TEN CENT BILL YOPP

A Man to Whom Friendship Was Paramount

History will be made in Georgia's capitol building next week. For the first time ever, the State of Georgia will recognize and honor an African-American Confederate Soldier. Governor Sonny Perdue will sign his annual proclamation honoring Confederate Memorial Day by recognizing Bill Yopp, a native of Laurens County, for his contributions to the State of Georgia. Bill Yopp is more than just a black Confederate soldier. Bill's life was not just that of a soldier, a porter, or a servant. His life was centered on the essential element of human life. His friendships transcended slavery, racism and politics. To Bill, friendship was paramount to any barriers set in his path of life.

William H. "Bill" Yopp, the fourth of eight siblings, was born in Laurens County, Georgia. Like his parents, he was a slave belonging to the family of Jeremiah Yopp. The Yopp family owned two major plantations. One was located in the western part of Dublin centered around the Brookwood Subdivision. A second was located along the eastern banks of Turkey Creek near the community known as Moore's Station. Other small plantations were scattered over the county. Jeremiah Yopp assigned Bill to his son, Thomas. Bill once said that he followed Thomas like "Mary's little lamb." The two instantly became friends. They fished, hunted and played together. Bill's childhood, while stifled by slavery, was molded by education and religion within the plantation, which included regular church services.

On January 16, 1861, John W. Yopp attended the Convention of Secession at the state capital in Milledgeville. Laurens Countians voted to side with the Cooperationists who favored remaining in the Union. Yopp, the largest plantation owner in western Laurens County, was joined by Dr. Nathan Tucker, a wealthy plantation owner from northeastern Laurens County. Dr. Tucker, a northerner by birth, voted to remain in the Union. Yopp cast his vote with the majority who voted for secession.

The first company of Confederate Soldiers in Laurens County was organized on July 9th, 1861 as the Blackshear Guards. The company eventually became attached to the 14th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Thomas Yopp was elected First Lieutenant. Nine days later Lt. Yopp was promoted to Captain when Rev. W.S. Ramsay was elected Lt. Colonel of the regiment. Bill desperately wanted to join Lieutenant Yopp. So, he enlisted in the Blackshear Guards as the company drummer. Marching in front of company going into battle was not the best place to be, especially if you cared about living. After the company completed its training in Atlanta, they moved to Lynchburg, Virginia just after the Battle of the First Manassas. In August, the company was sent to West Virginia, where they fought under the command of Gen. John B. Floyd, a former Secretary of War in the Buchanan Administration. Gen. Robert E. Lee was in overall command of the West Virginia campaign.

Bill often found himself between the battle lines. He often said "I had no inclination to go to the Union side, as I did not know the Union soldiers and the Confederate soldiers I did know, and I believed then as now, tried and true friends are better than friends you do not know." On several occasions, Private Yopp was sent out on foraging missions. Bill ceased to forage for food because his Captain and friend found it to be "wrong doing." Bill obtained a brush and box of shoe blackening and began to shine the shoes of the men of the regiment. He soon began performing other services for the men. Bill charged ten cents, no matter what the service was. The nickname of "Ten Cent Bill" was penned on Bill. Bill often had more money than anyone in the company. His fellow company members took delight in teaching him to read and write. When he was sick, they took care of him.

Bill had a case of home sickness. Captain Yopp paid for his trip home. Bill realized that his place was back  ith Captain Yopp in Virginia. During the winter of 1861, the company became part of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The first battle of the peninsular campaign of 1862 took place on May 31st.  The 14th Georgia, under the command of Gen. Wade Hampton, got into a bloody fight with the Federal forces. Four Confederate Generals were wounded or killed.

Captain Yopp was also wounded in the Battle of Seven Pines. Bill comforted Captain Yopp and accompanied him to the field hospital. After a short stay in a Richmond Hospital, Bill went back to Laurens County with the Captain, who recuperated from his injury and went back to join the company by the fall of 1862.

At the bloody siege of Fredericksburg, Captain Yopp fell when a shell burst over him. Again Bill was there, coming to the aid of his friend. Captain Yopp recovered during the winter. The company saw Stonewall Jackson being carried off to a field hospital at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Bill witnessed the pure carnage of Gettysburg from the company's position on Seminary Ridge. The Blackshear Guards missed most of the fighting those three days in July, 1863. On August 31, 1863 Capt. Yopp cashiered, or bought out his commission. He returned to the ranks as a private until April 2, 1864. Captain Yopp transferred to the Confederate Navy on board the cruiser "Patrick Henry." Bill was not allowed to go with Thomas Yopp.

By some accounts, Bill returned home until the close of the war. By another, and more official, record, he was present at Gen. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. In May of 1865, he learned of Captain Yopp's return home. He left just in time to see the wagon train of Confederate President Jefferson Davis during his attempted escape through Laurens County.

Times were hard for people of both races. Bill worked as a share cropper until 1870. He went to Macon, taking a job as a bell boy at the Brown House. There he became acquainted with many of the influential men of Georgia. Bill accompanied the owner of the hotel back home to Connecticut. After his duties were finished, he was given train fare to return home. Bill became fascinated with New York City and worked there for a short time. In 1873, Bill returned home for a short time before taking a position with the Charleston and Savannah Railroad. He fell ill with yellow fever and returned home to recuperate and spend some time with Captain Yopp.

