Johnny Reb and Memories of Good Times in Camp

From Confederate Veteran, Page 388

Nashville, Tennessee – October, 1930

Recreation in Army Life

James E. Payne, Dallas, Texas

The man or woman who imagines that Johnny Reb had a hard time from start to finish , that his sky was always obscured by clouds and his hours spent among the doldrums, is very much off his or her imagining.

Despite the stories of politicians of how we suffered hunger, etc., etc. every veteran who soldiered can recall many blue spots on the sky of his memory; many days and nights when pleasure led the march and love burnished life with gold.  

One fortunate thing with us is that we had our games.  Marbles, played with all the zest and avidity of schoolboy days;  cards, running the gamut through smut, loo, euchre, three-card monte, poker, cribbage and whist; check, and the royal game of chess. 

Then we had men with voices – voices of intriguing tenor of loftiest tone;, bass, deep with pathos, sweet with harmony; and thrilling baritone rich with melody.  Almost indescribable was the power of those voices to please and enthrall the soul when assembled and mingled.  It was not exactly grand opera, nor, thank the Lord, was it either “ragtime” or “jazz.”  The songs were the old familiars, the rich melodies of the Southland,  mingled with the popular Scotch and Irish Ballads.  The very woods would ring with “Swanee  River,”  “Annie Laurie,”  “Massa’s in de Cole, Cole Ground, “ “Lorena,” “Mary  of Argyle,” “Kathleen Mavourneen,” etc., etc.,   Our “Truthful James” used to declare that when one of these concerts was running at full speed the song birds of the forest would come and perch overhead and take notes.

CAMP LIFE IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY-MISSISSIPPIANS PRACTICING WITH THE BOWIE-KNIFE
Image from Harper's Weekly, August 31, 1861

Confederate Memorial State Historic Site, Higginsville, Missouri

Confederate Memorial State Historic Site and Cemetery

 

Missouri, the state of my birth, is usually regarded as a “border state” during Abraham Lincoln’s War to Prevent Southern Independence.  Regiments of Missouri soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict.  Although many of the citizens of Missouri tried to remain neutral, Yankee atrocities and war crimes against Confederate soldiers and civilians alike, both black and white, caused an ever increasing number of the Missouri populous to give their support and allegiance to the Confederate cause.

The war ended in 1865, but many Confederate soldiers survived and continued to live until the mid-20th century.  In 1891, the state of Missouri established a home for aging Confederate veterans on 135 beautiful acres of land in Higginsville, Lafayette County.

Here in the western part of the Show Me State, 1,600 Confederate veterans and their families peacefully lived out their lives, over a period of 60 years.  The last Missouri Confederate veteran did not die until 1950, at the age of 108.  That was five years after I was born.  Every time I am reminded of such realities, it impresses me that the War Between the States was not really all that long ago in the span of History.  The lives of millions of   people living today overlap the lives of our Confederate compatriots who fought in that senseless and unnecessary war.

Two years after the death of the last Missouri Confederate soldier, the Veterans Home became a State Historic Site.  It is an interesting, albeit sobering place, to visit and to contemplate the darkest chapter in the history of our country.

Confederate Chapel and Cemetery

Walter Washington Williams: The last surviving Confederate Veteran

I still remember the news, just a few weeks before my 15th birthday.  I was working on a Saturday at Toby's Food Store in Cleveland, Tennessee when I heard of the death of the last surviving Confederate veteran.  Some folks consider the War Between the States to be ancient history.  In fact, the lives of those who were a part of that terrible conflict overlapped the lives of many who are still living today.  That wasn't so long ago.  Some who fought for Southern Indepencence, and some who fought to prevent it, were my contemporaries.  Below is a story of the last Veteran of the War Between the States as found on the website of the Chamber of Commerce in Franklin, Texas, his last home town.  

Walter Washington Williams Monument
Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania

Walter Washington Williams, who came to Texas in 1870, and later settled on a twenty-acre farm at Eaton on the Shiloh road southeast of Franklin, was reported to be the last surviving soldier of the Civil War. According to the records of the family, Williams was born in 1842, and died on December 19, 1959.

