Tag: Civil War

April 15, 2018 Dennis Ayers

When Peter Jackson died he left the family farm to his two sons, John age 23 and George age 16. The farm was worth about $1200, and was located in the Haws Crossroads community about 4 miles west of Jonesborough, and 1 mile east of present day Interstate 81. The arrangements for dividing the farm are not known, but George did not stay around long. By 1856 he moved to Monroe County, Kentucky, where he married Rebecca Ford and settled down in that area. So, John became the sole owner of the family property. He had been romancing a young woman who lived not far away. John  and Margaret “Peggy” Hale were married in 1853. They proceeded to have a total of 9 children by 1871.

As previously mentioned on several occasions, when the Civil War broke out in 1861, East Tennessee was severely conflicted with a mixture of Union and Confederate sympathizers. In September 1863, John William Jackson chose to join the Union side at age 38 leaving a young family behind. He joined the 8th Reg’t Tennessee Cavalry, Company H, as a Private, enlisting at Mossy Creek. Recall, that was the same Union Regiment in which some of our Derrie ancestors also served. The 8th Cavalry participated in battles and skirmishes throughout East Tennessee until the wars end. It also participated in the Battle of Chickamauga just across the Georgia line near Chattanooga, TN. Thankfully, John Jackson returned home safely, unlike another John Jackson from Washington County who is sometimes confused with our ancestor, but who died from dissentery in a hospital in Gallatin, TN.

Although the initial circumstances are unknown, the John Jackson family became very close to the Zachariah Chandler family which lived in the Buffalo Ridge community north of Jonesborough. This is evidenced by multiple marriages between the families. First as mentioned above George Jackson married Rebecca Ford. Well, Rebecca’s mother was Elizabeth Chandler, Zachariah’s sister. Then three John Jackson siblings married three Zachariah Chandler siblings as follows:

James Jackson married Sarah Chandler in 1879.     —     Our direct ancestors

Sarah Jackson married James Chandler in 1881.

Martha Jackson married John Chandler in 1886.

 

Most of his life John Jackson was a farmer. However, records show that he was no more successful than his father, Peter. Although the devastation of the Civil War no doubt had a large impact, by 1870 John’s wealth had dwindled to only 1 horse and livestock worth just $200. So, it is understandable that he turned to work in his later years as a carpenter. It is believed that John died sometime in the 1890s, but no records have been found providing exact date and place. Based on John’s war service, Margaret later applied for a widow’s pension in 1898, but she too died soon after.

 

April 5, 2013 Dennis No comments exist

FactoidDiseases were the silent killers during the Civil War.  With so many soldiers gathered in such small areas with generally unsanitary conditions, diseases were able to spread rapidly. There were a whole host of them but the worst of all was by far Dysentery caused by contaminated water. This disease alone accounted for around 100,000 deaths on both sides.  Other common diseases were Typhoid, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Pneumonia.

 

Measles which killed William Depew also killed around 11,000 soldiers total. Not as many as other diseases, but Measles had its fair share. About 1 in 20 people who got this disease died as a result of it.

 

Unfortunately, the biggest thing that all of these Civil War diseases had in common was the fact that at the time nobody had any idea how to cure them.

 

April 3, 2013 Dennis No comments exist

civil warIn the Derrie chapter of our family history, I told the story about the William Derryberry family in Greene County, TN having sons who fought on opposing sides in the Civil War. Read on and you will hear another similar story about Isaac Newton Depew’s family.

 

First, it is worthwhile to set the scene. Isaac and his wife Betsy were married and started their family in Hawkins County, TN. However, in 1844 the part of the county where they lived was removed from Hawkins and became Hancock County. The new small county was nestled up against the Virginia line on the north and separated from Hawkins County and most of East TN by Clinch Mountain on the south side. The seat of the new county was originally called Greasy Rock, but the name was later changed to Sneedville. Consisting of small valleys and hollows squeezed in between 800 foot taller mountains, Hancock County was from the onset very rural and very poor. Still there were some slaves, even in an area that was comprised mostly of small farmers. In 1860 there was a total of only 66 slaveowners and 243 slaves.

 

Isaac’s two oldest children were sons. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, William Rufus was 20 years old and his brother Joseph was 19. Like the rest of East TN the county was divided by the war. With slavery not a big issue for county residentsBattle of Murfreesboro there was not much at stake except perhaps southern pride. You can imagine the Depew family conversations or arguments over the war especially since Isaac was a preacher. Being very close in age, William and Joseph must have been very close brothers, but they ultimately decided to choose different sides of the conflict.

