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PRIVATE HEMBREE A HERO.An Incident in the Life ef • Confederate During the Late War.The associated press dispatches of December 19, contain an item from a small town In upper Georgia, describing the explosion of a boiler in a steam saw mill, from the effect of which fire men lost their lives. Among the number occurs the name of Elihu Hembree. The name and the locality make it appear almost conclusive to me that one of the persons who met his death by the boiler explosion in question was the subject of this sketch. This may not be the case, but it reminds me of an incident of the war in which Private Elihu Hembree was not only the central figure but the hero. First let me describe Private Hembree, of the 64th Georgia regiment. He was a perfect specimen of the class of Southerners described bv Northern writers as “poor white.” He was a man of powerful physique, capable of much endurance, a good shot with a rifle, rude in speech and manner, but sincere and honest, true and reliable, and totally Unconscious of any such sense as fear. lie joined “for a wounded frisad. bree from any danger from the ate side. He was gone for fully an hour, and when he returned he reported that about thirty yards from the enemy’s Hire lay a wounded Federal officer—not dead, but insensible, and perishing from cold and a dangerous wound. By dint ef yelling and calling we finally got the attention of the Federal*, and told them of their wounded comrade lying in the woods. They were permitted to come out with torches and search for him; and, as they were carrying him off, one of them in a loud voice said: “Much obliged to you, Johnnie, but we’d like to know how the devil you found out he withere *'* We rand too cold to that we would i And we did. The next i particulars, Isense as icnr. And we did. The next day was a repeti-the time of its .rffjntzation ujd'tari m»Je; tioD of the d.y before. By night both 1 excellent record as a soldier, hiving skle8 wer, completely exhatuitad; cold andborne a prominent part in every skirmish and engagement in which the regiment had participated up to August, 1664. Hometime during that month—I have no recollection of the date—lie disappeared.As he was not on picket duty at the time, I did not believe he had deserted to the enemy although it was plain he had deserted his command in the face of the enemy—an offense punishable with death.We were on the. lines in front of Petersburg at the time, and a permanently or ganized court martial in each army corps was enforcing the articles of war with a purpose most inexorable and relentless.To inefficient and incompetent officers these court martials were a terror—they (the officers) were being deprived of their commissions by the hundred. Failure to successfully perform a special duty exposed the offender to a court of inquiry first, and possibly a court martial afterwards. An open and palpable neglect of duty was sure to be yisited with disgrace if not with death. Court martials are said to be organized to convict, and there can be no doubt that at this time these engines of military discipline were doing their work upon officer aud private alike with an unsparing hand. Hembree’s desertion at this time gave me much concern. He had been such a good soldier; he was so brave, so tractable, so useful in many ways. In my heart I hoped he might successfully evade all danger of ar rest and never be captured, although I dared not publicly avow any eucli feel-ings.A private in Capt. Rhodes’ company of the 13th Georgia regiment deserted, aud was shielded by his captain. He was caught, convicted, and “shot to death with musketry,” aud so was Captain Rhodes.This made me careful, although it did not prevent me from hoping that Hembree might never be caught; but he was. He was stopped somewhere in South Carolina and asked for his papers. He had none and was innocent enough to tell his story in a truthful, straight-forward way.He was on his way home, without leave, , , to provide 'or the wants of his little fam- [ Ieu ily; he had asked for a furlough and had ■ a C been refused (which was the truth). His me family was in want, but as soon as lie had j ^ provided for them it was his intention to return to duty with his company and share the fate of his comrades in \ irgin-ia. Of course his story w as not believed; and, if it had been, it would have availed him nothing. He was a deserter in the eves of the law, and as such he was arrested and sent back under guard to Petersburg. Notice of bis capture and ’-house wrashunger had achieved a victory over human endurance, and a quiet followed that lasted for several weeks. Both armies had suffered such untoid hardship as te render farther active operations impossible for the present. To the last Hembree remained always in his place and always to be counted on to stay. He was one of the 17 of the 64th that surrendered at Appomattox. T. F. McCardell.he!Frlt;Grreturn to the corps’ guard served upon me as his company commander. I called to see him, and these are his words as near as I can remember: “Captain, they say I am to be tried by court-martial for desertion on Tuesday ? I don’t know much aliout these things, but I sha’nt think, ’til you tell^me so, that you believe I intended to desert. I never did. Thar’s what tuk me home. Read it. You've been good to me, aud I don’t mind you knowing my trouble; but the court martial sha’nt know it. They can shoot me if they choose, but they sha’nt read that cry for help from my wife and her T I two little ones.lj* j He sat down in a hopeless way, and I ot i opened and read the letter. 