December 14th 1862
From our position at the stone wall, my company was engaged in sharpshooting with Yankees posted in the houses of Fredericksburg. This continued for two days.
December 16, 1862
My brigade marched back a mile or so south of Fredericksburg and made camp near Guinea Station on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. Here, the men took to snowball fights, pitting regiment against regiment. While in camp, one of the soldiers in my company took sick and died.
February 1863
I was sent home on a detail to obtain supplies for the troops. I met my wife and son at my father's plantation at Shady Grove. We then went to the home of my father in law, Capt. William Cocke, where our young son became very ill. He went into convulsions and died a few days later. He was buried in the Morgan family cemetery at Shady Grove. The day after the funeral, I had to return to my company at their new camp near Chester Station on the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad.
March 20, 1863
The brigade boarded a train at Petersburg and departed for North Carolina. We stopped at Goldsboro and made camp just north of the town. Here, we witnessed the execution of three deserters. From Goldsboro, we went to Kinston on the Neuse River. We proceeded down the Neuse to New Berne, which was occupied by the Yankees.
April 4, 1863
The brigade left North Carolina by train and stopped at Franklin Station on the Blackwater River, south of Petersburg. We crossed the river and marched in the direction of Suffolk, where we skirmished with the Yankee occupiers of the town.
May 9th, 1863
The brigade arived in Petersburg, and departed for Taylorsville in Hanover County.
June 2nd, 1863
The brigade received orders to join General Lee's army on his Gettysburg campaign. We marched through Hanover, Spotsylvania, Orange and Culpeper counties. On the march, I fell ill and had to ride in an ambulance to Culpeper. From Culpeper, I was sent by train to Lynchburg. There, I went to the home of my brother in law George Burkes on College Hill. I was soon joined by my wife and father. My illness lasted three weeks, and I missed the battle of Gettysburg.
July 1863
Battle of Gettysburg
My company lost six men. My brother Bob was wounded in both feet. While going forward as a part of Pickett's charge, he was shot in the instep of his right foot. He stopped to determine the extent of the wound, and another shot hit his left foot. He used his musket and that of a fallen comrade to fashion crutches and hopped to the rear. There, his faithful slave Horace took him on his back and carried him south of the Potomac, through the Shenandoah Valley, and eventually reached Shady Grove. The rest of the regiment eventually retreated to Culpeper where I rejoined the them at the end of the month. From there we marched to Spotsylvania County.
October 1863
The brigade was put under the command of General W. R. "Buck" Terry since General Kemper had been disabled by wounds received at Gettysburg. They marched from Spotsylvania to Taylorsville in Hanover County. I was wearing a pair of new boots, and my feet became sore and blistered. After a while, I took off the boots and walked in and my socks until the sand worked through them. Then I took off my socks and walked barefoot until the sand and gravel became unbearable, and was forced to put my boots back on.
The brigade remained at Taylorsville through the winter, guarding the railroad bridges over the North and South Anna Rivers and doing picket duty to the east down to the Pamunky River.
January 1864
The brocade moved to a new camp at Chafin's Farm, below Richmond, and facing Drury's Bluff. I visited the batteries on the bluff, as well as the Confederate ironclad gunboats " Patrick Henry " which lay at anchor in the river nearby. While camped at Chafin's Farm, I was sent as a messenger by General Terry to the headquarters of General Henry A. Wise and the Office of Colonel Isaac H Carrington, provost marshal of Richmond.
January 10th, 1864
The brigade was ordered to return to the area of North Carolina we had visited earlier in the war. We went by rail from Petersburg to Goldsboro, then marched to Kinston on the Neuse River.
February 1st, 1864
The brigade accompanied General Pickett in his march down the Neuse River to New Berne, which was occupied by the Yankees. There was some fighting, but my brigade was kept in reserve and saw no action. We eventually marched back through Kinston to Goldsboro, where we remained until the end of the month. I received a 20 day furlough when we returned to Goldsboro.
March 1864
I returned to North Carolina to meet my brigade at Wilmington, where they had been ordered during my absence. Soon thereafter we marched up the river to Goldsboro.
April 1864
The brigade left Goldsboro and marched to Tarboro.
