GRANDPA CHARLIE LEHMANN
GRANDPA AND HIS
WATIME COMRADES
(Carl Adelbert Ferdinand Henrich
Lehmann)
by
William Hadskey
July 3, 1982
With the Secession of the Southern States in 1861, there was
an underlying fear that war might be eminent with the United
States; and various militia units organized
with enthusiasm for the impending struggle.
In Meadville, a unit called
the Franklin Rifles, which subsequently became Company A
Seventh Mississippi Infantry, was organized.
Fort Sumter, South Carolina,
was fired on and surrendered on April
14, 1861, and the War was on.
The formal enlistments of the Franklin Rifles were carried
out during the week of April 25-29, and the name of Charles A. Lehmann was
entered on the roll on April 29. The
names reflected the best of Franklin County:
well-educated men, lawyers, doctors,
portrait painters, school teachers, planters' sons, and in general, men who
would be an honor to their families, state, and country. This war fever was prevalent through the
entire South.
The Thomas Hinds Guards, which subsequently became Company D
Nineteenth Mississippi Infantry, was being organized in Fayette; and they were
given an opportunity to serve in Virginia. Grandpa was invited to the going-away picnic
in Fayette for the Thomas Hinds Guards and enjoyed the good fellowship of the Jefferson
County men. Possibly he went with the group to Rodney,
where they boarded the steamer on route to Virginia.
Grandpa was at his last drill with the Franklin Guards at Meadville
on June 10; and on that date, he and David H. Osteen of Hamburg
told Captain William M. Porter that they wanted to go to Virginia. They went to Fayette, where they were joined
by Andrew McClure, whose two brothers, Henry B. and James
McClure, had previously left for Virginia.
The trio boarded the steamer Mary E. Keene at Rodney
for Memphis, where they transferred
to the railroad "cars" for Virginia. They were enlisted in the Nineteenth
Mississippi at the Fair Grounds at Richmond
on June 19, 1861. Both of these friends were to die in the war.
Andrew McClure was killed at Gaines
Mill, and Osteen died at Chimborazo Hospital
in Richmond on May 31, 1862 of typhoid pneumonia.
The Captain of the Company, Chesley S. Coffee, was
familiarly called by the men "Old Sugar and Cream" Coffee. Having served as a captain in the Mexican
War, the Captain was the only man in the company who understood war. He came to Fayette as a young man from Mount
Pleasant, Tennessee, and was a
prosperous planter. Newspaper accounts
of the period relate that the Company was enthusiastic in their drill but were
distracted by winsome lasses of Richmond
visiting the Mississippi
boys. Captain Coffee was wounded and
captured with his body servant at the Battle of Williamsburg, and after he was
exchanged, served as Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment. He resigned on February 14, 1863, due to his wound (and his being too fat
to march) and returned to Jefferson County
to serve on the Conscript Board. His
granddaughter, Ulabelle Coffee, later married Ralph Lehmann, thus uniting the
Coffee and Lehmann families.
William F. Schwing, who was the original First Sergeant of
the Company, had been promoted and became the Captain. He surrendered the remnants of the Company at
Appomattox.
The First Lieutenant was the forty-year-old lawyer Robert
Duncan. He received a furlough to
Fayette to recruit and accidentally killed himself with his pistol. Second Lieutenant P. Hines Burch considered
the Virginia theatre not to his
liking and resigned. Thomas Jefferson
Key, the Third Lieutenant, also thought somewhere else was better, resigned,
and helped organize the Fourth Louisiana Artillery.
Cicero Jeff Liddell, the Second Sergeant, was a close friend
during and after the war. At the battle
of Beaver Dam, Liddell was marching on the right; and the two Guice brothers,
Isaac A. and Moses J., were on the left of Grandpa. A spent cannon ball hit Grandpa in the
chest. (Grandpa had cut a hole in his
blanket and was wearing the blanket like a poncho.) Grandpa was knocked senseless, and one of the
Guice brothers said, "There goes old Charlie." Within seconds a cannon
shot hit the ranks, killing the Guice men and knocking the gun out of the hand
of Liddell. Liddell lost his left arm
and the right forefinger and thumb.
