Can You Hear The Voices?

Like countless boys born in the 1950's my favorite toys were those little plastic soldiers. I'd spend hours setting up elaborate mock battles and just a few moments of mayhem as one side or the other won the battle. Then in the early 1960's my parents took the family on a trip back east from California. One of our stops was Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where we of course toured the battlefield. I well remember the town shops selling their lead bullets, plastic soldiers and souvenirs. Then there was the old Observation Tower, the giant Cyclorama and my fascination with the famous Electric Light Map that described the movements and maneuvers of both armies through its twinkling lights as the guide described what transpired on those three long days back in July, 1863. My favorite place of all though was the story and vista of walking that one mile length of 'Picket's Charge' as they made their way across that field to the High-water mark of the Confederacy. From that moment on, at the age of 12 or so I knew I was a devoted Confederate.

All through my school years I was doing research on the War. Being young with just a small allowance I could buy some books but didn't have much money to spend, so I would check out Civil War books from the library and literally write down chapters, page for page. I still have them. As my interest started at Picket's Charge I chose several Regiments that were participants, the 2nd and 11th Mississippi Regiments of Davis' Brigade. Their casualties on that terrible day were terrific. The 2nd Mississippi had been heavily involved at the Railroad Cut on the 1st Day where 232 Officers and men were captured. Only 60 odd men made the charge with only a handful coming back unscathed. Out of the 350 men in the 11th Mississippi that made the charge only 40 returned. That set the hook and I poured over researching every scrap I could find on them.

In 1967 (I had just gotten my driver's license) my father agreed to take my on our own journey back east to various battlefields and of course we went back to Gettysburg. Well I remember having my Dad stop at every bronze marker on the battlefield espousing just what the Mississippi Regiments and other Regiments did at that very spot. We'd take turns and wrote down every word on those plaques. I still have them as well, wrapped in 1967 newspapers, marked Day One, Day Two and Day Three. That was a fun trip.

Finally college and life though got in the way of my youthful enthusiasm I got married, had children of my own, had to work for a living and gradually all my research went into cardboard boxes, loving reminders of my passion all carefully stored and maintained away. It must have been around 1996 when I read an article on a woman by the name of Alberta Martin who was being billed as the 'Last Confederate Widow.' Alberta was born in 1906 and came to marry a man 60 years her senior, William Jasper Martin, born in 1845 in Georgia. What I learned was that William Jasper Martin had been conscripted into the Confederate Army and joined Company "K" 4th Alabama in May of 1864. Mr. Martin died in 1932 and in 1983 Alberta learned she was eligible for his Service Pension. Alberta died in 2004, the "Last Confederate Widow."

With that article a new spark began to smolder and grow. I missed my times I had spent researching the 2nd and 11th Mississippi Regiments and I longed to take up my childhood obsession again. Yet I had already traveled that path and so decided perhaps I could start clean with a new Regiment, so I chose Pvt. Martin's 4th Alabama. So it started again.

So this journey started in 1996 and I've been on ever since. As it was the 1990's I used the only 'technology' available at the time- 'snail mail,' much as I did when I was young, corresponding with the Alabama Department of Archives and History and having them photocopy the Muster Rolls of the 4th and ordering veteran service records from the National Archives in Washington DC. After two or three weeks I'd get a packet in the mail and I was started. I went to our closest Research Library, the University of Oregon Library and would photocopy chapters from various books that were helpful. I began building up a library of my own with some of the basics, Douglas Southhall Freemans volumes -R.E. Lee and Lee's Lieutenants along with various memoirs.

As fate would have it and unbeknownst to me before I began, the 2nd and 11th Mississippi were Brigaded for a time with the 4th Alabama in Gen. Bee's Brigade at the beginning of the war so some of the books I had purchased as a boy like "The University Greys" (11th Mississippi) and "Battles and Leader" were already on my shelf. Slowly my collection grew. One Christmas my wife surprised me and with the entire set of the "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies." Then came the "Southern Historical Society Papers" and all of the "Confederate Veteran" volumes from 1893 to 1932. I poured over those pages looking for every reference to the 4th Alabama. Later came Broadfoot Publishing's "Supplement to the Official Records" which filled in many a gap.

