Return to "About Rufus Land's Civil War Recollection"
|
|
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
OF
RUFUS D. LAND
A CIVIL WAR VETERAN
|
I, R.D. Land, was born in North Carolina, October 28, 1842, being almost ninety years of
age at the time of this writing. I was reared amid the hardships, privations and heroic
energies of pioneer life at the outbreak of the Civil War. I worked on the farm, cleared
land, split rails, as other farm hands did while a boy and when the Civil War broke out,
I served as a Private.
When a boy of early eighteen years of age, I well remember the occasion of March 4th,
1861, when Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States. Probably no
man ever assumed such an exhalted position in more trying circumstances. Seven states,
including my home state had cast off all allegiance to the Union. The entire country was
in confusion, and the President himself was afraid to go alone but had guards about him
when he traveled about the country. I remember reading his Inaugural Address which
seemed to be the forerunner of war to the South. While he declared that slavery in the
states meant nothing to him, yet he declared seccession impossible, and expressed his
intention of taking all Federal property in the seceded States and collecting revenue in their ports. To the South, this meant war.
I well remember that on April 6th, l861, President Lincoln notified the Governor of North
Carolina of his intention to send provisions to Fort Sumter, which virtually meant war to
the South, and on Aprll 12th, 1861, the Confederates opened fire and I heard the incessant
cannonading of the Fort for thirty-four hours. Finally Fort Sumter caught fire and burned.
This was the first battle of the Civil War, and immediately thereafter, the North [lead]
by Abraham Lincoln and the South by Jeff Davis called out seventy-five thousand troops and
thirty-five thousand troops, respectively, against the rebellion. That is, the South
rebelled against the North and seceded from the Union because of the Negro slaves. The
President called for troops to force the seceding states back into the Union, which call
produced intense excitement in the border States, including my State. By June of the year
of 186l, the Confederacy, numbering eleven states seceded from the Union, not including
the disputed states of Missouri and Kentucky. The capital of the South was removed from
Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia. The North had about three men to the South's
one, besided this tremendous advantage, the North had all of the wealth,machine shops,
factories and foundaries, so that whatever was needed in waging war could soon be provided
by the North, but the Southern soldier believed himself to be a better soldier than the
Northern soldier, because he was accustomed to a rough, outdoor life, and was familiar
with the use of firearms, and was full of daring and enthusiam.
In April 1861, I remember that there came to my home community in Fannin County, Georgia,
at which place we had moved, a man by the name of John D. Hyde, calling for volunteers to
enlist in the Army of the Confederacy. I enlisted at the age of eighteen, left my parents
and my home and entered the Company of one hundred men who were then ordered to Atlanta
Georgia, for training. There we were soon organized into a Regiment of one thousand
soldiers of one hundred men in each company. I was enlisted in Company "F", 11th Georgia
Regiment, under the command of Colonel Tige Anderson, who was in the Battle at the fall of
Fort Sumter. From Atlanta, we were ordered near Richmond, Virginia, under the command: of Joseph E. Johnston and we
held the entire country along the south of tke Potomac River and the North held the eastern
part of Virginia and Maryland. The North was preparing to take our capital at
Richmond and we cried out to take Washington. I well remember that we were under the
direct command of our officer and were stationed on a small creek called Bull Run, or
Manassas. There we could threaten Washington and also protect ourselves against the
Yankees. Stationed around this point was about thirty-one thousand soldiers on each side
of the Army, and as the North grew tired of waiting to make an attack on us, they
decided on a very hot Sunday morning, July 21, 1861 to make a charge on us. At first we
gave back a little under the heavy artillery fire, but General Jackson, who was under
direct control at that time of the Southern Army, took the lead himself with his boyonet
and stood like a stone wall before the enemy. Our men, seeing bravery and heroic stand,
rallied to this rescue and checked the Yankees until the South received aid by
reinforcement from the Shenandoah Valley and then we struck the Yankees a terrible blow
and drove them back from the battle field into Washington. After the smoke and the
battle was over, I saw my first dead man as a soldier.
My Company then joined General Robert E. Lee's troops, and I fought with him, personally,
and with his troops the remainder of the war. Through his careful guidance and care of
his soldiers in not risking an unnecessary battle just to be fighting, or in daring the
enemy, I think is one reason that my life was spared during the war. He then appointed me
to drive a four mule team wagon in hauling ammunition and food supplies to the army
while in camp. Many times while hauling supplies, I was shot at by the Yankees. The bullets would
pass through the sheet of the covered wagon, and go through the top of my hat or the
sleeve of my coat.
The second year of the war we fought around Richmond. It was here that General Lee left a
part of his forces to protect the City of Richmond and marched with the remainder of my
company across the Chickahominy River to attack the Yankees at Mechanicsville. We were
also aided by General "Stonewall" Jackson from the Shenandoah Valley. At Chickahominy, we
had a battle with the Yankees and drove them back into Gaines Mill. The next day, my
Company, under General Lee, met the enemy at the Mill and won the battle. This cut the
Yankees off from their supplies and they began to retreat toward the Yankee gun boats on
the James River for more supplies. While on this march of retreat, our company, under
Gen. Lee, attacked them at Frazer's Farm (Frayser's Farm) White Oaks, Seven Pines, and
Savage Station. We killed a large number of the Yankees and they were badly broken up.
