J. S. Walker Letter (27 April 1862)

Leas Mill, Sunday,

April 27^th, 1862

My dear Wife:

            Another Sabbath has rolled around and yet by the mercy of the Lord we are spared the sight of blood and carnage. Oh, that with His almighty Hand He would roll back the cloud that now impends and let the Heavenly light of peace shine upon our distracted country, that the sword might be beaten into the pruning hook and the nations of the earth no more have war, but not my will, Thine be done, O Lord.

            I enclose this in one to Norman. The contents of his he will probably tell you. It was very gratifying and complimentary to me that my company, entirely unsolicited, elected him 1^st Lieut. of the Company.

            In your last you ask me if a shell struck my tent. About a fortnight ago one passed under one corner of my tent and struck a tree right by the tent. I with my Company was out in the trenches. Nobody was hurt, but Charles took the double quick to the rear, but returned as soon as the firing was all over.

            Things look stormy to us poor mortals. The enemy are drawing in all around us, but the Lord will deliver us in His own good time. Our dependence on self will soon be gone. Then the Almighty Arm will intervene for our deliverance. Man will be humbled that the Lord may be exalted. Amen, so be it.

            I have nothing of interest to communicate. I wrote Norman if he came down to bring me a pair of flannel drawers and that you could get them for him. Kiss the dear children.

                        Yours ever affectionately,

                                                Jno. S. Walker.

J. S. Walker Letter (23 April 1862)

Camp near Lees Mill,

23d April, 1862.

My dear Wife:

            I am just in receipt of yours of the 20^th inst. I wrote you the same day and have written you whenever I have had time and opportunity. Your letters are a very great comfort to me and your faith increases mine. This is indeed man’s extremity and I do earnestly hope and pray it may prove God’s opportunity to save us from an over-powering enemy and so manifest his Almighty power that all will have to give Him the glory. We are still standing on the defensive and are beginning to be uneasy lest the enemy escape us and turn their large force against some weaker point. I was out yesterday with my Company on a reconnaissance, together with four other companies of our Regiment and five companies of the 21^st Mississippi. We killed some six or eight of the enemy and took one prisoner, while we had two slightly wounded Miss., and one of my men missing, supposed to be either killed or surrounded and taken prisoner. He was a fine young man, named Daily, brave and daring and ventured no doubt too far into the enemies’ lines. He no doubt mistook my orders or disobeyed them and paid the forfeit of his liberty, it may be his life. I still hope he will turn up. If taken prisoner and they give him half a chance he will escape. We are bivouacing and living on very simple fare, sleeping on our arms and in our clothes, ready for a moment’s call, either to repel the enemy or advance upon him.

            I fear our people are not awake to the issues that hang on the result of the battle that is before us. It may be well if they are not, for panic would be where prayer now should. Our fate as a nation may depend upon it, our cause meet its death if our arm is not sustained by the Almighty. I have determined to see in its result the will of Heaven and to be content to suffer defeat if need be, but never to submit to Northern dominion. Should the great battle which impends come off it will tax the Christian sympathy of the good people of Richmond to attend to and provide for our wounded, and since I have given up all to the cause, I would like if I am spared to furnish accommodation to some of them at my house. I do not know or think that it is your duty in your unprotected condition, without knowing what the result may be so far as I am concerned, to take any or provide for any in advance. If you were to take any, I would prefer designating who they should be, in order that you might have gentlemen who would appreciate you condition and not presume upon your kindness. For that purpose I have determined that if I feel it to be my duty to tax you with any wounded I will give them my address upon a slip of paper to you and you can put the third story aside for them and have George Moody, Washington Kirk or David Butler, or the whole of them, to wait on them. They will be attended by Army Surgeons, and I will make arrangements with the Commissary Department in Richmond to furnish tea, coffee, sugar, etc, at prices very much lower than store prices, so that the additional expense will not be worth weighing in the balance against the good that will and may be done. Understand that this is only to go into effect provided I advise it, and is not to interfere with any public or other preparation in which you are engaged, but is to be a private affair. If wounded myself, I speak in advance for accommodation at your house, and for as many wounded comrades as I may think proper to bring. Of course, if you take the third story for the wounded you will provide for Mrs. Hayes and her children in the nursery and small room attached. Cotton mattresses, which would be cheerfully furnished you by the Surgeon General, will be a luxury to our soldiers.

            Our country and cause hangs now in the balance. The prayer of faith, though not recognized as an engine of war, can, may, nay will, turn it in our favour. Then for an overflowing, concentrated faith of our whole Christian people which shall rise in a mighty irresistible volume of sweet incense to the Father’s throne, which will bring down the blessing. Did it ever occur to you that was is not only a National chastisement, but it purifies and purges? Then everyone exercises and influence for good or evil over those by whom they are surrounded, which influence continues to act in increased power with each succeeding generation. The men who compose the army as a general thing are very wicked and beyond the influence of the gospel in its ordinary work. They are bold, fearing neither God nor man. Their influence is for evil, and that continually, and it may be the Lord, to save the young and innocent from the effect of their pernicious influence and example, tho He takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner, yet for the love he bears his creatures and to save the greater number from death eternal allows them to be killed in war.

