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ADDENDUM

You got it from your father, it was all he had to give, so it's yours to keep and cherish for as long as you shall live, It was clean the day he got it, and a worthy name to bear, When he got it from his father, there was no dishonor there, So protect and guard it safely, for when all is said and done, You'll be proud the name is spotless when you give it to your son.

that having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

that I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.

that no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

that simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

that life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

that under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

that when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

that the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

that there's nothing sweeter than sleeping with your babies and feeling their breath on your cheeks.

that I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.

that one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

that when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

that it is best to give advice in only two circumstances; when it is requested and when it is a life-threatening situation.

Contributed by my and Priscilla Lee Jones/Barrs' middle daughter Susan Elaine 1999...Al Barrs

FAMILY HISTORY INFORMTION/STATISTICS

The Vikings (Norsemen or Northmen) were Germanic people from Scandinavia (

Norway

Sweden

and

Denmark

). After a rapid population growth and conflict among local groups, the Vikings began to raid Western Europe in search of wealth. The Vikings were a warlike group who worshiped pagan gods.

Between 800 and 1000 AD the Vikings raided villages from Ireland to Russia. The long, light ships of the Vikings enabled them to attack, plunder, and disappear before the Europeans could organize resistance.

During the 900's the Vikings began to replace raiding with trading. When the Vikings were at home they were farmers. The Vikings began to settle in Normandy and England. They converted to Christianity and began to led more peaceful lives. A warming trend in Europe allowed them to settle and prosper in Iceland and Greenland. This reduced their need to find new lands for conquest.

Viking poets called skalds recorded their heroic deeds of their warrior leaders.

• In 793 AD the Viking era started with the plundering of the English convent "Lindisfarne".

• Around 850 AD Lothar, son of Louis the Pionus, gave the island Walcheren to Harald & Rorik for protection against his brothers (Charles the Bald and Louis the German) and other Vikings.

• In 878 AD Vikings were "given" Danelagen [Danelaw, also a law] in the Northern most parts of England.

• In 911 AD the Viking "Ganga-Hrolf/Rollo" (Norwegian working for Danes) was "given" Normandie in France, which is named after the Vikings, "men from the north." For protection, Normandy was given by Charles the Simple

• About 1000 AD, Leif Eriksson discovered Vinland, many years after the Native Americans had settled there.

• In 1003 AD Skandinavian Vikings joined "Svein Forkbeard" and in 1013 AD they conquered England.

• 1012 AD Thorkel "The Tall" worked for king Aethelred (protecting London from Svein Forkbeard), they had to flee to Normandie.

• 1014 AD Svein died and his son Knut had to leave for Denmark when Aethelred returned.

• During 1017 AD England was ruled by "Knut the Great," son of "Svein Forkbeard" and then by his son "Harde-Knut" until 1042 AD, when "Harde-Knut" died. (Then the English royals took over with Edward the Confessor)

• On September 26, 1066 AD King Harold II (Last of the Anglo-Saxon Kings) of England beat the invading Norwegian king "Harald Hardradi" at Stamford Bridge.

• On October 14, 1066 AD King Harold II was beaten by "William the Conqueror" in the famous battle of Hastings (A gigantic family feud). William was a Normandic Duke and a descendant of "Rollo".

In Norse, Víking means piracy ever since Viking raiders savagely attacked England's Lindisfarne monastery in 793 AD. The Vikings have seemed to have been little more than blue-eyed barbarians in horned helmets. But archeological investigations of Viking sites stretching from Russia to Newfoundland have revealed a more human (if not altogether humane) side to the Viking character.

In an interview with NOVA TV producer Julia Cort, William Fitzhugh, curator of a new exhibit on Vikings at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, offers compelling insight into this new image of the Norsemen and what he perceives as their catalytic role in Europe's transformation from a feudal society to an integrated group of modern nation-states.

NOVA: What must it have been like for the monks at Lindisfarne to be suddenly attacked out of the blue?

Fitzhugh: For them, the attack represented the vengeance of Satan on the Christian outposts of Europe. It was a terrible event, because the monks and the church centers had set themselves up in small, fortress-like places where they could pursue their studies and writings in peace, and it was an invasion of the sanctities of Christ and their religion. This was totally unlike anything that had happened before. There had been outlaws, but to have shiploads of brawny characters show up at your isolated, supposedly sacred center, this was the ultimate horror.

Fitzhugh: Well, the attacks were very diverse. I mean, one misconception we have is that swarms of Vikings raided constantly all over the place, and it really wasn't that way. For the most part, the raids were totally independent. They were not the result of national armies or navies moving down into Europe, but rather the actions of individual Viking chieftains who grouped together followers and had one or maybe several boats.

Occasionally, as in some of the invasions of Normandy, they organized whole flotillas and made a purposeful kind of attack, but generally they were much more individualistic. They had to find food, and they couldn't carry their food with them.

They had to live off the land, so they drove people out and took whatever money and other valuables people had. And, of course, the church centers and monasteries like Lindisfarne constituted the major sources of wealth at that time.

Fitzhugh: In many cases they did. I think they were relatively ruthless, but remember, this was a ruthless age with far more than just peaceful farmers living peaceful lives. All sorts of things were going on in the British Isles and mainland Europe, including constant battles between rival princes vying for kingship and control of local regions. The Vikings were just another crowd, though a crowd that was non-Christian and had no compunction about killing churchmen or women or children.

That said, in general I think the victims were men, because the Vikings were great at absorbing people. They needed slaves. They needed people to row their boats. They needed people to help maintain their lifestyle. They regularly set up small villages and centers where they could over-winter or stay for months at a time, and they needed people to help run these establishments. So

I think if you were able to put yourself back into the camp of a raiding Viking group, you probably would find Italians and Spaniards and Portuguese and French and Russians -- a very diverse group built around a core of Vikings from a particular region, say, southern Denmark or an Oslo fjord. It wouldn't be just be blond, blue-eyed Norsemen.

NOVA: So what are the main challenges in finding the truth about the Vikings?