Liddell came back to Jefferson
County and became a schoolteacher
and Justice of the Peace. Often he and
Grandpa would get together and discuss that fatal day
of June 27, 1862. Liddell died on March 10, 1927.
Grandpa recovered from his shock but was placed among the wounded in a
field near Richmond for at least
one night. He often told of how the
whippoorwills were very loud that night.
Third Sergeant Thomas George Manifold developed camp fever
and died at home while on furlough.
Fourth Sergeant William H. Terry was a prominent Mason of Fayette. He was captured at Spottsylvania and spent
the rest of the war in prison. The
Englishman James McClure was Fifth
Sergeant. He was another close friend of
Grandpa. For many years he was Treasurer
of Fayette and ran a livery stable. He
stated that he buried his brother, Andrew, during the Battle of Gaines Mill,
stuck his rifle at the head of the grave, and went back into battle. McClure was also captured at Spotsylvania.
The First Corporal was David P. Wyatt, who was discharged
for wounds. Second Corporal Richard J.
Stampley died of wounds received at Beaver Dam.
The Third Corporal, Robert C. McPhail, was a clerk from Bowling
Green, Kentucky, who was
working in Fayette when the Company was organized. Due to his wounds, he was made a clerk in the
headquarters of General Longstreet and finally was given a disability
certificate. He died in McGregor,
Texas.
Fourth Corpora1William Lewis Stephens, of Germanic origin, in later
years was quite active in Confederate veterans' organizations. In his compilation of the members of the
Company, he said Grandpa was lost at Petersburg
in February of 1865. Stephens ran a
store in Fayette; and according to the editor of the Fayette Chronicle,
Stephens and Grandpa were very close friends.
Stephens surrendered as First Lieutenant at Appomattox.
In a letter dated July
31, 1968, Uncle Rudolf made the following comments:
I have heard Papa tell about a bullet
lodged in the folds of his blanket but it did not hurt him. Another time he was hit on his left side by a
ball and fractured two ribs and he was unconscious. The ball fell to the ground and a man next to
him picked it up and said this is the ball that just killed Charlie. Just as he said that, he was hit in the head
and was killed. The other men told Papa
about it. . .
I also heard Papa tell about the
doctor giving him that dose of castor oil when he and another man tried to get
off duty. . .
The man that was made corporal after
Papa turned it down was named Stevens (W. L. Stephens). He lived in Fayette after the war. He had two
boys and a girl. The boys' names were
Adolph and Louis. I think the girl's
name was Isabelle. . . Mr. Stevens got
to be a Captain (First Lieutenant) before the war was over.
With the exclusion of Privates Andrew McClure, David Osteen,
Moses Guice, and Isaac Guice, previously mentioned, the following were the
other privates in the Thomas Hinds Guards:
Benjamin F. Adair was wounded and captured at Harrison
Landing. Upon being exchanged, he was
made Color Corporal and surrendered at Appomattox. His niece stated that Grandpa made the bridal
boots for Adair when he married and that Grandpa attended his wedding. According to the niece, the two old veterans
often visited.
A Lehmann oft-told story probably involved Adair. According to the Adair family, Grandpa got
three fortunes from Germany. Anyway, the German folk sent a cousin over to
see how Grandpa was handling his money.
The cousin could not see where Grandpa had spent the money wisely and
said so. He complained about the Lehmann
children's playing with silver spoons, the poor physical construction of the
house, the cowskin-bottomed chairs, and, in general, the peasant-like living
conditions of the Lehmann family.
Grandpa was running a store and would buy eggs from his
neighbors and put them in barrels to be sent to New
Orleans and sold.
At Christmas time while the unpleasant cousin was visiting, Grandpa
invited some of his old war comrades down to play cards. Naturally Grandpa had a good supply of liquor
for everyone to drink so they could see the spots on the cards better.
