‘Let Us Meet in Heaven’
The Civil War Letters of James Michael Barr,
5th South Carolina Cavalry (1)
Editing and Commentary by F. Lewis Smith, Camp Historian
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Photos:
James Michael Barr and Book cover
Home and family burial headstones below
James Michael Barr and Book cover
Home and family burial headstones below
Ruth Barr McDaniel transcribed the letters between her grandfather James Michael Barr and his wife Rebecca during the War Between the States and in 1963 compiled and printed 50 copies for her personal use. The Grady McWhiney Research Foundation, with editor Thomas D. Mays, published Let Us Meet in Heaven, a thoroughly researched volume of her compilation, in 2001.
While on active duty in the field, James Barr faithfully served the Confederate States of America and, through frequent correspondence with his wife, also participated in all major decisions of their farm near Leesville, South Carolina. This essay focuses on the day-to-day relationship, the friendship, and the good and the bad situations Barr shared with his favorite slave Anderson, as revealed in his letters home.
James Michael Barr (1829-1864) was the brother of my great-great-grandmother Hepsibah ‘Hesper’ Ellen Barr (1817-1880). Their grandfather Jacob A. Barre (1750-1800) was a patriot of the American Revolution, as were the grandparents of most men who fought for the Confederacy. (2)
The families of James Barr and his wife Rebecca Ann Dowling (1840-1921) had sixteen members who are known to have served in the Confederate Army. In January 1863, Private Barr joined Company I, 5th South Carolina Cavalry, which was assigned to the coastal defense of South Carolina, primarily around Pocotaligo and McPhersonville. Without a doubt, many of the men joined that unit to stay near their farms and not be sent to Virginia or the West. But, in early 1864, the 5th SC Cavalry was ordered to the front as a part of General Matthew Butler’s Brigade in [General Wade] Hampton’s Legion Cavalry Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia. Barr saw action in Virginia at Chester Station, Drewry’s Bluff, Atkinson’s Farm, and South Side. He took part in some of the largest cavalry engagements of the war, including Haw’s Shop, Atlee’s Station, Cold Harbor, and Trevilian Station, where he was wounded. (3) Earlier, in July of ’63, as the reality of death set in, Barr told his wife, “We must put our trust in the Lord. He is able to shield us from the enemy’s [minie] balls. If he sees fit, and we never meet on earth, let us meet in Heaven where parting will be no more.”
As a farmer who also ran a store and a mill before the war, James’ net worth was valued at $26,900, which is equivalent to $986,800 today. In 1860, most land-owning farmers in the district held land and personal property valued from $1,000 to $5,000. To be a member of the planter class in the Lexington District required net assets at that time of over $50,000 [$1,850,000 today] in land and property, so James was not considered a planter. (4) But his commission in 1853 as a major in the state militia’s 15th Regiment, earmarked 24-year-old James for civic leadership. Although addressed as ‘Major’ the rest of his life, he served, at his preference, as a private in the CSA Army. Being a private was so much better than being an officer, James said. Officers have so many things to worry about and so many extra things to do, while a private only worries about doing what he is told. (5)
Rebecca Dowling certainly expected a life of leisure when she married James Barr in 1859, but unfortunately found herself in charge of managing the farm, their twelve slaves and her children when he joined the army. While serving in South Carolina, James ran the farm by correspondence but when his regiment was ordered to Virginia he completely turned its operation over to Rebecca. Their letters provide a valuable insight into the management of their small yeoman farm and their slaves in the 1860s. Yeoman farmers belonged to the center ranks of society between the elite planters and the poor and landless; they were independent and fiscally responsible farmers who cultivated their own land.
When Sherman’s troops burned and pillaged their way across South Carolina in ‘65, Rebecca buried a trunk containing the letters and other family valuables in the middle of the dirt road, as all were at that time, in front of her farm and then ran wagons back and forth over it to hide the spot.
Much has been written on the management of slaves in the planter class, whose members generally owned more than twenty slaves. But half of the slaves in the South did not live on large plantations, and the majority of Southern slaveowners were middle class farmers. The United States Census recorded 15,579 white and free-black residents in South Carolina’s Lexington District in 1860. Of the 609 slaveowners included in that population only 72 owned more than twenty slaves and qualified as being planters; the rest, like Barr, were middle class citizens who lived and worked side by side with their slave families. (6) In 1860, Barr’s slaves consisted of four adults, four teenaged girls, and four children under twelve. Slaves mentioned in the Barr letters were Anderson, in his twenties, and his teenage wife Mary, and ‘Old’ Bill, in his fifties, and his wife Dina and their sons Jerry and Jess. James and his children, and his other slaves, called Anderson ‘Ance’ but Rebecca and her Dowling relatives called him Anderson, his given name.
When Barr served in South Carolina and Virginia, Ance went with him and was allowed to live independently and to even hire himself out as a day laborer. Ance never crossed Union lines into freedom, probably because his wife Mary was still with the Barrs in Leesville. Whatever the motive, Ance honorably served the Barrs for years. On January 19, 1863, newly enlisted soldier James Barr wrote Rebecca, “We are pretty well fixed for the present, but I need Anderson. He would take a good deal of labor off me such as getting wood, tending to my horse, and cooking.” On the 25th she replied, “Anderson sounded very willing to go down to you, but he said he never wanted to go back where he was before. The negroes were all glad enough to get back.” The CSA government had impressed [forcibly borrowed] some of the Barr slaves to work on coastal fortifications and had badly treated them. Later, most conscientious slaveowners refused to lend [or lease] them to the government because of similar mistreatment.
James wrote several letters to Rebecca during February ’63: “General [William] Walker announced the capturing of one Rebel and destroying some two or three (three I think) of the blockading rebels. We were allowed to give three cheers for the victory gained. The signal was the raising of the General’s cap on the point of his sword.” That sounds wrong, but it’s not; like other Confederates, Barr occasionally referred to Union forces as ‘rebels.’ This was logical to some Southerners for they felt that they were the ones who were defending the Constitution and had inherited the fight for liberty from the Founding Fathers. Barr added, “I think I prefer [being] a private,” even though he was a major and later a colonel in the militia and had the social standing, but not the desire, for a commission.
“Ance is a first rate cook. He is the best cook. I know he can beat any of our negroes at home…. Ance has the mumps. He must have contracted [them] when in Charleston as there are no other cases here. He is a number one cook…. I did not take Ance with me on picket as he was pretty bad off with the mumps. He is still pretty sick though the swelling has gone down a good deal. The Dr. says he will be well in a few days.”
The concern that James Barr had for Ance’s welfare, far beyond any monetary value, is evident in his letters. But Rebecca’s letter to James on February 22nd reveals the inhumanity of slavery. “Henry [James’ brother] sold your mule yesterday to Daniel Quattlebaum for 75 dollars and he gave a note. I told Henry to give William [another brother] the note. Quattlebaum bought the negro Wesley. Bought him at Haltiwangers sale and swapped him to Jake Shealy for his negro boy and Jake Shealey gave two hundred dollars to boot. The negro man’s name was Dan. He is a brother to Quattlebaum’s Luissia.” Nothing can justify a time when someone could actually buy another human being and trade him for some other person with, or without, two hundred dollars to boot, just like trading for a horse, a bull, a carriage or a plow. Hopefully, the Quattlebaum-Shealy trade was done with some unknown, yet redeeming, reason like rejoining a separated family. As a postscript Rebecca added, “I forgot to tell you the cause of the negroes complaining about the meat. I was to blame. I weighed off one weeks allowance for two and only gave them three lbs. for two weeks, so you see they had a cause to complain. I don’t know what made me make the mistake. I looked on the books where you had it written and found out my mistake and gave them more meat immediately.”
