Vaiden and the Civil War
LAST REVISED: Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Links and definitions are in BLUE
At the end of the Civil War (War Between the North and the South,
War of Northern Aggression, War Between the States, or whatever people chose to
call it back then), when the Confederates surrendered, things didn't just go
back to normal, as if nothing had happened. If they wanted to be "forgiven
for your transgressions against the United States," former Confederate
soldiers had to apply for a pardon. Being a businessman, Dr. Cowles Mead Vaiden
was one of them that applied, in order to get back into good graces with the
government. CLICK HERE for his letter to President Andrew Johnson, asking for (and
ultimately receiving) a Pardon.
Dr. B.F. Ward Describes the Battle of Gettysburg Part 1
Part 2
Waul’s Texas Legion: A Personal Episode in
Mississippi
From: http://sixthmsinf.tripod.com/aftercof.htm
In mid January of 1863, Rust's Brigade was ordered to Coffeeville for a few days, then went back to Grenada then down to Vaiden. At Vaiden, the army was, once again, reorganized. Major
General William Wing Loring was given command of the First Division which consisted of the brigades of Albert Rust
(including the Sixth), Lloyd Tilghman, and T. N. Waul's Texas Legion.
Rust's Brigade left Vaiden the first of February and rode the cars to Jackson. Nine days later,
they departed Jackson
and marched to the Big Black River, between Jackson and Vicksburg. By the end of
February, they were on their way to Port Hudson, Louisiana.
From: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mslownde/companyi.html
COMPILED SERVICE RECORD: OFFICERS AND MEN COMPANY I 43RD REGIMENT: MISSISSIPPI VOLUNTEERS, 1862
Company
I -- 43rd MS Infantry
Volunteers, CSA
formerly Co. A, 5th Battalion Mississippi Infantry
Volunteers
Columbus, Lowndes County
10 September 1861
Private
Lidwell A. Garner -- detached service 11-12/62
guarding baggage at Vaiden, MS;
captured Vicksburg; detached service 7-8/64 as litter bearer;
surrendered NC at war’s end (as a private in Co. H, 14th Consolidated MS Infantry)
From: http://www.mississippiscv.org/MS_Units/10th_MS_Inf.htm
10th Mississippi Infantry
(from Dunbar Rowland’s
"Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898"; company listing courtesy of H.
Grady Howell’s "For Dixie
Land, I’ll Take My
Stand’)
Orders
for transfer to the interior arrived February 23, when the regiment
was in the confusion of re-enlistment and furlough. The command moved to Montgomery on the 27th, to Chattanooga by way of Atlanta early in March, thence to Eastport, Ala.,
to meet an anticipated advance of gunboats, and reached Corinth March 10, where the regiment
was reorganized. It was assigned, March 9,
to the brigade of Gen. J. R. Chalmers, the "High Pressure Brigade,"
composed of the Seventh and Ninth and Tenth Regiments, Baskerville's cavalry and
the Vaiden battery, the Fifth Regiment being
added before the battle of Shiloh. The brigade
was in Withers' Division of Bragg's Corps.
From: http://homepages.msn.com/LaGrangeLn/davidg33/BiosC.html#CSAvets1905
Winston "Wince"
Mason was born in New Fatha, Pike Co., Alabama, February 27, 1839. He moved to the Brookhaven, Mississippi, area with his family about 1859.
Wince enlisted April 1,
1862
in the Confederate Army at Fair River,
Mississippi, east of Brookhaven.
He served in Company C, of the 33rd
Mississippi Infantry Regiment, along with his brothers John and Hucled Mason,
and with his brother-in-law, Andrew J.
Lovell. Wince is listed as being hospitalized at Clinton, Louisiana,
in 1862; in Vaiden,
Mississippi, in November 1862; and in Georgia in 1864. He worked as an overseer on
the Memphis and
Charleston Railroad line in November and December 1864, and was paroled at the end of the war
at Baton Rouge, Louisiana
From: http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/rpt_edo5.htm
Report of Col. Embury D. Osband, Third U. S.
