September Now Sets In --- James Madison Scates Diary, Part 2

Sept. now sets in. On the 4th of this month I traveled up the Rappahannock over to Fredericksburg and over on the cars to the camp at Brooks Station having been on furlough home.  On the 11th day of September we struck our tents at Brooks Station and marched for Marlborough Point the distance of 7 miles and again pitched our tents.  Up to the 15th all is quiet and on this day I traveled over to Fredericksburg on the cars and back to Brooks Station.  All quiet up to October.  

On the 1st October I was appointed orderly Sergeant.  26th I had a furlough home [marginal note; not sure if he means September or October 26th.] October 4th on this day we receive orders to march for Aquia Village we was soon ready for the march with 24 hours rations cooked and packed in our haver sacks.  We started on our march about 5 o'clock the same evening and marched until 3 o'clock that night when one of our waggons got stuck in the mud on the road and while we was there we received orders to return as the yankeys had left the place when they landed and had gone again on board of their vessels --- We then kindled our fires and spread our blankets on the ground and slept on them until day and about 8 o'clock we again took up the line of march back to our camp resting at Stafford Court House and again at the hospital church we arrived at our camp at Marlborough about 6 o'clock in the afternoon of the 5th after a long and tiresome march counting this distance there and back at 30 miles.  

James Madison Scates

The weather being verymuch warmer than is often seen in October a good many of our men gave out and stopped on the road in our own company every man returned to his quarters in the ranks.  

On the 15th we struck our tents and moved our camp about 3 hundred _____ and on the 10th we began clearing to build winter / on the 14th we began to build our houses 15th the batteries at (Evansport?) opened fire on the vessels passing there which caus'd all vessels to stop a five - miles below the Battery.  It was quite amusing to we soldiers to see some forty or fifty vessels lying too and affraid to pass our battery.

On the 23rd the steamer Geo. Page left her place whare she was fitted up in aquia Creek and ran up the Potomac opposite our battery at Evans Port and was loudly cheered by our soldiers.

On the 24th our regiment was ordered to cook 3 days rations and hold our selves in readiness to march at a moments warning.  But the soldiers was not informed whare we was to march but on the 29th we was ordered to march.  We was soon ready and about 9 o'clock we started from our camp to meet the Enemy which we understood was about to land in Westmoreland County and that being the nearest to our homes that some of our men had been since they left for the service they marched with light hearts, expecting to soon have a chance to see their homes or some of their beloved friends.  We crossed over Potomac Creek and marched out about 4 miles in King George County and in crossing the creek and our little march had taken the day we then stopped for the night in the woods and had to stay thair to await further orders.  We had no shelter but the woods and but little cover and laying on the cold ground for our beds and in this condition we spent 4 days and nights and the last night we had to suffer from a heavy east rain.  Next morning the 1st of November we received orders to go back to our camp which we done in quick time through the same heavy rain.  It was a terrible time the wind being very high we crossed the creek veary slow it took the whole day to cross we was quite glad to get back to our camp wet and hungry as we all was our soldiers seemed to be cheerfull and full of high spirit for the cause of our belovd country.

On Sunday the 17th we moved winter quarters at Marlbrough nothing of any consequence has happened since we recrossed the Potomac Creek.  Except a steamer out in the river threw several shots at Col. Caric's regiments crossing the Potomac creek and up to the 19th day of December all was quiet with us we was then comfortably quartered and on this day we received orders to march to the Northern Neck in Northumberland County VA this being the homes of most of our soldiers we received the order with joy and early on the morning of the 20th we started on our march crossing over Potomac creek and marched to St. Francis Church in King George County in the distance about 14 miles and arrived about 6 o'clock that night.  The next day the 21st we rested and about 3 o'clock on the 22nd we again started on our march and marched to Bethlehem Church about 6 miles further and again rested or to await further orders.  And whilst here we took our Christmas.  And on the 27th we again took up the line of march for the hop yard to take the steam boat we arrived thare about 10:00 the same day marching about 12 miles when the boat came to take us off it was late in the evening and only ran about 12 miles down the Rappahanock and stopped for the night.  And about light we again started on our rout and we arrived at Circuts Point the same evening (28th) the distance of 55 miles from the hopyard and we landed thare and spent the night and at 1 o'clock we again took up our march for Farnham Church in Richmond Co.-- we arrived there about sunset the same evening marching about ___ miles and rested for the night.  At 8 o'clock next morning Sunday the 29th we again started on our march we marched over a level country about 12 miles and arrived at Northumberland Court house amid shouts and cheers of welcome by the citizens and here we lived well for soldiers until about the 4th of February 1862.