“Ance is making some money washing at five cents a garment, cleaning stalls when he has a chance, and buying penders [peanuts] at three dollars a bushel and selling them at six dollars and forty cents a bushel. He washes very well,” James wrote on March 8th, “I thought I would hire my washing done but he can do it as well as I could have it done. He then irons it.” On the 15th, James noted, “I think it was just as well for the Negroes to work on Thanksgiving Day as it was for us to work here…. I must now write a few lines for Ance as he is here asking me to write for him. He says ask Henry and George if they have spent the money he left with them, if Henry bought the stockings for his wife, and what he paid. And he wants John to make him a good pocket knife with a good finish and send it by Henry if he comes. And to tell you he has made ten dollars and twenty-five cents since he has been here. I expect he wants the Negroes to know it. He wants to know how his wife is.” On the 20th, still in Pocotaligo, James warned Rebecca about the government impressing his slaves, “[I] Don’t want any hand [slave] sent on the Coast. I would rather pay a fine.”
Rebecca’s sister wrote her from Bamberg, South Carolina on April 22nd. “I bought a little [young] girl to nurse our fat babe, which cost me the round sum of two thousand dollars. $2,000.00. Don’t you think I am crazy?” A wet nurse breastfeeds and cares for another's child. They are needed if the mother dies, or if she is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. It was fairly common at the time.
The 5th SC Cavalry was detached to McClellanville, South Carolina in April of 1863. James wrote home five times in May. “The spotted cow I bought at Swygert’s sale I want killed for the negroes when she gets fat.” On the 16th he opined, “I understand that the authorities have held a meeting in Charleston to see whether to give up the city or not. I understand they have decided to try and hold her at all hazard. I think if our authorities give up Charleston and the Sea Coast that they might as well go back to the Union. Why? Because it [giving up Charleston] would strengthen old Lincoln and his Government so much and on the other hand, weaken us so much. I believe in holding till we cannot hold her any longer and then leave her in one solitary block of fire on one heap of ashes. Let everything be burned, so it cannot do the nasty low lived Yankees any good. Oh, for the day of Peace when we can have it fair and honorable, but there is no honor or justice about the Yankees. If they cannot take it off, they will burn it up. It would be better for us to destroy our property than for them to do it for us.” [I could not agree more; in a similar situation, would Sherman’s army have been able to march across Georgia and South Carolina if its projected path had been destroyed and burned in advance by Confederates? Or would the Yankees have starved to death like their victims, innocent Southern citizens?]
On the 20th of May, James wrote, “I have just drawn a pair of shoes. I wish I had them at home. They are very common Negro shoes.” He added, “I am very surprised at Mr. Crout not taking Confederate money. I did not think he would get afraid of our Confederacy. If our Confederate money is not good, I think we might as well quit fighting.” At this time, Confederate money had lost most of its value, and Southerners resorted to the barter system or used Union currency.
James told Rebecca on the 24th that “[Old] Bill [their slave] stops too long at Noon. I think one hour and a half plenty time [for lunch], longer than they stopped when I was at home. Then they lose about two hours and a half from the time they stop till they get back to work.” But, of course, James was not at home, and when the cat’s away, the mice will play. On the 30th, “Ance told me the other day that the officers’ Negroes told him we lived much better than the [unit’s] officers. The Captain’s boy [slave] said the other day that he wanted to stay with us till the Captain got back, but he did not apply for admittance [he never showed up].” Ance had fallen ill again and a postscript said, “I think Ance is getting better.”
James wrote home often in June. A June 2nd letter from South Santee to Rebecca said, “Ance is better I think, [but] he is looking very badly and he is poor. He don’t want anything to eat. He will eat a little milk and mush [a cornmeal pudding], which is some trouble to get.” Later he said, “It would not surprise me much if the War continues long. It looks like it will be that Preachers of the Gospel, Doctors and every other man that is able to do duty will be called out [drafted]. It is thought that before long the men that have substitutes in the War will be called out. A man can talk and act brave when he is at home…. I think Ance is improving very little. He came out of the house and sat for a while under the shade of a tree. Typhoid fever is what has been the matter with him. He is now taking gum arabic, spirits of turpentine, laudanum and a [hot] toddy of snake root. He is very anxious to get home. I may start him off in a few days.”
“Ance is now up and I think out of danger if he does not relapse. He wants to be rather too pert. He was very anxious to start home this morning. I told him he could not go, but as soon as he got strong enough, he might go…. Ance has now gotten up. He has taken charge of my horse, but still looks poor. I think I will try to send him home next week if anyone from here goes home. He has had a pretty rough time of it.” On the 20th, “Ance left last Wednesday evening and I suppose he is home by now. I would have sent the flour bag with him, but was off on picket when he left. I am sorry to hear so much complaining among the Negroes.”
In a June 22, 1863 letter, James wrote [something I couldn’t believe]. “We got encouraging news in Saturday’s paper. It seems that our Generals have outsmarted the Yankees. It seems that they thought that General Lee would send his forces P.D.Q. to reinforce Pemberton at Vicksburg, but instead Lee pushed his Army on and frightened the Yankees.” I am amazed; PDQ in 1863? Pretty Damned Quick? On Google, the consensus is: “the term p.d.q. originated in America during the 1870s, a time when many abbreviations of words and phrases were coined. The term p.d.q. can be traced to a play penned by Benjamin E. Woolf called The Mighty Dollar, which debuted in 1875.” (7) But I beg to differ; I see it used here by James Barr in 1863!
On July 6th James complained, “I want Ance to come [back]. I am needing him very bad. Can’t get along very well without him. We can’t get our meals regular and can’t have anything taken care of like Ance did…. Yankee rebels are in sight and have been for the last few days. Would not be surprised if they do not come out soon and give us a little fight. We are keeping a sharp look out for them. I do not think they can gain much to come out here, only to get Negroes. They may be after getting recruits.” Also in July, “I am quite well and getting on tolerably well, considering that I have no Negro to wait on me…. I was mad to hear of [their slave] Cates’ disobedience…. Would like to have Ance very much, but he could not get through Charleston as they would take him and put him at work. I am not willing to send him there anymore. I need Ance here and Jerry [a slave, Old Bill’s son] at home. Therefore, I can’t send any hands. Men that own more and who are at home ought to send [more]…. The meat must hold out. Tell the Negroes I said that whole plantations of Negroes are not getting any bacon and the soldiers very little. When we get it, it is about 1 lb. Ance knows.”
In September ’63, now in McClellanville, James penned, “Under the circumstances I am as well satisfied as I can be, knowing that it is the duty of every man to battle for his rights and our independence. Our forefathers fought for the privileges they enjoyed and the time is now here for us to fight for our liberty. We ask nothing of the Yankees, only to be let alone.”
James was on furlough the first half of October but sent four letters home when he returned to duty. “A vessel is now here. Ran in here [blockade runner] a few days ago loaded with Turk Island Salt. I expect the Government will take it all…. Ance says keep his money for him, but if Jane [James’ slave] has not got the quarter from her Uncle Daniel [James’ brother], to pay her a quarter…. Tell Jimmy [James’ son] to be a good boy and if I kill a Yankee I will bring home something or send it. Tell him to grow fast and come out here to beat the drum [drummer boy] for us.”
While home on furlough, James received a couple of letters from Rebecca’s brother, also in James’ unit. “Anderson [Ance] asked me to write to you for him. He says you will please let me know how [his wife] Mary is. [He says,] ‘I am well and hope you are the same.’ He encloses $7.50 for the use of his wife. Whenever she needs anything she can come to you and get the money. He says you will tell Major Barr [James] to bring him a blanket if he has it and can bring it under his saddle and if not, he will try and get one some way. He says you must read this to his father and that he would like to hear from them as soon as possible. He says to tell Jane to look stuck up in the kitchen on the right hand side of the window in a crack for some leather. He had cut it out for a pocketbook and give it to Major Barr to bring it if he can…. We are doing well, getting on as usual, pretty well for soldiers. Nothing more. Kiss the babies and the young Soldiers of the Southern Confederacy.”
