Stephen Clement Attebery (Part 1)

    I have been writing about my ancestor's parts in the American civil war, and most recently about John Cantrell Fite. I am now waiting for possible information from the federal archives about the wounds he certainly received and any other details about his service in the Union cavalry. Meanwhile I am diverging to write about my great great-grandfather (my mother's father's mother's father) Stephen Clement Attebery. Several years ago I quoted a biographical sketch of him from "Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County", 1892, and I'll try now to add some details.

   The large Attebery family in the U. S. has been well researched, and they have been quite prolific. Families with more than a dozen children were common, and even siblings sometimes spelled the surname differently. Some of the spellings are: Atterbury, Atteberry, Attebery, etc. The patriarch was a convict, born in London in 1710. At that time British law was exceptionally harsh, and a convicted thief could be hanged or imprisoned for many years. Evidently hanging was considered a bit much for petty theft or similar, so the jails and prisons were overflowing. Meanwhile in the American colonies some of the colonists were slaveholders, and others would like to have slaves but couldn't afford them. So a system was developed: many thieves, drunkards and "ne'er do wells" were convicted and sentenced to "Transportation". This was free passage to America, but on arrival the "passengers" were auctioned off for seven years of servitude. After seven years the convict was free. The colonists got cheap slaves, and the ship's captain got a share of the auction price, so the "passengers" were kept in general working order. There are stories of down and out folks in England who, in desperation, would commit a petty theft and thus trade seven years of servitude to get to the American colonies. In fact, perhaps a quarter of all the British immigrants to colonial America between 1718 - 1775 were transported convicts.

   William Atterbury was tried and convicted in February 1733 (in the "Old Bailey")  of stealing 5 yards of linsey-woolsey, and sentenced to Transportation. Linsey-woolsey was a coarse, tough and warm cloth that was woven with linen warp and wool weft. It was used for outer clothing, and was worn by ordinary folks; it was not expensive. We'll probably never know whether William was a common thief or was looking for passage to America. In any case he arrived in Annapolis in November 1733 aboard the ship Patapsco and was immediately auctioned for 7 years of servitude. I haven't seen records of his price or the details of his servitude, but he was 23 years old and probably healthy and strong. It is likely that he worked in the Annapolis shipyard for the next 7 years.

   William would have finished his servitude in 1740, and by 1746 he was farming land he now owned in Maryland. He was married (his wife's name was Sarah) and they had children. In 1754 he sold his land for "three thousand pounds of tobacco", and moved across the Potomac River into Virginia where he lived until his death in 1767. 

   William was the great grandfather of Stephen Clement Attebery, and the next 50 years and two generations between them are complicated, and Part 2 will try to cover the period. 

      

John Cantrell Fite (Part 2)

   Early in the 1800s John Fite had developed his homestead in what in 1837 became DeKalb County, Tennessee, about 30 miles east of Nashville. He and Martha raised seven children, two of whom became Baptist ministers: Moses Fite, born in 1791, and Henry Fite, born in 1800. Even though John had never been ordained, he was respected as an elder and he was known as Reverend John. By 1809 a young man from South Carolina had moved into the area and quickly became known as an energetic and devout Baptist. This was Cantrell Bethel, who must have been drawn to Rev. John Fite because they established a church which became the Salem Baptist Church in the town of LIberty. Cantrell was born in 1779, and Rev. John probably thought of him as an older brother to Moses and Henry. In 1829 Henry Fite’s first son was born and named John for his grandfather and Cantrell for his surrogate uncle.

Henry Fite spent most of his life near Liberty, Tennessee and continued his father’s work as a religious worker. He served as the pastor of the Salem Baptist Church, and as did most country preachers he tended his farm. He married Mary Grandstaff in 1823; she died (perhaps in childbirth) at 39. Henry later married Martha Garrison. His oldest son, John Cantrell Fite was born in 1829.

   There were other Fite families scattered throughout east Tennessee, and John was a common first name. As a result there were several John Fites in the area, and in particular a John Fite a few miles away - but very different. Jacob B. Fite was a first cousin to Henry Fite, and Jacob had a plantation near the small town of Alexandria which is about 5 miles from Liberty. Jacob was a slaveholder and a Southern Methodist. I’m certain that Henry and Jacob must have been aware of each other but I doubt that they were friends. Jacob had a son John Armenas Fite, b. 1832, and Jacob was wealthy enough to send John A. to law school; he graduated from Cumberland University in 1855. By 1860 John A. had 2 slaves of his own.