I would imagine that the cast of characters was Ben Adair,
Bill Stephens, Pap Geoghagen, Jim McClure, Grandpa, and the cousin. They were playing cards in the room directly
behind the room where Grandpa and Grandma slept. In the room was a large sideboard and three
barrels of eggs. During the game the
cousin excused himself for a few minutes and when he
came back, took a big drink of what he supposed to be liquor, but quickly spit
it out saying someone had put vinegar in his glass.
Grandpa and his friends were highly incensed and started
beating the cousin; and he finally, to get away from the drunken gang, climbed
upon the sideboard. Then the card
players started pelting the cousin with eggs; and everytime he would show his
face, they would throw more eggs at him.
This continued all night.
Needless to say, the next day, the
cousin made his departure and the money from Germany
ceased coming. The children and
grandchildren remembered that as Grandma cleaned up the mess the next day,
she only said, "Papa and his friends were enjoying themselves" or
words to that effect. Grandma never gave Grandpa any lip.
George W. Allen was twice wounded and surrendered at Appomattox. Charles Aly lived at Rodney and was
discharged for jaundice. William Amy, a
bounty jumper, who was enlisted in Virginia,
ran off after two hours; and George W. Anderson was discharged for typhoid
pneumonia.
William J. (Billy) Baldridge was wounded and captured at Williamsburg. He died in prison. Charles Barland died of wounds received at
Beaver Dam. Joseph Beard was discharged
due to wounds received in the Seven Days Battle, and John T. Bowman finished
out the war in prison after being captured at Spotsylvania.
George Brady was killed at Williamsburg. Charles O. Carpenter was wounded twice, and,
not being able to get back to Virginia
after being given a furlough, he surrendered with General Richard Taylor; and
Jacob J. Cox was made Cadet for bravery.
Cox surrendered at Appomattox.
Stephen R. Compton was discharged due to a wound in the arm
that caused a stiff elbow. Thomas A.
Davenport, who ran a hotel in Fayette after the war, was captured at Fort
Whitworth. Joseph A. Duffield was killed at Williamsburg
and Charles E. Durst was wounded five times: at Beaver Dam, Second Manassas,
and three times at Gettysburg. Due to his wounds disabling him as a soldier,
he was sent to work in the government shops at Selma,
Alabama.
The Confederate records show that Durst was wounded one
time, but on his pension records he stated that he was wounded five times. The pension records reveal much useful
information about the Company, but Grandpa never drew a pension; he stated that
his boys could take care of him.
One member of the family said that, at the Battle of
Gettysburg, Grandpa was preparing to go into action and that while he was in a
crouched position a Yankee hotshot cannon ball barely grazed him from the
shoulder to the hip. It is true that the
Posey Brigade, of which Grandpa was a member, was to back up the charge of
General George Pickett. The nineteenth Mississippi
was behind a hill, and contemporary accounts reveal that the soldiers were
anxious and some were yelling, "When do we go in?"
The Yankees had an intense barrage of cannon fire, and this
would have been when Grandpa was grazed.
As everyone knows, the charge failed, and Grandpa and his group did not
charge. Incidentally, the Nineteenth
lost a large number of men on July 2,
1863; and if the information from a patrol
of the Nineteenth had been used, the South probably would have won the
battle. As another side note to the war,
the regiment arrived on the field at the ending of the Battle of First Manassas
and had the group been thrown into battle, possibly could have run the Yankees
back to Washington and ended the
war. The regiment was also in one of
those famed "Lee to the rear" episodes.
Gershon Eiseman, of German Jewish
ancestry, was killed by a sharpshooter at Sharpsburg. Moses Foltz, a merchant from Rodney, deserted
while on a thirty-day leave in March
1864. Frederich Frank died of wounds
received in the Battle of the
Wilderness, and Archibald B. Gardner, due to a wound received at Gaines Mill,
was transferred to hospital duty for the rest of the war.
