USA > Texas > Montgomery County > A History of Montgomery County, Texas > Part 10
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We all had excellent health, but one man died, he belonged to a company from Henderson County. He died from inflamation of the brain. We staid over in New Crleans one day (Sunday). After we left N. C. on the Jackson road I was taken sick with something like the flux but have got entirely well. Twelve miles below Holly Springs, Miss we met with a sad accident, the loss of Ras. Cartwright.
We arrived here (Richmond) three days ago and are camped out in the edge of the city about a mile and a half from the capitol. I have been all over the Capitol grounds. I am now writing in the Library of the Capitol, they allow the Soldiers to come and write when they please. I have not seen the President yet, he is sick. He is going to visit camp as soon as he is able. Hon. J. H. Reagan and Lady were down to see us yesterday. We fare very well, plenty to eat. There is no war news of importance. No battle yet, only a few skrimishes. There are seventeen hundred prisoners now in Richmond. We pass by the prison going to Camps; they are a rough looking set. I do not know where our destination is yet. We have got no arms yet, do not know when we can get them. We have not yet formed into a regiment but will in a few days. I heard this morning that we were to be
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moved some ten or twelve miles from Richmond to a camp of instruction. I have not the least idea we will go into actual service before next spring. 18
Reaching Richmond on September 18, 1861, they pitched camp, which they called Camp Texas, and waited there until they were joined by other Texas companies at which time they were formed into the Fourth Texas Regiment with Colonel John B. Hood in command. The Fourth Regiment brigade with the First and Fifth Texas Regiments constituting a brigade which later became known, when Hood was promoted to a general, as Hood's Texas Brigade. 19
At the time that Company H of Montgomery County left Houston for Virginia, it was made up of one hundred and five men, and during the war there were added to the original company thirty- eight recruits and two substitutes, making a total membership of one hundred and forty-five members. 20 These men participated in practically every engagement of the Army of Northern Virginia, for Hood's Brigade played a prominent part in the various battles, with the exception of Chancellorsville; and in addition they fought with the forces opposed to General Sherman and General Thomas in
- 18 Letter of Zacharia Landrum to Melissa Landrum, September 21, 1861, in possession of Anna Davis Landrum Weisinger, Montgomery, Texas.
19 Chilton, op. cit., p. 13.
20 Loc. cit.
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Georgia and Tennessee, participating in the desperate fighting at Chickamauga and the siege of Knoxville. 21
One of the battles in which Company H participated, the battle of Gaines's Mill in 1862, was described by a soldier from Montgomery County. He wrote the following concerning the battle: . . . I suppose you have now heard about our glorious victory before Richmond. I would have written sooner but could get no paper and at last have made out to get this which is a poor apology. Willis and I neither were in the fight. Our Brigade left Richmond to go up in the Valley to reinforce old Stonewall Jackson . Willis was left at sick camp near Richmond, I had been there some- time but thought I was able to go. I started and the flux broke out on me very bad at Lynchburg. The Hospitals were so crowded there I could not get in, so I went on to Charlottsville where I was at the time of the fight. I left there Sunday to come back with Jackson. I passed over the battle field Monday where they had fought. Thursday until Monday our forces kept whipping them back and on Tuesday about 12 o'clock I got to where our Regiment was, but it was on the opposite side of a field and support- ing a battery of ours that was in the field shelling the enemy. The shells were flying all over the field and I could not get to them until next morning. Here, Tom Scott from Waverly got his let so shattered by a shell that it had to be cut off. Here, I first learned our loss accurately. We had ten killed out of our company on the field. I will name all you know. Charlie Conrow was shot through the breast, was dead when found. T. O. Wilkes, who lived with Joe Evans, shot through with a grape shot, was dead when found. R. Quigley, son-in-law to old man Travis, I don't know where he was hit. Ben Allen lived up on Lake Creek near Alstons, shot in the head. A great many were wounded, among them Capt. Porter, in flesh part of the thigh. He was taken to Richmond and there was taken with the Typhoid
Loc. cit.
