William Anglin, Civil War Soldier THE JOURNEY

I finally avoided enough technical difficulties to be able to scan and resize the pages from my Anglin records book to be able to tell William's story from the day he joined the 58th NC until he reached the battle grounds at Chickamauga, GA, on Sept. 20th, where he was wounded.  A couple of these pages were in my last post about him, but for the sake of making the story flow, I will repost them here. 

Each of the picture units I will put up here are from various sources, including books, online records - including those of the journals of his superior officers, and actual visitations we made to the sites, where I made pictures.  In this story, of the troop movements during training, and as Federal Troops advanced pushing them further south before they engaged them in major battle, you will see that the 58th NC zigzagged along what is now known as Interstate 75, which was not even a road back then.  More than likely they were following the roads of the time between the small towns that had built up along waterways and railroad tracks. In many cases, the railroad had become the new connection between the towns that used to be accessible only by wagon roads and waterways.  The maps from Google which I am posting here, show the railway lines that have changed very little since then.  During my research, I discovered what a major part the Railway played in every aspect of the movement of men and supplies.  In this part we will not get to the burial story.  We will only get him from Yancey Co, NC into TN and then south to Chickamauga, GA.  So let's begin, with the details I was able to find----

William Anglin was a member of Company G of the 58th NC Confederate Troops.  In recent days, it has become less politically correct to admit to being descended from a Confederate Soldier.  But it bears saying that many of these soldiers were conscripted or in danger of dying if they didn't join. I can't say whether William wanted to fight for the south or not.  Many of the younger men were fired up and ready to join.  But William didn't join when some of the other men in his county did. All I know, is that with Federal Troops quickly approaching, these men's lives were on the line.  Many of them had kin in Virginia, where Federal Troops already held strongholds, and where many of their grandparents' cousins had already joined ranks with the North. Some men, in the county, fled into the caves of the deep backwoods of Mt. Mitchell, and settled in to fight for their land and families, or ride out the war hiding those families preferring at high risk not to join at all. Some headed north to join approaching troops, because they didn't want to fight against them.  Some followed cousins and brothers and fathers and friends in hopes of defending what they hoped would be their own county...But whatever the decision, it was also dangerous to not choose.
 
CAPTAIN JOHN L PHILLIPS

NORTH CAROLINA TROOPS 1861 - 1865 A Roster
        Vol. XIV, INFANTRY
          57th-58th, 60th-61st Regiments
Below is a copy of the Title page from this book, which is one in a large set of books that lists the rosters of soldiers in NC.  From the Raleigh, NC Div. of Archives and History, 1998, this set of books resides at the Chickamauga Battlefield Library, along with the Fuller Gun Museum, in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.    One of the many park rangers, whose job it is to protect and inform visitors to the park, where the battle occurred, are happy to help you research, if you have names and info to guide them.  It only took the gentleman who helped us a few minutes to come back with scans of these pages which focused directly on the soldiers I was asking him about. 

On page 359 we find the record for Co. G, which includes Raborn B. Anglin and William Anglin, Jr.:



The lightly highlighted Anglin, William Jr. at the bottom left of the page, is our ancestor.

It reads:

 

"Born in Yancey County* where he resided as a farmer prior to enlisting Yancey County at age 34, July 11, 1862, for the war. Mustered in as Musician (Fifer). reported absent sick on company muster roll dated July 11, 1862 - February 28, 1863.  Returned to duty in March - April, 1863.  Deserted at Clinton, Tennessee. May 26, 1863. Reduced to ranks prior to July 1st, 1863. Returned to duty prior to September 20, 1863, when he was wounded at Chickamauga, Georgia. Died on October 5, 1863, of wounds. Place of death not reported."

 

Before I explain what the notes mean, notice the Raborn B. Anglin above him. This entry is for his younger brother, Raburn Breckinridge Anglin. It reads:

 

"Born in Yancey County* where he resided as a farmer prior to enlisting in Yancey County at age 29, July 11, 1862, for the war. Mustered in as Sergeant. reported present through April 30, 1863. Transferred to Company C of the regiment on June 1, 1863."