Bill returned to New York where he worked as a porter in an Albany Hotel.  There he again met the influential men of the state. He briefly served a family in California. In his travels, Bill visited the capitals of Europe. He worked for ten years as a porter in the private car of the president of Delaware and Hudson Railroad. Bill then worked for the United States Navy aboard the "Collier Brutus". His travels amounted to a trip around the world.

As the world was at war for the first time, Bill realized that old age had crept upon him. He returned home and found his friend Captain Yopp in poverty. Captain Yopp was about to enter the Confederate Soldier's Home in Atlanta. Bill took a job on the Central of Georgia Railroad. During World War I, Bill was given a place to live at Camp Wheeler near Macon. He made regular visits to the Soldier's Home providing Captain Yopp with some of his money along with fruits and other treats. Bill won the admiration of the officers at Camp Wheeler, who presented him with a gold watch upon his departure. Bill's generosity toward Capt. Yopp soon spread to all of the soldiers in the home. He enlisted the help of the editor of The Macon Telegraph for aid in a fund raising campaign. Bill and his friends were able to raise funds for each veteran at Christmas time. The campaign became more successful every year. The Dublin Courier Herald contributed to the campaign in 1919 when the amount given to each veteran was three dollars. Bill took time each  Christmas to speak to the veterans in the chapel of the home. The veterans were so impressed they presented him a medal in March of 1920. Bill had a book published about his life. The books were sold with the proceeds going to the soldiers in the home.

Bill and Thomas Yopp at Confederate Veteran's Home

Captain Yopp's health failed. The Board of Trustees voted to allow Bill a permanent place at the home. Bill stayed at his friend's side, just as he had done in the muddy trenches of Virginia nearly sixty years before. Captain Yopp died on the morning of January 23rd, 1920. Bill, now in his eighties, gave the funeral address.  He reminisced about the good times and his affection for his friend. Bill was a popular member of the Atlanta Camp No. 159 of the United Confederate Veterans, who held their meetings every third Monday at the capitol. Bill died on June 3, 1936. He was buried with his fellow soldiers at the Confederate Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia. After the body of Amos Rucker was disinterred to be laid next to the body of his wife, Bill became the lone African - American soldier of the Confederate Army to lie in the cemetery. His gravestone provided by the State of Georgia reads:

DRUMMER BILL YOPP, CO. H, 14TH GA. INF., C.S.A.

WILLIAM PHYSICK ZUBER

First Historian of Texas

William Physick Zuber had a talent for remembering the events in his life. He lived through many of the most remarkable events in the history of our nation and his state. Zuber was a German by his ancestry, a Georgian by his birth, and a Texan for eternity. During the last forty years of his life, he began writing historical articles for the Texas State Historical Association Quarterly and other historical publications.

William Zuber was born near the town of Marion in Twiggs County on July 6, 1820. His father, Abraham Zuber, Jr., came to Georgia from Pennsylvania during his childhood. His mother, Mary Ann Mann, came from South Carolina to Twiggs County in 1814 to live with her grandparents, Robert and Mollie Deshazo. The elder Zuber moved to Marion, the county seat of the infant Twiggs County, to establish a mercantile business. Abraham and Mary Ann married on February 16, 1816. They established a farm outside of town, where William was born.

The Zubers, like many other Georgians, moved to the new lands of Alabama following the end of the Indian Wars. They landed in Montgomery County, where they lived until 1824. They moved again- this time to East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Abraham Zuber began traveling and made several trips to the Mexican state of Texas. In the summer of 1830, the Zubers once again packed their worldly belongings and moved. After a temporary stay in the District of Aes, William's family moved to Harrisburgh in Stephen Austin's colony. They kept on moving. In Brazoria, their closest neighbors were two miles away. It was in Brazoria where William began to read historical literature. After he read "The Life of Gen. Francis Marion" and "The Life of Washington," Zuber was inspired to serve in the defense of his community against Mexican oppression. One year later the Zubers moved to the future site of Grimes County, which was even more remote than Brazoria.

As the Mexican Army began to invade Texas in 1835, tensions there began to boil. William's thoughts were constantly turning to joining the local military company. His father, discounting his father's service during the American Revolution, tried to talk fourteen-year-old William from joining the militia. His mother would have no part of it.

News came to the community of Gen. Santa Anna's investment in the Alamo. Responding to the calls for help from Col. Travis, Capt. Bennett, the local militia commander formed a small company of a dozen men and boys. On the morning of March 6, 1836, the company left for the Alamo. Zuber's mother wept as she saw her son, a foot soldier in the company, on his way to what she knew would be his death. Before the company reached its destination, they heard the news of the fall of the Alamo. Capt. Bennett ordered his men to dig in and await further orders. On March 20th, Bennett's Company combined its forces with four other companies. On the 25th, the company received news of the massacre of Col. James W. Fannin and his men at Goliad. Fannin, another native of Twiggs County, was murdered after surrendering his men to Mexican forces. For the next several weeks, Zuber and his company patrolled along the Brazos River in anticipation of Santa Anna's crossing.

Just days before the showdown with Santa Anna, Zuber was detailed to care for the sick and wounded in camp. He desperately tried to find someone to take his place so that he could go into battle. Remember that he was still only fifteen years old. When Capt. Gillespie made his final decision and ordered William to remain, the young boy broke into tears.

