Most discussions about the Civil War
conjure up debates over commanders and their decisions, the strategic ideas at
the start of campaigns and how they worked out. Production capabilities of the
two sides get a lot of attention as do the ocean-born battles.
You’ve seen books about Grant versus
Lee, the Civil War in the west, Sherman’s March and the like. An overloaded
bookshelf sags under the weight of such books a few feet away from this desk.
The Civil War was really a struggle
between soldiers, the grunts who carried the rifles and made the artillery work.
Those are the soldiers who made the courageous stands and charges. Officers made
the decisions but the average private made the difference.
Actually, only the privates who made
it to the battlefield made a difference. In the American Civil War, most of the
casualties did not come in battle. Three of every four soldiers who died during
the war succumbed to disease.
Daniel Lewis was a Private in Company
F of the Second Battalion of Hilliard’s Legion. He stood 5-feet, eight inches
tall, had black hair and grey eyes. The Legion was an Alabama outfit in the
Confederate States Army. He enlisted March 29, 1862 when he was 24 years of age.
Regular readers of this blog know the
Legion’s history. The Legion played a key role in the Confederate victory at
Chickamauga in September of 1863. The soldiers in the Legion were then split
into two regiments and a battalion and those units surrendered at Appomattox in
1865.
Lewis, however, did not fight at any
of those places. He died of disease November 3, 1862, a little more than half a
year after he’d enlisted. He died at Fair Ground Hospital in Atlanta and was
buried in Oakland Cemetery in the same city.
Lewis left behind a wife and two
daughters. Martha Betsy Elizabeth Castleberry married Daniel Lewis January 3,
1857. Martha was five years older than her husband and their union produced two
daughters, Mary Jane Lewis (born 1857) and Minerva Lewis (1859).
A third child, a girl named Loveda,
was also part of the family. She was born before Daniel and Martha were married
and might not have been Martha’s child.
The census of 1860 shows the Lewis
family held $500 worth of real estate. Daniel was a farmer, so the land
holdings were most likely used for that purpose. The family also had personal
property valued at $200 and lived in the Mount Olive area of Coosa County,
Alabama. Daniel’s death left the family financially vulnerable.
Shortly after learning of his son’s
death Daniel’s father, Abel Lewis, filed the paperwork for the family to
receive Daniel’s final payment for his military service. The Confederate
government’s payment was dated March 20, 1865. That was less than a month prior
to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Paperwork moved slowly in the
Confederacy.
Of the remaining members of Daniel
Lewis’ family, only Mary Jane Lewis and Loveda lived beyond the early 1870s.
Both Martha and her younger daughter, Minerva, are believed to have died before
1872. Mary Jane Lewis died November 11, 1898 at age 41. History is a little
unsure about Loveda’s life but she did live long enough to inherit money from
Abel Lewis, her grandfather.
One family’s story, viewed against the
backdrop of the Civil War era, seems inconsequential. The bigger story is more
important, right? The war came, we fought it and we rebuilt.
But it says here that the bigger
history is really the total of ALL the family stories. Every family had a story
to tell that somehow linked to the continental calamity that was the Civil War.
All families, be they northern or southern, loyal or rebel, white, black or
native American, mattered. In fact, that’s what the war was about.
Your loyal blogger is in no way descended
from the Lewis family, but what’s the difference? All of us are descended from
somebody, all of us have ancestors with a story.
And all of those stories deserve to be
heard.
Thanks for reading.
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