 

This entry says they enlisted on the same day, but another entry I found, indicated they enlisted a few days apart.  In fact, that entry said Raburn enlisted a few days earlier.  This is where finding as many documents as you can helps to iron out things.  The entry for their unit commander above, says that the unit was organized on July 11th.  So it appears they joined together.  I haven't followed the movements of Co. C, to which Raburn was transferred on June 1st.  It appears that Raburn changed units within days of his brother being reported as deserted, along with a whole lot of other men in the unit. I will explain that more as the story unfolds.

 

Technically, neither of the men were born into Yancey, Co. Only because Yancey didn't become a county until 1833, and both boys were born by 1832.  But while they were toddlers, in a family with 6 children at the time, the place where they lived became Yancey Co. NC. They would see 2 more sisters born before war was to tear their lives apart. 

I am not certain when William married Sarah Caroline McIntosh (Sally), but by the time he enlisted, he and Sally had 4 children, and possibly a newborn baby girl, or were expecting little Mary at the time. She was born in 1862. James their oldest lived til 1894, but Jona and Silas died as children??it seems.  They show up on one census and then don't the next.  I haven't found them as young adults, as farm laborors elsewhere, or anywhere else.  Family didn't even know they existed, so I have wondered if gravestones in the Anglin/Ball Cemetery, which don't have names and can't be ID'd exactly, might be them.  So much disease was prevalent that death was hitting many families very hard during this time. For now, that's all I know about them.

 

I play out scenarios in my head concerning whether William ever got to see baby Mary or not. No one I asked in the family seemed to know. But one thing is for sure. Her older brother, William's son Robert (Bob) John Anglin, lived to be my Great-grandfather.  

 

Both William and Raburn were farmers by trade.  I can't help but wonder if they were farming tobacco at that time. Did they take time to plant before leaving for war so family would be fed? Can you imagine, William worrying over Sally at home with several children, one of whom was a new baby, or maybe even unborn? Can you imagine hearing that the Northern Soldiers were coming right on the heels of them being enlisted, into the county - taking anything they wished from the families for the use of the soldiers?  Can you imagine how much they wanted to return home to protect them?  Some, who were accused of deserting, wrote letters home, saying they were cut off by both soldiers from the north and from the south, so couldn't come home, and couldn't return to their units.  Hiding, hungry, helpless. William was not one of these as far as we know.

 

Let's discuss his age--

 I entered 1826 from his stone in the Anglin/Ball Cemetery into my record before I found more records..

 
The 1850 Census for Yancey Co. shows William 21 and Sarah 23 with new baby James, who is 1.

  According to this, William would be born in 1829... or about age 33 to 34 in 1862. Since his tombstone says he was born in 1826.  Maybe a typo?  Number inversion?

 

"In the 1860 Census I find the family listed as Wm Angland, Jr., with his father listed above him, (next door) as Wm Angland Sr. with Elizabeth. There are two children listed here that I find no where else ever (Jona and Silas.) Brother Raburn Angland lives next door w his wife Sarah C." WCA  Little did they know their lives were about to be turned upside down.... but I didn't record the age from this record.

 

Another record of his enlistment stated that he didn't enlist until the 15th - a few days after Raburn:

"William was enlisted in Co. G, 58th. North Carolina Infantry Regiment. The unit was formed on July 11, 1862. Four days later, William enlisted on July 15, 1862. Records state he was 34 years old, and 5' 10" in height. His unit was mustered into service of the C.S.A. on July 24, 1862. Co. G. was sent to Johnson City, TN for drill instruction and received limited dry run training in the nearby local Tennessee mountains. The company received their first battle orders on or about Aug 26, 1862."WCA/JRW

So most records say age 34, therefore being born 1829, if we do the math. 