Colored Cavalry, commanding Third Cavalry Brigade
HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE,
CAVALRY DIVISON,
DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI
Memphis, Tenn, January 13,
1865
CAPTAIN: I have the honor to make the following
report of the part taken by the Third Brigade in the recent raid from Memphis, Tenn, to Vicksburg, Miss:
. . . .
On the morning of January 1,
1865,
I moved, by order of the general commanding, from Winona Station down to the
line of the Mississippi Central Railroad, flanking the line of march of the main column. I sent strong dismounted details
from the fourth Illinois Cavalry and Third U.S. Colored Cavalry from Winona
Station, through Vaiden and West Station, to a point five miles below
the latter place, a distance of twenty miles. They totally destroyed 2 ½ miles of track, 19 bridges, 12 culverts, together with station houses,
water tanks, &c. Ten of these bridges were
important structures, and must require thirty days to repair. On the morning of
the 2d, learning
that the Confederates were concentrating a strong force at Goodman Station, I
left the line of railroad and moved on the Franklin pike in the direction of Ebenezer
and Benton. When half a mile from Franklin my advance of the
Third U. S. Colored Cavalry was charged by a strong force of the enemy.
The charge was repulsed, and the rebels driven from their advanced position.
The forces proved to be those of Brig. Gen. Wirt Adams, 1,500
strong, who, coming from Goodman, had pushed one regiment
to a junction of the roads, covering them in some close timber skirting the
road and about a church surrounded by shrubbery. A flank movement of two
squadrons of the Third E. S. Colored Cavalry, commanded by Capt
Henry Fretz, Company L, dislodged them from the
church, while seven squadrons of the Third U. S. Colored Cavalry dismounted,
under Maj. E. M. Main dislodged them from the close timber by falling upon
their flank and rear, thus compelling them to fall back to a bridge over a
small stream where General Adams had concentrated the main body of his men.
Major Main immediately charged and carried the bridge, but in turn was driven
over it in some confusion by the enemy, who being heavily re-enforced,
outnumbered from three to one. We should here have lost number of our men
except for the most determined gallantry of our officers particularly prominent
among who was Lieut. Frank W. Calais, Company A. Third U. S. Colored Cavalry.
In the meantime, the Eleventh Illinois Cavalry moved to our extreme right, where
they arrived in time to check a flank movement of the enemy. After sharp
fighting, the movement was checked, their left turned, and their forces driven
to the main body at the bridge. The Fourth Illinois Cavalry, moved promptly to
the support of the Third U.S. colored Cavalry, met and repulsed a flank
movement of the enemy directed to our left, when quickly dismounting and jumped
from tree to tree, soon drove the rebels to the cover of the houses across the
creek. At this time, the Third U. S. Colored Cavalry again charged and carried
the bridge from which they were not again driven during the fight. The
desperate nature of the fighting, the superiority of numbers displayed by
General Adams, and a summons from the general commanding to immediately join the
column, now fifteen miles to our front and right, induced me to attempt to
withdraw my men and we mutually separated without further fighting. One
enlisted man from the Fourth Illinois Cavalry and one from the Third U. S.
Colored Cavalry, too severely wounded to be moved, were left at Franklin.
More on the Battle of
Franklin, MS
(Franklin, MS is located
on Highway 17, between Lexington, MS and Pickens,
MS)
From: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~providence/cw_chap8k.htm
Sumner County, Tennessee In the
Civil War
By Edwin L. Ferguson,
Chapter Eight
King, H. C. - Captured at Fort Donelson,
February 16, 1862. Sent to
Camp Butler, Illinois. Exchanged. Died at Vaiden,
Mississippi, November 16, 1862.