   At the outbreak of the Civil War, John A. Fite enlisted in Company B, 7th Tennessee Infantry, Confederate Army. He was almost immediately promoted to Captain, then fought at Seven Pines, then Mechanicsville (wounded), Cedar Run (promoted to Major), fought at Chancellorsville (promoted to Colonel), and finally at Gettysburg as he led his men in the fatal Pickett’s Charge he was wounded and captured. He surrendered his sword to Captain Samuel Moore of the 14th Connecticut Infantry, and spent the final months of the war as a prisoner. After the war he returned home, married and resumed his law practice. He pledged allegiance to the United States and was elected to the Tennessee legislature, became a judge, and was widely respected. In 1890, Captain (now Colonel) Samuel Moore returned Colonel Fite’s sword as a gesture of goodwill which was considered an important act of healing (although the healing has never been complete). John A. Fite died in 1925 at the age of 93. (Part 3 next)

John Cantrell Fite (Part 1)

   This biographical sketch continues my task of writing about my ancestors who fought in the U. S. Civil War. John Cantrell Fite, my second greatgrandfather, could be characterized as the grandfather of my grandfather, a southerner who fought for the Union, and one of the older soldiers in his regiment. The Fite family had grown rapidly in a few generations after the arrival of the first Fite couple in North America, and the branch which produced John Cantrell Fite had an impact on the development of the nation.

   The founding father was Johannes Vogt who was born in 1714 in Fronhausen, Hessen-Kassel, Saxony which is in the middle of today’s Germany. (Note: There are other sources which say that Johannes was born in Louwil, Switzerland, and there are several other differences in details between sources. I have chosen the details which to me seem most reasonable). It is likely that his parents were devout Lutherans; not wealthy but reasonably comfortable. Some sources say that Johannes was a portrait painter, but if so none of his work has survived. At some time in his late twenties or early thirties he fell in love with a much younger girl, Catharine Elizabeth Cunningham born in 1728. I have seen no reliable information regarding Catharine’s background other than that her father William Cunningham was minor Scottish royalty, and it is reasonable that he may have left Scotland because of the turmoil between Scotland and England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. In any case Johannes’s parents and probably also Catharine’s parents were opposed to their marriage. Perhaps their age difference was the problem, or perhaps Catharine wasn’t a Lutheran, but in any case the parents would not bless their marriage.

   So, they eloped. They sailed in 1749 from Rotterdam to Philadelphia on the ship Ann which carried 242 passengers from Basel, Wurtemberg, Zweibrucken, and Darmstadt. The passenger list contains the names of 92 male passengers only, no names of women or children; my assumption is that many of the men were married and were accompanied by their wives and children. There were names of three Vogt men on board: the brothers Johannes, Heinrich, and Hans Jacob. Evidently this was no ordinary elopement. Records show that Heinrich had married in 1740 so it is most likely that his wife and perhaps children were on board; Hans Jacob was born about 1716 and was also married but the date of his marriage is unknown. Catharine most likely was traveling with her future sisters-in-law. In any case the Ann arrived in Philadelphia on 28 Sept 1749, and Johannes and Catharine were promptly married. And he was no longer Johannes Vogt; the letter combination  “V, O umlaut, G, T” is practically unwritable and unpronounceable for English speakers so the name FITE was created.

   Most sources also say that the three brothers and their families disembarked with the clothes on their backs and very little money. It was common practice to have their large items such as trunks and furniture shipped on a cargo vessel, and often these items were lost, broken or stolen. (It seems very much like traveling by air with only carry-on luggage, and the checked baggage may or may not get to the destination).  