From McClellanville in November, James sent six letters home. “I am sending a fine comb enclosed in this letter. Ance makes Jimmy [James’ young son] a present of it. He gave two dollars and fifty cents for it, so don’t let Jimmy break it up…. Ance bought him[self] a tolerable good pair of shoes for twenty dollars….”
In late November ’63, Barr’s company was reassigned to picket duty on James Island, South Carolina. Rebel and Yankee troops faced each other across the James Island wetlands as Fort Sumter and Charleston were being constantly shelled by the Yankees. “I see several of the Negro boys down here that I know, Leaphart’s Ned and I believe Morris. Mrs. Boyd’s Dick is here waiting for me to write a letter home for him…. Hope this will find you and the children and the Negroes well.”
In December, James complained, “Our Postmasters surely are very careless. They ought all to be sent in service and the Ladies act as Post Mistresses…. I think Congress will pass a law to bring in service all men who have hired substitutes [more than 50,000 by ’63 per CSA government authorities]. They are hammering hard at it and I do hope they will pass such a law. They must do something to fill up our ranks and I do not know anything better to get men than to pass a law that all who hired substitutes shall again shoulder their muskets and fight for their freedom. Oh, pity [sarcasm] the 75,000 or 80,000 who have substitutes. Why, they would make us a pretty large army and could guard some place and perhaps turn the invading Yankees.“ [Granting slaves their freedom if they served in the CSA Army would have been a great, but ultimately useless, help for the Confederacy.]
“Ance sends Jimmy a little lock that he found, and my pistol and lead and some [minie] balls. Take care of the lead and balls…. This morning we took a possum hunt, but did not catch any…. If soldiers only could fare as well as some Negroes at home. If we could only get two lbs. of bacon we could do pretty well. My Negroes need not complain. What if they had to fare like some soldiers, bad beef and musty meal, coarse at that. A week ago some damaged bacon was sold or offered for sale. I don’t think anyone bought any, for you know when it gets so bad [it is offered] to soldiers, it is not fit for dogs…. If I have to buy corn I will not make one cent on my place this year, for the money for the flour will have to go for corn, taxes unpaid, Negroes to feed, nothing made, bad news. Bad news to me off in service with no corn at home. You will, I expect, have to cut down the Negroes’ allowance in meal as well as meat. Don’t give them too much. Make out on as little as possible.”
From James in January of ‘64 on picket duty at Adams Run, South Carolina: “I can kill two or three beefs next Summer and if the Negroes do not work better, they won’t need any meat. For if they don’t work, I don’t care whether I feed them or not.”
Private James M. Barr was on furlough from January 27th to February 17th and from February 23rd to March 14th and received $40 for his missed rations. Barr and his regiment had enjoyed relatively easy service patrolling the coast of South Carolina. On March 18, 1864, his 5th SC Cavalry as well as the 4th and 6th were ordered to join the Army of Northern Virginia to exchange places with the 1st and 2nd South Carolina. (8)
“Rebecca, if we go to Virginia I will not have the opportunity of sending you any money. I want you to sell and buy whatever you want…. I do not want to go to Virginia. I would rather stay in South Carolina, but if I have to go, I intend to try and go cheerfully…. We are now under marching orders to go to Virginia. Many will receive this news with a sad heart. I mean the wives of soldiers, and a many of our men have long faces. They are down in the mouth. Yet, why should they be so? We volunteered for the War and are liable to be sent anywhere and we are no better than other soldiers who have been on the trot [constantly busy] since the War began…. I am going to Camp tomorrow if the Yankees don’t catch me tonight. I expect to send Ance home if I go to Virginia. I will send him to stay.”
The 5th Cavalry rode from Adams Run near Charleston to Clarksville, Virginia from early April until early May ‘64 via Columbia, Winnsboro, Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro and Danville. (9) James often wrote to Rebecca along the way, worrying about the pitiful shape of the unit’s horses and his comrades’ sicknesses. [The Confederate government’s requirement that cavalrymen furnish their own horses nauseated James. Certainly, Southerners’ personal steeds were superior to the Union issued horses which gave them the early advantage, but the CSA cavalry was destroyed by the attrition of horses due to their constant field service with no substitutes.] From May 4th until May 10th the 5th battled its way to Petersburg. “Don’t be alarmed for me. I came here to fight for our freedom.”
On May 19th, James endured his first serious engagement of the war. “On Sunday our Regiment was ordered to Drewry’s Bluff. I never want to be in a hotter place than I was. The balls were as thick as hail. We charged and ran the Yankees. They rallied and brought a Brigade against us. Of course, so few men as we had, we had to fall back. We did in good order. They poured a perfect volley after us with Grape and Canister besides their minie balls. They came close. We were in the woods, the balls pealing trees all around. Hays and Gleaton were killed on the retreat. It is a wonder we escaped.” After being driven back, the Federals reorganized and pushed the Confederates from the field. Both sides reported about 4,000 casualties. “We were on the extreme right of the enemy lines. I never was so near outdone. If the enemy had managed well, they could have flanked us. We were under a cross fire nearly all the time. I shot many a ball, but do not know what damage they did. I felt very cool, took it much better than I feared I would. I would be willing to do it again under the same circumstances. We ought not to have made a charge as we were Cavalry and had no bayonets to our guns…. Our horses and men had a narrow escape coming from Petersburg…. We were intended to go into Chesterfield Court House, so we were going in when a little boy came running, saying ‘if you go in you will all be captured. ’ The Yankee Cavalry, 2,000 strong, had gotten there an hour before us.”
On the 27th from Camp Lee, “Our horses are looking badly, riding them hard and feeding them little. I hope Wesley [his brother] will come out here and bring me a horse and carry Ance back as he is very little use to me. I have not put on a clean shirt since I have been here, not having the chance to do so as my saddlebags were not here. Ance has them now…. I wish to see you and our dear children. How I would like to see the little fellows. Tell the Negroes ‘Howdy’ for me and tell them to do their duty.”
From near Atlee’s Station, James wrote that his 5th Cavalry had suffered “a hot time and were driven back by the enemy.” They had fought both Union Cavalry and Infantry. The Battle of Haw’s Shop on the 29th was their first major cavalry engagement. As the battle progressed, the Confederates dismounted and went to a defensive position behind temporary field fortifications. Armed with their short Enfield rifles, they held off the Yankees for seven hours. At the end of the day, General Philip Sheridan ordered General George Armstrong Custer and his Michigan Brigade to come up. Custer’s men were forced to dismount as well, and with their band playing and their seven-shot Spencer rifles blazing, the Wolverines found themselves in their most desperate battle of the war. One Yankee veteran said the South Carolinians, the most stubborn foe Michigan had ever engaged, filled the air with lead as soon as they could load and fire and would not surrender. It was said that most of the South Carolinians were new recruits and didn’t know surrender was an option. In his official report, Custer said “Our loss in this battle was greater than any other engagement of the [Richmond] campaign.” And Custer’s Brigade had more Federal casualties of any other in the War. (10)
Copying Philip Sheridan, Custer incorporated the practice of having his [regular Army, 16 member] cavalry band intentionally play under fire. Sheridan would order his musicians to mass on the firing line and “play the gayest tunes in their books—play them loud and keep on playing them, and never mind if a bullet goes through a trombone, or even a trombonist, now and then.” Likewise, Custer ordered the mounted band of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade to lead the unit into battle playing “Yankee Doodle.” Later, in the Indian Wars, Custer’s buglers would sound the charge and the band would play his favorite song “Garry Owen.” (11)
James continued, “I want Wesley to come after Ance. I cannot draw anything for him to eat and draw very little myself, so you see I cannot keep him here. I divide with him when I can.”