            I think the first of May will find us either victorious or the enemy after their great demonstration declining to give us battle at this point. We are as an army getting a little restless under the suspense and a regular battle, tho it is generally anticipated it will be very sanguinary, would not be unwelcome.

            I received a letter from Bro. David announcing Avis’ safe deliverance from her troubles and rejoicing that a man child is born into the world. Give my love and hearty congratulations to both, with many thanks to David for his kind letter.

            The enemy are drawing in around Richmond and no doubt many are badly frightened – but they are not there yet and will have to pass over bloody fields and the corpses of the South’s bravest before they get there.

            Kiss the dear children and give love to all friends.

                       

                                    Every yours affectionately,

                                                            Jno. S. Walker.

J. S. Walker Letter (20th April 1862)

21^st – All quiet this morning.

Camp (illegiable) Lees Mill,

Sunday, 20^th April, 1862

My very dear Wife:

            This Sabbath day on which you are all enjoying the rest of a kind Heavenly Father provides for all, and no doubt with strong faith lifting your hearts to God for his protection to those in the field, we are kept continually reminded by the war of cannon and musketry that the enemy are before us and watching to strike when and where they think we are most vulnerable. You will all no doubt conclude that today is our battle day and await in breathless anxiety to hear the issues, but we are still merely skirmishing, with an occasional attack, which we have so far repulsed. When the general engagement does come off, it will be most probably the bloodiest battle of modern times. Our men feel what great issues hang upon their determined resistance, while the enemy, in great strength, well armed, equipped and drilled, are determined to go on to Richmond, they say. I do hope that this battle may decide the contest in our favour, and be succeeded by a blessed peace. The best of Christians can but imperfectly appreciate the blessings by which the Lord surrounds them in a time of peace and prosperity until they have tasted of the bitters of war in their own experience. They know not how to bless the Lord for his goodness and mercy. David could never have written his Pslam of Thanksgiving if he had not waded through the deep waters of persecution and trial. I have great confidence that the Lord is going to give us a glorious triumph over our enemies, that He will make bare his arm in our behalf. We are using all the means at our command energetically to repel the foe. The Lord, we know, will do His part well. We have good Generals, determined men, and will conquer tho we die. It may be this fight will not come off for several days, and when it does, it will likely be of several days continuance. McClellan is resolved to put everything on the issue of this battle. He is entrenching himself and has an overwhelming force under his command. He is a Catholic, and this being the Easter season he may respect the days of the Church, but will no doubt strike by the middle of the week. Johnson is our head, supported by Hile (of Bethel), Magruder, Longstreet, and other tried men. Now let our Christian people humble themselves in fasting and prayer before the Lord, and He will give us the victory. I went over to Garland’s Regiment yesterday, expecting to see Kirk, but learned he stopped in Richmond. I fear he is frolicking. I hope not. If you have not seen him, try and find him and do all you can to save him and get him to come at once to his company.

            In the Dispatch of the 16^th inst. is an extract from a letter of a correspondent on the Peninsular signed “Soldier”, lauding me. It is all trash and imagination, not a word of truth in the whole. I did command a battalion that went into the enemies’ lines reconnoitring, and with two men as a guard I went to where the enemy had their cannon planted the day before, but it was nothing. Thousands would have done the same if they had had the opportunity. I regret that such foolishness should be penned or published. Whatever of determination or bravery I have is from God, and I would give Him all the glory. I ask him to give me a humble spirit, to choke in me any ambition for name or notoriety and to direct my steps and lead me where I should go, and direct me in the performance of my duty. As far as the world is concerned, all is vanity.

            I have slept in my clothes every night since I left home, sometimes in the field, trenches, and tent, always ready for an attack. My trunk and all of my things have been sent to the rear, the trunk to Richmond. I hope yet to recount to you all around our own fireside the trials of the hour. Ten days more and I think it will be determined. Idle stories will reach you. Wait on God continually and have your strength renewed.

            I received you letter of the 11^th with the lines. It was quite comforting to see your courage and faith. May the Lord sustain you. Kiss the dear children and remember me affectionately to all friends.

