RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD SOLDIER, BY ASA. M. PIPER, COMPANY C, 62nd
REGIMENT OF ALABAMA VOLUNTEERS. C.S.A.
This company was made up by J. W. Pitts and W. W. Wallace, Sr., of Shelby
County, Alabama. We were sworn into service at Wilsonville, Alabama, November
3, 1863. The company was made up of men from Shelby, Talladega, and Coosa
Counties. But few were over seventeen and one-half years old at this time. J.
W. Pitts was elected Captain and W. W. Wallace, Sr., 1stLieutenant,
George O. Butler, 1st Sergeant, R. M. Honeycutt, 2nd
Sergeant.
We were sent to Coosa River Railroad bridge for guard duty and drill and remained
there until July 11, 1864. We were at that time armed with Mississippi rifles.
We were ordered to Mobile and stopped in Selma for 5 days, then carried to
Mobile on a boat, landing there July 20th when we were given Enfield
rifles in place of our short rifles. Enfield rifles were 1000 yard guns and
good ones too. We marched three miles out to Battery C that night and placed on
guard duty the next morning.
The regiment was formed at this time with ten companys, about 1200 young men
and boys. We elected Daniel Hugee, Colonel, Doctor Davidson, Lt. Colonel, B.
Yniestre, Major, T. G. Bush, Adjutant. I have forgotten the sergeant majors
name. Dr. Davidson resigned on acount of bad health, then Yniestre was elected
Lt Colonel and J. W. Pitts was elected Major. W. W. Wallace was made Captain of
Company C. Lieutenant Ballard, before this, had transferred back to Wheelers
Cavalry and remained there for the remainder of the war. J. Morris was promoted
to 1stLieutenant of Company C and R. A. Sterrett, 2nd
Lieutenant.
This regiment remained on guard duty on the line of battery until January
1862, and then we moved down into the city of Mobile and were on provost duty
for a short time (about 4 weeks) and then we went across the bay to Blakely and
struck camp at Saludia Hill. On March the 15thwe were ordered to
Spanish Fort and Company C, my company, was placed on picket duty along the
coast at the mouth of Fish River, about two miles from the fort. On the 26th
of March we were driven into the ditches about 8 a.m. and the Battle of Spanish Fort opened with good and
heavy cannonading from both sides. Our regiment was about the center of the
line. On the night of the 4th of April our regiment and one other
were drawn out for rest and we went up to Fort Blakely on the 5th of
April about three o'clock a.m. and were ordered to the ditches at Blakely.
Company C was on the extreme right of the line supporting Culpeppers Battery
and Company A, of which Ward was the Captain, supported it on the left. Company
B was the next company to him.
On the 9th of April the U. S. troops charged our thin line with
negroes first , and we slaughtered them fast, some 2,000 being killed in a few
minutes with ground torppedoes and by shot and shell from the breast works.
Then we were charged by five lines of battle and captured on the evening of the
9th. On the 10th we were put on boats and started for
Ship Island Prison where we landed on the 13th about eight o'clock
a.m.
We were guarded by negro troops, most of them being from the South. They
cursed us and called us all vulgar names they could think of, even calling us
________________ and we had to take it or be shot. We had to carry wood on our
shoulders from four to seven miles to cook our grub with. They fed us a quarter
of a pound of salt horse and a half pint of yellow meal mush--only one meal of
this per day. On the morning of May 1st early, about daylight they
began to load us on two dismounted gunboats, the Big Merrimack and the Little
Merrimack and we traveled on these up to New Orleans and there we were put on
smaller boats up to Vicksburg. There we landed about 9 o'clock a.m. on the 5th
of May. There the good Southern women and old men fed us all we could eat--good
grub too.
We were carried out to Big Black on freight cars and the next morning we
were given our paroles and started home. We walked to Jackson (33 miles) and
there got transportation to selma and on Friday the 12th I arrived
home, five miles east of Columbiana. My father arrived home from Virginia on
Wednesday noon the 10th. My father was a blacksmith and wood
workman. He made the first and last pontoon boat (iron) that was ever made in
Richmond and put in the last pontoon bridge. I think it was at Drury's Bluff on
the James River.
This is about all I can think of now only the song that was made up by me
and Ex-Gov. Tom Seay, (Orderly Sergeant) of Company B, 62nd Alabama.
We set it to the music of The Bonnie Blue Flag. I remember every word of it and
very often sing it and call the old roll of my company for the amusement of
children and grown-up folks of out town. I copy it and send it to you. Am
enclosing a copy.
Yours fraternaly,
Asa M. Piper
Company C, 62nd Alabama, C.S.A.
THE REBS AT SHIP ISLAND - The Rebel Soldier, written by Asa M. Piper, Company C and Thomas Seay, Company B, 62nd Regiment Alabama Volunteers, C.S.A., while in prison at Ship Island.
(To the tune of Bonnie Blue Flag)
I am a Rebel soldier, a prisoner here confined,
And I am thinking of the ones whom I have left behind,
The comforts of a happy home, a host of friends so dear,
Whom I never did appreciate until I landed here.
CHORUS
Hurrah, hurrah for those who love their homes,
Hurrah for the Southern girls who glory in their homes.
Ship Island is an awful place, I'd have you understand,
They starve a rebel most to death, the guards are contraband,
They dress in yankee uniforms, their faces black as tar,
And when they take us after wood, they make us "Close up dar!"
CHORUS
They call us "damn sesesh", and "lousy rebels" too,
They say they are the men to show us rebels what to do,
They say the day is past and gone, that darkies have to be,
In bondage to a white man, "Old Abe's done sot us free."
CHORUS
Was it for crimes that I have done, that I am treated thus,
A fourth of a pound of old salt horse, a half pint of yellow mush,
And if I say its not enough, I'm told to "shet my mouf,"
For that is plenty for a man "thats fighting for the souf."
CHORUS
But now they say we'll be exchanged, and soon we'll go away,
What a merry set of men we'll be, when we see that happy day,
When we get back to Dixie Land, we'd like to have a brush,
To make them recollect their old salt horse and yellow mush.
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