On the 30th of May, four miles north of Cold Harbor, Phil Sheridan’s Federal cavalry engaged Matthew Butler’s Confederate Cavalry. At the most important crossroads, Sheridan threw his men forward and both sides dismounted. According to a Union account, Butler’s men ‘held their ground with the same obstinacy they had previously shown.’ And once again Custer and his Michigan Brigade were ordered forward to drive them out. (12) James wrote, “We have been in some seven or eight engagements since we have been out here. They [Confederate Generals] fought us [CSA soldiers] against too greater odds yesterday. They were supposed to have had twenty to our one. They came very near cutting us all off. We have fought the Infantry in every fight. We have won a name as fighting stock. Gen. Butler said yesterday that it was mortifying to him to have to call on the 5th Regiment so much, but it was the only Regiment he could rely on.” James added, “I have not seen Ance in seven or eight days. He has gone back to Camp Lee and hired himself out at two dollars a day and his rations. If I could only get him home.”
On June 3rd James told Rebecca to “Tell the Negroes that if you have to write me one more time about their stealing your chickens that I will write to the Sheriff to take them away with all of theirs. If those that have them don’t steal them, they ought to know which ones do it…. We will have hard fighting here for the next ten or twenty days. John C. [Rebecca’s brother] says all the prisoners they captured near Cold Harbor were drunk, so Grant has to make them drunk to fight. Yet, I know some fight well without being drunk.” [Stories about Grant himself being too drunk to function came after his victory at Cold Harbor where he sent wave after wave of Union men charging the Confederate frontlines. Throughout the course of the Civil War, 4,625 Union soldiers were hospitalized or relieved from duty for inebriations; of these, 98 died. Of the 3,284 soldiers admitted for delirium tremens, 423 died. Unfortunately, Confederate disciplinary records were mostly lost after the burning of Richmond.] (13)
“Ance came back to us last night. He made ten dollars while he was away…. I told Wesley to come out here after my horse and Ance. I am afraid to send Ance through the country by himself. I offered Wesley $200 to come. If Wesley won’t come, I don’t know what to do unless I send Ance home alone with my horse.”
On June 11 and 12, Barr’s regiment participated in one of the most hotly contested cavalry fights of the War: the Battle of Trevilian Station. 8,000 men of Philip Sheridan’s cavalry were engaged by 4,700 men of Wade Hampton’s division (which included Matthew Butler’s Brigade with the 5th SC Cavalry) and Fitzhugh Lee’s Division. On June 11th, the two divisions were still separated by several miles when George Custer and his men accidently found their way between them. Custer’s horsemen threatened to encircle Butler’s South Carolinians, so Hampton ordered Butler to retire. The Rebels eventually drove off Custer’s Wolverines and recaptured some 800 animals and wagons, while also capturing many men and supplies, including Custer’s personal headquarters wagon. On the 12th, Sheridan’s men charged the South Carolinians seven times, but they would not budge and Sheridan returned to rejoin Grant’s army. Both sides lost 1,000 men, six from the 5th SC Cavalry. (14) Private James Barr was one of its 41 wounded men and was transferred to a Charlottesville hospital.
On the 14th, James wrote, “My Dear Rebecca: I am now in the hospital. I was wounded in the leg last Saturday, the 11th. I was shot about one inch below the cap of my right knee on the inside. I think the ball went down the bone and around, coming out some four inches below where it went in, coming out the other side of the leg…. I have no use of my leg. If I want to move it, I have to call for help. I don’t know how long I will stay at this hospital.” Later he added, “Sgt. Boylston will leave here this evening. All will leave that can walk. They will have to walk some 20 or 25 miles.” On June 22nd, “I still have use of my leg, but the Doctor says the ball passed through the bone. I thought it quite strange for the bone not to be broken and I could not move my leg. I think my leg is safe now. It pained me so for two or three nights after I wrote you that I thought it would have to come off.”
On the 22nd Barr’s brother-in-law and messmate Sam Guess wrote Rebecca. “I was in the fight with him when he was hit, but did not see him as I was on the extreme left and he on the extreme right of the Company…. I have Anderson [Ance] and the Major’s horse in charge. The horse is doing badly. I wish I could send him and Anderson home…. It will take $40 to pay their expenses home. I have tried to borrow the money here, but can’t find anyone who has it.”
Rebecca received James’ letter of July 1, 1864. “Tomorrow will be three weeks since I have been wounded and I am not much, if any, better off. The swelling has gone out of my leg and it has run a great deal, but on the calf of my leg where the ball came out is a bad place.”
Captain George Meetze of the 13th SC Infantry wrote Rebecca on the 8th of July. “By request of my friend, Major Barr, I write a few lines to inform you of his condition. His wound has not done well since here and day before yesterday it took a change for the worse, so much so that his leg had to be amputated. His leg was taken off above the knee. This morning he is doing very well. He desires that you come at once. I can assure you that he has the best of attention and seems to be in good spirits. He is a warm friend.”
Barr’s sister Sue Guess informed James on July 14th that “Rebecca left home Sunday morning to go to you, but we are afraid she will not succeed in getting there…. Anderson came home Tuesday morning. He left Camp on the 5th. He started by private conveyance to bring your horse and clothes home. The horse gave out, so he had to leave him and come by the [train] cars.”
According to family tradition, Rebecca traveled to Charlottesville to see her husband although she was five months pregnant. Her infant son Charlie was so ill she feared the child would not survive [he did] until she returned so she laid out the clothes she wished the child to be buried in. At the hospital she found that James’ condition had deteriorated. Infection had spread up the stump of his leg and the surgeon had to amputate a second time. Although Rebecca was able to spend several days nursing her husband, it was too late. James died August 29, 1864.
Rather than bury her husband in Charlottesville with thousands of other Confederate soldiers, Rebecca took his remains home. The pregnant widow boarded a flat car with him and headed back to South Carolina sitting on a wooden chair, exposed to the hot August sun. She sent word ahead to have Anderson and one of the other slaves meet her at the train station in Columbia with a wagon and a buggy. When she arrived at the station, the wagon was loaded and they immediately left for home, thirty miles away in Leesville. James Michael Barr was laid to rest in the Barr Family Cemetery near his home [with his ancestors and slaves]. Rebecca and her three sons left her farm to live with her brother Elijah Dowling. On December 6th, she gave birth to a daughter who died that day and was buried next to her father. In 1883, Rebecca married Tom Warren who fought in the 1st SC Infantry, and they are buried together in the Leesville Cemetery (15) with the other Barr relatives.
F. Lewis Smith, Camp Historian, Thomson Guards SCV Camp 91, Thomson, Georgia
Notes:
1 Let Us Meet in Heaven: The Civil War Letters of James Michael Barr, 5th South Carolina Cavalry, edited by Thomas D. Mays. Abilene, Texas: McWhiney Foundation Press, McMurray University, 2001
2 Author’s personal history
3 Let Us Meet in Heaven, pg 13
4 Ibid., pg 8
5 Ibid., pg 12
6 Ibid., pg 11
7 Internet, Google: ‘PDQ,’ Wikipedia
8 Let Us Meet in Heaven, pg 189
9 Ibid., pg 197
10 Ibid., pg 228
11 Gleason, Bruce P. Sound the Trumpet, Beat the Drums: Horse-Mounted Bands of the U.S. Army, 1820-1940. Norman, OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2016. Pg 69
12 Let Us Meet in Heaven, pg 231
13 Bollet, Alfred Jay. Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs. Tucson, AZ: Galen Press, 2002. pg. 323
14 Us Meet in Heaven, pg 241
15 Ibid., pg 260
While on active duty in the field, James Barr faithfully served the Confederate States of America and, through frequent correspondence with his wife, also participated in all major decisions of their farm near Leesville, South Carolina. This essay focuses on the day-to-day relationship, the friendship, and the good and the bad situations Barr shared with his favorite slave Anderson, as revealed in his letters home.