Fitzhugh: Well, one of the major problems in Viking studies is that we're biased towards the historical accounts -- early chronicles that all came from the church centers or official reports to the kings or regional authorities. It's always been that way. Only in the past 20 years or so have archeological and other studies begun to provide information that fleshes out and in some cases contradicts or even replaces the historical record. These findings are giving us a totally different view of the Vikings.

We see them archeologically not as raiders and pillagers but as entrepreneurs, traders, people opening up new avenues of commerce, bringing new materials into Scandinavia, spreading Scandinavian ideas into Europe. For instance, we see silk that originated in Asia appearing in archeological sites such as that at York (see The Viking Diaspora). This view contrasts sharply with the early accounts, which were all from Europe, were inevitably based on victims' reports, and were extremely one-sided.

Fitzhugh: The Icelandic sagas are phenomenal documents that for hundreds of years provided everything we knew about the Vikings. If we were interested in Vinland [the Viking name for a far-off land they visited, which scholars now believe is eastern Canada in and around Newfoundland. But then, beginning with the discovery of Viking burial ships a century ago, archeology started to poke its nose into Viking affairs, and today, excavations have become an invaluable new source of information. Scholars have gone back to the sagas and asked, "How much of this is history? How much fabrication? How much, just the elaboration of family storytelling?"

Current saga scholarship is wonderful, because it's giving us a lot of insights as to why the sagas are the way they are. The sagas were compiled in the 13th century and later based on stories that originated as early as 400 or 500 years before that. This is a long time for an oral tradition to be handed down. Even the Vinland sagas, which chronicle events around A.D. 1000, were not recorded for a couple of hundred years after that. Some now believe the sagas are basically family stories relating the ancestry, say, of Erik or of Gudrid and her family. But archeology is actually proving that a lot of these stories have a good basis in fact, so much so that Helge Ingstad could use them to find the L'Anse aux Meadows site [an archeological site in Newfoundland believed to have been a Viking settlement established hundreds of years before Columbus "discovered" America].

Fitzhugh: Well, I think after a few years of using L'Anse aux Meadows as a staging area, the Vikings simply found it untenable in terms of supporting a sizeable group in that new environment. Too far from home and too many dangers. We know from the sagas that they lost people, and they probably lost ships.

L'Anse aux Meadows reached a point where it had to move beyond the exploration phase to the settlement phase, and that was not possible.

We have to remember that this was in the early days of the Greenland colony, which had only a small number of settlers itself, and to have so much of its resources directed toward a perilous new enterprise was not sensible. So I think the sagas are probably correct when they say, "It's a beautiful, rich land, but we can't defend ourselves in it."

Fitzhugh: No. We've seen as a result of archaeological research large amounts of Viking material turning up in Native sites in the Arctic regions of North America.

This material dates to perhaps as much as 300 years after the initial Vinland voyages. We seem to have a time period that began with the Vinland contact episode, explorations and so forth, and then after the society in Greenland got rolling and people were settled, walrus-ivory trade with Europe started to be really important. Probably more than any other factor, this stimulated the continuous Western orientation of the Greenland Norse, not only up into the Greenland walrus-hunting territories but across the Davis Strait to Ellesmere and Baffin islands and south into Labrador. These are areas where the Vikings were exploring and trading, and where native populations were trading Viking materials through their own trade networks. Of course, the continuing need for wood in treeless Greenland prompted return visits to Markland, which we know to have been today's Labrador.

Fitzhugh: There are lots of different theories. This is a wonderful area of exploration in terms of archeological and historical theory, because we have environmental changes, we have growing human population. We have an important economic and climactic downturn. You see a society that is reaching a peak and then just maintaining itself, but all the forces are going against it after 1300 or so. The western colony disappears around 1350. The eastern settlement continues for another century, but it seems not to be doing too well, and then it just drops off the line. The last historic record is from 1408, a church wedding of Hvalsey.

There are also theories of pirates and other kinds of trauma that may have occurred in these settlements. All in all, I think we have here a real human experience.

This is not the wrath of God coming down and it's not an Ice Age descending. When pondering this extinction story, one has to consider a multiplicity of factors.

Fitzhugh: The end probably came about as a result of tired Vikings who had become citizens of many places in Europe. They had become Christians back in their homelands, kings had evolved and were instituting taxes, and the economy had become such that you could get along much better as a trader rather than as a raider. The force of Viking onslaughts had caused European kingdoms to become centralized and focused. They had basically gotten their act together, learning how to defend themselves and to gain by trading and negotiating with the Vikings rather than just trying to fight them.

NOVA: What was it about the Vikings or what they did that made it so easy for them to assimilate into foreign cultures?

Fitzhugh: I think the Vikings were very adaptive. They learned to take advantage of whatever situation they found themselves in. When they settled in Europe, they took farmlands, yes, but they also met new people; they took slaves, but the slaves became part of their families. Their languages were not that different; they were all Germanic-based languages. (Many of the place-names in the British Isles, in fact, date from Viking times.) And the Vikings were not on a special crusade. They weren't trying to bring paganism to Europe. Quite the opposite, in fact: They were receiving influences from a Europe that they saw as somehow technologically and maybe in some ways politically superior. They weren't out to kill everyone in the countryside but rather to find a way to live, to set up shop, and I think they just readily mixed in.

NOVA: In the end, what do you feel was the Vikings' greatest impact on the world?

Fitzhugh: I think that without question it was reconnecting humanity, making the world a smaller place by traveling huge distances, connecting peoples from Baghdad to Scandinavia to southern Europe to the north Atlantic to the mainland of North America.

From a social or economic or religious point of view, no matter what you think of it, the Viking period was a kind of hinge in European history. It was the time from which you went from early history and classical civilization into what we know as modern Europe and a modern world, in which people are exchanging ideas and moving around rapidly and exploring new frontiers, looking for new resources and new connections. - 15 -

When we look into the future now, I think we implicitly look back to the Vikings as the origin of this kind of human endeavor to find new horizons, go new places, use new technology, meet new people, think new thoughts.

