Spoils of War: Trophies from First Murfreesboro

On Saturday morning July 26, 1862, the editors of the Atlanta Southern Confederacy heard a ruckus in the streets and looking outdoors saw that a large and visibly angry crowd had gathered in front of Hunnicutt & Taylor’s store. Hanging above the window was a “very large and handsome Lincoln flag,” the editors later remembered. “In full view from our window, spread to the breeze waving to and fro was the beautiful flag of the once powerful and honored, but now broken and disgraced, United States.”

          The stars and stripes had not flown in Atlanta since January 1861 when Georgia became the fifth state to secede from the Union. And now this hated emblem floating in the center of Atlanta? Lieutenant Robert Graham, serving in Co. H of the 2nd Georgia Cavalry, soon provided an explanation- the flag was the regimental flag of the 9th Michigan Infantry, captured during the recent engagement at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The “rising wrath” of the crowd subsided once they saw that the Union of the flag was down, and accepted Lieutenant Graham’s explanation.

          The editors of the Southern Confederacy ventured across the street to Hunnicutt & Taylor’s to examine the flag up close. “We found it to be a magnificent trophy,” they noted. “It is the largest and handsomest flag we ever saw. It is of the finest silk, the brightest colors, and is most tastefully wrought- the stars and name of the regiment being in the most elegant needlework and the whole surrounded by the finest silk fringe.”

A portion of a later flag carried by the 9th Michigan Infantry and now in the hands of the Michigan State Capitol. The location of the original flag described in this article is unknown. 

          Lieutenant Graham brought several trophies home from the battle besides the flag, including the brigadier general epaulettes that belonged to General William W. Duffield and two captains’ swords, one of which belonged to Captain Oliver C. Rounds who commanded Company B of the 9th Michigan. “It is of the most elegant workmanship and finish; we never saw a service sword that was more beautiful,” the editors gushed. “It had on it this inscription: ‘Presented to O.C. Rounds, Captain, Chandler Guards, 9th Regiment, Mich., by his friends of Niles, Michigan.”

          While the editors may have gushed about his beautiful sword, they had a much less favorable view of Captain Rounds. As it turns out, Captain Rounds was the provost marshal in Murfreesboro at the time of Forrest’s attack on July 13, 1862. While his Company B fought the 2nd Georgia Cavalry at the Rutherford County Courthouse (see “Charging the Rutherford County Courthouse”), Lieutenant Graham claimed that Captain Rounds was found hiding under the bed of his bride to be at a home in Murfreesboro.

The young woman he was courting was Corine Reeves who lived in the mansion of her grandmother Katherine Reeves. The Reeves family were known for their Union sympathies and offered room and board to Federal officers, including Rounds’ commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel John G. Parkhurst. Parkhurst himself was courting Corine’s older sister Josephine in July 1862. The editors of the Confederacy would perhaps be scandalized (but not surprised) to learn that while Captain Rounds was wooing Corine, he already had a wife in Michigan! [The 1860 census states that Rounds was living in Niles, Michigan with his wife Sarah; they remained married and are buried together at Inglewood Park near Los Angeles, California.]

All that aside, as the Confederacy reported it, Captain Rounds was due to marry Corine on the evening of July 13th. The wedding day certainly didn’t go according to plan. After taking the courthouse in the center of town, Confederate detachments spread throughout the city to capture other members of the garrison. Lieutenant Graham learned from local residents that Rounds was staying in the Reeves’ mansion and “went to the house where he was met by the captain’s intended wife, who, in answer to his inquiries, assured him that Captain Rounds was not in the house.” Reeves’ neighbors, watching this, assured Graham that Rounds was indeed in the house, so the Georgian entered the house to investigate for himself. “He soon discovered him under the bed and, seizing him by the foot, dragged him out and received from him his sword." 

 The current locations of both the 9th Michigan flag and Captain Rounds’ sword are unknown.