27
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fever anddied in a few days - thus went as true and noble a man as lived. . . . Lt. Randolph was wounded, in the heel, Billy Fisher was wounded in the arm. I saw him yesterday. He is coming out here to sick camp to stay until his arm gets well. No bones broken, he will be well in a few weeks. I told him I was going to write home, he says tell his folks that he is doing finely, can't come home till he gets revenge. He did not get but one shot before he was wounded. Clint Lewis was wounded through the shoulder. Billy says he was doing finely when he left to go to his uncles. Henry Travis was wounded in the arm, he has come out to camp so his wound is not very bad. Capt. Hutchinson was wounded through the arm and breast with a grape shot, and died the next day. “22
Later, in 1863, Zacharia Landrum wrote again, describing the battle at Gettysburg, in which engagement Company H lost half of its men dead or wounded. In the letter he said:
. . . I would have answered your letter that you wrote me by Jimmie Cartwright, but we have been on the move ever since, and in that trip, to Pennsylvania, where I received a slight check in my farther process from a Yankee. You have no doubt before now received through the papers an account of the fight at Gettysburg. It was one of the severest battles that has been fought during this war. We had to fight the Yankees on a Mountain, when it was very steep and rocks as large as a meeting house. We drove them back a distance of a mile and a half and took between 10 and 15,000 prisoners. Had gone a considerable distance up the mountain when one of the rascals put me to a stand still by the means of a minnie ball through the thigh just above the knee and across the top of my thigh going in my left thigh and out striking the other, bruising it a good deal but not going in ..
22 Letter of Zacharia Landrum to Nancy Gay, July 27, 1862, in possession of Anna Weisinger.
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I will give you so far as I know a list of the killed and wounded of our company. Lieut, Ben Reynolds from Anderson killed. Lt. Spivey from Huntsville wounded in the leg, I. Stuessey wounded in the foot, Bob Rankin fore finger shot off at first joint. A. B. Seay wounded in the foot, he was at home on furlough last year and in Montgomery. I believe that is all that you know. I will mention that Jack Ellis was wounded in the leg and Tom Dillard is missing, they are two of Mr. Wm. Taylor's friends. A. Taylor, Billy Fisher, Green Griggs, Jim Hall, Henry Travis, and Dick Walker, and Ruben Talley are all safe. John I. Smith was not in the fight, was left sick at Culpeper. We lost about half the Co. wounded Bob Brantter is taken prisoner, Col. Powell supposed to be killed. I can't give the particulars as I was carried to the Hospital one morning and sent on in a wagon to Villiamsport, Md. and from there here in an ambulance. They are sending the wounded from here to Stannton as fast as they can. . . . 23
In another letter written some days after the one quoted above, he wrote more particulars concerning the battle of Gettysburg. Part of the letter is quoted as follows:
I gave you a list of the killed and wounded in my other letter, but I suppose you have seen a list published before now in some of the Texas papers. Willis was not in the fight, he was sick at the time and is here now at the Texas Hospital, nothing serious. We lost about half of our company killed and wounded, but one killed that we know of for certain, Lt. Reynolds from Anderson. It was one of the severest battles of the war. V. e had to charge through a wheat field about 500 yards wide with the Yankee artillery of about 100 guns fireing on us after reaching the woods, where there was a stone fence, at the foot of a mountain, we ran the Yankees from the fence and up the side of the mountain which was quite steep and covered all over with large rocks until we drove them away, up to the top of the mountain where they had breastworks and thru lines of battle from which we were unable to drive them away, We fell back
23 Letter of Zacharia Landrum to Nancy Gay, July 15, 1863, in possession of Anna Weisinger.
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about a hundred or two yards and lay there until our retreat from there. I was wounded about 3 hundred yards before we got to the breastworks, the fight we were in was on the 2nd of July, on the fourth they started all the wounded that could walk and ride in the ambulances and wagons to the rear. I was in a wagon with five others of our company, we started on the morning of the 4th and drove without stopping or anything to eat until next eveing we arrived at Williamsport, Md. on the Potomac to find the river up and the pontoons destroyed by the Yankees. We had a rough time coming down on a turnpike across the mountain, the roads are made of rock thrown in the road and beat down, and a wagon running over them, with the Yankee cavalry running into the train, and the wagons stopping and then having to trot, to catch up and keep closed up, with a sore leg is anything but pleasant.
