Some Rebel relics from the seat of war

Front matter

ALBERT THEODORE GOODLOE, First Lt. Co. D, Thirty-fifth Alabama Volunteers, C. S. A., 1863.

FROM THE SEAT OF WAR.

BY ALBERT THEODORE GOODLOE,

Dedication

To my beloved wife, the brave, wise^ and good womayi to whom I ivas ivedded November 29, 1855, who, though grieved immeasurably at my departure from her for the war, and having to endure the severest trials of her life in my absence, never undertook in any way to hold or call me back from our country^ s defense, but gave her consent, rather, for me to be a soldier, while she faithfully and constantly did what she could to protect our children, our home, and our financial interests until the war was over;

And to my comrades in arms, who, having fought heroically for the principles of right, still maintain their convictions and the spirit of manhood which characterized them as Confederate soldiers, these ^^ Rebel Relics " are especially and most affectionately dedicated.

A. T. GOODLOE.

Chapter I

BEFORE the "fall of Donelson," February 16, 1862, I, with most others in the South, did not believe it needful for men having families to enlist in the Confederate army, except those who, having some military knowledge, were capable of commanding, the general impression among us being that Lincoln's Yankee invaders could be driven back without them; and so, being a man of family, I did not determine to enlist nntil that occurrence took place. That disaster convinced me that every man in the South who could possibly do so ought to join the army as an effective fighting soldier, and I at once began to make arrangements to enlist for the war, let that be long or short.

My home at that time was in Wilson County, Tennessee, thirteen miles from

IN'ashville, on the Cumberland Eiver, where I supposed it would not be safe to leave my family; but thinking they would be forever out of reach of the Yankees in Franklin (now Colbert) County, JSTorth Alabama, I took them to the home of my uncle, J. Calvin Goodloe, living in that county.

Upon reaching my Uncle Calvin's I learned that a regiment of volunteer infantry was being organized at La Grange, and 1 enlisted in that as soon as I could get my business affairs arranged, which Avas not long after. It was the Thirty-fifth Alabama Regiment, and I became identified with Company D, known also as Mollie Walton Guards, as a private. Some months afterward I was made fifth sergeant, and on September 24, 1862, 1 was elected third lieutenant. Shortly after this I was promoted to second lieutenant, and on December 10, 1862, I became first lieutenant, which position I held to the close of the war. I had never met but very few members of the regiment before I joined it, but I did not feel that I had cast my lot among strangers, for the

PKOM THE SEAT OF WAR. 11

spirit of devotion to our Southland bound us together as comrades in a holy cause. I was then a class leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, my ministry not haviug begun until 1868.

Col. J. "W. Robertson had command of the regiment, not yet entirely filled out, and it was being drilled from day to day, preparatory to active service. It was not contemplated that it would leave La Grange until its organization was completed and it was equipped for service; but before this was done it was learned that the Yankees, already threatening that section of country, had found out our location and condition, and were developing plans for our capture, which made it necessary for us to seek safer quarters as promptly as possible.

Very hurriedly we left La Grange late Monday evening, April 14, 1862, without equipage of any kind, except that there were a few old guns and cartridges in Company B. We took the Russellville road, and marched till 9 o'clock at night, when we reached Spring Creek and went into camp. Here quite a serious accident occurred to young Spivey, one of the soldiers. His gun was accidently discharged, and wounded his arm so badly that Dr. Sanders had to amputate it. The next day we went on to Cedar Creek, our second encampment for the night.

Having a horse (Mike) with me, which I had expected to send back to Uncle Calvin's from La Grange, but which Col. Robertson preferred me not to do just then, he being needed for scouting purposes, I was directed to ride a mile or two in the rear of the regiment, so as to give the alarm if pursuing Yankees were seen, which was to be done by making Mike outrun them to the regiment, which, doubtless, he would have been fully capable of doing under the circumstances.

Late in the night at Cedar Creek two members of the regiment who were not at La Grange when w^e started overtook us and brought information that the Yankee cavalry were in pursuit of us, and were then at IS^ewburg, a few miles beyond Russollville. Four others who could be mounted and myself were hurried off at once (2 o'clock A.M., April 16), to find them if we could, and to report promptly the actual state of affairs to Col. Robertson. One of this scouting part}' was Rev. Robert A. Wilson, chaplain of the regiment, and a member of the Tennessee Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The others besides myself were Felton, Isaac L. Pride, and Russell. I regret that I have not at hand the given names of Felton, who acted as ca]Dtain, and Russell. Back to Russellville we went speedily, where one of the party was left to make observations, and then on to Newburg and beyond, but no Yankees could be found. While this military performance was being enacted with vigor and relish the regiment was marching to Burlerson, across Big Bear Creek, which was considered a place of security, and which place it reached the same day. Here Col. Robertson decided to hold the regiment until he could get instructions from army headquarters as to the command we w ere to report to* unless -those everlasting Yankees should threaten us again; which indeed they proceeded to do, according to report, quite soon.