Jake Garrett of Union Church transferred to the Twelfth
Mississippi and after the war moved to West Virginia. Major Gathercole did not return to the
Company after being wounded in the Battle
of the Wilderness. Thomas Jefferson
Geoghagen and his brother, Quince W. Geoghagen, died of wounds received at Gettysburg. Quince C. Geoghagen was only sixteen and not
a member of the Company. He went to Virginia
to see his brothers and went with them on the Pennsylvania
campaign.
The stories are told that when the men were not fighting in
the Army of Northern Virginia, they would devise their own amusements. One diversion was snowball fights, and it is
said that entire brigades would fight one another. The ministers in the army decided the man
could have a better use of their time, and prayer meetings and revivals were
started. It was generally thought by
Southerners that God was on their side.
(General Lee said that the Southerners had only two friends: God and the
cowpea.) And the soldiers
enthusiastically attended religious services.
Chaplain Thomas L. Duke of the Nineteenth was an able
Presbyterian minister, and he held a revival for his regiment. One day,
during a service, he was giving an unusually long Presbyterian prayer. As he prayed, the officers slipped among the
men and touched them on the shoulders.
When Duke opened his eyes, the men had gathered their arms and were prepared
to march. That is when they started for Gettysburg. Unlike some chaplains, Duke would grab a
rifle and shoot at the Yankee brethren in every battle.
Ambrose D. "Pap" Geoghagen later ran for
Supervisor in Jefferson County. In writing about him, a comrade stated that
Geoghagen started out as a "High Private" and was captured while
commanding Company F at Fort Whitworth. He was never wounded, but his clothes and hat
were torn by Yankee bullets in seven battles.
On one occasion, he took ten volunteers to probe the Yankee lines in
full view of the Southern Army. It seems
that the day before, a severe fight had been
fought, but on this day the Yankee fire had
ceased. Geoghagen told his men there was
no use crawling through the dirt because if the Yankees were there, they were
dead men anyway. Geoghagen and his small
squad told their friends good-bye and boldly marched to the Yankee lines where
they captured over one hundred Yankee skulkers.
When the group returned with their prisoners, General Nathaniel Harris
of Vicksburg embraced Geoghagen end
tearfully tendered his thanks.
Incidentally, Geoghagen was beaten for Supervisor and moved to Louisiana. While in Louisiana,
he was trying to rescue people and animals in a flood and was drowned. From various clues, it appears that Grandpa
was with Geoghagen when they captured the Yankees.
Jesse B. Gibson was killed in the Seven Days Battle. James M.
Gilbert (some say his middle name was McGee, while others contend it was Monroe)
surrendered at Appomattox. A contemporary stated that he had brown
piercing eyes like a hawk. After the
war, his son-in-law trifled on his daughter, and Gilbert determined to kill the
son-in-law. He waited for him at a ford
of Middle Fork Creek; and the first shot missed, but the second got his man. Gilbert later said that the sun came up and
got in his eyes, and this was the reason he missed the first time.
Jacob E. Hamberlin died of wounds received at Gaines
Mill. William A. Hill was also wounded
at the same battle and was discharged for disability. Of the four Humphreys in the Company, Calvin
and Hugh B. died of chronic diarrhoea, and Eliazar was discharged for the same
complaint. Eliazar Humphrey later joined
the First Mississippi Artillery.
Steven S. Johnson was captured at Hatchers Run, and Osburn G. Johnson was killed at Gaines Mill. John Kelly died soon after getting to Virginia,
and two of the three Key brothers died.
Richard Key died of diabetes, and Thomas W. died in the Yankee prison at
Fort Delaware.
Pittman M. Littleton was killed at Spottsylvania. John Looby was
discharged for "mental inactivity."
Henry B. McClure, sometime drummer for the regiment, was captured at Bottom
Bridge near Drewys Bluff. He later became the Republican leader in
Jefferson County and continued as such until "there was only one white man
in the Republican Party in Jefferson County and that was Henry McClure,"
as one writer stated. (During
Reconstruction several prominent white men joined the Republicans in an attempt
to control the Negro vote and had a large measure of success.)
