Today is Memorial Day. All through the past year I have wished to tell the story of William Anglin's Military Record, and what led to his being buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Marietta, Ga. There is so much to tell, as we begin with the day he joined to the day he died. The story begins in Yancey Co, NC., includes how he became sick, and survived when many other's died, how he was accused of deserting while in the northeast counties of Tennessee and how while all this was going on, he had a new baby girl born back at home. Had he indeed deserted, he would have been hanged along with a number of men who were hanged, including a Silver cousin. But the whole story written by an officer himself who had given them leave to go home, tells another story all together. When leave was rescinded, there were no cell phones to call them back. So many of the unit never received the order to return to ranks immediately. Upon return in two weeks, William found himself facing a serious accusation of deserting. He didn't die when the sickness had killed several hundred others. He didn't get hanged when the desertion trials led to somewhere between 8 and 13 hangings. He also didn't die on the trek south toward the looming Battle of Chickamauga from starvation, when they had so little to eat, and so little time to eat it. ( An interesting story is told of a young man who chased a rabbit into Yankee camp, on a promise to get his ailing brother something to eat. It was so comical to the opposing troops, that he somehow wasn't shot. But since men on both sides were hungry, it's a wonder he wasn't shot for the rabbit.)
The preservation of God followed William through the battle at Chickamauga as well. Although, wounded, he didn't die. From September 20th to October 5th he managed to hang on, fighting for his life from military hospital to military hospital as they transported wounded troops by train ever farther south from the Tennessee border, toward Atlanta, as Northern troops pushed them. He went from the battlefield, to Ringgold, then by train to Dalton, and again by train to Marrietta. Homes and businesses along the Railroad tracks were used for makeshift Hospitals all along the way. Care was minimal, due to the overwhelming need, but was the best available at the time. Doctors came from Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas to help. And some from South Ga and Florida. Nurses came from towns nearby and many volunteered. At one point, it was recorded by the volunteers that the men ate stale bread and horse meat, slept on the ground, often muddy and cold, and the most relief was given when straw bales were dropped off wagons and someone trudged through the mud and shook it loose so the men could be lifted out of the mud and find rest. Some were kept in local homes along the way, but as they were treated, they often were loaded onto wagons, transported to the rail station, where they remained in pain and cold outside the station, waiting for train cars to make it through. Many hours he would have spent just waiting for someone to help him board a rail car. We don't know the extent of his injuries, if he endured the extreme hardship of an amputation, or was burned on the battlefield when the fires erupted as many were. I know if he were merely shot, he might have been sent back to duty soon, not moved a couple hundred miles from hospital to hospital. So I shrink when I think that he may have suffered incredibly before his death with no way to subdue the pain, little food or drink to give him strength, and staying often wet and or muddy, and cold. But, finally, about 5 days after all the injured troops from the Chickamauga battles had arrived to the Marrieta hospitals, William could endure no more. He lost his fight to survive.
How do I know this is what happened to him? Well, his name is not on rosters of men somewhere, that say all these men were here, and here and here. But instead, with men arriving and dying everyday, they became numbers, statistics and dates. But the records kept by the medical staffs and recorded in military fashion are definitive. It is possible to track the wounded from the 58th and know that by a certain date their troops began arriving to a certain location and also, that by a certain date they were all moved to a new location. Knowing the date he died, tells me all.
There weren't enough wagons to get them all to help in time. The wagons were stranded by the roadsides according to one book I read. In that day, men were moved on foot and by rail. Some on horses. It seemed as though no one was prepared to move masses of wounded men from battle fields to hospitals. Unlike the Revolutionary War, when families were often in wagons nearby, this war left families miles behind. It was left to a medical corps to wait on someone to bring the wounded to them.
One young lady, went out with what food she could gather, with a man who had a wagon to see how they might help and found themselves moving men from stranded wagons and carts, or from those laid across donkeys or carried by any means possible. Some were being carried on the backs of friends who took turns carrying comrades until they could no longer and traded with another who hoped to help. What she didn't say was that these men carrying a comrade on their backs trying to get them to help, were often brothers and cousins, at least as it was in the 58th NC. We don't know how long William awaited help in the first place. Triage was given at a tiny building atop the ridge above Chickamauga. From there they were to be taken to Ringgold, to a massive tent unit. Due to fires, rain and mud, the transfer wasn't so simple. We don't know how quickly he got the help he needed or the extent of his injuries.
