"Tis something akin to the immortals that makes
us long not to be altogether
unworthy of the fame of our ancestors, it is
certain that if the child respects himself
he must honor his father and
mother."
Elkanah Burson, Memorial Day Speech, April 26, 1879
1. Story of the Flag of the Wilcox True Blues
The “Wilcox True Blues” was the first company formed in this
part of the State in early 1861, and was initially comprised of young men
from east Wilcox County followed by young men from the Camden area. The
ladies of the families of these volunteers decided to present the company
with a suitable flag, and while the company was being organized, the women
began to make the flag. Since the stores in Camden had no suitable material,
Miss Adele Robbins of Canton Bend presented the ladies with blue silk
dress material to be used for the flag. Mr. Samuel Tepper volunteered to
paint the inscription on the banner which consisted of the words “Wilcox
True Blues” on one side, and on the other side was depicted a steamboat,
cotton boll, and a coiled rattlesnake. Mrs. Ella Thompson presented the flag
to the company which the Honorable S.C. Cook accepted on its behalf. The
company left Wilcox County in February 1861 as was engaged in the capture of
Fort Barrancas and Fort McRea. The “Wilcox True Blues” then were organized
into the First Regiment of Alabama as Company B and Judge Purifoy of Furman
was made color bearer. Captain was I.G.W. Steadman, a medical doctor from
Oak Hill. This regiment was the first one transferred to the Confederate
service, and was ordered to Island 10 on the Mississippi River. On the way
to this outpost, thinly clad, many of the young soldiers became ill. The
color bearer, among the sick, was put off the boat a private residence at
Tiptonville, Tennessee. There he and his colors were captured by Wisconsin
troops, and sent to Madison where it was placed in a military museum.
Many years later, the museum was destroyed by fire, and it was assumed that
the flag had been destroyed. However, in 1917, Miss Maud McWilliams of
Camden was visiting her sister Mrs. Margueritte McWilliams Cook, in Lansing,
Michigan, and happened to discover in a military museum there the “Wilcox
True Blues” banner, which she recognized from the description given her by
her father. When the word reached Richard Ervin McWilliams, an original
member of the Company, and who later served as a Major in the Confederate
Army, and who had spent many years trying to locate the flag, he wrote the
Michigan State Auditor and the Grand Army of Michigan requesting its return.
The flag was
returned to Alabama in
1921,
and was displayed at the Wilcox County Courthouse for a period of
time. Later it was placed in the
Department of Archives and History, where it rested for nearly 85 years,
though in dire need of repair. The local Wilcox Historical Society
spearheaded the effort including a fund raiser to have this flag restored,
and through the special efforts of the ADAH, this is has come to fruition.
(The above information was excerpted from an article written by R.E.
McWilliams, a Private in Company B, and which appeared in the Wilcox
Progressive Era on February 10, 1921. Mr. McWilliams,
the great-grandfather of our Vice
President, Garland Cook Smith and her sister Jean Lindsay Cook,
died on August 25, 1921).
2. How the True Blues Became Company B
Co. “K” (“Wilcox
True Blues”, Wilcox County; company organized at Allenton, AL, 9 Feb 1861.
Officers and men
were sworn into Confederate service on 8 April 1861, and mustered out at
Pensacola, FL, 18 Jan 1862)
The Mobile "Red
Eagles" had problems with discipline and morale from the beginning and
disbanded on 14 Jan 1862, eliminating Co. "D". Co. "A" and "B", "Pioneer
Guards" and "Eufaula Rifles", disbanded shortly afterwards and reorganized
as the "Eufaula Light Artillery". That left seven companies. A substantial
number of twelve-month men in these were willing to reenlist for two years:
Co. “C” (“Perote
Guards”, Pike County) became Co. "G"
Co. “E” (“Rough
and Ready Pioneers”, Pike County) continued as Co. "E"
Co. “F”
(“Tallapoosa Rifles”, Tallapoosa County) became Co. "A”
Co. “G” (“Alabama
Rifles”, Talladega County, became Co. "D"
Co. “H” (“Guards
of the Sunny South”, Lowndes County) became Co. "C”
Co. “I” (“Clayton
Guards”, Barbour County) became Co. "F"
Co. “K” (“Wilcox
True Blues”, Wilcox County) became Co. "B"
New companies
were designated "H", "I" and "K". Veterans reenlisted for two years or the
war rather than three years as all others would have.