   The three Fite brothers were eventually successful. John found work as an apprentice millwright and after a few years he moved up the Delaware river to Sussex County, New Jersey where he established his own mill and became a landowner. He and Catharine had 9 children; we will follow their son John Fite, born 1758 (evidently Johannes continued to use his birth name so there was never any use of “junior” for his son John). The Fites were supporters of the American Revolution and John Fite (the younger) joined the New Jersey militia at the age of 17. New Jersey was the site of the most battles and skirmishes of the Revolution and Private John Fite fought through to the end. He was wounded but recovered and was apparently not much hampered by the wound, and his father provided the products of his mill to the revolutionary army.

   John Fite was a devoutly religious man as well as a soldier. In about 1784 he married Martha Haslet and moved to North Carolina, where he had received a land grant as a result of his army service. He was a Lutheran but found hardly any other Lutherans in Lincoln County, North Carolina. The Presbyterians had a strong organization, and he had no problems with their theology, so he joined them. He was soon chosen as a “ruling elder” and was highly respected, but he was not able to become ordained as a minister because of his lack of a formal education.

  By 1796 John and Martha had a young family. They were “just getting by” by farming, but there was more fertile land for homesteading to the west, in Smith County (which later became DeKalb County), Tennessee.  The Fites headed west to the fertile ground. It was heavily wooded, roadless land which required at least a year of very hard work while living off the land before any crops could be harvested. John continued as a devout Presbyterian, but the nearest church was 18 miles away.

   Meanwhile Baptists were proliferating. John studied their publications, and was no doubt pleased with their flexible organizational structure compared to the Presbyterians. In 1813, at the age of 55 he officially became a Baptist. (Part 2 to follow)

Tom Martin Chapter 4

 Later Life

   With the beginning of the new century Tom was left with 2 young children and no wife. Of course he had abandoned his first wife and 7 children, and she had remarried in 1893. She (Anne Marie) had married Joe Anderson who was a good stepfather for her children and they had produced a daughter, Eula. So Tom’s need for a wife may have instigated a mystery which may never be solved. But first the local newspaper, the Chelan Leader, ran a front page feature in the Thursday July 4 1901 issue. The article praised him for his service in the War of the Rebellion and for his enviable record as a loyal citizen. The reporter’s summary of his war record was almost entirely correct, but his knowledge of elementary arithmetic led him to conclude that Tom must have joined the Union army at the age of 14. Thus another consequence of Tom’s variable birth date.

   Now to the mystery. There is a document in the Washington State Marriage Records 1854 - 2013; Whitman County marriages 1902 Jan - Apr. The document is numbered 1389 and includes:

   Mary E. Robertson (nee Zimmerman), a widow, b. Ohio, age 49

   Married Apr 18, 1902 to

   Thomas J. Martin, b. Illinois, age 55, residence Chelan, a farmer

   Father Joel, Mother Elizabeth

   Married in Colfax, Whitman County, WA

   Marriage performed by Judge Chadwick

   Witnesses O.L. Kennedy and Harry M. Love

It seems virtually impossible that there could be another Thomas J. Martin, living in the same place, born of the same parents, etc. And yet I have found no evidence that Tom and Mary ever lived together, or that Mary ever took the Martin name. Mary and Mr Robertson had moved from Ohio first to Nebraska and then later to Palouse. They had 6 children and apparently farmed right on the Washington/Idaho line. Mr Robertson died in 1895 and is buried in Viola, ID, and later Mary moved to Clarkston, WA. She died in 1925 and is buried there.

Is it possible that Tom and Mary, both widowed and with young children, married in desperate need of a partner but very soon realized their union would not work?

   Tom returned to Chelan and in Sept 1902 he applied for a pension increase from $6.00 to $12.00 per month. He was ordered to report to a doctor in Wenatchee before a certain date in 1903, and he failed to report in time. His application was rejected. Sometime in 1903 and early 1904 Tom moved to Burnt Ranch in Trinity County, California. He applied again and was ordered to a doctor in Hoopa, who in October 1905 gave him a thorough exam . Tom’s measurements were: 5’8”, 150 lbs, blue eyes, light hair, fair complexion. He had a corneal ulcer of the right eye and very minor symptoms of rheumatism. His application was again rejected. He continued several times to apply again, until 1907. He was now living in Chinaflat, Humboldt county, CA. At the age of 62 he would qualify for a pension increase even without a physical exam, and he very probably turned 62 in 1906. However his “variable” birth date gummed up the works again. Finally, all parties involved agreed to accept Oct 23, 1844 as the date of his birth, and as of June 1908 he began to receive $12.00 per month.