James Michael Barr (1829-1864) was the brother of my great-great-grandmother Hepsibah ‘Hesper’ Ellen Barr (1817-1880). Their grandfather Jacob A. Barre (1750-1800) was a patriot of the American Revolution, as were the grandparents of most men who fought for the Confederacy. (2)
The families of James Barr and his wife Rebecca Ann Dowling (1840-1921) had sixteen members who are known to have served in the Confederate Army. In January 1863, Private Barr joined Company I, 5th South Carolina Cavalry, which was assigned to the coastal defense of South Carolina, primarily around Pocotaligo and McPhersonville. Without a doubt, many of the men joined that unit to stay near their farms and not be sent to Virginia or the West. But, in early 1864, the 5th SC Cavalry was ordered to the front as a part of General Matthew Butler’s Brigade in [General Wade] Hampton’s Legion Cavalry Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia. Barr saw action in Virginia at Chester Station, Drewry’s Bluff, Atkinson’s Farm, and South Side. He took part in some of the largest cavalry engagements of the war, including Haw’s Shop, Atlee’s Station, Cold Harbor, and Trevilian Station, where he was wounded. (3) Earlier, in July of ’63, as the reality of death set in, Barr told his wife, “We must put our trust in the Lord. He is able to shield us from the enemy’s [minie] balls. If he sees fit, and we never meet on earth, let us meet in Heaven where parting will be no more.”
As a farmer who also ran a store and a mill before the war, James’ net worth was valued at $26,900, which is equivalent to $986,800 today. In 1860, most land-owning farmers in the district held land and personal property valued from $1,000 to $5,000. To be a member of the planter class in the Lexington District required net assets at that time of over $50,000 [$1,850,000 today] in land and property, so James was not considered a planter. (4) But his commission in 1853 as a major in the state militia’s 15th Regiment, earmarked 24-year-old James for civic leadership. Although addressed as ‘Major’ the rest of his life, he served, at his preference, as a private in the CSA Army. Being a private was so much better than being an officer, James said. Officers have so many things to worry about and so many extra things to do, while a private only worries about doing what he is told. (5)
Rebecca Dowling certainly expected a life of leisure when she married James Barr in 1859, but unfortunately found herself in charge of managing the farm, their twelve slaves and her children when he joined the army. While serving in South Carolina, James ran the farm by correspondence but when his regiment was ordered to Virginia he completely turned its operation over to Rebecca. Their letters provide a valuable insight into the management of their small yeoman farm and their slaves in the 1860s. Yeoman farmers belonged to the center ranks of society between the elite planters and the poor and landless; they were independent and fiscally responsible farmers who cultivated their own land.
When Sherman’s troops burned and pillaged their way across South Carolina in ‘65, Rebecca buried a trunk containing the letters and other family valuables in the middle of the dirt road, as all were at that time, in front of her farm and then ran wagons back and forth over it to hide the spot.
Much has been written on the management of slaves in the planter class, whose members generally owned more than twenty slaves. But half of the slaves in the South did not live on large plantations, and the majority of Southern slaveowners were middle class farmers. The United States Census recorded 15,579 white and free-black residents in South Carolina’s Lexington District in 1860. Of the 609 slaveowners included in that population only 72 owned more than twenty slaves and qualified as being planters; the rest, like Barr, were middle class citizens who lived and worked side by side with their slave families. (6) In 1860, Barr’s slaves consisted of four adults, four teenaged girls, and four children under twelve. Slaves mentioned in the Barr letters were Anderson, in his twenties, and his teenage wife Mary, and ‘Old’ Bill, in his fifties, and his wife Dina and their sons Jerry and Jess. James and his children, and his other slaves, called Anderson ‘Ance’ but Rebecca and her Dowling relatives called him Anderson, his given name.
When Barr served in South Carolina and Virginia, Ance went with him and was allowed to live independently and to even hire himself out as a day laborer. Ance never crossed Union lines into freedom, probably because his wife Mary was still with the Barrs in Leesville. Whatever the motive, Ance honorably served the Barrs for years. On January 19, 1863, newly enlisted soldier James Barr wrote Rebecca, “We are pretty well fixed for the present, but I need Anderson. He would take a good deal of labor off me such as getting wood, tending to my horse, and cooking.” On the 25th she replied, “Anderson sounded very willing to go down to you, but he said he never wanted to go back where he was before. The negroes were all glad enough to get back.” The CSA government had impressed [forcibly borrowed] some of the Barr slaves to work on coastal fortifications and had badly treated them. Later, most conscientious slaveowners refused to lend [or lease] them to the government because of similar mistreatment.
James wrote several letters to Rebecca during February ’63: “General [William] Walker announced the capturing of one Rebel and destroying some two or three (three I think) of the blockading rebels. We were allowed to give three cheers for the victory gained. The signal was the raising of the General’s cap on the point of his sword.” That sounds wrong, but it’s not; like other Confederates, Barr occasionally referred to Union forces as ‘rebels.’ This was logical to some Southerners for they felt that they were the ones who were defending the Constitution and had inherited the fight for liberty from the Founding Fathers. Barr added, “I think I prefer [being] a private,” even though he was a major and later a colonel in the militia and had the social standing, but not the desire, for a commission.
“Ance is a first rate cook. He is the best cook. I know he can beat any of our negroes at home…. Ance has the mumps. He must have contracted [them] when in Charleston as there are no other cases here. He is a number one cook…. I did not take Ance with me on picket as he was pretty bad off with the mumps. He is still pretty sick though the swelling has gone down a good deal. The Dr. says he will be well in a few days.”
The concern that James Barr had for Ance’s welfare, far beyond any monetary value, is evident in his letters. But Rebecca’s letter to James on February 22nd reveals the inhumanity of slavery. “Henry [James’ brother] sold your mule yesterday to Daniel Quattlebaum for 75 dollars and he gave a note. I told Henry to give William [another brother] the note. Quattlebaum bought the negro Wesley. Bought him at Haltiwangers sale and swapped him to Jake Shealy for his negro boy and Jake Shealey gave two hundred dollars to boot. The negro man’s name was Dan. He is a brother to Quattlebaum’s Luissia.” Nothing can justify a time when someone could actually buy another human being and trade him for some other person with, or without, two hundred dollars to boot, just like trading for a horse, a bull, a carriage or a plow. Hopefully, the Quattlebaum-Shealy trade was done with some unknown, yet redeeming, reason like rejoining a separated family. As a postscript Rebecca added, “I forgot to tell you the cause of the negroes complaining about the meat. I was to blame. I weighed off one weeks allowance for two and only gave them three lbs. for two weeks, so you see they had a cause to complain. I don’t know what made me make the mistake. I looked on the books where you had it written and found out my mistake and gave them more meat immediately.”
