Posted on 04/15/2005 7:27:55 PM PDT by CurlyBill
With a heavy heart, Col. Columbus Sykes sat near a tree in Aberdeen, Miss., and wrote a letter to his niece and nephew.
"You are yet young, very young," he wrote, "one just emerged from his mother's arms; the other an infant, whose age is numbered only by months."
Less than a month earlier on Oct. 26, 1864, Sykes had held his brother, Dr. William E. Sykes, in his arms as he was dying in a home at Decatur.
In the Nov. 18, 1864, letter, Sykes is telling his brother's young children about their "devoted father" and his "noble brother" who joined the Confederate Army.
"Though suffering excruciating agony, he calmly surveyed his wound and pronounced it inevitably mortal," Sykes wrote.
"And, then with a courage that was sublime in its exhibition, he prepared for the last struggle with the great monster: death."
The letters and telegrams that reached the Tennessee Valley from the battlefield did not always bring good news.
Some of them were charming and some were romantic, but they mostly brought sad news, Morgan County Archivist Susan Bzdell said.
"If it wasn't about death, it was about what the soldiers were going through on the battlefield, and we know war is hell," she said.
But sad news was better than no news, Bzdell said.
"At least when they got a letter, they knew the soldier was alive," she explained.
Some historians estimate that less than half of the letters written during the Civil War made it home, especially in the Confederate states because there was no regular mail.
That was not the case for Pvt. John Newton Smith. His descendants have 16 letters that he wrote from Oct. 13, 1861, to July 27, 1863.
Smith was born in Calhoun County, but apparently moved to Decatur and helped construct the railroad bridge across the Tennessee River.
Smith wrote his first letter from Manassas Junction in Virginia and mailed it to his brother and sister.
"After a long time I take my pen in hand and paper on my knee to drop you a few lines to let you know that I am well."
Almost six months later, Smith was in Tishomingo County, Miss., when he wrote to his wife in Decatur. Word had apparently reached his camp about Union troops occupying Decatur.
"They say the Yankees (are) at Decatur and all around," Smith wrote. "You get you a gun and get in the cave, and go to shooting them. I am coming home whenever I can get the chance, (even) if I have to wade through Yankees seven deep."
In what was apparently his final letter, Smith tells his wife he is in Alexandria, about 16 miles from his birthplace. He had visited his family in Decatur and told his wife how much he missed her.
"Everything looks gloomy and dismal," Smith wrote. "The Lord only knows what is to become of us. At the present, it looks like the enemy has got the upper hand of us, but I don't feel like we are whipped yet, although we have given up some important points."
Moulton Postmaster Ken. N. Smith is the great-great-grandson of John Newton Smith.
"These letters are a treasure," he said. "We're not sure why they stopped in 1863, but we believe he died of smallpox in the latter stages of the war."
Between the battle at Fort Donelson on the Tennessee River in February 1862 and the Seven Days battles in Virginia in the summer of 1862, telegrams brought news of death to the area like no war in history.
"For the first time, news of mass carnage is coming to the Tennessee Valley," Bzdell said. "The men on the battlefield had never seen anything like this, and the people back home were certainly not used to so many people they knew dying at the same time."
In the early part of 1862, Moulton newspaper owner Nelson H. White received news that a son was killed at Shiloh.
J.T. Royer and R.A. Hunter died at Frazier's Farm in Virginia. T.J. Austin was wounded in the Battle of Sharpsburg. A Confederate surgeon sent him home where he lingered in his parents' Lawrence County home before dying.
A.P. Montgomery didn't make it back to the Tennessee Valley. Union soldiers killed him at Cold Harbor.
Washington Wilshire Parker found his brother's lifeless body lying near him at Shiloh. He returned Henry Parker's body to the family home and left immediately to rejoin his unit.
A telegram arrived in Athens announcing that Thomas Hobbs of the Ninth Alabama was wounded at Gaines Mill while fighting to defend the Confederate capital in Richmond.
He lingered for almost a month and died July 22, 1862, with his wife, Anne, and a young son near his side.
Above his grave overlooking the James River, the young widow erected a small stone with the inscription: "A brave and simple man who died in a brave and simple faith."
In the middle of August, Ira and Rebecca Hobbs received a telegram about their son's death.
Pvt. Jonathan Leggett Bracken of the 35th Alabama Infantry started writing to his wife in Lawrence County before the Fort Donelson battle. On Jan. 6, 1864, Elizabeth Caroline LeMay Bracken received his final message.
In the eight-page letter, he talked about his love for his wife and how he was trying to be a better Christian.
"I can't live happy without being near you, although I have fine health and plenty to eat," Bracken wrote.
"I hope and pray to God that the time is not far off when I can return home in peace to live the remainder of my days with you."
