Southern History
25.04.202512:29
Saved by his Bible, Sam Houston Jr. (A soldier's story)
On May 25, 1843, Sam Houston, Jr. was the first of eight children born to General Sam Houston and Margaret Lea. Sickly when he was born at Washington-on-the Brazos, Texas, he improved so that his father described him as, “a hearty brat, robust and hearty as a Brookshire pig." After attending preparatory school at Baylor University, he enrolled at the Bastrop Military Academy.. Sam Jr. inherited his mother’s artistic ability and was frequently drawing and sketching.
Although his father opposed secession, Sam Houston Jr., enlisted as a private in The Bayland Guards, Company C, of the 2nd Texas Infantry, commanded by his father’s friend Ashbel Smith ..
Before they left Texas his father visited the unit to deliver a bible from Sam Jr's mother (inscribed), “Sam Houston, Jr., from his Mother, March 6, 1862.”...
The regiment was still dressed in blue uniforms when they reached Corinth to join Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston’s army, but on the eve of battle, they received new uniforms of undyed white Jean Cloth. (Some) of the men said they were going to battle in their funeral shrouds .. The 2nd Texas would join Gen. John K. Jackson’s Brigade and would see heavy action on the Confederate right all day. On falling back with the regiment to Union encampments to rest for the night, Private Houston discovered that the new bible he had been carrying had been hit by a musket ball which had stopped at the 70th Psalm and possibly saved him from a fatal wound .. In the fighting on April 7, battle of Shiloh; Houston was not so lucky and was hit by a ball in the right groin and left for dead on the field. A Union surgeon who examined the wound, assumed the femoral artery was hit and left him to die. A chaplain, who had known his father in the Senate, located the bible and found the note from Private Houston’s mother. He called the surgeon back who on closer examination determined that the artery was not severed. The surgeon continued treating Houston who eventually recovered and was sent to the Confederate Prisoner of War Camp Douglas, near Chicago ...
Private Houston’ comrades reported him as left dead on the battlefield and for a while his family was unsure of his fate. Eventually he was exchanged and returned to Texas where he became a Lieutenant in a Texas Artillery Battery ...
After the war, Sam Jr., enrolled in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1867, and gained a medical degree and practiced medicine in Texas. In 1875, Sam Houston Jr. married Lucy Anderson, and ceased the practice of medicine to devote time to writing poetry and short stories. Despite his father’s often expressed disapproval of novels and light reading, Jr. wrote a volume of adventure stories, published in 1892.
When his wife died in 1886, Sam Jr., returned to Independence to live with his sister Margaret Lea Houston Williams, until his death on May 20, 1894.
Sam Houston Jr., was buried in Independence, Texas, near his mother ...
On May 25, 1843, Sam Houston, Jr. was the first of eight children born to General Sam Houston and Margaret Lea. Sickly when he was born at Washington-on-the Brazos, Texas, he improved so that his father described him as, “a hearty brat, robust and hearty as a Brookshire pig." After attending preparatory school at Baylor University, he enrolled at the Bastrop Military Academy.. Sam Jr. inherited his mother’s artistic ability and was frequently drawing and sketching.
Although his father opposed secession, Sam Houston Jr., enlisted as a private in The Bayland Guards, Company C, of the 2nd Texas Infantry, commanded by his father’s friend Ashbel Smith ..
Before they left Texas his father visited the unit to deliver a bible from Sam Jr's mother (inscribed), “Sam Houston, Jr., from his Mother, March 6, 1862.”...
The regiment was still dressed in blue uniforms when they reached Corinth to join Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston’s army, but on the eve of battle, they received new uniforms of undyed white Jean Cloth. (Some) of the men said they were going to battle in their funeral shrouds .. The 2nd Texas would join Gen. John K. Jackson’s Brigade and would see heavy action on the Confederate right all day. On falling back with the regiment to Union encampments to rest for the night, Private Houston discovered that the new bible he had been carrying had been hit by a musket ball which had stopped at the 70th Psalm and possibly saved him from a fatal wound .. In the fighting on April 7, battle of Shiloh; Houston was not so lucky and was hit by a ball in the right groin and left for dead on the field. A Union surgeon who examined the wound, assumed the femoral artery was hit and left him to die. A chaplain, who had known his father in the Senate, located the bible and found the note from Private Houston’s mother. He called the surgeon back who on closer examination determined that the artery was not severed. The surgeon continued treating Houston who eventually recovered and was sent to the Confederate Prisoner of War Camp Douglas, near Chicago ...