William heard the reports of gunfire from San Jacinto on the 21st of April. He yearned to be there, in battle like the heroes in the books. Two days after the battle in which Texans defeated the Mexican Army and captured Santa Anna, William walked onto the battlefield, alone. The corpses of Mexican soldiers were strewn in the fields. The sights and smells of decaying bodies sickened him. William was allowed to peek under a blanket where Mexican General Cos was lying. After five days, the stench of death was unbearable. Zuber and his command were ordered to march to Goliad to bury the bones of Col. Fannin's command.

Zuber remained in the service for two years , protecting his home and community from Indian raids. Crops still had to be planted and harvested, so Zuber plowed with his gun lying in the row next to where he was plowing. For several years, Zuber participated in campaigns against Indian and Mexican invaders. In 1844, Zuber was astonished when he was asked to teach school in Walker County. He had very little formal education. He considered himself to be self educated. Zuber, as he had for years, diligently worked to improve his writing skills. His first published writing came in a short article in "The Galveston News" in 1855.

In 1861, at the beginning of what Zuber called "The Confederate War," the old desire to serve in the military came back. After making the necessary arrangements to protect his family, he enlisted as a private in Col. Carter's Lancers. Shortly after he left, Zuber received word that his youngest child was dangerously ill. Fearing the worst, he asked for a furlough, which was denied by Col. Carter. His captain, feeling sorry for him, detailed Zuber back to his home on a recruiting mission. Happily he found his family in good health and immediately returned to camp.

During the early months of the war, Zuber began praying with fellow soldiers. He also joined a Masonic Lodge within the regiment and achieved the degree of Master Mason in 1864. His Methodist faith and Masonic beliefs helped him to get through his second war. Zuber's Regiment, the 21st Texas Cavalry, campaigned in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri for the rest of the war. Zuber's accounts of his regiment and the army's activities are some of the best ever published. While he saw action, Zuber never faced the horrific armies of the Potomac and the Tennessee. When the news of the surrender of Generals Lee and Johnston came, the Texas cavalrymen were still making preparations to continue the fight. Zuber was wounded and had half of his left "pinkie" finger amputated after the pain became too intense. Zuber returned home, unable to tend to his farm. He taught school for a while before returning to his farm.

In 1870, the Texas Legislature authorized pensions for all Texans who served in the Texas military beginning July 1, 1836. Zuber got involved in and became a leader of the pension movement. He continued to teach. In 1873, he wrote a descriptive account of Moses Rose's escape from the Alamo. In 1904, following the death of his wife, Zuber moved to Austin, where he served as tour guide in the State Senate Chamber. Despite his failing eyesight and vertigo, Zuber continued to write. He had three rules: "Write about true and interesting facts. Search out and correct your own mistakes. Search out and correct the errors of others." William Zuber, like all historians, never finished writing about everything he knew. He died on May 22, 1913 and was buried with Masonic honors in the State Cemetery in Austin. Zuber's writings were compiled by his niece, resulting in his autobiography, "My Eighty Years in Texas."

THE SAVIOR OF SANDERSVILLE

Rev. James D. Anthony

Union army invades Sandersville.  Harper's Weekly, January 6, 1865.


Rev. James Dannelly Anthony was one of the great Methodist ministers of Nineteenth Century Georgia. He was dubbed “The Bishop of the Wiregrass” for his conversion of thirty thousand South Georgians to the Methodist faith. His father, Rev. Whitfield Anthony, was a leader of the Methodist Church in South Carolina.

His son, Bascom Anthony, was a minister in the Methodist Church for more than fifty years and a former District Superintendent of the Dublin District from 1912 to 1915.

Rev. J.D. Anthony served as Presiding Elder of the Dublin District from 1879 to 1880. He also served in that capacity in the Eastman District from 1881 to 1882 and 1891 to 1894. Rev. Anthony died on January 26, 1899. The South Carolina-born minister was first licensed to preach on October 24, 1846, twelve days after his twenty-first birthday. He spent seventeen years in North Georgia. While in North Georgia, he preached the gospel, farmed his land, and taught school. During the darkest days of the Civil War in 1863, Rev. Anthony and his family were transferred to Sandersville, Georgia. After the war, Rev. Anthony would serve as editor of Sandersville newspaper, “The Central Georgian.”

It was November 25th, 1864. The left wing of General W.T. Sherman’s Union army was approaching Sandersville with its two corps and sixty thousand men. The other wing was only a few miles away below Tennille. Reports of explosions at Milledgeville, twenty-seven miles away, could be heard. Judge Hook presided over a meeting of all the town’s white males. With no defense against the oncoming hoard, the men decided it would be in the best interest of the town to surrender Sandersville to Sherman and beg for his mercy. One by one, those appointed to be chairman of the committee to meet the Union Army, came up with an excuse to leave. Rev. Anthony’s name was called. He announced that he would remain in town, mainly on account of his invalid wife and his small children. Anthony stated his acceptance of the mission was not out of bravery or foolishness, but because his wife was unable to feed herself or turn over in bed without his help. Anthony became a committee of one. A few hours later, a portion of Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry rode into town. That afternoon, Wheeler’s horsemen skirmished with Union cavalry three miles west of town. Thirteen Federal prisoners were brought into town. During the night all but one of the prisoners were sent away.