From: http://www.civilwarhome.com/CMHvicksburg.htm
The Vicksburg
Campaign
OPERATIONS IN MISSISSIPPI--JANUARY
TO JULY, 1863
--FEDERAL FORCES AT YOUNG'S POINT--EXPEDITIONS NORTH OF VICKSBURG--ORGANIZATION
OF CONFEDERATE FORCES--GRIERSON'S RAID--GRANT AT BRUINSBURG--BATTLES OF PORT
GIBSON AND RAYMOND--PLANS OF JOHNSTON AND PEMBERTON --BATTLE OF BAKER'S
CREEK--BIG BLACK BRIDGE --SIEGE OF VICKSBURG--PEMBERTON'S CAPITULATION.
. . . .
SMITH'S DIVISION.
Maj.-Gen. Martin L. Smith commanding.
First brigade, Brig.-Gen. W.
E. Baldwin--Seventeenth and Thirty-first Louisiana; Fourth Mississippi, Col. P. S.
Layton; Forty-sixth Mississippi, Col. C. W. Sears; First Mississippi light artillery, battery E, Capt. N.J. Drew; Mississippi Partisan Rangers, Capt. J. S. Smyth.
Second brigade, Brig.-Gen. J. C. Vaughn--Sixtieth, Sixty-first, Sixty-second
Tennessee; First Mississippi light artillery, battery I, Capt. Robert Bowman;
Fourteenth Mississippi light artillery battalion, Maj. M. S. Ward, batteries of C. B. Vance and J. H. Gates.
Third brigade, Brig.-Gen. Stephen D. Lee, Brig.-Gen. F. A. Shoup--Three
Louisiana regiments: Twenty-sixth,
Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth; First, Eighth and Twenty-third Louisiana heavy
artillery; First Tennessee heavy artillery, two Tennessee batteries; Vaiden artillery, Company L, First
Mississippi light artillery; sappers and miners.
. . . .
After the affair at Big Black bridge Pemberton immediately
withdrew his remaining forces to the Vicksburg lines, and before night work was
begun preparing the fortifications on the !and side for a siege. Moore's brigade was
brought back from Warrenton; the defenses at Snyder's Mill and the line of
Chickasaw Bayou were abandoned, and all stores that could be quickly
transported were sent to Vicksburg.
The rest, including the heavy guns, were destroyed. On the morning of the 18th the troops were disposed as
follows: Stevenson's division
occupied the line south of the railroad, Barton on the river front and in the
forts adjacent, Reynolds next to the Hall's Ferry road, Cumming on the left
center, and Lee, with Waul's legion, on the left up
to the railroad. The next two miles of intrenchments,
running north, were held by Forney's division, Moore next the railroad and
Hébert on the left. The north line to the river, a stretch of a mile and a
quarter, was held by Martin L. Smith's division, Shoup
on the right, Baldwin next, and Vaughn and Harris and the detachment from
Loring next the river. The river defenses were under the command of Col. Edward
Higgins. The upper batteries from Fort Hill to the upper bayou were manned by
the First Tennessee artillery, Col. Andrew Jackson; the center batteries by the
Eighth Louisiana battalion, Maj. F. N. Ogden, and the Vaiden light
artillery, Capt. S. C. Bains; and the lower batteries
by the First Louisiana artillery, Lieut.-Col. D. Beltzhoover.
Bowen's division, about 2,400 strong,
was held as a reserve, reducing the force. in the
trenches to a little over 16,000 men,
according to General Pemberton's report.
From: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ms/county/attala/jasonniles.htm
DIARY OF JASON NILES
June 22, 1861--December 31,
1864:
Electronic Edition.
Jason Niles, 1814-1894
.
. . .
January, 1st, 1862,
Wednesday
lightning and
pitchy darkness as accompaniments. They lost their way and found themselves at
John Holland's, for whom they hollowed a long time, when he came out with fear
and trembling, bringing a pine torch. He was prevailed on to go with them a
short distance to show them a nearer way back into the main road, when his
torch was blown out, and the party left in utter darkness. Holland immediately
broke for the house, and the travellers succeeded in gaining the high road
which they travelled over in a hurry till they reached Vaiden, where
they were just in time for the cars, which they took, and were set down at Duck
Hill about 1 o'clock
A. M. of Dec. 27th.
Dan undertook to follow a trail to Comfort's, of Carroll County, two miles
distant from the depot, but they got lost and wandered about till 4 o'clock, when they gave it up,
kindled a fire, and concluded to stay till daylight.