Private Houston’ comrades reported him as left dead on the battlefield and for a while his family was unsure of his fate. Eventually he was exchanged and returned to Texas where he became a Lieutenant in a Texas Artillery Battery ...
After the war, Sam Jr., enrolled in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1867, and gained a medical degree and practiced medicine in Texas. In 1875, Sam Houston Jr. married Lucy Anderson, and ceased the practice of medicine to devote time to writing poetry and short stories. Despite his father’s often expressed disapproval of novels and light reading, Jr. wrote a volume of adventure stories, published in 1892.
When his wife died in 1886, Sam Jr., returned to Independence to live with his sister Margaret Lea Houston Williams, until his death on May 20, 1894.
Sam Houston Jr., was buried in Independence, Texas, near his mother ...
21.04.202516:11
20.04.202522:46
20.04.202520:59
We loved the Southland's Standard, Every hope that it inspired, And we honor every martyr, Who beneath its folds expired.
25.04.202516:53
Confederate Captain Theodore A. White
23.04.202519:13
Centerville, Va. 28th Nov 1861. The Southern Cross is first issued to CS troops in Virginia.
21.04.202516:09
Valor Park near Denton, North Carolina! The three Confederate Memorials shown were relocated from Lexington, Pittsboro, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
20.04.202522:46
“The Confederate soldier went to war because he loved his people, because his country was invaded, because his heart was throbbing for his hearthstone. Here was the land which gave him birth; here was his childhood's home; here were the graves of his dead; here was the church spire where he had learned it was not all of life to live nor all of death to die. No hostile foot should ever tread this consecrated ground except over his dead body…He could face the line of fire, but not the shame of standing back."
~ General Stephen Dill Lee on what motivated the Southerner to fight at a speech at the annual reunion of the UCV, in Louisville, 1905
~ General Stephen Dill Lee on what motivated the Southerner to fight at a speech at the annual reunion of the UCV, in Louisville, 1905
20.04.202509:13
Yankee photographer set up outside Camp Douglas POW and took photographs of CS prisoners.
19.04.202510:14
The northern monopoly in the coasting trade was a further casualty of the disunion movement. Vowing that he had “an interest and proprietorship in the Union of all these States,” [a] New Yorker concluded that secession would have to be checkmated by “force of a most formidable character.”
(And the War Came: The North and the Secession Crisis, 1860-1861 Kenneth M. Stampp, LSU Press, 1950, excerpts pp. 223-230)
Image: Frank Leslie's
Northern Troops Drilling In D.C.
(And the War Came: The North and the Secession Crisis, 1860-1861 Kenneth M. Stampp, LSU Press, 1950, excerpts pp. 223-230)
Image: Frank Leslie's
Northern Troops Drilling In D.C.
25.04.202516:53
Confederate Captain Theodore A. White circa 1913, a patriot of the War for Southern Independence 🇸🇴
Enlisted as a private in the 43rd North Carolina Infantry Company K “Anson County Independents” on 25 Feb 1862 at the age of 16.
He was wounded in the left leg at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2nd 1863. White was evacuated with the rest of the wounded and recuperated in a Confederate hospital in Richmond, VA. In September 1863, he rejoined his unit and fought with it until he was paroled at Appomattox.
In 1913, Captain White attended the 50th anniversary reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg and received a souvenir medal for attending
Enlisted as a private in the 43rd North Carolina Infantry Company K “Anson County Independents” on 25 Feb 1862 at the age of 16.
He was wounded in the left leg at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2nd 1863. White was evacuated with the rest of the wounded and recuperated in a Confederate hospital in Richmond, VA. In September 1863, he rejoined his unit and fought with it until he was paroled at Appomattox.
