Courtland Lynn pension case (1883)
23 December 2021
Courtland Lynn, Private, Company C, 4th New Jersey Infantry was wounded at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He and the regiment had been engaged at Crampton’s Gap on South Mountain 3 days earlier, but he came safely out of that action. They were largely in reserve at Antietam, but that’s where Private Lynn was hit.
Just over 20 years later Lynn applied for a veteran’s pension – which is what triggered this correspondence from the War Department to the Commissioner of Pensions.
It’s an excellent summary of his service and helps nail down where he was wounded. It also hints at a casualty list for his Brigade: the First of the 1st Division, 6th Army Corps. Another project for me …
This letter and the initial pointer to Lynn are from his great grandson John Courtland Lynn. The very best kind of source.
Release of Hugh Whitesides, 25 July 1863
21 December 2021
Private Hugh Whitesides of the 4th Texas Infantry “gave himself up” to US troops at Cherry Run, VA (WV) on 19 July 1863 and was sent to Camp Chase, OH, where he swore the oath seen here, made his mark, and was released.
I’m guessing he left his regiment somewhere near Falling Waters on 14 or 15 July as the Army was returning/retreating from Gettysburg, PA.
I don’t know much about Hugh, except that he was probably born in Ireland, was a shepherd in Travis County, Texas before the war, and was 27 years old when he took that oath. I’ve found nothing on what became of him afterward.
Candy the little white dog
20 December 2021
Company B of the 4th Texas Infantry had a little white terrier as a mascot, given them by an Austin confectioner at the start of the war (said Ted Alexander).
Among the soldiers on his roster of the the Company, Val C. Giles listed the dog:
“Candy,” the little white dog, went with the company from Austin and became a great favorite with the regiment. Engraved on his collar was, “Candy, Co. B, 4th Texas Regt.” When George L. Robertson lay wounded in the field hospital at Sharpsburg, he saw a band wagon parading through the camp with the little “Rebel” prisoner. He got lost from his company and regiment in the old cornfield and was captured by the enemy.
In the battle of Gaines’s Mill he got separated from us, and next morning, when the burying detail was sent out from our regiment, they found Candy cuddled up under the arm of poor John Summers, who was killed the evening before. There was not a man in the company, and I doubt if there was one in the regiment, who would not have divided his last piece of hard-tack with Candy.
We never saw him after the battle of Sharpsburg.
I don’t know of a picture of Candy, but here’s a famous white military terrier of a later generation – Willie – from Life magazine of 28 August 1944:
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Giles’ roster is in the Confederate Veteran magazine of January 1918, pages 20-23.
Joe E. Jones (1899)
19 December 2021
Sharpsburg veteran Joe E Jones of the 4th Texas Infantry was a Tennessee native and returned there after the war.
Here he is in later years in his United Confederate Veterans (UCV) jacket, from his obituary in the Confederate Veteran magazine of September 1899.
Fighting them twice at Sharpsburg
19 December 2021
Private William F. Ford of the Tom Green Rifles, Company B, 4th Texas Infantry had an extraordinary war.
At Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 he and his regiment were part of Hood’s Division’s devastating charge into Miller’s cornfield early that morning. But that wasn’t enough for Ford.
… after the Brigade was relieved about 10 o’clock am, he was sent off and accidentally meeting the 9th Georgia Regt. reported to Capt King of Co “K” and fought with them till night. Capt King gave him a certificate complimenting him for his gallant conduct thro’ the the day, which certificate was endorsed by both the Col commanding the 9th Georgia Regt and Col Anderson – now Brigadier – commanding the Brigade …
He was captured at Gettysburg in July 1863 and sent to the US prison at Fort Delaware. From which he escaped in August or early September. Not an easy thing, as shown by the fate of Hoxey Whiteside, Company G of the 4th Texas, who attempted such an escape a couple of months after Ford, in November 1863, but drowned in the Delaware River.
Private Ford “passed through parts of Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland in the disguise of a citizen, arriving safely in Richmond” and, not a shy man, made a request for a furlough directly to the CSA’s Adjutant General, General Samuel Cooper – “hoping sir, that you will grant this favor.” Cooper did.
He was commissioned Junior 2nd Lieutenant of his Company on 1 April 1864 “for valor and skill” and distinguished himself in combat again, in the Wilderness of Virginia, where he was wounded in the leg on 6 May 1864. He was promoted to Senior 2nd Lieutenant on 16 June.