Mustered in to Servis --- James Madison Scates Diaries, Part I

 Jas. M. Scates                                                                                      
                                     

1861

Richmond County

Virginia

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1861 -- Memories of Sergt. Jas. M Scates

Member of the Farmers Fork Grays. This company was mustered in to servis on the 4th day of June 1861.  We started from our own homes on the 8th day of June and met in company at Westmoreland Courthouse. We started in company and marched to Carter's Wharf taking the boat at that place in Richmond County.  We traveled up the river about       miles and landed at the hop yard in King George County and marching from there to King George Court house the distance of      miles and camped there for the night.  On Sunday the 9th after going to preaching we drilled in company drill for a while.  and again rested for the knight.

On Monday morning the 10th we was ready again to take up the line of march for Mathias Point the distance of        miles in the same county arriving there hungry and tired about 3 o'clock that evening and pitch our tents, the distance of 17 miles from the court house. All was quiet up to the 15th. All was then ordered out before breakfast to meet the enemy but they did not land, and the next day was the same thing but they would not land.  On the 16th the cavalry from our regiment boarded and burned a yankey vessel off Hoes Ferry, takeing out what they could carry to the shore in the boat with about $30 cash. On the 17th we had a skirmish on the banks shooting at the yankeys on the tug from the shore.  She fired a good many guns at us through(w)ing shot and shell at us with out affect.  There was 1 man killed on the tug he was seen fall by us. After this all was quiet again up to the 2nd when the yankeys landed at Hoes Ferry and burned his dwelling house.  We was again thrown in motion to meet them but they left before we arrived.  They carried away his servant of the house.  24 quiet and on the 25th the old Pawnee came off the point at Mathias and began a heavy cannonading thro(w)ing the bombs and balls all over our camp one bomb shell passed through the house of which 30 of our men of our company was camped but luckily there was but one man in the house and was not hurt. The same ball passed on cutting off a railing post and bursting at the spring where there was about 25 men around the spring but no one was hurt a small piece of the shell (  ) one man but did not hurt him. While she was bombing our camp we was carried under cover of the hill. She then ceased firing when some of the yankeys landed and came upon 2 of the cavalry pickets taking their horses but the men escaped.  They then swam the horses to the ship and hoisted them on board also taking one negro from Mr. Gaines.  

On the 26 all was quiet the 27 came and with it the first sight of a battle I ever saw the steamers (red stack and freeborn?) came off the point and commenced a heavy cannonading for a while and then landed men on the point for the purpose of erecting a battery of sand bags and dirt.  We then marched down under cover of the woods to dislodge them.  We were sent in different directions and soon came upon them when the riflemen began a sharp fire upon them.  The hour was quite serious for none of us eaver was in battle but we soon drove them from their breast works killing we have since learned 24 of them with out receiving a single fire from their small guns.  Happy to say not one of us was hurt.  Some of them escaped to the steamer leaving behind them all of their utencils for building the battery.  We got from them the bags for the battery their shovels, spades, and picks & also the rope that they used in raising the boats to the shore from the tugs and a spy glass a good many things was after wards found amongst them 2 rifles.

"Engagement between the Gunboat Flotilla, Freeborn and Reliance, under the Command of Captain James H. Ward, and Secession Force at Mathias Point, Va., on the Potomac River -- Death of Captain Ward." 27 June 1861.

      A line engraving, based on a sketch by an Officer of the Expedition, published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1861,   depicting USS Thomas Freeborn, Ward's flagship, in the left foreground with USS Reliance to her right.