In 1913, Captain White attended the 50th anniversary reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg and received a souvenir medal for attending
23.04.202517:18
A very early description of Thomas Jonathan Jackson as commander of what would become “The Stonewall Brigade” at First Manassas.
Among the very first notices of Colonel Jackson that appeared in the papers was the following: “The commanding officer at Harper’s Ferry is worthy of the name he bears, for Old Hickory him self was not a more determined, iron-nerved man than he. Born in Virginia, educated at West Point, trained in the Mexican war, occupied since at the pet military institution of the Old Dominion, his whole life has been a preparation for this struggle. A brother officer says of him: Jackson does not know fear! Above all, he is a devoted Christian, and the strongest man becomes stronger when his heart is pure and his hands are clean.”
Among the very first notices of Colonel Jackson that appeared in the papers was the following: “The commanding officer at Harper’s Ferry is worthy of the name he bears, for Old Hickory him self was not a more determined, iron-nerved man than he. Born in Virginia, educated at West Point, trained in the Mexican war, occupied since at the pet military institution of the Old Dominion, his whole life has been a preparation for this struggle. A brother officer says of him: Jackson does not know fear! Above all, he is a devoted Christian, and the strongest man becomes stronger when his heart is pure and his hands are clean.”
Reposted from:
Old North State
21.04.202500:38
When Lincoln's Secretary of War Simon Cameron requested Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson provide troops for the Union invasion, this was the Governors reply:
"Sir, Your dispatch of the 15th instant, making a call on Missouri for four regiments of men for immediate service, has been received. There can be, I apprehend, no doubt that the men are intended to form a part of the President's army to make war upon the people of the seceded States. Your requisition, in my judgement, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in its object, inhuman, diabolical and cannot be complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on any unholy crusade."
An epic response.
"Sir, Your dispatch of the 15th instant, making a call on Missouri for four regiments of men for immediate service, has been received. There can be, I apprehend, no doubt that the men are intended to form a part of the President's army to make war upon the people of the seceded States. Your requisition, in my judgement, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in its object, inhuman, diabolical and cannot be complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on any unholy crusade."
An epic response.
20.04.202521:53
The Flag My Grandpa Knew
by Ronnie Hatfield
I remember how, each morning, he'd rise before us all,
and I'd hear his muffled footsteps, as he padded down the hall.
The many years he'd labored, had left his body bent and gray,
but Grandpa had a reason, for getting up each day.
A well-worn box sat on a shelf, beside his rocking chair,
I don't known where it came from, seems it always had been there.
Inside the box, a tattered cloth, of crimson, blue, and white,
and he'd gaze at it each morning, with tears that dimmed his sight.
On special days, he raised it still, on the pole outside our door,
and he'd tell us kids, in reverent tones what that tattered cloth stood for.
"The red reminds me of the Wheatfield, where Pickett's men were slain,
when seven thousand good men fell, amidst the bloodied grain."
"The blue, I guess, brings back to mind, the loneliness and cold,
of a Shenandoah winter, a thousand miles from home."
"And the pure white stars, well they're generals, for Jackson, Stuart, and Bee,
and that big one in the middle there, is for Robert Edward Lee!"
"Each bullet hole is a battle won, each tear is a comrade lost,
each stain is for a wounded friend, who paid the final cost."
Ol'Grandpa must have loved that flag, he stayed near it every day,
and so Grandpa took it with him, when he finally passed away.
And if there's a flagpole up in heaven, there's no tear in Grandpa's eye,
cause I know he's back in uniform, and his beloved flag flies high!
by Ronnie Hatfield
I remember how, each morning, he'd rise before us all,
and I'd hear his muffled footsteps, as he padded down the hall.
The many years he'd labored, had left his body bent and gray,
but Grandpa had a reason, for getting up each day.
A well-worn box sat on a shelf, beside his rocking chair,
I don't known where it came from, seems it always had been there.
Inside the box, a tattered cloth, of crimson, blue, and white,
and he'd gaze at it each morning, with tears that dimmed his sight.
On special days, he raised it still, on the pole outside our door,
and he'd tell us kids, in reverent tones what that tattered cloth stood for.