William H. McDougal was discharged due to pleurisy and
pneumonia. Henry McGladery of Ireland
was wounded and captured twice. He was
working in the government Shops at Columbus, Mississippi,
at the end of the war. The editor of the
Chronicle mentioned several times that Grandpa and Henry McGladery would
walk the streets of Fayette discussing "the old days." Andrew Jackson Carothers died of gangrene due
to his wound at Fraysers Farm, and James H.
Evens was on a wounded furlough at the end.
Henry L. M. Hunt of Franklin
County was discharged due to a
bladder problem. Hugh H. McLaughlin,
after being often wounded, was captured at Fort
Whitworth; and Joseph Meggison died
of brain fever in Tennessee while
detailed with the Reserve Ordinance train of General Longstreat.
Bonnery M. Mitchell died of wounds
received at Fraysers Farm. Harris
Prentiss (Tip) Montgomery served
only a short time and was discharged. He
later served in the Fourth Mississippi Cavalry.
Thomas Nelty was disabled due to a gun shot wound of the upper right
hip; and John Quinn or O'Quinn, the musician, being sixty years old, was
discharged as over age.
William J. Owens died of wounds received at Beaver Dam. The Irish emigrant Daniel O'Connell was
captured at Chancellorsville. Robert W. Radford of Fort
Wayne, Michigan, and Julius
Sickles, after being captured, joined the ranks of the enemy.
During the war, the men of the Army of Northern Virginia
were often on short rations and lacking in clothing and shoes. The Ladies Aid Society of Fayette sent enough
clothing to have a change of clothing, but due to hard soldiering or losing
clothes in retreats, there was a continual scarcity of shoes and clothes. Several family members related that Grandpa
told them that the safest and quietest place to sleep was in a cemetery on the
various battlegrounds. He also stated
that many times he had stripped dead man of their shoes and clothing to have
something decent to wear.
In the foregoing tenor was the little story which Uncle
August told. It was in August, and the
last time I saw Uncle August was as I drove by and saw him hoeing in his
garden. During the ensuing conversation,
Uncle August related that once Grandpa and his Company were on a march and they
noticed a field with ripening roasting ears.
William S. Price, whom William L. Stephens called a "hospital
rat," suggested that the next day they
play sick and go out and steal some of the corn. Next day,
they both contended that they were sick.
Dr. Pleasant N. Bowden, Regimental Assistant Surgeon, was on to the
tricks of the two goldbrickers. He made
short shift of Price and told him to go back to the Company but was very
solicitous of "Charlie," stating that he had never seen Charlie sick
before. He gave Grandpa a canteen cup of
castor oil and told him to drink it. Grandpa
begged to take the medicine to his tent, but the doctor made him drink it right
there. The medicine and cure caused
Grandpa to have piles, and Uncle August laughed and told how Grandpa would
never give any of his children castor oil when they were sick. Price was captured just prior to Appomattox,
probably on a foraging expedition. He
died in Grenada.
Garnett B. Reynolds saw discharged for a hernia. Emmanuel Rubel, the regimental baker, was
discharged due to wounds received at Sharpsburg. William Robertson was killed at
Spottsylvania, and Emmanuel Scharff enlisted William Amy as a substitute.
Many of the men of this Company are buried in Hollywood
Cemetery in Richmond,
Virginia, with Jefferson Davis, James
Ewell Brown Stuart, and other Confederate heroes; but only Joseph Scherzinger
has a marker. He died of typhoid
fever. His brother, August Scherzinger,
had recruited him as a substitute and became the Sutler for the Regiment. (Each regiment had a sutler who supplied
tobacco, writing paper, whiskey, and other articles.) The Scherzinger brothers were from Bavaria
and are cited as examples of the large German population of the Thomas Hinds
Guards. There were many people of
Germanic ancestry in Fayette and Rodney prior to the war, and this may be the
main reason that Grandpa cast his lot with this group.
