Civil War Reflections 1862-1865

[Littlestown]

Thought I'd share this Civil War memoir of a soldier with the 115th Ohio VI. Interesting description of his capture, march to Andersonville, his escape, and the help he received from slaves along his journey.

http://www.cartania.com/history/harvey2.html

 

[Nathanb1]

Excellent! Enjoyed this very much. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[ole]

I printed it to same it. I rarely do that.

 

[unionblue]

Littlestown,

What an excellent account! I especially enjoyed the following passage:

"One man, and a cripple at that, accompanied us eight or ten miles one night, piloting us across the country to anothe road, that we might avoid a force of Confederates directly north of us, and he had to make the back track and be on hand at daylight prepared for his day's work. Here was exhibited a degree of loyalty, patriotism and a self-sacrigicing manliness which would be highly commendable to a white man;

why should it be any less to a black one? It may be my lack of discrimination, but really I could never see why unselfish nobility under a black skin should be inferior to its counterpart under a white one.

Superiority is a condition inherent in the man's soul and bears no relation to the color of his skin."

Seeing such sentiments expressed by a person of that time gives me such great pride in my ancestors and much hope for my country.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

 

[brass napoleon]

I'll second Unionblue on that. Thanks, LT!

 

[Littlestown]

Littlestown,

What an excellent account! I especially enjoyed the following passage:

"One man, and a cripple at that, accompanied us eight or ten miles one night, piloting us across the country to anothe road, that we might avoid a force of Confederates directly north of us, and he had to make the back track and be on hand at daylight prepared for his day's work. Here was exhibited a degree of loyalty, patriotism and a self-sacrigicing manliness which would be highly commendable to a white man;

why should it be any less to a black one? It may be my lack of discrimination, but really I could never see why unselfish nobility under a black skin should be inferior to its counterpart under a white one.

Superiority is a condition inherent in the man's soul and bears no relation to the color of his skin."

Seeing such sentiments expressed by a person of that time gives me such great pride in my ancestors and much hope for my country.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

That passage ...
"Superiority is a condition inherent in the man's soul and bears no relation to the color of his skin."
is very profound indeed! In fact, its funny you would point it out ...I had thought about using it as my sig line!

 

[M E Wolf]

Littlestown,


Thank you for sharing. Interesting read.

Respectfully submitted,
M. E. Wolf

 

[unionblue]

That passage ...
"Superiority is a condition inherent in the man's soul and bears no relation to the color of his skin."
is very profound indeed! In fact, its funny you would point it out ...I had thought about using it as my sig line!

Littlestown,

You could do much worse for a signature line, and that's a fact.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

 

[RobertP]

Sounds too much like Uncle Tom's Cabin to me.

 

[brass napoleon]

Sounds too much like Uncle Tom's Cabin to me.

I have yet to read Uncle Tom's Cabin, so maybe I'm missing something. Are you saying that blacks helping whites is "Uncle Tommish"?

 

[RobertP]

I have yet to read Uncle Tom's Cabin, so maybe I'm missing something. Are you saying that blacks helping whites is "Uncle Tommish"?

A good tale.

 

[Littlestown]

A good tale.

Is it your contention that Hogue fabricated his CW memoirs, or just the parts about being aided by slaves?

 

[matthew mckeon]

This is off topic, so ignore if you want. But there are some awesome sig lines here. RobertJ's Faulkner quote is one. I actually laughed out loud when I read it. I like the John W. DeForest one that Littletown has as well.

 

[Rob9641]

Is it your contention that Hogue fabricated his CW memoirs, or just the parts about being aided by slaves?

I did some nosing around on the legitimacy of this, because I tend to be that way - skeptical. Granted, I haven't spent more than 15-20 minutes on it but I haven't been able to determine that it is not a legitimate historical document. Did Hogue make the stories up way back then, or are they factual? Who knows? I haven't seen anything to either accuse him of lying or back him up.

 

[brass napoleon]

I did some nosing around on the legitimacy of this, because I tend to be that way - skeptical. Granted, I haven't spent more than 15-20 minutes on it but I haven't been able to determine that it is not a legitimate historical document. Did Hogue make the stories up way back then, or are they factual? Who knows? I haven't seen anything to either accuse him of lying or back him up.