"The red reminds me of the Wheatfield, where Pickett's men were slain,
when seven thousand good men fell, amidst the bloodied grain."
"The blue, I guess, brings back to mind, the loneliness and cold,
of a Shenandoah winter, a thousand miles from home."
"And the pure white stars, well they're generals, for Jackson, Stuart, and Bee,
and that big one in the middle there, is for Robert Edward Lee!"
"Each bullet hole is a battle won, each tear is a comrade lost,
each stain is for a wounded friend, who paid the final cost."
Ol'Grandpa must have loved that flag, he stayed near it every day,
and so Grandpa took it with him, when he finally passed away.
And if there's a flagpole up in heaven, there's no tear in Grandpa's eye,
cause I know he's back in uniform, and his beloved flag flies high!
20.04.202501:35
CSS Albemarle
19.04.202510:14
“Force of a Most Formidable Character”
In early March 1861, the new Confederate States government adopted a virtual free tariff, which quickly brought Northern merchants to their economic senses. Moses Kelly of the US Department of the Interior overheard many Southerners state that Southern ports planning direct trade with Europe “promised to deprive northern merchants of their position as middlemen and to eject northern manufacturers from the southern market in favor of European competitors.”
Further, the Philadelphia Press asked rhetorically: “If South Carolina is permitted to establish a free port with impunity, and to invite to her harbor all the ships of foreign nations, would not disaster in that event fall upon all our great northern interests?” It accurately predicted “an early reawakening of the Union sentiment in New York.” Thus true reason for total war against the South and destruction of her economic base was clearly revealed.
“Force of a Most Formidable Character”
“[By March 1861] it was evident that northern businessmen had carefully measured the consequences of disunion and the collapse of central authority and decided that they were intolerable. They had called for appeasement, but when that failed they were soon reconciled to the use of force.
Many of them concluded that property had received about as much damage from the crisis as it could, that “no new phase which the [secession] movement may take can have any further effect.”
Stocks had reached their lowest average quotations in December when the government seemed weakest, and even the approach of war failed to depress them that much again. As one commercial writer saw it, business was already suffering “all it could from a state of actual war.” And when war finally came the northern men of property united behind Lincoln to save the Union and restore the prestige of the national government.
When Yankee capitalists finally endorsed the use of military force against secessionists, they accepted the final remedy for a solemn threat to their property and future profits. Inevitably the holders of government securities looked upon disunion as a menace to their investments.
One conservative nervously declared: “So long as the right of secession is acknowledged, United States bonds must still be denounced as entirely unsafe property to hold . . .” To permit States to leave the Union at will, he warned, would mean that the “United States stocks are really worth no more than old Continental money.” With this in mind, when another government loan was offered in January, an observer shrewdly predicted: “Every dollar [New] York takes binds her capitalists to the Union, and the North.”
A basic tenet of the northern middle classes was that the value of property depended upon political stability. In effect, secessionists had made an indirect attack upon the possessions of every property holder. They had invited property-less Northerners, the revolutionary “sans culottes,” “the unwashed and unterrified,” to precipitate the country into “rough and tumble anarchy.” This “social and moral deterioration” might easily infect the lower classes with the radical idea “that a raid upon property can be justified by the plea of necessity.”
Conservatives looked apprehensively at the “immense foreign element” in northern cities and feared that revolution was “nearer our doors than we imagine.” From these recent immigrants could come the mobs to set aside all law and order and, with “revolver and stiletto,” sink the nation “into confusion and riotous chaos.” The only alternative, it was repeatedly argued, was to enforce respect for the Federal government everywhere.
[Northern] businessmen gradually became convinced that Southern independence would be almost fatal to northern commerce. American maritime power in the Caribbean and Gulf . . . would vanish . . . exclude the North from their trade . . . Even trade with the Pacific would be at the mercy of the South.
In early March 1861, the new Confederate States government adopted a virtual free tariff, which quickly brought Northern merchants to their economic senses. Moses Kelly of the US Department of the Interior overheard many Southerners state that Southern ports planning direct trade with Europe “promised to deprive northern merchants of their position as middlemen and to eject northern manufacturers from the southern market in favor of European competitors.”
