East Tennessee Roots
Major
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2010
- Location
- Kingsport, Tennessee
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/hid...s-of-the-civil-war.120774/page-2#post-1260409
James was a 20 year-old farmer from Caldwell County when he enlisted, 7/15/1861 into Company F 26th NC Infantry. He was discharged 12/6/1861 “by reason of a stiffness of a knee joint for 60 days depriving him of the use of his leg.” On 3/20/1862 he mustered into “F” Co. NC 26th Infantry.He was Wounded 7/1/1863 at Gettysburg, PA (In the left thigh) He was transferred out on 7/23/1864. On 7/23/1864 he transferred into “D” Co. NC 9th Inf State Troops. In the 2/11/1900 issue of “The Morning Post” (of Raleigh, NC.) a much older James made the following statement concerning the Blalocks :
I was born January 5, 1845; joined Captain Rankin’s (probably Captain Oscar R. Rand’s) company from Caldwell county. This company afterwards became company F, 26th NC Regiment. I was not present at the battle of New Bern, being absent on detail at home to get recruits. I brought back with me about 45 men among whom was a young man who went by the name of Samuel Blalock. It turned out he was a woman, the wife of Keith Blalock, but no one in the company knew of it until she and her husband confided it to me in secret at Salisbury on our way to Kinston to join the regiment. They told me of this, as they said, because from my remark that, “this recruit resembles Keith’s wife so much,” that I suspected she was his wife, and they concluded it was best to make me their confidant, so I would not tell anyone about it. I never told anyone about it except my brother-in-law, Isaac N. Corpening who was also in the company and sutler ( he probably means quartermaster) of the regiment. (Isaac was twice captured during the war) Mr. Corpening now lives at Blowing Rock, NC and is the proprietor of The Watauga Hotel.
Sam Blalock’s disguise was never suspected. She drilled and did the duties of a soldier as any other member of the company, and was very adapt at learning the manual and drill. In about two months her husband, who was suffering from a hernia and poison sumac. (in Keith Blalock’s own words, he removed all clothing and “rolled around in it” in order to get out of the rebel army) was discharged and left Kinston and went to Goldsboro. That night his wife made it known to Capt. Joe Ballew, her Captain,(Capt.Ballew would resign for health reasons on 10/12/1862) that she was not Sam Blalock, but Malinda, the wife of Keith Blalock, and applied for her discharge. Capt. Ballew took her to Colonel Zeb Vance’s tent, with a application for a discharge, and when she appealed to be allowed to go home. Colonel Vance became indignant stating: “You have only been in camp two months. There are men who have not been home in a year since they first enlisted. You must take your turn.” Sam then remarked: “I am a woman and the wife of Keith Blalock.” Vance replied: “The h–l you are ! I don’t believe it.” and said he would require some evidence of the truth of her statement. (I’ve read different accounts that say Vance then had her examined by the Regimental Surgeon, who informed him she was indeed a woman!) Colonel Vance joked her for some time, and after teasing her for some time, he signed her discharge and she left next morning early for Goldsboro to join her husband. She continued to wear her uniform even after she returned home, and I am credibly informed she became a member of her husband’s raiding and robbing parties (gangs) in Caldwell and Mitchell Counties.
One night in the Spring of 1864, while I was at home on furlough from wounds received at Gettysburg, her husband and his gang attacked my father’s (Carroll Moore’s) home at the Globe in Caldwell County. We had a regular battle with them, in which my father was severely wounded, and we wounded two of them, one of whom it was said, was this one-time member of my company, and who I enlisted, Malinda Blalock
Again in the fall of 1864, when I had returned to the Army, Keith Blalock and his gang attacked my father’s house, and my father and Jesse Moore and my young brother, William about 14 years of age, and my cousin Dan Moore’s two boys, named William Patterson and Jesse, aged about 14 and 16 years respectively, were in the house. In this fight the boy, Patterson had his right leg shattered above the
knee and Jesse Moore received a severe wound in the foot, and both were crippled
for life. Jesse Moore shot Keith Blalock’s eye out. Moore used the ball-and-buckshot cartridge, and the shots are still in Blalock’s head. The shooting of Keith Blalock saved the Moore party, and the raiders carried him off on one of the horses in the stable. My father had incurred the enmity of these bushwhackers for his active exertions against them. After this fight Keith Blalock and his wife, Malinda went to Colorado or Montana, but have returned to North Carolina.
(Keith and Malinda actually made their way to east Tennessee, where Keith could be treated for his wounds by Union Army doctors, and after healing, he joined the 10 Michigan Cavalry. About this time Malinda found she was expecting their first child and gave birth to him in Tennessee. After the war, they did go to Texas for a short time, but soon returned to North Carolina.