After our arrival at Williamsport, they had a cavalry fight, or at least the Yanks had cavalry, and we had wagoners and a few infantry, they had artillery and I had just got undehan sWert past through an ambulance up on the bank and bursted a few feet in front of me. We hobbled down to the Ferry and our Quarter Master advised us to go across the river, we got over and staid there four or five days. As good luck would have it we met up with one of the Fifth Texas going on to the Regiment, he stopped with us, drew rations and cooked them and got us a tent and we got along very well. We staid at Winchester three or four days when we were sent to Stannton and from there here, and an awful hole it is. The bedding and everything is nice with the ex- ception of the eating which is beef and bread, and not enough of that, for morning and dinner and bread and coffee (hot water) made from wheat for supper.
The report was in circulation here that Texas and La. and Ark. had seceded from the Southern Confederacy and placed themselves under the protection of France. I was in hopes it was so. I think when a nation can't protect the states that form it, they ought to protect themselves in the best way they can. I would much rather the French, ( if it does come to the worst) should rule us than any nation on the Globe. I am anxious that
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the war should close, but I am not willing to go under Abe's Rule. We will fight until all are killed or we will have our Independence. 24
By the close of the war practically all of Company H had been killed or incapacitated, because out of the one hundred and forty-five original members, when Company H along with the other companies of Hood's Brigade surrendered at Appomattox, only nine men were left in the company. Sixty-seven had been killed on the battle fields, while forty-seven were wounded, many of them dying from their wounds in the hospitals. Some had gotten discharged, others were captured as prisoners, and one had transferred to the navy. 25*
While the younger men of Montgomery County were off fight- ing in the war the older men and heads of families were busy at home organizing into units of home guard. Soon after Company H left, several companies were formed in the county to serve in the State Militia in case the state was invaded. The county was divided into five beats and each beat formed a company led by a captain who was selected from the company by the men of the group. Over the captains was a major appointed by the Adjutant-General in Austin. The com- panies were attached to the Third Regiment, Seventeenth Brigade of the Texas State Troops. In 1862 the major over the Montgomery
24 Letter of Zacharia Landrum to Nancy Gay, August 4, 1863, in possession of Anna Weisinger.
25 Chilton, op. cit., p. 123
*See Appendix B for a list of the members of Company H
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County companies was Israel Worsham from the town of Montgomery. 26
One of the first home guard companies formed was Captain Lem. G. Clepper's company of "Montgomery County Rifle Boys" organized from beat three. While reporting to the authorities about the organization of the company, Clepper wrote the following:
Permet me to report to you a volunteer company numbering Seventy men known as the "Montgomery County Rifle Boys". Organized as home guards under the order issued to you by Adjutant-General Byrd, made up of poor men who can not leave their homes but a few weeks at a time without leaving their families destitute or in want, but are willing to act as minute men in case their Services should be deamed necessary for a few weeks at a time; except during time of planting and making their crops, and desire that you should report the following members and officers as home guards and active minute men should the services of said company be demanded as such. 27
The men listed by Clepper were: Lem. G. Clepper, Captain; S. W. Smith, First Lieutenant; William T. Jones, Second Lieutenant, H. D. Ethridge, Third Lieutenant; and seventy-two enlisted men were enrolled.
Another home guard company formed in 1861 was that of Captain R. O. Oliver's company. Most of his men were from beat one of the town of Montgomery. The company doctor for this company 26 Memorial Confederate Muster Rolls, May 10, 1862, in Texas State Archives, Number 398.
27 Ibid., July 22, 1861, Number 296.
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was Doctor J. L. Irion, and when the company organized it was immediately dispatched to Galveston Island to do patrol duty in that vicinity. 28
The following letter written from Montgomery to Galveston explains the preparations that were made by the local citizens to provide for Oliver's company stationed in Galveston:
. I went to church last Sunday and then and . there saw several of the young ladies of the ville and vicinity looking well but lonely. I had a few days previous been up in the Court House where Miss Cora and others who were calling and making up pants for Capt. Oliver's Company. The sewing was generally done at home. I went up to get Bro. Neal's and yours to have made but some of the young ladies were ahead of me, so you and he may know you are not forgot.
Davis and Ellis made rapid sales of their new goods especially calico etc. Davis sold $1, 000 per day for several days. Villis and Bro. have nearly sold out and Davis and Ellis sell on credit. P. J. Willis returned lately from Mississippi and Alabama. Says he will let the residue of their goods go as the main stock has gone, but that he is done buying.