Sources:

“A Union Flag Displayed in Atlanta,” Atlanta Southern Confederacy (Georgia), July 27, 1862, pg. 3

John Gibson Parkhurst Collection, Michigan State University, https://d.lib.msu.edu/cwc-jgparkhurst

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on t...
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true ...
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of h...
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on se...
Read more

In front of Atlanta with the 68th Ohio

Image
  The arrow corps badge of the 17th Army Corps was worn by many members of the 68th Ohio in the latter days of the war.       Private Edward A. Bigelow of Co. F of the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry wrote this brief account of the Battle of Atlanta just two days afterwards to his father back home in Henry County, Ohio. The regiment formed a part of Colonel Robert K. Scott's three regiment all-Ohio brigade consisting of the 20th, 68th, and 78th regiments, being designated the Second Brigade of the Third Division of Frank Blair's 17th Army Corps. Bigelow's letter originally appeared in the Napoleon Press newspaper and was copied in the Toledo Daily Commercial which was providential as no known copies exist today of the wartime Napoleon Press.  
Read more

Charging Battery Robinett: An Alabama Soldier Recalls the Vicious Fighting at Corinth

Image
W riting 30 years after the Battle of Corinth, James A. McKinstry of the 42 nd Alabama recalled his experiences storming Battery Robinett with Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2 nd Texas and expressed guilt that it was perhaps his action that brought about the colonel’s demise. “On seeing a line of Federals approaching, and before giving the situation a thought, I immediately raised my gun and fired full into the breast of a Federal sergeant, who was in front of the column, and only a short distance from us.  'Twas then that Captain George Foster shouted, "Cease firing, men! cease firing!" and waved his handkerchief, then I realized the true situation. 'Twas too late! That fatal volley had been turned on our little band from the muzzles of 1,500 muskets. I was still standing just as I was when I fired my last shot, and within a few feet of Colonel Rogers, when a Minie ball went crashing through my left hip and turned me half round; another went tearing through my ...
Read more

The Bullet Magnet of Stones River: Dr. Yoder’s Wound Catalogue

Image
A t the Battle of Stones River, Lieutenant Noah Webster Yoder could lay sole claim to being the premier bullet magnet of the Army of the Cumberland. The Ohioan no doubt must have felt snake bit at the battle as the 25-year-old former country doctor sustained no less than eight wounds in a manner of minutes when his 51 st Ohio vainly tried to stop Breckinridge’s attack on the afternoon of January 2, 1863.           Lieutenant Yoder’s story, copied from a family history of the Hostetler family, is given as follows: He educated himself, taught school, studied medicine and practiced till the war of 1861, when he entered the army as Lieutenant of Co. G, 51 st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He engaged in many battles and skirmishes in Kentucky and Tennessee. At the battle of Stones River through some mistaken order of his superior officers his regiment was ordered to advance over the brow of the hill and hold the position at all hazards. The Rebel...
Read more

The Rebels Flew Right and Left: A Hoosier at Mill Springs

Image
F ollowing the Federal victory at Mill Springs, Private William Ruby of the 10 th Indiana observed the mad scramble for souvenirs amongst his peers. He proudly reported securing one of the best prizes: a Confederate flag that belonged to a company in the 16 th Alabama. “We gave them such an ungodly scare in the fight that they left their wagons, tents, trunks, horses, saddles, clothes, guns, pistols, ammunition of all kinds, cannons and in fact everything imaginable,” he wrote to his father. “A person could not form the least idea of the scene which followed. There is hardly anyone but what had a relic or trophy to keep in remembrance of the ever-to-be remembered 19 th of January. I captured a splendid banner belonging to the Marion County, Alabama Guards. I will present it to old Tippecanoe County, together with another one captured by Johnny Mackessey of our company. I also got a flute worth about $30, a silver watch, a splendid pistol and case worth about $30. I have several ni...
Read more

Life in the Hell-Hole

Image
T he fighting between the two armies near Dallas, Georgia in the final days of May and early June 1864 was remembered by the veterans of both armies as some of the worst of the Atlanta campaign. In a prelude to the trench warfare that became the hallmark of the First World War, both armies took to ground and blazed away at each other in the thick northern Georgia woods. They later termed this region the “Hell Hole.” It was a place where death arrived with the shocking suddenness. One false move brought forth the shrieking sound of a Minie ricocheting off a tree or the solid thunk as the lead bullet flattened against a log or pierced through a soldier’s body. One soldier later said, “I must confess that it is not calculated to make one feel that his life is very secure unless he is pretty strongly fortified.” These two accounts, one penned by a soldier in the 65 th Ohio of the 4 th Army Corps and a second from Surgeon Luther Griswold of the 103 rd Ohio of the 23 rd Army Corps, g...
Read more