                                    Your affectionate husband,

                                                Jno. S. Walker

J. S. Walker Letter (14 April 1862)

Lees Hill, 14^th April, 1862

My dear Wife:

            Though I have not heard from you since Thompson brought down one for me, I hope you are all well and have heard from me. We have now been waiting the enemy within sound of their drums for two weeks, yet they have not yet attacked us. When they do, you may expect to hear of a sanguine battle. Our men are determined and will give them a round of warm greeting. We have a good force, increasing daily, and men in fine spirits. I have an abiding confidence in our cause and great hopes that this will be the decisive battle of the war. We all feel that a great deal depends upon us, and I hope by the aid of the Lord that we will be able to conquer a peace. I try amid the trials of the hour to recognize my dependence upon God and to have a faith that He will give me grace for every hour of need. “Tho He slay me, yet will I trust him.” If I live to go through this battle, I will let you know what our present trials are. If not, my children may look back with honest pride upon the fact that their father died in the defence of their rights. You will hear a thousand idle rumors, do not credit them, but with prayer commit all to the Lord, who knoweth what is best for us. My own opinion is that the enemy will not attack us here for several days, it may be weeks, and that it will be a battle of several days continuance. It may be that if they do not attack us, we will them.

            I sent my trunk up a day or two ago to be forwarded to Richmond. It will be at Richard Hankins near Ludlow and Watsons Rocketts. Kiss the dear children for me and let our praying friends be untiring in their calls upon Jehovah for victory. My health was never better than at present. Love to all.

                                    Every your affectionate husband,

                                                            Jno. S. Walker.

My Confederate Uncle's $40,000 Mistake

A friend back in the USA recently sent me a stack of Civil War magazines, as he knows I am a fan (in fact, it was the biggest topic of study during my University days). I grabbed the first one on the pile last night and read it cover-to-cover. While I enjoyed the whole issue, the best came near the end when there was a passing mention of one of my ancestors!

The article was ‘Swindling Sociopath’ by Bob Gordon, about a man named Alexander ‘Sandy’ Keith. Keith was Scottish born, but came of age in Halifax, Nova Scotia. When the Civil War broke out, Keith set himself up as a key ‘Confederate Sympathizer’ in the port. In reality, the man was a swindler and fraudster with a nasty habit of insuring ships and then plotting their destruction at sea! He would survive the war, but committed suicide in 1875 after one of his plots went awry, and a barrel of dynamite meant to blow up a ship, exploded in the port of Bremerhaven, Germany killing 60 people.

Back in 1864, my great-great-uncle, Norman Walker, (brother of my direct ancestor Maj. John Stewart Walker) who served as the Confederate agent in Bermuda came to Halifax with his family to escape an outbreak of yellow fever. While there, Keith convinced Norman to invest $40,000 in a shipment of barreled pork to smuggle into the Confederacy. Keith took the money, but never bought the pork, and doesn’t seem to have made any attempt to do so. Anyway, he soon slipped into the USA, and went beyond Norman’s reach. 

The article doesn’t give any more details of the story, and perhaps that is where it ended. I’ve certainly never heard the story before, but I do have a copy of the hard-to-obtain diary of Norman Walker’s wife, and it does put the family in Halifax at the time – and it’s not surprising that such a story might not be mentioned! I'd love to know where the author discovered those details.

How great is that though? Picking up a magazine at random and learning a little piece of your own family history?

Col. McCullough's Confederate Army Manual

When I was fourteen, I was poking through a dusty bookshelf in my grandfather’s farm, when I made an amazing discovery…

But, before I get to that, I think a little family history is needed. The first McCullough of my line came to America in the late 1700s. This man, the ‘original’ Joseph A. McCullough as he’s known in my family, bought a farm in South Carolina and became famous for breeding horses. By the time the Civil War broke out, that farm had become a small plantation, complete with little shacks where the slaves slept. My great (x3) grandfather, James McCullough, who owned the farm, joined the Confederate Army. For most of the war, he was a colonel in command of the 16th South Carolina Volunteers, part of States Rights Gist’s Brigade. He led the regiment in several battles, most notably around Atlanta in 1864. Soon after that, however, he left the Army and returned home. No one in my family seems to know the reason for this, but it probably saved his life. The army next fought at the Battle of Franklin, where the Confederates suffered one of the most devastating and complete defeats of the entire war. States Rights Gist was killed, and every officer in his Brigade above the rank of Captain was either killed or wounded.

After the war, the farm fell into disuse, and my grandfathers instead embarked on careers in law, politics, and the military. That is until my grandfather (also Joseph A. McCullough) came back from World War II and decided to give farming another go. My father was born and raised on that farm, and every summer when I was a kid, we would go there to see the family and roam through endless acres of South Carolina forests and fields.

One day, I was poking through a dusty book shelf in my grandfather’s house and saw an old battered book with ‘Army Regulations’ on the spine. Opening the book to the title page, I saw that it was ‘Regulations for the Army of the Confederate States…published in New Orleans in 1861’. I think my heart actually skipped a beat!

Flipping back to the inside cover, I examined the book more carefully.