April 15th, 1864
The brigade was put under the command of General R. F. Hoke and ordered to march on the town of Plymouth, on the south bank of the Roanoke River near where it empties into Albemarle Sound.
April 20th, 1864
Plymouth was recaptured from the Yankees. An entire Yankee brigade was taken prisoner and large quantities of arms, supplies, and provisions were confiscated. My brigade made camp in front of Fort Warren, which had been erected by the Yankees during their occupation of the town.
Early one morning, I was put in command of a force consisting of my own company and Company G and ordered to attack the Yankees who remained in the fort. The Confederate artillery was supposed to drive the enemy from the fort so that my men could engage them, but the battery was not successful and I had to order a retreat. Six of my men, including two from my company, were killed by the defenders of the fort. By the end of the day, though, the Yankees were forced to surrender the fort when they realized that the other fortresses in the area had been captured and they were surrounded by the Confederates.
April 25th, 1864
The brigade was ordered to take the town of Washington, about 30 miles south of Plymouth, on the Tar River near the head of Pamlice Sound. When we arrived, though, we found that the Yankee occupiers had evacuate the area. So, we continued to march south to New Berne, a distance of about 35 miles.
May 2nd, 1864
The brigade surrounded New Berne and prepared to attack the town, but were unexpectedly ordered to withdraw and march up the Neuse River to Kinston with all possible speed. At Kinston, we boarded a train for Goldsboro. At Goldsboro, we learned that the Yankees were threatening Petersburg and that we were being sent to protect the city. We could only take their rail as far north as Jarratt's Station, because the Yankees had destroyed the track. We marched seven miles up the torn up track to this Stoney Creek where another train took us the rest of the way to Petersburg. We marched north of the city toward Richmond to occupy the line between Drury's Bluff and the railroad.
May 15, 1864
General Beauregard ordered by regiment to the extreme left of the Confederate lines, near Drury's Bluff, and to assault the Yankee breastworks in the morning.
May 16, 1864
Battle of Drury's Bluff
My brigade arose before daybreak, marched along the river road, crossed a small creek near an old mill, and formed a line of battle to the right of the road with an open field in front. We were just behind an Alabama brigade commanded by General Gracie.
When the attack began in the wee hours of the morning, my man followed Gracie's brigade up the hill. After some fighting though, the Alabamians retreated. General Gracie was outraged and asked General Terry to send a regiment to take their place on the front. Terry gave him two brigades, one of them was mine. We raised the rebel yell and stormed the hill, where we encountered heavy fire. I came upon Colonel R.F. Maury, commander of the 24th Regiment, severely wounded and lying on his back. Soon, the men were ordered to cease firing as the remainder of our brigade had flanked the enemy and surprised them from the rear. The entire Yankee brigade had surrendered. My regiment went to the breastworks to make the Yankees their prisoners. My brother Bob was fired upon by an enemy officer, but was spared because his aim was bad. Seven men and in my company lost their lives in the assault, and many more were wounded.
May 21, 1864
Calvarymen came into the camp to report that the Yankees were planning a raid on Milford Station. Major Norton, commander of the 1st Regiment, ordered his men to take position at a bridge on a hill some 600 yds away. My regiment was held in reserve until the raiders approached. Then we marched across the river, crossed the railroad track, and it took position on the hill. From the hilltop, I could see thousands of Yankee Calvary in the distance, the advance divisions of General Grant's army. I reported this to Capt. Bob Mitchell of Company A, the ranking officer, but Mitchell replied that they had been ordered to hold the hill " at all hazards ". I thought that a messenger should have been sent to inform Major Norton, but this was not done. The Yankees continued to approach on two sides of the hill, firing on my regiment. Captain Mitchell was shot in the chin, and left the hill under the command of Capt. Thomas B. Horton of Company B. Capt. Horton and I then discussed the situation and determined that retreat was the only option, but the men refused to leave the hill for fear they would be shot in backs by the approaching Yankees. So, we determined to make our stand in the remains of an old icehouse at the top of the hill. It wasn't long before the Yankees rushed up the hill at our trenches and all 75 of my surviving comrades were made prisoners of war. As the Yankees approached, one of them was shot from behind by one of his own men and his brains spattered the Confederates in the old icehouse. Seventeen of the Confederates were members of my company, including my brother Bob.