   When Tom moved to Northern California in 1903 or 1904, he left baby Zola with her grandparents. He probably also left Willy too, but sometime before 1910 he

brought Willy to California with him. In 1910 Tom was the cook in a boarding house in Yreka, and Willy was living in a nearby neighbor’s house. He was 15 and was probably working as a farm hand. Tom had 9 children and he never acknowledged the oldest 7 after he left them in 1886. He probably never saw Zola after 1903 or 1904, and Willy after 1914. The rest of the Martin clan did not know that Willy and Zola existed until fairly recently. As it turned out, Willy joined the U. S. Army in 1914 as a Private and fought in WWI. He spent the rest of his life in the Klamath Falls area, married and lived to 101, dying in 1996. Zola stayed in the Central Washington area all her life, married and died in 1976.

   Tom stayed in Northern California, and in 1912 he was in Yreka, Siskiyou County. His pension was increased to $16.00 per month, and Tom’s brother Levi wrote to the Bureau of Pensions asking for Tom’s address. Levi had been farming in Prescott, Arkansas for at least 20 years and had not heard from Tom for several years. I don’t know if Tom and Levi got back in touch.

   Finally in 1914 Tom won the prize - he was admitted to the Soldier’s Home, at Sawtelle, Los Angeles County, as of Nov 4, 1914. The Soldier’s Homes were established by the federal government in several places around the country, starting in 1887. They were intended for veterans who were disabled and/or elderly and did not have the means to support themselves. I would have assumed that he would move into the Soldier’s Home promptly, but he remained in Yreka for more than another year. His reaching 70 (based on his birth date of Oct 23 1844) made him eligible to live in the Soldier’s Home and also a boost in his pension. However, what I can determine from his correspondence with the Bureau of Pensions is that there was a new commissioner at the Bureau who was not accepting the Oct 23 1844 birth date. Here is an example of some of the correspondence:

      DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

BUREAU OF PENSIONS

Washington

      Mr Thomas J. Martin

      Yreka, California

 Sir:

         Your claim for increase of pension under the Act of May 11, 1912 requires        

      your explanation, under oath, of the discrepancy in your statements, giving    

      October 3 and October 23, 1844, October 23, 1845 and November 3, 1843

      as the date of your birth, and you should state the correct date, without oath,

      the name of the town or township, county and state in which you resided 

      during the summers of 1850 and 1860; with whom you then lived; the full 

      names of your parents, brothers and sisters living in June 1850 and June

      1860, and, if you lived in a city, you should state your street and between     

      what streets.

                                                         Very respectfully,

                                                             E. C. Tiemann

                                                         Acting Commissioner

Here is a bit from Tom’s hand-written letter (including mistakes) to the Bureau of Pensions:

…it was nessary for me to furnish a Recrd of my Birth in reply Will say it is imposabel for me to do so as thair Was no record only our family record and I have not saw it since 1868 When I left my home my father was ded When I left and my mother did in 1872 and the home was burnt up and I lost trace of the record and have no means of finding it… 

 Finally, in 1916 Tom moved into the Soldier’s Home, Sawtelle, Los Angeles, California and his pension increased to $24 per month. Other occurrences in 1916 were that Levi wrote again to the Bureau of Pensions asking for Tom’s address, and also on March 27 1916, in the Soldier’s Home Chapel, Tom married Barbara C. Palmer, a resident of Sawtelle, white, 63 years old, widowed, and 2 prior marriages. Her late husband was a veteran and evidently she had remained at or near the Soldier’s Home (her first husband, deceased, was not a veteran).

   Tom and Barbara must have lived together, but only Tom’s name was on the list of “inmates” which the old soldiers were called on census documents. Tom and presumably Barbara left Sawtelle and he officially transferred to the Soldier’s Home in Johnson City, TN on March 18, 1920. This was evidently meant to be a short stay on the way to Florida, as Tom was officially discharged from Johnson City on Sep 15, 1920.