I think my household can Mqueeze along next year in the way of clothes. I propose wearing ossanbury pants next summer, but Mrs. Davis bought me some linen the other day. Some, if not many, of the women folks bought for weeks back, as though they really feared they would have nothing to wear. I am not uneasy about clothes next year; but I fear I may not have enough to eat. I have got no pork or salt. I believe I can buy and pay for salt, yet, I have hopes that some of those in debt
28 Personal interview of the author with Mrs. J. B. Addison, Montgomery, Texas, July 8, 1952.
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to me will supply my smoke house at some price. If they don't, I will do the best I can. We ourselves now have cornbread, beef and barley coffee without sugar. We make some butter and have a pretty good garden. Times are growing harder and men becoming more selfish.
I am pleased to learn that the health of Captain Oliver's Company is now pretty good and partically so to know that you are well and getting along finely in the discharge of duty and find some agreeable society in the City. Mr. I. C. Davis and Griffin are nearly the only young men to call on the ladies. Miss Iantha (Lewis) was over a few days last week. Mr. Clepper is a candidate for Colonel in this militia regi- ment. He is in good health, sickness is not over with here. 29
In beat two the company organized was led by Captain S. D. Wooldridge. This was a cavalry company called the "Mounted Riflemen". When it was organized, Captain Wooldridge wrote the following letter to the Adjutant-General in Austin:
Capt. S. D. Wooldridge's Co. of "Mounted Rifelmen" Danville, Montgomery Co., February 14, 1862 17th Brig.
To the Adjutant-Genl:
Sir I here with report and transmit -- in obedience to an act passed Dec. 25, 1861, a "volunteer company of "Mounted Riflemen", or troop formed on the 4th day of May 1861, under an act passed Febr. 15, 1858.
Forty-two of this roll are married men heads of families. The company has drilled once every week
29 Letter of Nat Hart Davis to William H. Warren, December 17, 1861, in possession of Mrs. J. B. Addison, Montgomery, Texas.
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since its formation and then has left its ranks for active service about thirty. The company is armed with shotguns and rifles, about an equal number of each. This company has reported to Genl. Hebert and was accepted by him to be called immediately into service in case of invasion.
W. D. Wooldridge, Capt. 30
Fifty-three officers and men were enlisted in Captain Wooldridge's cavalry.
Beat four organized their company on March 29, 1862 and elected John N. Scott, Captain; W. W. Mills, First Lieutenant; Owen Shannon, Second Lieutenant; William Polk, Junior-Second Lieutenant. 31
Beat five of Montgomery County organized their company March 10, 1862, and the following letter was written concerning the election:
This certifies that at an election held, on the 10th day of March, 1862 in Beat No. 5 in the county of Montgomery, to elect company officers for the company of State Troops within said beat, the following persons were duly elected viz: A. Phillips, Captain; J. F. Mc- Fadin, Ist Lieutenant; Samuel Haden, 2nd Lieutenant; Alexander Copeland, Junior-Second Lieutenant.
Please forward commissions for the above officers to Maj. Israel Worsham of the town of Montgomery. Also
30 Confederate Muster Rolls, February 14, 1862, op. cit., Number 1148.
31 Ibid., April 7, 1862.
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Send to Major W. the copies of the Military Laws to 32 which the officers of Montgomery County are entitled.
Practically every able-bodied man in Montgomery County was, before the war ended, mustered into one of these companies. In 1864 nearly all were doing some phase of war duty, either guarding at Galveston or fighting in the war across the Mississippi. Men were at such a premium in Montgomery County just before the close of the conflict, and so many men had gone from the town of Montgomery, that a Confederate soldier doing patrol duty when he passed through the town in 1864, described the village in his diary by saying that, "the war had dried the little place up -- not a door open in it. " 33
The women of Montgomery County had a voluminous job during the war. They busied themselves with spinning, weaving, and making clothes for the soldiers. Nearly every family bought wheels and looms, and an abundance of cloth was manufactured. The trade across the Rio Grande, and that carried on by running the blockade, kept the people tolerably well supplied with such necessities as could not be produced in the State.