In a millennium era as we're in now, this is the inspiration of the Vikings: It's not only the historical impact that they had on Europe and in discovering the North American continent for the first time. These things are interesting and important, but I think that we should look at the Vikings in a broader sense, as a kind of a human myth come true that we can draw on -- that is, we can look to space, to the oceans, to explorations among our own peoples, finding new ways of getting along, mixing, and sharing.

For three turbulent centuries, the glimpse of a square sail and dragon-headed prow on the horizon struck terror into the hearts of medieval Europeans. Indeed, the Viking Age, from A.D. 800-1100, was the age of the sleek, speedy longship.

Without this crucial advance in ship technology, the Vikings would never have become a dominant force in medieval warfare, politics, and trade.

The drekar, or dragon-headed longships, were stealthy troop carriers. They could cross the open oceans under sail and then switch to oars for lightning-fast hit-and-run attacks on undefended towns and monasteries. Far surpassing contemporary English or Frankish vessels in lightness and efficiency, longships carried Viking raiders from northern England to North Africa.

Viking expertise in naval craftsmanship soon led to the evolution of other types of ship. Among these were the knarr, or ocean-going cargo vessel, which facilitated far-flung trade networks and the colonization of Iceland, Greenland, and America. The knarr drew on similar design principles as the longship but was higher and wider in relation to its length and had only limited numbers of oars to assist with maneuvers in narrow channels. Cargo decks were installed fore and aft.

The secret of the Viking ship lay in its unique construction. Using a broad ax rather than a saw, expert woodworkers would first split oak tree trunks into long, thin planks. They then fastened the boards with iron nails to a single sturdy keel and then to each other, one plank overlapping the next. The Vikings gave shape to the hull using this "clinker" technique rather than the more conventional method of first building an inner skeleton for the hull.

Next, the boat builders affixed evenly spaced floor timbers to the keel and not to the hull; this insured resilience and flexibility. They then added crossbeams to provide a deck and rowing benches, and secured a massive beam along the keel to support the mast.

The longships' light, economic construction was a major factor behind their success. Modern replicas have achieved speeds of up to 14 knots. In marked contrast to modern sailboats, the ships' lack of a big, vertical keel meant that they were highly maneuverable and could easily penetrate shallow surf and river estuaries. Seafarers steered using a single side rudder on the right, the 'starboard' or "steering board" side.

(The term 'starboard' is thought to have originated in the Viking era.) They could also reef the square sails in strong winds and adjust them to permit rapid tacking.

Famous discoveries of Viking ships at Gokstad and Oseberg, Norway, in 1880 and 1906, respectively, established the classic image of the dragon-headed warship. Longships from both sites were preserved almost intact, with lavish carved decoration, in the waterlogged clay of royal burial mounds. Built around A.D. 890, three quarters of a century after the Oseberg ship, the Gokstad vessel shows great improvements in design, particularly in the sturdiness of the mast supports. Not surprisingly, this era, during which the Norse perfected longship design, coincides with the eruption of seaborn Viking raids on the monasteries and towns of Europe.

The modern phase of Viking ship investigation began with the recovery of five vessels at Skuldelev in Roskilde fjord, Denmark, between 1957 and 1962. The excavation involved building a cofferdam around the ships, which Norsemen deliberately sunk in a desperate bid to barricade the fjord against invaders.

The major revelation at Skuldelev was the variety of the vessels, which ranged from a stocky cargo ship with a capacity of 24 tons to two sleek longships. The larger of the longships, measuring 95 feet in length, had made at least one successful crossing of the North Sea, for tree-ring analysis of its oak timbers revealed that they had been cut down around A.D. 1060-70 near Dublin, suggesting the presence of a major shipyard at this key Viking stronghold in Ireland.

Even more remarkable discoveries were to follow in 1996, when contractors began expanding Roskilde's waterfront museum, originally built to house the finds from Skuldelev. As astonishing as it sounds, no fewer than nine wrecked medieval ships eventually turned up in different spots around the building site, including one under the museum's car park.

The Viking Diaspora
From the eighth to the eleventh centuries, the Vikings, comprising mainly Danes and Norwegians, shot around the Northern Hemisphere, plundering vast swaths of territory with the rapacity of a Genghis Khan. The Norsemen raided throughout the British Isles and the Frankish empire, and even attacked North Africa. They headed west to Iceland, Greenland, and what is now Canada, becoming the first Europeans to set foot in the Americas.

And they traveled east into what is now northern Russia, ultimately lending their own name Rus, the Slavs' name for them, to that great country.

Physical and social traces of the Vikings' lightning-like passing remain in sites stretching from Newfoundland to north Russia. On the map at left, click on Norse sites and get a feel for the sheer breadth of the Viking diaspora.

York
Viking capital of the Danelaw or Scandinavian territory, first occupied in 866 AD. Excavations have revealed dozens of Viking Age houses and workshops.

Early Germanic tribes of northern Europe were first to develop runes, but the Scandinavians soon adopted the symbols for their own use. When the seafaring Vikings traveled to faraway lands, they brought their system of writing with them, leaving runic inscriptions in places as distant as Greenland.

Wherever they went, Vikings turned to runes to express both the poetic ("Listen, ring-bearers, while I speak/Of the glories in war of Harald, most wealthy") and the prosaic ("Rannvieg owns this box"), inscribing them on everything from great stone monuments to common household items.

The runic alphabet, or Futhark, gets its name from its first six sounds (f, u, th, a, r, k), much like the word 'alphabet' derives from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. Each rune not only represents a phonetic sound but also has its own distinct meaning often connected with Norse mythology. Scholars believe that early peoples used the runes originally as a means of communication and only later for magical purposes.

