Thursday, January 25, 2018

Captain N.T. Barnes






Research can be addictive. The more you learn, the more you want to know. Such was the case for Your Loyal Blogger during the research that resulted in my recently-published book, That Bloody Hill: Hilliard’s Legion at Chickamauga.


          Answers to questions generated more questions. The decision to generate a roster of the Legion’s members, for example, helped answer questions about who these soldiers were. It also stalled the completion of the book by several years. Different sources had different spellings of soldiers’ names. Did the different spellings represent the same soldier or two different men? It was hard to know and each name deserved the same amount of consideration.


          It was that need to know that led Mrs. Leeway and I to Johnson’s Island, a small clump of dirt about 150 yards off the coast of Sandusky, Ohio. The island was the home to a Civil War prison camp for Confederates and there is a small cemetery there for prisoners who did not survive the war. Unable to find a list of the interred online, we made the 90-minute trip from our home last fall to find the island and walk the rows of gravestones, hoping to find a member of the Legion.


          That is how we found Captain N.T. Barnes of the 10th Confederate Cavalry. His marker sits along one of the last rows we checked. He was a member of Hilliard’s Legion when the Legion was founded in 1862 in Alabama. Barnes was a member of the Legion’s Fifth Battalion, which was a cavalry battalion. Soon after the Legion was created, the Fifth Battalion was split off from its original organization and merged with a Georgia regiment to become the 10th Confederate Cavalry.


          Barnes enlisted as a Lieutenant and was promoted to Captain May 16, 1862. His luck turned on July 30, 1863 when he was captured near Big Hill, Kentucky. He was eventually transferred through two holding camps before he arrived at Johnson’s Island on August 4, 1863. Health is an uncertain thing in prison camps and Johnson’s Island sits in the cold waters of Lake Erie. Barnes died January 10, 1864.


          Born in Georgia, Barnes moved to Alabama before the coming of the war. He married Francis Lee Dent January 24, 1856 in Chambers, Alabama and they farmed. The Barnes farmed on about 60 acres of land whose cash value was listed at $300. They had farm machinery valued at $35. They owned three horses, six milch cows, 35 sheep and seven swine. The total value of the livestock came to $650. The farm produced wheat, rye, Indian corn and cotton.


          Cards on the table, Your Loyal Blogger has been unable to track down the census forms for 1860 that detail slave ownership. Barnes may or may not have been a slave holder.


          The Barnes appear to have had six children. The notes are a little complicated by the fact that two sets of daughters may have had the same first names.


          Finding Barnes’ marker on Johnson Island in north-central Ohio was a neat experience. It was a testimony to the idea that you can’t find something if you decide not to look for it. We had already found the graves of many Legion soldiers, several in the cemetery for another Ohio POW camp, this one in Columbus. A Legion soldier rests at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, several are buried at the site of a former home for aging former Confederates in Alabama. Others dot small and large cemeteries across the country.


          The key point here is that Civil War history can be found just about anywhere and I hope we keep looking as a society. We aren’t done learning yet, so keep your eyes open. You never know who might be around the next corner.


          Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

2018 SPEEDY AWARDS


2018 SPEEDY AWARDS



          It is hard to believe that we have already reached that time again, but it is time for the annual SPEEDY Awards. All awards decisions are official immediately, unless I change my mind. In that case, Awards changes will go in this order: Revised Final, Final Revision, Final Final and Ultimate Final (pending review).

          With all of the above understood, we go to the Awards:



BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD: That Bloody Hill: Hilliard’s Legion at Chickamauga. Published by McFarland, available online at the publisher’s website, as well as on Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s.



STAND UP AND FIGHT AWARD: To the heroic men and women who fought California’s terrible wildfires in December.



SO WHAT, IT ISN’T MY MONEY AWARD: To the California state legislature for adding an additional ten cents (or so) tax on every gallon of gasoline sold in the state. The new tax is supposed to help pay for repairs to roadways and other important infrastructure which, of course, was what the previously assessed taxes were supposed to pay for. The new tax actually will pay off the billions spent on a failed effort to build a massive train system that nobody in the state wanted.



COMMON SENSE AWARD: Discontinued due to a lack of nominees.



MEME OF THE YEAR AWARD: Dear Math, I am not a therapist. Go solve your own problems.



TURNAROUND AWARD: The Los Angeles Rams. Congrats to the coaching staff and players, they’ve gone from zero to hero.



WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE AWARD: The San Diego Chargers for moving out of a stadium in San Diego that the team’s ownership said wasn’t good enough for an NFL team in order to play home games on a soccer field with a seating capacity smaller than some high school stadiums.



NEEDS SUNBLOCK AWARD: Two winners for this award, a tie between the National Football League and NASCAR. Both entities are over-exposed on television and their ratings are under-performing.



SPORTS COLOR COMMENTATOR OF THE YEAR: Perhaps the most crowded field for any award we’ve ever issued. For the first time in SPEEDY AWARD history, we’ve split an award into three divisions in order to avoid making a decision.

Pro Football: Tony Romo, CBS Sports. Best NFL color man since the retirement of the great Hank Stram. Romo is the first commentator we have ever compared to Stram in a positive way.

College Football: Gary Danielson, CBS Sports. Has great enthusiasm for his job, sees the field as well as any commentator in the business, understands the ebb and flow of a game and always works well with the play-by-play man. Seamlessly transitioned from working with Vern Lundquist (a former SPEEDY winner) to SPEEDY nominee Brad Nessler.

High School Football: Jorge Grihalva, KXO Radio (El Centro, California) live streaming, Imperial High School football. His enthusiasm for the game and the kids playing it is obvious and he does an excellent job of keeping statistics as well. Joins Imperial play-by-play man Mickey Dale as SPEEDY winners.


TAPS AWARD: To my father. A proud WWII veteran and a great Dad.