. . . .
February 14, 1863, Saturday
A. wrote to Aunt "Marty,"
by Stan--Sent for Mobile Weekly Register by Stan. Old man Presley &
Dickerson eat dinner here. D. on his way to Vaiden
with petition for C. W. P.
. . . .
February 16, 1863, Monday
Probate Court--rainy--old man Presley and Norman Weatherby
eat dinner here today. Wrote out Acct. for D. Ayers. Dickerson just from Vaiden stayed here at night, it rained all night
long.
. . . .
March 19, 1863, Thursday
Children
under influence of vaccination. Bill Buzbee came home
from Militia camp at Vaiden & there seems to be a general scatterlophistication of "milish"--Old
man Allen, Frank Jennings & myself at Riley's, upstairs, looking at the
last remnants of the clothing—
. . . .
October 29, 1863, Thursday
Rose at 5
o'clock--walked down to mill--negroes
feeding hogs -- early breakfast and off for Vaiden. Crossed
at Denman's ferry--in Zilpha swamp. Harris had
a bout kicking his horse in the side--went through George's plantation--reach
V. about 10 A. M. Robinson there
before us. Ferguson
& Maxwell & Beaty there--introduced to Maj.
Simmons--Cothran came in--went to Hirsh's store to
try Robinson's Habeas Curpus
case. Maj. Simmons took the judge & me into the back room, & treated us
to a drink of good whiskey, assuring us it was good for brightening a
man's ideas--Robinson discharged on the ground that he was over 45 when president's call was made.
Came back with Dud
Harvey & Ferguson as far as ferry--rocks piled upon rocks--Corn bread cold
& hard for dinner, with ripe persimmons for dessert--rained a little--Rods
D. B. C's "U. S." horse--got home 1/4
past 6--Walked our
horses from Vaiden, 4 miles an hour.
. . . .
November 16, 1863, Monday
Probate Court--a clear,
cool day, body of Nathan Sweatt was found in Yockanookany about a mile below bridge, floating on water,
with a large rock tied to his breast. Went down with
cavalry--helped to pull the body ashore. Mosby acting as coroner, held
inquest. Went (P. M.) to Sam Mitchell's on way to Vaiden--rode
Lucas's fiery "Boomerang"--Started at about 2
o'clock & got to M's about dark--a most glorious day. Mrs. Woolley here.
. . . .
November 17, 1863, Tuesday
"Sam" s'd last night yt.
once upon a time, many years ago, Judge Huntington, representing some party who
was opposed to Henry Tyler, commenced a speech by saying: "May it please
your Honor, by the law of England"--Tyler here spoke up and
said--"May it please your Honor, I was born in Ameriky:
I was raised in Ameriky: and I want to be tried by
the law of Ameriky, & not by the law of
England." This raised a big laugh and bothered Huntington.
Rose early this morning,
saw the first streak of daylight coming up the Eastennsky, from the hill-top on which
Mitchell's residence stands. Went down to Mill and stables where Negroes were
gearing up the mules. Breakfast of coffee, broiled chicken, fried sweet
potatoes, biscuit, ham, fresh butter & c., & c. Left early for Vaiden,
a glorious ride--reached V. about 10.
. . . .
October 20, 1864, Thursday
Clear, cool and
pleasant--started for Carroll.
Went by Rochester, and Tom
Rosamond's--Tom harrowing in wheat--Lewis Nash came along-- rode with him a
short distance--Went on by Dudley Harvey's & Randall's to Denman's
Ferry--corn bread and a few slices of fried sweet potatoes--
Passed through Vaiden,
up to Shongal's road, thence on through Middleton to
Mrs. McLean's--reached there about dark. Mrs. Sheperd, Miss Betty, her brother and Freeland there,
besides overseer (Spivey.)
. . . .