“Ance is making some money washing at five cents a garment, cleaning stalls when he has a chance, and buying penders [peanuts] at three dollars a bushel and selling them at six dollars and forty cents a bushel. He washes very well,” James wrote on March 8th, “I thought I would hire my washing done but he can do it as well as I could have it done. He then irons it.” On the 15th, James noted, “I think it was just as well for the Negroes to work on Thanksgiving Day as it was for us to work here…. I must now write a few lines for Ance as he is here asking me to write for him. He says ask Henry and George if they have spent the money he left with them, if Henry bought the stockings for his wife, and what he paid. And he wants John to make him a good pocket knife with a good finish and send it by Henry if he comes. And to tell you he has made ten dollars and twenty-five cents since he has been here. I expect he wants the Negroes to know it. He wants to know how his wife is.” On the 20th, still in Pocotaligo, James warned Rebecca about the government impressing his slaves, “[I] Don’t want any hand [slave] sent on the Coast. I would rather pay a fine.”
Rebecca’s sister wrote her from Bamberg, South Carolina on April 22nd. “I bought a little [young] girl to nurse our fat babe, which cost me the round sum of two thousand dollars. $2,000.00. Don’t you think I am crazy?” A wet nurse breastfeeds and cares for another's child. They are needed if the mother dies, or if she is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. It was fairly common at the time.
The 5th SC Cavalry was detached to McClellanville, South Carolina in April of 1863. James wrote home five times in May. “The spotted cow I bought at Swygert’s sale I want killed for the negroes when she gets fat.” On the 16th he opined, “I understand that the authorities have held a meeting in Charleston to see whether to give up the city or not. I understand they have decided to try and hold her at all hazard. I think if our authorities give up Charleston and the Sea Coast that they might as well go back to the Union. Why? Because it [giving up Charleston] would strengthen old Lincoln and his Government so much and on the other hand, weaken us so much. I believe in holding till we cannot hold her any longer and then leave her in one solitary block of fire on one heap of ashes. Let everything be burned, so it cannot do the nasty low lived Yankees any good. Oh, for the day of Peace when we can have it fair and honorable, but there is no honor or justice about the Yankees. If they cannot take it off, they will burn it up. It would be better for us to destroy our property than for them to do it for us.” [I could not agree more; in a similar situation, would Sherman’s army have been able to march across Georgia and South Carolina if its projected path had been destroyed and burned in advance by Confederates? Or would the Yankees have starved to death like their victims, innocent Southern citizens?]
On the 20th of May, James wrote, “I have just drawn a pair of shoes. I wish I had them at home. They are very common Negro shoes.” He added, “I am very surprised at Mr. Crout not taking Confederate money. I did not think he would get afraid of our Confederacy. If our Confederate money is not good, I think we might as well quit fighting.” At this time, Confederate money had lost most of its value, and Southerners resorted to the barter system or used Union currency.
James told Rebecca on the 24th that “[Old] Bill [their slave] stops too long at Noon. I think one hour and a half plenty time [for lunch], longer than they stopped when I was at home. Then they lose about two hours and a half from the time they stop till they get back to work.” But, of course, James was not at home, and when the cat’s away, the mice will play. On the 30th, “Ance told me the other day that the officers’ Negroes told him we lived much better than the [unit’s] officers. The Captain’s boy [slave] said the other day that he wanted to stay with us till the Captain got back, but he did not apply for admittance [he never showed up].” Ance had fallen ill again and a postscript said, “I think Ance is getting better.”
James wrote home often in June. A June 2nd letter from South Santee to Rebecca said, “Ance is better I think, [but] he is looking very badly and he is poor. He don’t want anything to eat. He will eat a little milk and mush [a cornmeal pudding], which is some trouble to get.” Later he said, “It would not surprise me much if the War continues long. It looks like it will be that Preachers of the Gospel, Doctors and every other man that is able to do duty will be called out [drafted]. It is thought that before long the men that have substitutes in the War will be called out. A man can talk and act brave when he is at home…. I think Ance is improving very little. He came out of the house and sat for a while under the shade of a tree. Typhoid fever is what has been the matter with him. He is now taking gum arabic, spirits of turpentine, laudanum and a [hot] toddy of snake root. He is very anxious to get home. I may start him off in a few days.”
“Ance is now up and I think out of danger if he does not relapse. He wants to be rather too pert. He was very anxious to start home this morning. I told him he could not go, but as soon as he got strong enough, he might go…. Ance has now gotten up. He has taken charge of my horse, but still looks poor. I think I will try to send him home next week if anyone from here goes home. He has had a pretty rough time of it.” On the 20th, “Ance left last Wednesday evening and I suppose he is home by now. I would have sent the flour bag with him, but was off on picket when he left. I am sorry to hear so much complaining among the Negroes.”
In a June 22, 1863 letter, James wrote [something I couldn’t believe]. “We got encouraging news in Saturday’s paper. It seems that our Generals have outsmarted the Yankees. It seems that they thought that General Lee would send his forces P.D.Q. to reinforce Pemberton at Vicksburg, but instead Lee pushed his Army on and frightened the Yankees.” I am amazed; PDQ in 1863? Pretty Damned Quick? On Google, the consensus is: “the term p.d.q. originated in America during the 1870s, a time when many abbreviations of words and phrases were coined. The term p.d.q. can be traced to a play penned by Benjamin E. Woolf called The Mighty Dollar, which debuted in 1875.” (7) But I beg to differ; I see it used here by James Barr in 1863!
On July 6th James complained, “I want Ance to come [back]. I am needing him very bad. Can’t get along very well without him. We can’t get our meals regular and can’t have anything taken care of like Ance did…. Yankee rebels are in sight and have been for the last few days. Would not be surprised if they do not come out soon and give us a little fight. We are keeping a sharp look out for them. I do not think they can gain much to come out here, only to get Negroes. They may be after getting recruits.” Also in July, “I am quite well and getting on tolerably well, considering that I have no Negro to wait on me…. I was mad to hear of [their slave] Cates’ disobedience…. Would like to have Ance very much, but he could not get through Charleston as they would take him and put him at work. I am not willing to send him there anymore. I need Ance here and Jerry [a slave, Old Bill’s son] at home. Therefore, I can’t send any hands. Men that own more and who are at home ought to send [more]…. The meat must hold out. Tell the Negroes I said that whole plantations of Negroes are not getting any bacon and the soldiers very little. When we get it, it is about 1 lb. Ance knows.”
In September ’63, now in McClellanville, James penned, “Under the circumstances I am as well satisfied as I can be, knowing that it is the duty of every man to battle for his rights and our independence. Our forefathers fought for the privileges they enjoyed and the time is now here for us to fight for our liberty. We ask nothing of the Yankees, only to be let alone.”
James was on furlough the first half of October but sent four letters home when he returned to duty. “A vessel is now here. Ran in here [blockade runner] a few days ago loaded with Turk Island Salt. I expect the Government will take it all…. Ance says keep his money for him, but if Jane [James’ slave] has not got the quarter from her Uncle Daniel [James’ brother], to pay her a quarter…. Tell Jimmy [James’ son] to be a good boy and if I kill a Yankee I will bring home something or send it. Tell him to grow fast and come out here to beat the drum [drummer boy] for us.”
While home on furlough, James received a couple of letters from Rebecca’s brother, also in James’ unit. “Anderson [Ance] asked me to write to you for him. He says you will please let me know how [his wife] Mary is. [He says,] ‘I am well and hope you are the same.’ He encloses $7.50 for the use of his wife. Whenever she needs anything she can come to you and get the money. He says you will tell Major Barr [James] to bring him a blanket if he has it and can bring it under his saddle and if not, he will try and get one some way. He says you must read this to his father and that he would like to hear from them as soon as possible. He says to tell Jane to look stuck up in the kitchen on the right hand side of the window in a crack for some leather. He had cut it out for a pocketbook and give it to Major Barr to bring it if he can…. We are doing well, getting on as usual, pretty well for soldiers. Nothing more. Kiss the babies and the young Soldiers of the Southern Confederacy.”