Historians disagree on when runes first came into use. Since the first objects inscribed with runes date to the second and third centuries A.D., some surmise that the runic alphabet arose during the first century A.D. Scholars concur that runes grew out of an earlier alphabet, but which one is unclear. A likely candidate is the Etruscan alphabet. Many argue that the geographic proximity of the Etruscans, who lived in northern Italy, to the Germanic tribes of northern Europe makes it likely that these two groups had some form of cultural exchange. Also, similarities exist in some letterforms of the Etruscan and runic alphabets. Another possibility for a source alphabet is Latin. Those who subscribe to this theory believe that the numerous commercial contacts between the Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire during the first century A.D. exposed the former to the Latin alphabet. The Northerners may have simply borrowed the Roman letters and adapted them to their needs.

The Scandinavians had their own explanation for the appearance of the runes. According to legend, Odin, chief of the Norse gods, speared himself to a tree in a self-sacrificial attempt to receive occult knowledge. As he hung suspended for nine windy nights, he learned the mysteries of the runes, which he then passed on to his people. Since Nordic peoples believed the runic script to be a gift from Odin, they treated it with great reverence. Belief in the divine origin of the runes also contributed to the idea that runes possessed magical powers.

Those who used them for magic took the supernatural powers of the runes seriously. As one Viking poet put it, "Let no man carve runes to cast a spell, save first he learns to read them well."

While many in the upper classes could read and write runes, the Vikings called in a specialist when dealing with the talismanic properties of their alphabet.

These experts, called Rune Masters, were specially trained to bring runes into play for divination and sorcery.

Judging from the many poems and legends chronicling their feats, the Rune Masters held positions of great importance in the Viking world. In one tale, a woman becomes deathly ill due to the bungling of an amateur Rune Master. The sorcerer carves a runic formula into a whale's bone, which the woman then hangs over her bed. The inscription is meant to protect her, but because it bears the wrong runes, it makes her sick. Another Rune Master corrects the runes, and the woman immediately recovers. In another story, a Rune Master inscribes protective runic symbols on his drinking horn. When a rival attempts to poison his drink, the drinking horn breaks in two. Thanks to his knowledge of the runes, the Rune Master saves his own life.

Rune Masters were also skilled in the art of rune casting, a method of divination. In one common rune-casting technique, the diviner carved runes on pieces of bark, then flung the pieces on the ground, picked three at random, and used the symbols inscribed on them to answer his client's question. Alternatively, the Rune Master painted runes on flat pebbles. He then placed the pebbles in a leather bag, shook the bag, and cast the pebbles onto the ground. Runes that landed face up served for the divination.

Viking warriors harnessed the arcane powers of the runes even in war. Runic inscriptions on swords entreated the gods either to protect the sword's owner or bring pain and misery to his enemy. The berserkers, whose reckless behavior on the battlefield gave rise to the word 'beserk,' may owe their reputation in part to the runes. These warriors customarily carved the runic symbol for Tyr, the god of war, onto their shields. They would then charge fearlessly into battle, in the belief that nothing could overcome the power of the runes.

The magical met the mundane in the runestones -- large, freestanding rocks or boulders inscribed with runes. Runestones which served as memorials to the dead often bore thaumaturgical formulas meant to ease the dead person's passage into the next world. But these monuments had a pragmatic purpose as well: documenting how much land the deceased had owned and listing relatives who would likely inherit that person's estate.

One such dual-purpose runestone was put up by "Kaufi and Autir, they erected this stone in memory of Tumi, their brother who owned Gusnava [a Swedish village]." Kaufi and Autir erected their runestone both to honor their brother and to make perfectly clear who owned Gusnava after his death.

Although most runestones honor men, some commemorated Viking women. One runestone found in Norway honors "Gunnvor, Thryrik's daughter, [who] built a bridge in memory of her daughter Astrid. She was the handiest girl in Hadeland." Some runestones also celebrated the achievements of the living. In one example, Jarlabanki, builder of the famous Jarlabanki causeway in 11th-century Sweden, erected a group of runestones to aggrandize himself for his contributions to the community.

Even with the advent of Christianity in the north, runes continued to appear on coffins, gravestones, and monuments, often side-by-side with more traditional Christian symbols. Like many of their contemporaries, the Norsemen Sven and Thorgot, who raised a runestone "in memory of Manni and Sveni; may God help their souls," had no problem using pagan symbols to replace the usual "may Thor hallow these Runes" with an appeal to the Christian God.

The Norsemen continued the practice of mixing runes with Christian symbols until the 17th century, when the medieval church banned runes in an attempt to drive out all vestiges of superstition, paganism, and magic. Runes fell out of widespread use but did not disappear altogether, and in recent times the Vikings' enigmatic alphabet has had a resurgence at the hands of everyone from Nazis to New Agers.

During the Viking Age, from 750-1050 AD Viking influence covered a huge expanse, reaching from the Caspian Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the south, throughout Northern Europe, across the Atlantic, and touched the homelands of diverse native groups in Eastern North America.

In addition to being the fierce warriors of popular stereotype, Vikings were master craftsman, shrewd businessman, and fearless explorers. Their activities stimulated political changes in Europe and Russia; created lasting new societies in Iceland and Greenland; and led to the discovery of North America 500 years before Columbus. Now, at the turn of the new millennium, we invite you to follow in their wake!

NOTE: For the entire history go to http://members.xoom.com/jagriffin/JAG.htm

NOTE: James C. Barrs and his oldest son, James Henry L. Barrs and brother William W. Barrs enlisted in the 11th Cavalry Georgia State Guard in 1863 and after James and his son returning to their home in Tallokas District in north Brooks County Georgia from the Wakulla County Florida Salt Works. Tallokas is north of the Nankin District. James M. Barrs, a 1st cousin of James C. Barrs was born to Dempsey Barrs in 1829 in Twiggs County Georgia. James M. enlisted on March 14, 1862 at the CSA Camp Anderson. He was discharged August 27, 1863 and was 5'9" dark skin and hair, blue eyes, occupation Farmer. James M. Barrs enlisted in "The Wakulla Tigers" in July of 1863 and was wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Brothers James C. and William W. Barrs served in the Brooks County GA Home Guard, which became the 81 Battalion. Note: Many early Barrs had blue eyes, as did my father Fonso Barrs. Scandinavians and Vikings did and do also!