1 have a good nc! memory and I can recall a great many iu% i things, but I cannot remember the words !()f that letUfr ~it8 impression will never ! leave me. Such a pitiful story of want *et and suffering, told in a homely way, after j the manner of all illiterate people, I have ith I never since seen on paper. The mother [ and two babies had a shelter over theirto 1 everything she possessed, save the cabin in which she lived. On the day she wrote a squad of Federal cavalry had fed their j horses in the woods near by and she had oUl j gotten about a quart of corn which had ! l»een wasted about the ground. Even tui«‘n* was rudelv taken from her by one of the tt- ( soldiers, and she saw nothing ahead but to 1 slow starvation for herself and babies, un-j ! less her husband came home and removed ra her to some locality where they could be «* S provided for. Such, in substance, was the Tit! letter. Does any one wonder that Hembree wanted to go home? Does any one blame him for trying to go without leave, when leave was refused? The South was | full of Roman characters during the war, he j but such an appeal would have tried the irs j stoutest and bravest of them all b« I Technically, he was guilty. Actually, he had done only that which any man similarly situated would have done, and ought to have done. The difficulty wasmake this iron-bound tial take a broad and humane view of the case. No question could be raised as to the facts. The line of defence was to convince the court of the truth of his story, and the sincerity of his intention to return. If these two points could be well made and sustained, a light sentence was the next best thing we could hope for. Not feeling myself equal to the occasion, I procured the services of a friend who was an attornev, and together we managed the case so well that Hembree, while be, ing found guilty of the charge, was orderseries of punishments tra fatigue duty under the eye of his com j pany commauder.To me Hembree chose to ascribe all the merits of the defense ana ail the credit of i his escape from death, although in this he . was by no means just to my colleague, ict ! who was an experienced advocate and * »d- | gentleman greatly my intellectual super rge lor- So runs the world away. We ari and frequently credited with what wc do net , deserve, and we jus receive a due recompense for real men, UL nciuuicr a -----[p ; duty with his company, occasionally do tne jng gome extra duty in a nominal enforce was ' meat of the sentence of the court. Bj si I' reference to the “Memoirs of Robert E I Lee,” page 678, a brief account of the ex . i perience of our division (Mahone’s) onthe . the 6th. 7th and 8th of February, 1865,her j along Hatcher’s run, may be found.er- I It is not the purpose of this paper to lch ! discribe those events further than the - ) mention of one particular incident. ItI waa the evening of February 7, We hadlity bad a terrible day. The weather waa cold,! with alternate rain and snow, and our di-j vision had been engaged at intervals for 1 over twenty-four hours, without res and ,! without a mouthful to eat. At dark we j in fOo j Were forced back across an old field under po rise a heavy fire. Here we 'made a stand and j nt- arranged our line; At dark the enemy re-!■* j turned to the other side of the field, less ; ,? than three hundred yards, to take advant-1 I in I age of the shelter of the timber. Crossing J* nor, I the field the fighting had been heavy and rife our toss considerable. It was qow dark, j nta ! aud while J was employed at some dist-tance up the line, a report got into circu-of j lation among the members of ray old com-iwn pany that I had fallen in the retreat across 3mJ the field and was then lying among the I rB 1 weeds close up to where the enemy could , I be seen energetically establishing his line. her I When this report came to Hnmbree’sears ner. : all the nerve and heroism of the man was 1 aroused. If I was dead he declared he den would bring away the body; if I was only wounded he knew I would perish of cold
Newspaper Details
Cumberland Daily Times
Cumberland, Maryland, US
Mon, Jan 30, 1888
Page 3
Full Page
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Anonymous
USA 12 Feb 2024
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