US Navy History and Heritage Command photo # NH 59242

28 quiet on the 29 we moved our camp pitching our tents in another field not over 2 miles distants I have the name of this place camp hoe all was then quiet up to the 4th of July when we was called out about 2 o'clock in the night telling us that we was surrounded by the enemy but as we all found it to be no more than to be our camp again. We all had our breakfast quite early calling out so early was I suppose for the purpose of seeing how quick we all would get in ranks and be ready for motion. We pitched our tents the same evening after a march of about 5 miles and about 8 miles from the Main Point and in the same county calling the camp by the name of camp hoe. all was again quiet only those tugs ____ pass the point and firing at our pickets but to no affect.  Up to the 18th of July when we struck our tents at camp hoe and having orders for Brooks Station late in the evening we started on our march and stopping for the night at St. Pauls Church and having to wait for some of the baggage waggons until late in evening of the 19th when we again took up the line of march to Brooks Station and when in about 8 miles of that place we met a dispatch ordering us back to ____ Point in King George County.  We marched until 3 oclock in the night having to march back we could get at the Georges distance of     miles we stopped for the balance of the night in Potomac Church.  Early next morning the 20th we again took up the line of march. when we stopped to cook our breakfast we was only 2 miles from the place we ate our supper the night before. after traveling over an uneaven country what was most pleasing to the most of us we could often see the blue ridge mountains far away from us. after breakfast we marched for ______ Point. we arrived there about 11 oclock crossing over Potomac Creek we landed on Marlbrough Point in Stafford County whare we saw the bones of the Soldiers killed in some ancient battle learning the same day that this point was the place chosen for the city of Alexandria. Thare is yet viserable outer wals of an old house _____of balls supposed to have been fired in the war of 1812.  After we landed on this point we received orders to march to Acquia Creek the distance of 3 miles where we again stationed. the march from Mathias Point to Acquia Creek is said to be the distance of 30 miles by land beside marching about 12 miles out of our way on the 21st. we could hear the tremendous cannonading and roaring of the battle of Manassas. a good many of us had the Measels. on the 8th of August I was taken with them. occasionally a steamer would through a ball towards us. On the morning of the 16th of August Capt Walker opened fire from the _________ and 2 of his small rifle pieces from the shore on the steamer out in the Potomac River throwing the balls over around and into them striking the Pocahontas several times knocking a hole in her stern and cutting the rigging off her bow twice when they all left the place amediately from where they lay for some time only firing at him twice.  On the 19th we left Acquia Creek and took up the line of march for Brooks Station arriving at the place the same evening about 2 oclock and pitched our tents in a heavy rain and on the wet ground. we had to set up all night the land was too wet to spread our blankets on ground but we soon after made ourselves quite comfortable.. All balance of the month quiet.

(To Be Continued)

The AWOL Season - Northern Neck Baldersons during the Civil War

A few years ago, I promised a post talking about why so many people in the 40th Virginia went AWOL in the Fall of 1862.

A lot of time has passed since then, but I've finally gotten around to looking at the service records of some of the men.  I've also done more reading about the war experience for soldiers, and the incidence and manifestations, during and in the years following the Civil War, of what we would now call PTSD.  I'm not saying that these men were suffering from that, but records so far indicate plenty of reasons for particularly high stress at this time.

Here is what happened with my great-great grandfather and his three brothers.



In 1860, in the Stony Hill district of Richmond County, Virginia, there were 15 households headed by Baldersons.  For the most part, they were farmers, but not BIG farmers...the largest Balderson farm having a real and personal value of $10,500, and the next largest, $600.  Most were much, much smaller, averaging out at $806.  By contrast, Robert Wormeley Carter, the largest landowner in the district, had a farm worth $325,000.  This is the same parcel on which Ebenezer Balderson, my many-times-great-grandfather and a Scottish immigrant, had worked as an indentured servant during the first half of the previous century.

It's in the household headed by James Bailey Balderson, age 56, that our great-great-grandfather Presley lived.  In 1860, Presley was the only son living at home, along with a younger sister, Margaret.  The oldest Balderson brother, Charles, was a shoemaker who had been teaching his younger brother, James, the trade.  James lived in the home of Charles and Charles' young family.  Charles and James, 33 and 25 years old, both enlisted in Company B of the 40th Virginia Regiment on May 25, 1861.  Both were musicians, but I have yet to find out what instrument(s) they played.

The second oldest brother, William (29), and Presley, the youngest at 23 (and my great-great-grandfather,) enlisted ten days later, in the Richmond County seat at Warsaw. Both were in Company D, along with some other Balderson cousins who enlisted on the same day.

William was the first casualty among the brothers.
Wounded on June 27, 1862 at the battle of Gaines' Mill, he died 2 weeks later, on July 13 at a hospital in Richmond.  For a long time, I was unable to find out where he was buried, but recently I found scanned copies of his service records.  Balderson is misspelled as "Bollison" on the records; interestingly, this is exactly how my father, as a small boy, pronounced his grandmother's last name, and she even signed his birthday card "Grandmother Bollison" when he turned three.   This might be  how everyone pronounced it where they lived.  Anyway, Uncle William is buried in the soldiers' section of Hollywood Cemetery, the famous Confederate cemetery in Richmond City.  Probably in an unmarked grave.

Charles had been ill shortly before William's death, and was sent to Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond. Three days after William's death, possibly even from the same hospital, he was furloughed and then discharged from service. He had a wife and a few children already at home.  He returned to shoe and boot-making, and lived on into the 1890s.

The third brother, James, was a musician like Charles; they had both this and shoemaking in common. In James' records, he is listed as AWOL in the fall of 1862, just a couple of months after William died and Charles subsequently became ill and was discharged home.  We  don't know where James went or what he did in the months he was gone, but his records include a report of him being a prisoner, paroled on November 25, 1862. By January 1863, he and Presley had returned to service, the only two Balderson brothers remaining in the Army after less than two years of service.