William was eventually given the military tag on his record: MWIA - Mortally Wounded In Action. I had initially thought it meant Missing/Wounded in Action. But I found where a doctor from Louisiana wrote out the information, and described the script. Upon further research, MWIA, definitely meant that it was because of his wounds, that he finally died. But we don't know what those wounds were specifically. After three weeks, most deaths were due to infections that set up, or pneumonia. Some seemed to be from lack of nutrition to rebuild the body, and organs began to fail. None of the above seems fathomable to me. I simply can't imagine how he held on and went through all he did.
The more I knew of William, the more I cared about him. Loved him, appreciated his ability to hang on through sickness, and false accusation, and fight...only to be wounded and fight for life some more. The courage and inner strength this man had to have brings me to tears. Literally. I stood at the Ringgold train station, and when the train came by, I could imagine him hopeful, aboard that train, wanting to find renewal at the next stop. I read that the care given at Dalton was very good. He must have had reason to believe, but there was no rest for the weary. As Northern troops approached, the decision was made by the head of the medical staffs, that they would have to move the hospitals further south. So they boarded trains once more with all their wounded men and headed for Marrietta. From the battlefield, without having eaten a decent meal in two days by the way, to the Ringgold tents, to the hospitals nearby, to the Ringgold Train Station, through Tunnel Hill, to Dalton, a short stay in hospitals there, and once again to the Dalton Train station, and finally to Kennesaw where they took the men to various Marietta Hospitals. In about 10 days he arrived to a new place of safety, but at what cost?
A group of men coming later from a later battle outside of Ringgold, and some from Chattanooga, were put on a train that encountered fatal consequences at Tunnel Hill. It took me some time and so much reading of medical reports, for months before I could determine if he was on board that train. Because the troops who died there, and some who were buried from skirmishes after Chickamauga, were later reburied in the NC section of the Confederate Cemetery, I was initially unsure if William's cemetery lot was among the NC burials or was in the hospital section. It seemed unrealistic to think he wasn't in the NC section, but following the dates, the movements of wounded, and finding that he had to be alive and in Marietta no later than Oct. 1, knowing he died on Oct. 5th, according to his military record, meant he was not in the train disaster at Tunnel Hill. Nor had he died along the way and was among the many who were buried along the routes. He was in one of the several hospital facilities near Marietta alive. Therefore, he would have been buried, where as men died, and went through the morgue in the large municipal building nearby, they were buried in the hospital section, long before bodies were transferred to the expanding Confederate burial grounds. The Hospital Section was originally an extension of the City Cemetery. It was much later that a decision was made to move the bodies of Confederate Soldiers there. National cemeteries would not accept their bodies. And some sites were being desecrated. I was relieved to find out that he was at least somewhere that his burial was of some importance to someone. He was in fact buried in the same area where the doctors themselves may have been buried. They also fell victim to the stress and disease that spread through the camps.
Somewhere, there is a book which gives many of those men's names. If I can find it, William's name may be there. I believe someone before me found that list, and I believe he was on it, because he has a stone for memorial in the Anglin/Banks Cemetery, on the property at the old homeplace. Someone besides me has come to the same conclusion and may in fact know which is his lot. Yet there are no names of soldiers on the burial stones. As in Ringgold, I stood in the Confederate Cemetery feeling very much a part of his history, and sensing his presense, as a Train coming out of Marietta came very slowly by, having ceased blowing his horn as they passed, and again I cried.
The connection to the railroad became like a link in a chain that bit by bit brought me to his resting place. He would have rode the train a lot when they weren't marching to location early on. He would have taken the train home on his leave, before he understood the danger. He would have heard it passing as it ran right by all the hospital facilities. For weeks on end he was joined to that train.
I have been looking through my book and I want to make every detail of his journey available to any who care. My husband hates blogs, because if you begin at the beginning, but break the story into segments, it makes the information read backwards. So although I want to blog the story in parts, I may also copy it to a page so it may be read in sequential order. I am just trying to decide how best to do this. Above, I have a tab for the Civil War, which is intended to make notes about all out ancestors who were in the Civil War. So the details of the stories, can't all be put there. I believe William deserves the book that could be written about him. So I am considering dedicating a website to him. But until I find a free option, I will have to settle for the blogs.