   Tom and Barbara arrived in St Cloud, FL shortly after leaving Johnson City, and they took up residence on Columbia Ave at 12th St. St Cloud was different from the Soldier’s Homes as it was not run by the federal government; it was essentially a small town that had been built especially for veterans. It was a precursor to retirement “towns” such as Leisure World, and was probably more comfortable for couples than the Soldier’s Homes. Depending on which birth date is chosen, Tom was 75 or 76 and his health was failing.

   In 1923 Tom applied for the maximum amount for his pension because of the extent of his disability. The examining doctor’s comments were: “The claimant is an invalid, suffering tuberculosis of glands which develop in old abscesses. The abscesses suppurate profusely and do not heal. The claimant requires help all the time being totally disabled and not able to dress, undress, or care for himself at any time in any capacity.”

   The pension increase was approved and his pension of $72 per month commenced Nov 1, 1923.

   On June 3, 1924 Thomas Jefferson Martin died. He was buried in Mount Peace Cemetery, St Cloud, Florida.

Tom Martin Chapter 3

 Peace?

   The war was over and the three Martin brothers all survived. Sam, the oldest, had moved to Texas before the war and had been drafted into the Confederate army. He had been assigned as a POW guard in the prison camp at Tyler, Texas. Levi, two years older than Tom, had enlisted in the Union army in 1862 at the age of 19. He had been captured and sent to the POW camp where Sam was a guard; he spent the rest of the war in the prison camp as relatively comfortable as possible. Tom the youngest enlisted in 1864 at 19; he was captured, then escaped, and then fought in two of the bloodiest battles of the war. When he returned home to Coles County, Illinois in 1865 he was surely not the same teenager who had gone to war a year and a half ago.

   In 1866 Tom’s father died, and it is likely that Tom left his sisters to take care of their mother. In any case by 1868 Tom had joined his brother Sam in Lancaster, near Dallas. In the 1870 census Sam is married and has two sons 3 and 1, and Tom is living with Sam’s family as a farm hand.

   In 1871 Tom’s world changed again. On 19 October 1871 Thomas Jefferson Martin married his second cousin Anne Marie Atterberry. He was 26 and she was 18. For the next 14 years he raised cattle, first in Lancaster near his brother Sam, and later in Hood County, Texas. Tom and Anne had 7 children. My grandfather Stephen Albert Martin, their second child, was born in 1874 and Estes Martin was the youngest, born in 1885. In the 1880 census they were still in Lancaster, and Tom made the first mention of debilitating rheumatism in the Federal Census form where column 15 asks the question if the individual is sick or disabled. Also in another venue he complained that he believed he “caught” rheumatism when herding cattle in 1875.

    Once again Tom’s world changed, but this time his wife and children bore the brunt. In about 1886 Tom disappeared. I have found no evidence that he ever again contacted his family in Texas. However he did occasionally write to his sister Polly and his nephew Ivory Martin. The period from about 1886 to 1889 is void of documents; the comments I found in his later pension requests and his contacts with his nephew, in some he said he had been in Canada and in others he said Mexico, Idaho, and Washington. In fact, he may have been “riding the rails” and it is possible that he had visited all of them. In any case the 1890 register of Union Soldier and Sailor Veterans has Tom in Chelan, Okanogan County, WA enumeration district 23. Chelan was opened for homesteading in

1886, and Tom had become a homesteader possibly as early as 1888 and certainly by 1890.

   In the early 1890s Tom apparently formed a loose partnership with another homesteader (David Henry Correll) for raising work horses. There was a boom in wheat growing and there was a need for draft horses, up to 20 horse teams. Tom seems to have done well. His partner was a colorful character - a cowboy, a lawman, a gunslinger, a gambler and perhaps an outlaw. Tom was the opposite - a solid citizen, a member of Harrison Post 104 of the Grand Army of the Republic, and an Odd Fellow and a Mason both in Lipan, Hood County, Texas and in Chelan. And once again, in 1895 Tom’s world changed.

   The farmer next to Tom was Turner H. Culbertson, who had a daughter Maggie Minnie Culbertson. Tom and Maggie were married on Feb 27, 1895. On the marriage license Maggie’s age was 16 and Tom’s was 39. It is likely that Tom did not know his birth date exactly, but claiming to be 39 was blatant. He was most likely 50. It is practically certain that he was born in 1844 plus or minus a year, and when he was required to give his birth date he seemed to pick a random date from the air. For the rest of his life his variable birth date haunted him.