Saturday, April 19, a very rainy day, a rumor reached Col. Robertson that the Yankees had scented us again, and were marching in pursuit of us by way of Frankfort, and Brother Wilson and I were dispatched to that place to ascertain the facts in the case, while the regiment was put in motion for Corinth, Miss., the seat of war in the Mississippi Department. We then entered upon a novel experience as a Methodist preacher and class leader. We were to act upon the principle that " all things are fair in war," so far as deceiving the enemy was concerned. Our ride to Frankfort was interesting indeed. We were instructed to spread the report through the citizens along our route, that the Yankees might get it, that the regiment was well armed and heavily reenforced, and that the combined force was in motion to clean out North Alabama of Yankees; and with great care we fulfilled our mission. There was intense excitement everywhere we went, everybody expecting the Yankees to pounce upon them at any moment. We would alhxy their fears with deceptive statements about the strength and movements of our command, and they would spread the "good news " like wildfire. Under pretense of wanting water, we would call at houses in order to get a favorable opportunity to deliver our message of joy to the inmates. I could not but feel sorry for them as we rode off, as I thought how effectually we had deluded them. We arrived at Frankfort early in the afternoon, and found a large crowd in the courtyard looking down the Tuscumbia road, expecting to see the approaching Yankee column every minute. Seeing us as we rode on the square from the opposite direction, and not knowing who we were, they instantly faced about, and exclaimed, taking us for Yankees : " Yonder they come from another direction! " Recognizing Judge Trimble on the street, a former acquaintance of mine, I made myself known to him, and got such information from him as we needed. I also loaded him well with the glad tidings that we had ample facilities for swabbing the ground with every Yankee in that region. This delighted him ver}^ much, and as he knew" me to be perfectly reliable, he reproduced my statements with confidence to others. I have wondered what he thought of me for taking so much pains to tell what was not so, supposing that he afterward learned that our regiment, neither reenforced nor armed, w^as at that time hurrying to Corinth with all possible speed. We had now gone as far as and done all that we were instructed to do, and from here we turned back to overtake our command. Whether we were instrumental in diverting the Yankees from their supposed pursuit of the regiment or not we never knew, but we heard no more of their hanging about us, and we marched on to Corinth without molestation, reaching there Wednesday, April 23, 1862.

As we rode along, fulfilling the mission upon which we were sent. Brother Wilson and I talked it over from the standpoint of the moral law, and settled the question that it was right to prevent the capture of our men if possible by deceiving the enemy as far as we could, though it be done through the medium of other parties; and especially as we were acting under instructions from a superior officer in time of war. From that time on I never had any hesitancy in deceiving and misleading Yankee soldiers when an opportunity afforded to do so.

On this scout, so to speak, I became intimately acquainted with our chaplain, and formed an attachment for him which will go on into eternity. He was a true man of God, and did all that he could while with us to promote the spiritual interests of the soldiers. He had the spirit of consecration to the Master's service, and preached for us and mingled among us as a devout and sincere man of God. Of him and his work other mention will be made hereafter.

The day before our regiment reach Corinth we were at Jacinto, Miss., where we had camped the night before, and there elected our field officers, it being thought best that we report to army headquarters as an organized command^ rather than as several companies being led by a nominal colonel, thongh recognized by all as our colonel. We elected as colonel J. W. Robertson; lieutenant colonel, Ed Goodwin; major, Hunt, whose given name I cannot recall. They were professors in La Grange College, I understood, and had much to do in having the regiment made up. Plunt soon transferred to the Virginia army; Robertson after awhile went into another department of service; and later on Goodwin died. As these parted from us others took their places, and we had Ives as colonel; Ashford, lieutenant colonel; and Dickson, major.

Up to April 25, 1862, it was my purpose to become identified w^ith Company I, to help fill it out, but then it was thought that there was no probability of it being filled out, and so it was, for the time at least, disbanded, and I went at once over to Company D, heretofore mentioned. This was my company for the war, the name of which is ever melodious to my ear. It was made up mostly in Limestone County, Ala., and was taken out by Dr. W. T. Sanders, who, however, did not remain with it long, preferring the snrgical department.