 

William was the first to jump in when he joined the Confederacy along with some others from the county by enlisting as a Private in the 29th Regiment Tennessee Infantry in Nov of 1861 at Knoxville. The 29th Infantry was part of the Army of Tennessee and it participated in various campaigns in central TN including the Battle of Murfreesboro in late 1862. Around that same time records show that William appears on a list of casualties as slightly wounded. However, he actually died later on Jan 28, 1863 from measles while in the hospital in Chattanooga. He William Rufus Depew HSwas buried in an unmarked grave at the Chattanooga Confederate Cemetery. More than 135 years later, a Depew descendant sought to rectify the injustice of William Depew’s unmarked gravesite. Billy Edwards took action to have authorities erect a nice headstone for William at the Cemetery in Chattanooga.

 

When Joseph Depew decided to join the fighting he enlisted as a Private with the Union Army. He joined the 47th Kentucky Mounted Infantry Regiment at Irvine, KY in Sept 1863. His unit operated mostly in Eastern KY during the war guarding the railroads and saw little fighting and almost no casualties. Finally, Joseph was mustered out unharmed in Dec 1864. Since Joseph didn’t even join until months after his brother William had died in a  hospital farther south, they never came close to opposing each other in battle. Still this story is similar to that of many families divided by the Civil War.

 

March 6, 2012 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

As mentioned earlier, Robert and Sarah Derryberry/Derrie had three daughters and four sons.  Their oldest son was my grandfather,Thomas Washington Derrie, who I knew only briefly before his death.  Sadly, Thomas never knew either of his two grandfathers. Both were killed in the Civil War fighting for the South before he was born. The death of his father’s father, James Derryberry, at age 25 in the battle of Atlanta was described in an earlier post. The death of his mother’s father, George Washington Clowers, at age 34 in the battle of Winchester, VA, will be described in a future post when I discuss the Clowers. I wonder how many other children have lost both grandfather’s to the devastation of war?

 

Thomas Derrie was born in 1883 in Greene County, TN. Tom, as everyone called him, grew up working on his father’s farm near Warrensburg. He only attended school until the second grade and by age 18 he could not yet read or write. In 1903 he lost his own father, Robert, and in 1904 at the age of 22 he married Myrtle Jackson. Myrtle was born in Washington County, TN, in 1888 but her family had moved to neighboring Greene County. Coming from a large and poor family she was turned out at a very early age to be a live-in servant to a local merchant. Tom must have met her when he went to the store where she lived. They married when Myrtle, with black hair and light blue eyes, was only 15 years old. She must have wanted to get away, because she later said that the family she had worked for treated her poorly and didn’t feed her very much. By 1910 Tom and Myrtle had started their family and moved to Jacksboro in Campbell County, TN, perhaps because Myrtle’s father and mother had earlier relocated there.

 

Tom Derrie was of medium height and a somewhat stout man. He had brown hair and brown eyes. In his early 30’s, he worked in the nearby Caryville coal mines until around 1915 when his left lower leg was severely mangled while operating a coal crushing machine. The story is that after the other miners freed him from the machine, they took him to his house where the doctor cut off his leg just below the knee while he laid on the kitchen table. How painful that must have been, but there were no hospitals in the county. He must have received a cash settlement from the coal mines, because in 1917 he and Myrtle purchased a house in Jacksboro for $300. However, continuing to make a living with only one good leg became extremely difficult.

 

Altogether, Tom and Myrtle had eleven children between 1905 and 1927. Unfortunately, only five of them grew to adulthood: Lillian, Alma, Alvin (Bud), Helen and Veatta. Most of the others died at birth or at a very early age, but nine-year old Dorothy died after the doctor lanced her tonsils and she bled to death. There is also the story that they lost two young ones during the great Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-1919 which cost millions of lives around the world. Tom had to dig the graves while he too suffered from the flu. There was always sorrow in their household from the many lost children.

 

1913 Model T Touring Car
1913 Model T Touring Car

In an attempt to support his family after losing his leg, Tom bought an old Model T touring car with button-down side window curtains, and became a taxi driver. Fixing constant flat tires and making frequent repairs on that old car trained him to be especially good at fixing autos. As a result, he eventually gave up the taxi and became an auto mechanic. Perhaps seeking more work around 1923, he moved the family five miles down the road to LaFollette to a house on Tennessee Ave, which they rented for $10 per month. By 1937, the family moved into a house about a mile outside of town on Highway 25W at Coke Oven Hill which they rented for $5 per month. This house was unpainted and very drafty. In 1945, they were somehow able to purchase the house and property which had 160 ft of road frontage for $150. Tom then built a good-sized garage next to the house to repair cars. Unfortunately, business was not very good, and due to various reasons the years in LaFollette were not kind to the family as they often lived in great poverty with few clothes and barely enough food to eat.