   The next five years, until 1900, were probably the best in his life. His rheumatism and problems with his eyes continued to bother him, but he was happy with his new wife and was a well liked and respected citizen. Tom and Maggie had 2 children, William (Willy) Chesley Martin b. Apr 12 1895 and Zola Selena Martin b. Dec 12 1899. It seems that Tom and his father-in-law Turner were good friends, and Tom was about 10 years older than his father-in-law. It did not seem to bother Turner that Willy was born 6 weeks after Tom and Maggie were married. But then tragedy came in 1900. Zola’s birth must have been very hard and Maggie died on March 18, 1900; Zola was 3 months old and Maggie was just 21.

   Tom and the 2 children moved in with the grandparents, Turner and Selena Culbertson. Tom was receiving a veteran’s pension of $6.00 per month to help with the household expenses and if he had a qualifying disability he could get $12.00 per month. But the application for the greater amount required physical exams, reports from physicians, letters of support from neighbors, and a precise date of birth. This was the beginning of a large amount of correspondence with the Bureau of Pensions which provides a great deal of information about Tom’s location and welfare. 

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.

Tom Martin Chapter 1

 Before the War

   During the period starting towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the Civil War, the Martin “clan” was expanding westward through Kentucky into Illinois, and an advance guard was moving into Texas. Descendants of James Scott Martin and Jenny Feagley were established in south-eastern Illinois and were and still are a vociferous lot. A grandson of Joel Feagley Martin, Ivory John Martin (1859-1943) wrote a family story which was later amended by his son Robert Walter Martin (1895-1970), and then grandson Robert Eden Martin compiled and published the “Fragments of Martin Family History” in 1990. Meanwhile Louise Y. Neely compiled and published a book “Neely and Martin Descendants” in 1982, which included the Neely family which was intertwined with the Martins in every generation beginning in the 18th century. There is a wealth of information about many of these families during the 19th century.

   Joel Feagley Martin (1806-1866) was the second son of James Scott Martin and Jenny Feagley. At about the age of 10 Joel suffered from “white swelling” of the knee, which could have been due to a number of causes. In any case he had a permanent stiffness in the knee and walked with a limp and crutches or a cane for the rest of his life. Nevertheless he was otherwise strong and healthy. He had very little formal education but he read voraciously what books he could find, and in his library (the Bible was ubiquitous) were Bible commentaries, the works of Seneca, a history of Greece, etc. He was a contemporary of Abraham Lincoln, and the idea of teaching oneself to read by candlelight seems to have been popular.

   As a young man of about 20 he became a Baptist preacher, without ordination. He like other lay preachers went on preaching tours throughout eastern Illinois and western Indiana. On one of these tours he met Elizabeth Clemens, and they were married in about 1827.  They settled in Coles County, Illinois and raised 13 children; the oldest born about 1828 and the youngest in 1854 when Elizabeth was past 40. Joel never became wealthy, but in addition to preaching he provided for his large family by teaching school, and serving as school treasurer and justice of the peace. With his crippled leg he would not have been able to run a large farm, but he evidently kept livestock. An inventory listed 1 milk cow, 2 calves, 12 sheep and several pigs. Chickens were not mentioned but they certainly must have raised chickens as well.

  In all respects Joel was considered a pillar of the community, and his children were well cared for. Thomas Jefferson Martin was the youngest son (he had four younger sisters), and he was listed on the 1860 census as 15. It is almost certain that he was born no earlier than 1844 and no later than 1846; his actual date of birth has never been determined exactly and that has been the source of many problems later in his life. There are three of his siblings who are most important in his life: Samuel b. 1830; Levi b. 1843; and Polly b. 1847.

   By 1860 the nation was on the brink of civil war. Sam was in Texas having gone with several Martin cousins looking for land. Some of the cousins (probably including Sam) were settling or planning to settle in the area south of Dallas, while others had settled in Cooke County, which is north of Dallas and borders on the Indian Nation, which is now Oklahoma.

   In 1862 the war came to the Martin family.