October 22, 1864, Saturday
Started for home at 8
o'clock A. M.--a killing frost this morning, the first this autumn.
At Mrs. Kennedy's--young ladies only at home. Learned
names of heirs--at Vaiden bought of Dr. Tait,
at Young's drug store, De Tocqueville on Democracy in America, $5. Confed.--
Came as far as Ferguson's near ferry
with Jack Arnold--came home by Wm. Moore's.
From: http://www.chicago-scots.org/clubs/History/Names-S.htm
Stewart, William - 1828-1863 - Child of Agnes McGaughey/Elijah. Born in Coitsville, Ohio. Though he never lived at Somonauk, IL
where his father's family was so long identified, his short career is full of
interest. He graduated from Washington
College, PA in 1849 and began the study of
theology, but a severe illness made it evident that he could not endure the norther climate. He went south in 1852 and was private tutor in a family at Sidon, Mississippi,
for a time. He studied medicine and practiced at Vaiden, Mississippi, where he married Mary Frances
Pleasants. Children: Ernest William Stewart and Frances Stewart. He was a Union
man and cast the only vote in his county against secession. When the war began
he made an effort to escape with his family by way of Mexico, but did
not succeed. He then entered the rebel army as captain, but resigned in a short
time, ostensibly on account of ill health. Thinking to be safe from raids, he
concluded to leave town and live on his plantation in the timber. He found a
man whom he had often befriended (a Mr. Stokes) living in the house. Stokes
agreed to leave but kept delaying. Finally, William ordered him out. The man
went into the house and through the opening of the nearly closed door shot
William in the back with buckshot. After lingering 19 days in great suffering he died. There
being no communication between the North and South,
his father's family did not hear of his death for two years. His murderer
escaped justice
From: http://www.mississippiscv.org/MS_Units/43rd_MS_INF.htm
43rd MS Infantry, Co. K...
"Kemper Fencibles"
DeKalb, Kemper
County
Private
John W. Pitts -- missing after Corinth, MS; 12/28/62 in hospital Vaiden, MS;
captured Vicksburg; 10/63 AWOL; 11-12/63 absent with leave; AWOL since 1/12/64
on 4/64 muster roll; AWOL since 8/1/64
on last official muster roll 8/64; further service unclear
From: http://www.mississippiscv.org/MS_Units/1st_mississippi_light_artillery.htm
1ST MISSISSIPPI LIGHT
ARTILLERY
(AKA WITHERS’ LIGHT ARTILLERY)
(from Dunbar Rowland’s
"Military History of Mississippi,
1803-1898";
company
listing courtesy H. Grady Howell’s "For Dixie Land,
I’ll Take My Stand")
Company L -- Vaiden Artillery (raised in Carroll County, MS)
[Designation changed to E, March
6, 1865.]
In
February, 1862,
the Vaiden Battery,
described as a new company of artillery, with six guns, was sent from the
command of General Lovell, headquarters New Orleans, to reinforce
the army in Tennessee.
Assigned to Chalmers' Brigade in organization of March 9, 1862.
April 3, General Ruggles reported Bains' Battery not ready for field service. "Bains' Battery is not to
go," is the Adjutant-General's
endorsement. Lieutenant Sanderson, however, with a detachment,
manned two guns of the Stanford Battery, in place of men who were sick, and was
in the hottest of the fight at Shiloh,
temporarily losing the guns, which were soon recaptured. Several men were
killed and wounded. Report of May 6,
Lieut. R. H. Smith Thompson, commanding heavy artillery at Corinth, a 24-pounder siege gun, rifled, which commands the Farmington road for
nearly three-quarters of a mile, manned by Captain Bains'
company of light artillery. After the evacuation, at Columbus several months, drilled as heavy
artillery. Bains' Artillery company,
in Beltzhoover's command at Vicksburg, January, 1863. Became Company L, First Artillery, as
per report of March, 1863.
. . . .