 

Tom suffered continuously with his amputated leg, and his crude, wooden artificial leg never fit well, always causing sores on the stub. That together with his inability to make a decent income and his family sorrows, caused him to become a bitter man and a heavy drinker over the years. His drinking problems also eventually dragged down Myrtle, and others close to him into the same sad and deplorable situation. The heavy drinking only made their financial condition worse. Finally, in 1949, Tom suffered a ruptured appendix and after three days in the hospital died from complications at age 65. He was taken to a mortuary on the second floor above a furniture store. His oldest daughter, Lillian, had heard there were rats in the building and stayed with his body all night for protection. Tom is buried in the Jacksboro Cemetery.

 

Myrtle remarried in 1951 to Henry White, sold the house at Coke Oven Hill, and moved into his small house in LaFollette proper. It was a marriage of companionship and they lived comfortably for a few years. In 1956, she apparently developed breast cancer, but before treatment she died from a heart attack at age 66.  She is buried next to Tom in the Jacksboro Cemetery.

 

January 29, 2012 Dennis No comments exist

Most people have read or heard stories about the American Civil War causing brothers to fight on opposite sides for the North and the South, and about soldiers fighting first on one side and then the other. Well, all this actually happened in our Derryberry family history. Read on to find out the complicated circumstances.

 

William Derreberry was a farmer and a shoemaker.  When William and his wife Mary (Polly) migrated to Greene County, TN in the 1850s, their two oldest offspring, Susan and Barnabas, were already married and stayed behind in North Carolina. Jefferson, aka Jesse, was also married but chose to travel with the family as did their three youngest sons, James, John and Thomas.  After arriving in Tennessee, James, who is our ancestor, and his brother John married two Garmon sisters in August 1857, one week apart. The marriages took place down the river in neighboring Jefferson County, TN. Then due to an untimely death or some other unknown reason, James got married a second time just a year and a half later to Elizabeth Hansel also in Jefferson County.

 

In the Spring of 1861, seven southern states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. This triggered the War Between the North and the South or the American Civil War. East Tennessee was very divided by the war with people only choosing sides when compelled. William Derreberry and his sons must have had very mixed emotions about the war and perhaps disagreements between family members. None immediately jumped at the chance to go fight. At first the Confederacy relied on volunteer soldiers, but within a year they began conscripting all males between 18 and 35 years of age. This probably caused John Derryberry to be the first in the family to side with the South. In July of 1862, at age 21, he enlisted as a private in the 64th North Carolina Infantry Regiment when it formed in Madison County, NC. Then a month later James Derryberry, at age 23, also enlisted as a private in the 64th when the regiment had reached Sevier County, TN. Since he had learned the shoe making trade from his father, James was put to work making and repairing shoes. Thomas Derryberry was too young to be conscripted.

 

Poor food, boredom, unhealthy camp conditions, fear of death, and homesickness caused desertion to be a frequent occurrence on both sides. Soldiers close to their homes were especially sensitive to conditions there, and bad news consequently contributed to desertion, particularly among Confederate soldiers.  Being not far from home in Eastern TN, John Derryberry developed a history of desertion.  He first deserted in November 1862, then returned to duty in February 1863 only to desert again in Knoxville in July 1863. Then John totally switched sides and together with his brother, Jesse, joined the Union Army in Greenville, TN. Why did he jump to the side of the Union?  Obviously, he didn’t care for the conditions on the Confederate side, and perhaps his brother Jesse talked him into it. Regardless, they both enlisted on the same day in August 1863 in the 8th Tennessee Cavalry.

 

John enlisted as a private and went to work as a Blacksmith, and Jesse enlisted as a Corporal, perhaps because at 25 he was older and more mature. Both were described as  5 ft 8 in tall, with John having a dark complexion, dark eyes and hair, and Jesse having a fair complexion with blue eyes and brown hair. They both fought with the 8th Cavalry until the end of the war, and according to records they were mustered out in Sept 1865. However, after the war, John and Jesse  completely disappear from all records. It is highly probable that they both died near the end of the war and their muster out records were incorrectly completed.

 

Meanwhile, our ancestor, James Derryberry, served for the South with the 64th North Carolina Infantry until Sept 1863. Unfortunately, during his time with that unit, the 64th was involved in one of the greatest atrocities of the war which took place in a remote Appalachian valley of Madison County, North Carolina called Shelton Laurel. In January 1863, under orders from their commander, soldiers from the 64th shot and killed 13 Union sympathizers without any trial or hearing whatsoever. There were many factors that lead up to the Shelton Laurel massacre with grievous errors in judgement on both sides. To learn more, I recommend reading the book Victims A True Story of the Civil War by Phillip Shaw Paludan, which also gives a good depiction of the horrific guerrilla fighting conditions in the mountains. It is unknown whether James Derryberry took part in the actual killings, but probably not as shoe makers typically stayed behind in camp to apply their trade and didn’t normally participate in raids or skirmishes.

