"We will drink stone blind..."

I have held onto this image until now. This is John P. Robertson, Company I, 12th South Carolina. This is the only image that I haste discovered of a, "Lancaster Hornet". Robertson enlisted on August 28, 1861 as dis so many Company I men. He did his recruit training at Camp Lightwood Knot Springs, the same as Tooms. At Second Manassas, in August of 1862, Robertson received his death wound.

Tuesday, May 16, 1865, Parker's Ferry, Charleston Road

My leg is better now. I did not do a great deal of walking yesterday. Instead, I spent most of the day sitting along the road. I feel better for it even though it will take another day more to reach home. The road was not crowded. For the entire time that I sat there, which was some hours, I might have seen perhaps fifty or sixty people. Only a few had wagons and all were pulled by mules. I saw not a single horse. I have not seen a horse since those bushwhackers tried to rob and kill us last week. Some folks had carts with all their possessions which did not appear to be many. One cart was being drawn by a mule, the rest were being pushed by their owners.

As they passed by, they would see me and wave. A few would halloo at me. One, John J. Oaks from the Forty-third Alabama, stopped and we talked for awhile. We discovered, as we talked, that we had been in many of the same battles.. He, like myself, was at the Petersburg trenches. We ate from our meager rations and he smoked his pipe afterwards. We bade our good-byes to each other and he was back on the road heading south to Mobile.

Battle flag of the 43rd Alabama.

As we chatted, I could not help but think that although we had never met before and we were in widely separated units, we had so very much in common. We ate the same rations, both official an not. We sang the same songs. We marched the same, were clothed the same, or not as circumstances dictated. We suffered the same illnesses and suffered the same treatments. We both lost comrades to battle and disease. Both of us came close to our last day on earth several times. We have survived everything the Yankees threw at us.

Even if there are still Confederates in the field somewhere, this cruel war is over. We who have lived are scattering our numbers all throughout the South. None of us will ever serve with each other again. Even so, we are linked together, bonded forever by the common experiences of comrades in war. I suppose there will be reunions from time to time where we who are still here will tell stories, getting ever bigger with each passing year. We will drink toasts to our fallen comrades, our Confederacy,  our wives and sweethearts, ourselves, anything. We will drink stone blind and do it all again at the next reunion.

Confederate veterans from Arkansas.

Florida.

Georgia.

Mississippi.

North Carolina.

West Virginia.

Tennessee.

Patrick County, Virginia, 1900.

The children will set at our feet and gaze at us in awe as we tell of our exploits and the hazards we lived through. They will believe everything we say no matter what. The womenfolk and the stay-at-home men will hear us as we talk amongst ourselves but will understand little. For those who have seen the elephant, a certain word or phrase, a certain wink or nod, and that is all it will take to understand some event or circumstance all have shared witness to. To that regard, I suppose the Yankees must be included in this circle.

Gettysburg.

Brothers again.

Speaking of the Yankees, I suppose that we will have to get along with them now that we are brothers again.  We are supposed to go home, tend to our fields and stores, and endeavor to be good citizens, all of us. Too much blood as been spilled on both sides to do otherwise.

Four very long years ago, I had started this diary with the purpose of providing a chronicle of persons, places and events that I can refer to in my old age. I hope to find some comfort in this. Was it but yesterday that I, an old recruit, was drilling my own squad of new recruits?

I have seen two wars. May I never see a third.

Some day, there will be just one of us left. May that last one standing toast those who have gone before.


I Send you These Few Lines


The war was hard on all concerned. Numbers do not tell the whole story but they do give some perspective to events. For Tooms' regiment, the 12th Carolina, the brigade historian records that:

21 officers and 260 men were killed during the war with 2 officers and 182 men dying form disease for a total of 465 dead. Some 652 were wounded. 26 officers resigned and 169 enlisted men were discharged. At Appomattox, the parole rolls record that 10 officers and 150 enlisted men surrendered.

For the Hancaster Hornets, Company I of the 12th, the following comes from the muster rolls of the company held at the National Archives repository at College Park, Maryland. The rolls, which are by no means complete, shows that 7 officers and 121 enlisted men served during the war. Of these, no officers were killed by enemy action or disease but 18 enlisted men were killed in combat and 5 by disease. Officers had the privilege of resigning their commissions and three did. A further 11 enlisted men were discharged for medical reasons. Transfers to other units accounted for 1 officer and three enlisted men. Lastly, four enlisted men deserted.