3.
Service of the "Wilcox True Blues" (Men of Wilcox: They Wore
the Gray, Ouida Starr Woodson)
Early in February, 1861, men
from East Wilcox county organized a company of volunteers, who would offer
their service to Alabama. These men, about 100 strong, left their
county on February 12, with I. G. W. Steadman as Captain. They went to
Pensacola, Fla., and before the end of February were mustered into the First
Alabama Infantry Regiment as Company B. At the time of the of the
organization of the Regiment, Captain Steadman was elected Colonel of the
First Alabama, and David Wardlaw Ramsey became Captain of the True Blues.
For a year, the First Alabama remained on duty at Fort Barrancus, Pensacola.
Being the oldest Alabama Regiment, the men of its ranks were the first
called upon to re-enlist for the duration of the war. Seven of the
Companies of the Regiment re-enlisted. About two-thirds of the men of
the Wilcox true Blues remained in Pensacola.
Early March, 1862, the First
Alabama was ordered to Island No. 10, on the Mississippi River, near the
borders of Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee.
In 1898, Col. Steadman wrote a
letter to the Birmingham Age Herald which told of the Regiment's service.
He wrote, "Warm weather had begun in Pensacola, and we were ordered to send
our heavy clothing home, and march as lightly clad as we could." He
remembered that upon arrival at Island No. 10, the men found no tents, few
utensils for camp life, and sufferings of the men of the Regiment were
great.
Island No. 10 was under siege
six weeks, during which time several communicable diseases broke out.
Measles, mumps, and whooping cough were rampant among the men.
Following the surrender of the Confederate forces, the enlisted men were
sent to Union prisons in the far north. Col. Steadman's letter notes
that mortality among prisoners at Madison, Wisconsin was high. He
attributed the high death rate to the privations suffered prior to capture
rather than any neglect by the Union authorities.
A muster roll, which was
prepared in the early 1930s by Richard Ervin McWilliams, lists 13 of the
True Blues who died during the terrible happenings of the spring of 1862.
Col. Steadman and Captain Ramsey were taken prisoner and both were held
captive in northern prisons for the duration of the war.
The Privates of the First
Alabama were paroled in September of 1862. The Regiment rendezvoused
in Jackson, Miss., where casualties were counted as being 300 men lost
during the siege or during their time in northern prisons.
The Regiment was ordered to
Port Hudson where they suffered another siege and capture. another 150
casualties were recorded for the First Alabama.
| Picture |
Rank |
First
Name |
Last Name |
Service |
Comments |
| |
Captain |
I. G. W. |
Steadman |
|
|
 |
Captain |
David Wardlaw |
Ramsey |
POW Camp Chase,
Columbus, Ohio |
|
| |
First Lieutenant |
J. K. |
Hawthorne |
|
|
| |
Second Lieutenant |
W. D. |
McNeill |
|
|
| |
Third Lieutenant |
Robert |
Powers |
|
|
| |
First Sergeant |
J. P. |
Benson |
|
|
| |
Second Sergeant |
J. P. |
Williams |
|
|
| |
Third Sergeant |
W. J. |
Hawthorne |
|
|
| |
First Sergeant |
Nick |
Stallworth |
|
|
| |
First Corporal |
Preston |
Williams |
|
|
| |
