A Family Divided

TerryB

Lt. Colonel
Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Location
Nashville TN
Here's a link to a true story I researched that began with the fall of Savannah, that I link here because the evacuation of Charleston and fall of Columbia took place in February 1865. Those two last events dictated the route John Myers would have taken to try to get to his family in Savannah. Though John joined the Confederate Navy, his step-mother's younger brother was an assistant surgeon in the Union Navy. Both John's father and step-mother were from New England, his step-mother's family being ardent abolitionists.

http://www.civilwarmysteriesampmore.com/
 
Here's a quote:

To put John's capture in perspective, it must have been a harrowing experience. Charleston would be evacuated on February 15, three days after John was taken prisoner. Union forces occupied it on the 18th. John's route from Charleston would take him toward Columbia, which fell to Sherman's forces on the 17th and 18th. The city went up in smoke and flames, by some accounts, the fires having been set by Wheeler's Cavalry. John's pension claim states he was captured near Orangeburg (though he wrote Columbia on another page of the forms). Sherman's forces left that place a smoldering ruin on the 13th. Yet another barrier lay in John's path. The Edisto River runs in a southeasterly direction a few miles below Orangeburg. At various points between Aiken, Blackville and Branchville, due south of the city, the Confederates had been burning bridges and fighting rearguard skirmishes, one or two on the day John was captured. Had he been captured in one of these fights after passing through Orangeburg on his way to Savannah?
 
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