The sole Union prisoner was a calvary lieutenant who had his forearm broken by a mini ball. Captain Harlow told Rev. Anthony that the wounded prisoner would be shot on the outskirts of town. Anthony plead for the life of the man. A Confederate surgeon released the Union officer, who sprang to his feet and ran to Rev. Anthony. Anthony took the man to the church parsonage. The town doctor came by to comfort the lieutenant. At that moment, Wheeler’s cavalry formed a line with two thousand soldiers near the parsonage. After one volley, they galloped away.

Union forces fired back after a few minutes. The parsonage was struck several times, but the inhabitants were unharmed. In another few minutes, Union soldiers were swarming around the town and parsonage area. As soon as they entered the home, the wounded lieutenant ordered them not to harm anyone or anything in the house.


The man’s colonel obliged and placed an armed guard around the home. Word spread throughout the Union ranks of the rebel preacher’s deeds of kindness.


Union officers came in one by one to check on the wounded Illinois man. One was an officer by the name of Thomas Morris. Anthony told him he knew a Thomas Morris who was a former Methodist bishop. Morris was astonished. He knew of the other Morris, who was a cousin of his. Anthony said “ It always pays to do right. I was actuated by Christian principles. The good Lord blessed that act to the good of my myself, my family, and my town.”

Late that afternoon, a division commander told Rev. Anthony of the plans to burn the town at sunrise. The general suggested that Anthony go directly to Gen. Sherman’s headquarters to beg him to save the town. “Your house won’t be burned, because you saved Lt. Deason,” the general assured Anthony. Sherman had been wrongly informed that the musketry fire came from local citizens. The wounded man was carried away, telling Anthony of his eternal gratitude and promising to see him again. Anthony never heard from Lt. Deason. He presumed that he died of his wounds.

The general sent an escort to take Rev. Anthony to Sherman’s headquarters. Anthony met Sherman and Generals Logan and Davis two hundred yards from Sherman’s tent. Anthony was introduced as “the Rebel parson who saved one of our men from being shot.” The Reverend handed the bearded Sherman his credentials as a minister of the gospel. Sherman couldn’t decipher them, but took the authorization papers from the town government. “Why didn’t you show me this before we entered the town? I would have marched my men through the town and nothing would have been injured,” Sherman replied. Anthony, a little befuddled at Sherman’s question, told the General that it was impossible for him to ride out and meet the charging cavalry. Anthony asked Sherman if he planned to burn the town.

Sherman responded affirmatively. Anthony asked if all of the towns in the path of the Union army were burned. Sherman said, “no.” “Then why treat us more differently than others,” Rev. Anthony said. Sherman said that he had been informed that rebel citizens fired upon his men, a fact that was immediately denied by Anthony who stated, “There are only, besides me, four adult white males in town, three of which are old men.” Sherman intently stared the Reverend in the face.

Anthony stared back, trying to find a tender spot in the warrior’s heart. Anthony told of the hardships to the women and children that a fire would bring. Anthony tried to put Sherman in his place. Sherman chastised Anthony and other Southern ministers for not seeking an early end to the war. Anthony responded “that in the South, we ministers leave the politicians alone and preach the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus Christ.” Anthony begged again for the women and children, stating that the Federals had already taken all food in the town.


Anthony pleaded for Sherman to save the town for a fellow Mason. Members of the Masonic brotherhood rarely harmed the private property of other Masons unless in times of combat. The three Generals conferred in secret. Sherman said to Anthony, “Sir, upon your assurance that your citizens did not fire on my men, I will revoke the order to burn the town, but we will burn these two public buildings, viz., the courthouse and the jail.” Anthony, silently thanking God, told the feared and dreaded Union general, “Since you spare our dwellings, I ask no more.” Anthony left for home.

The next morning the elegant courthouse was torched and reduced to rubble by fire and artillery shells. It had served as a firing platform when the Federal forces first entered the town. Flames shot high the air. Buildings near the jail caught fire from the flying sparks. An Irish Federal soldier aided the townspeople in saving the buildings. Anthony’s relief soon turned into fear. Reports were coming in that former slaves and army stragglers would be following the Union army through town.

All of the buried guns were dug up. The town’s five remaining men and young boys formed a small army. They had twenty guns and patrolled the streets all night.

Foragers were sent out to recently vacated Federal camps to look for scraps of food. The looting and burning never came. Sandersville and its few remaining citizens were saved. According to Anthony, it was not by anything he did, but by the grace of God.”

THE STORY OF WILLIAM MCLEOD AND HIS JOURNEY HOME

Gen. Robert E. Lee decided in June 1863 that the only way he could defeat the Federal forces was with a strike into the North. Lee's men, triumphant in victory after Chancellorsville, marched north through the cover of the Valley of Virginia into Pennsylvania. Lee ordered a portion of his men to go to the crossroads town of Gettysburg to look for shoes for his men. They had orders not to engage. Little did they know that Gen. John Buford's Federal cavalry was moving toward them. What followed was three of the most horrific and defining days in our country's history.

General John B. Gordon's Brigade was moving from Heidlersburg south to Gettysburg. In mid afternoon, Lt. Col. William McLeod of the 38th Georgia anchored his regiment on Gordon's left along the Harrisburg Road. As Gordon's men moved up, their lines broke while they were fording Rock Creek. Col. McLeod led the charge up the slippery and rocky creek banks. As McLeod was crossing the fence, he was struck in the right temple by a Federal mini ball and fell to the ground. The fatal shot may have come from Pvt. Rich of the 153rd Pennsylvania. The wound was mortal. He was just twenty one years old. The assault continued. The Federals retreated.