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I was present at the Battle Of Gettysburg, a private in Company F of the 26th NC.Regiment. Captain R.M. Tuttle’s Company, Pettigrew’s Brigade. In the first day’s battle, we had 87 men for duty. We lost every man, either killed or wounded except one, named Robert Hudspeth. I was the 85th man shot, wounded in the neck and left leg. Henry Coffey, now living near Lenoir,NC.was the 86th man shot. Our company joined the color company of the regiment on the left, and being at the head of the company, I joined the color guard and was by the colors during the fight. The entire color guard was killed or wounded and a number of officers who picked up the colors and carried them forward were also killed or wounded.
Among them, the young and gallant Colonel Burgwyn. When he was struck he turned around once or twice by the force of the ball and tangling up the colors, fell with them wrapped around him. Colonel Burgwyn was killed after we crossed the branch and about where we struck the second line of the enemy.
Lieut-Colonel Lane was severely wounded towards the close of the fight near the top of the hill. He also had the colors in his hands when he was shot. I was wounded at the top of the hill (Cemetery Ridge) from which the last line of the enemy had been driven. At that time there was only three of us left, and I was congratulating myself that I was safe, when I was knocked insensible (senseless) by a piece of a shell striking me on the neck, and at the same time a ball passed through my leg.
Of the two left of my company, Henry Coffey was wounded just after I fell, leaving only Sergeant Robert Hudspeth surviving unhurt out of our entire company.
This Robert Hudspeth came to see me at the field hospital on the fourth of July (day after the battle) and he informed me “that he had gotten some four or five men who were on detail as ambulance and pioneer corps on the first day and were not in the fight on that day, and they went into the fight on the third day. That that day Tom Cozart of company F carried the flag on the right, and that he and all the others except himself (Hudspeth) were killed or wounded in the charge (Pickett’s Charge on the third day). That Cozart fell with the colors just before reaching the stone fence, and about the time the Confederate line was falling back. Hudspeth himself was knocked down by the concussion of a shell as he was falling back.
After the regiment got back to Virginia, Hudspeth was promoted to a Lieutenancy and the company was recruited up to about thirty men. Shortly after the battle Lieutenant Hudspeth was taken sick with a fever, sent to a hospital and died.
After recovering from my wounds, I returned to the regiment in May, 1864, just before the opening of the Wilderness fights. I was in the fight on the 5th day of May, 1864, when Lieut-Colonel Jones of the regiment received his mortal wound. I attended him and saw him draw his last breath. Owing to the effects of my wounds at Gettysburg I became unfit for Infantry service, and after the campaign was over, rather than get discharged, I was transferred to Company D 1st NC.Cavalry, and joined them near Petersburg, in September, 1864. I served in this command till the end of the war. After the war, fearing I might become involved with the bushwhackers in my county, (the Blalocks) I went to Winnamac, Indiana; and got employment in a store in that town. One evening, while talking to a number of Union veterans in the store, one, whose name was Hayes, remarked that he was in the Battle of Gettysburg, and from his account of himself and his location and command, I satisfied myself that he was with the troops we fought at Gettysburg.
on the first day.
While a brief stint as a citizen of Winnamac, Indiana, James believed he actually met the Billy Yank that shot him that terrible day on McPherson’s Ridge.The Iron Brigade was made up of the 2nd, 6th, and 7th, Wisconsin, the 19th Indiana, and 24th Michigan.
James only refers to him by his surname of Hayes. I believe he was probably Luther M. Hayes who served in the 2nd and later the 6th Wisconsin.
Hayes stated that his officers encouraged their men by saying the troops in their front were Militia because of the distance of the colors in their line, showing the regiments were large and therefore could not be veteran troops or a command that had gone through a campaign. Hayes was directly in front of the colors of the regiment which charged him.
I was always alongside of our colors, and therefore immediately in front of Hayes. Hayes stood his ground until our colors were within ten or fifteen paces of him, and then firing his last shot retreated. His weapon was a 44-caliber, and so far as he knew, the only one in his brigade; having lost his enfield rifle that morning, he picked up a cavalry carbine on the march. (Buford’s Yankee cavalry brought on the first day’s fight early in the morning). Hayes said all his men were armed with enfield rifles, 56-caliber. When my wound was examined by the doctors at the field hospital, they remarked the wound must have been made by a carbine, not by a enfield rifle ball, as the hole was smaller than the ball from such a rifle would make; and it was with difficulty they probed the wound with their little finger.
From this and other facts that our conversations brought to light, I am satisfied that Hayes was the man who shot me. He was always a good friend to me as long as I resided in his town. I left Indiana to return home in February, 1868, and have lived in North Carolina ever since.
I am now cashier of the First National Bank, Gastonia,NC. and secretary and treasurer of the Modena Cotton Mills at that place.