Second Corporal |
Frank |
Mobley |
|
|
| |
Third Corporal |
E. A. |
Shannon |
|
|
| |
Fourth Corporal |
Joseph B. |
McWilliams |
|
|
| |
Private |
Andrew |
McMeehan |
|
|
| |
Private |
Seaborne |
Flannagan |
|
|
| |
Private |
R. |
Gaillard |
|
|
| |
Private |
Robert D. |
George |
|
|
| |
Private |
John |
Bragg |
|
|
| |
Private |
David W. |
Carter |
|
|
| |
Private |
J. H. |
Chappell |
|
|
| |
Private |
N.P.E. |
Crook |
|
|
| |
Private |
William P. |
Carter |
|
|
| |
Private |
D. R. |
Maxwell |
|
|
| |
Private |
E. C. |
McWilliams |
|
|
| |
Private |
W. W. |
McConnico |
|
|
| |
Private |
William |
Mims |
|
|
| |
Private |
John F. |
Melton |
|
|
| |
Private |
David P. |
Owens |
|
|
| |
Private |
Judge W. |
Purifoy |
|
|
| |
Private |
E. D. |
Harris |
|
|
| |
Private |
W. R. |
Hawthorne |
|
|
| |
Private |
Brustus |
Howard |
|
|
| |
Private |
Nathaniel |
Ashley |
|
|
| |
Private |
James |
Brown |
|
|
| |
Private |
Thomas J. |
Blair |
|
|
| |
Private |
C. W. |
Bodie |
|
|
| |
Private |
John |
Bunkley |
|
|
| |
Private |
Leslie |
Bloxom |
|
|
| |
Private |
William J. |
Bailey |
|
|
| |
Private |
W. D. |
Bain |
|
|
 |
Private |
E. |
Burson |
Wounded
Sharpsburg, Wilderness
2nd Manassas, August 20, 1862
Sharpsburg
16 Nov 1863
Campbell's Station
Knoxville
Danbridge |
Speech Given
Memorial
Day Camden,
April 26, 1877 |
| |
Private |
J. Decatur |
Caldwell |
|
|
| |
Private |
John |
Childs |
|
|
| |
Private |
Patrick |
Conner |
|
|
| |
Private |
Robert |
Dampler |
|
|
| |
Private |
John |
Dougherty |
|
|
| |
Private |
Tence |
Fitzsimmons |
|
|
| |
Private |
Gabriel |
Flowers |
|
|
| |
Private |
Allen J. |
Grimes |
|
|
| |
Private |
James L. |
Grace |
|
|
| |
Private |
Thomas P. |
Gaillard |
|
|
| |
Private |
J. Salter |
Grace |
|
|
| |
Private |
William |
Campbell |
|
|
| |
Private |
A. T. |
Chappell |
|
|
| |
Private |
Benjamin |
Hardy |
|
|
| |
Private |
W. |
Carstarphen |
|
|
| |
Private |
C. W. |
Campbell |
|
|
| |
Private |
J. F. |
Maxwell |
|
|
| |
Private |
Hugh W. |
McKee |
|
|
| |
Private |
J. S. |
McBryde |
|
|
| |
Private |
David |
Flowers |
|
|
| |
Private |
C. O. |
Miller |
|
|
| |
Private |
Simeon K. |
Nored |
|
|
| |
Private |
John W. |
Purifoy |
|
|
| |
Private |
Henry |
Haddox |
|
|
| |
Private |
William O. |
Richardson |
|
|
| |
Private |
Thomas J. |
Holcombe |
|
|
These soldiers
were listed below in the 1921 article, below, but were not listed above
Not listed here,
but included in the list of Mrs. Alice Whiting Waterman of the Dead of the
First Alabama Regiment at Madison, Wisconsin:
W. H. Hadden, Company B, May 24
Henry Albritton, Company B, May 7
A. L. Spears, Company B, May 13
G. W. Spears, Company B, May 19
P. L. Drinkard, Company B, May 23
___________, Company B, April 2
In February 1862 the first Alabama Regiment, which was
thoroughly drilled as a Heavy Artillery and Infantry Regiment, having served
its term of one year were first of all Regiments in the Confederate Service
called upon to re-enlist for the war. This call was responded to by
about two-thirds of the above named members of the Blues. They organized
by its election of the following commissioned officers as Company B. D.
W. Ramsey, Captain, E. Galliard, 1st Lt., Joseph P. Benson, 2nd Lt., Joseph
Henderson, 3rd Lt.