Meanwhile back in McLeod's home of Emanuel County, his mamma and daddy, Mary and Neill McLeod, were sitting on the porch of their home. It was a hot day - like most July days in the South. Mary turned to Mr. McLeod and said, "I feel very sad today. I have the feeling that William is not coming home." Moments later the McLeods noticed a white dove fly in, landing on the fence rail in front of their home. Mary turned again and said "I believe William is dead."

Col. McLeod and the other wounded men were carried back to a field hospital on the Kime farm. Moses, Col. McLeod's body servant, heard the news that the Colonel had been shot. Moses searched among the dead and the dying and found Col. McLeod with blood streaming from his head. Moses knew the end was near and tended to the Colonel in his last hours.

Moses gathered the Colonel's lifeless body and wrapped it in a blanket. He then began the arduous work of burying his friend. Many of the servants had a special relationship with their masters. Moses buried Col. McLeod beside a peach tree on the Kime farm. Moses remained with the brigade until after the battle and eventually made it back to Swainsboro.

Neill McLeod began to lay out a family cemetery about a quarter mile from his home. There had never been a death in his immediate family before and no need for a burying ground. When the war ended, Neill McLeod contacted Moses and hired him to take his son in law back to Gettysburg and retrieve his son's body.

Moses found the body right where he had left it. Moses gathered the Colonel's remains and placed them in a casket fashioned from an Emanuel County oak. The casket was placed in the family parlor. Family and friends came to pay their respects. William's mother Mary sat up with William’s body all night. Mrs.

McLeod came to an unbelievable decision. It was her command that William would not remain in the ground any longer without a member of the family being buried along his side. William's burial would have to wait until the next family member died. Every day, for nearly seven years, Mary placed fresh flowers or green plants on top of the casket.

In 1872, John R. Prescott died. He was the son-in-law, who had accompanied Moses to Gettysburg to bring William home. Funeral services were held in the McLeod home for William and John. John's wife, Sarah, sat at the top of the stairs in a red dress holding her six week old child in her lap while she sang. William's grave was elaborate for the times. Today the top of the shaft leans, broken, against the base of his monument.

The whole story of Col. McLeod may have been lost for eternity if it not for the determined investigation of Gettysburg policeman, Michael W. Hofe. On the morning of November 30, 1993, Corp. Hofe answered at burglary call at the Adams County Historical Society in Gettysburg. A collection of Civil War items had been taken. Hofe received permission to investigate the theft, a matter which is usually left to the detective division. Within two months all of the missing items, except one, were found. The missing item was Col. McLeod's prayer book, "Flowers of Piety."

Apparently before McLeod was buried, the prayer book was given to Sarah Ellen Kime, the daughter of the farm's owner. Corp. Hofe speculated that Sarah may have stopped to read a passage to the Colonel while she was carrying water to the wounded. Despite the viciousness of the war, most people on both sides openly showed their compassion for the wounded. The prayer book was passed down through the family and eventually made it to the museum of the county historical society, until some idiot decided to take it.

Hofe made it his mission to find out as much about Col. McLeod as he could. He read battle reports. He read books about the battle and consulted experts from all over the country. Corp. Hofe contacted Col. McLeod's descendants in Georgia.

Swainsboro's "Forest Blade" published articles on the effort to put the story together. Hofe published the results of his research in a forty eight page booklet he named "That There Be No Stain Upon My Stones."

There are hundreds of thousands of stories about that terrible war. It was a war that changed our lives forever. This story, which happened 135 years ago this week, is worth remembering. Keep in mind what Gen. Robert E. Lee said after observing the carnage his men had raked upon eight thousand dead and wounded Federal soldiers at the base of Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, Virginia. "It is well that war is so terrible, for we may grow too fond of it."

Source: That There Be No Stain Upon My Stones, Michael W. Hofe, Gettysburg, Pa., 1994.

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RUFUS KELLY

Taking a Stand in Dixie

Rufus Kelly didn't take too kindly to Yankees. You see, one of them shot him in the leg and it commenced to hurt very powerfully. It got to hurting so badly that the ol' doctor had to cut if clean off. So, when about thirty thousand of the blue coated "Billy Yanks" came stomping down the road toward his native home of Gordon, Georgia, Rufus decided once and for all it was time for him to take his stand to live or die in Dixie.

James Rufus Kelly was born up in Gordon, Georgia in the western part of Wilkinson County in 1845. When he was just a young boy, Rufus, as he was known to his friends, lost his daddy, who was also named Rufus. Young Rufus and his baby sister Elizabeth were raised by their momma, Mrs. Rebecca Kelly. Just as Rufus was about to become a man, the menfolk in his county held an election to decide whether or not they and the rest of the counties in Georgia would leave the Union. They voted to decide if the people in the South could have slaves and if they wanted to fight a war over it or not. The Kellys weren't really rich, though they had more than most folks in Wilkinson County. Rebecca sewed clothes to keep food on their table and to keep Rufus in school. To help her out around the place, Rebecca depended on her twenty-year-old female slave and her three young children.