 

( I love the description of him.  And this record says exactly where the unit was sent from Yancey County.)

 

So in spite of the minor discrepancies, we know that this farmer, who must have known a little something about playing a fife, (flute), or music of some kind, left believing he was going to be in the same unit as his brother, and would be playing in the Fife and Drum Corp. The notes a Fifer played indicated what the calls and commands of the officers were, above the din of war.  Something that was unusual about all this was that at age 34, he was only months from being exempt from service.  In fact, if he actually was born in 1826 he would have been age 36.  One year older than the age for conscription.  He should have been able to bow out, in either case perhaps, but with Northern troops pressing in on them, and his brother being required to go no matter what, he enlisted.  If he waited 4 days, it suggests he may have had a difficult time making that decision. 

 

This scanned image from the same book, is of a plate shared by Mrs. J. C. Todd of Lenoir, NC as an example of how a Fifer would have been dressed. According to the Park Ranger to whom I spoke, they also would have carried weaponry.  He also explained to me that William would have been trained with a unit of men who played either the Fife or drums, and the cadence of the drums would sound the marching pace, but the fifes would sound the command.  A commander, on horseback, would have stayed behind the marching unit of infantry, the cavalry, the artillery and the unit playing the fifes and drums. When he called his command, the men in the midst of fire couldn't have heard the human voice making the calls. So the person leading the Music Corp had better hear him, and get it right. His unit would then, play the command.  This took hours of practice and precision, which we see began when the unit left  Yancey Co. NC and began drill in Johnson City, TN.

 

They had moved NW through the mountains, along a well used, but very mountainous path to just over the NC/TN line, eventually working toward the North Border of Kentucky and Tennessee, near the Cumberland Gap. They were expected to ward off the southward moving Federal troops from coming through a place in the Cumberland Gap, due only to their sheer numbers. congregating on that line.  They joined troops from Tennessee, but because of the proximity to the Kentucky line, it was learned that there were double agents suspected to be among their ranks. It set a bad Omen over them from the beginning.  Their leadership began to be suspicious of all the men coming out of NC. A lot is written about how difficult it was for the men to regain the trust lost because of a few.  Had the northern troops known how sick these men coming from various areas were becoming, they could have won the war on the TN/KTY border.  But perhaps the Northern troops were experiencing the illnesses too.

 

A third record is transcribed below: Notice that Raburn had begun as a 2nd Sgt. in Co. C, according to this record but was reduced to Private by 1864.  He was "paroled" in 1865 from Greensboro.  It appears he was taken prisoner and held for about a year.:

 

 

 On this list we find an 18 year old James G. Anglin,  a William Anglin who died in Macon, and another William who enlisted out of Boone, NC. Two of these men, also from Yancey Co, NC were in Co C with Raburn. Had they been transferred when Raburn was? Did that leave our William without familiar family around him? Could they still see one another on occasion?  I haven't sorted out who the other men belong to in the larger family, but it does attest to the Anglin family being larger than just our line. ( I believe it is James G. Anglin and the William Anglin who died in Macon who were also brothers.)

 

There is a notation on Our William's records that say he was MWIA. As it does with the cousin who died in Macon as well. I found the above information that gives explanation on a roster for  Cajun Confederate troops. It means MORTALLY WOUNDED IN ACTION. Not an immediate death, but one that comes as a result of the wounds over a course of days or months.

 

This occurred for William at Chickamauga - so how did he get to that fateful day? I was curious, so I read for days through the journals of his units, and a story emerged. Let me use maps to help us know how it happened. Beginning at the Cumberland Gap:

 

