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| George 'Buster' Singleton |
(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator
George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere
in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Young played part in Civil War”
was originally published in the May 12, 1988 edition of The Monroe Journal in
Monroeville, Ala.)
On Sunday, April 17, I traveled to Selma to watch the
re-enactment of the battle that was fought there during the dark days of the
Civil War.
I went against my better judgement because I felt that I
wouldn’t see anything that I didn’t know about already. Not that I think that
I’m smarter than most people, but I have studied in detail the events that took
place there on the banks of the mighty Alabama River.
As I sat there watching the re-enactment, I noticed that
some of the Rebel soldiers were very young. Two or three of the play soldiers
seemed to be not over 12 or 14. I thought to myself that these young men were
mighty young to be participating in this re-enactment. Even though it was only
acting, it could still get quite dangerous.
Then my mind began to push forth certain instances in many
battles when there were young men, no older than those before me, who played
heroic roles in turning the tide of battle – many from defeat to victory.
Many of these boys soldiers gave their all on the
battlefields of this bloody conflict. Many were buried in unmarked graves; many
were buried without anyone knowing their names, not even the soldiers who were
burying them.
History records that during one of the major battles of
Chattanooga, Tenn., the cold, barefoot, slender body of a Tennessee boy,
thought to be about 13 or 14, was found by a Union officer. The young, dead
soldier’s haversack was examined for its contents. His entire rations were
found to be a handful of black beans and six roasted acorns. The story goes on
to say that the Union officer wept at the sight of those pitiful rations.
No one knows for sure who was the youngest soldier in the
Civil War, but many joined the cause at the early age of 11.
George S. Lamkin of Winona, Miss. joined Stanford’s
Mississippi Battery when he was 11. He was severely wounded during the battle
of Shiloh, Tenn. before his 12th birthday.
T.G. Bean of Pickensville, Ala. was probably the war’s
youngest recruiter. He organized two companies at the University of Alabama in
1861 when he was 13.
One of Francis Scott Key’s grandsons, Billings Steele, swam
the Potomac River in the dead of night to join the rangers of John Singleton
Mosby. He was not yet 16.
Records show that M.W. Jewett of Oliver Springs, Tenn. was a
private in the 59th Virginia Regiment at the age of 13, serving at Charleston,
S.C., in Florida and at the siege of Petersburg, Va.
John Bailey Tyler of D Troop, 1st Maryland Cavalry was 12
when the war started. He fought in this regiment until the end of the war,
never once wounded.
The dreaded war closed many schools and colleges throughout
the South and sent thousands into war. The average ages of these young soldiers
to be was about 17. Their average weight was about 130 pounds.
The University of Virginia had 530 young men enrolled from
Southern states; when the war started 515 joined the Confederate service.
There were numerous tales of soldiers being too small to
climb into their saddles. Many had to be helped onto their horses before
charging forth to do battle. There were several who reached the rank of colonel
and general who were not old enough to vote until a year after the war ended.
Many of the records of the Confederate Army were destroyed
during and after the war, but there are records today that show that there were
25 enlistees for the South who were 10 or under. These were mostly buglers,
drummers or fifers. Some were fighters.
Story after story of the hardships that were endured during
the dreadful days of this war was at one time passed down through the families
of those involved. But over the years, these have been pushed from the minds of
the descendants. We tend to rub out the unpleasant events that don’t relate to
the nicer happenings that we have grown accustomed to hearing.
I do not believe that we should live in the past, but we as
a nation need to know all there is to know about this dreaded war. I believe
that we would be a more respected nation in this world of ours today if we had
heeded the lessons and the toughness that was intended for us to abide by.
Through these lessons, we would stand firm on many of the issues that we take
so lightly today in world affairs.
This does not mean that we should go around with a long,
sour face and think of nothing but bad things. But we should know the
discipline and be able to say “No” when the word is needed.
But then, if I were right all the time and knew all that
there was to know, I might be president, and that would never do, would it? So,
for now, I leave you with these words…
It will be the same in a hundred years –
What a fantasy to conjure up smiles and tears!
How oft do I muse, ‘mid the thoughtless and gay,
On the marvelous truth that these words convey!
And can it be so? Must the valiant and free
Hold their tenure of life on this frail decree?
Are the truths they’ve reared and the glories they’ve won
Only fantasies and make-believe confronting the sun?
And must all that’s as joyous and brilliant to view
As a midsummer dream be as perishing too?
Then what meaneth the chase after phantom joys,
And the breaking of human hearts for toys,
And the veteran’s pride in his crafty schemes,
And the passion of youth for its darling dreams,
And the aiming at ends we never can span,
And the deadly aversion of man for man?
To what end is this conflict of hopes and fears?
Will it all be the same in a hundred years?
(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and
Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime
resident of Monroeville, he was born on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County and
served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from 1964 to
1987. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and
all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the
microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville.
Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship
purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)
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