Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
Wanted to try another new thread so here's the idea.
How many who lived in the South fought for the North and Union? And who were they?
By the same token, how many who lived in the North fought for the South and the Confederacy? And can you name some of them?
I'll start with a little known fact that surprised me when I came across it tonight.
Four hundred and fifty thousand anti-Confederate Southerners, black and white, fought in the Union armed forces, meaning that one Southerner wore Yankee blue every two that wore Rebel gray. Put another way, a Southerner replaced every Northerner killed in the Union army, with enough anti-Confederate soldiers left over to outnumber Robert E. Lee's main army.
Every Southern state contibuted soldiers to the Union army in regimental size (1,000 men) or over, except for the State of South Carolina. As an aside to Thea and her home State of Alabama, at least one Union cavalry regiment that I know of was raised and were used as guards for Sherman as he marched through Georgia. See their web site here:
The above was taken from the book, The South vs The South, by William W. Freehling.
Now, for the other side of the coin, I know from my own study when doing a Confederate reenacting unit, the 17th Mississippi, I know that 5,000 men from Ohio went South and joined various Confederate units to fight against the North. The fellow that I portray in the 17th MS is based on an actual man who lived in Columbus, Ohio, and was a carpenter who went all the way to Holly Springs, Mississippi, to enlist and fight for the South.
Anyone else got some information on this one?
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
My great great grandfather Royal Jennings lived in VA, but joined a KY Union regiment, the 7th.
His demise in result of an incident in which he crowed like a rooster in support of Jeff Davis is an interesting portrait of the complexity of the politics surrounding the war and those that fought in it.
You can't leave it like that. This is a story which deserves an audience.
Your gt-gt-grandfather died as a result of "an incident in which he crowed like a rooster in support of Jeff Davis", even though he was a Union soldier?
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Unionblue, this is a great thread that plays right into my current research project. I focus on book history and have recently undertaken a study of a mid-19th-century publisher who moved from NYC to Mobile, AL, in the 1850s. Even though I've made Mobile my home address for over 30 years, I have known little of the details of the city's history, that is, until I read Harriet E. Amos' Cotton City: Urban Development in Antebellum Mobile (1985). This book has opened my eyes to the importance that Northern and foreign businessmen played in the economic growth of Mobile from the 1820s through 1850s. In her Preface to the 2001 edition, Amos reiterates that "the conclusions of this work, first published in 1985, remain valid." She points out that
"During the antebellum era, the Cotton City mushroomed from 1,500 residents in 1820 to more than 30,000 in 1860. Mobile was the largest and most important city in Alabama, and its only seaport. By the 1840s Mobile exported more American cotton than any other city except New Orleans, its rival on the Gulf of Mexico....
My analysis of Mobile's development as a commercial city in a colonial type relationship to the northern and foreign buyers of its chief export, cotton, remain the central themes of the city's antebellum history.... My conclusion about the critically important leadership role played by northern and foreign born merchants and professionals in Mobile holds true even more for Gulf ports other than Mobile and New Orleans" (ix).
Amos paints Mobile as a place of raw energy, as immigrants from elsewhere in the South, but especially from the North, Germany, and Ireland arrived in significant numbers. The publisher I am studying was himself from Austria, and two other leading publishers in Mobile in the 1850s were partners, one originally from England and the other from Connecticut. How long does it take a newcomer to assimilate into the culture of a place? Amos shows that by the mid-1850s one significant way to show one's allegiance to Mobile's Southern culture was to own slaves, even if at heart one might be against slavery. In 1856, the two publishers in partnership, Strickland and Upson, were forced to leave Mobile because they sold abolitionist literature. Amos writes that the two "had kept their antislavery views to themselves, had formerly owned slaves as domestics, and had sometimes accepted slaves in payment for debts owed to their business. They nonetheless faced exile for selling books considered incendiary by community standards" (62).
At the same time, there was great interaction between New York City and Mobile. Transportation was by steamship. Amos describes Mobile as "colonial" because the city exported cotton and in turn imported so much from NYC. Furthermore, Mobilians of means spent the hot summers (the period of yellow fever) in New York.
The question of northerners fighting for the South is fascinating, at least for me. When does a northener become a southerner?
Interesting story about a Yankee who had never visited the South, but joined the Confederate Army.