On this map, courtesy of Google, we can see that the 58th NC was doing drills and joining forces with TN troops where VA, Kty, & TN come together.  They are almost due North of Knoxville.  As more and more men arrive, they bring diseases - The units begin their surge south anticipating the congregation of Northern troops moving south as well, through Western NC and to the West of them, moving through TN. The 58th began a zigzag pattern of movement...I don't remember if I wrote down every town, but I am sure I picked up on most of the places where they changed direction..
They moved SW to La Follette, Tn. where the trains came in from the North. The train tracks cross modern day I-75 just SW of here.  They turned sharply SE and probably used the water to help transport them to an area where they camped just NW of what is now Norris Lake. They then changed direction again and moved down through areas near Norris TN, crossing what would be Modern I-75, heading to Clinton, TN.  (see map:)

By February 28, 1863, William has been sick for a long time. But he returned to duty by March/April musters. He was among the lucky ones - for now. At Delap TN, in Campbell Co, there is a cemetery record that indicates the worst of it took lives in the 58th camp. An Alice Coker helped a visitor searching for her ancestors find the graves of the men from the 58th. A record from Campbell Co. Gen Web's Cemetery Census reads as follows:
"From the visitor Coker learned that records showed members of the 58th Regiment of the Confederate Army of NC were buried at Delap....'The winter of 1862-1863 at Delay was a very harsh winter,' Coker found after doing more research. 'Over 1000 men came from Cumberland Gap where Tennesseans had joined the troops. (The regiment was formed at Camp Martin in Mitchell County, NC.) The regiment was assigned to guard Big Creek Gap.' ....Records show that a total of 50 men died while camped in the Jacksboro area."

According to Silver Threads 50 known are listed, but over 100 who died in the area are interred there.
Many men whose families could not understand where their Confederate soldier disappeared to, may have been buried in this cemetery after succumbing to severe illness.

But as the men began to re-enter ranks, it was deemed to be close enough to their home in Yancey, NC and Mitchell Co. that it was the last chance to give these men leave.  According to the report I read, with excerpts from the officers involved, it was thought that leave was given officially.  Men from the 58th were supposed to take 2 weeks to go home before the troops began their hard push south toward Chattanooga. Not all were given leave naturally, but those who had been sickest were thought to benefit from visiting with families.  One young man, let his men go, and discovered too late, that the leave had been rescinded. Among those men, now on an illegal leave, was William Anglin.  Rumors and some reports suggested that a few of the men who left, planned to join Northern troops. Some, including at least one of the Silver men who became entrapped by Federal troops moving south, found themselves unable to go home, nor to return to their own units fearing capture by the Northern troops amassing from every direction, and were reported as AWOL.  It appeared that William was also reported as AWOL, but returned to his unit within the time allotted and faced an investigation. 

Without the aid of "cell phones", or even "land lines and radios"..how were they supposed to know their leave was cancelled? Did William make it home and return, unaware of charges severe enough to almost get him hanged? Or did messengers, sent out, reach him before he arrived back in Yancey?  Somehow, William only received a reduction in rank, and lost his right to be in the Musicians Corp.  He now had to learn how to be a grunt and fast.  Without former training in that area, he must become an infantryman. Good with a gun, not a flute.  Most mountain men would have no trouble with the gun part.  But now, he would be out front where men's lives were definitely in jeopardy.  No less than many others, but what a shock, especially for someone who had done nothing but want to check on family, and perhaps see that baby. I believe there were at least 8 who were hanged because they weren't cleared of being traitors.  What a burden hanging over his very tired head! No pun intended.

Thus, by Clinton TN his record was marred, and an heir of mistrust hung over his head. Clinton is West of where I-75 runs SE toward Knoxville.

 

 

Here's  a close up: on modern maps, the Railroad goes directly from Clinton into Knoxville and back toward Mars Hill, or Asheville, NC.