William T. Scott, after being wounded twice, substituted
Daniel O'Connell and went to Mississippi
and joined the Fourth Mississippi Cavalry.
William T. Seale of Franklin County,
after his wound at Fredericksburg
and a long sojourn in the hospital, received a furlough home and joined the
Fourteenth Confederate Cavalry. After
the war he became Supervisor in District Two, Franklin
County, and often visited in the
Lehmann home. A member of the Seale
family told of visiting Grandpa in the old house (the old homestead was behind
the Lehmann house, which, according to the Seale family, was built mainly by
Uncle Ferdinand), and there was a heavy rain.
The house leaked badly, and Grandma was rushing around putting pans and
buckets under the leaks. Bill Seale is
supposed to have asked Grandpa why he did not fix his roof, and Grandpa
replied, "When it reins, it is too late and when it is not raining, I do
not need a new roof."
John M. Shaw was wounded at least twice and captured a day
before Robert Edward Lee surrendered.
David T. Shelton was wounded twice, captured and exchanged, and captured
the last time on the retreat to Appomattox. Arthur B. Sims was killed at Sharpsburg
and Jefferson E. Stampley was captured in the same battle.
Samuel B. Stampley took his body servant, as did many
others, to the war. He was disabled at Chancellorsville. Jacob Stampley, the first Grand Master of S.
B. Stampley Masonic lodge, was wounded and later sent home for his wounds. He is the only one of the group (of whom we
have a record) who divorced his wife. He
did not like what went on during Reconstruction and emigrated
to Brazil,
where he remained for several years.
Charles E. Stringer of Hamburg
died of typhoid fever. Russ Terry was
discharged due to wounds received at Sharpsburg
and Chancellorsville.
James A. Tubbs died in Fayette of
wounds received at Beaver Dam, and Absolam Leroy
Trimble, after being wounded, was made Commissary, in which position he served
to Appomattox.
Joseph Trimble served with his brother, Leroy. Due to wounds, he was in Way
Hospital at Meridian
in 1865. He died in Louisiana,
after the war. James Foote Torrey was wounded
at Gaines Hill in the leg, which wound caused him to have a stiff leg. He later volunteered with another disabled
veteran named Frank Higdon to go into the enemy lines and get cattle, horses,
and other needed supplies. He died in Oklahoma.
James Wiley died of
pneumonia. Archibald Baker
Wilkinson surrendered at Appomattox
and later went to Oklahoma. Neil Wilkinson, the twin of Archibald B.
Wilkinson, was killed at Fraysers Farm.
Frank G. Wilson died of pneumonia, and so did James
Ward.
One character from Rodney, who was a merchant named Joseph
Wertheimer, showed up in Memphis in
1864 and took the Yankee oath. He said
he was a member of the Nineteenth, but he was not. George West, after being wounded and being
sent to Mississippi, was unable
to get back to his unit and surrendered with General Richard Taylor at Citronelle,
Alabama.
William Ewing died of typhoid fever. Uriah S. Humphreys
deserted while on furlough and joined a unit in Mississippi. Lastly, Dennis O'Connell, who received more
publicity during the war than any other man, apparently was an Irish emigrant
in Natchez living with his brother
Daniel at the beginning of the war. He
was the Company bad boy, for which he was sent to the Confederate Military
Prison at Castle Thunder in Richmond. While in prison, the Confederate government
conducted an investigation of the prison, and Dennis told some fancy lies. He
was released and was promptly captured at Spotsylvania
and immediately took the oath to the Yankees.
Thus was the record of the comrades of Grandpa. To use the
statement of the old veterans, "They were the first to leave and last to
get home." Grandpa said, "I fought for four years for a land in which
I had neither kith nor kin." He and
his comrades fought, bled, and died, often hungry and ragged in (to paraphrase
President Theodore Roosevelt) the Army of Northern Virginia, "the greatest
Army ever on the North American continent."