The story is in every way so remarkable that I cannot forbear a full recital of it. It should not be forgotten, however, that while the peace of death has, years agone, passed upon the chief actor in this strange, sad drama, and probably also upon most of his relatives living when he died--there may yet be others now living to whom the record of his life and death must needs be somewhat painful; therefore I shall endeavor to tell the story simply and quietly.
When I first knew James H. Beers he was an intelligent young mechanic--originally, I think, from Bridgeport, Conn., but at the time living in New Haven, where I was a college student. We were both members of a Bible-class connected with a church of which my father was then pastor, and Mr. Gerard Hallock, of the New York Journal of Commerce, the most prominent member.
Soon after my first acquaintance with Beers, Mr. Hallock became interested in him, attracted by his regular attendance at church and Bible-class, and his modest yet self-respectful and intelligent bearing, and he took him to New York in some subordinate capacity connected with his paper. This was a few years before the war, but Beers continued to visit New Haven often, perhaps regularly. We heard from time to time that he had exhibited unusual facility for journalism and had been rapidly advanced, until he had come to be an assistant to the night editor of Mr. Hallock's great paper. It was probably through his connection with the leading Democratic daily that he imbibed the views he held as to the construction of the Federal Constitution and the relations between the Federal Government and the States; views which he followed to their logical conclusion and in defense of which he ultimately laid down his life.
As the sectional excitement increased and civil war became more and more imminent, Beers grew more and more restless and unhappy, until actual hostilities began with the bombardment of Sumter, when he informed Mr. Hallock that it would be impossible for him to continue to discharge his duties upon the paper. Thereupon he left New York and appeared in New Haven, as above described.
When he announced his determination of going with us I discouraged it, reminding him that he was a Northern man and had, besides, a wife and two little girls to provide for; mentioning also his fine position and prospects, all of which would necessarily be sacrificed. He replied that he had some money which he would leave with my mother, trusting her to use it for his wife and children and to bring them South when she came; adding that God never gave a man a wife and children to stand in the way of the discharge of his plain duty, and that it was plainly his duty to go with us and aid the South in defense of her clear and clearly-violated rights.
I cut the matter short by referring him to my father, and he at once went to his room and saw him. Father afterwards told me it was obvious that Mr. Beers' mind was irrevocably made up and that it would be worse than useless to
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resist him further; so it was settled that he was to go with us. I do not remember whether his wife and children were then in New Haven, but they were committed by him to the care of our mother and sisters, and later followed Beers to Virginia, as I now recollect, in company with the ladies of our family.
Everything was arranged and we were to embark and sail on a certain night, but during the preceding day a telegram was received from a friend who was standing guard for us in Washington, which by a sort of prearranged cipher we understood to mean that we could slip through safely if we left New York by a certain train the next day. My recollection is that it was deemed best to divide the party--Beers, my next younger brother and I getting off so as to catch the train indicated; father and my youngest brother, then below fighting age, following later.
We reached Washington and got safely across the river and to our destination, but, by some untoward accident, Beers was left behind and experienced some difficulty in dodging the provost guard and completing the last stage of his "on to Richmond." We were very uneasy, met every train from the North, and were unspeakably relieved when he arrived. We had told his story to our friends and he was welcomed into the same hospitable family circle which was entertaining us. The city was crowded with people, but the sons of Virginia were flocking home to her defense and every heart and every door was open to receive them.
A day of two after his arrival a most unpleasant experience befell poor Beers. Walking by himself in the street, he was arrested as a spy and locked up in the negro jail. For hours we were unable to ascertain what had become of him, and when we did find out it was too late to procure his release on habeas corpus; so with profound mortification and profuse apologies we had to content ourselves with doing what we could to make him comfortable where he was, he protesting that he needed nothing and could suffer no real inconvenience that one night. Indeed, noble fellow that he was, he met me with a manly smile at the door of his cell, expressing mingled amusement and approbation; saying that
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while the charge of his being a spy was a little wide of the mark, yet the mistake was a very natural one, that there were doubtless numbers of such characters about, and he was glad to see that we were on the alert for them.
Next morning, when his case was called in the Mayor's Court, something of the truth with regard to him had gotten abroad and the court-room was crowded with the first gentlemen of Richmond. I was the main witness, and it goes without saying that the dramatic points of Beers' strange story, especially those that would most commend him to the Southern people, lost nothing in the telling. He was not only honorably discharged, but he was vociferously cheered by the entire audience, and he walked out of the court-room the idol of the hour--the rest of the last rebel reinforcement from the North shining somewhat in his reflected light. Thus, to our great relief, the awkward contretemps of his arrest contributed rather to the reputation and advantage of our friend.
