Thursday, May 2, 2019

Research Down Rabbit Holes

Near my house, there is an old family graveyard and the ruins of a chimney. I have driven by it a hundred times but the other day, I stopped and decided to take a look. There were two flat markers, a tombstone and an obelisk. Putting my head up to the bars of the fence, I found that the tombstone and obelisk were for the same individual. Noah Marion Harris - 10th Georgia Infantry. He died on May 22, 1862. That was interesting. On the tombstone he is listed as a Major and on the obelisk as a Colonel. Same date of death so that was odd.

Today, I decided to Google the guy and see what I can find on him. Other than he was dead and buried in Walton County, I could not find much. So I went on to look up his unit, the 10th Georgia Infantry. They were raised in 1861 and formed in Virginia. They participated in an action on the Black River on July 24th, 1861 and later in Williamsburg, VA in May 4th, 1862. But this was the closest battle I could find to the death of Col/Maj Harris. It is quite possible that if he was wounded at Williamsbug, he may have taken days to die.

So I started looking for any actions fought by the 10th Georgia in "The War of the Rebellion: AA Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies." This huge work is a fantastic resource to anyone interested in the American Civil War. While scrolling through things, a quote from General McClellan jumped off the page at me and I found it very funny. July 19, 1861, the general wrote a note to Colonel Townsend and had this to say about the actions of his subordinates in the West Virginia campaign.

"In Heaven's name give me some general officers who understand their profession. I give orders and find some who cannot execute them unless I stand by them. Unless I command every picket and lead every column I cannot be sure of success."

I was amused by this. Anyway, still looking for more info on the 10th GA. Who knows what I will dig up. I did find that a student wrote a history of the unit for their master's thesis. Will have to try to get a copy through interlibrary loan.

4 comments:

  1. Hey Chris this indeed interesting About General McClellan given his propensity for "inaction" as he was always "outnumbered" in his mind. The Peninsula Campaign is a good case in point. Comparing him to Stonewall Jackson would be an interesting study in command. I did a paper on Stonewall Jackson for my Graduate level CIVIL WAR class. Now there was a General! Wounds were hideous back then as well as abysmal medical treatment. Interesting post.

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    1. Thanks. It is interesting. I found out the action I wanted to look up is Back River and not the Black River. I found the US Navy account of the non-skirmish. I think it could make for an interesting mini-campaign. More digging to do.

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  2. Chris, I'm wondering if the tombstone marks the actual resting place, and the obelisk is a memorial placed by a local chapter by Daughters of the Confederacy or Sons of Confederate Veterans. Many regimental and battle monuments were put up as remembrances to mark the 25th and 50th anniversaries of the war.

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    1. Interesting. That is a possibility. That they got his rank wrong and I can find no other info on this guy is a puzzle.

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