When they reached Mavern Hill, they were reinforced by more Yankee troops and they stopped
our line of march at the James River, near Fort Harrison. Here we fought for seven days,
standing in ditches filled with water, without stopping. These battles were called,"The
Seven Days Battles", and ended by the Yankees being called back to Washington. During
these battles our soldiers ran out of food supplies, and we had to live on dry corn for seven days. I
had one ear of dry corn, which I took from the horse trough, to eat during the entire
week.
After the Seven Days Battles, General Lee decided to invade the North. We went into
Maryland to Frederick City, near Washington. We were preparing an attack on Baltimore when
the Yankees cut in on our troops at Harper's Ferry. We had a small battle here and
captured their troops and ammunition. Then, continuing our line of march, we were overtaken
at Antietam Creek by the Yankees. Here we fought one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and being outnumbered two to one by the
Yankees, Gen. Lee decided to retreat without winning a victory and without being
defeated. He, Gen. Lee, then led our troops out of the North and came back to Richmond.
During our march of retreat we were met at the Potomac River by an army of Negroes. They
were all drunk and their leader ordered them to make a charge on my division of the army,
as Gen. Lee was about a mile ahead of us. They charged on us, but we killed every one of
them and left the river full of dead Negroes.
Next came the attack on my Company, under Gen. Lee, at Fredericksburg, a town near
Richmond. The Yankees prepared to surprise us, but Gen. Lee found out that they were
coming and had us ready for the attack. We fought the Battle of Fredericksburg, and drove
them back across the Potomac River with a loss of about twice as many men as we lost. We
stayed here the rest of the winter without another battle.
When this battle was over, some of our soldiers went over the battlefield and picked up
some souveniers. The Yankees were always well dressed and had jewelry on them, as the
North had plenty of money. I picked up several cuff buttons, which I later had made into breast-pins, and gave each of my two daughters a set of them.
In the Spring of 1863, the Yankees came after us again. They attacked the left wing of our
army, under the command of Gen. Jackson, at Chancellorsville. They were forced to retreat
and Gen. Jackson followed them a few miles. When He and his company were returning, they
swerved too far to the left and the troops thought that he was the enemy returning and was
preparing to attack them fron behind, so they fired on them and Jackson was severly
wounded. He died several days later. I was not with the company of men that killed
Jackson, but was about one mile away with the remainder of Gen. Lee's army, but it was a part of my Company of men that made this mistake.
After this battle, Gen. Lee decided to go into Northern territory again. We crossed the
River and went into Pennsylvania, marching across the Shenandoah Valley toward Harrisburg
and Philadelphia, and on toward Washington. The Yankees marched out to meet us and at Gettysburg, we began to
prepare for battle. The first two days of battle were a success to us, but on the third
day Gen. Lee decided to make an attack on the Yankees from Cemetery Hill. He sent my
division, under Longstreet around to the left of the hill to make an attack from there. He
sent another part of the army to the right of the Hill to attack from there and Gen. Lee
stayed in front with the remainder of the army. About noon, Gen. Lee began a charge on the
Yankees and came up over the Hill facing them. Longstreet and the right wing of the army
waited until afternoon to attack and were too late to aid Gen. Lee; so, we were forced to
retreat back over the Hill and joined Lee and thus lost the Battle of Gettysburg. The
Yankees became encouraged after this battle and our soldlers became disheartened.
We buried our soldiers on the battlefield where they fell by shoveling dirt on them and
leaving them there. After the Battle of Gettysburg, we left a great number of our soldiers
buried this way and with Gen. Lee in command of our company withdrew into Virginia, with
the Yankees following us to Rapidan, where they made headquarters for the rest of the
winter.
For amusements during these periods of training, old time Southern Socials, where the
Square Dance and Virginia Reels were danced. Hospitality was shown us everywhere and
large banquets were given us spite of the fact that the South had very little money. The
Old Southern Darkies were still faithful to most of their Masters and would not leave them, but still stayed with them and helped them on the plantations.
About six months after the Battle of Gettysburg, Gen. Lee sent my Company, under the
leadership of Col. Longstreet into Tennessee. We joined Gen. Bragg's troops at
Chattanooga, Tennessee. Here we were attacked by the Yankees and part of the Division
retreated to Lookout Mountain, and the other part, under Gen. Longstreet retreated to
Knoxville, Tennessee. Here we were again attacked by a part of the Yankee division, the
remainder of them being over on Lookout Mountain, which had been taken from General
Bragg's troops and who had retreated back into Virginia and joined Gen. Lee. We were
successful in driving this division of the Yankees out of Knoxville, and they also
retreated to Lookout Mountain.
