Scenes from the Surrender

    First Kentucky "Orphan" Brigade 


 

Some Scenes from the Surrender at Washington, Georgia

Compiled by Geoff Walden

 

"On the evening of May 2d, 1865, in camp near Columbia, S.C., when General Lewis, Colonel Lee, and Colonel Caldwell made speeches, in which they explained what they had gathered respecting the terms of surrender, and advised as to the proper course, General Lewis remarked that, though he counseled quiet submission to the fate that was thrust upon the command, it was from no returning love for the Yankee, nor the Government of his administering; that his feelings and opinions were the same; though he must lay aside the gray, he never expected to wear a uniform of blue. Colonel Lee, concluding his speech, conceived that matters were growing too serious, so he brought his humor into play, and dispersed the command with a laugh: 'Boys' said he, with his drollest serio-comic air, 'the General speaks of not wearing the Yankee uniform. Now, as for Phil. Lee, my opinion is that henceforth he'll wear no uniforms of any sort!'"
Ed Porter Thompson, History of the First Kentucky Brigade, Cincinnati, 1868, pp. 370-71

 

"The Orphan Brigade was moved slowly back to Washington, Ga., where they were paroled and laid down their arms, some of which were the identical guns drawn just before the battle of Shiloh."
Fred Joyce [Capt. John Weller], "From Infantry to Cavalry, No. 4," Southern Bivouac Vol. III, No. 7, March 1885, p. 301

 

"There is a brigade of Kentucky cavalry camped out in Mr. Wiley's grove, and some fear is felt of a collision between them and the Yankees. Some of them have already engaged in fist fights on their own account. I wish they would get into a general row, for I believe the Kentuckians would whip them."
Eliza Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1908, p. 223

 

Capt. Lot Abraham of the 4th Iowa Cavalry met with Gen. Lewis upon his arrival on May 6th, 1865 and rode out to the Orphans' final camp, which he described as "a nice grove under big tree Table Spread & there I write & talk & Swear em by companies until midnight."  He worked until midnight and had "only 3 of My Boys with me."  Early on May 7th he went back to complete the paroles or "payrolls" as "they (Rebels)" called them. Capt. Abraham thought the Kentuckians a "rough set I know but they treated me very well."
Capt.
Lot Abraham Diary, Special Collections, University of Iowa Library, courtesy Gregg Gunchick

 

"Mr. Gaither Bryant [James Gaither Bryant, Co. F, 4th Ky. Inf.] said, 'My command was surrendered at Washington, Georgia, but before the surrender every one of us received two dollars in silver money that had been shipped in by General John C. Breckinridge. When my regiment was informed that it would be surrendered, one hundred men, myself being one of the number, registered an oath that they would never lay down their arms; would fight until the last man was killed. This determination would have been followed had it not been for General Lewis, who met us and said such course would be suicidal ... His advice was taken and when the time came, we laid down our arms, and started homeward.'"
Michael Watson, "Looking Back," The Adair Progress, March 12, 1992

 

[Mrs. Bettie Phillips, wife of 4th Ky. Inf. and Brigade Quartermaster Capt. William Phillips, spent most of the war accompanying her husband when practical. She was present at the surrender.] "At Washington, Georgia, she saw the last of them as a body, and looked upon what no woman, perhaps, ever saw before -- a military body of men whom no reverse could dispirit, no sufferings nor dangers weaken, and who deemed themselves unconquerable save by the single means of destroying the last man, bidding her, and their general, and each other farewell, preparatory to final separation, without arms in their hands, but choked with emotion, that found vent, in many instances, in tears, to which they had been strangers from the days of their childhood.

She had in her possession the flags of some of the regiments which they had brought out from Kentucky with them, and under which they had first fought, and these she cut into small strips and divided among the men as mementoes till the last was gone, and thus she parted with those of whose careers she had been a constant witness, and in whose defeat she felt a grief as poignant as their own."
Ed Porter Thompson, History of the Orphan Brigade, Louisville, 1898, p. 322

9kyCannon.jpg (7809 bytes)

Piece of the battle flag of the 9th Kentucky Infantry,
cut up by Mrs. Phillips at the surrender, and kept by the
final color-bearer of the regiment, Ensign James G. Foulks
(photo courtesy Matt Grubb)

 

Address of Congressman Eli M. Bruce to the Kentucky soldiers, concerning the surrender  --  click here to read the contents of Mr. Bruce's address, dated 10 May 1865.