My library increased with various Confederate biographies and recollections of the war years from Gen. James Longstreet, Gen. John B. Hood, Gen. Edward Porter Alexander, Gen. Moxley Sorell, Col. William C. Oates as well as from the foot soldiers as well the endured all those marches, like J. B. Polley's "Hood's Texas Brigade," William McClendon's "Recollections of War Times", William C. Jordan's "Some Events and Incidents", Charles L. Scott's "Adventures of Charles L Scott", John Cusson's "A Glance at Currant History" , William A Fletcher's "Rebel Private: Front and Rear", John C. West "A Texan in Search of a Fight" and the "Diary of Bartlett Yancy Malone- Whipt 'em Everytime." I wrote to the Alabama Department of Archives and History and they photocopied copies of the unpublished manuscript of Robert T. Coles, Adjutant of the 4th Alabama which was later Edited into book form by Jeffrey D. Stoker.

Then there were numerous books, magazine articles and pamphlets of letters home from the soldiers and diaries from both Confederate and Yankee sources. Many a source came from original Newspaper stories and articles written at the time from Richmond, Savannah and New York City. In other words I searched for every scrap of insight I could find on the 4th Alabama.

Pouring over my increasing horde of information I began by putting down a timeline, starting in April of 1861 through the end of the War in April, 1865. In the first year of the war there is plenty of detailed information from letters and diaries to cull through as the men were lonesome and away from home and had much to say in letting their loved ones know what they were doing. During the latter years though it became increasingly more difficult and I had to reach out further, looking for information from the other regiments that were brigaded with them at the time, like the 2nd and 11th Mississippi and later the 15th, 44th, 47th and 48th Alabama.

After that I pressed through the letters, recollections and memories from the men in their entire Division until fleshed out the entire four years as they marched, camped and fought from Virginia to Tennessee.

The various battles were actually the easiest to ascertain as there is ample books and information out there on the action and what part the 4th Alabama and Law's Brigade played in the action. So too was their travel from one engagement or camp to the next as letters and diaries would comment on how many miles they traveled, what the weather was like etc. On a good day, with good roads they could easily make 18 or 20 miles, so though I might not know exactly where they might have stopped for the night, you could get a rough idea by knowing how many miles they went on a particular day and trace it out on maps. For those I used various sources like "The Official Atlas of the Civil War", Jedediah Hotchkiss' journal "Make me a Map of the Valley" as well as the many wonderful maps at the "Library of Congress."

The most challenging time though was when the campaigns halted for the winter and they went into Winter Quarters, waiting for the new Spring offensive. The months of inactivity was exceedingly difficult to come up with just what might have transpired on a certain day. For those I many time relied on anecdotes told in their journals or the stories about the great 'snowball fights' they would have, sometimes Regiment to Regiment which would broil over to entire Brigades and Divisions going at it with each other. Many times it just came down to what the weather was doing, was it raining, freezing, snowing. Then it was a matter of what would I have done.

Slowly my timeline began to flesh out and I began piecing it together month by month and week by week. I finished my first draft, but in reading it there were just too many gaps, so I started my second draft trying to dig deeper and find more information. I finished that one, and yes it was much more complete but what I read seemed cold and distant. The narrative was more "the regiment did this," or "they camped here." It wasn't personal and felt more like a simple text book. I didn't want that. I wanted to know these men, try to feel what they must have gone through, experience at least a part of what they had endured.

So I tried it a third time and throwing caution to the wind, decided on trying it in what I called the "third person personal." It was a bit presumptive I realized but I gave it a go and changed my entry for April 23, 1861 with "The first we heard of it, Arch McInness came halooing down mains street and carrying on to anyone who would listed that he had an urgent telegram for Captain. Bowles from Montgomery." That felt right and so I rewrote it for the third and last time.