When the War Between the States started, Rufus was still a young boy. On July 9, 1861, he joined up with his friend and fellow fifteen year old William Bush in the Ramah Guards. William Bush would die more than 91 years later as the oldest Confederate veteran from Georgia. Rufus made it through the baths of blood at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania. During General Lee's retrograde move toward Richmond in the spring of 1864, Cadmus Wilcox's rebels ran headlong into Warren's Union Corps at a place they called Jericho Ford on the 23rd day of May 1864.

Rufus' regiment was right in the middle of a hot fight. The regimental commander ordered the men of the 14th to fall back. But, Rufus would have no part of any retreat. He saw his friends running. Instead of running with them, Rufus rushed forward to the front. With his rifle in his left hand and his hat in his right, Kelly tried to rally his boys. But they kept on running like scalded dogs. He saw some other rebels firing at the Yankees and rushed to their side. Just as the fight began to heat up, a stray bullet struck the eighteen-year-old in the leg. He made it back to the field hospital alive, but lost his leg. After he spent some four months in the hospital and a stint as one of the body guards of Belle Boyd, a famous Confederate spy, Rufus was sent home to sit out the rest of the war.

Rufus was never one to quit a fight. Back home in Gordon, he knew the fight was coming his way once again. General William Tecumseh Sherman's Army had taken Atlanta. They were coming south along the railroads with their sights set on Savannah.

By the 21st of November, the Yankees were knocking on the doors of Macon residences with their cannon balls. Instead of taking the city, Sherman's right wing kept on moving down the Central of Georgia Railroad straight for Gordon. Just outside of Macon was the tiny industrial hamlet of Griswoldville, where the Macon defenders were slaughtered in the newly fallen snow.

The next defenders were under the command of General Henry C. Wayne. Wayne's men were composed of some regular militia, boys from Georgia Military Institute and prison guards from the penitentiary in Milledgeville. Ahead of them were thirty thousand Union soldiers.

Kelly learned of the Yankee advance and dashed off toward Griswoldville. Along the way, he met a young Negro girl who was crying. She told him that two Yankees were at Dr. Gibson's house threatening the doctor's wife in his absence. Just then, John Bragg rode up and agreed to accompany Rufus to aid Mrs. Gibson. Upon arriving at the Gibsons, Kelly, alone by then, was attacked by the two Union soldiers inside the home. Kelly was able to seriously wound one of them. Despite his best efforts to save him, the soldier died in a tavern in Gordon.

General Wayne, Major Capers and T.D. Tinsley were sitting on the porch of the general's headquarters at the Old Solomon Hotel when Kelly road up on his horse the next morning. He had his trusty Winchester in hanging from one side of his saddle and a pair of crutches on the other. Kelly offered his services as a scout since he knew the countryside as good as anyone around. The general accepted the offer. The vidette spurred his mare and dashed off in the direction of Griswoldville.

Kelly returned just after noon and reported to Wayne that the Yankees were moving toward Gordon and Miledgeville. Once again he sped off looking for more Yankees. He returned shortly as the Union army was in sight. He found the General and his troops boarding a train headed east for the Oconee River. Kelly asked Wayne, "General what does this mean? Don't we make a stand?" Wayne said, "No, Mr. Kelly, to stay here would be ridiculous to check Sherman's army of one hundred thousand men with a force of seven hundred."

That's when ol' Rufus went crazy. "General, you are a white-livered cur without a drop of red blood in your veins!" he exclaimed. He screamed at the departing soldiers, "You damned band of tuck tails! If you have no manhood left in you, I will defend the women and children of Gordon!" Rufus grabbed his rifle and emptied his rifle at the blue cavalrymen swiftly coming at him. But was he was quickly captured, thrown in a wagon, and court martialed. They said he was guilty of murder. A band paraded around Rufus playing his funeral dirge. Kelly was told that he would be shot at sunrise.

Kelly wasn't shot. In point of supposed fact, he was summoned to appear before "Uncle Billy" Sherman. Kelly told his biographers that the general wanted to know something of the topography and the crops and game available on his path toward Savannah. When Sherman asked Rufus if he knew he was going to be shot, the rebel acknowledged that he did know. He defended his actions not as murder but as self defense. "General, any way, a man can die but once," Rufus said. The "murderer of Georgia" told the guard to take Rufus and see that his sentence was carried out. Rufus was slightly relieved when he saw the General smile as he spoke to the guard. The death march was played again that night and again the next night.

Kelly had enough. He wasn't ready to die, not just yet. When his blue captors weren't looking, Rufus calmed his shattered nerves, slipped out the back of the wagon and crawled into a nearby swamp. He lingered in the swamp for two days. Able to fashion a make shift crutch, the one-legged teenage veteran was able to make his way back from the Ogeechee River swamp to his father's farm near Gordon four days later.

Rufus resumed a long and happy life. He once taught at Turner School, which was three miles south of Gordon.

Of the 99 men who enlisted in Gordon on July 9, 1861, Kelly was the next to last to die. The highly heralded hero died on September 19, 1928 in his home near Danville. The undertaker dressed him in a $13.75 and buried his body in a $25 casket in Liberty Hill Cemetery near Gordon, which he so nobly defended 145 years ago today.