I did the same and came to the same conclusion. Certainly everything he says in the story makes sense though. When you think of all the fugitive slaves who escaped from the South, somebody must have helped them. Makes perfect sense to me that those same people would be willing to help a Union soldier. And it also makes perfect sense that Hogue would seek out blacks for help. Any white person he met would be more than likely to turn him in, but a black person would be much more likely to help. In fact, I think his story as told is much more believable than if he had claimed to escape without any help at all.

Plus, he's a NEO (NorthEast Ohio) boy, so he has to be honest.

 

[Littlestown]

I was doing research on the 115th regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry (my gg grandfather, his brother, and cousin all joined at the same time), and happened on the story. The thought that Hogue would have written anything but the truth never even occurred to me, until I read Rob9641's posts. I also did some research and couldn't come up with anything that would disprove his memoir (he also includes a family genealogy in part one). I thought it was an honest account of a CW soldier's experiences and wanted to share it with the forum. Certainly is disheartening to think that one can't enjoy a well written memoir as just that. Guess I'm not a skeptic, and I'm more than ok with that.

 

[brass napoleon]

I was doing research on the 115th regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry (my gg grandfather, his brother, and cousin all joined at the same time), and happened on the story. The thought that Hogue would have written anything but the truth never even occurred to me, until I read Rob9641's posts. I also did some research and couldn't come up with anything that would disprove his memoir (he also includes a family genealogy in part one). I thought it was an honest account of a CW soldier's experiences and wanted to share it with the forum. Certainly is disheartening to think that one can't enjoy a well written memoir as just that. Guess I'm not a skeptic, and I'm more than ok with that.

That's awesome that your ancestors served in the same regiment as Hogue, LT. Speaking for myself, I enjoyed the story thoroughly while reading it, and only questioned it afterwards. Part of that is my nature, and part of it comes from hanging around this forum for a while. If there's a hole in a story, someone here will stick their finger in it. But unless someone comes up with something concrete, I'm accepting Hogue's story as fact. And the fact that it stands up to scrutiny makes it all the more meaningful to me.

 

[truthckr]

a good read, thanks for posting

 

[Rob9641]

I was doing research on the 115th regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry (my gg grandfather, his brother, and cousin all joined at the same time), and happened on the story. The thought that Hogue would have written anything but the truth never even occurred to me, until I read Rob9641's posts. I also did some research and couldn't come up with anything that would disprove his memoir (he also includes a family genealogy in part one). I thought it was an honest account of a CW soldier's experiences and wanted to share it with the forum. Certainly is disheartening to think that one can't enjoy a well written memoir as just that. Guess I'm not a skeptic, and I'm more than ok with that.

I meant no offense. It's just that Civil War on the internet is littered with fiction. Some of it is deception, some of it isn't - it's just fiction and somebody read it too quickly and took it as fact. And my reading of the writings of men involved in the War has shown me that they often embellish, sometimes outright lie. They were human, after all. Everybody wants to look good in their memoirs. But I have no reason to doubt Hogue's - I've found no evidence to make me think they aren't what the purport to be.

 

[RobertP]

Is it your contention that Hogue fabricated his CW memoirs, or just the parts about being aided by slaves?

Hogue says:
"As yet, though several had received slight wounds, not one was killed and at about eleven o'clock came a lull in the fire and our merciful enemy sent in another flag of truce with a demand to surrender, accompanied with which was a threat to repeat Fort Pillow on us if we refused! Conference then ensued between Captain Lowry and General Hood, during which F. S. Thorp, H. G. Beardsley and the writer filled a hard tack box with our valuables such as surplus cash, watches, our best clothing, etc., and buried it in the cook house."

According to records the blockhouse was captured by Forrest's cavalry. My antennae started twitching when he said his Captain had a conference with none other than General Hood about it's capture. That wasn't at the top of Hood's list on 12/3/64.

The account was written 36 years later. We all know what happens to war stories over time.