In addition to all this, his is the second case [first, here] I’ve found of a Confederate officer applying to raise and command a “negro regiment.”
He made that request on about 12 March 1865 through his military chain of command, and a week later wrote to John H Reagan, the Postmaster General of the Confederate States, asking for help in expediting it.
Reagan forward a positive recommendation to Secretary of War Breckenridge on 22 March. The reply came back the same day (cover below).
Res. ret’d to the Post Master General. The application has not reached us, but the Dept. has decided not to grant authority to recruit larger organizations of col’d troops than companies except where a battalion of four companies can be raised from one estate.
By com’d Sec. War:
[Captain] John W. Riely, AAG
Word got to Lieutenant Ford on 30 March 1865. It was largely a moot point by then, anyway – Federal troops entered Richmond 4 days later.
He was surrendered and paroled at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865, and went home to Austin, Texas. He died there in 1875.
Isaac Wistar in 1863, 1853, and 1845
18 December 2021
Colonel Isaac J Wistar commanded the California Regiment (designated the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry) at Antietam and was later commissioned Brigadier General of Volunteers.
Here he is wearing some serious epaulettes.
To compare, here are two pictures of him as a much younger man.
He was halfway in age between the two lower views when he took off across the continent from Philadelphia to find gold in California in 1849. Quite an adventure. He only came back 12 years later because of the war …
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All three pictures are from his posthumously published Autobiography of Isaac Jones Wistar, 1827-1905 (1914). It’s online [Volume 1 | Volume 2] from the Internet Archives. It’s a pretty good read, actually, especially his diary entries from his 1849 trip to California.
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The interesting Wistar artifact below was sold by Heritage Auctions in 2008. The accompanying photograph is very similar to the one at the top of this post, and was probably taken in the same session
[Bullet that Grazed the Head of Brigadier General Isaac J. Wistar]
From the seller: A mushroomed Confederate minié ball is preserved in a inlaid period frame with a CDV of the general and a 5″ x 2″ Autograph Note Signed, reading as follows:
“This flattened bullet passed through the brim & crown of my hat, slightly drawing blood on the scalp & was dug out of the oak tree in front of which I was standing by Capt. Reynolds A.A.G. at the battle in front of Drewry’s Bluff, Va. May 16, 1864. J I Wistar then Brig Genl’ Commdg 2nd Div. 18th A.C.”
R.A. Davidge (1864)
18 December 2021
Robert A. Davidge enlisted as a Private in Company B of the 4th Texas Infantry in July 1861. According to the Confederate muster rolls and US Army records that comprise his Compiled Service Records, these are the highlights of his military service:
- absent without leave when his Company fought at Fox’s Gap on 14 September 1862, but present at Sharpsburg on the 17th
- captured at Chickamauga, GA on 18 September 1863 and in the Federal prison at Louisville, KY
- captured again on 6 December 1863 in Dickson County, TN
- while a prisoner, admitted to a US Army hospital in Nashville on 1 March 1864 with typhoid pneumonia
- died at the hospital on 6 March 1864
A little odd, with those various apparently overlapping captures, but otherwise fairly straightforward, right?
If there’s any truth in the following news piece, his actual experience was far more interesting than the dry records suggest. See what you think …
R. A. Dᴀᴠɪᴅɢᴇ.
—Hon. A. C. Niles received a letter from Judge Searls on Monday evening last, from which he has permitted us to make the following extract in relation to an old Nevadan:“Robert A. Davidge, formerly of Nevada [City], was in Texas at the commencement of the war and enlisted in the [4th] Texas regiment, served a year or so in Virginia and deserted: was arrested by the rebels in Tennessee and got clear through the influence of influential friends. Was arrested by the Federal authorities near Nashville for alleged disloyalty — took the oath and enlisted in the Union army; served a few weeks, deserted and joined a band of guerrillas known as Ray’s band. Was finally captured and thrown into prison at Nashville, and while awaiting his trial for desertion and murder, finally died on the 27th of last February.”
“My informants were a physician from Hopkinsville, Ky., who knew him from boyhood, and a Capt. Moore, now in the Union prison at Donelson, who belonged to the same brigade.”