From McClellanville in November, James sent six letters home. “I am sending a fine comb enclosed in this letter. Ance makes Jimmy [James’ young son] a present of it. He gave two dollars and fifty cents for it, so don’t let Jimmy break it up…. Ance bought him[self] a tolerable good pair of shoes for twenty dollars….”
In late November ’63, Barr’s company was reassigned to picket duty on James Island, South Carolina. Rebel and Yankee troops faced each other across the James Island wetlands as Fort Sumter and Charleston were being constantly shelled by the Yankees. “I see several of the Negro boys down here that I know, Leaphart’s Ned and I believe Morris. Mrs. Boyd’s Dick is here waiting for me to write a letter home for him…. Hope this will find you and the children and the Negroes well.”
In December, James complained, “Our Postmasters surely are very careless. They ought all to be sent in service and the Ladies act as Post Mistresses…. I think Congress will pass a law to bring in service all men who have hired substitutes [more than 50,000 by ’63 per CSA government authorities]. They are hammering hard at it and I do hope they will pass such a law. They must do something to fill up our ranks and I do not know anything better to get men than to pass a law that all who hired substitutes shall again shoulder their muskets and fight for their freedom. Oh, pity [sarcasm] the 75,000 or 80,000 who have substitutes. Why, they would make us a pretty large army and could guard some place and perhaps turn the invading Yankees.“ [Granting slaves their freedom if they served in the CSA Army would have been a great, but ultimately useless, help for the Confederacy.]
“Ance sends Jimmy a little lock that he found, and my pistol and lead and some [minie] balls. Take care of the lead and balls…. This morning we took a possum hunt, but did not catch any…. If soldiers only could fare as well as some Negroes at home. If we could only get two lbs. of bacon we could do pretty well. My Negroes need not complain. What if they had to fare like some soldiers, bad beef and musty meal, coarse at that. A week ago some damaged bacon was sold or offered for sale. I don’t think anyone bought any, for you know when it gets so bad [it is offered] to soldiers, it is not fit for dogs…. If I have to buy corn I will not make one cent on my place this year, for the money for the flour will have to go for corn, taxes unpaid, Negroes to feed, nothing made, bad news. Bad news to me off in service with no corn at home. You will, I expect, have to cut down the Negroes’ allowance in meal as well as meat. Don’t give them too much. Make out on as little as possible.”
From James in January of ‘64 on picket duty at Adams Run, South Carolina: “I can kill two or three beefs next Summer and if the Negroes do not work better, they won’t need any meat. For if they don’t work, I don’t care whether I feed them or not.”
Private James M. Barr was on furlough from January 27th to February 17th and from February 23rd to March 14th and received $40 for his missed rations. Barr and his regiment had enjoyed relatively easy service patrolling the coast of South Carolina. On March 18, 1864, his 5th SC Cavalry as well as the 4th and 6th were ordered to join the Army of Northern Virginia to exchange places with the 1st and 2nd South Carolina. (8)
“Rebecca, if we go to Virginia I will not have the opportunity of sending you any money. I want you to sell and buy whatever you want…. I do not want to go to Virginia. I would rather stay in South Carolina, but if I have to go, I intend to try and go cheerfully…. We are now under marching orders to go to Virginia. Many will receive this news with a sad heart. I mean the wives of soldiers, and a many of our men have long faces. They are down in the mouth. Yet, why should they be so? We volunteered for the War and are liable to be sent anywhere and we are no better than other soldiers who have been on the trot [constantly busy] since the War began…. I am going to Camp tomorrow if the Yankees don’t catch me tonight. I expect to send Ance home if I go to Virginia. I will send him to stay.”
The 5th Cavalry rode from Adams Run near Charleston to Clarksville, Virginia from early April until early May ‘64 via Columbia, Winnsboro, Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro and Danville. (9) James often wrote to Rebecca along the way, worrying about the pitiful shape of the unit’s horses and his comrades’ sicknesses. [The Confederate government’s requirement that cavalrymen furnish their own horses nauseated James. Certainly, Southerners’ personal steeds were superior to the Union issued horses which gave them the early advantage, but the CSA cavalry was destroyed by the attrition of horses due to their constant field service with no substitutes.] From May 4th until May 10th the 5th battled its way to Petersburg. “Don’t be alarmed for me. I came here to fight for our freedom.”
On May 19th, James endured his first serious engagement of the war. “On Sunday our Regiment was ordered to Drewry’s Bluff. I never want to be in a hotter place than I was. The balls were as thick as hail. We charged and ran the Yankees. They rallied and brought a Brigade against us. Of course, so few men as we had, we had to fall back. We did in good order. They poured a perfect volley after us with Grape and Canister besides their minie balls. They came close. We were in the woods, the balls pealing trees all around. Hays and Gleaton were killed on the retreat. It is a wonder we escaped.” After being driven back, the Federals reorganized and pushed the Confederates from the field. Both sides reported about 4,000 casualties. “We were on the extreme right of the enemy lines. I never was so near outdone. If the enemy had managed well, they could have flanked us. We were under a cross fire nearly all the time. I shot many a ball, but do not know what damage they did. I felt very cool, took it much better than I feared I would. I would be willing to do it again under the same circumstances. We ought not to have made a charge as we were Cavalry and had no bayonets to our guns…. Our horses and men had a narrow escape coming from Petersburg…. We were intended to go into Chesterfield Court House, so we were going in when a little boy came running, saying ‘if you go in you will all be captured. ’ The Yankee Cavalry, 2,000 strong, had gotten there an hour before us.”
On the 27th from Camp Lee, “Our horses are looking badly, riding them hard and feeding them little. I hope Wesley [his brother] will come out here and bring me a horse and carry Ance back as he is very little use to me. I have not put on a clean shirt since I have been here, not having the chance to do so as my saddlebags were not here. Ance has them now…. I wish to see you and our dear children. How I would like to see the little fellows. Tell the Negroes ‘Howdy’ for me and tell them to do their duty.”
From near Atlee’s Station, James wrote that his 5th Cavalry had suffered “a hot time and were driven back by the enemy.” They had fought both Union Cavalry and Infantry. The Battle of Haw’s Shop on the 29th was their first major cavalry engagement. As the battle progressed, the Confederates dismounted and went to a defensive position behind temporary field fortifications. Armed with their short Enfield rifles, they held off the Yankees for seven hours. At the end of the day, General Philip Sheridan ordered General George Armstrong Custer and his Michigan Brigade to come up. Custer’s men were forced to dismount as well, and with their band playing and their seven-shot Spencer rifles blazing, the Wolverines found themselves in their most desperate battle of the war. One Yankee veteran said the South Carolinians, the most stubborn foe Michigan had ever engaged, filled the air with lead as soon as they could load and fire and would not surrender. It was said that most of the South Carolinians were new recruits and didn’t know surrender was an option. In his official report, Custer said “Our loss in this battle was greater than any other engagement of the [Richmond] campaign.” And Custer’s Brigade had more Federal casualties of any other in the War. (10)
Copying Philip Sheridan, Custer incorporated the practice of having his [regular Army, 16 member] cavalry band intentionally play under fire. Sheridan would order his musicians to mass on the firing line and “play the gayest tunes in their books—play them loud and keep on playing them, and never mind if a bullet goes through a trombone, or even a trombonist, now and then.” Likewise, Custer ordered the mounted band of the Michigan Cavalry Brigade to lead the unit into battle playing “Yankee Doodle.” Later, in the Indian Wars, Custer’s buglers would sound the charge and the band would play his favorite song “Garry Owen.” (11)
James continued, “I want Wesley to come after Ance. I cannot draw anything for him to eat and draw very little myself, so you see I cannot keep him here. I divide with him when I can.”