CHARGE UP CHAMPION'S HILL

A BAD DAY AT BAKER’S CREEK

This week marks the one hundred thirty-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Baker’s Creek (also known as the Battle of Champion’s Hill to Southerners.) As Civil War battles go, it doesn’t rate near the top of the list of the most important battles.  You probably have never even heard of it. Before the day ended, it would be the
most bloody and vicious battle of the war for more than one hundred and fifty Laurens County men of the 57th Georgia Infantry . More men in the regiment were killed on that one day than in the entire war. Almost as many men in the 57th were wounded that day than in the four years of fighting. The date was May 16th, 1863.

The place was Baker’s Creek near Champion’s Hill in Hinds County, Mississippi.  Ironically the battle took place within a few miles of U.S. Highway 80 between Jackson and Vicksburg and also runs through the heart of Laurens County.

The 57th Georgia was organized in May of 1862. Company B and Company C of the regiment were formed in Laurens County. Some of the soldiers, like the Garnto brothers, were residents of western Johnson County. Company I was formed by soldiers from Laurens and Wilkinson County. Lt. Col. Cinncinatus Saxon Guyton of Laurens County was second in command of the regiment.

Vicksburg, Mississippi, according to most military authorities, was the key to entire Civil War. Its commanding heights allowed Confederate artillery to control shipping up and down the Mississippi River. On the 13th of May, Gen. Johnston, C.S.A., decided to unite his forces in one concentrated attack on the forces of U.S. Grant. Johnston ordered Gen. Pemberton to attack the Federals at Clinton, east of Vicksburg. The plan failed. The Confederates began a retreat toward Vicksburg.
On the night of the 15th, Pemberton’s forces were camped at a crossroads south of Champion’s Hill. Federal forces were surging ahead, moving by their right flank. The Confederates did an about face and turned toward what they thought was the rear of the Yankee column. Before the maneuver could be completed, Pemberton’s men ran head long into the advancing Federal troops.

The 57th , under the command of Gen. Stevenson, took the left. His mission was to protect the wagon trains on the Clinton Road. Just as the 57th had formed in their lines, the skirmishers of Hovey’s Division engaged them near the foot of the hill on the Champion plantation. About 10:30, the Federal skirmishers began their
advance up the hill. Two more brigades, McGinnis’ and Slack’s, were thrown into action against Stevenson. By noon, Federal forces were attacking Stevenson’s entire front. The Confederates were forced to retreat for six hundred yards. Three hundred prisoners were taken and eleven artillery pieces were lost. With their backs in the woods, the Confederates rallied and forced the Federals back down the hill.

As the afternoon progressed, fresh Union troops were brought in. The 57th and the other regiments under Stevenson’s command were falling, one after another. The Union forces advanced and took the hill. Stevenson and his men were forced further to the right. Stevenson reported that he was outnumbered nearly ten to one.

Years after the war, John L. Keen of Brewton wrote. “In this battle, our First Lieutenant was killed and several others of our regiment. The color bearer was shot down, and the next man hoisted the flag; he was suddenly shot down until the third man was killed .” The men found themselves cut off from the main body of the Confederate army. The tide of the battle began to turn. On the north side of the battle field, elements of Logan’s division had advanced to the top of the hill.
Stevenson found his entire division cut off from the main body. He was forced to amake a long sweeping detour to the South. They arrived the next day with no baggage, cooking utensils, or wagons at Crystal Springs.

The Union Army was victorious. The battle at Baker’s Creek or Champion’s Hill was devastating to the 57th. The casualties totaled forty killed, ninety-six wounded, and forty- eight prisoners of war. It was the worst day for any Laurens County company in the war. The carnage was more savage than their fellow Laurens Countians had suffered at Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, and Fredericksburg. 1st Lt. Virgil C. Manning of Laurens County was the highest ranking officer killed in the battle. 5th Sgt. Washington Hobbs, and privates, Wilkinson C. Price, John L. Stewart, Jordan Surmons, Alonzo Walker, John Walker, and James R. Witherington were also killed.  Fielding J. Bass, John English, Fielding Fordham, Thomas Garnto, Martin
Hightower, John Hobbs, Larry Hobbs, Thomas Holmes, Aaron Hutchinson, Joshua Hutchinson, David Maddux, Alfred L. Morgan, Moses L. Pope, Sr., F.J. Ross, Samuel F. Scarborough, Richard N. Smith, Wingfield B. Smith, William M. Snellgrove, Joshua J. Underwood, Wingfield W. Underwood, Thomas B. Winham, and Green S. Young were wounded. Some of these men, like Thomas Garnto, had limbs
amputated. Garnto’s amputation was performed by a Union surgeon after he was captured and while he lay dying on the battlefield along side privates Ross and Richard Smith. Smith was taken to Ft. Delaware and died there in prison. Thomas White and Elbert Underwood were also captured.

With the news of the battle and its toll, the citizens of Laurens County went into mourning. A memorial service was held at Boiling Springs Methodist Church. The church is still located across the road from the old muster grounds where Company B trained in preparation for war. The members took it especially hard,
since James Boatright, a member of the community had been killed.

BOILING SPRINGS METHODIST CHURCH

The Battle of Baker’s Creek proved to be the turning point in the Vicksburg Campaign. Federal Forces had tried for over a year to capture the strategic port city.

The seven week siege of Vicksburg was about to begin. On July 4th, the city of Vicksburg fell, just one day after Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg. The tide of the war turned in favor of the United States. All 342 remaining members of the 57th Georgia, along with all of the defenders of Vicksburg, were captured. The men were paroled after a couple of months. They returned to Georgia, disheartened and demoralized.