NOTE: In Sikafis Compendium of Confederate Armies-South Carolina and Georgia, this regiment is listed as #185 11^th Georgia Infantry-State Guard. This is probably because Captain MacIntyre was in command of a State Guard Infantry Battalion (69^th Georgia Militia) and in the summer of 1863 because of a man power shortage, it was changed to a Cavalry regiment. To further expand on the origins of this unit these notes on their officers prior assignments are given: Maclntyre's Battalion, Georgia State Guards, A. T. MacIntyre, Maj., Decatur Squadron, Georgia State Guards: Patrick A. McGriff, Capt., and a company appears to have served in an independent company of infantry and rolls have been so filed. It is believed the regiment was mustered out by spring of 1864.

*James C. , James Henry L. and William W. Barrs' commanding officers are in bold print

Field and Staff
Colonel: Archibald Thompson MacIntyre
Lieutenant Colonel: William Godfrey
Major: Patrick A. McGriff

Companies and Officers
Officers of Company D-Brooks' Cavalry
Captain: Wiley W. Groover *
1st Lieutenant: Asa Kemp
2nd Lieutenant: C. E. Groover
2nd Lieutenant: L. R. Edmondson

August 4, 1863: Company muster-in roll of Captain Wiley W. Groover's Company, in the Battalion Regiment commanded by Major MacIntyre, called into the service of the Confederate States for local defense under the provisions of the Act of Congress on requisition of the President by Joseph E. Brown, Governor of Georgia, from August 4, 1863 (date of this muster) for the term of six months, unless sooner discharged, and to serve in the southwestern quarter of the state of Georgia, and west of the Altamaha River. (This is when, where and the unit James C. Barrs, his son and brother enlisted after returning from the Wakulla County, Florida Salt Works.) The 3 Barrs served in the same company, company “D”.

I certify, on honor, that I have carefully examined the men whose names are borne on this roll, their horses and equipments, and have accepted them into the service of the Confederate States for the term of six months from August 4, 1863. B. W. SINCLAIR, Colonel, Eighty-first Regiment, Georgia Militia, Mustering Officer

Again adding to the confusion in researching this regiment, the 11^th of Colonel McIntyre is referred to as Infantry. We researching this unit, it is advised to look at all information that can be found on any regiment bearing the 11^th designation for State Guard or Militia regardless if it states infantry or cavalry.

The need for Governor Brown to call up a State Guard, Militia, Home Guard,

Georgia

Troops or other designation of troops raised to defend

Georgia

(which separates them from regular troops raised from

Georgia

for Confederate Service) was because of the invasion of the state. As Federal troops under General Rosecrans were pushing into

Georgia

in September 1863, and until their defeat at Chickamauga. Georgia State Guard regiments were called to duty in the Confederate army's rear. From that point until they mustered out on or about 4 February 1864, the State Guard outfits helped garrison Savannah and other places. The siege of Northern Georgia and Atlanta in 1864 was an emergency that unfortunately, allowed little in the way of formal record keeping. Many of the men, who fought in Militia and Home Guard units, remain unrecognized for their services. Some are listed in the military records.

The only way to find out about such service is often through family oral histories, county histories, obituaries, and newspaper accounts of the time. It is estimated that about 5000 of these men fought in the trenches around Atlanta for a couple of months, then saw extended field service against Sherman's march of devastation and destruction across Georgia. Some were captured when Fort McAllister

Georgia

was over run by superior numbers of General Sherman's troops. (James C. Barrs was among the CSA soldiers captured by attacking Union troops at Fort McAllister

Georgia

A large proportion of the officers and men in all the reserve regiments and battalions were exempts from the regular Confederate service, many of them having been honorably discharged on account of wounds or failing health; many others were employees in government workshops, and some were State and county officers, while still others were either too old or too young for the regular service or had occupation beneficial to the CSA.

And, some like James C. Barrs were exempt because of their operating of the valued Salt Works of the Gulf of Mexico cost, which they operated until destroyed by Union gunboats and Marines.

Fortunately Confederate Military History has been preserved in the following information on the Georgia State Guard and Reserves.

The 11^th Georgia State Guard is only a month old when the need for a strong defensive posture in North Georgia, particularly Atlanta was seen. Special Orders #213 established General Cobb as the general officer in charge of organizing the

Georgia

men in what became a desperate attempt to thwart the invading army of Union General Sherman.

The headquarters of the Georgia State Guard in the autumn of 1863 was near Atlanta

Georgia

as evidenced by this correspondence. The Official Records list the 11^th Georgia State Guard as being camped near Savannah

Georgia

under command of General Henry R. Jackson.

CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND FLORIDA, AND ON THE GEORGIA COAST, FROM JANUARY 1 TO FEBRUARY 29, 1864 - # GEORGIA STATE TROOPS at Savannah Brig. Gen. HENRY R. JACKSON 11th Georgia State Guard, Col. A. T. McIntyre.

Governor Brown made his appeal to the remaining men in

Georgia

to take up arms to protect themselves, their homes and families against the invading Yankee army. This call underscores the desperate situation facing the people of

Georgia

and the Confederacy.

Confederate Correspondence, Orders, And Returns Relating To Operations In Southwestern Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, West Florida, And Northern Georgia.- #27 HEADQUARTERS GEORGIA MILITIA, Atlanta, GA, May 28, 1864.

Your State is invaded and a portion of its most valuable territory overrun by a vindictive enemy of great strength, who is lying waste and devastating the country behind him. Unless this force is checked speedily, the property and homes of thousands must be destroyed, and they driven out as wanderers in destitution and beggary.

Our noble army needs further re-enforcements until the emergency has passed. I have summoned the civil and military officers of the State to arms, and they are promptly and nobly responding. If any of those who are subject to militia duty are remaining at home, who are able to do service, I desire the old men to report the facts to me immediately, that courts-martial may be ordered, or other proper steps taken to compel them to do their duty, or suffer the penalties. When all the officers shall have responded, more men will still be needed.

