A Barefooted Boy Dead At Gettysburg

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A BAREFOOTED BOY DEAD AT GETTYSBURG

Capt. John H. Leathers

The war between the North and South furnishes us on both sides of that terrible conflict, thousands of examples of courage and bravery unexcelled in the history of the world. The heroes of that war were not confined to the men who held high positions. There were heroes whose names have never been mentioned, and who in thousands of instances fill unknown graves; but they were none the less heroes.

The incident I am about to relate is a true one, and furnishes an illustration of courage and daring unsurpassed in any war. During the fall and spring of 1861 and 1862, when Stonewall Jackson's army was in camp at Winchester, both armies had been busy after the battle of Bull Run in recruiting and preparing for the conflict which both sides knew would be a long and bloody one. The North was aroused and amazed at the defeat at the battle of Bull Run. Thus the men of the North and millions of money were brought into requisition to stamp out the rebellion. The South, on the other hand, rose to a man, and we might add to a woman, in defense of their homes and what they believed to be their rights. The flower of the youth of the Shenandoah Valley flocked to Stonewall Jackson. "The common people" also came with the same patriotic impulse to join his forces, and among these many sturdy sons of the mountains of Virginia.

Among them was a young mountaineer by the name of Jo Ersom. Jo was a boy about nineteen years of age, about "six foot" tall, as straight as an arrow, with big black eyes, dark complexion, and long, straight black hair, looking half Indian. He was dressed as a mountaineer and barefooted. He had never been to school a day in his life, and had never worn shoes except in the roughest winter weather. From his appearance, the boys, who were always ready to give every one a nickname that seemed to suit, dubbed him "Killoola," and he went by that name all through the war.

At first he was imposed upon by the other soldiers who had been in the war long enough to learn a thing or two, and he was made the "hewer of wood and drawer of water" for the entire company, which he bore without a murmur. He drilled along with the company, and soon filled his place as a member in the ranks. In the battle of Kernstown, four miles above Winchester, in a terrific little fight between Jackson and Shields, Jo received his first baptism of fire, and he behaved so splendidly that he at once earned the confidence and respect and affection of the entire command. From that day on he was known as a brave soldier.

It is known to those who are familiar with the history of the war that after the defeat of Hooker at Chancellorsville Lee immediately prepared for the invasion of Pennsylvania, and sixty days after the battle of Chancellorsville the great struggle at Gettysburg took place.

Before starting out on the campaign Gen. Lee endeavored to provide his army with the best arms and equipments he could obtain, and as far as possible with new clothing. Many of these new things he managed to get through the blockade from England, and among other things thus brought through was a splendid lot of English army shoes, which were distributed through the army to those who most needed them. Jo, who rarely ever wore shoes at all because his feet did not suit shoes, drew a pair of these English army shoes, of which he was very proud. He could wear them only a little while at a time, but he would not sell them for love or money; and on the march from Virginia to Gettysburg he would wear them until his feet commenced to hurt, then he would take them off and go barefooted, carrying his shoes on his gun, and then put them on again, and so on until the army reached Gettysburg.

It is known to those who are familiar with the history of the war that both in the first and second day's fight at Gettysburg the Confederates drove everything before them. It was in the first day's fight that poor Jo lost his life. Jackson s corps, then commanded by Gen. Ewell, advanced upon the enemy, who had intrenched themselves on the crest of a long and rocky bill. Jo was in the ranks of his company, and started in this charge with his shoes on. After the line advanced through a wheat field some quarter of a mile or more, he began to lag behind, and, finding that, with the quickening pace of the men who were then about ready to charge, he could not keep pace with them, he stopped, took off his shoes, tied them together with the leather shoe strings and threw them across his left arm, and hurried forward over the rough and stony ground barefooted to regain his place in the ranks. As the enemy's skirmish line was broken, the order was given for the Confederates to charge the breastworks of the Federals on the crest of the hill some four hundred yards distant. The charge was made with the terrific yell of the Confederates and met by the galling fire of tile Federals, who were waiting for the charge; and when the smoke of the battle cleared away, the Confederates occopied the position the Federals had been driven from. Among the dead lying on the very top of these earthworks was poor Jo Ersom, barefooted, and his shoes lying across his left arm. This poor, untutored mountain boy had given all he had to give to his country---his young life's blood.