The Regiment reorganized as the First Alabama Regiment with I.
G. W. Steedman as Colonel and Samuel Knox who was killed at the battle of
Franklin as major. Nearly the entire Regiment was in April 1862 captured
at Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River, on the line between the States of
Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. Officers and men were held as
prisoners of war for about four months. On their being exchanged in the
early fall of 1862 this Regiment was ordered to Port Hudson in Louisiana.
There it remained until the fall of that place on the 9th of July, 1863.
The privates were parolled, and afterwards exchanged. The Colonel, I. G.
W. Steedman and Lt. Colonel M. B. Locke, with all the commissioned officers
who were their captives were from that time to the close of the war, held as
prisoners. After an exchange of the officers captured and the body of
all privates this Regiment went into active service in the army commanded by
Generals Bragg Johnston and Hood, suffered severe losses and continued service
to the end of the war.
I will endeavor to give the roll officers and men hereafter of
the above company as Company B 1st Alabama Regiment, as it was reorganized in
February 1862.
(The muster roll given above includes more soldiers than those
listed originally by
Ouida Starr Woodson and must
include the 12 men who joined soon after the True Blues originally organized.)
5.
Quotes from a letter from Dr. Thomas Lee to Dr. William Gulley from camp
7 miles north of Winchester, October 12, 1862 with information on the
personal perspective of the War and Elkanah Burson’s (as soldier in the 44th
Alabama) experience.
(Spelled as written) Also, a copy of the Memorial Day Speech given by
the Honorable Elkanah Burson.
6. History of the First Alabama Regiment, C.S.A.,
Edward Young McMorries
The First Alabama was commanded by Col. Isaiah G. W. Steedman. That he
was a gallant officer, and his men among the very flower of their native
State, the official reports alluded to clearly show. The regiment was,
as its number indicates, probably the first regiment formed in the state at
the breaking out of the war. we all know tht in every Southern State,
at that time, the men of these first regiments--the men who shouldered their
guns at the first sound of the tocsin of war, were always among the best
soldiers of the Confederacy. Consequently, we are not surprised to
find the First Alabama frequently mentioned in the official reports of the
transaction on Island Number Ten. General Leonidas Polk, in a letter
announcing to General McCown the Confederate Commander of the island, that
he had sent the First Alabama to reinforce him, speaks of the men as being
among the best of Bragg's army. After the surrender of this little
garrison to a force forty times its superior in numbers, they, with a large
number of other Confederate prisoners, were sent North. A part were
sent to Camp Doublass, near Chicago, and a smaller portion, which included
these men of the First Alabama, were sent to Camp Randall near Madison,
Wisconsin. They remained there, however, but about three months, when
they were sent elsewhere, and it is believed were shortly afterwards
exchanged. during this period of three monghs, 139 of these men died,
110 being of the First Alabama. Their deaths were undoubtedly the
results of the suffering and constant exposure they had undergone in their
heroic defense of Island Number Ten, which during the siege was constantly
flooded in consequence of freshets of the mississippi river, the men being
often compelled, as the official reports state, while manning the guns of
the batteries, to stand for hours knee deep in the chilly waters of the
river, for the siege was during the month of March. (See the report of
Gen. Trudeau commanding Artillery at Island Number Ten, March 29, 1862, vol
8, Series 1, War Records, page 150.) Elsewhere we have given the names
of these dead heroes. As they died, sometime at the rate of ten a day,
they were laid side by side in a plot of ground on the edge of Forest Hill
Cemetery, and that spot soon became known to the people of Madison,
Wisconsin, as "Confederate Rest." and rest it was indeed, as these
poor fellows, who, succumbing to the hardships of war, laid them down in
their last sleep, martyrs to the cause they loved. For nearly five
years after the war the site of those graves was almost forgotten.
