The Southern Soldier Boy: A Thousand Shots for the Confederacy

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Elliott James Carson. The Southern Soldier Boy: A Thousand Shots for the Confederacy

PREFACE

Jamestown and Its Significance

The Jamestown Exposition

A Tribute to Virginia

History of Co. F

Supplemental to History of Company F

Confederate Monument at Shelby

A Patriotic Recruit

A Bad Case of Itch

Longstreet’s Corps Was on the Way to Chickamauga

Shooting an Outlaw

Removing Federal Prisoners From Richmond, Va., to Andersonville, Ga., February and March, 1864

Navigating the Appomattox River

Incidents on the Lines

Reminiscences of Point Lookout Prison

A Negro Sergeant Who Claimed He Carried White Ladies’ Hair

Begging Crumbs From a Negro’s Table

Two Patriotic Soldiers and One Who Was Out for the Bounty

On the Wharf Detail and Wanting to Steal Something from Uncle Sam’s Plentiful Stores

The Invasion of Home Land After Lee’s Surrender

A Faithful Negro Servant

Would Not Let Them Take All the Meat the Man Had

Confederate Troopers Commit Outrages, Plunder and Murder

A Hearty Conscript

Scenes at Appomattox – stragglers in the Union Army

A Patriotic Darkey

An Aggrieved Union Soldier Seeks Sympathy From His Southern People

Field Officers of Fifty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops

A True Virginia Boy and a Bit of Romance

Col. Billy Miller’s Upright Farm in the Upright Regions of Cleveland County, and How He Came to Own it, with Sketches of the County and Some of its People

Uncle Abe Wallis Visits Washington

An Irish Socialist

Seven Days’ Fight Around Richmond

The Negro Problem

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The English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, was the beginning of the highest civilization in the liberty of man and the establishment of the purest and best political government the world has ever known – perfected through many vicissitudes, stands as the beacon light of human liberty for all the world.

The founding of Jamestown was not a step in a struggle, but a trophy of victory. And, though it began the westward march of the Saxon tongue, which has long since encircled the globe, it marked the victory less of a race than of a civilization. It was really the dedication of a continent to individual liberty; it was the definite announcement that the worn-out systems of empire should not usurp the new western land. It was a trophy gained in a hundred years of such warfare as the world has rarely seen, but it was a thousand times worth the price.

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Hoke’s and Kemper’s brigades were on the west side. They fired the signal guns, advanced their picket lines as if they were going to assault from that side, while we quietly moved forward and covered half the distance before the fire was opened upon us. Then began the shower of shot and shell. The two regiments on the right soon struck their cattle lot, and we had a drove of cattle in front of us, but coming to a lagoon and swamp we had to let the cattle pass back through our line. Then through water and slush four feet deep we made our way through the swamp and re-formed under cover of a little hill. The three regiments on our left passed around the swamp. We then raised a yell and rushed forward upon the intrenchments and were soon in possession of them, the Yankees falling back and taking shelter behind the buildings, kept up a steady fire upon us as we advanced rapidly. Our field artillery soon came in and opened fire, while the Twenty-fifth swept along the river and captured a fort, and the other regiments drove the balance of the enemy into the big Fort Williamson, on the south side of the fortifications. The Fifty-sixth split into three sections. Maj. John W. Graham advanced the center faster than the wings and soon planted our flag on the west fortifications. This was a signal for Hoke’s and Kemper’s brigades to come in from that side. On Monday night of the first attack, at midnight, our ironclad gunboat, Albemarle, came down the river and cleared it of all the Yankee shipping, sinking and running off all their gunboats. The Albemarle was firing into Fort Williamson. General Hoke demanded the surrender of this fort, but General Wessel was slow in giving answer. When General Hoke began to form his Brigade to assault it, the Stars and Stripes were hauled down and a white flag raised. After three hours of hard fighting, the town with entire garrison, consisting of two fine New York and two Pennsylvania infantry regiments, with cavalry and strong artillery force, and besides the killed and wounded, 2,800 prisoners. The post was strongly fortified and well supplied with military stores and much mercantile goods. As soon as the surrender was made, all our troops were turned loose to help themselves to anything they wished – grocery and dry goods stores richly stocked to select from. Being more than sixty miles from a railroad, and the enemy still close by at Roanoke Island and Washington, we could only supply immediate needs. We were marched out of town that evening.

Nearly all the loss was in Ransom’s Brigade, which numbered about six hundred killed and wounded. The Fifty-sixth lost ninety men. Company F – John Webb, shot through the breast; Peter Price, through the lungs; Hosea Gladden, in bowels, and died; Anderson Nolan, Allen Cogdall, Adney Cogdall and William Chitwood were all severely wounded; Thomas Cabiness and several others wounded. Dr. Lieut. V. J. Palmer was very seriously wounded by having back of thigh cut with piece of shell.

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