 



From Clinton, the movement of the 58th got serious.  They covered a lot of ground around Oak Ridge, sagging SW to Kingston.  (From our Hawkwatch on Soddy Mtn/FlatTop, we can see the Kingston Steam stacks, on a clear day.) Kingston is just NE of what is now Watt's Bar Lake and NW of  Loudon.  Remember there were no Dams on these rivers at the time. It's difficult to know exactly if these men traveled at this point over land or by water. But they arrived to an encampment just West of what is now known as Fort Loudon Lake.  Another Severe change of direction toward the East.  Some time was spent here in preparation of heading into concentrations of northern troops heading into and already established near and south of Chattanooga. They were well aware of large concentrations of "enemy" moving in similar paths to their own, but further west.  But the northern troops arriving ahead of them, were already destroying Railroad connections, especially the one at Ringgold.  The station there was ....well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Suffice it to say that little town will play an important role in this story, later.

The zigzags stay East of the present path of I-75 from this point on until Chattanooga.  The 58th moved SW toward Lenoir City and to Loudon, then swung SE to the Tellico area. They swung West toward Sweetwater but abruptly began a more southerly track.

Please note that these maps are scans of pages from my book, so they contain a bit of repeat in the info on the pages.  But seeing the picture of these troops using waterways and Railways, much differently than we imagine in the 21st century is important to understanding William's story. We must see him having difficulty with food and water, with fresh clothes, and everyday life. They had been weakened by the illnesses, and there weren't vitamins for them to take.  This long hard trek was taking its toll.  Any chance to ride down a river on a barge, or catch a train was welcome.  But heavy rains were beginning to make the roads difficult to travel.  So they sometimes stayed off the roads for more than the obvious military reasons.

 The above map appears to have the men arrive directly into Chickamauga.  But in actuality, they passed further South to somewhere between Lafayette, Ga., and Chickamauga.  They set up camp, and were told to sleep, wake early and get nourished before moving out toward the battle grounds. What actually happened, was they were awakened to a command to move out.  They were being required to face the long day of battle without food.  They were much too tired from the long push from near Sweetwater South, to be going without food, but that is exactly what they had to do. That was critical, because during the last two days of marching, making the final push to arrive to the staging areas around the upcoming battle grounds, they had eaten little to nothing.  Someone wrote of a man saying he would have killed for a biscuit, he was so hungry.  And after the battle, it wasn't much better. Especially for wounded men left behind lying in the mud.

My heart ached already for the hardships William had suffered over these difficult months. But the next two days to 3 weeks of his life just are heart wrenching!! He is positioned after a long march into great numbers of men converging onto a major battle, without having the benefit of food that had been promised them for days.  They arrived on the 19th, the fateful day would be the 20th.
I am stopping here for now.  Part 2 we will discuss the battle itself.  Not in detail, but getting us through the day on the 20th, to understand in general where the 58th was and when during the day.  If there is anything to look forward to in this story, it is that these brave men pushed back the Federal Troops, and won the day.  Some say that they had something to prove.  But they did it at great cost. 

Following part 2, Part 3 will begin to discuss William's battle for life as a wounded warrior, he was moved with the hospital units ever further south, into unfamiliar places  until he could go no more. I may break part 3 into two parts. One that will deal with the story of Ringgold, and its amazing place in his story.  And then end Part 3 with the Story of the Confederate Cemetery, and the Railroad story that continues even to that beautiful place.   The railroad is the thread that weaves throughout this story, and I almost wrote the whole story out of Railroad documents about these years and in places along this route.  There are so many stories.  But also the medical records -- the place where I actually found the whole truth about why William would have been where all along the way after being wounded.  I had to rule out battles, hospitals, other wounded men, and men killed in train wrecks before I go to the truth.  But once I had dug through the records, I had satisfied myself, that the record most definitely indicates that he is indeed buried in the Confederate Cemetery as his stone in Yancey Co. NC indicates.  I can't place him at a specific stone yet in that Cemetery, but I can place him in the Hospital Section of burial plots.

I am so glad to actually be getting these materials on the blog.  I hope scanners etc continue to work so I can continue to post the materials with the pictures and visuals I have collected. It becomes more believable to most people.  There will be a couple of interesting side stories, so stick to it, and read --- don't scan the material.  It's your story, if you are a descendant of William Anglin, Jr., the Confederate Soldier.