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About Rufus Land's Civil War Recollection   January 28, 2000   -- by Gordon Cathey, son of J.J. Cathey   Amoung the papers of my late father, I found a xerographic copy of a ten-page, double-spaced, typed transcription of a document entitled "An Autobiographical Sketch of Rufus D. Land, a Civil War Veteran."   The Document's Authenticity: The document ends with lines provided for the signatures of the author and two witnesses. However, my copy contains no one's signature, indicating to me that it was transcribed from an earlier document, which may, indeed, bear the requested signatures.   The document is dated April 4, 1932, but I have no knowledge of when the transcription in my possession was typed or who the typist may have been. I suspect that it was typed by Ms. Mary Sue Scales Whisenant of Abilene, Texas during the 1970s, but I have no hard indication of this.   The Fidelity of My Transcription: My xerographic copy is of a document that was executed by a poor typist. It has many typographic errors, several of which were corrected by hand with what appears to be pencil marks over the typed characters, such corrections having been made on the sheets from which my copy was made. The document contains many errors of spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation, which may be the fault of the typist or perhaps the original author.   When I first began the process of placing the document on this web site, I was tempted to clean up the text by correcting several errors. However, I thought better of this and attempted, instead, to reproduce the document in my possession as faithfully as possible.   When I encountered the existing handwritten corrections, I accepted the corrections as "original" and used them in my transcription, in place of the over-written typed characters.   In two instances I separated two words that were typed as one word, assuming that correcting these two errors, which I took to be simple typographic errors by the typist, would not significantly affect the content of the document or the intent of the author. In one instance, in the third paragraph, I inserted the word "lead," within square brackets, for readability. All other errors in the document are faithfully reproduced in my transcription posted on this web site.   The Document's Contents: From the bombardment of Fort Sumter, to Stonewall Jackson's inspiring and triumphant stand at Bull Run, to the staggering defeat at Gettysburg, to Lee's surrendor at Appomattox, this is a firsthand account of many of the more important incidences in one of the most critical and most tortured series of events in our young nation's history.   Knowing how little detail I remember from my service as a "Green Beret" from the time of the war in Vietnam, I am quite amazed by Rufus' memory of events seventy years past. These memories were, I am sure, kept alive not only by their significance in the life of a young man, but also by the many Civil War reunions that Rufus told of attending.   Following the descriptions of the loss at Gettysburg and inadequate burials of fallen soldiers, there is a short paragraph about "Southern Socials" with dances and large banquets, which seems totally out of place in the rest of the sequentially arranged story. This strange juxtaposition contributes even more to my personal curiosity about the original document bearing Rufus' signature.   In his closing statements, Rufus mentions "my brother," who fought for the North. According to other documents posted on this site, Rufus, who was his parents' first-born, had a brother named Rudison who was approximately twenty-one months younger. The next brother, Alfred, was only seven or eight years old when Rufus enlisted.   If you would like to view or discuss this document, please phone me at (214) 300-8430 (office) or (214) 341-5257 (home). My e-mail is gordon@cathey.com.   Thanks.

 

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