Further, the Philadelphia Press asked rhetorically: “If South Carolina is permitted to establish a free port with impunity, and to invite to her harbor all the ships of foreign nations, would not disaster in that event fall upon all our great northern interests?” It accurately predicted “an early reawakening of the Union sentiment in New York.” Thus true reason for total war against the South and destruction of her economic base was clearly revealed.
“Force of a Most Formidable Character”
“[By March 1861] it was evident that northern businessmen had carefully measured the consequences of disunion and the collapse of central authority and decided that they were intolerable. They had called for appeasement, but when that failed they were soon reconciled to the use of force.
Many of them concluded that property had received about as much damage from the crisis as it could, that “no new phase which the [secession] movement may take can have any further effect.”
Stocks had reached their lowest average quotations in December when the government seemed weakest, and even the approach of war failed to depress them that much again. As one commercial writer saw it, business was already suffering “all it could from a state of actual war.” And when war finally came the northern men of property united behind Lincoln to save the Union and restore the prestige of the national government.
When Yankee capitalists finally endorsed the use of military force against secessionists, they accepted the final remedy for a solemn threat to their property and future profits. Inevitably the holders of government securities looked upon disunion as a menace to their investments.
One conservative nervously declared: “So long as the right of secession is acknowledged, United States bonds must still be denounced as entirely unsafe property to hold . . .” To permit States to leave the Union at will, he warned, would mean that the “United States stocks are really worth no more than old Continental money.” With this in mind, when another government loan was offered in January, an observer shrewdly predicted: “Every dollar [New] York takes binds her capitalists to the Union, and the North.”
A basic tenet of the northern middle classes was that the value of property depended upon political stability. In effect, secessionists had made an indirect attack upon the possessions of every property holder. They had invited property-less Northerners, the revolutionary “sans culottes,” “the unwashed and unterrified,” to precipitate the country into “rough and tumble anarchy.” This “social and moral deterioration” might easily infect the lower classes with the radical idea “that a raid upon property can be justified by the plea of necessity.”
Conservatives looked apprehensively at the “immense foreign element” in northern cities and feared that revolution was “nearer our doors than we imagine.” From these recent immigrants could come the mobs to set aside all law and order and, with “revolver and stiletto,” sink the nation “into confusion and riotous chaos.” The only alternative, it was repeatedly argued, was to enforce respect for the Federal government everywhere.
[Northern] businessmen gradually became convinced that Southern independence would be almost fatal to northern commerce. American maritime power in the Caribbean and Gulf . . . would vanish . . . exclude the North from their trade . . . Even trade with the Pacific would be at the mercy of the South.
25.04.202512:29
Sam Houston Jr.
23.04.202511:30
On April 21, 1836, on the fields of San Jacinto, outnumbered but not outmatched, Texian forces secured victory and independence in just 18 minutes. Today, we remember the courage and sacrifice that built the Republic of Texas. Happy San Jacinto Day!
20.04.202523:20
THE LAST CHARGE AT APPOMATTOX
by Henry Jerome Stockard
Scarred on a hundred fields before,
Naked and starved and travel-sore,
Each man a tiger hunted,
They stood at bay as brave as Huns--
Last of the Old South's splendid sons,
Flanked by ten thousand shotted guns,
And by ten thousand fronted.
Scorched by the cannon's molten breath,
They'd climbed the trembling walls of death
And set their standards tattered --
Had charged at the bugle's stirring blare
Through bolted gloom and godless glare
From the dead's reddened gulches, where
The searching shrapnel shattered.
They formed -- that Carolina band --
With Grimes, the Spartan, in command.
And, at the word of Gordan,
Through splintered fire and stifling smoke --
They struck with lightning's scathing stoke, --
Those doomed and desperate men -- and broke
Across the iron cordon.
They turned in sullen, slow retreat --
Ah, there are laurels of defeat --
Turned, for the chief had spoken;
With one last shot hurled back the foes,
And prayed the trump of doom to blow,
Now that the Southern stars were low,
The Southern bars were broken.
