Mem- phis, being commissary of the company, and enjoys the honor and privilege of feeding the Veterans when in camp; is hale and hearty, and bids fair for many years to extend the warm hand of brotherly love to his old comrades.
WOOD, JACOB MABIE, born in New York City January 21, 1845 ; resided in Memphis since 1858: enlisted in the May- nard Rifles, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee; the company joined the regiment March, 1862; was wounded late Sunday evening at the battle of Shiloh ; received treat- ment in camp for two months; never entered a hospital; was in all the important battles of the Army of Tennessee: Mur- freesboro, Chickamauga, Richmond, Ky., Perryville, Atlanta. Jonesboro, Franklin, Nashville, Missionary Ridge. Lookout Mountain, and was at the surrender at Greensboro, N. C., May 1, 1865 ; was senior officer in command of the One Hun- dred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee Regiment with twenty-three men at the surrender ; arrived in Memphis May 26, 1865.
While in camp at Tullahoma, Tenn., took a furlough for sixty days, instead of discharge (being under age) ; entered
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JACOB M. WOOD In 1863.
the lines of Memphis disguised as a citizen and remained three weeks, long enough to write home to his mother in New York and get a reply to his letters. It had been reported that he was killed at Perryville ; to correct this was his object in entering Memphis; he remained three weeks or until Gen- eral Hurlbut issned orders to hang all Confederate soldiers found in the city: drove out of the lines on the passport of Misses Fannie Ballard and Mollie Noble as their boy driver ; they lost their boy driver at Dr. Jos. Williams residence, about three miles from the city, after loading him with smuggled clothing, etc., for the boys. He hid these in an old ox wagon and drove that night with these fast goers to Hernando, Miss., and thence to Grenada, and arrived at army headquarters, at Tullahoma, the day his furlough expired. After the war Mr. Wood entered the service of a large drug house on Main street, Memphis, and has since become a partner and general
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manager ; he was married to Miss Blanche McConnell, daugh- ter of George McConnell, a noted architect, who drew the plans of the old St. Charles Hotel of New Orleans. Mr. and Mrs. Wood have two sons, Percy and Eugene. He is a direct descendant of the Knickerbocker stock that first settled in New York. His mother, Elizabeth Mabie, was born on Pearl street, in 1813, the farm of her parents running back to where the city hall now stands. Her father, Jacob Mabie, was born in Holland and came to this country in his youth. On other sides of the house Mr. Wood is of English and Scotch stock. In the war he illastrated the sturdy, enduring, patient and good-natured qualities of his ancestry, and it is the testimony of his late captain, E. A. Cole, still living, that he was at one time awarded a medal by a vote of his comrades as the most gallant and popular soldier of his company. The late Mrs. Sallie Chapman Gordon-Law, the "Mother of the Confed- eracy," in her little book, written in 1892, pays him a beau- tiful compliment on pages 13 and 14, one of which he and his family may ever feel justly proud.
CARROLL, CHARLES MONTGOMERY, a native of Nashville, Tenn., born in 1821; chosen Colonel of Fifteenth Tennessee Regiment at Jackson, Tenn., in June, 1861. The soldiers of his command were mainly from Memphis and largely of Irish birth. The regiment moved to Union City. marched .thence to New Madrid. thence into Missouri some distance from the river, afterward operated about Columbus, Ky., and also participated in the action at Belmont, being a part of Cheatham's Brigade. Evacuating Columbus in Feb- ruary, 1862, the regiment marched to Humboldt. then to Lexington, and later to Purdy. in time to take part in the two days' battle of Shiloh. Afterward. at Corinth, when the regiment was reorganized, at the expiration of its twelve- months service, Col. Carroll retired from the service. Col. Carroll. now in his seventy-sixth year, is a resident of Mem- phis. His father was the celebrated Carroll who led the Tennesseeans to victory on General Jackson's left on the plains of Chalmette. His grandfather emigrated to America from Ireland at the early age of 14 years. The mother of Colonel Carroll was a Montgomery, a niece of the Irish- American soblier who fell at the storming of Quebec in the winter of 1775.
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