I recall this additional incident: Mr. John Randolph Tucker--"Ran. Tucker"--then Attorney-General of Virginia, was an intimate friend of my father, who had now arrived in Richmond, and suggested to him that Mr. Beers and I, as we were citizens of the State of Connecticut--where I had recently cast my first vote--were in rather an exceptional position, as bearing upon a possible charge of treason, in case we should enlist in the military service. The suggestion was deemed of sufficient importance to refer to Mr. Benjamin, then Attorney-General of the Confederate States, and Mr. Tucker and I interviewed him about it. These two great lawyers concurred in the view that the principles which protected citizens of the Southern and seceded States were, to say the least, of doubtful application to us, and that it would probably go rather hard with us if we should be captured. Notwithstanding, I enlisted, and Beers would probably have done so with equal promptness had he not been an expert mechanic--men so qualified being then very scarce in Richmond and very much needed. He was asked to assist in changing some old flintlocks belonging to the State of Virginia into percussion muskets, and all of us insisting that he
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could thus render far more valuable service than by enlisting in the ranks, he reluctantly yielded and went to work.
How long he was thus employed I do not know. My youngest brother went on to our relatives in Georgia, but soon after his arrival there insisted upon enlisting in one of the battalions for coast defense. My sailor brother and I enlisted in Richmond and joined the army at Manassas. I saw but little of Beers after this. Just when he entered the army I cannot say, but it must have been some time before the battles around Richmond in the early summer of 1862; for on the battle field of Malvern Hill I met some of the men of the "Letcher Artillery," to which he belonged, who told me that my "Yankee" was the finest gunner in the battery and fought like a Turk. Between Malvern Hill and Chancellorsville I saw Beers perhaps two or three times--I think once in Richmond, after his wife and children and my mother and sisters arrived from the North.
I have seldom seen a better-looking soldier. He was about five feet eleven inches in height, had fine shoulders, chest and limbs, carried his head high, had clustering brown hair, a steel-gray eye and a splendid sweeping moustache. Every now and then I heard from some man or officer of his battery, or of Pegram's Battalion, some special praise of his gallantry in action, but as he was in A. P. Hill's command and I then in Longstreet's, we seldom met. I am confident there is no battle-scarred veteran of Pegram's Battalion living to-day but stands ready to vouch for Beers as the equal of any soldier in the command, and some of them tenderly recall him as a good and true soldier of Jesus Christ as well as of Robert Lee. He was in the habit of holding religious services with the men of his battalion on every fitting occasion--services which they highly appreciated.
Just after the battle of Chancellorsville I was in Richmond, having recently received an appointment in "engineer troops." I am unable to recall the details, but I was notified to meet poor Beers' body at the train. Colonel, afterwards General, R. L. Walker (Lindsay Walker), commanding A. P. Hill's artillery, hearing that Beers had been killed on the 3d of May and buried upon the field, had the body exhumed and sent to me at Richmond.
It is strange how everything connected with the burial, except the sad scene at the grave, seems to have faded out of my recollection. I know he was buried in our family lot in Hollywood, and as no one of us was buried there for long years after this, we must have bought the lot for the purpose. I remember, too, that we laid him to rest with military honors, Captain Gay's company, the "Virginia State Guard," acting as escort; and I must have ridden in the carriage with the stricken widow and his two little girls, for I distinctly recall standing between the children at the side of the open grave and holding a hand of each as the body of their hero-father was lowered to its last resting place. I remember, too, that not a muscle of their pale, sweet faces quivered as the three volleys were fired over the low mound that covered him. They were the daughters of a soldier.
There stands to-day over the grave a simple granite marker bearing this inscription:
JAMES H. BEERS,
of Connecticut,
Who Fell at Chancellorsville,
Fighting for Virginia and the South,
May 3, 1863.
My story is done, and I feel that it is worthy of recital and remembrance. Indeed it embodies the most impressive instance I have ever known of trenchant, independent thought and uncalculating, unflinching obedience to the resulting conviction of duty--"obedience unto death."