We reached Corinth at a time when the army seemed to be nndergoing reoi-ganization under Gen. Bragg, and there was much appearance of confusion. We were first broken up as a regiment, and the companies divided out among other regiments, which distressed US very much, and caused universal regret that we did not report to some other commander rather than Gen. Bragg. If talking about people makes their ears burn, we surely set his on fire. There is no telling how many ^'blessings" he got, nor in what shapes. But April 30, 1862, came, and it was definitely determined that we, having been gathered together again April 26, and assigned temporarily to Gardner's Brigade, be permanently attached to Preston's Brigade, of Breckinridge's Division. Then w^e had no further fault to find with Bragg. We were with splendid soldiers, and we were highly pleased with our generals. We had no choice as to commands, however, only wishing to maintain. our organization as a regiment.

We were with Preston and Breckinridge, as brigade and division commanders, until after the battle of Baton Rouge, August 5, 1862. 'Not long after that Rust and Lovell, brigadier and major generals were in command in their stead, and were with us at the battle of Corinth, October 3, 4, 1862. Subsequent to that a short time Gen. Buford was our brigade commander, and Gen. Loring our division commander; but Buford after awhile transferred to the cavalry service, and Col. Scott, of the Twelfth Louisiana Regiment of our brigade, being the ranking colonel, succeeded him. We were longest and best known as Buford's Brigade, and even after Scott's promotion it was difficult for our brigade to change its name. An army dispensation for a lodge of Masons was procured, and this was named " Buford Lodge;" our Christian Association also was named the " Christian Association of Buford's Brigade; " and these names were never changed. It is worth while to say, however, that after Hood's campaign into Middle Tennessee, in which the magnificent army turned over to him by President Davis was ahnost destroyed, we conkl hardly be said to be in command of any particular officer. What was left of the army was in scattered and shattered fraguients; and tliese, being thrown together in different shapes from time to time, were nnder the ranking officers at hand. Well, the fragments were tnrnedover to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, from whom the original army had been taken, just before the final battle of Bentonville, and we began to assume some form and comeliness, but then the war was virtually at an end.

We were satisfied in the main with our commanding generals of all ranks, though we did not think Pemberton, the ranking officer at the battle of Baker's Creek, and Hood competent to be department commanders, and I have several notes in my diary of dissatisfaction with Gen. Scott. To be sure he was our brigade commander during the severe campaigns in Georgia and Tennessee, under Johnston first and then Hood, but we could not feel that liQ was such an officer as we were entitled to on such campaigns as those. His connection with an incident with which I also was connected, and of which I will here make mention, was certainly not creditable to him as a comrade in arms with those in his command, not to speak of any other estimate which conld legitimately be put upon his conduct not favorable to him. While Hood was on the eve of giving up Atlanta, I was commanding onr picket line on the left, Companies C and G of our regiment being at that time under my more immediate command, owing to a recent consolidation of companies. On a ridge beyond our picket line, and separated from us by a narrow valley or bottom, the Yankee column was moving southward to flank Hood on the left. The dark cloud of calamity was fast thickening about us, and eventful scenes were transpiring W'hich w^ere surpassingly momentous. Angust 20, 186i, I sent forward from our picket line tW'O "boj^s" of my immediate command, Rufus Hafley and Milton Gray, to watch the movements of the Yankees and

FROM THE SEAT OP WAR. 23

note the size of their column. They were gone but a short while until they came back with a mounted Yankee officer, James Coughlan, tirst lieutenant, and aid-de-camp to Gen. Cox. They had just managed to secrete themselves from the enemy, and sufficiently near to them to make careful observations, when Coughlan — a Kentucky Yankee, by the way — rode past them to try and get a vieAV of our position. At the opportune moment Hafley and Gray rose up from their hiding place, then in his immediate rear, and, with their guns pointing at him, marched him quickly to where I was. He had the appearance of having been w^ell raised by Christian parents, but was the lonesomest-looking Yankee I ever saw. He thought of his mother at once, who I understood him to say was a widow, and who would be in great grief when she heard of his being lost from his command, thinking that he had been killed. He said that if he could only get a message to his command, and through it to his mother, that he was only a prisoner, and not slain, it would be great satisfaction to him. In this

24 SOME REBEL KELIOS

we gratified him at once, my Rebel boys agreeing to go in speaking distance of his command, and tell them of his whereabouts. This mission they performed as neatly as they did his capture, and him we sent to the reai*, disarming him of course.