Amng strangers who could not be expected to sympathize with the sentiments
which had imbued these boys in gray and led them to offer their lives upon
the altar of their country, it would perhaps in time have become completely
obliterated but for the facts that there came to live at Madison, Wisconsin,
a widowed, southern-born woman--Mrs. Alice W. Waterman of Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. She learned of this lonely little corner in Forest Hill
Cenetery and expended her means to beautify it. How she did it, let
the people of Madison, whose sympathies she awoke for those, our dead
comrades, tell us, as we find it in the Wisconsin State Journal of May 29,
1885, published at Madison, and from which we now quote:
"The
knowledge of the fact that many of her countrymen lay neglected, and almost
forgotten among strangers at the North, far removed from the homes of their
youth and the loving care of those whom they were near and dear, touched a
tender spot in the heart of the lady, and she resolved to do what lay in her
power to beautify the resting place of the strangers. She heaped up
neat mounds over each grave, planted trees in the plat and an evergreen
hedge along the east and south sides, cleared away the weed , trimmed the
grass, and had a rude board fence, which has since been removed constructed
around the plat. Then she secured head boards, had them appropriately
inscribed with the names of the dead, their company and regiment, as well as
the date of death.
"Her work was
commenced during the time Gen. Lucius Fairchild was Governor and that
gentleman displayed the charity of a true soldier for a fallen enemy, by
doing various little acts of a kindness tending to aid Mrs. Waterman in the
work which her sympathetic nature inspired. Governor Washburn, who
succeeded Gov. Fairchild, went a step further than his predessessor in
office, for upon a Memorial Day when he was the State's Chief Executive he
led a party of old Union solders into Confederate Rest, and with his own
hands strewed floral offerings upon the graves of the boys in gray.
This custom has generally been followed since it was established. Gov.
Washburn was the first Chief Executive in any of the Northern States to
exhibit such charity, but his conduct has since been very generally emulated
where Union and Confederate soldiers lie buried together. Hon. B. J.
Stevens, while acting as Mayor of Madison last year, showed great kindness
to Mrs. Waterman and offered to assist her in any manner he was able, while
the cemetery Commissioners--Gen. C. P. Chapman, Deming Fitch and Darwin
Clark--have of late years been very thoughtful in their attentions.
"Mrs.
Waterman has an affectionate way of referring to the buried Confederates,
whose graves she guards so tenderly, as 'My boys.' She says she
planted hedges around the plat to keep the cold wind off my boys,' and it
affords her pleasure to know that when the sun rises in the morning, it
shines warmly in the faces of 'my boys." She planted white lilac amid
the graves because they will blossom even if she is 'not there to watch
them,' and her object in setting out two butternut trees was, as she
puts it, so "that the children will go there to gather the nuts, and thus
make the place more pleasant by their presence.'"
Chapter IX: Official Report of Col. (Surgeon) I. G. W.
Steedman; and His Reminiscences of Prison Life
An
"authentic" statement for the Tribune. while awaiting Mr. Greeley's
acceptance or rejection of the proposition that was made to him in our issue
of yesterday in reference to the treatment of prisoners of war in federal
prisons, we are anxious to give him further evidence of the truth of the
statements we have published, in order to strengthen the appeal to his
benevolence and sense of justice. We, therefore, give editorial
prominence to the following letter, which we guarantee is a faithful copy of
the original written by the subscribing parties and addressed and delivered
to the Colonel commanding the post at Johnson's Island:
Prison
Hospital, Johnson's Island,
November 16, 1864
Col:
The undersigned officers of the Confederate States Army (prisoners of war)
are in times of peace practicing physicians. We are now acting as
surgeons to our prison hospital.
We adopt
this method of informing you, (if you are not already informed of it),
that the prisoners confined here are suffering seriously from want of food.
1st. We
make this painful announcement from our personal experience, and observation
among our comrades.
Food is a constant theme of conversation among them, and we are repeatedly
told, "We are hungry' we do not get enough to eat." Instances are not
infrequent of repulsive articles being greedily devoured; rats, spoiled
meat, bones, bread from the slop, etc.