Observe, Beers had never been South and had no idea of ever going there until the Southern States were invaded. Observe again, he was not a man without ties, a homeless and heartless adventurer; but a complete man--a man blessed with wife and children and home, and withal a faithful and affectionate husband and father. Observe once more, he was not an unsuccessful or disappointed man. On the contrary, I have seldom known a man who had a position more perfectly congenial and satisfactory to him or whose prospects were brighter or more assured. It was simply and purely his conviction of right and of duty which led him to us and to his brave death.
One feature of the poor fellow's story, of intense color, has been purposely omitted. I refer to his parting with his parents. It is my strong desire that this sketch shall not contain one word calculated to bring unnecessary pain to the heart of any relative of my dear friend under whose eye it may chance to fall. If being a Southerner you would pass just and charitable judgment upon his family, try for a moment to conceive what would have been the feelings of a Southern father and mother and family circle toward a son and brother who, in 1861 had proposed to go North for the purpose of fighting against his people and his State.
My recollection is that Mrs. Beers did not long survive her husband. It gives me pleasure to say that, so far as I know, the family of Mr. Beers did their duty by his children. I tried to have the little girls adopted in the South, and came very near succeeding, yet perhaps it was, after all, well that their friends sent for them and that they finally returned to the North.
It is well, too, that there are not more men like Beers in the world. The bands of organized society are not strong enough to endure many such. They are too trenchant, too independent, to be normal or safe. It is well that most of us believe and think and feel and act with the mass of our fellow-beings about us. If it were not so, quiet and harmonious society would be impossible; it would dissolve and perish in fierce internecine strife. And yet, when every now and then God turns out a man of different mould, a man brave enough and strong enough not to be dominated in opinion, in conscience, or in action by his associates--we ordinary men, of average human stature and strength, realize how almost pitifully small and weak we are.
The mound that covers James H. Beers is indeed low and humble, yet where will you dig in earth's surface to find richer dust? I rejoice that he lies where he does, hard by my dear ones and where my own body will soon rest, so that when the resurrection trump shall call us all forth, after running over the roll of my beloved and finding them "all present or accounted for," I can turn my eyes to the right and greet the hero whose sacred dust I have guarded all these years.
[Robert Stiles, Four Years Under Marse Robert]
Last edited by bill_torrens; 04-08-2005 at 11:04 AM.
You can't leave it like that. This is a story which deserves an audience.
Your gt-gt-grandfather died as a result of "an incident in which he crowed like a rooster in support of Jeff Davis", even though he was a Union soldier?
Do you suspect fowl play?
Do tell.
Bill
The story as told by my late grandmother goes something like this.
He and a couple of his cousins went up to KY to join up with the Yankees early on in the conflict.
In 1862 when word began circulating concerning Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, there was much hot discussion about it in the 7th. The EP wasn't very popular among the boys from the 7th for the most part, and evidently, some folks began questioning the loyalty of the volunteers.
At some point about this time, somebody (not sure who) challenged the boys of the 7th to let it be known if they are traitors who are for Jeff Davis, and that's when my gr.gr. grandfather took that opportunity to stand up on a stump, flap his wings like a rooster, and crow loudly in defiance.
He was then chased for days, and the stress of that experience put him in the hospital where he died of an intestinal disorder.
I'm from northwestern North Carolina. My great great grandfathers were about evenly distributed in both armies. I don't personally believe sentiment had much to do with their choice of unit or army.
James Patterson Cockerham 10th TN US (Wilkes Co. NC)
Calvin M. Arnold 13th TN US (Johnson Co. TN)
John Calvin Rouse 48th VA CSA and 3rd NC US (changed his mind) (Washington Co. VA)
Contrary to what a lot of folks believe, the division in East Tennessee had less to do with the war, slavery or who thought whom was right than it did which side the family on the next hill sided with. East Tennessee/Western North Carolina still had incredible amounts of bad blood that spilled over from the Revolutionary War. And by incredible, I mean incredible. The deeds done during the Revolutionary War rivialed anything Quantril or Lane did. And those were folks who knew how to carry a grudge. As you might have noted in Alice Williamson's Diary, the Union Soldiers from East Tennessee hated blacks. Killing them, burning schools etc whenever they got the chance.
One other reason Tennessee had so many soldiers in the Union amry is that west Tennessee was occupied early on. Many a Tennessee farm boy or slave was conscripted into the Union Army. Another reason was money. You destroy a crop or two, burn factories and homes and they are left with only one source of income and way to survive..
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
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