On the inside front cover is a book plate which declared the book belonged to the ‘Hon. Joseph A. McCullough’ and was deposited as a part of a collection with Furman University in 1918. (Just because there aren’t enough Joes in the story, this one is actually my grandfather’s grandfather, generally called ‘the Judge’ to avoid confusion).

But, what is more astounding than this book plate, is the inscription opposite it. It reads ‘Lt. Col. James McCullough, 16th Regiment SCV, Adams Run, April 1862’. Thanks to the Complete Records of the Civil War, I have been able to confirm that the 16th S.C.V was stationed at Adams Run in April of 1862. On the next page spread, which contains no printing, the book has been signed again, in the same hand, ‘James McCullough, Lt. Col. 16th S.C.V’. Both of these signatures were done in brown ink that has soaked through the page.

 

The book itself is pretty dry, as you would expect from an army manual, but also filled with interesting historical details, such as a Rank and Command list – who knew that Hospital Stewards held the same rank as an Ordnance Sergeant? Instructions on how to organize the troops, write down orders, issue ammunition, fight battles, organize wagon convoys, the proper style of uniforms, and finally a section of blank forms for all kinds of things including forms for pay and discharges.

It’s not until we get to the last very last page that we, once again, encounter my ancestor. On this last page, he has signed the book twice, once in ink and once in pencil. This time, in both instances, he is ‘Col. James McCullough’. There is also an extremely fine, and faint, bit written in pencil at the top of the page. Despite several attempts, the only thing I might be able to make out is the name at the end, which might be ‘Col. Ellery’.

The book is in poor shape these days. I’m not sure how much longer the cover will remain attached, and the pages are all slightly warped from moisture. Still, they made books to last in those days, and I have little doubt, that baring outside damage, it will still be around when I am gone.

Back when I found the book, I took it to my grandfather. He seemed surprised that it existed, and after a quick flip through, he handed it to me and said something to the effect of ‘I think you’d better take care of this…’

I have tried to. It is my prize possession – a direct link to my ancestor and to a horrendous yet compelling war.

My grandfather’s farm was divided amongst his children after his death. My father owns a part. My uncle (yup, Joseph A. McCullough) owns the part that contains the family graveyard. In the midst of that graveyard, under a small monument, lies Col. James McCullough. I hope he is at peace.

Confederate Flags

Last year, my cousin (twice-removed) David Walker passed away. As far as I can remember, I never actually met the man – maybe when I was very young – but we did trade correspondence on a couple of occasions. Both David and I were interested in the American Civil War, and specifically, our shared ancestor Maj. John Stewart Walker who fought for the Confederacy and was killed at the battle of Malvern Hill.

A few months after his death, I saw my cousin (once-removed) Lucy, and shave gave me the little painting seen here. She said she took it from the wall of David Walker’s house after everything else had been removed. Likely, no one in the family wanted the responsibility of what to do with this obviously old, but slightly…(actually, I’m not sure of the word I’m looking for here) piece of history. Lucy said she felt bad that it had been abandoned, and knowing my interested in the Civil War she took it for me.

For those who aren’t in the know about such things, the centre flag was the first official flag of the Confederacy. However, because of its similarities to the US Flag, it was soon replaced by the Confederate Battle Flag (the flag on the right) for military operations. The flag on the left is the third and final ‘official flag of the Confederacy’, and was only used for a few months before the Confederacy’s collapse.

While it’s nicely painted in most places, it has been somewhat crudely ‘cleaned’ with white paint in some spots.

When Lucy gave it to me, it was in a frame, and on the back was a little sticker that read:

Ernest Young

Art Store

3 N. Sevent St.

Phone 2656

Richmond, VA

I feel safe in assuming this is the company that framed it. I suppose, if I was really interested, I could get a sense of when it was framed by figuring out when Richmond would have used 4 digit phone numbers, but I’m not sure what this would really tell me about the piece.

Hoping to learn more, I took the painting out of its frame. Unfortunately, the frame was so old, it crumbled away during the process, and the endeavour proved mostly for naught. On the back of the painting, in pencil, are the numbers ‘9 x 11’ which is just the size of the piece, probably written by the framers, and one little line of illegible script in pencil, which may also be from the framers.

I fear it will remain a mystery. At a guess, I would say the painting was done by one of the wives or children of one of the Stewart brothers (At least 3 of whom fought for the Confederacy). I think it is old enough to date back to the war. More to the point, the further one gets in time from the war, the less likely it seems that anyone would paint such a piece.

So, now I am left with the question of what to do with it. I admit it, while I would feel no particular shame in hanging this on my wall (especially in a country where it would have little recognition or meaning) I feel no compulsion to do so. In fact, I’ve already got a photo of another of my Confederate ancestors on the wall – that’s probably enough for one war.

For now, I think I shall just put it away in my filing cabinet. Perhaps to save for another generation to ponder over.