In getting more personal I dug into the "Compiled Service Records" of each man in the 4th Alabama. When I began this project it would have been impossible because I would have had to go back to the National Archives in Washington DC and physically go through all the material, but with the wonders of the internet that had opened up over the years I could do it from the comfort of my own study. The development of "Fold3" was immense as all that information was now at my fingertips. Here was the records of every soldier in the 4th Alabama. With it you could find just when they enlisted, where they were from, what their age was, what engagements they were involved in, what ailments or diseases they might have been sent to the hospital for. The hospital records also revealed many times what their wounds were, how serious they were and when or whether they had succumbed to their wounds or the diseases that swept through the regiment the entire war. It also revealed dates and times when a soldier was discharged, and for what reason.

That was an immense amount of information that I could plug into my time line and help define just what transpired during the many battles they fought through. Knowing just how many men had been hurt on that particular day, the extent of their injuries and what their final outcome was and whether they died on the spot, languished in the hospital for several days or eventually returned to duty gave a pretty clear picture of the day. Although I could never know just exactly what happed during the course of the fighting, I knew the casualty count and so armed with that knowledge I put them on the firing line and the heat of the battle. Recounting just what transpired in the fight and totaling up the losses of killed and wounded at the end is one thing, but detailing and describing just what happened to the individuals hurt and wounded during the engagement puts a whole new feel to it as they watched their friends and comrades get shot down and ripped apart along that firing line. It helped the narrative become personal to me.

Adding to that intimate feel, once again the age of the internet came into play for me. There were numerous period photographs, mostly of officers you can find at the Alabama Department of Archives and History site. Those were very helpful. There were also a dozen or so photos to be found in the Confederate Veterans Magazines as well as several that I discovered through advertisements on Antique or Auction houses. Also early on I sent out requests in several Alabama newspapers for any photos or information from relatives that might be interested in sharing them with me and I got several replies which were much welcomed.

Another great source I discovered though was through Genealogy. Along with my work on the 4th Alabama I had become interested in my personal family history and became very adept at scouring web sites for my relatives, particularly Ancestry.com. It really is amazing what you can find with just a few facts at hand. I thought why not put those investigative tools to use with the Regiment. I had everything I really needed from their Service Records, date and place of birth so it was quite easy to find them on the 1850 and 1860 Census records. That gave me their family, mother, father, brothers and sisters etc. As the interest in genealogy research began to build, more and more people have been looking into their family history and began posting more and more information on the web. Along with it came photographs of their long gone relatives.

With a little patience I was able to pour through nearly every members genealogy background and if lucky was able to come up with a photograph taken much later in their life. Most of these were the younger recruits born in the early to mid 1840's. They soon numbered in the dozens. It was always a great joy to find one of them as all of a sudden, there they were, brought back to life, at least in my imagination. I could put a face to a name and I could sprinkle them in through the narrative as their story unfolded. If they were wounded at Gettysburg, I could describe what happened to them and put a photograph of them right into the story. It really brings it home when you not only read the words of what transpired say at Little Round Top, but see the page littered with half a dozen faces. They are no longer just names on a casualty list, but were real people that either survived that day or didn't.

The Service Records also help me fill in some of the gaps during those slow winter months when not much was going on. I might read that a particular soldier was sent to the hospital on a certain day and I could recount that in the timeline or perhaps someone was discharged on a certain day and I could add that into the mix. Slowly but surely the weeks fleshed out, one day at a time until I finally arrived at Appomattox and the end of their tale.

Now fun as it was discovering the facts and particulars of the men of the 4th Alabama, I was intent on learning more and so took a trip to Alabama visiting every county, hometown or city where each of the 10 Companies were raised up. I crisscrossed the state from Conecuh County in the south, through central Perry, Dallas and Macon Counties, and up north to Madison and Lauderdale Counties.

I walked their streets and town squares and visited all the local cemeteries. It was quite eerie to recognize the names on the headstones as I passed, much like acquaintances I actually really knew. There was Col. Bowles. Here was Adj. Henry Figures. Pvt. Randall Berry, Capt. Dawson, Sgt. Gil Boulware and many, many others.

A few years later I took my dad with me and we visited all the battlefields that the 4th Alabama participated in and walked over the fields and hills that they tramped. We walked down the Henry House Hill at Manassas. Pushed up the vine tangled hill at Gaines Mill, up to the steep climb of Little Round Top, strolled across the old trenches at Cold Harbor, Spotsylvania and the Little Anna and made that long sad journey to Appomattox Court House.

November 2016