To show the tasks of the women during the war, the following parts of letters written by women during the Civil War are quoted:
32 Ibid., March 10, 1862.
33 H. C. Medford, "Diary, " Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXXIV (Austin: The Texas State Historical Association, 1930), p. 138.
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. . . The ladies have been busy the last few days making uniforms which are grey trimed with yellow, they look very pretty. . . . Times are very hard here, it takes all the money we can spare for the soldiers, though not withstanding the blockade we have plenty to eat. I have raised a great many chickens this year and we have had fine gardens, and all kinds of vege- tables in abundance. . 34
In 1862 another correspondent wrote:
Well how do you get on making cloth, I have made 90 yds. and have another piece ready to weave. Plain white cloth is selling for 50 and 60 cents per yd. , and calico at 25 and 30. I bought several calico dresses, but we have no where to go. No preaching for several months. I made me a nice hat and dyed it black out of wheat straw. I have been busy making Mr. Davis shirts. Ma and Hellen are making them a tulip quilt like yours. .. 35
In 1863 a letter from Fairfield, Texas reached Montgomery
and said in part:
. I have no news of importance to write only we are all busy at work here. I am spinning me some dresses, I have almost got them done. We have to make our own clothes up here. The people here are all hard at work, I want you to write to me what you all are doing down there, if you are trying to make any cloth about Montgomery and how you are getting along in that way. I would like to know what you do for cotton cards down there, they are very scarce up here and very high also. Every thing in the provision line is very high, bacon is selling for 50 cents per pound, corn 2 dollars per bushel. We have some new comers to this neighborhood, among them are some families from the northern states that have lost nearly all of their property. It was taken from them by the Yankees. 36 .
347 Letter of Amelia Jane Davis to Betty Davis, August 7, 1861, in Addison Collection.
35 Letter of Amelia Jane Davis to Betty Davis, December 30, 1862, in Addison Collection.
36 Letter of Elizabeth Bennett to Betty Davis, February 22, 1863, in Addison Collection.
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On June 19, 1865 General Gordon Granger of the United States Army landed on Galveston Island, assumed military command over Texas, declared all that had been done by the State government since 1861 null and void, and proclaimed the freedom of the Negroes; hence the reconstruction period began.
Montgomery County had its share of corruptness during the reconstruction period like any other thickiy populated Negro county. The first trouble began at the time emancipation was confirmed by General Granger. In June all crops were at a stage where they needed much care and attention. Many of the slave owners did not want to tell their field hands about the emancipation until fall when the crops
had been harvested. This created some excitement between the newly appointed federal officials of the county and the local farmers. Finally contracts were given to the Negroes to finish out the farming year. By fall, when the crops were gathered, all the slaves had been turned loose to wander about the county to grapple for a living as best as they could. The freed Negroes became destitute, and when winter approached a rumor of a Negro insurrection was talked which caused the local citizens to be uneasy for their safety. Close to Christmas time rumors had become so alarming that the citizens petitioned the Governor to send state troops for protection. The petition that the citizens sent is as follows:
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The undersigned respectfully ask leave to represent to you, that they have, as they verily believe good grounds to apprehend an insurrection of the Negroes at or about the New Year at this place and Waverly, and they can not doubt, from information had from other parts of the State, and the Warnings of the public prints that an insurrectionary organization -- perhaps aided by the Jay Hawking element -- exists wherever the Negroes are in numbers.
The collected information of numberous reliable in- dividuals, both as to the conduct of and admission by Negroes, of the fact that a general rising and division of property is contemplated, on the part of the Negroes; (those admitting it, however, denying all connection on their part with the movement) cannot be ignored, however, much their good conduct during the war would lead us to hope it otherwise.
What the Negroes, in the face of the strongest assurances of the authorities and the late speeches of Genls. Strong and Gregory warning them to the contrary, they still determinedly believe and express their belief that a general division of the Land and property of the county, will be made among them, if not at Christmas, yet as soon as the "Great Man", the Superior officer of the Govt. can attend to making it.
Another belief prevails among them that in the event of an insurrection, the Government soldiers will not take part against them, and from the intimacy or fraternization that takes place, on all occasions, between them and the Govt. and Common soldiers -- even those that escorted Genl. Gregory in his late tour, we cannot doubt but that the Negroes have some gounds for this belief.
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