Tom Martin Chapter 2

 WAR

   In 1861 the seceding states formed the Confederacy and the fighting began when Confederate troops fired on the Union’s Fort Sumter, in South Carolina. The Martins and close relatives were on both sides, but most were Unionists. In Joel Feagley Martin’s family all were Unionists, however the oldest surviving son Sam Martin who had been living in Texas for several years was drafted into the Confederate army. In April of 1862 the event which brought the horrors of war to the Martins became known as “The Great Hangings at Gainesville”. Gainesville was a small city which was the county seat of Cooke County, Texas. Throughout Texas county-wide voting had been held on the question of seceding from the Union, and only a handful of counties voted in favor of staying in the Union. Cooke County voted to stay; the majority of the voters were small farmers who were not slave holders and saw no reason to secede. Texas did secede and then the Confederacy passed a law that all able-bodied men between 18 - 35 must join the Confederate Army except that men with 10 or more slaves were exempted. The small farmers in Cooke County saw this as clearly unfair and many of them signed a petition to eliminate the exemption to the Confederate congress (then in Montgomery, Alabama). A couple (at least) of wealthy slaveholders took advantage by claiming that the signers of the petition were dangerous supporters of the Union. With their wealth they controlled the sheriff and the judges; they hired gunslingers to round up the small farmers and brought them before a kangaroo court. They were all found guilty, and all 41 were hanged.Three of the lynched men were Martins or close relatives. In particular Richard N. Martin was a first cousin to Thomas Jefferson Martin. It was clear to Tom Martin and his brothers that their duty was to serve. 

   Sam had been forced to serve in the rebel army and the next older brother Reason was crippled and unable to serve. Then in order of age was Levi who was 19 in 1862; he enlisted in Co. G, 130th Illinois Infantry. He was captured and spent the last year of the war in the POW Camp (Camp Ford) at Tyler, Texas where his brother Sam was a guard. Camp Ford was relatively well run, and Levi was happy enough to sit out the rest of the war.

   In February of 1864 Tom Martin and his cousin Daniel Parker Martin, both 19, enlisted in Co. A, 7th Illinois Infantry. The 7th Illinois was probably the best armed regiment in the Union army; they were armed with Henry lever action repeating rifles. These rifles could hold 16 rounds in the magazine and could fire much faster than the standard single shot rifles that were used by most soldiers on both sides. The soldiers of the 7th Illinois bought their own Henry rifles for $50. A Private’s pay was $13 per month, so they would pay about $4 a month for a year.

   Tom and Dan Martin were 2 of 200 recruits assembled on Feb 18 at Camp Butler Illinois, about 90 miles from Mattoon. They left for Pulaski, Tennessee and arrived at Feb 27, and shortly left for another 90 miles to Florence, Alabama. Company A. was based at Florence and their assignment was to patrol the Tennessee River to prevent the confederates from using the river for transport. There was almost no time for training the new recruits, so they must have been training “on the job”.

   All evidently went well through March and April, but on May 7, 1864 a confederate brigade crossed the river and attacked the union forces at Florence. The rebels greatly outnumbered the union soldiers and after six hours of fierce fighting the union forces retreated. The after-action report said “...a loss of three officers and 32 men wounded and captured.” It is not clear if some were wounded and others captured or if all 32 men were captured, but in any case Tom Martin was one of the captured men. As it turned out, on May 13 the union forces counter-attacked and drove the rebels back across the river and took many rebels captive. Meanwhile Tom Martin and the other Union captives were being taken to the confederate POW camp at Columbia, South Carolina. It’s not clear just where Tom escaped, but he said he escaped after 7 days of marching, and then 15 days of traveling at night, hiding during the day and being helped and fed by escaped slaves until he reached union gunboats on a bend at the Tennessee River at Clifton, Tennessee. After about six weeks in all Tom rejoined the 7th Illinois at Rome, Georgia. It is not clear whether he immediately returned to Company A or was temporarily assigned to Company B, but in any case the 7th Illinois was patrolling the railroad until early July, and then they moved to the south side of the Etowah River northwest of Atlanta until October 3. It appears that they had a few weeks of relative quiet. When Tom was captured it is almost certain that his captors took his Henry rifle, and I suppose he must have acquired another when he rejoined his company. His medical record has only one entry; he was on the sick list from Sept 28 until Oct 2 when he was returned to duty. The diagnosis was intermittent fever, which was a common diagnosis and could have been the result of any number of infections. In any case he was back on duty just in time for a nasty fight. 

   On October 3 the 7th Illinois and three other regiments were ordered to Allatoona, an important rail junction about 30 miles north of Atlanta. General Sherman needed to control Allatoona to move through Atlanta to continue his march to the sea, and the confederate General Hood needed to stop Sherman. On the morning of October 5 the battle commenced, with over 5000 troops in all. The Confederates had an advantage in numbers (roughly 3000 to 2000) but the 7th Illinois with their Henry rifles had the advantage in firepower, and at the end of the day the Confederates were forced to retreat. Overall there were about 1600 casualties in all. General Sherman wrote: “For the numbers engaged, they stood upon the bloodiest battlefield ever known upon the American continent”. The march to the sea continued.

   Sherman’s union forces were stronger than any the confederacy could muster, except for one last stand at Bentonville, North Carolina. The confederate forces under General Johnston numbered about 20,000 men while Sherman had more than twice as many. The fighting lasted three days, March 19-21, and at the end Sherman’s march was hardly slowed. This was the last major battle of the Civil War and the war essentially ended on April 5, 1865 as Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. Tom Martin was discharged on July 9, 1865. There is no doubt that Tom was not the 19 year old boy who had enlisted just 18 months before.