He was a Mississippian by birth. In 1949, Frank X. Tolbert, Sr., a feature writer for the Dallas Morning News, set out to visit the last three survivors of the War Between the States and drove to Robertson County to interview Williams. Tolbert found the old gentleman on his front porch where he was asked for his formula for living over a century, which was as follows:

"I never et much. I get up for breakfast, turn around for dinner, and go to bed for supper. When I was riding up the Chisholm Trail the range cooks sort of held it against me because I was a light-eating man. I've always drunk lots of coffee, chewed plenty of tobacco, and haven't tried to avoid any of this good Texas weather."

In the last ten years of Williams' life he became an interesting personality. Radio and newspaper reporters interviewed him and public relations men made good copy of his opinions. He was taken on airplane rides, dined in fashionable places, and given special honors by various groups.

He was addressed by honorary titles. Some called him "Trooper Williams," others referred to him as "Honorable Colonel," and still others addressed him as "Five Star General Walter Washington Williams." When he died in 1959, at the age of 117, the government observed official days of mourning. Funeral services were conducted at Mount Pleasant and he was buried there, taking with him the answers to questions that had been asked about him.

Whether "General Williams" was actually the last veteran of the Civil War to die, and whether he was 117 years of age or "only 104," even whether he actually served as a forage master under General Hood, or served at all, now seems relatively unimportant. Indeed, one is inclined to agree with the research director for Texas historical markers who wrote"

I recall that the Texas Civil War Centennial Commission reviewed the census data in 1963, and came up with the conclusion that the claim had received worldwide notice and could not be undone so far as fame and notoriety were concerned. Even if the cemetery gate inscription were to read,"Site of the grave of the noted Gen. Walter Williams, reputed to have been the last of the survivors of the enlisted men of the Civil War," there would be historical value in the marking for future generations will seek the grave, authentic or not be the last survivors claim.

Walter Williams was indeed an interesting man. He had been married to his second wife over sixty-five years and at least twelve children survived him. He once stated that his father had lived to the age of 119 years, and his ambition was to reach 120.

  Walter Washington Williams
 who was recognized by the government of the United States as the last surviving Confederae Veteran died 1959 at the age of 117 years.

Photos by J. Stephen Conn

Secession Monument Proposed for South Carolina

By John McDermott
The Post and Courier

A group seeking to commemorate the 170 South Carolinians who signed the ordinance of secession nearly 150 years ago wants to place a monument to recognize the historic event on the grounds at Patriots Point.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans' South Carolina division is proposing to install an 11 1/2-foot-tall stone memorial as the centerpiece of a 40-foot by 40-foot landscaped plaza at the state-owned tourist attraction.

Designed by Pelion artist Ron Clamp, the rectangular structure would be made from blue Georgia granite and would measure 5 feet wide on each side. It would be lighted and surrounded with benches for visitors.

The group said Tuesday that it would take care of all the up-front costs and set up an endowment fund to cover future maintenance expenses. It asked that the Patriots Point Development Authority pay the electricity bill and have its security personnel include the proposed addition in their rounds to deter vandalism.

Representatives from the group pitched the idea to the authority this week, saying few public monuments exist recognizing the secession convention held in Columbia and Charleston on Dec. 17 and Dec. 20, 1860, helping ignite the Civil War.

The name of each of the signers and the wording of the secession document would be among the text and images engraved on each side of the monument.

Albert Jackson, chairman of the Sons of Confederate Veterans' monument committee, called the secession debate and the subsequent unanimous approval of the ordinance "a significant action" for South Carolina. Most people are not aware of the history behind it, he said.

Jeff Antley, who is in charge of finding a location for the memorial, said organizers want to put the monument at Patriots Points but that they need a firm commitment for a site before they raise the rest of the money for the estimated $160,000 project.

"We believe it belongs out here," Antley said, noting that the waterfront visitor attraction is now a key "gateway to Fort Sumter," where the first shots of the War Between the States were fired in April 1861.

For the complete story go to: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/jan/21/sons-of-confederate-vets-pose-secession-monument/

Photo by Tom Spain