I do not order out the reserve militia except at the most exposed points, because some must be left at home to make bread; and the old men from fifty to sixty and the boys under seventeen are not able, as a general rule, to endure hard service in the military field. But I do call upon all who are able for service, and can possibly be spared from home, to hasten to the field till the great battle is fought. Many have Confederate contracts, details, and exemptions who are stout and able to do military duty, and can go to the field for a time without serious detriment to the public interest. All such, with all others able for duty, are earnestly requested to fly to arms as the State officers have done. Let each report to General Wayne, at Atlanta, and bring with him a bed quilt or blanket and rations to last him to camp, and a good double-barreled shotgun if he has one. If not, he can be armed by the Government.

Georgians, we are now in the crisis of our fate. The destiny of our posterity for ages to come may hang upon the results of the next few days. He who remains at his home now will soon occupy it as a slave, or be driven from it.

Rally to the rescue, and till the danger is past let the watchword of every patriot be, "To arms, and to the front;" and the vandal hordes will soon be driven back. JOSEPH E. BROWN.

General Sherman prepares to further push his invasion into

Georgia

with 100,000 Federal troops. Sherman gloats at the misery and destruction he is causing in

Georgia

as seen in a memo to General Grant

UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN, FROM JULY 1, 1864, TO SEPTEMBER 8, 1864: #5 HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, In the Field, near Chattahoochee River, July 12, 1864. Lieutenant-General GRANT, Near Petersburg, VA:

As soon as I hear from Stoneman I will shift all of McPherson to Roswell and cross Thomas about three miles above the railroad bridge and move against Atlanta, my left well to the east, to get possession of the Augusta road about Decatur or Stone Mountain. I think all will be ready in three days. I will have nearly 100,000 men. I feel certain we have killed and crippled for Johnston as many as we have sent to the rear. Have sent back about 6,000 or 7,000 prisoners, taken 11 guns of Johnston and about 10 in Rome.

Have destroyed immense iron, cotton, and wool mills, and have possession of all the niter country. My operations have been rather cautious than bold, but on the whole I trust are satisfactory to you. All of Polk's corps is still here; also Hardee's and Hood's, and the

Georgia

militia, under G. W. Smith. Let us persevere and trust to the fortunes of war, leaving statesmen to work out the solution. As ever your friend W. T. SHERMAN

There is apparent disagreement as to which units, how, and when Georgia Militia shall receive supplies and rations.

CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN, FROM JULY 1, 1864, TO SEPTEMBER 8, 1864: #5 ATLANTA, August 11, 1864. Hon. J. A. SEDDON:

Your telegram of yesterday is received. When I assumed command of this army General Johnston had accepted the services of the

Georgia

militia. Since that time they have been under my orders as much as any other troops in the army.

Rations and forage have and are now being issued to them. They furnish now about 5,000 muskets in the trenches here. If it be required of the State to ration and forage these troops it is important that officers of the Confederate States should continue to issue such supplies now, and that the State return the supplies hereafter to the Confederate Government, either in kind or value.

Union reports tell of the movement by rail of

Georgia

troops and by a skirmish near Macon.

UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI STATES AND TERRITORIES, FROM OCTOBER 16, 1864, to DECEMBER 31, 1864 - #34

On the 19th of November General Sherman was near Greensborough, GA, on railroad connecting Atlanta and Augusta, GA November 20, eighty-five carloads of Georgia militia were ordered to Savannah, GA General Hardee also started for same destination with his staff, to assume command. O. R.- SERIES I -VOLUME XLI/4

UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS OF NOVEMBER 15 TO DECEMBER 21, 1864: The Savannah (Georgia) Campaign, No. 3 - Itinerary of the Union Forces, November 1 December 31, 1864.

November 22: Part of the division (Second Brigade) was attacked by three brigades of Georgia militia near Griswoldville Georgia some ten miles from Macon. The enemy was repulsed and left the field with dead and wounded in our hands. Loss on the Union side was 13 killed, 69 wounded, and 2 missing. Enemy's acknowledged loss, 614. O. R. -SERIES I - VOLUME XLIV

Late in November (1864)1200 men of the Georgia State Troops arrived in Savannah to defend that portion of their state.

CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA, FROM NOVEMBER 14 TO DECEMBER 31, 1864. -#3 SAVANNAH, November 30, 1864. General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General:

The enemy yesterday landed at two points, threatening Grahamville and Coosawhatchie, on the Charleston and Savannah Railroad. All available forces have been drawn from Charleston for defense of those paces, and General Smith, who arrived in the night with 1,200 Georgia State troops, was sent at once to the threatened point. Operator at Grahamville this morning reports enemy 5,000 strong and still landing from transports. W. J. HARDEE, Lieutenant General. O.R.- SERIES I - VOLUME XLIV

CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA, FROM NOVEMBER 14 TO DECEMBER 31, 1864. -#3 HEADQUARTERS FOURTH BRIGADE, GEORGIA MILITIA, Altamaha Bridge, December 2, 1864. R. W. B. ELLIOTT, Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: In accordance with instructions from General McLaws I proceeded on yesterday to this point. Ogeechee Bridge with instructions to hold that and King's Bridge.

I have made my headquarters, with two regiments, on the island on the east side of Morgan's Lake. I have a company posted at the eastern trestlework of this crossing, a guard at the east end of the main bridge. At Johnston Station there is a militia company from McIntosh County, picketing down the river. At Doctor Town, on the west side of the river, there are three small companies of militia; they have sent a scouting party up the river on the east side, and have mounted pickets, one at Clark's Bluff and one at Pinhominy, both below on the west side of the river. My position here is such that I can go easily to either side of the river. My force is, however, not large; the brigade is a small one at best, and many of the men dropped out at home on their way here. I have aggregate, at Ogeechee, 147 men; at Altamaha, 220 men. I could not make a more equal distribution without breaking the regiments, which, in consequence of the want of field officers, I did not think wise. We are now on the second day without regular rations. Respectfully, H. K. McKAY, Brigadier-General, Commanding. O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME XLIV

General Smiths report to General Hardee dated 6 December 1864 from Savannah Headquarters gives insight to the operations from October to December involving Georgia state troops. Actions, movements, and deployments are described.

