Back in Time

This song of the Civil War expressed the relief and joy of those waiting for their boys to come home. But the boys were aged, exhausted and war weary, hardly able to march home. The effects of the hardships they faced, as for those exposed to any war time duty, brought dramatic changes to their lives.

Most Clarke County men served in primarily one of these units during the Civil War – the 4th, 6th, 15th, 18th, 34th and 39th Infantries and 3rd Cavalry. The monument on the court house lawn lists 99 Clarke County deaths. George Babington, John T. Grimes and Daniel Musselman lost their lives in the Atlanta campaigns in Georgia. George Comstock was killed in action at Bayou de Glaize. James Mardis and Jackson Wiggins gave their lives at Shiloh. George Coon died in a regimental hospital with typhoid and malarial fever, after being imprisoned in Andersonville. Nelson Alloway drowned, place unlisted.

Following are a few of the more famous battles fought by our Clarke County boys – the Battle of Pea Ridge, Prairie d’Ann, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Allatoona, Atlanta, and Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Disease and illness brought on by poor sanitation and living conditions caused two-thirds of the deaths during the Civil War. Soldiers that survived disease and wartime service and injury were many times debilitated for life. Some were captured and held prisoner, suffering deplorable conditions. If they made it home, they were mere skeletons of their former selves.

A letter dated Jan. 20, 1863, published in the Union Sentinel (the Union Sentinel was printed elsewhere, spelling the town Oceola and the county Clark!) from T.R. Oldham tells of their line behind a rail fence, with heavy timber behind them and a cotton field and hill behind them. The rebel batteries were on the hill, with four guns on the right and eight on the left, and rebel bullets flying “almost as thick as hail”.

James Clark, later a grocer at Woodburn, was taken prisoner at Allatoona Pass and taken to Selma, Alabama, and transferred several times until ending up at Andersonville Prison. He remained there from December 25 until April the next year, without any medical care, and was finally taken to Florida and released.

Aaron Lewis, one of the oldest settlers of Clarke County, was a drummer in the 39th. His brother-in-law, Joseph Linder, was a fifer in the same infantry. Joseph was injured and died a few months later of complications. Aaron marched with Sherman to the sea. His original drum was destroyed in battle and his company took up a collection for a new one. Aaron lived to be ninety-three and is buried at Maple Hill Cemetery.

Civil War pensions depended on amount of disability and were increased at intervals throughout the years. Typical monthly pensions before 1866 were from $6-8, in 1873 from $24-$31.25 and peaked at $73. Widows and dependent children could also draw the pension, enacted by Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address call “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.”