Almost four months later on May 25, 1864, his brother-in-law sent a letter from Montevallo to Elizabeth Bracken.
"Sister, I have bad (news) to tell you, yet I hope you will not grieve as it cannot mend the matter any, and be doing you an injury at the same time," C.M. LeMay wrote.
"John is dead. He died on the (20th) of March at Demopolis. Lieut. Carlock saw a paper with his death in it."
Almost six months after Bracken died, the Sykes brothers were part of an advanced guard that crossed the Flint River near what is now Point Mallard.
The men skirmished with a small group of Union soldiers and Dr. William E. Sykes was mortally wounded.
Less than a month later, the doctor's brother was in Mississippi writing a letter to his two orphaned children.
"I cannot in this communication give you even a partial account of his heroic endurance and his gallantry during his entire connections with the (Confederate) service," Sykes wrote.
He told the children that their father was offered a surgeon's position, but refused "to shield himself from danger behind a sick man's couch" and volunteered as a private in the Confederate Army.
Sykes talked about his brother surviving in the fighting at Atlanta and about his return trip to Decatur.
His brother was in military formation when Union bombs hit the unit and "my noble brother fell."
"The illusory hope flashed quick as thought, he is only wounded, sure he will not die," Sykes wrote. "In a few seconds, I reached him and supported his drooping head upon my breast. The first glance convinced me that his doom was as inexorably fixed as the decrees of eternity.
"The last, the very last, faintest, dimmest spark of hope was extinguished. His comrades bore him to a house nearby, once owned by him as gently as they could to an improvised couch."
Sykes said his brother was wounded at 3 p.m. on Oct. 26, 1864, and died the next morning at 10 a.m.
"I have seen the brave, the cowardly, the good, the wicked die; but never have I seen one who went so composedly, so rationally to the grave. Not a tear bedewed his cheek, not a murmur escaped his lips."
Sykes promised his niece and nephew that on "some future day" he would return and tell them more interesting stories about their father.
That day never came. On Jan. 7, 1865, Col. Columbus Sykes died in Mississippi.
Thanks! I read Imprimis from time to time. I get a print copy from a friend. I didn't know it was availbale online.
Peace,
jweaks
NOPE, he's just another in a long line of clueless damnyankee DUMBbunnies.
every post of his/hers amounts to ZILCH & requires NO thought.
free dixie,sw
is it tasty??? even if it is, it is INJURIOUS to your INTELLIGENCE & FREEDOM.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
Some of them crawled out of the attic" and are now slithering around Free Republic, masked as conservatives, spreading the Civil War gospel according to Tommy 'delusional' Delorenzo .
"Probably one of the stupid yankees from New York."
As opposed to one of the smart ones, yeah.
Your true deep southern colours are being clearly demonstrated, again.
"Your true deep southern colours are being clearly demonstrated, again."
Well, let's break it down. In post #49 I acknowledge that there are "smart" yankees from New York, just that I don't happen to think you are one of them. If showing great reserve to ignorant comments and at the same time demonstrating that I believe there are good and intelligent New Yorkers is a "true Southern color," then paint me guilty.
Thank you.
Have you read this book?
I know one of the women who Horwitz talked about. I have been trying to get up with her to verify that he got that part correct.
I have lived in the rural South all of my life and everything he said rang true to my well seasoned ear. If my lady confirms what he said about her, then we must agree to disagree.
I did not see this as pro-Yankee. In fact, it appeared to me that Horwitz started out no worse than neutral and by the end, was more than a little pro-Confederacy.
free dixie,sw
which lady are you talking about?
free dixie,sw
There you go with that troll baloney again.
I shall you remind you of your made to order for conflict slogan after your name: "(being a damnyankee is no better than being a racist. it is a LEARNED prejudice against dixie.)" This is not normal to be so overly possessed with living in the past one would actually include such a statement after one's name. The majority of American people would think you were bonkers, not every fathom your slogan, nor care.
I realize how difficult the very thought of you living in & excepting the fact this is now the 21st century, but for once, at least try. Stop acting like a schmendrick.
you are either a TROLL or a MORON. which is it??
free dixie,sw
none of them required THOUGHT or showed the least amount of knowledge.
all you do is post STUPID, arrogantly IGNORANT personal attacks on FReepers.
why not head over to DU, where FOOLS dwell? i predict they will LIKE you.
free dixie,sw
This from the man who claims that there's a captured U-Boat on display in Galveston, who cites page numbers in books that don't exist (and were actually short magazine articles), that there's a national headquarters for the KKK, and that there were practical mechanical cottton harvesters available in the 1850s. You're the laughingstock of these threads, Watie, the internet equivalent of the town drunk.
Say, do you need Dr. Lubar's e-mail address?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.