Another Civil War Gasm

       I was very lucky to go on two Civil War Gasms in one week, this time while babysitting.  Jerry and I planned a trip that would add another ten Generals graves to our collection.  The only problem with this trip was the fact that it was pouring down rain here at home.  Jerry swore up and down that his intuition (women's intuition is what I think it is)  told him that it wasn't raining south of us.  We'll come back to this part later.  

Me and Timmy at the grave of William F. Tucker

       

       Our first stop was in Okolona, Mississippi at a cemetery called Odd Fellows.  I told Jerry that he should be buried in a cemetery by this name.  Luckily for us General Tuckers grave was easy to find.  We had just gotten our pictures made at the grave site when the bottom fell out.  We were forced to run to the car and while running Timmy announced "that old man got us wet!"  Brigadier General William Feimster Tucker lead Mississippi infantry in the  Army of Tennessee.  He was severely wounded at Resaca only two months after his promotion, disabling him from service for the rest of the war.  This resulted in him not being one of the well known Confederate Generals.  

More Mississippi road signs

       Again Jerry found road signs that made no sense in the state of Mississippi.  He insisted I stand out in the rain to take a picture of this phenomenon.  We are driving down the road and approach a 'do not enter' sign and just 50 yards beyond is a stop sign.  Jerry's question is, "if you're not supposed to enter, why do you need a stop sign?"  Jerry is always on the lookout for such things.  Between Okolona and Aberdeen he found  a county road that went into a cotton field and ended.  I talked him out of stopping and forcing me to take a picture of this, thank goodness because we were running behind.  

       

Timmy and I at the grave of Samuel Gholson

       We left Okolona and the dark cloud that follows Jerry everywhere he goes and went south to Aberdeen.  At another cemetery where Jerry should be buried, also called Odd Fellows, we found the grave of Brigadier General Samuel A. Gholson.  General Gholson lost an arm in a cavalry skirmish in Egypt, Mississippi.  We passed through Egypt on the way to Aberdeen and I had to talk Jerry out of stopping and asking where the pyramids were.  

Jerry and I at the grave of John Gregg

       About 20 yards from Gholson we found the grave of one of my favorite generals.  Brigadier General John Gregg was born in Lawrence County, Al and attended college at LaGrange which was considered the West Point of the South.  LaGrange is less than 10 miles from my house.  He fought in the Vicksburg campaign, was wounded in the neck at Chickamauga, and transferred to Lee's army in Virginia where he was shot in the neck again just outside of Richmond and killed. For more on General Gregg please see my John Gregg blog April 2011.   I never thought I would get a four year old to take a good picture, but the picture of Jerry and I was taken by Timmy.  As soon as he took the picture he announced,  "I got you and that old man with the white mustache."  

Confederate New Jersey Cavalry?

       In the confederate section of the Aberdeen cemetery we found a private John Wallace company B 2nd regiment, CSA.  Jerry was amazed to find that New Jersey provided regiments for the confederate army.  I told him that I thought the J should have been a C and it had to be North Carolina cavalry, but I learned Jerry was right this time.  There was a sign at the cemetery entrance that told the story of John Wallace.  Apparently John Wallace was a deserter from the 2nd New Jersey Cavalry, U.S. He burned the house of an elderly southern gentleman which resulted in the mans death.  The mans son then killed John Wallace.  There was still no explanation why this criminal was buried beneath a confederate marker.  

Me and Timmy at William Baldwin's grave

       We then traveled on southward to Columbus, Mississippi and to Friendship Cemetery where three confederate generals rest.  The first grave we found was of another one of my favorite generals, Brigadier General William Edwin Baldwin.  The first words out of Jerry's mouth was, "There is no drain hole in the bowl on top of the stone.  I wonder what keeps the water from freezing and bursting this bowl?"  

       I replied sarcastically, "Jerry, that is just the question I was about to ask after I finished paying tribute to one of my Confederate heroes."  You can read more about William Baldwin in my blog, 'Confederate General Killed by DUI?'  August 2011.

Photo taken by Timmy of Tim and the Old Man with General SD Lee

       The next general was one of Jerry's heroes, General SD Lee.  Jerry's ancestor served under Forrest who in turn served under Lieutenant General SD Lee at times.  Following the war, Lee was the first president of Mississippi State University.  

Timmy with General Sharp

       Brigadier General Jacob Hunter Sharp is also buried in this cemetery.  General Sharp led a brigade in the Army of Tennessee from Chickamauga to Bentonville.  

Me and Timmy with Phillip Roddey

       We arrived in Tuscaloosa only 30 minutes before sunset.  While I was frantically hunting the graves of Brigadier Generals George D. Johnston and Phillip D. Roddey Jerry was being entertained by two police officers attempting to arrest a man in a house next to the cemetery.  General Roddey was called 'the defender of the Tennessee Valley'.  

Timmy and I with Josiah Gorgas

       It was almost dark when we found the graves of Josiah Gorgas and S.A.M. Wood.  Wood was a native of Florence, Alabama.  He saw action from Shiloh to Chickamauga where he lost control of his brigade during a night fight and resigned.  One could throw a stone from these two officers graves and hit Bryant Denny Stadium.  It had been a great trip. We had gotten ten generals grave photos.  Any trip with Jerry that doesn't end with an arrest is a good trip.