Coughlan's equipment consisted in part of a pair of field glasses and a sword. His captors were more than pleased for me to have the sword, which was surrendered to me, and they wished to keep the glasses. Upon hearing of this capture, and that we had these articles in possession, Gen. Scott set to work to get possession of them — the glasses for himself, and the sword for his adjutant general. He ordered that the}^ be delivered to his ordnance officer for valuation, that he might take them at the price put upon them, taking advantage of a supposed military law that what is captured in battle belongs to the government, and if disposed of must be done so through government appraisers. By this device he possessed himself of the glasses, which he carried away with him after the battle of Franklin. These he got from the boys who took them, bat I refused to send up the sword to the ordnance department.

This note appears in my diary Tuesday, Sei)tember 13, 1861: "I received to-day a written * special order' from Gen. Scott to deliver to his ordnance officer, the bearer of the special order, the sword surrendered to me by Yankee Lieut. Coughlan, A. D. C, etc., August 20, for the purpose of having it valued, and with the intention, on his part, of getting it for his adjutant general. This order I positively refuse to obey until I am assured by the bearer of it that I myself will be allowed to take it at valuation; and then, declining to deliver it to him, I take it up myself. The Board of Appraisers value it, and I agree to pay the valuation, when Ordnance Officer Boring (for this is his name), being posted by Scott, from all appearances, gets it in his hand, and refuses to give it back to me. This is more than I can stand. My wrath gets the better of me, and I turn upon him such a volume of abuse that he is glad to let me take the sword to secure my departure from his presence." I had no further trouble about the sword, except that I felt the need of repenting before the Lord, which I did, for having given the rein to my temper on this occasion.

The only chance to recover the glasses was through the war department at Richmond. To this I made my complaint and appeal in due form, and confidently believe I would have succeeded after so long a time, had not our military affairs been thrown into inextricable confusion so soon after that.

This is one of the relics of the war which I record with much hesitancy, from the fact that I love every Rebel, so called, who took up arms against the invasion of our Southland, and dislike to say anything to injure the character of any of them; and yet these incidents give an insight into some of the aspects of army life which ought to be brought to view.

As to Gens. Pemberton and Hood, made mention of as not being so popular w^ith us as other officers of their rank, their names and exploits have long since gone into the history of the "lost cause." They threw away two splendid armies; and their blunders were of such a nature as seemed to result from recklessness rather than reason. The army which Pemberton took into the Vicksburg deadfall, where Loring refused to carry his division, was not a large one, but no braver troops ever went to battle. The army which Hood broke to pieces was the flower of the Confederacy when it was taken from Joseph E. Johnston and given to him. These two generals, Pemberton and Hood, Ave were accustomed to call, while under them, '^Jeff Davis's pets," but possibly Ave did both them and Davis an injustice in so doing.

CHAPTEE II.

THERE was no mistaking the temper of the Confederate army at Corinth when the Thirty-fifth Alabama Regiment reached there, April 23, 1862. The great battle of Shiloh had bnt recently been fought, where so many of their gallant comrades had fallen, but the survivors here encamped were as brave and defiant as they ever were, and as ready for battle as though they had never known its horrors. Besides various minor engagements, the fight at Farmington Friday, May 9, gave the enemy to understand that they were confronted by foemen whose valor was only intensified by their reverses. At Farmington the invaders were utterly outdone and routed, throwing aAvay knapsacks and other accouterments as they sought to escape from the yelling Rebels.

On this battle ground, after the fight was

over, Dr. I. F. Delouy, a very particular friend of mine and member of our regiment, picked up and gave to me a very nice pocket Bible. An inscription on it showed that it belonged to a Yankee soldier from Illinois named Scott, and that it vv^as given to him by his mother. It was excellently bound in red leather, and as it was of more convenient size for carrying in my pocket, I made use of it mainly instead of mine. I read it through several times, and often wished that I had some way of conveying it to the owner. When the war was over, I addressed a letter to him to the post office given in the book, receiving no reply e About twenty-two years afterward my oldest son, to whom I had given the Bible, learned by correspondence with the postmaster in Illinois that he was at Lone Oak, Tex., and sent it to him. He wrote letters to my son and myself, expressing his great satisfaction at its return; and I am sure that we were fully as glad that he had received it. He was one of Schofield's soldiers.

