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South Carolina C.S.A.
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a whisper from the past..."
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South Carolina C.S.A. |
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Furnished by Monte McGovern Ben McCullouch Camp Number 30 U.C.V. Wise County Terry, Ross, Dennison, Gentry, Mitchell, Hornback, Kingley, Williams, Watson, Thomas, Tugwell, Kerr, Duncan, Thompson, Privitt, Johnson, McGovern, Hoyt, Sellers, Jones, Goss, Ray, Massey, Grise(?), Hatcher, Workman, Long, Roach, Burton, Smith, Shepperd, Galliard, Kenay, Ratliff, Pickett. |
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Buried for many years in a packet of forgotten letters written home to a small cabin on George's Creek was the mention of two brothers who would haunt me for a number of years. The reason the letters disturbed me so deeply was that virtually the entire community in these letters was killed in the course of the war. The author was dead in an unmarked and unknown grave at Franklin,and with him lay most of his friends and many of his relatives. These men had served on the coast of South Carolina in Company H and Company I of the P.B.L.A, with the author of the letters and so many others. Men who had joined the army to serve in their state, but who had been violently uprooted and moved to the Army of Tennessee only to perish on the whim of a madman at a place called Franklin. Men who had seen all their brothers killed before them. Men like John McGovern. On rare occasions, stories like this have happy endings, endings that are unknown and unseen. Endings that could have been discerned if the writer could only understand the clues. For you see, although listed as dead at Franklin in South Carolina’s Roll of Honor, John McGovern was not dead at all. What follows is an echo from the grave… a fragment that remains… a whisper from our past. John McGovern and his brother Peter are brought back from the grave to us due to the efforts of a single descendant, Monte McGovern. My thanks to him for filling in the blanks and correcting my errors. I can now tell the story of the McGovern brothers with some degree of accuracy. It is a part of a larger story that belongs to Company B, to George’s Creek, and to each of us, as a legacy of our past. I will begin the story with the fragments of letters that first called these men to my attention. Then I will tell you as best I can what became of these men. In the way of explanation, "to run the blockade" was to go AWOL, and it was a common and not too serious offense by the men serving around Charleston. They would come back a day or two later with food and drink for everyone and a few days on guard and all was forgiven. (Within a year, a public execution, made this a virtually forgotten undertaking.) It was still early in the war and they were close to home. There was no dishonor and little thought given to the practice. These men represented what was probably the last independent army ever assembled and that coming and going as free men was a function of this independence. Undated Fragment Me and John Mc is going a rabbit hunting July 2. Me and John killed one rabbit we are a going to eat it for breakfast. May, 1863 Davy I want you and Jimmy to make all the corn you can. John McGovern and Matt Furguson, and Willie Satterfield run the blockade last Sunday and went home. Sept, 1863 J. McGovern is sick I think he has the jaundice. I was very sorry to hear of Peter McGovern’s death. There was seventeen killed at the same time that he was. March, 1864 Tom has gone over the river to see some girls and Mattie is making a tobacco pouch for John McGovern. I must close now. Be sure and right soon your affectionate cousin The Story of the Death of Peter McGovern In early September of 1863, Admiral Dahlgren had gained control of Morris Island and demanded the surrender of Stephen Elliott, the commander of Fort Sumter. General Elliott, then a Major, sent the following message to Admiral Dahlgren. "Inform Admiral Dahlgren that he may have Fort Sumter when he can take and hold it." Several events took place before Admiral Dahlgren undertook to actually take the fort, an invasion that still stands as one of the worst beatings ever taken by the United States Marines, but that is another story. We are concerned with the events leading up to that assault, not the assault itself. On the morning of the seventh of September the Union monitor, Weehawken, commanded by Commander E.R. Colhoun, grounded herself in eleven feet of water in the channel between Fort Sumter and Cumming's Point. This fact did not come to the attention of the Confederates until September eighth. The other members of the ironclad fleet were engaged on the seventh, but with the discovery of the condition of Weehawken on the eighth, she was engaged. Now Commander Colhoun undertook to defend his ship from the constant bombardment from the harbor installations, particularly Fort Moultrie which had opened on the Weehawken at about eight thirty. The Weehawken's "second shell fired at Fort Moultrie from her XV inch gun struck the muzzle of an 8-inch columbiad and glanced into some shell boxes, producing an explosion that killed sixteen and wounded twelve men of the garrison." This footnote in the daily reports and Johnson's excellent book, The Defense of Charleston Harbor is the official historic notation of the death of Peter McGovern, Company E, First South Carolina Regulars. He was one of the sixteen. "I was very sorry to hear of Peter McGovern’s death. There was seventeen killed at the same time that he was." The fragment that remained... The Story of John McGovern
