Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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1 Reminiscences of tt)e Xffar v Written h IMS by B. P. Gregory, Sr. to lis Son, W. T. Gregory. (Continued from last week) While at Knoxville I was in two skirmish fights, both were in the night and on the outskirts of the city. I was given 20 men from the regiment to help take the Yankee Dicket line at the railroad just in the edge of the city. We advanced on them about 9 or 10 o'clock in the night and drove them back into the city with very small loss, but we could not hold it longer than daylight, when they came back with a line strong enough to force us back. A few nights later we tried it again and took it back and held it until we left , Knoxville. After leaving Knoxville, it being so, long ago I can't remember the places we went. We had some considerable skirmishing at different points but this has slipped my memory, so I don't know much about it, and will have to pass it by. Some time after this I got a furIrVlirvVt f A "toil- ?v??? n/x/?AM^l ? * J ivugll WW TIOII IIVII1C) lllj OCLUI1U auu last furlough of the war. Captain Douglass and myself sent our furloughs up to General Longstreet for his approval, but he would not approve them just at that time, and kept them awhile. I had about concluded that he was not going to approve them at all, and I had been sent off with a company up the French Broad river to guard a wagon train and on our way back I met General Jenkins and eight or ten others on their way home on furlough. He told me my furlough was at camp and would like for me to go on with them aa it was about fifty miles or more, of dangerous mountain travel, and the larger the crown the better. I was allright, for while out with the train I saw a fine young four-year-old horse offered for sale and I bought him cheap, with the intention of selling him to one of our doctors who was needing a horse. So I turned around and went on home witn tnem, and it was the most tiresome riding I ever did in my life. # The horse was unbroken and scarry and awkward. I rode him, all the same, fifty-one miles the first day and fifty-two the second. We had to do that because there were so few houses on the way and the mountains were so high and ragged there were but few places to put a house. I got home all right, but did not enjoy my stay very much for I had a large rising on my leg that caused me a great deal of pain nearly the whole time I was at home. And while I was at home our little army moved again to Bull's Gap. We were getting back toward Virginia now, our old tramping ground. I rejoined our regiment at Bull Gap and we stayed in that part of Tennessee the balance of the winter. As Spring began to onnrAcioli wn ah? ******* \7i*~ w^/j/1 vwcu T? ^ I Iiuuu UU1 ? ci ^ 111 IU V IIginia and joined Lee's army at the Battle of the Wilderness. A very bloody battle it was, too, heavy loss on both sides. The enemy and Lee's army had been fighting before we got there, and we went into line next morning very early and lay in the edge of the woods with thick under growth all through it, expecting the enemy to advance on us at any minute, until 12 o'clock or later. Neither party could see each other, and the Yankees had built breastworks, but the country afc far as I could see was of such a nature that artillery could not be used to much advantage by either side. While we were preparing to advance on the Yankees General Longstreet and General Jenkins were riding along through the woods look mg iu see me way Desi ior assaulting the enemy and got around in front too far and were fired on by some of our troops, who thought they were Yankees. I was near enough to see them as the woods were a little thin there at that place, but I did not know who they were until after we got the sad news that General Longstreet was wounded and our General Jenkins was killed. It did look very discouraging to us, just at the very moment we were about to move on the enemy, to loose our general. But we soon got the word, "Forward!" and began advancing slowly through the woods. We did not go far before we came to where they had fought the enemy before we got to Lee's army. And owing to the density of the undergrowth in the woods they got within thirty or forty yards of each other before they opened fire and both parties, as well as I could judge, held their ground for some time, as the sapplings looked Djf/uuvcicu up us 11 iiKntnin^ riaa nit them. And where I walked across the line of dead, I could have stepped almost from one dead man to another on either line. Evidently Greek had met Greek there. We did not stop here at this line, but kept advancing on cautiously, and in a few minutes we f?ot to where the woods were Retting thin for a space of about 7b yards in width. We at once saw the HOT BISCU hot oakox ROYAL Bi are dollo tut e breastworks and received a very destructive volley from the enemy, which checked our advance, but we fired on them as rapidly as we could, and we were almost about to fall back when Colonel Coward rushed along the line, saying: "Charge them, it will never do to stand here," and we all began hollowing: "Charge!" and we went climbing over obstructions of small trees, etc. As the enemy began running back out of their entrenchments we were very close to them, and gave them lead as fast as possible while they were in sight. We were nearly out of ammunition and the enemy were preparing to try to take it back from us. Colonel Coward moved the regiment along behind the works until he came to a hollow