The 57th was sent to Savannah where they fought a battle on Whitemarsh Island in February, 1864. From there they were transferred to Andersonville, where they served as prison guards until the spring. The 57th also participated in the battles of the Atlanta Campaign, seeing the most action at Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, and Jonesboro. In the last major engagement of the Army of the Tennessee, they lost fifteen men at Bentonville, North Carolina.

On April 26, 1865 the 57th Georgia, now part of the 1st Georgia Consolidated Infantry surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina. The long journey home began.
The fighting, the dying, the starving, and suffering was over - finally. The bodies of the dead never made it home from Baker’s Creek. They lie in unmarked graves somewhere between the creek and Vicksburg, known only to God.

THOMAS W. KENT

ONE OF THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED



Following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, each county in Georgia held an election to elect delegates to a convention at the state capital in Milledgeville. The popular election determined the vote of each county's delegates on the first ballot. Johnson Countians, like many other residents in East Central Georgia, voted against secession from the Union. The people of Johnson County wanted to remain in the Union and work out their differences with the Northern states. The convention voted to secede from the Union in January of 1861.

After Confederate forces in Charleston, South Carolina, fired on Fort Sumter, it was too late to turn back. The war of "brother against brother" was on.  Thomas W. Kent was born in Warren County, Georgia on July 28, 1828. He was a son of Thomas Kent and Martha Kent. Kent moved to Johnson County in the
latter part of the 1850s. Thomas Kent joined the Confederate Army on July 11, 1861.  He was elected 1st Lieutenant of Company F of the 14th Georgia Infantry, "The Johnson Greys." The Greys were assigned to the West Virginia area under the command of Robert E. Lee. Many soldiers of the 14th Georgia became ill with fever and disease in the first fall of the war. Lt. Kent also fell ill, resigned his commission, and returned home to Johnson County. When a new Johnson County company was formed in March of 1862, Kent rejoined the army. Kent was elected Captain of the Battleground Guards of Johnson County, who were designated as Co. H. of the 48th Georgia Infantry. The Guards saw action in the Battles of the Seven Days. Captain Kent was severely wounded in the neck and mistakenly reported dead at Sharpsburg
(Antietam), Maryland on Sept. 17, 1862. His company was heavily involved in the battles near "The Cornfield" and "Bloody Lane." He rejoined the company by December of 1862.

Captain Kent was wounded a second time at Gettysburg, Pa. on July 2, 1863.  His regiment breached Union positions on Cemetery Ridge - going further than any other of Lee's forces. Kent was wounded and left on the field to die. Again, he survived but was captured at Gettysburg on July 7, 1863. Kent, along with
thousands of others, was taken to various prisons in the North. Capt. Kent soon became a part of a group of Confederate officers known as the "Immortal Six Hundred." These officers were moved from place to place and positioned directly in the line of fire of their own men - a practice which was clearly unacceptable by
men of honor. Captain Kent was taken to Fort Delaware Prison. Despite repeated offers by the Confederate Government, President Lincoln ended the exchanges of prisoners of war.

Kent and his comrades were transported by ship from Fort Delaware to Charleston, South Carolina in late August of 1864. While the ship was lying in Port Royal Harbor, Capt. Kent and seven others procured life jackets and jumped ship.  Kent and two others made it to Hilton Head Island and thence to Pinckney Island,
where they were captured by Union forces - only four hundred yards from freedom.

Kent was returned to Morris Island, South Carolina. In November, 1864, the officers were transferred to Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia. Kent and six other officers devised a plan to escape. On Christmas night of 1864, the men began tunneling. The seven men worked in pairs. Their only two tools were an old case knife and a stove poker. They stood in waist deep freezing water. They were starving. The men had to save their rations of one to two ounces of corn meal a day to support them after their escape. In nine weeks, the seven men had tunneled through 336 feet of brick and mortar.

On the last day of February, the tunnel was completed. Captain Kent was the third man to come out. There was a drizzling rain that midnight. When the men got to the door, they found it wouldn't budge. Some sort of weight had been placed on it. They decided to force it open at any cost. Amazingly, the Union guards were not awakened by the noise of barrels falling.

The men made it out, crossed the moat and made it down to the wharf. At the wharf they were discovered by Union sentinels when they were betrayed by one of their own men - again within a few yards of freedom. Shots were fired. No one was hurt. Kent and the others were taken back to the fort and forced to remain in
their wet clothing for five days in a cold, dark cell.

As the war was coming to a close, the Union Army decided that the men should be transferred out of the South. In March, 1865, the prisoners were shipped by boat to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and then back to Fort Delaware.

Nearly two years after his capture and two and one-half months after the war, Kent was released from Fort Delaware Prison in Delaware on June 12, 1865. Captain Kent returned home to a community devastated by war. There was little money and even less food.

Captain Kent lived a long and productive life after he war. He died on June 20, 1918 and buried in the Kent Cemetery, Johnson County. Beside him is his wife, Martha McWhorter Battle, who died on March 16, 1926. The story of the "Immortal 600" was ignored by historians for over a hundred years. The story of the
"Immortal 600" has recently been chronicled by Muriel P. Jocelyn.

I encourage you to visit Fort Pulaski near Savannah. It is fascinating part of our state and country's past. You can see the places where the prisoners lived in the case mates along the south wall of the fort. Imagine the courage and determination of these men just to survive.