From: Pioneer History of Wise County, Texas, page 374 Furnished by Monte McGovern Ben McCullouch Camp Number 30 U.C.V. Wise County Terry, Ross, Dennison, Gentry, Mitchell, Hornback, Kingley, Williams, Watson, Thomas, Tugwell, Kerr, Duncan, Thompson, Privitt, Johnson, McGovern, Hoyt, Sellers, Jones, Goss, Ray, Massey, Grise(?), Hatcher, Workman, Long, Roach, Burton, Smith, Shepperd, Galliard, Kenay, Ratliff, Pickett. What we know of John McGovern is this, he lived in the George's Creek Community of Pickens County. In 1850, he was about eight years old and had an older brother named Peter and two younger sisters, Ami and Elizabeth. His father was Hugh McGovern from Ireland, his mother was (Sara) Mary Jane Tompkins from Virgina. Hugh died in Oct 1848 and in 1850, Sara was living with the children and her brother. Shortly after that, Sara sold the farm just outside of Greenville and moved into Greenville with the two boys and the girls. In the war, John served in the Palmetto Battalion Light Artillery, Company H, Holtzclaw's Company. His company was done away with and he was moved to the Sixteenth South Carolina where he served well. In the inferno that was Franklin he was captured and that means he was probably wounded or with a comrade that was wounded. He knew the terror of that was the long walk down Winstead Hill, and the inferno that was the Carter House garden, that long ago November day. He was thought killed and recorded as such. He not only survived that battle, as he had the Atlanta Campaign, and the trials of service around Charleston Harbor. He also survived the transport north and the bleak imprisonment that was his fate in Camp Douglas. We also know that like so many who lived to walk home from these distant places that when he got home the world was a much smaller place for those experiences. Texas was no distance at all, as a matter of fact it was not only not that far, there were some things in Texas in 1866 that could not be found any where in South Carolina. There was some hope and it was still the south, a south somewhat removed from the long arm of the Union government. We also know from the pension application of his wife that he probably did not go to Texas alone. That application filed in 1926, features the names of two other men from the Sixteenth South Carolina, S.A. Jones and William Jones. So like so many others John McGovern had found a new home and a new life in an old friend... the Republic of Texas. What follows is the text of that Pension Application and with it the hope that more information will be forthcoming for this is... but a whisper from the past. The State of Texas County of Wise Before me the undersigned authority personally appeared M.R. Jones, known to be a credible citizen who is 80 years old and resides in Wise County, Texas. After being duly sworn by me, deposes and says that he was well acquainted with John McGovern, Deceased, during his life and that he personally knows that said John McGovern did render service in the Army during the War Between the States of the United States, that while he did not serve in the same Company and Regiment, with said McGovern, but that his Father and Brother William Jones and S.A. Jones, respectively Father and brother, did serve in the same Company and Regiment with said John McGovern, that to the best of his recollection that served in the 16th South Carolina Infantry, under Captain Goodlett, commanded by McCoulah. He further states that said John McGovern, was captured at Franklin, Tenn., and held a prisoner of war at Rock Island, Ill. He further says that he and said John McGovern, lived in the same neighborhood and was boys together and that he knows of a certainty that said John McGovern did enlist in the Army and that he did not desert his post of duty, I have talked to him since the War, and have every reason to know that he did serve except that I was not in the same Company and Regiment, and that he, McGovern, was captured as stated and was held a prisoner until the close of the war. M.R. Jones Subscribed and sworn to before me this the 28th day of June, 1926 County Judge, Wise County, Texas Wm. Jones - William Jones - Served in Company K, 16th South Carolina and Company A. He was present at the Surrender. M.R. Jones - Only one M.R. Jones found Macon R. Jones - serving with Company A of Butler's First or the First South Carolina Regulars. This was Peter McGovern's Regiment. Texas or Bust... a new tomorrow. Brother of Peter McGovern - Killed in defense of Charleston Harbor - 1863 Born: 3/27/41 – Pickens County Married: 6/23/74 Mary Elizabeth Russell of Missouri in Texas Died:01/08/16 Died after falling in a creek Buried: Sycamore, Wise County, Texas Farmer, Merchant, Rancher Children: John Abram Peter Russell Thomas Harrel Alda Gertrude Mollie Sallie Click to thank the descendant |
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