NOVEMBER 15-DECEMBER 21, 186: The Savannah (Georgia) Campaign. No. 158: Report of Maj. Gen. Gustavus W. Smith, C. S. Army, commanding First Division, Georgia Militia, of operations October 12-November 30, including engagement at Honey Hill, S.C. HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, GEORGIA MILITIA, Savannah, December 6, 1864. Lieut. Gen. W. J. HARDEE, Commanding Department

GENERAL: On the 12th of October last I received at Macon a telegram from General Hood directing me to assemble as rapidly as possible all our available forces in that vicinity and make a demonstration on Atlanta so soon as the necessary transportation could be procured.

Under this order, I in a short time had at Lovejoy's Station a force numbering about 2,800 effective muskets, three batteries of Confederate artillery, and between 200 and 300 local reserve cavalry.

The whole force was under my command, much the larger portion of infantry belonging to the First Division of Georgia Militia. Finding this force inadequate to make a direct assault upon Atlanta, garrisoned as it then was, General Hood suggested that I should, if practicable, cross the Chattahoochee and destroy the line of railroad between that river and the Etowah. For various reasons, which were submitted to Generals Beauregard and Hood (and by them approved), it was deemed neither practicable nor expedient to make a direct attack upon Atlanta, or upon the railroad line, as suggested; so my command continued in observation near Atlanta, preventing the enemy from foraging and keeping them in their line of works, supporting Brigadier-General Iverson, who had just in advance of us two brigades of cavalry.

The cavalry, reached my headquarters, and soon after the advance of his forces from Alabama began to arrive. On the 15th of November the enemy moved out from Atlanta and advanced upon us with his whole force, viz, the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Twentieth Corps, with artillery and cavalry, which was soon after joined by the Fourteenth. Our cavalry were driven that afternoon from Jonesborough to Lovejoy's, and at dark I moved my force back to Griffin, at which place we had fortifications, and I felt we could there check the enemy should he advance directly upon us.

On the afternoon of the 16th it was ascertained the great mass of the enemy's forces had moved through McDonough, on the direct road from Atlanta to Macon, at which latter place there was at that time no garrison. At dark on the same day I left Griffin and marched my command to Forsyth, a distance of thirty-five miles in twenty-four hours. Learning that the enemy was crossing to the east bank of the Ocmulgee River I moved the command to Macon and about those time-received orders from General Beuregard to report by letter to Lieutenant-General Taylor. A copy of that letter is herewith transmitted.

All of my command except the Georgia militia and two regiments of State Line troops, which reported to me just before leaving Lovejoy's, were at this time turned over to Major-General Cobb. The defense of a portion of the line around Macon, on the west bank of the Ocmulgee, was assigned to the force still left in my command. Before the troops were fairly in position orders were received to cross the river and occupy a position covering East Macon.

This movement occupied the whole night. Soon after daylight next morning my five brigades were in the respective positions assigned them, no two being in the same part of the field.

During the morning of Monday, the 21st, the First Brigade, under your own personal instructions, given direct to the colonel commanding, were sent along the line of the Central railroad, with orders to move as rapidly as possible, either by rail Or otherwise, to the city of Augusta. In the afternoon of the same day Anderson's battery of artillery was assigned to the militia, and you directed me to move as soon as possible, with this battery, the Second, Third, and Fourth Brigades of militia, and the two regiments of the State Line, to Augusta.

They moved Tuesday morning in the direction of Griswoldville, with orders to halt there and await further instructions from me. You also informed me that you had ordered Major Cook, with the Athens and Augusta battalions, to proceed to Augusta, and directed me to take them in my command if I came up with them on the route.

Arrangements for transportation of ammunition and supplies detained me a few hours in Macon, which place you had left on the evening previous. Lieutenant-General Taylor arrived there on the morning of the 22d.

Information having been received showing very clearly that a much larger force of the enemy was near the city than was supposed when you gave the orders for my troops to move, he authorized me to direct them to return. My order reached them on the eve of an engagement with what was supposed to be a small force of the enemy. Notwithstanding my order to avoid an engagement at that place and time, a collision occurred, we being the attacking party; and though the officers and men behaved with great gallantry, they failed to carry the works of the enemy, but held a position within 150 yards of their line until after dark, when they were withdrawn to Macon by my order.

The First Brigade of militia were not engaged, having passed that point in the execution of orders given by yourself Major Cook, commanding the Athens and Augusta battalions, moving under orders direct from yourself, was upon the ground and engaged in this action.

Our loss was a little over 600, being more than one-fourth of the effective muskets we had in the engagement. Several of the best field officers of the command were killed or wounded.

It is evident now that our men were opposed by the larger portion of one corps of the enemy, while another was marching from Clinton in their rear and I consider the troops were very fortunate to be withdrawn without disaster.

Lieutenant-General Taylor, having become satisfied that the enemy was leaving the vicinity of Macon, directed me to move my command on Friday morning by rail to Albany; thence march to Thomasville; thence by rail to Savannah.

We arrived in Thomasville by noon Monday, having marched from Albany, a distance between fifty-five and sixty miles, in fifty-four hours. At Thomasville instead of finding five trains, the number I had requested to be sent, there were but two, and these could not be started until after dark, and did not arrive here until 2 o'clock Wednesday morning, occupying twice the time necessary between Thomasville and Savannah, and leaving the Second, Third, and Fourth Brigades at the former place. Upon arriving here, almost broken down by fatigue and want of rest, with officers and men similarly situated, I received before leaving the cars a peremptory order from your requiring me to take the militia of

Georgia

beyond the limits of the State, which was in direct violation of the statute organizing and calling them into service.

Considering the jaded condition of both officers and men, I determined not to move the militia or the State Line beyond the limits of

Georgia

until satisfied in my own mind that absolute necessity demanded it.