On the same day that Uncle
August told the story of the castor oil, he also remembered another story. He related that after Grandpa was turned
loose by the Yankees, he made his way to New York,
where he hired out as a seaman on a German vessel bound for Europe. The Captain and the crew made life rather
unbearable for the ragged, penniless ex-Confederate by regaling him with
statements that he was stupid for joining the losing side.
Upon arrival at Rotterdam,
the Netherlands,
Grandpa asked for shore leave. In the
city he had an uncle on his maternal side who was
quite rich, and Grandpa made his way to the home of his uncle. There he washed up got new clothes, a hair
cut, and money in his pocket. Then
Grandpa went back to the ship and told the Captain that he had decided not to
go any further with him, but as a token of his esteem that he would like to
invite him out for a meal, to which the Captain agreed.
Grandpa brought the Captain to his uncle's home, which
resembled a castle. There were five
chandiers in the ceiling, a sumptuous table, fine foods, and servants scurrying
about. Uncle August said that when
Grandpa told this tale, he would laugh, pop his leg with his hand, and say,
"I showed that so and so that I was not white trash."
From Rotterdam Grandpa made his way to the home of his
parents in Eystrup.
His father had gone blind since his departure, and no news had been
heard of him in four years. As he came
to the door, Grandpa said, "I am home!" His father recognized his voice and said,
"Yes, Adelbert, you are home."
Uncle Rudolf added some extra war data in one of his letters
and gave a slightly different version of the going home story which we quote.
When the Jefferson County Company was
ordered to get ready to go to Virginia,
they had a kind of picnic in Fayette.
Papa and others went from the Franklin County Company. He and one other man got a transfer to that
company and went on to Virginia.
I think he said he was standing by Mr.
Liddell when he got wounded. . . He told
about some one stealing his blanket. He
told about it to a man named Jim McClure.
He said Charlie that's nothing. I
will get you one. So he went and took
somebody elses and brought it to him. . .
I heard him talk about the Seven Days
Battle around Richmond and the
Battle of Gettysburg and told about seeing some men bringing General (Thomas J.
"Stonewall") Jackson in
after some of his own men shot him by mistake. . .
I remember Mr. Stephens coming to see
Papa and I think Mr. Gilbert did. . .
After the war he went back to Mr.
Madison Guice's and wrote to his father end told them
he had been through the war and was broke like most all the Southern people and
ask him if he would send him some money so he could come home. He waited about two months without hearing
from his father. He got impatient
and left but told Mr. Guice if a letter came for him, he could open it, and if
there was money in it, he may use it, and could pay him when he came back to
this country.
Mr. Guice
told Papa the letter came just a week after he left. It had one hundred fifty dollars in it. Mr. Guice said it was like a Godsend to him
as the condition of the country was so bad.
Papa got a way to Natchez
and got on a boat and went to New Orleans. He got a job on a ship and worked his way to New
York. He got a
job on another ship and worked his way to Bremen,
Germany. He sent a telegram to his father telling him
he would soon be home. His folks were
living about twenty miles from Bremen. They were expecting him to come in a boat,
but he got a way through the country and got there before time for the boat.
When he got to the house he went
around to the back. His father was standing
in the kitchen talking to his sisters telling her we thought Adelbert was dead,
and now he will soon be home. Papa said
he could not stand it any longer so he walked in. He said his mother was upstairs and heard
them and it did not take her long to come down.
Papa had four names. The way he got
Charles is because Carl translated in English is Charles. His father over there called him Adelbert.
The writer of this
monograph is faced with a dilemma in trying to reconcile the statements of
Uncle August and Uncle Rudolf as to the circumstances of the trip to Germany. I humbly believe that the story Uncle August
told is correct for the trip directly after the war. I believe that after he returned to America,
Grandpa did not write to his poor parents until he decided to go back in 1870
and that Uncle Rudolf in his letter described the 1870 trip.