Secondly:
We wish to demonstrate to you from physiological data, that the ration
issued is insufficient to maintain health. Prof. Dalton says: "With
coffee and water for drink, we have found that the entire quantity of food
required during twenty-four hours, by a man in full healty, and taking free
exercise in the open air, is as follows:
Meat
(Butchers)...................................16 ounces avoirdupois
Bread...................................................19 avoirdupois
Butter, of
fat..........................................31/2 ounces avoirdupois
__________________________________________________
381/2 ounces avoirdupois
That is to
say, rather less than two and a half pounds of solid food." (See
Dalton's Physiology, page 115)
Col. Hoffman,
commissary General of Prisons, in his published order regulating the ratios
of prisoners
(Col. Steedman goes on in this manner .....until his signature of the letter
listing the problems within the prison...)
Military Prison History, and Incidents--Memoranda Supplied by
Col. Steedman
"After the
surrender at Port Hudson, all the commissioned officers of the garrison,
about 160 in number, were sent by steamboat to New Orleans as prisoners of
war. On our way down the river we schemed to overpower our guards and
capture the boat, but no proper opportunity offered. We were confined
in New Orleans nearly two months, first in the custom house and then in Mr.
Conner's residence, a wealthy banker. Gen. Banks treated us with all
possible consideration compatible with the rules of war. Upon request
we could obtain paroles to attend social gatherings given by the citizens.
The people of New Orleans overwhelmed us with the kindest attentions.
Many of us were suffering with malaria, contracted during the siege.
the surgeons and physicians of the city visited our prison and gave us
gratis all needed medical attention.
"In
September, 1863, we were sent by see to Governor's Island, New York harbor,
thence by rail to Johnson's Island in Lake Erie. We had left this
prison for exchange about one year previously. We found the situation
materially changed. Many more prisoners occupied the buildings.
Officers captured upon many battlefields were confined here. Public
sentiment throughout the North was more embittered towards the South, and
prisoners were made to feel it upon all possible occasions. The
Winters of 1863 and 1864 were very severe upon those of us from the extreme
South. We were poorly clad for such a rigorous climate, and housed in
such flimsy buildings. The prison soon became very much crowded as
disaster met our armies. During 1864 and 1865 the average number of
officers confined here was about 3,000 at one time reaching 3,200.
"Soon after
reaching Johnson's Island, at the request of the prisoners, and by consent
of the prison authorities, Col. Steedman was put in medicl and surgical
charge of our prison hospital, the colonel being, as already stated, an
M.D., having graduated in the class of 1859 from the University of Louisiana
at New Orleans. He, with his four assistants (one of whom was Capt. L.
#. Locke of Alabama Cavalry) also line officers as well as M.D.'s were thus
enabled to perform valuable service to fellow prisoners.
"The great
subject of thought ad private talk among prisoners was how to escape prison
and get to 'Dixie,' to rejoin our commands in the field. We were
secretly organized into companies and regiments and evr ready to take
advantage of any opportunities offered. All manner of schemes were
discussed, manhy of them foolhardy and impracticable. The only
feasible one was planned by Lieut. Beale of Virginia which involved an
expedition from Canada to capture passenger boats on the lake, seize the
United States gunboat Michigan, prisoners to overpower the prison guards and
take their arms. Escorted by the Michigan we were to land in the
vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio, and make a desperate dash for West Virginia.
The plan was partially executed, but not to completion. Lieut.Beale
was afterwards courtmartialed and hung.
"The winter
of 1864 and 1865 was especially severe and hard upon the Johnson's Island
prisoners. It was extremely cold, the thermometer reaching 20 degrees
below zero.
"The furor
raised in the North by the alleged cruel treatment of Libby and
Andersonville Federal prisoners led the Washington government to retaliate
in a manner on Johnson's Island prisoners who were all officers. Our
rations were reduced to a minimum compatible with life. Disease became
broadcast among us, especially chronic bowel diseases, scurvy and
erysipelas. Scores of cases of scurvy occurred throughout the prison,
the result of insufficient quantity and quality of food. when the
attention of the Federal surgeons was called to this deplorable condition of
the prisoners, extra rations were given us, consisting chiefly of the fresh
vegetables of the season. In a few weeks all scurvy disappeared.