Davidge came to this city [Nevada City] in 1852 and was appointed Deputy Clerk of this county at that time by Theodore Miller. During the following year Miller returned to the Atlantic States and Dividge acted as County Clerk for the remainder of the term. Davidge was then appointed Postmaster of this city through the influence of old Gwin; and while acting in that capacity was selected as editor of a new paper started at that time called the Young America, to advocate the interests of the chivalry, which had control of all the offices in the county. Having become disgusted with everything and everybody, he left for his home in Kentucky in the year 1855, where he remained up to the time of the breaking out of this rebellion, editing a newspaper. Thus, one by one, the would-be chiefs of this county in early times have received the deserts they merited.
— Nevada Transcript.
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That article is from the Marysville (CA) Daily Appeal of 9 June 1864, online from the California Digital Newspaper Collection.
The view above of Nevada City in March 1855 is a copy of a print sold by Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.
Congress Avenue, Austin, TX (1867)
17 December 2021
A view north down Congress Avenue in Austin, TX just after the war. Try to ignore the tight-rope walker. The (old/2nd) State Capitol building is at the end of the avenue. At right, under the Avenue Hotel sign, is the Swenson Building – the Avenue Hotel took the upper 2 floors, and a number of businesses shared the first floor with storefronts under that awning.
One of those was a grocery and liquor store operated by Sharpsburg veteran and late Private, Company B, 4th Texas Infantry, Thomas E. Cater.
Here’s a plan view of that same city block 20 years later, showing some of those businesses, from the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map (1885), online thanks to the Library of Congress.
A fine businessman I’m sure, but Thomas E Cater caught my eye for another reason.
In February 1863, while serving in Virginia, he got a furlough home to Texas, but he was listed as absent without leave – AWOL – when he hadn’t returned by May. I could find no evidence of a catastrophic wound or dire illness to explain why he left and I don’t know why he didn’t return. Perhaps he preferred being with his new wife and baby daughter Elizabeth in Austin.
But (and here’s the extraordinary part) while still technically an AWOL Private of the 4th Infantry in December 1863 he was assigned to command a Company in or near Austin …
… he was Captain Cater with his own independent cavalry company on 27 December 1863 and by August 1864 he was a Major commanding his and 2 other Companies as Cater’s Battalion of Texas Cavalry. They had service in South Texas to the end of the war, though without Cater in their final action at Palmito Ranch, TX – arguably the last battle of the war.
He was formally surrendered at Galveston, TX on 25 May 1865 and paroled in Austin on 27 July. He went home, established that mercantile establishment, and had many more children.
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The photograph at the top is in the collection of the Austin History Center, Austin Public Library and hosted online by the University of North Texas Libraries. The caption reads:
Scene on Congress Avenue in 1867, showing exhibition by [French] tight-rope walker ([Jean] Devier) across the Avenue from the historic old Avenue Hotel at Eighth and Congress, on East side. The carriage at the left, entering the Avenue, is that of Gov. E. M. Pease (Gov. from 1853-57 and 1867-69).
The card here is from his Compiled Service Record jacket; the original is in the US National Archives.
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My notes on operations and leaders of Cater’s Battalion 1864-1865, after the break …
Joseph McCarty, 4th Texas: murderer?
17 December 2021
There’s surely a story behind these two cards from Private Joseph McCarty’s Compiled Service Records at the US National Archives, but I haven’t found any more details about them or Joseph. I’ll leave these here with hopes to hear more one day …
Deserted 8 Sept.’63 under sentence of death at Richmond, for murder.
And here he is, held by Federal troops at Libby Prison, Richmond as a deserter, the day after General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865.
Oath of Amnesty, Stephen H. Darden
16 December 2021
Older than your average company officer at about 46 years, Captain Stephen H. Darden led Company A of the 4th Texas Infantry in Maryland in 1862 and was conspicuous at Sharpsburg on 17 September:
Color-bearer Parker, of Company H, was severely wounded and left on the field. At his fall Captain Darden, of Company A, seized and carried the colors until we fell back to the woods.
Not long afterward he was commissioned Colonel of a 6-month home-front unit, the 4th Regiment, Texas State Troops and served with them on the Gulf Coast (1863-64). He was then elected to the Confederate Congress (1864-65).
After the war, like many former Confederate officers and public officials, he made an application for amnesty from possible prosecution. As part of that, he signed this Oath of Amnesty in Houston, TX on 31 July 1865.
I’ve seen many references to such oaths in soldiers’ records, but not actually seen a paper copy before. This one is among his Compiled Service Records in the US National Archives, Washington, DC.
Here’s Colonel Darden in 1876 when he was serving as the Comptroller of the State of Texas, in a photograph taken in Austin posted to the FamilySearch database by a family genealogist.
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