Some time the calm, impartial years
Will tell what made them dead to tears
Of loved ones left to languish: --
What nerved them for the lonely guard,
For cleaving blade and mangling shard, --
What gave them strength in tent and ward
To drain the dregs of anguish.
But the far ages will propound
What never sage hath lore to sound; --
Why, in such fires of rancor,
The God of love should find it meet
For Him, with Grant as sledge to beat
On Lee, the anvil at such heat,
Our nation's great sheet-anchor.
by Henry Jerome Stockard
Scarred on a hundred fields before,
Naked and starved and travel-sore,
Each man a tiger hunted,
They stood at bay as brave as Huns--
Last of the Old South's splendid sons,
Flanked by ten thousand shotted guns,
And by ten thousand fronted.
Scorched by the cannon's molten breath,
They'd climbed the trembling walls of death
And set their standards tattered --
Had charged at the bugle's stirring blare
Through bolted gloom and godless glare
From the dead's reddened gulches, where
The searching shrapnel shattered.
They formed -- that Carolina band --
With Grimes, the Spartan, in command.
And, at the word of Gordan,
Through splintered fire and stifling smoke --
They struck with lightning's scathing stoke, --
Those doomed and desperate men -- and broke
Across the iron cordon.
They turned in sullen, slow retreat --
Ah, there are laurels of defeat --
Turned, for the chief had spoken;
With one last shot hurled back the foes,
And prayed the trump of doom to blow,
Now that the Southern stars were low,
The Southern bars were broken.
Some time the calm, impartial years
Will tell what made them dead to tears
Of loved ones left to languish: --
What nerved them for the lonely guard,
For cleaving blade and mangling shard, --
What gave them strength in tent and ward
To drain the dregs of anguish.
But the far ages will propound
What never sage hath lore to sound; --
Why, in such fires of rancor,
The God of love should find it meet
For Him, with Grant as sledge to beat
On Lee, the anvil at such heat,
Our nation's great sheet-anchor.
20.04.202521:52
Ol'Grandpa's Flag
20.04.202501:32
April 19th
ON THIS DAY in North Carolina history
1864:
She is built in a cornfield beside the Roanoke River. Her design is by 19-year-old Confederate Navy Lieutenant Gilbert Elliot, and two locomotive steam engines power her. Constructed in a primitive shipyard that Elliot also designed, near what is today Scotland Neck, the CSS Albemarle is still not quite finished when she is called into action.
Albemarle is 158 feet long and displaces 376 tons. She is 35 feet wide and draws 9 feet. She is manned by 150 officers and men, and her two 6.4-inch Brooke double-banded rifles are some of the most deadly in the Confederate arsenal.
ON THIS DAY, she is called to engage the Union warships defending Federal-occupied Plymouth, North Carolina. If she can drive off the big Union naval guns, then General Hoke's Confederate troops can storm the Yankee forts and retake the town.
With Captain James W. Cooke in command, and with a high river that gives her easy clearance over the Union obstacles planted to keep her bottled up, the Albemarle valiantly sets forth. Captain Cooke immediately orders steam, and by keeping to the middle of the channel passes safely over the obstructions. The ironclad's armor protects them from the Union guns of the forts at Warren's Neck and Boyle's Mill.
However, Union gunboats immediately appear, two paddle steamers, USS Miami and USS Southfield, approaching from upstream and attempting to pass on either side of Albemarle to trap her between them. Captain Cooke turns heavily to starboard, getting outboard of Southfield, but running dangerously close to the southern shore. Turning back sharply into the river, he rams the Union sidewheeler, driving her under the dark Roanoke River.
However, Albemarle's ram becomes trapped in Southfield's hull from the force of the blow, and her bow is pulled under as well. At the last minute, as Southfield sinks, she rolls over before settling on the riverbed. This action releases the death grip that holds the new Confederate ironclad--in an explosion of water, her bow pops free back to the surface.
Meanwhile, Miami is firing at point-blank range while Albemarle is trapped by the sinking Southfield. However, the shells bounce off Albemarle 's sloping iron armor and explode back on Miami, killing her commanding officer, Captain Charles W. Flusser. Miami's crew then attempts to board Albemarle to capture her, but are soon driven back by heavy musket fire. Seeing the Albemarle pop back to the surface, Miami turns tail and runs.
