War in the Pine Barrens: the Civil War Era in South-Central and Southeastern Alabama by Tommy Craig Brown a Dissertation Submitt
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War in the Pine Barrens: The Civil War Era in South-Central and Southeastern Alabama by Tommy Craig Brown A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Auburn University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Auburn, Alabama December 13, 2014 Copyright 2014 by Tommy Craig Brown Approved by Kenneth W. Noe, Chair, Alumni Professor and Draughon Professor of Southern History Willim F. Trimble, Professor Emeritus of History Kelly Kennington, Assistant Professor of History Abstract When the American Civil War erupted in 1861, the eight counties that comprised south- central and southeastern Alabama responded by sending thousands of men to fight in southern armies. This corner of the Confederacy, and especially the southernmost counties that straddled the Alabama/Florida border, has been identified in the past as an area where poverty reigned, Unionism was disproportionately strong, shirkers routinely escaped military service, raiders and bushwhackers created havoc on the home front, and deserters outnumbered the faithful when it came to hard fighting. Previous histories of the region rely heavily upon events and circumstances that took place during the final months of the war, and give the impression that the people in this part of the state played an inconsequential role in supporting the southern war effort. This study challenges the traditional interpretations of the area, arguing instead that a majority of white Alabamians in the region supported slavery, supported secession, and supported the Confederate war effort for the bulk of the conflict. In addition, if previous studies of the region are correct, soldier morale should have disintegrated much earlier in the conflict as the home front collapsed. Instead, the opposite appears to have been the case. The region’s soldiers fought well during the 1864 Overland Campaign as well as the Franklin-Nashville Campaign later that year, arguably the two bloodiest campaigns of the entire war. Finally, much of the state’s history has concentrated on the Tennessee Valley, the hill counties, and the Black Belt, with south-central and southeastern Alabama barely an afterthought. This study brings much-needed attention to a region of the state largely ignored by historians. It deserves a more prominent place in the state’s historical record. ii Table of Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... iii List of Illustrations ....................................................................................................................... iv Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2 ..................................................................................................................................... 49 Chapter 3 ..................................................................................................................................... 81 Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................................... 114 Chapter 5 ................................................................................................................................... 144 Chapter 6 ................................................................................................................................... 177 Chapter 7 ................................................................................................................................... 215 Chapter 8 ................................................................................................................................... 242 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 269 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 277 iii List of Tables 1.1 Pine Barren Population Changes, 1820-1860 ....................................................................... 30 1.2 Non-Native Alabamians in Four Pine Barren Communities ................................................ 32 2.1 Class Divisions in the Pine Barrens in 1860 ......................................................................... 52 2.2 Pine Barren Livestock in 1860 .............................................................................................. 58 2.3 Livestock Per Capita, 1860 ................................................................................................... 58 2.4 Pine Barren Crops in 1860 .................................................................................................... 60 2.5 Small to Middling Slaveholders in 1860 .............................................................................. 64 2.6 Free and Slave Populations in the Pine Barrens, 1850 and1860...………………….............72 3.1 Presidential Elections and Party Politics, 1836-1856……………………..……………….101 3.2 Pine Barren Vote in Presidential Elections of 1840 and 1844…………..…………………112 4.1 1859 Congressional Election, District 2……………..……………………………………..122 4.2 Governor’s Race and Presidential Election, 1855-1856…………………..………………..135 4.3 1860 Presidential Election………………………..………………………………………...138 5.1 Number of Soldiers by County………………………..……………………………………149 5.2 Pine Barren Companies Created in 1861………………..………………………………….150 5.3 1861 Gubernatorial Election…………………………..……………………………………166 8.1 1863 Gubernatorial Election Results.…………....…………………………………………254 iv List of Illustrations 1.1 The Pine Barren Region ........................................................................................................ 19 1.2 Major Rivers in South-central and Southeastern Alabama ................................................... 22 1.3 Additions and Changes to Pine Barren Counties Over Time ............................................... 29 2.1 Slaveholding Households...................................................................................................... 69 v Introduction The Battle of Gettysburg was a bloody affair for the Army of Northern Virginia’s 15th Alabama Infantry. On July 2, 1863, the second day of a three-day fight, the regiment’s multiple assaults against the extreme Federal left anchored atop Little Round Top failed to take the ground. The intensity of the struggle was especially keen at the points where Confederates temporarily breached the Union line. There, hand-to-hand combat signified the engagement’s ferocity as the Federals beat back their Rebel attackers. By dark, dozens of Alabamians from the 15th Alabama and hundreds of other men from both sides were either dead, wounded, or missing. Union Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine Infantry remembered that men were everywhere “torn and broken, staggering, creeping, quivering on the earth.”1 Twenty-nine-year-old Pvt. Crawford Dillard and eighteen-year-old Pvt. Warren Jones both made the charge up Little Round Top that day as members of the Dale County Beauregards, officially recognized as Company E, 15th Alabama Infantry. Back home the men were neighbors and had joined the Beauregards along with dozens of relatives and friends as “later enlisters” in March 1862.2 Dillard was the oldest of four brothers, all of whom eventually enlisted to fight with the company. Along with his wife Mary and two young children he farmed a small plot of land just outside Newton, Alabama. They owned no slaves, although, according to the 1860 census, Dillard’s father owned two young slave children. Their total net worth was about 1 Glenn W. LaFantasie, Twilight at Little Round Top: July 2, 1863 - The Tide Turns at Gettysburg (Random House, 2007), 183. 2 Kenneth W. Noe, Reluctant Rebels: The Confederates Who Joined the Army After 1861 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010). 1 $1,000. Warren Jones, on the other hand, was one of five teenage boys still living at home when the war began. His father Moses, a widower who had migrated from Georgia in the mid-1850s, owned a large farm, five slaves, and enjoyed a net worth of nearly $20,000. Crawford Dillard survived the Battle of Gettysburg, fought in no fewer than thirty engagements as a Confederate soldier, and remained committed to the war effort for the duration of the conflict. Warren Jones died on July 16, 1863, from wounds he received during the assault at Little Round Top. 3 These two men, their families, and the community they represented are just a small sampling of whites from southeastern Alabama—known during the antebellum period as the Pine Barrens or Pine Lands and more recently identified as the Wiregrass—who supported the Confederate war effort during the American Civil War. In 1860 the Pine Barrens included the counties of Conecuh, Covington, Coffee, Dale, and Henry, as well as the northernmost counties of Butler, Pike, and Barbour. This corner of the Confederacy, and especially the southernmost counties, has been identified in the past as an area where poverty reigned, Unionism was disproportionately strong, shirkers routinely escaped military service, raiders and bushwhackers created havoc on the home front, and deserters outnumbered the faithful