James D. Moore
October 11, 1897.
James was a 20 year-old farmer from Caldwell County when he enlisted, 7/15/1861 into Company F 26th NC Infantry. He was discharged 12/6/1861 “by reason of a stiffness of a knee joint for 60 days depriving him of the use of his leg.” On 3/20/1862 he mustered into “F” Co. NC 26th Infantry.He was Wounded 7/1/1863 at Gettysburg, PA (In the left thigh) He was transferred out on 7/23/1864. On 7/23/1864 he transferred into “D” Co. NC 9th Inf State Troops. In the 2/11/1900 issue of “The Morning Post” (of Raleigh, NC.) a much older James made the following statement concerning the Blalocks :
I was born January 5, 1845; joined Captain Rankin’s (probably Captain Oscar R. Rand’s) company from Caldwell county. This company afterwards became company F, 26th NC Regiment. I was not present at the battle of New Bern, being absent on detail at home to get recruits. I brought back with me about 45 men among whom was a young man who went by the name of Samuel Blalock. It turned out he was a woman, the wife of Keith Blalock, but no one in the company knew of it until she and her husband confided it to me in secret at Salisbury on our way to Kinston to join the regiment. They told me of this, as they said, because from my remark that, “this recruit resembles Keith’s wife so much,” that I suspected she was his wife, and they concluded it was best to make me their confidant, so I would not tell anyone about it. I never told anyone about it except my brother-in-law, Isaac N. Corpening who was also in the company and sutler ( he probably means quartermaster) of the regiment. (Isaac was twice captured during the war) Mr. Corpening now lives at Blowing Rock, NC and is the proprietor of The Watauga Hotel.
Sam Blalock’s disguise was never suspected. She drilled and did the duties of a soldier as any other member of the company, and was very adapt at learning the manual and drill. In about two months her husband, who was suffering from a hernia and poison sumac. (in Keith Blalock’s own words, he removed all clothing and “rolled around in it” in order to get out of the rebel army) was discharged and left Kinston and went to Goldsboro. That night his wife made it known to Capt. Joe Ballew, her Captain,(Capt.Ballew would resign for health reasons on 10/12/1862) that she was not Sam Blalock, but Malinda, the wife of Keith Blalock, and applied for her discharge. Capt. Ballew took her to Colonel Zeb Vance’s tent, with a application for a discharge, and when she appealed to be allowed to go home. Colonel Vance became indignant stating: “You have only been in camp two months. There are men who have not been home in a year since they first enlisted. You must take your turn.” Sam then remarked: “I am a woman and the wife of Keith Blalock.” Vance replied: “The h–l you are ! I don’t believe it.” and said he would require some evidence of the truth of her statement. (I’ve read different accounts that say Vance then had her examined by the Regimental Surgeon, who informed him she was indeed a woman!) Colonel Vance joked her for some time, and after teasing her for some time, he signed her discharge and she left next morning early for Goldsboro to join her husband. She continued to wear her uniform even after she returned home, and I am credibly informed she became a member of her husband’s raiding and robbing parties (gangs) in Caldwell and Mitchell Counties.
One night in the Spring of 1864, while I was at home on furlough from wounds received at Gettysburg, her husband and his gang attacked my father’s (Carroll Moore’s) home at the Globe in Caldwell County. We had a regular battle with them, in which my father was severely wounded, and we wounded two of them, one of whom it was said, was this one-time member of my company, and who I enlisted, Malinda Blalock
Again in the fall of 1864, when I had returned to the Army, Keith Blalock and his gang attacked my father’s house, and my father and Jesse Moore and my young brother, William about 14 years of age, and my cousin Dan Moore’s two boys, named William Patterson and Jesse, aged about 14 and 16 years respectively, were in the house. In this fight the boy, Patterson had his right leg shattered above the
knee and Jesse Moore received a severe wound in the foot, and both were crippled
for life. Jesse Moore shot Keith Blalock’s eye out. Moore used the ball-and-buckshot cartridge, and the shots are still in Blalock’s head. The shooting of Keith Blalock saved the Moore party, and the raiders carried him off on one of the horses in the stable. My father had incurred the enmity of these bushwhackers for his active exertions against them. After this fight Keith Blalock and his wife, Malinda went to Colorado or Montana, but have returned to North Carolina.
(Keith and Malinda actually made their way to east Tennessee, where Keith could be treated for his wounds by Union Army doctors, and after healing, he joined the 10 Michigan Cavalry. About this time Malinda found she was expecting their first child and gave birth to him in Tennessee. After the war, they did go to Texas for a short time, but soon returned to North Carolina.
...........................................................................................................................................................................