For the company paroles issued at Appomattox, one officer and 29 enlisted men are listed.

There are still unsurrendered Confederates left but not for long. The last major surrender will take place west of the Mississippi River on May 26, 1865. The war will not be officially declared to be at an end until April 2, 1866 when President Andrew issues a proclamation to that effect for the seceded states.

General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of all Confederate troops west of the Mississippi. He surrendered his command in May of 1865. His was the last large surrender of the war.

Except Texas.

Texas would be added by the President to the list of states no longer in rebellion on August 20, 1866.

John J. Oaks was in Company I of the 43rd Alamaba. The regiment was a western theatre unit, raised in Mobile. It served with the Army of Tennessee until late in 1863 when it was part of Bushrod Johnson's division that was transferred to the Army of Northern Virginia where it remained for the duration of the war.

Major General Bushrod Johnson.

Because Tooms had seen prior service in the Mexican War, he was given the rank of lance corporal and a squad of recruits to drill at Camp Lightwood Knot Springs in Columbia, South Carolina. In the squad, besides Tooms, were Burrell Hancock, Thomas Duncan, William Beckham, William Caston, John White and Philip Shehane. Hancock would prove to be Tooms' best friend during the war. He was one of the original members of the, "Dandy Eights Mess."

Of these six:

Hancock would be paroled at Appomattox.
Beckham deserted.
White would be captured at Petersburg in March of 1865 and released in June.
Duncan was captured at Spottsylvania in 1864 and released in June of 1865.
Caston died in a Charleston hospital on April 29, 1862.
Shehane was discharged in September of 1864, reason unknown.

During the war, Tooms and seven of his pards would form a mess called the, "Dandy Eights." The shared bonds mentioned above in Tooms diary entry would be strengthened by groups of soldiers who form a mess, for purposes of cooking and consuming their rations. The original eight were Tooms, Hancock, Duncan, mentioned above, plus William Barton, Sr., William Barton, Jr., Dennis Castles, Troy Crenshaw, John Holton. Of these:

William Barton, Sr. was killed in action, July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg.
William Barton, Jr.was killed in action, May 6, 1864.
Dennis Castles deserts in February of 1865.
Troy Crenshaw disappears from the records after January, 1864.
John Holton disappears from the records after December, 1863.

Of those Lancaster Hornets that survived the war:

Burrell Hancock married Sarah Emeline Garrison Hancock on April 6, 1879.  He had been married before the war to Nancy Missouri Cauthen. On October 8, 1899, Hancock passed. In September of 1920, his widow files for  a South Carolina pension.

Troy Crenshaw passed on July 3, 1879. His widow, Haseltine, whom he had married in 1858, filed for a South Carolina pension.

William A. Marshall, born October 20, 1845, would file for a state pension in 1919.

J. W. Denton and Isaac T. Vincent would apply for admission to the state Soldier's Home in 1910. Vincent is buried in Beaver Creek Cemetery, Lancaster County.

Simon H. Huey (Huley) was buried in Tirzah Pres. Union Cemetery in 1897.

William T. Sistare passed in 1920 and is buried in Douglas Pres. Cemetery in Lancaster.

John L. Barton passed in 1922 and is buried in Lancaster at the Westside Cemetery.

N.B. Vanlandingham, the Hornets' original company commander went to be with his boys in 1893. He is at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Lancaster County.

Robert J. Hagins passed in 1899 and is buried in Laurelwood Cemetery, Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Wesley Blackmon is buried in Flint Hill Baptist Cemetery, Fort Mill, South Carolina.

Both Lieutenant James S. Williamson and Corporal Joseph H. Flynn, played major parts in this blog both surrendered at Appomattox but I have found no record of any post-war activity for either of them.

There remains one Hornet who has not been properly accounted for. As of this date, he is in Charleston County, South Carolina. His home is in Beaufort County. There is one more county, Colleton, to go through before reaching home.

And one last thing about Jefferson Davis. On this date, 150 years ago, the ex-Confederate president, now prisoner, arrived by steamship at the United States Navy base on Hilton Head Island en route to Washington, D.C. Hilton Head is in Beaufort County. Old Jeff Davis has beat Tooms home.

Jefferson Davis.