Company
I, Captain Bowman, during the siege of Vicksburg
was stationed at or near the road leading out from Cherry Street, about one and one-half
miles below Vicksburg
(Hall's Ferry road). The company was not in the Baker's Creek campaign. At the
beginning of the siege there were about 115 men on duty. Captain Bowman was disabled by
sickness and the officers on duty were Lieutenants Bower, Tye,
D. W. Lamkin and John Patton. Colonel Reynolds,
commanding Fourth Brigade, Stevenson's Division, reported that his artillery
consisted of five light pieces under Capt. F. O. Claiborne, one piece under
Captain Corput on the left, one section under
Lieutenant Bower on the right, one piece under Sergeant Hairston (Vaiden Artillery) on the right, one
siege piece under Lieut. George P. Crane on the left center. The positions of
four of Bowman's guns are marked on the line, Markers 163, 187, 190,
194.
. . .
.
Vaiden Artillery, Captain Bains, added to the regiment
as Company L, was on duty throughout the siege, part of the company in the
center batteries on the river under Major Ogden and Col. Ed. Higgins, and one
section under Lieut. Elbert M. Collins with General Lee on the land line.
General Lee gave special mention in his report to Lieutenants Duncan (E) and
Collins (L). Lieut. A. J. Sanderson commanded a 10-pounder rifled gun, Lieut. E. L. Wood 12-pounder, and Lieut. J. S. Young
was killed in command of a 12-pounder
howitzer, with Cumming's Brigade. Tablets 212, 214, 215.
. . .
.
Regimental
headquarters at Tensas Landing, August 10,
Colonel Withers commanding; at Sibley's Mills, east shore Mobile Bay, August 23, Major Wofford commanding; at
Mobile thereafter, November, 1864,
First Mississippi Artillery, Capt. Marquis L. Cooke, in Maury's command;
Bradford's and Ratliff’s Battery in Southwest Mississippi. Two guns of Bradford's Battery were
captured at Brookhaven, November
18, 1864, by an
expedition from Baton Rouge
under Colonel Fonda, who "surprised the town by daylight, scattering a
small infantry force and capturing a section of artillery with caissons. The
gunners were, many of them, shot down at their pieces." (Gen.
A. L. Lee's report). Private Winn was killed in this fight. January, 1865, Abbay's
Battery, 80
present, four field guns, in Semple's Battalion
Artillery, Mobile; March, 1865,
Company L, at Battery Mclntosh, Mobile Bay; Company
G, Captain Cowan, in Grayson's Battalion, right wing defenses of Mobile, Col. Melancthon Smith commanding. The Vaiden company manned a battery of heavy
artillery.
.
. . .
Battle
Report of Brig. Gen. Wirt Adams, C.S. Army, commanding Central District of
Mississippi, on Battle of Franklin, Mississippi, January 2, 1865.
From
the O.R., Series I, Volume 45,
Part 1, pages 873-875.
HEADQUARTERS
CENTRAL DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI,
Canton, Miss., January 12,
1865.
CAPTAIN:
In compliance with the order of the major-general commanding, requiring a
report of the engagement with the enemy at Franklin, Holmes County, on the 2d instant, I have the honor to
submit the following:
Colonel Griffith’s command, returning from Morton,
reached Canton on the 30th
ultimo, and was ordered to take position near Goodman, thirty-two miles north
of this, for the purpose of intercepting, in obedience to the orders of the major-general
commanding, the raid under Grierson, then reported to be moving west from Egypt
Station, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, in case it turned in a southern or
southwesterly direction.
Moorman’s battalion, which had just reached Livingston
from North Mississippi, was also ordered to
Canton and directed to encamp in the vicinity of Colonel Griffith and await
further orders. I had the bridge at Goodman carefully examined and
repaired, with the view of the prompt crossing of the command at that point,
and sent scouts, under Capt. Sam Henderson, up by railroad as far as Vaiden, to give me early information of the enemy’s
movements. The telegraphic operators along the railroad were also requested to
furnish me the earliest information regarding
the enemy’s movements. On the 30th
the operator at Vaiden reported the enemy at Winona and the main
column as having gone to Grenada.
