Divided Loyalties of the Welsh Brothers

Tom Elmore

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The Civil War is often metaphorically described as a war pitting brother against brother. However, it was close to a literal truth for the Welsh family of Rockbridge County, Virginia. John Payne Welsh, Jr. and his brother, James L., found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, from which, unfortunately, a reconciliation was not possible.

We can surmise that their relationship had been close, based on a later description by James, who wound up farming in Macomb, Illinois. On August 31, 1860 he wrote to his family back in Virginia, boasting about his corn crop: “Only conceive in your own mind a vast plain as far as the eye can reach, [waving] as the sea, groaning under 60 to 70 bushels of corn to the acre, and you can have some idea of the corn crop of Illinois.” James and John were naturally influenced by the politics then percolating in their respective domiciles. In the same letter, James called out Stephen A. Douglas as a “traitor, deceiver and Catholic.” As divisiveness increased in the country, one man’s villain became another man’s hero. On May 12, 1861, exactly one month after the opening salvo at Fort Sumter, James wrote to John, mentioning Jefferson Davis “and his crew of pirates and rebels. It is treason and nothing more nor less …” It might have been the last straw for John and his family of loyal Virginians. The correspondence ended, and the brothers took up their respective causes in a more tangible way.

John enlisted on March 19, 1862 and was immediately chosen as the captain of Company B, 27th Virginia Infantry, a position of considerable responsibility for one who lacked prior military experience. Meanwhile, James joined up with the 78th Illinois regiment, which mustered into Federal service in September 1862.

John led his company through the early battles of the war. On May 8, 1863, he wrote to his mother and wife, describing his regiment’s recent losses at Chancellorsville. On June 15, he informed his wife that they had pitched into Gen. Robert Milroy’s force at Winchester. The 27th Virginia then moved into Pennsylvania with the rest of Gen. Lee’s army, entering the town of Gettysburg at sundown on July 1. They soon took up a position east of town and the next day guarded the left flank, missing out on the initial fight on the slopes of Culp’s Hill. But after dark, John’s brigade, led by Brig. Gen. Walker, moved up across Rock Creek, and rested in place from midnight until about 3:30 a.m. Then the men were quietly awakened, and in the dim light of approaching dawn, moved forward to the attack.

Crossing over a rise at about 4 a.m., just north of the former Union entrenchments now in Confederate hands, the 27th Virginia, totaling no more than 114 muskets, marched steadily down the slope when they were met by a “volcanic eruption of fire” from a Union line posted behind strong entrenchments just 100 yards away. The 27th was forced back to the crest along with the 33rd Virginia on their right, where they returned fire for the next 90 minutes, until the 4th Virginia came to their assistance. The brigade fell back around 9 a.m. for a brief respite until division commander Maj. Gen. Johnson ordered them back into the fray, but 300 yards further north, for another hour. During one of these actions, Capt. John P. Welsh, Jr. took a ball in his hip. He was probably carried back across Rock Creek in a blanket by his men, and made it safely to a field hospital a mile or so away. At the time his case must have been deemed manageable, since he was allowed to accompany the army’s wagon train in its retreat to the Potomac.

On July 8, John penned the following letter to his wife: “It is with a heavy heart … A few lines. I am now at Williamsport [Maryland] with a severe flesh wound in my right hip, the doctor says there is no bone hurt but it is in a very unhandy place. … We expect to cross the river into Virginia tomorrow. … I want to come home, how to get there I don’t know. …” However, John was in no shape to travel further in a jolting wagon. The doctor decided that he should remain behind, and he was taken to the Seminary Hospital in Hagerstown. On July 15, John died at the hospital, which by then was back in Union hands; he was buried in the Catholic cemetery [a bit of irony there!]. His widow, R. C. “Becky” Welsh, filed a death claim with the Confederate authorities on March 28, 1864.

In the meantime, James fought with the 78th Illinois through Kentucky and Tennessee. His regiment would eventually follow William Tecumseh Sherman through Georgia to Savannah, then head northward into South Carolina, and onward to victory at Bentonville, North Carolina. James returned to Macomb, Illinois at the end of June 1865. Apparently his mother sought a reconciliation, while also delivering news about the passing of his brother two years previous. On August 1, 1865, James wrote back,

“Dear Mother: It is with pleasure I take my pen in hand to answer your welcome letter which came safe to hand. It was a source of joy as well as sorrow to me. I was rejoiced to learn that you were alive and so well, but it was a hard blow for me to learn that I no longer had a dear Brother, that John is no more. I have fed myself upon hopes that perhaps he would escape but they have proven false – that was an awful battle at Gettysburg. I have got acquainted with several soldiers that fought there. When you write again, let me know how long he was in the army, and how many fights he was in before he was killed, and let me know what has become of all our friends and old neighbors. …”

Main sources:
-Emigrants to Ohio and Illinois, Tyler’s Quarterly Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Richmond: Richmond Press, Inc., 1926; Reprint, NY: Kraus Reprint Co., 1971, pp. 92-93.
-Compiled Service Record of John P. Welsh.
-Welsh Family Papers, Library of Virginia, Richmond.
-Memoir of Charles A. Rollins, 1st Sergeant, Company H, 27th Virginia, The Lexington Gazette, July 26, 1888.
 
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