This transcription provided courtesy of Martye Jeffords ( [email protected] )

Diary or Reminiscence

by David H. Mobley

Member of Evans Camp, DeKalb County

The following 3 documents were copied [exactly as recorded] from microfilm # 283/34 in the Georgia Department of Archives & History, Morrow, Georgia in July 2005.  It is part of a collection of Civil War histories & memories collected from Georgia Veterans.  Evans Camp was the Civil War Veteran’s Unit in Decatur, GA where David Mobley lived his later years & was the Veterans group he affiliated with there.  Much of what David Mobley writes in these documents is contained in the other private papers passed down in his family.  The interviews with CSA veterans seem to have been gathered over a period of years, which probably accounts for the repetitiveness in the reports.  In the Jan. 1925 report David Mobley is definitely 85 ½ years old, but in another report he says he is 82 years old [he always knew exactly how old he was – mj]. Since David Mobley was in his 80s when these reminiscences were gathered, he would have dictated or handwritten them and  the typed versions stored in the GA Archives were possibly typed by his daughter Winnie Davis Mobley, with whom he lived].      

Decatur , Georgia .

January 22, 1925.

            I, David H. Mobley, member of Evans Camp, DeKalb County, originally of Walton County, now a citizen of Decatur, Georgia, volunteered for the War Between the States [he refused to refer to the war as anything other than the War Between the States or, simply, the War - mj], at Monroe, Georgia, Walton County, being then twenty-one years old, the 16^th day of the following June.

            Dr. W. S. Barrett and myself made up a company and organized at Walnut Grove , Georgia .  Dr. W. S. Barrett was elected captain: Pulliam Wilkinson, First Lieutenant; J. Y. Carter, Second lieutenant; William Scott, Third Lieutenant. I refused to be elected a commissioned officer of the Company and was elected Corporal.  Some time afterward I was appointed a Sergeant and later appointed Commissary Sergeant of the Regiment.

            The Company was known as The Walton Guards, Company G. Thomas’ Brigade, 35^th Georgia Regiment. We went into service from Atlanta , Georgia , in October, ’61, and went into camp at Richmond , Virginia .  We spent the winter at Evansport on the Potomac River, and in the spring following were ordered to Yorktown .

            I was in the battle of Fredericksburg , Petersburg , and was wounded on the sixth day of May, in the Battle of the Wilderness, on the plank road, Virginia .

            I was at the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on the 9^th day of April, 1865, and with  many of the survivors crowded around Generall [sic] Lee, took him by the hand, and while he was shedding many tears, bade him goodbye.

                                                                                                David H. Mobley, Company G.

                                                                                                         35^th Georgia Regiment,

                                                                                                         Thomas’ Brigade.

         War Record OF D. H. Mobley

             I enlisted in the Confederate service in 1861, Walton County , Georgia ., in Captain W. S. Barrett, Company G., 35^th Ga. Regiment, Gen. E. L. Thomas’ Brigade.

            Was mustered into service in Atlanta , Ga. . After remaining in camps one month we were ordered to Richmond , Va. I refused to be elected 3^rd Lieut. of the Company and accepted the place of 3^rd Corporal.  I was elected 5^th Sergeant in our Company at the Dunn House in Virginia in 1864.  Soon after I was appointed Commissary Sergeant of our Regiment, which office I filled for the balance of the war.

            I remained in the regiment all the time during the war of four years, was in the campaign during the Winter of 1861 on the Potomac River, also was in the Yorktown campaign, in 1862.  I was home on furlough and missed the Seven Pines fight on account of sickness.  On my return to Virginia , I was in time to be at the surrender of Harper’s Ferry to general D. H. Hill.  I was in the battle of the Wilderness on the plank road in Virginia and was wounded on the plank road on the 6^th. day of May, 1863 [1864 – mj]

            From there I was sent to Lynchburg , VA. , to the hospital.  After about 30 days I returned to my command, found it at the Dunn House in Camp. After the seven days fighting around Richmond , at which place I was appointed Regimental Commissary Sergeant, I was at Petersburg , saw the army of Lee falling back, making good mt [sic] escape from the front line of battle, saw Gen, A. P. Hill just a few minutes before he was killed.  I was with the command until the surrender of Gen. Lee at Appomattox Court House , Va.   Saw Gen. Lee and Gen. Grant when they met under the apple tree in formal meeting or formal surrender.  I was standing by them as they approached each other Gen. Lee halted as he met Gen. Grant.  Gen. Lee drew his sword from his scabbard and saluted Gen. Grant and held it until Gen. Grant in like manner drew his sword and saluted Gen. Lee.  After a few minutes of conversation with each other, they turned and rode away.  It was then learned for the first time that Gen. Lee had surrendered.  His soldiers seeing what happened, gathered together about Gen. Lee to tell him good-bye, and all who could get to him crowded about him with tears blinding their eyes, and shook hands with him, while the large clear tears ran down his cheek and dropped to the ground from his venerable face and long grey beard.

            We shall never forget his words as he let go the hands of his weeping soldiers who had followed him in so many battles.  He said, “Boys go home and be men as you have been with me..” It was on the 9^th day of April 1865.  So ended that part of the Confederate War in Virginia .

                                                (Signed)               D.H. Mobley

WAR HISTORY OF DAVID H. MOBLEY,

BETWEEN THE STATES [sic]

   I enlisted in Walton County , Georgia in August, 1861, in Dr. W. S. Barretts Co. G 35^th Georgia Reg., which was organized in Atlanta under Col. Ed. L. Thomas, John Bull, Lieutenant Col.   We camped and drilled in Atlanta about two months and was then ordered to Richmond , Va.   We camped in the fair grounds there until about the first of December and we were ordered to Ivens Port on the Potomac, where we spent the Winter, in March following our command was ordered to Fredericksburg and from there to Yorktown .  I was in the battle of Fredericksburg the Wilderness where on the 6^th day of May I was wounded.

            I was in the battle of Gettysburg and I was at the surrender at Apamattox [sic] C. H. Va. surrendered and paroled Commissary Sargent [sic] of the 35^th Georgia Regiment, on the 9^th day of April 1865.

            I had the pleasure of grasping the hand of General Lee in bidding him farewell.

                                                                                     D. H. Mobley

                                                                                       Co. G. 35^th Regiment

 P. S. I was a member of R. E. Lee Camp at Monroe, Walton Co., Georgia.  An honorary member of the U. D. C. Chapter at Social Circle, Georgia .  Now a member of the Gen. Evans Camp of Dekalb Co., Georgia in which I reside at Decatur , Georgia .  I was born in Walton, Co., Ga. on the 16^th day of June 1840, now in my 82^nd year and have been elected an honorary member of Chapter Decatur, Ga.

                                                                                     D. H. Mobley