May 2, 1864
My brother-in-law Robert Cocke wrote to my wife to tell her of my capture. His slave Horace gathered my belongings together and carried them back to Shady Grove. All of us prisoners were marched to the post of Torbet's Calvary and surrounded by a strong guard. We were well treated, and the Yankee officers even gave us wine and cake. Then we were confined in the captured depot at Milford and watched Handcock's Corps cross the Mattapony River. We spent the night in an old barn. One of the Yankee guards asked me, " Old man, were you drafted? " The reason he asked was because my hair had gone gray during the war, though I was only 27 years old.
May 23, 1864
As prisoners, we followed the Yankee army to the north side of the Nroth Anna River, opposite General Lee's position. We were joined by more prisoners, including Colonel Brown of South Carolina, and slept in a clump of bushes near General Grant's headquarters.
May 24, 1864
General Grant rode by the prisoners and I got a good look at him. He reminded me of my uncle Mack Morgan, " to not striking or prepossessing " in appearance. Afterwords, the prisoners were turned back for Port Royal on the Rappahannock River. During the march we passed a large number of Negro troops, the first I had ever seen. As we continued, my brother Bob and I both took ill and stopped by the roadside. A Yankee officer commanding the rear guard left a big Dutch corporal in in charge of us, with instructions to bring us along when we were again able to march. He took us to a nearby house, where we rested under the shade of some locust trees. The lady of the house gave us ice water and biscuits with peach preserves. After about half an hour, the Dutch corporal put us on horses and lead us back along the road for about a mile. Then, he tired and Bob and I who had recovered sufficiently gave up our mounts and continued on foot.
May 26, 1864
We arrived at Port Royal. I wrote a letter to my wife including a list of the local men who had been captured, and asking that she have the Lynchburg papers publish the names.
May 27, 1864
The prisoners were put aboard an old freight ship and steamed down the Rappahannock into Chesapeake Bay, then up the Potomac River to Washington. In Washington, the officers were separated from the enlisted men.
May 28, 1864
The officers were sent to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, while the enlisted men (including my brother Bob) were shipped out to the prison at Point Lookout, Maryland.
June 1864
We were moved from Washington to Fort Delaware. We went by boat down the Potomac to the Chesapeake Bay, passed out into the Atlantic Ocean, went between Cape Charles and Cape Henry, then up the coast into Delaware Bay. My brother, James Lorenzo Morgan, was then living in Brooklyn, New York, and was able to furnish the prisoners with clothes and supplies. James also sent supplies to my brother Bob and his brother in law Watkins Leigh Brown, who were both imprisoned at Point Lookout. I it was assigned a bunk with my comrade Capt. Horton of Company B.
August 20, 1864
I was one of 600 prisoners selected by the Yankees to be taken to Charleston Harbor, to be placed in front of their artillery batteries on Morris Island. This was done to discourage the confederates in the city from firing on them. We were sent by sea aboard an old freight steamer, "The Crescent." Again, I was assigned a bunk with Capt. Horton. The pilot of the steamboat was a Southern sympathizer and planned to run the ship aground near a Confederate battery on the Carolina coast. Instead, he ran aground on some of the barrier islands out of sight of the mainland. Colonel Van Manning of Arkansas determined to take control of the ship, and I was with him when he wrote a letter demanding the Yankee officers to surrender. But, a Yankee gunboat appeared before the Confederates could take the ship.
We were pulled off the sandbar and continued to Charleston. But, preparations to receive the prisoners in Charleston were not complete so we continued to steam down the coast to Port Royal Sound. Here, we remained a few days at anchor in shark infested waters. A number of prisoners attempted to escape by swimming to the shore, but only one was successful.
September 7, 1864
Preparations now been ready to accept prisoners, we steamed back to Charleston Harbor and landed at Morris Island, about halfway between the Yankee garrisons at Fort Gregg and Fort Wagner. We were met by two lines of Negro soldiers who marched us two miles up the island to a pine stockade where several small fly-tents had been arranged. The stockade was under the command of Lt. Colonel William Gurney of the 127th New York Regiment, who was greatly despised by the prisoners because he gave them worm and infested food. The Negro guards treated us much better than their white commanders.