Civil War Shoes

 

By the Fall of 1863, James was detailed to Atlanta to help make and repair shoes at a central location for the Confederacy.  Muster Roll and Pay receipts show that he was “bottoming shoes” and receiving 35 cents per pair. He was then transferred to Major Bridewell’s unit in July 1864. Major Bridewell was the quartermaster for the Confederate clothing depot, which was located outside of Atlanta. General Sherman’s successful siege of Atlanta and march to the sea by Union Forces occurred in late Summer and Fall of 1864. Since there are no further records of James Derryberrry after July 1864, it is strongly believed that he met his death at the hands of Sherman’s troops sometime during that period. He was only 25 years old!

 

April 15, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

Bailey Ayers had four sons. By about 1840 they had all moved from Kentucky across the border into Tennessee.  The sons names were John (Jackie), Elihu (Lihu), James (Jim), and Elcanah (Cain) with our ancestor being Elihu Ayers.  They eventually homesteaded in the mountains of Campbell County in a remote area called Stinking Creek, which is a long valley with Pine Mountain on one side, Walnut Mountain on the other and the the unfortunately named stream running the length of the valley for about 20 miles.

 

The first people, other than the native Indians, to inhabit these mountains and valley lands were the long hunters like Daniel Boone and a few before him.  Liking the abundance of game, clear water and fertile land in the valleys, these hunter-explorers became the first settlers to make their homes in an untamed wilderness.

 

The first settlers actually sought out isolation, and perhaps this is why the Ayers brothers too moved to the Stinking Creek area from Kentucky which was quickly gaining population in the 1800s.  For these backwoods settlers, however, death was a constant concern. Disease and accidents were prevalent. There was a continuous threat of being killed by wild animals or even other humans. Hospitals were nonexistent, and doctors were few and far away. Children were delivered by midwives, and many infants and mothers died in childbirth. They lived in log cabins, farmed and hunted the land, and had large families.

 

Their homes were built by cutting logs by hand, and they also made crude furniture from logs. They split logs to make fence rails. It was back breaking work. Big open fireplaces were built out of rocks and used for preparing meals. They raised corn, tobacco, cotton, and potatoes as crops, and had gardens for other vegetables. They raised cattle, sheep and hogs as livestock with kept chickens for eggs. The hogs and chickens usually ran free around the farm and adjacent fields and woods. The forests furnished deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, fish and rabbits. Their clothes were hand made from the cotton and the sheep wool. They made lye from hickory wood ashes and boiled it with animal grease to make soap.

 

The Ayers brothers certainly did their part of propagating the family genes as they gave the Stinking Creek area many descendants.  For example, our ancestor, Elihu Ayers,  married Theresa (Thursey) Wilburn and together they had eleven children, eight of which were boys, and the boys that lived to adulthood in turn had large families. So, the Ayers name quickly became prominent in that part of the county with many of the same given names such as Elihu, John, James, William, etc., repeated over and over again through generations.

“Lihu” Ayers

 

In 1860, Elihu was age 41 and already had his large family.  He had a farm valued at $600 (~$15,000 in 2010) which was larger than his two next door brothers, and a personal estate of $275.  He is said to have had a high tempered nature.

 

In 1861, the Civil War became a tragedy both nationally and locally. Just prior to the outbreak of the war, Campbell County had a population of 6712 with only 61 people owning a total of 366 slaves. Since the ownership of slaves directly impacted only a few, and no one in the mountains, there was little sentiment in Campbell County for the Confederate cause. In fact, this was true for most of the counties of Eastern Tennessee, but despite their resistance to separate from the Union, they were outvoted by the rest of the state.  So, Campbell County became an island of Union sympathy surrounded by a sea of Confederate support, with many men in the county joining Union regiments formed not far away in Kentucky. Early in the war, the nearby Cumberland Gap at the border of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, was thought to be of strategic importance to both sides. As a result, Campbell County suffered greatly at times in 1862 and 1863 as both armies fought and scavenged in the county as they tried to secure the Gap for their side.

 

It is totally unclear the extent to which Elihu Ayers and his various relations in the Stinking Creek area may have participated in the Civil War. Many records were lost, especially for the Confederate service. Existing Confederate and Union service records simply do not list any Ayers from Campbell County. Perhaps his age and family situation, and the fact that he was a farmer living far off the beaten path on the backside of nowhere in the mountains, allowed Elihu to somehow avoid the conflict. Interestingly, he had cousins in Virginia and in southern TN, (tracing back to old Nathaniel Ayers in VA) also named Elihu, who did in fact fight in the war for the South.

 

Elihu was a farmer his whole life.  He died at age 77 in 1896 just a year after his wife Thursey died.