and went back a half mile or more. There was a big stump between seven of us and the regiment and we did not know when they left until we found the firing had ceased on our side, and the one nearest the stump looked around and said, "Our men are all gone and the Yankees are coming." I said to him to jump out ana run. inow we naa a narrow path to run out at, and while I was telling him to run, so he would be out of my way. I was crawling over the others io get out. Captain Patrick was the ma.i I was talking to, and he made a break and the Yankees fired on him several times but missed him. Now was my time. Out I went and such shooting at one poor Reb., the running and jumping over brush that time, could not be bettered on earth by any one, and I saw the danger I would go through in running, but I could not bear the thought of a Northern prison. I had the presence of mind not to run straight, so I ran a zigzag course, but they shot through my coat a little below the waist. They had already hit my blanket when we were making the charge. The other five men were captured. They told me they heard the ball hit me or my clothing and they would not run the risk. Our loss in this battle was very heavy. I had two cousins killed in this fight and several other good friends. Aftei we had taken the entrenchment Isaac Gregory . got upon the embankment and cheered the South Carolinians, and standing up they shot him dead. I missed him so much after this, but such was war. He was a brave bov. and I was sorry I was not close enough to pull him off before he pot shot. This is about I can remember of that fight. That was on the (5th day of May, 18G4. Now during the fighting at the Battle of the Wilderness the woods caught on fire and we left there in the night and the fire was along the road we went, and I was smoked almost to death. My eyes gave me trouble for two or three days after. Now we got down to Spotsylvania court h^>usc and there we had another battle. We were behind breastworks in this fight and did not have any hard fighting to do on our part of the line.. We moved to the right just below there, in the night, in the rear of some North Carolina troops, who were in bad shape. The enemy were on one side of the breastworks and our men on the other, shooting over the breastworks at each other all night long. I was on the skirmish line in the rear of them in open ground and we were ordered not to fire on any one in our front without hailing them. Through the night a good many of our men would run out and get away, but at C ybrcak most of them surrendered, so I heard afterward. I had to leave there before day and follow after the army, which was moving to the right, to keep abreast of the enemy who were trying to get around into Richmond. I remember nothing more of this campaign, but I see in a school History that Grant had 150,000 men and Lee about 60,000 men, so you can see what a vast difference in the size of the two armies and we defeated them and the History say? In two weeks Grant lost 40,000 men. Now he was no nearer Richmond than he was a year before, and he lay witlr his army around on the south side of Richmond and we in his front. I rememben one night being on the picket line on the McComicksville turnpike. The Yankees in the night sometime captured some part of our picket line to our right and got around in our rear. And just as day was breaking they got within 25 or 30 steps of IT, I, mat/a with iking Powder ioue, health' asiiy made where I was before I could see who who they were. I ordered the men to fire and being so close I snatched a gun from one of the men and jumped behind a tree by the side of a man who was already there, and we both fired at the same time. They killed the man beside me and ,as he fell he knocked me down, or nearly so, and I rose running and called to the men to run. We got the first fire on them and so confused them, and got away, but they killed four or five good men and wounded as many more. In running back to our entrenchments we had to make a circuit to get around them, and every man running tor himself, we got scattered. I had made a larger circle and was about out of breath and took to shelter behind a tree, and another man stopped behind a stump about twenty feet from me. They fired at us and killed the man behind the stump but missed me. The tree was too small to shelter me good, and I intended to run on again when I got a little rested, but now there was some close hugging to that tree for a few minutes. I could hear the balls hit the tree and'feel the jar. One of our men came along close by me who was wounded, and I told him to drop his gun toward me. He did so and I reached for it as quick as a wink. It was already loaded. From wnere mey were nring at me the bushes were pretty thick, and they could not see me without coming out in the edge of the road about seventyfive yards from me. He would run out drop on his knee and shoot at me. I had my gun ready for him and as soon as he dropped on his knee to draw a bead on me, my bead was already drawn and he got my shot in the leg. Things were looking better for me now, so I ran on into the woods and got with the company, and that evening we drove them back, and some few steps from where I shot him there was blood and a part of pants' leg. Now, if I remember right, it was not long after this we had some hard fighting d6wn below Richmond We were driving the enemy back until late in the evening they got reinforcements and held their ground, and we withdrew and returned to our breastworks. I was in command of