Timmy in the cemetery with Bryant Denny Stadium in the back

A Mississippi Civil War Gasm

Me at the grave of Brigadier General Joseph L. Hogg

       Well, I finally had a day off without kids to baby sit and went on a mini-Civil War Gasm with my buddy Jerry in Mississippi. If you know Jerry, you know we had a blast. We have begun a hobby of visiting as many Confederate generals graves as possible and having our pictures taken with them. Our first stop was in Corinth, Mississippi at the museum located on the site of Battery Robinette where Confederate Brigadier General Joseph Lewis Hogg is buried. He didn't die in battle here, but from dysentery about three months after his promotion to brigadier general and without seeing any action whatsoever. Colonel William Peleg Rogers is also buried there, killed in the charge that overran the small earthen fort. He commanded a brigade in the action there and by all rights should have been a general officer. Despite the fact that a petition was signed begging President Davis to promote the man, he remained a colonel. The reason being that he and Davis had an argument during the Mexican War and Davis being the type person who held grudges would never forgive Rogers. 

       This brings us to the funny part of the story. Jerry and I wore our shell jackets on this trip. We were in a hurry because after all it was a Civil War Gasm. (Civil War Gasm definition is where you hit as many places as quickly as possible and we had places to go before dark.) We entered the museum to find the park ranger talking to a group of people. The entire group paused to watch us pass right by and out the back door of the museum at a high rate of speed. We exited the museum and walked around to the gate to find it locked. We then re-entered the museum by a side door and exited through another door out of sight of the ranger and group. We made each others picture beside General Hogg and Colonel Rogers graves, walked back around the building to Jerry's truck and left. It was only later that we decided that this is how ghost stories begin. We can just imagine someday reading about ourselves as the park ranger writes a book about the first sergeant and private that passed right through the museum and beyond a locked gate to be seen no more. 

Me at the grave of Colonel William Rogers one of my personal hero's.

       We left Corinth and headed southwest toward Ripley, Mississippi. About six miles beyond Ripley is a small town called Blue Mountain. Here in Blue Mountain Cemetery is the resting place of Brigadier General Mark Perrin Lowrey. His grave was easy enough to find, the cemetery not much more than an acre and his being the only one with an obelisk. General Lowrey was one of Patrick Cleburne's brigade commanders. He had fought in the Mexican War and returned home determined to become a preacher. Despite the fact that he couldn't read or write, he proceeded to accomplish his goal. His wife taught him reading and writing and he became a Baptist minister. He rose to the rank of general during the Civil War and following the war returned to the ministry and also founded a female college in Blue Mountain which later became Blue Mountain College. He died in the railroad depot in Middleton, Tennessee while awaiting a passenger train. 

Grave of Mark Perrin Lowrey

       Leaving Blue Mountain, Mississippi, Jerry called my attention to something I had never realized before. It seems the laws of mathematics cease to exist in this old southern state. We arrived at a sign that declared the intersection a four way stop. The problem was, we only counted three roads. One might think this was a simple accident, but we'll come back to this later. 

       We then drove west to Holly Springs, Mississippi where there are four generals buried in one cemetery. We arrived and entered the first cemetery entrance we came to. There on the right within twenty feet of the entrance we found the grave of Major General Edward Cary Walthall. If you know my luck, you'll know this was a complete accident. Walthall was the little known Confederate general that Forrest chose to help him fight the rear-guard for Hood during the retreat from Nashville. It would prove to be Walthall's best performance of the war. 

Major General Edward Cary Walthall

       We then got lucky and found the graves of Samuel Benton and Winfield Scott Featherston. Benton was only a colonel leading a brigade at the Battle of Atlanta when artillery shrapnel nearly tore his foot off and a piece lodged just inches from his heart. His foot would be amputated and his promotion to brigadier general would arrive from Richmond just two days before his death. The authorities in Richmond had not known he'd been wounded. 

Brigadier General Samuel Benton

       Brigadier General Winfield Scott Featherston began the war in the Virginia army and made a name for himself at the Battle of Ball's Bluff. From that point on he would serve as a capable officer but made no special name for himself. He would be shipped to the west where he would finish the war with the Army of Tennessee. His grave was as easy to find as Walthall's which was a good thing because it was about a ten degree windchill factor and I told Jerry that if a limb was to hit my ear, it would shatter like glass. 

Brigadier General Winfield Scott Featherston

       This brought us to the most difficult part of finding Brigadier General Daniel Chevilette Govan's grave. His marker is relatively flat without the enormous obelisks to mark the position. Jerry has a sixth sense or so he claims, sometimes it gets a bit off on him. He told me to check some markers about forty yards from the truck. I almost left my camera in the car because I don't trust Jerry's sixth sense, but I carried it along just in case. Lucky for me because, it did indeed turn out to be General Govan. This was truly our lucky day, my ears having lost all feeling along with my fingers, toes, and nose. Govan is the Arkansas brigadier who stood next to his close friend Patrick Cleburne at Franklin and said, "General, there won't be many of us to return home to Arkansas after this battle." Cleburne simply replied, "Well, Govan, if we are to die, let us die like men."

Brigadier General Daniel Govan

       It was at this point that Jerry's sixth sense began to get goofy or at least I think it did. He still claims he was right, but on that point I still remain dubious. He claimed he had an intuition that there was someone buried beneath a cedar tree he could see across the cemetery. He refused to leave the cemetery without investigating this mystery person. We drove across the cemetery to the cedar tree in question and sure enough, there was someone buried beneath the tree. I simply shook my head. Of course there was someone buried beneath the tree, it is a cemetery. He argues that he never said it was anyone buried there that had anything to do with the Civil War, he simply said there was someone buried there. 

       Leaving Holly Springs headed back home we again encountered a four way stop sign with only three roads. Jerry wanted to stop and take a picture of the intersection, but luckily he chose to pass on by this time. It was a typical Civil War Gasm for me. Out prowling the country with a fellow Civil War nut and we got photographs of us by six Confederate generals graves. I only wish I could do this everyday.