I was present at the Battle Of Gettysburg, a private in Company F of the 26th NC.Regiment. Captain R.M. Tuttle’s Company, Pettigrew’s Brigade. In the first day’s battle, we had 87 men for duty. We lost every man, either killed or wounded except one, named Robert Hudspeth. I was the 85th man shot, wounded in the neck and left leg. Henry Coffey, now living near Lenoir,NC.was the 86th man shot. Our company joined the color company of the regiment on the left, and being at the head of the company, I joined the color guard and was by the colors during the fight. The entire color guard was killed or wounded and a number of officers who picked up the colors and carried them forward were also killed or wounded.
Among them, the young and gallant Colonel Burgwyn. When he was struck he turned around once or twice by the force of the ball and tangling up the colors, fell with them wrapped around him. Colonel Burgwyn was killed after we crossed the branch and about where we struck the second line of the enemy.
Lieut-Colonel Lane was severely wounded towards the close of the fight near the top of the hill. He also had the colors in his hands when he was shot. I was wounded at the top of the hill (Cemetery Ridge) from which the last line of the enemy had been driven. At that time there was only three of us left, and I was congratulating myself that I was safe, when I was knocked insensible (senseless) by a piece of a shell striking me on the neck, and at the same time a ball passed through my leg.
Of the two left of my company, Henry Coffey was wounded just after I fell, leaving only Sergeant Robert Hudspeth surviving unhurt out of our entire company.
This Robert Hudspeth came to see me at the field hospital on the fourth of July (day after the battle) and he informed me “that he had gotten some four or five men who were on detail as ambulance and pioneer corps on the first day and were not in the fight on that day, and they went into the fight on the third day. That that day Tom Cozart of company F carried the flag on the right, and that he and all the others except himself (Hudspeth) were killed or wounded in the charge (Pickett’s Charge on the third day). That Cozart fell with the colors just before reaching the stone fence, and about the time the Confederate line was falling back. Hudspeth himself was knocked down by the concussion of a shell as he was falling back.
After the regiment got back to Virginia, Hudspeth was promoted to a Lieutenancy and the company was recruited up to about thirty men. Shortly after the battle Lieutenant Hudspeth was taken sick with a fever, sent to a hospital and died.
After recovering from my wounds, I returned to the regiment in May, 1864, just before the opening of the Wilderness fights. I was in the fight on the 5th day of May, 1864, when Lieut-Colonel Jones of the regiment received his mortal wound. I attended him and saw him draw his last breath. Owing to the effects of my wounds at Gettysburg I became unfit for Infantry service, and after the campaign was over, rather than get discharged, I was transferred to Company D 1st NC.Cavalry, and joined them near Petersburg, in September, 1864. I served in this command till the end of the war. After the war, fearing I might become involved with the bushwhackers in my county, (the Blalocks) I went to Winnamac, Indiana; and got employment in a store in that town. One evening, while talking to a number of Union veterans in the store, one, whose name was Hayes, remarked that he was in the Battle of Gettysburg, and from his account of himself and his location and command, I satisfied myself that he was with the troops we fought at Gettysburg.
on the first day.
While a brief stint as a citizen of Winnamac, Indiana, James believed he actually met the Billy Yank that shot him that terrible day on McPherson’s Ridge.The Iron Brigade was made up of the 2nd, 6th, and 7th, Wisconsin, the 19th Indiana, and 24th Michigan.
James only refers to him by his surname of Hayes. I believe he was probably Luther M. Hayes who served in the 2nd and later the 6th Wisconsin.
Hayes stated that his officers encouraged their men by saying the troops in their front were Militia because of the distance of the colors in their line, showing the regiments were large and therefore could not be veteran troops or a command that had gone through a campaign. Hayes was directly in front of the colors of the regiment which charged him.
I was always alongside of our colors, and therefore immediately in front of Hayes. Hayes stood his ground until our colors were within ten or fifteen paces of him, and then firing his last shot retreated. His weapon was a 44-caliber, and so far as he knew, the only one in his brigade; having lost his enfield rifle that morning, he picked up a cavalry carbine on the march. (Buford’s Yankee cavalry brought on the first day’s fight early in the morning). Hayes said all his men were armed with enfield rifles, 56-caliber. When my wound was examined by the doctors at the field hospital, they remarked the wound must have been made by a carbine, not by a enfield rifle ball, as the hole was smaller than the ball from such a rifle would make; and it was with difficulty they probed the wound with their little finger.
From this and other facts that our conversations brought to light, I am satisfied that Hayes was the man who shot me. He was always a good friend to me as long as I resided in his town. I left Indiana to return home in February, 1868, and have lived in North Carolina ever since.
I am now cashier of the First National Bank, Gastonia,NC. and secretary and treasurer of the Modena Cotton Mills at that place.
James D. Moore
October 11, 1897.