On the 30th of May, four miles north of Cold Harbor, Phil Sheridan’s Federal cavalry engaged Matthew Butler’s Confederate Cavalry. At the most important crossroads, Sheridan threw his men forward and both sides dismounted. According to a Union account, Butler’s men ‘held their ground with the same obstinacy they had previously shown.’ And once again Custer and his Michigan Brigade were ordered forward to drive them out. (12) James wrote, “We have been in some seven or eight engagements since we have been out here. They [Confederate Generals] fought us [CSA soldiers] against too greater odds yesterday. They were supposed to have had twenty to our one. They came very near cutting us all off. We have fought the Infantry in every fight. We have won a name as fighting stock. Gen. Butler said yesterday that it was mortifying to him to have to call on the 5th Regiment so much, but it was the only Regiment he could rely on.” James added, “I have not seen Ance in seven or eight days. He has gone back to Camp Lee and hired himself out at two dollars a day and his rations. If I could only get him home.”
On June 3rd James told Rebecca to “Tell the Negroes that if you have to write me one more time about their stealing your chickens that I will write to the Sheriff to take them away with all of theirs. If those that have them don’t steal them, they ought to know which ones do it…. We will have hard fighting here for the next ten or twenty days. John C. [Rebecca’s brother] says all the prisoners they captured near Cold Harbor were drunk, so Grant has to make them drunk to fight. Yet, I know some fight well without being drunk.” [Stories about Grant himself being too drunk to function came after his victory at Cold Harbor where he sent wave after wave of Union men charging the Confederate frontlines. Throughout the course of the Civil War, 4,625 Union soldiers were hospitalized or relieved from duty for inebriations; of these, 98 died. Of the 3,284 soldiers admitted for delirium tremens, 423 died. Unfortunately, Confederate disciplinary records were mostly lost after the burning of Richmond.] (13)
“Ance came back to us last night. He made ten dollars while he was away…. I told Wesley to come out here after my horse and Ance. I am afraid to send Ance through the country by himself. I offered Wesley $200 to come. If Wesley won’t come, I don’t know what to do unless I send Ance home alone with my horse.”
On June 11 and 12, Barr’s regiment participated in one of the most hotly contested cavalry fights of the War: the Battle of Trevilian Station. 8,000 men of Philip Sheridan’s cavalry were engaged by 4,700 men of Wade Hampton’s division (which included Matthew Butler’s Brigade with the 5th SC Cavalry) and Fitzhugh Lee’s Division. On June 11th, the two divisions were still separated by several miles when George Custer and his men accidently found their way between them. Custer’s horsemen threatened to encircle Butler’s South Carolinians, so Hampton ordered Butler to retire. The Rebels eventually drove off Custer’s Wolverines and recaptured some 800 animals and wagons, while also capturing many men and supplies, including Custer’s personal headquarters wagon. On the 12th, Sheridan’s men charged the South Carolinians seven times, but they would not budge and Sheridan returned to rejoin Grant’s army. Both sides lost 1,000 men, six from the 5th SC Cavalry. (14) Private James Barr was one of its 41 wounded men and was transferred to a Charlottesville hospital.
On the 14th, James wrote, “My Dear Rebecca: I am now in the hospital. I was wounded in the leg last Saturday, the 11th. I was shot about one inch below the cap of my right knee on the inside. I think the ball went down the bone and around, coming out some four inches below where it went in, coming out the other side of the leg…. I have no use of my leg. If I want to move it, I have to call for help. I don’t know how long I will stay at this hospital.” Later he added, “Sgt. Boylston will leave here this evening. All will leave that can walk. They will have to walk some 20 or 25 miles.” On June 22nd, “I still have use of my leg, but the Doctor says the ball passed through the bone. I thought it quite strange for the bone not to be broken and I could not move my leg. I think my leg is safe now. It pained me so for two or three nights after I wrote you that I thought it would have to come off.”
On the 22nd Barr’s brother-in-law and messmate Sam Guess wrote Rebecca. “I was in the fight with him when he was hit, but did not see him as I was on the extreme left and he on the extreme right of the Company…. I have Anderson [Ance] and the Major’s horse in charge. The horse is doing badly. I wish I could send him and Anderson home…. It will take $40 to pay their expenses home. I have tried to borrow the money here, but can’t find anyone who has it.”
Rebecca received James’ letter of July 1, 1864. “Tomorrow will be three weeks since I have been wounded and I am not much, if any, better off. The swelling has gone out of my leg and it has run a great deal, but on the calf of my leg where the ball came out is a bad place.”
Captain George Meetze of the 13th SC Infantry wrote Rebecca on the 8th of July. “By request of my friend, Major Barr, I write a few lines to inform you of his condition. His wound has not done well since here and day before yesterday it took a change for the worse, so much so that his leg had to be amputated. His leg was taken off above the knee. This morning he is doing very well. He desires that you come at once. I can assure you that he has the best of attention and seems to be in good spirits. He is a warm friend.”
Barr’s sister Sue Guess informed James on July 14th that “Rebecca left home Sunday morning to go to you, but we are afraid she will not succeed in getting there…. Anderson came home Tuesday morning. He left Camp on the 5th. He started by private conveyance to bring your horse and clothes home. The horse gave out, so he had to leave him and come by the [train] cars.”
According to family tradition, Rebecca traveled to Charlottesville to see her husband although she was five months pregnant. Her infant son Charlie was so ill she feared the child would not survive [he did] until she returned so she laid out the clothes she wished the child to be buried in. At the hospital she found that James’ condition had deteriorated. Infection had spread up the stump of his leg and the surgeon had to amputate a second time. Although Rebecca was able to spend several days nursing her husband, it was too late. James died August 29, 1864.
Rather than bury her husband in Charlottesville with thousands of other Confederate soldiers, Rebecca took his remains home. The pregnant widow boarded a flat car with him and headed back to South Carolina sitting on a wooden chair, exposed to the hot August sun. She sent word ahead to have Anderson and one of the other slaves meet her at the train station in Columbia with a wagon and a buggy. When she arrived at the station, the wagon was loaded and they immediately left for home, thirty miles away in Leesville. James Michael Barr was laid to rest in the Barr Family Cemetery near his home [with his ancestors and slaves]. Rebecca and her three sons left her farm to live with her brother Elijah Dowling. On December 6th, she gave birth to a daughter who died that day and was buried next to her father. In 1883, Rebecca married Tom Warren who fought in the 1st SC Infantry, and they are buried together in the Leesville Cemetery (15) with the other Barr relatives.
F. Lewis Smith, Camp Historian, Thomson Guards SCV Camp 91, Thomson, Georgia
Notes:
1 Let Us Meet in Heaven: The Civil War Letters of James Michael Barr, 5th South Carolina Cavalry, edited by Thomas D. Mays. Abilene, Texas: McWhiney Foundation Press, McMurray University, 2001
2 Author’s personal history
3 Let Us Meet in Heaven, pg 13
4 Ibid., pg 8
5 Ibid., pg 12
6 Ibid., pg 11
7 Internet, Google: ‘PDQ,’ Wikipedia
8 Let Us Meet in Heaven, pg 189
9 Ibid., pg 197
10 Ibid., pg 228
11 Gleason, Bruce P. Sound the Trumpet, Beat the Drums: Horse-Mounted Bands of the U.S. Army, 1820-1940. Norman, OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2016. Pg 69
12 Let Us Meet in Heaven, pg 231
13 Bollet, Alfred Jay. Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs. Tucson, AZ: Galen Press, 2002. pg. 323
14 Us Meet in Heaven, pg 241
15 Ibid., pg 260
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