At 3 o’clock on the
afternoon of the 31st
the operator at Vaiden left his office, without
explanation, further than to say he had gone to look for the enemy, and the
result was that no reliable information was received of the enemy’s advance in
this direction until 7.30
p.m. on the 1st
instant, when dispatches from Durant reported the arrival of the enemy at West
Station, ten miles above, and the burning of the station house at 7 p.m. I at once dispatched
couriers to Colonel Griffith, with orders to cross Big Black at Goodman, and to
regulate his movement [so as] to
occupy the bridge before daylight with his advance, and to have his whole
command west of the river by sunrise on the morning of the 2d. Lieutenant-Colonel
Moorman was ordered to move at such an hour during the night as to reach the
bridge by 8 o’clock the same morning and
report to Colonel Griffith.
Stewart, William - 1828-1863 - Child of Agnes McGaughey/Elijah.
Born in Coitsville, Ohio.
Though he never lived at Somonauk,
IL where his father's family was
so long identified, his short career is full of interest. He graduated from Washington College, PA
in 1849 and began
the study of theology, but a severe illness made it evident that he could not
endure the norther climate. He went south in 1852 and was private tutor in a
family at Sidon, Mississippi, for a time. He studied medicine and practiced at Vaiden, Mississippi,
where he married Mary Frances Pleasants. Children: Ernest William
Stewart and Frances Stewart. He was a Union man and cast the only vote in his
county against secession. When the war began he made an effort to escape with
his family by way of Mexico,
but did not succeed. He then entered the rebel army as captain, but resigned in
a short time, ostensibly on account of ill health. Thinking to be safe from
raids, he concluded to leave town and live on his plantation in the timber. He
found a man whom he had often befriended (a Mr. Stokes) living in the house.
Stokes agreed to leave but kept delaying. Finally, William ordered him out. The
man went into the house and through the opening of the nearly closed door shot
William in the back with buckshot. After lingering 19 days in great suffering he died. There
being no communication between the North and South,
his father's family did not hear of his death for two years. His murderer
escaped justice.
From:
http://www.chicago-scots.org/clubs/History/Names-S.htm
From Wm. & Mary
Quar. 8, p. 275:
Col. William Mead of Bedford County, Va.,
served in the French and Indian war; lived ten miles from Lynchburg, deputy surveyor to Richard STITH, served in the Revolutionary War. He
married (1) Ann Hail
by whom four sons: John Mead, Samuel Mead, Nicholas Mead and William Mead. He
married (2) Martha
daughter of Col. William Cowles of Charles City County, Va., (and widow of
William STITH of Charles City) by whom Cowles Mead, third son, born in Bedford
County, October 18,
1776, elected to
Congress from Georgia in 1805,
and the same year appointed by Jefferson secretary to the first governor of
Mississippi Territory. (End of Note.)
Militia units formed
after the six months enlistment of 1812
1st Regiment Mississippi Infantry United States
Volunteers (Carson's),
organized at Baton Rouge
beginning in January, 1813
with the reenlisting members of the 1st
Detachment of Mississippi Militia in service to the United States.
Under the command of Colonel
Cowles Mead and later Colonel Joseph Carson.
Captain Gerard C. Brandon's Company
Captain
Samuel Dale's Company
Captain
Benjamin Dent's Company
Captain
Philip A. Engle's Company
Captain
L. V. Foelckel's Company
Captain
William Henry's Company
Captain
William Jack's Company (at Fort
Mims)
Captain
Chas. G. Johnson's Company
Captain
Randal Jones' Company
Captain
Jos. P. Kennedy's Company
Captain
William C. Mead's Company
Captain
Hatton Middleton's Company (at Fort Mims)
Captain
Hans Morrison's Company
Captain
Lewis Paimboiuf's Company
Captain
Thos. Posey's Company
Captain
John Neilson's Company
Captain
James Foster's Company
Captain
Abraham M. Scott's Company
Captain
Benj. S. Smoot's Company
Captain
Archelaus Well's Company "Well's Dragoons"