 

 EXCERPTS FROM "THE LAST BIVOUAC OF THE OLD KENTUCKY BRIGADE"

By John S. Jackman, 9th Ky. Inf., for the Louisville Courier
Miscellaneous Clippings, page 193, Jackman Journal, Library of Congress

It was at the town of Washington, Georgia, the "Old Brigade" closed its career as an organization supporting the cause which was lost. Here at last its marches were ended, and here the Southern breezes for the last time sported with its banners.

They arrived on the evening of May the 6th, 1865. The day before the arrival a company of Federal cavalry [Co. D, 4th Iowa Cav., Capt. Lot Abraham] had taken possession of the town, and had established guards at the different buildings containing Government stores. These soldiers in blue were quiet spectators as the column of gray marched by.

The brigade moved through the streets a well closed column, arms i capea pie [unclear, but apparently a form of the Latin cap-a-pie, "head to foot;" or, completely armed], and with colors flying. Soon the citizens were out en masse to look for the last time upon the "boys in gray" as they were marching -- marching under their colors. The troops of the brigade had, as infantry, elicited universal admiration on fields of review for the precision of their movements and military bearing, and now they did not dishonor the arm of service to which they belonged. Steadily they marched, the very horses seeming to vie with the riders in keeping up the military to the last. The spring breezes gently waved the banners -- banners that bore the marks of the contest, and that had the names of many fields written upon their folds -- and the evening's twilight, on the eve of fading from the hills, danced and quivered upon the long trusty Enfields, thus smiling pleasantly upon one of the last scenes of Southern pageantry.

As the troops moved out on the Athens road they met a body of Federal cavalry coming from the opposite direction [13th Tenn. Cav. US]. The column of blue and the column of gray divided the road, each filing by in silence. The folds of the opposing banners, which had so often swayed and tossed in the battle's storm, were now almost wafted together by the May zephyrs, yet there was no din of battle.

The brigade halted in a pleasant wood of beeches and oaks, in the environs, which was the scene of the "last bivouac." When the evening shadows deepened into darkness the blazing bivouac fires lighted up the wood. Beautiful was the scene, as the light clambered the tall trunks of the trees, to scintillate among the tender leaves of spring, that formed a canopy above. Under the green roof the forms of the soldiers were seen, some walking to and fro, others sitting around quietly smoking their pipes, and the murmur of the camp crept away through the stillness of the night to greet the ears of the cottagers in the suburbs.

At length the last "tattoo" rang through the woods, in notes clear and strong, yet of the five thousand stalwart Kentuckians first brigaded under Breckinridge, ..., not a thousand answered to their names. Of the missing thousands hundreds slept on battlefields where they had fallen, their ears forever deaf to the bugle's call. In wounds and in sickness many hundreds had found their graves being marked in nearly every State of the Confederacy, and many had died in Northern prisons. No wonder the light of the camp-fires which reflected in the bronzed faces of the warriors, that stood upon the roll-call, revealed traces of sadness, for their thoughts were of the absent. The winds murmuring so softly through the leafy branches over head were even then chanting solemn dirges among the pines that grew above the graves of their fallen comrades -- graves that were scattered far and wide, and far from the care of loved ones at home.

Yet, when the ranks were broken, and while around the fires a moment to finish their pipes ere giving themselves to slumber, sad feelings were forgotten, and, in true soldier style, the laughable jest was sent and the cutting repartee received, all forgetful of the past and careless as to the future.

Soon the camp-fires smouldered, quiet brooded over the scene, and naught but the glittering stars, peering through the green canopy above, kept sentry over the sleeping warriors -- for the war was over.

 

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Geoff Walden: enfield577 (at) live.com
Laura Cook
: lcook62 (at) hotmail.com

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