For the first time in two years, the Roanoke River and the western Albermarle Sound are free of Union ships.
With the river now clear, General Hoke's Division of North Carolina Confederate troops eagerly attacks the two Union forts. Over the next two days, they will drive the Yankees from one fort to the other, to final surrender. The glorious victory of the Albemarle and the capture of Plymouth are one of the few Confederate bright spots in Eastern North Carolina during the war.
~Kevin E. Spencer, Author, North Carolina Expatriates
ON THIS DAY in North Carolina history
1864:
She is built in a cornfield beside the Roanoke River. Her design is by 19-year-old Confederate Navy Lieutenant Gilbert Elliot, and two locomotive steam engines power her. Constructed in a primitive shipyard that Elliot also designed, near what is today Scotland Neck, the CSS Albemarle is still not quite finished when she is called into action.
Albemarle is 158 feet long and displaces 376 tons. She is 35 feet wide and draws 9 feet. She is manned by 150 officers and men, and her two 6.4-inch Brooke double-banded rifles are some of the most deadly in the Confederate arsenal.
ON THIS DAY, she is called to engage the Union warships defending Federal-occupied Plymouth, North Carolina. If she can drive off the big Union naval guns, then General Hoke's Confederate troops can storm the Yankee forts and retake the town.
With Captain James W. Cooke in command, and with a high river that gives her easy clearance over the Union obstacles planted to keep her bottled up, the Albemarle valiantly sets forth. Captain Cooke immediately orders steam, and by keeping to the middle of the channel passes safely over the obstructions. The ironclad's armor protects them from the Union guns of the forts at Warren's Neck and Boyle's Mill.
However, Union gunboats immediately appear, two paddle steamers, USS Miami and USS Southfield, approaching from upstream and attempting to pass on either side of Albemarle to trap her between them. Captain Cooke turns heavily to starboard, getting outboard of Southfield, but running dangerously close to the southern shore. Turning back sharply into the river, he rams the Union sidewheeler, driving her under the dark Roanoke River.
However, Albemarle's ram becomes trapped in Southfield's hull from the force of the blow, and her bow is pulled under as well. At the last minute, as Southfield sinks, she rolls over before settling on the riverbed. This action releases the death grip that holds the new Confederate ironclad--in an explosion of water, her bow pops free back to the surface.
Meanwhile, Miami is firing at point-blank range while Albemarle is trapped by the sinking Southfield. However, the shells bounce off Albemarle 's sloping iron armor and explode back on Miami, killing her commanding officer, Captain Charles W. Flusser. Miami's crew then attempts to board Albemarle to capture her, but are soon driven back by heavy musket fire. Seeing the Albemarle pop back to the surface, Miami turns tail and runs.
For the first time in two years, the Roanoke River and the western Albermarle Sound are free of Union ships.
With the river now clear, General Hoke's Division of North Carolina Confederate troops eagerly attacks the two Union forts. Over the next two days, they will drive the Yankees from one fort to the other, to final surrender. The glorious victory of the Albemarle and the capture of Plymouth are one of the few Confederate bright spots in Eastern North Carolina during the war.
~Kevin E. Spencer, Author, North Carolina Expatriates
19.04.202509:26
2nd Lt. Henry Farrar Steagall
The Confederate Officer who found the natural cure to cancer in Vivá Americaña in Brazil.