This is a proof positive of the insufficiency of our food.
"The above
facts are contained in an official protest made by our hospital surgeons at
the time. All exchanges of prisoners had ceased in 1863, except the
desperately sick, who were sent home to die. The policy had been
openly adopted to imprison and feed us, rather than exchange and fight us
again. This barbarous policy resulted in the inhuman
imprisonment of tens of thousands of Confederates and Federals. Our
efficient and most gentlemanly commissary, Capt. Brad Sullins, died in the
prison hospital during this winter. He is buried in the Confederate
cemetery on Johnson's Island with our other dead. Smallpox also broke
ut in the prison, requiring the building of a pest-house in one corner of
the yard, and our Confederate surgeons also had charge of these cases.
By judicious idolation and vaccination, the disease was kept in control, the
nurses being officers who had previously had smallpox.
CAPT. J. R.
MACBETH CONTRIBUTES TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR THE RELIEF OF FELLOW
PRISONERS
Col. Steedman
pays the following tribute to his deceased collegemate and prison comrade,
Capt. J. R. Macbeth of the 1st South Carolina Artillery. While an
inmate of the prison he was dangerously ill, and was nursed to health in the
prison hospital. He was so grateful for this service, that he became a
nurse in the hospital for many months. Later, he was made hospital
steward. Captain Macbeth was lucky in having a wealthy father, then
mayor of Charleston, S.C. In his own right the Captain had large funds in
New York and Liverpool as a stockholder in a blocade running company.
He donated twenty-two thousand dollars for the relief of his fellow
prisoners, besides lending money to many others. He received a special
exchange through General Sherman, rejoined his command and lost an arm at
Bentonville, N.C., the last battle of the war.
"In the
spring of 1865, the Port Hudson prisoners were ordered to City Point, near
Richmond , for exchange J
Joyfully we
boarded box cars for Baltimore, thence by steamship to City Point. On
the Chesapeake bay the ship was enveloped in fog and lay at anchor many
hours. Smallpox broke out in the hold among 500 or more sick and
wounded prisoners; also gangrene attacked the wounds of the poor cripples.
Col. Steedman was again called upon to take charge of this "pest hole,"
doing his duty to the best of his ability. He regards this as the most
crucial test of his physical and moral courage during the war.
"To our
dismay we were landed at Point Lookout in Chesapeake Bay, a great Federal
hospital and prison. Here we learned that the military operations
around Petersburg had stopped this proposed exchange. We were at Point
Lookout when President Lincoln was assassinated. Wilkes Booth, the
assassin, retreated down the Potomac , and the negro guards over us
conceived the idea that we prisoners had some connection with the
assassination. I was most reliably informed that the white officers of
this negro command had great difficulty in restraining them from butchering
us. I felt the danger most acutely at the time. At night in my
hearing a negro sentinel called out to us, 'hush up there you d--d rebels,
or I will send a bullet 'searching' among your guts;' we were only talking
in a low tone in our quarters.
"From Point
Lookout we were sent to Fort Delaware on the Delaware bay and kept
imprisonment until the close of the war. My brother, Capt. S. D.
Steedman, and myself were released on June 28, 1865. A book could be
written on this subject of imprisonment and the heroic fortitude with which
our First Alabama officers endured their hard fate. We were cut off
from all hope of deserved promotion in rank, which hope is dear to all
soldiers.
"The only
consolation our friends can take in this imprisonment of nearly two and a
half years is that many of us, if exchanged, would have died on the
battlefield, where so many of our beloved comrades now lie in unknown
graves."
7. From a newspaper article in the Wilcox Progressive
Era, February 19, 1921, "Confederate Flag"
In the early
days of 1861 at which time our people of the Southern States saw and felt
that their interest and welfare as a people, and our rights as States were
no longer respected by the Federal Government, determined to secede from the
Federal Government and form an alliance of all the Southern States for their
mutual protection and future welfare.