It seemed that a general engagement was imminent the whole time we were at Corintb, but up to the time that the army left there. May 29, 1862, no great battle was fought. We vvei'e several times in line of battle for a general onset, and there was much skirmishing first and last; but the Farmington fight, which was not an extensive one, was the largest battle that took place during our stay there. We believed then, and I believe now, that had the Yankees been as ready of mind for a fight as we were, we would have joined battle any day; but they still stood in terror of Rebels, notwithstanding the important advantages they had recently gained over ns. They knew also that it took two or three of their soldiers to whip one of ours, and that then it was uncertain on a fair, open field. This is not mere boasting, for on several occasions they were routed with less than half their numbers when the field was open, and never did they drive a Confederate army with fewer men than were in it. How could they fight as the Confederates did, wdien the highest motives that prompted them in the main were of a mercenary and spiteful sort; when the Confederates were standing for their inalienable rights of property, country, and home? The love of country may have moved some of them to take up arms against us, but who does not know that had this been the only incentive allowed in the formation of a Yankee army to enlist for our subjugation, scarcely a corporal's guard, so to speak, could have been drummed up, and that there would have been no further dream of war? AVe are not to cultivate bitterness of feeling, nor indeed to allow it, toward the inveterate foes of the Southern people, but the facts are not so much as in the field of controversy, that the typical Yankee soldier meant to despoil us of our possessions, to wrench from us our rights of every kind, and to mercilessly degrade us to the utmost possibility within his power.

The spirit which impelled the typical Yankee soldier southward for our subjugation is the sauie which has dominated one of the great political parties of the country ever since our surrender. These virulent foes of ours have never been satisfied that they only robbed ns of our estates winch we held under the laws of tlie government from which they would have us not depart, and destroyed our nationality; they w^ant us to kiss the hand that smote us, and to follow in their wake in all things — political, educational, religious, and what not. They would have us to have no convictions nor consciences of our own, but to be in abject servitude to the dictates of theirs. They hate us since the war because, though overcome by their armies, vastly outnumbering ours, we act the part of freemen having the rights of citizenship. And but for the noble Democracy of the iS^orth our people would be hectored over perpetually by Republican satraps of the most venomous and vindictive kind, until their rule could no longer be tolerated, and another deluge of blood would come upon our Southland. All honor to the noble ISTorthmen who have ever given us the right hand of fellowship since we laid down our arms and have constantly withstood the flood tide of hate that would overwhelm us! Whatever may be the questions at issue

FROM THE SEAT OF WAll. 33

fimong the political parties of the day (T write January 29, 1892), the one which overshadows all the rest is: Shall the people of the South be as free as those of the I^orth? Democracy says they shall; Kepublicanism says they shall not. There is no cry that can rally the cohorts of Kepublicanism like that of " Crush out the Southern traitors! " A lying epithet; but all the better suited, for that reason, to their purposes. We may not write of the war from our standpoint, nor tell of the heroism of our fallen braves, as we decorate their graves, without incurring the wrath of our never wearying pursuers, and being stigmatized as Rebel villains of whom the government should rid itse\[ instant er. With the I^orthern Democrat, however, we may stand by our convictions and our war record and still be loyal citizens. He may not applaud all our utterances, and may indeed dispute some of them, but he does appreciate the spirit of manhood that moves us to honor the cause for which we fought and the comrades who

fell by our sides. He cares not that we love 3 the fallen Confederacy, because he knows that in good faith we laid down our ai-ms, and that we are as true to a reunited country as though we had never seceded. He knows that we have no thought of reestablishing the Confederacy, and that we could not if w^e w^ould.

I am not trying to convey the idea, as will be readily perceived, that the Democratic party, as a political organization, is immaculate; nor do I mean to speak in any sense from the standpoint of a political partisan. As to politics, I was a Whig until that party ceased to exist, and am now^ M^J persuaded in my own mind that the Democracy of to-day, as well as that of other days, has many sins to atone for. But in the time of imminent need and peril it became our only bulwark of security against the wrathful onslaught of our would-be destroyers; and so as one w ho could not but see that the humiliation or destruction of himself, his offspring, and his countrymen was determined upon by our Republican adversaries, I turn with grateful heart to our timely deliverer, the

IN^ationiil Democracy, regarding it in this one liglit, without respect to what constitutes its platform of principles in other particulars.

As the ruling idea of Republicanism is to "put black heels on the necks of Southern whites," so the ruling idea of Democracy is to protect us against so dire a calamity; so that, as a matter of self-preservation and necessity, we take refuge in the ranks of Democracy, the principle being the same that actuated us in other days, in withstanding, in arms, the aggressive destroyers whom Lincoln sent South to blot us from the face of the earth.

And it is not enough for our enemies of to-day that a political party should be formed and perpetuated, on the basis of hatred and abuse of the South, but religionists also beyond the Ohio and Potomac Kivers must incorporate such Satanic principles into their creeds. The jN'orthern Methodist Church especially has made itself notorious through its spokesmen for its bitter denunciations of Southern white citizens and