One day, we were taken out of the stockade, put on barges, and towed out into the harbor. We stay there overnight while the stockade was searched for contraband and inspected for tunneling. Another time, the ladies of Charleston sent a boat out to the island under a flag of truce to supply the prisoners with pipes and tobacco, as well as some good food. The Confederate artillery very rarely fired on the nearby forts after the prisoners were put on Morris Island, but I did witness a fight between and ironclad ship and a mainland battery.
October 18, 1864
We were marched out of the stockade and put on barges to be towed to Fort Pulaski on Tybee Island, Georgia, at the mouth of the Savannah River. The fort was under the command of Lt. Colonel Gurney's superior, Colonel W. W. Brown of the 127th New York, who treated their prisoners kindly. But, General J. G. Foster, Brown's superior, ordered that the prisoners should be fed wormy cornmeal and pickles in retaliation for the Confederates feeding the same to Yankee prisoners. Scurvy soon set in and my bunkmate Capt. Horton had it pretty badly. I was able to trade a ring to a Yankee soldier for a good chunk of meat, which helped me avoid the disease. Some prisoners even took to eating cats, and I tried a small piece myself. One compassionate Yankee major went out net fishing one day and brought back a large catch of fresh fish for the prisoners, but he was forbidden to repeat the gesture. I
I occupied my time playing chess, and my chess club even put out a newsletter that we passed around the fort. I was one of the scribes and preserved a copy which I later gave to the Confederate Museum in Richmond. It was put in a glass case in the Virginia Room in the White House of the Confederacy.
March 1865
Rumors abounded that the prisoners were to be moved, and the men plotted to take over the ship. The plan was to overpower the guards and run the ship to Nassau or some other neutral port in the West Indies.
March3, 1965
The prisoners' guards told us that they had received orders from General Grant to take them to City Point, Virginia on the James River, to be exchanged for Yankee prisoners.
March 4, 1865
We steamed up the coast to Hilton Head, where we took on more prisoners. But the ship was so heavily laden, that the captain refused to put out to sea. So, the prisoners were transferred to the ship " Illinois" and sailed for Norfolk. No effort was made to seize the ship from the guards as all the men expected to be exchanged shortly. I came down with severe seasickness on the voyage.
March 7, 1865
The " Illinois" dropped anchor at Norfolk.
March 8,1865
The prisoners heard the bad news that, instead of being exchanged, where were actually been sent back to Fort Delaware. Apparently, the Yankees were too embarrassed to turn over the prisoners in our horrible condition.
March 12, 1865
We arrived at Fort Delaware.
April 1865
For reached us that General Lee had surrendered, and the Virginia officers held a meeting to determine what should be done. The Yankees had offered us freedom if we would take an oath of allegiance to the United States government. Captain Don Halsey of Lynchburg urged the men to "take no action at present," which motion I seconded and was carried unanimously.
April 15, 1865
Word reached us of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The guards were angry and vindictive, and we feared for our lives.
May 21, 1865
My brother James obtained a special order from Washington calling for my release from Fort Delaware. He brought the order to Fort Delaware and escorted me back to his home in Brooklyn. We traveled by sea aboard the steamer "Mentor," going up the Delaware River to Philadelphia, then by train to New York.
June 1865
After I had two weeks to recover, I was able to join James and his family in returning to Virginia. We took a steamer from New York to Norfolk. From there, we proceeded up the James River to Richmond and found the old capital city in ashes. Here, I was reunited with General Kemper and other former comrades in arms. We continued our journey to Lynchburg on the old Richmond & Danville Railroad, but the tracks had been partially destroyed and we had to stop at Burkeville. James and his family continued to the next station that Farmville while I stayed behind to guard their luggage. I followed them to Farmville the next day, and continued by rail to another break in the road at James River below Lynchburg. Here, we transferred to an old canal boat, drawn by mule to the city. We spent the night in Lynchburg before traveling the remaining 21 miles to my father's home in Campbell County. The family had lost many thousands of dollars in property during the war, and had been forced to sell our plantation at Shady Grove. But, all of the family had survived the war. Brother Bob returned from Point Lookout, and Brothers Coon and Taylor ( who had served in the calvary at the end of the war) also returned.
Published U.S. Legacies January 2003
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