After the Battle of Knoxville, my Company under Col. Longstreet, marched back into
Virginia to join Gen. Lee. When we arrived there we found Gen. Lee sitting on a horse
crying. He was grieved because his troops were losing the battles and because Colonel
Longstreet was so long in making his return.
Grant, now became General of the Northern forces, which were at Rapidan, in Headquarters.
Lee decided to advance to Rapidan and meet Grant. Here we fought several bloody battles
out in the wilderness and our troops were slowly forced back toward Richmond. At Cold
Harbor, we again fought the Yankees, these battles lasting in all about one month, without
ceasing. Gen. Lee could not drive the Yankees back but could only hold his part with great
loss to both sides. The Yankees lost heavily but they had us out numbered two to one.
Their loss on this battle was about equal to our entire army.
I remember that after the Battle of Rapidan I saw an old Yankee soldier sitting on the
street corner one day with both of his legs and arms shot off. I saw a Confederate soldier looking at him directly and intently and
then approaching the Yankee gave him a five dollar bill. The Yankee thanked him kindly
and asked the Confederate soldier why he was so generous. The Confederate replied,
"because you are the first Yankee that I have ever seen that was trimmed up just like I
think he ought to be."
At this time the South was nearly out of money and the soldiers clothes were becoming worn
out and many of us had no shoes. My shoes being about worn out, I decided to go out on the
battlefield, after the firing had ceased, and get me a pair of boots off some Yankee
soldier. I found a Yankee shot, lying on the ground and thought that he was dead, so I
decided to take his boots off. As I did so, he said,"wait 'til I die, then you can have
them," but I took them off and returned to my company. The Yankees were lying dead on the
battlefield so thick, that I could hardly walk without stepping on them.
After this Gen. Grant saw that he could not take Richmond from us, so he decided to move
his army to the James River about twenty miles from us. He began to threaten our supplies
at Petersburg, thus forcing Gen. Lee to send a part of our troops there to protect them.
Thi s scattered our troops from Petersburg to Richmond, a distance of about thirty miles.
This caused our line of defense to be spread out so that it weakened our line very much.
We remained in this position facing the enemy several months.
In the Spring of 1864, the Yankees, under Gen. Grant, had our line of defense so spread
out that Gen. Lee decided to retreat from Richmond, after three days of hard fighting in
an attempt to hold the city. Our Company, under Gen. Lee, began a retreat toward the south. Our army was
starving for food and we had no time for rest. We were halted at Appomattox Courthouse
by a division of Yankee troops coming from the South to meet us in battle. As Grant and
his company of Yankees were behind us, our company had to surrender to Grant and we were
taken prisoners. I saw Gen.Lee and Gen. Grant meet and shake hands and Gen. Lee
surrendered to Grant with bowed head, under an apple tree. They went into Appomattox
Courthouse and Gen. Lee signed the terms of surrender. Immediately after the surrender,
the soldiers cut down the apple tree, under which they had surrendered, and each soldier
cut him a chip from the tree, which they kept for a souvenier. I cut me off one of the
chips and I still have it as a rememberance of the surrender. The Yankees took our
muskets and permitted us to return to our homes, after giving oath that we would fight no
more.
The next day, a soldier friend and myself started for home by foot, a distance of about
seven hundred fifty miles. On our journey home we heard about the assassination of
President Lincoln, which happened about a week after our surrender. On this return trip we
passed towns and villages and homes that had been destroyed during the war. I saw ruin
and desolation all about me. Some of the towns had been burned and ravaged by the guerilla
band of outlaws who went about the country destroying Southern property. It took me
about twenty-eight days to reach my home.
When I arrived home, I found my parents there, unharmed. My brother had reached home the
day proceeding my arrival. He was a soldier for the Northern side and I was for the
South, We both went through the entire war uninjured and was not sick one day of the
four years of the Civil War.
I spent the next four years of my life farming and helping my parents on the farm. In
1868, March 28, I was married to Miss Ellen Bellew in Georgia. We lived there for three
years on a farm and then moved to Alabama. After living here for about one year, we moved
to Waco, Texas and lived there a short time. Next, we moved to the Indian Territory in
Oklahoma where we had many experiences with the Indians. In the year of 1889, we moved to
Hall County, Texas, near the community of Tell, Texas. Here I constructed the first wooden
house South of the town of Estelline. I had to haul my wheat to the town of Quannah, Texas
to be ground into flour for the use of the family. It took me three days of hard driving
to make this trip. I next filed on a section of land near Tell, Texas, and made my home
there, until the year of 1920, at which time I moved to Memphis, Texas where I now reside.
I have attended every Southern Confederate re-union that I was able to attend since the
Civil War.
|
|
|
Witness my hand, this the 4th
day of Apri1 1932
Signed____________________
|
Attested
____________________
____________________
[no signatures were applied to the document from which this web page was transcribed]
|
|
|
|
|
Web Site's Genealogy Section