The Governor
of Alabama, with the Governor of other Southern states, made a hurried call
for troops in their respective States to proceed to the Southern ports and
to take possession of the forts and arsenals.
The young men
of East Wilcox, together with some young men at Camden, met and formed the
first Company in this part of Alabama, and possibly, in the state.
this company was named Wilcox True blues. The good ladies of Camden
and vicinity met and decided that the company must have a suitable flag.
And while their sons and their neighbors sons were organizing the Company,
the good mothers, sisters and sweethearts made themselves busy making the
flag. The first thing was to procure suitable material. On
examination in our stores in Camden, they failed to find suitable materials.
At which time, a young lady from Canton Bend, Miss Adele Robbins, now Mrs.
Adele Robbins Spencer informed the ladies that she had a blue silk dress
which she would gladly give as material for the flag. The material
having been had, the next thing was to procure an assistant and Samuel
Tepper of Camden volunteered his service, and in due time after the Company
was formed, the ladies, through Miss Ella Thompson, presented this flat to
the company, and Hon. S. C. Cook, in behalf of the company, accepted the
flag.
The Company
with the flat, left Wilcox sometime in February 1861 proceeding to
Pensacola, Florida, and was among the first company to take the Forts
Barrancas and McRae. On arriving at the Forts the First Regiment of
Alabama was formed and regiment mustered into service for 12 months and the
Wilcox True Blues was made Company B, in the Regiment and Judge Purifoy was
color bearer.
The first
Alabama Regiment was stationed at Fort Barrancas during the year 1861.
The Federal Government sent their fleets and blockaded our ports.
At the close of the first enlistment in 1862 many of the Company did not re-inlist,
but equally as many boys from the school of the County promptly took their
places, while those who didn't re-inlist joined other commands and went
immediately into active service.
The first
Alabama Regiment, about the first of march 1862, was ordered to Island No.
10 on the Mississippi River to blockade the river at that place. The
regiment while at Pensacola was clad in very light uniforms with little or
no wraps. While proceeding to Island No. 10 they were met by very cold
weather, and many of the company caught cold, took pneumonia and died.
Judge Purifoy, our color bearer, was among the sick and he, with the company
flag was put off the boat at a private residence at Tiptonville, Tennessee,
some distance below Island No. 10. Here the color bearer and flag were
taken by Wisconsin troops and the flag was sent to Madison, Wisconsin and
placed in Military Grand Army Republic. Sometime after the close of
the Civil War, we learned through News Correspondents, who gave a
description of the flag and the name "Wilcox True Blues" that the flag was
at Madison, Wisconsin.
We wrote to
the state officials of Wisconsin and learned through them the flag was held
in a Museum by the Grand Army Republic. After extended correspondence
with Grand Army republic and Board of State Auditors, we were informed by
Mr. Road, the Custodian of the Museum, that in 1904 the Military Museum at
Madison, Wisconsin, was burned and nearly everything was lost, but in
looking through the rubbish if the flag was found he would advise us.
Not having had further information, we naturally concluded the flag ws
burned. But in 1917 Miss Maude McWilliams was visiting her sister,
Mrs. Marguerite Cook at lansing, Michigan, and while there she was looking
through the Museum at Lansing and saw the flg and recognized it from the
name "Wilcox True Blues" and from what her father had formerly told her
about the flag.
We
immediately wrote the board of State Auditors and members of the grand Army
Republic at Lansing, in behalf of the very few survivors of the old Company
requesting the return of the flag. The Board of State Auditors with
the Grand Army Republic generously voted to return the flag and stated that
now after fifty years and the Great World War, all sectional lines should be
abolished.
The flag was
duly received and is now on exhibition at the headquarters of Camp F. K.
Beck, S.C.V., in the Clerk's Office in the Court House where the members of
the old Company now living and the descendants of members who served under
the flag and the public generally are most cordially invited to call and see
the old relic. After a short time the flag will be placed in our
museum in Montgomery, Alabama, as a permanent home where our descendants can
and will honor and respect it.
R. E.
McWilliams, Sr.
Private,
Company B., First Alabama Regiment