The Confederate Officer who moved to Brazil after the War of Northern Aggression, he started his own farm, and successfully found a cure for cancer. He enlisted in 1862 as a private in Capt. John R. Smith's Company of Gonzales County (Texas) Cavalry, which became Co. B of Waul's Texas Legion. At the time of his enlistment, he was described as age 41, born in North Carolina, married and a resident of Gonzales County, Texas. He was listed as present on the muster roll for June 13, 1862, at Camp Waul, Washington County, Texas. He was captured at the Fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863. He was exchanged on September 12, 1863, and was transferred for duty in Texas. He was present for duty on May 16, 1865, at Galveston, Texas, as a private, although at least one muster roll lists him as a "Brevet 2nd Lieutenant". After the war, he migrated with his family to Brazil in 1867 and settled in Santa Barbara d'Oeste - SP. The colony of Confederates gave rise to the city of Americana. He is buried along with other veterans at the "Cemitério dos Confederados" in Santa Barbara d'Oeste. When Henry came back from the war, found his plantation lost in the jungle and nobody to help him to grow them. He took his state of things during two or three years, then decided to emmigrate to Brazil. He was fearless of starting everything again, for this was what he did when went to Texas. That adventure gave him experience to a greater enterprise. He knew what was necessary and what was superfluous to take. It is said also that when Henry decided to come to Brazil, he payed for the trip to about ten friends from Gonzales who wanted to come with them but could not afford. The old Henry Farrar Steagall died in the begining of 1888. He was a very skilled man, great carpenter, he made plow structures, wagon parts, etc. He helped tu built the Retiro School and made all its benches, but one of his more beautifull works was the symbolic columns of the masonic store, all craved wood. His sons heired his gifts and were great leather weavers. Henry made a little dam on his property's creek, and diked water to move the water wheels of his cotton machine and corn flour mill. He had a huge orchard in his home at Retiro Neighborhood, with all sort of fruits, many qualities of bananas, peaches, quinces, figs, oranges, lemons and grapes, that hanged in huge black clusters, of which he made juice for all the year. Like in the American ancient homes, he digged a sort of cellar, before made the house over, and there kept the grapes juice, sweet potatoes, onions and pumpkins, in a dark place to not bud." -From Judith McKnight Jones book, 'Soldier, now you may rest', p. 287.
The Confederate Officer who found the natural cure to cancer in Vivá Americaña in Brazil.
The Confederate Officer who moved to Brazil after the War of Northern Aggression, he started his own farm, and successfully found a cure for cancer. He enlisted in 1862 as a private in Capt. John R. Smith's Company of Gonzales County (Texas) Cavalry, which became Co. B of Waul's Texas Legion. At the time of his enlistment, he was described as age 41, born in North Carolina, married and a resident of Gonzales County, Texas. He was listed as present on the muster roll for June 13, 1862, at Camp Waul, Washington County, Texas. He was captured at the Fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863. He was exchanged on September 12, 1863, and was transferred for duty in Texas. He was present for duty on May 16, 1865, at Galveston, Texas, as a private, although at least one muster roll lists him as a "Brevet 2nd Lieutenant". After the war, he migrated with his family to Brazil in 1867 and settled in Santa Barbara d'Oeste - SP. The colony of Confederates gave rise to the city of Americana. He is buried along with other veterans at the "Cemitério dos Confederados" in Santa Barbara d'Oeste. When Henry came back from the war, found his plantation lost in the jungle and nobody to help him to grow them. He took his state of things during two or three years, then decided to emmigrate to Brazil. He was fearless of starting everything again, for this was what he did when went to Texas. That adventure gave him experience to a greater enterprise. He knew what was necessary and what was superfluous to take. It is said also that when Henry decided to come to Brazil, he payed for the trip to about ten friends from Gonzales who wanted to come with them but could not afford. The old Henry Farrar Steagall died in the begining of 1888. He was a very skilled man, great carpenter, he made plow structures, wagon parts, etc. He helped tu built the Retiro School and made all its benches, but one of his more beautifull works was the symbolic columns of the masonic store, all craved wood. His sons heired his gifts and were great leather weavers. Henry made a little dam on his property's creek, and diked water to move the water wheels of his cotton machine and corn flour mill. He had a huge orchard in his home at Retiro Neighborhood, with all sort of fruits, many qualities of bananas, peaches, quinces, figs, oranges, lemons and grapes, that hanged in huge black clusters, of which he made juice for all the year. Like in the American ancient homes, he digged a sort of cellar, before made the house over, and there kept the grapes juice, sweet potatoes, onions and pumpkins, in a dark place to not bud." -From Judith McKnight Jones book, 'Soldier, now you may rest', p. 287.
Shown 1 - 24 of 263
Log in to unlock more functionality.