The fourth and youngest brother, Presley, was sent to Chimborazo Hospital for the first time beginning a month after the death of William and Charles' illness and discharge.  This was immediately following the regiment's engagement at Cedar Mountain, and he may have been the one casualty listed on the muster list.  The reason for his hospitalization was "debilitas," in other words, weakness or feebleness:  exhaustion.  He remained in the hospital until October 23-- a period of over 2 months, after which he was furloughed and instructed to report back for duty on December 1.  He was absent without leave for the month of December, but returned in January, along with his brother James. 

That May, the war became very eventful for the brothers with the battle of Chancellorsville. James found himself so close to an exploding artillery shell that he lost his hearing. During the following 6 months, James was hospitalized more than once, going  AWOL again in July and August of 1863.  He was contracted in the spring of '64 to make shoes for Walker's Brigade, possibly 'alternative' service, due to loss of hearing or other wounds or illness.

Also at Chancellorsville, Presley received a gunshot wound through the left shoulder while defending the regimental flag after its bearer became a casualty (this is the story.....) This wound is renowned in family lore because of the harrowing treatment it received from the surgeon:  a red hot poker was driven through it. It's moments like this that can change the trajectory of the future.  His hospitalization at Chimborazo and the furlough that followed meant that Presley missed the events in Gettysburg, which proved close to disastrous for his regiment.   

Fate intervened again at Weldon Railroad near Petersburg in August of 1864. During the dark and confusing violence, in the pouring rain, Presley was wounded through the left hand, an injury that would cause him pain and difficulty for the rest of his life as he supported his family by farming. While at home recovering in the late summer and early fall, he married his second cousin, Mary Ann Coates, who was probably a relative of Charles' wife, Virginia.  Family story says that his old rusty (or bloodstained) bayonet  hung over the fireplace at the home of his grandson, Sherwood (my uncle) in Howard County, MD. Sherwood's stepson may have taken it, and its whereabouts are unknown.

So, all of the brothers became absent for a period following immediately, or within a few months of their brother William's death.  Charles never returned, and was discharged for reasons unknown. 

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During the course of the next twenty four years, Presley and his wife Mary had 5 sons --- Burlington Lafayette, Valverde Manco, Franklin Lesley, Elton Presley, and Wilmore Earle; and 3 daughters --- Dorothy "Dora", Margaret "Maggie", and Emma.

The youngest of Presley's children, born when he was about 50, was my great-grandfather, Wilmore. Wilmore is small and his face is serious in the tintype that was taken of him with his elderly parents in around 1895. His mother appears severe, even a little frightening, dressed in mourning; Presley looks tired, but is smiling broadly as he stands behind his wife and youngest child.  Later, when he was a young teenager, Wilmore was the only witness to his mother's death, after a sudden collapse while she was sweeping.  She never regained consciousness.  At this time his father, who had always been a farmer, was a disabled war veteran, unable to do much work of any kind in his later years. He was finally granted a small pension in 1915, ten years before his death at the age of 88.

When Wilmore grew up, he married Landonia "Tully" Minor, a young woman who had grown up in the same small corner of Virginia.  According to my father, her family felt that they were somehow better than my great-grandfather's family.  

Wilmore and Tully's first child, a daughter, was born in January, 1912.  Her mother almost died following the birth, and Aunt Dora, her husband's big sister, came to the rescue.  Aunt Dora took care of the baby for the month or so of my great-grandmother's recovery, and at some point during that time, she named the baby after herself:  "Dorothy."  Not everyone was thrilled that she did this.  Baby Dorothy was my grandmother.

 Aunt Dora had married Robert France in 1896, a man whose father had served in the war alongside her father. Their fathers' lives traveled parallel paths and these two must have had some common experiences growing up; they were raised on the same war stories, and probably grew up within each others' sight.  They eventually moved up the peninsula and north to Washington D.C., where they had a son and adopted a daughter by the name of Isabelle Galahan.

A little over a year after the birth of Dorothy the younger, Letitia Countee, the local midwife, came to the farm in Newland to deliver Tully's second baby, a daughter.  Sadly, Mary Althea lived only 6 hours.  She was named after both of her grandmothers.

When Dorothy was very small, her father studied at Lynchburg College to become a minister.  Soon after graduation, he and Tully became the parents of a boy who they named Sherwood. In the years that followed, Wilmore and his young family moved here and there in Virginia, the D.C. suburbs, and  as far southwest as Harlan, Kentucky, on assignments at different churches.  A few years later a third child was born, a second boy named Tennyson Carlyle.

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