the litter corps, that is about 20 men to follow the line of battle and carry all the wounded to where the ambulance could get them and haul them back to the hospital. We had a good deal of it to do that day. The first lieutenant of our company was killed and several of our men were killed and wounded. I remember there was a house between the firing lines. Two women came out of the house just as I <rrvt t A ii on/1 ool-n/1 mn 1^4 the men disturb or kill their two hogs in the pen. "I looked to see you shot down in a minute," I said, "fly down that hill out of range of the Yankee bullets," and they soon heard the bullets whizing, and the last I saw of them they were very near flying. I could not get any farther than this house, when our men began falling back, and if we had any wounded beyond this house the enemy got them. Now in a few days after this the enemy made a heavy assault on Fort Harrison, not far fron) the James river and succeeded in taking it. We triel to take it back again but failed with heavy loss to us. We had one man killed that day who had been in all the fights the cdhipany had ever been in, and he had never had his clothing touched by a bullet. We began Lo think he was the luckiest man we had, but his time had come. He was a good soldier and always at his post of duty. Our company \yas now beginning '??k small. We went into service with a large company, over 100 men as well as I can remember, but at that time we had not more than forty men, and we had been getting recruits every year, but they were killed out and disabled faster than we could get men. Sometime after the fight at Fort Harrison we had a fight away to the left of Fort Harrison, and killed and captured several hundred men with a very small loss to ourselves. And before or after this, we had a fight noar Wi Viitn'c 'Tovorn Kolr*\?r RioK_ .mond. I was still in command of the litter bearers and had been for some time. The enemy were shelling us very heavy as we were going into the fight. One shot hit three of the Pea Ridge company. It cut off Captain Comer's leg just above the knee; cut off the leg of one of his men and disabled another one of his men, all done by one ball or shell. I sent them back to the hospital and while the men were gone back with them I was standing leaning against a tree when a shall went through the top of it and I moved away for fear a limb would fall on me. I got about eight or ten feet away from the tree when a shot struck the tree just about where my shoulders had been and a piece of bark gave me a hard the back and some pieces striking me on the neck and side of the face bloodied me a good deal, but did not hurt mo anoncrV* fa rlicaKln *v?n T I ? 'W w Utuaviv inc. X ICXV the tree about fifty yards and saw several badly wounded negroes, who were in the Northm army. That was my first sight of a black soldier. I could not help but feel sorry for them. They were a pitiful sight and a disgrace to the Yankees in fighting the ignorant creatures against us. By this time things were beginning to look blue to us, but that did not discourage us. We fought them with that same determined spirit that we bfegan with and they knew it would take all the bounty jumpers of Eurape to help them starve us out and force us to lay down our guns. Well, my next remembrance was around Petersburg. I don't think we ever did any hard fighting there, but close sharpshooting every day while in the breastworks. The two lines of works were so close to each other that it was a dangerous thing to let your head show over the works. Many lost their lives on both sides by shooting at each other over the top of the breastworks. It was a very disagreeable place. We could not cook anything without getting grit and dirt knocked into it by the bullets hitting the embankment. I eat enough dirt there to do me the rest of mv lifo Mnw horn Honnro 1 rivonf had a large army closing around us a little at a time. Ours was not more than 30,000 men. We drew away from Petersburg about the 2nd or 3rd of April, 1865. I did not know until night that we were going to give up both Richmond and Petersburg. We left Petersburg at dark and marched all night and next day the same, going on and never stopping but a few minutes at a time, with but a few mouthfuls of bread to eat and it was soon gone. Colonel Coward told me to take two men from each company and venture out far enough to get something to eat. The Yankees were on both sides of us and it was a risky thing to do, but we were pbliged to have something to eat.?-f went as far as I could go withmit. h?in<y pnnfiiroH unrl T trr\f oil we could carry, I remember well what it was, 400 pounds of flour and 32 pieces of meat. When I got back with it the men soon divided it out and began cooking the last rations issued by to the Confederate soldiers. So I have the honor of being in command of the last foragers for provisions of the 5th South Carolina regiment. In a day or two after this we sur- j rendered at Appomatox court house, Virginia, on the 9th of April, 1805. The Yankees were very kind to us and divided their rations with us, which was not much, but it was the best they could do at the time, as it was scarce with them. Now many of us were in a sad plight, nearly <>00 miles from home with shoes worn out, feet' badly hlisform I Hivtw ntirl vn nrrrnrl n nrl n a wn \r to get home only by walking and begging. So when we got our paroles we started for oui nomes an& in about fifteen days I got home in bad shape with my feet. I found out when I got home my brother Tom had been dead about four