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S.H. Whitworth (c. 1870)

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A man familiar with violence, Samuel Hudson Whitworth survived a serious wound at Sharpsburg in 1862 while a Sergeant in Company C, 12th Mississippi, and in March 1886 was instrumental in the shooting deaths of 23 black citizens in a vigilante action at the Carroll County Courthouse – the Carrolton Massacre.

In July 1888, about a year before his killing, he’d incurred the murderous anger of his neighbors by his actions resulting in the deaths of two men and wounding of two others, at a store at Rising Sun, a small rail station on the edge of his Leflore County, MS farm. Here’s a news story about that earlier incident:

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The photograph at the top was shared to Ancestry.com by Keaton Bryan in 2016; I’m guessing at the year it was taken based on his apparent age and clothing style.

The clippings here, online from newspapers.com, are from the Brookhaven Leader of 29 August 1889 (top) and the Vicksburg Evening Post of 16 July 1888.

The article about the Carrolton Massacre from the Mississippi Department of Archives & History, linked above, was written by Rick Ward, who also wrote a fictionalized account of the massacre titled Blood for Molasses: A Mississippi Massacre (2012); Ward refers to his protagonist as “Houston Whitworth.”

The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (Y & MV) was incorporated in 1882 and was part of the Illinois Central Railroad system.

From the records of the US War Department’s Office of the Quartermaster General, now online thanks to Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.com, here’s his widow’s application for a government marker for Sharpsburg survivor Leroy Thomas Daughtry, late Sergeant, Company C, 12th Mississippi Infantry. He died relatively young, just about 30 years old, in 1871.

From the New Orleans Daily Picayune of 29 October 1862, online from Newspapers.com, casualties among the troops of the 19th Mississippi Infantry at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862:

From the New Orleans Daily Picayune of 29 October 1862, online from Newspapers.com, casualties among the troops of the 12th Mississippi Infantry at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862:

See more about these men starting with the AotW page for the regiment.

I made my semi-annual pilgrimage to Sharpsburg last week, focused on the Antietam Institute‘s Spring Symposium. For much more about the 2023 Symposium itself, look for Facebook and other social media posts from the Institute and some of my fellow attendees.

I had some time while in the area, also, to get to the Antietam National Cemetery to find one of my guys, and to roam the Antietam battlefield to visit a few cannon.

Private Thomas Henry Green of the 16th Mississippi Infantry survived a chest wound at Sharpsburg in 1862 and returned to duty to serve to the surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865.

Here he is somewhat post-war from a photograph contributed to the FamilySearch database [free membership required] by Katherine L Brister.

From the Augusta, GA Weekly Constitutionalist of 22 October 1862, online from Georgia Historic Newspapers:

John Garland Markham was 5th Sergeant of Company F, 16th Mississippi Infantry when he was killed at Sharpsburg.

First Lieutenant Charles Henry Wilson of Company F was thought to have been killed there also, but was wounded and captured, losing his leg to amputation. He survived the ordeal and resigned his commission in May 1863.

From left to right: Standing, Mrs. Leach [Martha Capers “Mattie”], Mrs. West [Adelaide Celestia], Mrs. Boon [Alice Ann Black], Mrs. Moore [Augusta Letitia]; Sitting, Rev R. A. [Robert Alexander] Shirley, Mrs. Coalson [Mary Eleanor], Rev J.J. [Joseph Jonathan] Shirley, Mrs. Potts [Elizabeth Matilda].

Robert was a private in the 16th Mississippi Infantry during the Civill War and was slightly wounded at Sharpsburg in 1862.

This image kindly shared online by the Shirley Family Association.

Two young farmers from Lancaster, PA, Abraham and Noah Zook, went to Mississippi in 1866 and invested more than $3000 in a cotton plantation near Vicksburg in partnership with local men, Sharpsburg survivor Cyrus Lafayette Broome and his brother(s) Elliott and/or William (all also known by Brown).

The Zook brothers were found to have been murdered about 1 November 1866, probably by the Broomes, who sold the crop, took the proceeds, and fled the area. No one was arrested or charged in the case.

I couldn’t find Cyrus L Broome/Brown in the US Census until 1900, when he is listed as a livestock commission agent in Crockett County, TX. All 6 of his children were born in Texas, between 1868 and 1881, so it’s reasonable to believe he did in fact go to Texas as early as 1866.

The murders and lack of justice in Mississippi was exciting news in Pennsylvania. So much so that Governor John W. Geary made a request for action to the State Legislature in March 1867:

The Zook clipping above is from the Shippensburg News of 26 January 1867.

The text of Governor Geary’s statement is from the Memphis Daily Post of 26 March 1867 (touch to enlarge).

18 year old Benjamin David Hennington enlisted as a Private in Company C, 16th Mississippi Infantry in April 1861. He survived a wound at Sharpsburg in 1862, by then a Sergeant, was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in 1863, and was wounded again and lost his sword at Spotsylvania Court House, VA in May 1864.

In 1913, James R. Woods, who had served in the 6th US Cavalry during the Battle of the Wilderness [sic], put an advertisement in the Times-Picayune of New Orleans seeking to return to its rightful owner a sword he had picked up during the fighting. He was able to identify the Confederate soldier by the name and unit engraved on the scabbard: “B.D. Hennington, 16th Mississippi.” Apparently Woods was successful in his efforts, for Hennington proudly posed for this portrait holding his long-lost sword.

This photograph was contributed to the FamilySearch database by J.K. Walters.

The sword’s story is from Jeff T. Giambrone in his Remembering Mississippi’s Confederates (2012). He credits Larry and Gayle Van Horn for the picture. Gayle posted a fine bio sketch of Hennington on her genealogy blog in 2008.