Civil War Memories of J. W. Lewis

Soon after June 10, 1864, I entered the service of the Southern Confederacy as a Private in Company B, 9th Battalion, Junior Reserves, at Asheville, North Carolina. Our officers were Maj. D.T. Millard, Capt. J.L. Eaves, 1st Lt. George Suttle, 2nd Lt. Luther Gross, 3rd Lt. Taylor Blanton, and Orderly, Sgt. Watt Trout. All of our officers except Maj. Millard were reared in Rutherford County, around Rutherfordton, North Carolina. We spent a month or so at Asheville, N.C., then marched to Morganton, N.C., where we remained in Camp Vance about two months. Here many of the boys and I saw a railroad train for the first time in our lives.

We went to Salisbury, N.C., next, where we guarded Northern prisoners for a month or more. After that we spent a short time at Goldsboro, N.C., and then went into winter quarters at Camp Lamb, near Wilmington, North Carolina. Our battalion, with several others, spent Christmas Day (Sunday) Dec. 25, 1864, there. There was very heavy bombardment from 9:00 A.M. until 9:00 P.M., when the enemy landed a considerable force which was repulsed. They got back of our breastworks outside of the fort. Col. Lamb had trouble in getting the men to cease firing. The fort was taken by the enemy, on Jan. 15, 1865. Our command and many others were in the battles around Springfield, N.C., and Bentonville, North Carolina. On the morning of March 21, 1865, while we were contending with Sherman's army, at Bentonville, N.C., I was shot through the left arm just below the shoulder joint, the bone being broken. I was a sharp shooter and was on the picket line when wounded.

Together with hundreds of other wounded men, I spent the first night in the field hospital in the woods near the battlefield, and the second night on the ground at some station on the railroad. The third night we spent at High Point, N.C., in a hospital, which had been the Barbee Hotel. The Government had taken over the hotel for hospital purposes. The furniture was stored in a few rooms at the rear, and all the other rooms were filled with cots for the wounded soldiers. I spent a month or more at High Point, and well remember the visits from the ladies of the town who brought us beautiful flowers and many tracts to read.

I have a vivid recollection of the day when the Yankee cavalry came through High Point and burned a train-load of Confederate supplies that had just arrived from Richmond, Virginia. They also rolled a barrel of whiskey from the freight depot, set it on one end and knocked the head out of the other end. They all got drunk and set fire to the freight depot which was right in front of the hospital (Barbee Hotel). The hospital was saved by stretching long, wide cloths to the eaves of the house and porch, and the people carried water and poured it on the roof, which kept the cloths wet. All the wounded Confederate soldiers were carried out of the hospital and laid on the ground - in a sweet potato field - to the rear of the hospital.

The squad of Northern cavalry, after getting drunk, went to some old barns and stables back of the hospital and went to sleep. If a small squad of Confederates had been there they could have killed or taken the whole company of Union soldiers.

About the last of April, 1865, my grandfather, Col. James Blanton of Polk County, came to High Point to take me home. He slipped me out of the hospital and we started afoot, as there were no trains running. We went probably one-half a mile and I gave out. We returned to the hospital, and the doctors quarrelled with my grandfather for taking me away.

Next day, a train did come along going South, and grandpa got me on a flat car that was already crowded. The train landed us in Charlotte, N.C., and grandpa left me in the hospital there, which was later the South Graded School. I remained in the hospital in Charlotte for a month or more, and then Mr. William Cokely, who lived on the Hickory Nut Gap Road five and one-half miles above Rutherfordton, N.C., came after me in a one-horse wagon. As he could not get the wagon across the Catawba river, he left the horse and wagon at Mt. Holly, N.C., and walked to Charlotte, eleven miles. He then learned that a fishing party was going out to the river the next morning, and arranged for us to go to Mt. Holly on the train. The railroad bridge had been burned by the Union soldiers some time before. When we reached Mt. Holly we started, in the one-horse wagon, to my home, six miles west of Rutherfordton, N.C. I lay on a feather-bed in the wagon and suffered a great deal from the continual jolting over the rough roads. It took two days to make the trip. We spent the first night with a Mrs. Goode, in Lincolnton, N.C., and reached home the next night about nine o'clock.