weeks. He belonged to the Bay army, and died from erysipelas. Soon after we got home the Northern people became a little tyranical toward the South. After the hostilities ceased and we were at home they established troops in all our towns and allowed the cowardly thieves and robbers to come down from the North, and allowed the ignorant negroes to vote and elect the scallawags into all offices, and oppressed the people by taxation until it was beginning to be unbearable, and we began to make it hot for them to stay down in Dixie. They crambed their carpet bags full and left. Now it has been over forty years since the close of the war. I have never taken the 4th of July as a holiday since the beginning and I never will. I shall believe as long as I live we had a right to secede from the North. Each state is a sovereignty of its own. Slavery may have been wrong, but it was in existence when the declaration of independence was made and when the constitution of the States was written, and it took the North nearly a hundred years to find it out. I am of the opinion that the North were sadly in need of Rood statesmen, who could have seen far statesmen, who could see far enough ahead to have prevented this bloodshed over freeing the negroes. And in a few more years it would have been easy enough to have brought it on by gradual emancipation without any war. Well, I said in the beginning that 44,4,44f4,4f4f4f4,4,4f44d I WHY INVITE Tl| MURDEI BY CARRYING Y< + IN A POCKE' 4 4* Why not carry a check bo ?ft tation to thieves? It is the your money safe. With yoi <4* and one of our check books i 4 safer from thieves than if ; <ft vers. Our vaults and ins 4* money from fire and burgla ?|t will know that you don't cai + you alone. ^ Yours for Servie I Citizens Natii * UNION, SOUTH ' + STATE, COUNTY AND C ' Jit *jl? ? X f Columbus an + * hi JL a I W #4 IjM * * | Do you need f* + See the Colu -i' | Webber Wage * you buy. -I* * ______ -ft | Peoples Su + Oi ^ aJ^ iJCa MIm ^fc* tdlC? iJL d DONT TRIFLE WITH CO Many Have Filled Consumptive Gra\ a Cough or i You never know how soon a cold Colu will become a serious malady. It wou' may be in the head to-day; in the lungs to-morrow and the next day mon you may be fighting deadly pneumo- cove nia for your life. It's much the same hum with a cough. Inflamed and cough- rom( worn throat and lungs offer the best chance to consumption germs to be- jj10 j gin their murderous work. There's whoi only one way to prevent these deadly had diseases getting a hold on you. As an(l soon as a cough or cold attacks you, * take Dr. King's Xew Discovery until you are entirely cured. Sometimes a Dr. dose or two will do the business, sav- he ( ing you suffering and a doctor's bill. ^10"a Thousands of cures like these below prove its wonderful power to cure gwor coughs and colds. close "I feel sure it's a Godsend to humanity," writes Mrs. Effie Morton, Sold and recomme ALL DRU it had been so lonj* since the war that j i could not remcmoer all that would ^ ^ be of interest, and I know that I have not Riven all fighting of our regiment, but I have given what I remember at this time and no exageration about any description of battles, nor have I tried to make it appear that we, or myself, was any greater wTyr soldier than ever fought before or 111 since. But I do say, if all History that I ever read of wars be true, V there has never been any superior in the way of soldiers to the Southern soldier. And on the other hand if you will consider that in the begin- L30 ning we were poorly armed and had C||j| nn i'0(rnlnr? nnlhino1 hut vnlnntpprc ! and did not have time to drill and D/>( train them before the Yankee army with the best of arms was upon us, with a great many more men than ? we had, and we drove them back to Sh Washington. And I firmly believe, all things considered, the fighting the Southern soldier did frbm 18(51 to 1865, was far superior to anything that has ever occurred. History will prove it. And if I was a rebel I am a rebel still, and no apology to anyone for what I did. (The End) % IIEVES AND t 1ERS + 3UR MONEY ? r BOOK? 4* 4* ok and offer no temp- 4* simplest way to keep 4* ar money in our bank 4* in your pocket you are 4* you carried ten revol- 4* urance protect your 4* Lrs. The hold-un men 4" *ry money and will let * e and Safety. ^ anal Bank! CAROLINA. * ^ITY DEPOSITORY. J I?4'4'4,4?4,4m4,4?4,4,?K d Webber * 0 N S | * + a Wagon? J mbus and I ms before | + * + * pply Co. t * IUGHS OR COLDS. es Because They Neglected Cold. imbia, Mo., "for I believe I d have consumption to-dav, if I not used this great remedy." ' take great. pleasure in reeomding your Dr. King's New Disry for the benefit of suffering anity. It's a thoroughly reliable >dy for all coughs, croup and troubles. We have used it. in family for fourteen years with jest results. It saved my mother i two doctors gave her up. She t* ?vi v ? \;iv; v<iou wi | Mini muiiui was in bed seven weeks and part he time 'out of her mind' so she did not know me. I told er to pet me two 50c bottles of King's New Discovery, which lid, and on taking it she soon n to improve, and four bottles d her entirely. You may pubthis if you wish and I will an* all inquiries, with postage en*1 for reply. "Yours respectfully, "Wm. Cogger." inded by GGISTS iv? T ai?r Ppiodg WML UVVV a. llVVlJ Best Leather Quick Work SHOE REPAIRING ou Cannot Beat Us t's Half Soles - - - 75c ies' Half Soles - - - 50c Idren's Halt Soles - - 50c st Grade of Work G. FOSTER, the Fine oemaker, is with us. GIVE US A TRIAL HON ELECTRIC SHOE REPAIR SHOP S. FRAM, Prop.