The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-11-05
NUMBER Is.
KINDS COUNTY IN THE CONFFDFR.
ATE SERVICE.
TERRY, Oct. Il, 1879.

/
umeration of the Kinds county troops en-
gagged in fighting the battles of the lost cause
with this sentence, (alludiug to those out
side the enumeration): CAS- a body they too
did their duty manfuily. though they were
not certainly in the baptism of suffering and
death As were the brave men who constitu-
ted the commands enumerated" The ''names
OF my dead companions strown on literally
a hundred battle fields, call to me. their
surviving senior, TO protect their memory {;
and demand for 1t place in the affections
and pride of their children and people In
the early winter of 1862, Dr. Alex. Yates
with about 40 followers from : w. Kinds
united with Drury Brown (late Sheriff of
Hlnds) IN forming company of which b.
was elected Captain and Yates Ist Lieuten-
ant. At the same time the writer, the Mar
tins and Others, making % or 80 from ). f.
Kinds, Joined Capt. Siebe's organized com
pany at Crystal Springt We were battal-
Toned at Meridian, in March. Browns COM
| pany lettered X. and Siebes B. of 80 Missis-
sippi regiment, of which Brown was chosen
Colonel and Yates became Captain of X.
| We had scarcely learned dress parade when
Shiloh was fought and we ordered to the
| front, and brigaded under Gen. Little. with
| the Missouri troops that had Just crossed
| the River. With these 10000 as true sol
diers as ever breathed, we took the touch of
elbow, and in all their campaigning east of
| the Mississippi, there were only two fights
/ or skirmishes in which our flag did not
wave side by side with theirs, to-wit: at
| Pennington and Port Gibson. While they
were fighting at Port Gibson we were re-
| polling Grants feint at Snyder's Bluff, and
| we were temporarily attached to AnderSon's
Brigade at Pennington, and met the centre
of the fight, where we first had the baptism
of death, and where fell our gallant Capt
Siebe, of company b. The next day we
organized under re-enlistment, and Colonel
Brown withdrawing, the dashing Young w.
w. WltherspoOn, of Copiah county, who
fell in twenty feet of the works at Frank
lin, was chosen Colonel. Capt. Henry
Siebe, (whose wounds were, alas not under
stood), Lieutenant Colonel and our truest
soldier, Alex. Yates, Major; while young
Fulgham of Utica, was chosen Captain of
company X, and the writer of company b. /
We were Immediately returned to Litte's I
Brigade at Rienzi, and had the honor Of
covering Bragg's retreat from Corinth. We
were sent to Columbus to recover of wounds .
and measles, where were placed under .
the redoubtable Dan Adams, superseded by .
Col. Martin, who fell SO gloriolIsly ut Cor +
NTH, with his BrlgadIer commission at head .
quarters At Iuka We We're of the 5000 of .
Little's Division who met and drove back
Gen. Rosencrantz, with % 900 picked west
ern men. 1t was Kinds county officer
who during the fight detected heavy flank
movement, and by one of those accidental (
dasles born OF the desperation of the hour,
drove off with IL handful of skirmishers,
more than twenty times his number and
thereby covered the last dash of the inn
mortal Little while he cut the enemy's cen
tire and drove his cohorts pei nell from the
field.
Twas Il Kinds county officer with Kinds
and Copiah men that captured that night
Gen. ROsencrantz's chief engineer, with
papers that disclosed the fact to Gen Price
that he with less than Z, 900 guns 100 miles
from his base was crushed in between
Grant, Rosencrantz and Hubert, with
10000 western troops, and thereby enabled
him to cut his way out, and save his army
Twas Kinds county officer (the glorious
Maj. Yates) who on the 4th of October,
1872, ut Corinth, where the Mississippi
Brigade having carried the LIST line of works
and lost its second commander, Col. Me
Lain; wavered for moment, seized the
battle flag with his left hand, while with
his right pointing his severed to the citadel
the last line, infused his soul into Missis-
sippians and led forward till his left arm
was shattered, then sheathing his sword,
with his right hand grasped the flagstaff
and bore it forward till from loss of blood
he fell fainting. Twas the left hand of
Kinds county officer that grasped the flag
staff of the first flag that crossed the last
line of works, while with his right he point
ed his fearless mems attention to the
brave federal cannoneers who were still /
dealing death in 20 feet on either side.
1t was Kinds and Copiah county men who
first met and checked Grants advance
into Nicksburg on the 18th and Goth Of
May, 1863-the Both Louisiana command
ing the left hand or ridge road and company
b. and G., Both Mississippi on the right
81 ,.vl,o fl,a oh, J
named two companies, commanded by DIR.
A. r. Andre, company B. less than eighty
strong, met, and after two hours fighting,
breast to breast, reinforced by Col. Cock
rell, drove Bansom's Brigade, 900 strong,
from the field, and in Gen. Grant he had a
foeman worthy his steel, while the Louisi-
anians hurled back from the ridge road the
advancing columns, while the Missourians
were with impotence chfiang in reserve.
Here fell among other Kinds county boys,
the best and bravest, Thomas Beauchamp.
His brother-in-law, Mai. Yates, gave his
body to the writer (then on staff duty for
burial, who, after much trouble, procured a
rough cypress box and laid him away.
But scarcely had we smoOthed the clods
over our beloved Tommy, ere the body Of
his high-souled brother, Mai. Alex. Yates
the bravest of the brave, the truest of the
true the grandest of the heroes, was cut /
asunder by 10 pound parrot shot. Their /
lives were like that of David and Jonathan
and we laid them side by side, where none 4
others sleep.
Again, when Sherman began his advance |
to the sea, we took the touch of elbow on
the right, with the Missourians on the left, +
with Ector's Texas braves, the active and i
administrative principal of which was rep
resented by its A. A. and G. the gallant Cap /
tain, now Judge Upton NJ Young, of Vicks- +
burg The honor of Mississippi, her Buena /
Vista reputation was to be maintained side T
by side with these highest types of soldiers, /
and Kinds county men freely gave their I
blood to the glory of their State. Gems. !
Cockrel,. Ector, Yates, Young, and the
few surviving Others, will bear US re-
cord that for our State we maintained /
a reputation second to none. Main I
tanning a constant touch of elbow and, min [
Cling our blood with that of Prices ten thou /
sand we have seen Little, Greens, Bileys, I
Ervins, and other braves fall till they be-
came but a few meagre hundred Of shattered
pieces of men, From Dalton to OwnesborO,
from Lovejoy to Nashville where our chris
tian soldier Charles Martin, with most OF
the Kinds county boys were captured, never
theless a few, those tireless and beardess
Lieutenants Bob Jones, now NJ. ID. of Crys-
tai Springs, and Ed. Brown, now Circuit
Clerk of Copiah county, the writer and a
very few others, were left to share the hon
ors of Blakely, and being numbered with
the 800 who met Granger's 10000 negroes,
and drove them back to their strongholds,
| leaving 1000 dead upon the field on the 9th
of April, 1865 But when we were ready to
report for pickets, we discovered 10000 white
troops had made an entrance to the right,
and were in our rear. We struck our colOrs,
furled our flag, and took up our abode in
the sad wastes of Ship Island from thence
we were taken to Jackson and paroled-
| Where we bid our Missouri companions Ga
few shattered hundred) farewell, with the
feeling that personally our brave dead had
been more fortunate than we. Then who
shall say that we have not tasted the "Bap-
tism of Death and suffering" equal to any.
forgot to say that the brave young Capt.
Fulgham offered up his life at Corinth, and
| Cant Pole Yates took his Mace OF these