In a personal interview with yourself you informed me that the enemy had moved out from Broad River; were encamped within a few miles of the Savannah and Charleston Railroad, threatening Grahamville and Coosawhatchie, and unless vigorously opposed would undoubtedly break the road at one or both of these points soon after daylight; and that the only force you had in your whole command which could by any possibility be brought upon the ground in time was two regular Confederate regiments from Charleston, and you believed these would be there too late; and that if I could hold the enemy in check until 2 p.m. and prevent their cutting the road before that time, several thousand re-enforcements from North and South Carolina, intended for Savannah, would arrive.

In this interview I showed you my qualified authority from the Governor to withdraw the Georgia State forces under my command from Confederate service in case they were ordered beyond the limits of the State. After a full conference with yourself I was perfectly satisfied that for the purposes intended it was right and proper the movement should be made, and I gave orders accordingly. Notwithstanding some objections made by a portion of officers and men, the order was willingly obeyed.

The leading brigade arrived at Grahamville about 8 o'clock Wednesday morning, the 30th of November. You kindly tendered me the services of your chief of artillery (Colonel Gonzales), who, upon our arrival at Grahamville, introduced me to Colonel Colcock, commander of the military district; Major Jenkins, the commander of the immediate vicinity, and Captain De Saussure, Colonel Colcock's adjutant-general.

To these four gentlemen particularly, and other officers acquainted with the locality, I am indebted for the information upon which I based the directions of the whole operation for the day.

Colonel Colcock reported the enemy rapidly advancing, skirmishing with some companies of his cavalry and a few pieces of artillery. He was just starting to the front, and I requested him to select a position for my leading brigade so soon as I could dispatch it to him. I awaited the arrival of the second train of my own troops and the Forty-seventh Georgia, which was momentarily expected from Charleston.

Having given the necessary orders to these forces, I joined Colonel Colcock a few minutes after 10 o'clock some four miles from the Grahamville depot and about one-half mile beyond the position we finally assumed. Colonel C. informed me the enemy had already occupied the position selected by him as the best for defense before my troops arrived. This made it necessary, in my judgment, that the leading brigade should be countermarched at once and placed in position on a line with our main battery. The troops in rear were hurried up and placed upon the same line, to the right and left of the road. The enemy in the meanwhile steadily advanced along the main road upon our position. After a proper disposition of our forces had been made and a skirmish line ordered forward, Colonel Colcock, the commander of the district and next officer in rank upon the field to myself, was assigned to the immediate executive command of the main line; Colonel Gonzales was placed in charge of the artillery, and Major Jenkins of all the cavalry; Captain De Saussure, who was thoroughly acquainted with the whole country, remained near me.

The Forty-seventh Georgia had not yet reached the field. Within five or ten minutes after these dispositions had been made the battle began by an advance piece of our artillery firing upon the enemy.

Their line of battle was soon formed, and from that time until near dark made continuous efforts to carry our position. We had actually engaged five pieces of artillery, and it is due to the South Carolina artillerists that I should say I have never seen pieces more skillfully employed and gallantly served upon a difficult field of battle.

In an hour the enemy had so extended and developed their attack that it became absolutely necessary for me to place in the front line of battle my last troops (the Forty-seventh Georgia Regiment), making in all about 1,400 effective muskets on the field, and all engaged.

From time to time alterations had to be made in our lines, by changing the positions of regiments and companies, extending intervals, &c., to prevent being flanked; and while we could not from the dense wood accurately estimate the number of the enemy, it was very clear their force largely exceeded ours, and I awaited with some anxiety the arrival of the Thirty-second Georgia and the forces expected from North and South Carolina.

Too much credit cannot be given to Colonel Colcock and Colonel Gonzales, Major Jenkins, and Captain De Saussure; to all the officers of my own staff; to Colonel Willis, commanding First Brigade of Georgia Militia; Colonel Wilson, commanding State Line Brigade; Major Cook, commanding the Athens and Augusta battalions of reserves; Lieutenant-Colonel Edwards, commanding the Forty-seventh Georgia Confederate Regiment; and to all the officers and men of every arm engaged upon that field. In short, I have never seen or known of a battle-field upon which there was so little confusion, and where every order was so cheerfully and promptly obeyed, and where a small number of men for so long a time successfully resisted the determined and oft-repeated efforts of largely superior attacking forces. The flight of the enemy during the night and the number of their dead left upon the field is evidence of the nature of the attack as well as the defense.

About 4.30 p.m. Brigadier-General Robertson arrived with a portion of the Thirty-second Georgia from Charleston, a battery of artillery, and a company of cavalry. These constituted an effective reserve, but came up too late to be used in the action. During the night the enemy retired rapidly in the direction of their gunboats. Our loss in every arm of service was 8 men killed and 42 wounded.

The enemy left over 200 of their dead upon the field, and their whole loss in killed and wounded is believed to be upward of 1,000.

At midnight Brigadier-General Chesnut arrived at Grahamville Station with about 350 effective muskets of South Carolina reserves, and a little before daylight upon the morning of the 1st of December Brigadier-General Baker came up with 860 of his brigade from North Carolina; the remainder of his command (about 1,100) reached Coosawhatchie at 9 o'clock. Lieutenant-General Hardee arrived at Grahamville Station between 8 and 9 o'clock of morning of the 1st of December.

The enemy having been beaten back on the 30th of November, and the Confederate forces having now arrived, there was, in my judgment, no longer any necessity for retaining the State troops of

Georgia

beyond their legal jurisdiction. I therefore asked and obtained permission to bring these exhausted troops back to their own State. They arrived here, by Lieutenant-General Hardee's order, about 10 o'clock that night.

For full particulars of the engagement near Grahamville, S.C., I refer you to the reports of subordinate commanders, which will be forwarded as soon as furnished. G. W. SMITH, Major.-General

The above copy is transmitted to General J. B. Hood because most of the operations referred to be by his direction while the militia formed part of his command. G. W. S.

MACON, November 19, 1864. Lieut. Gen. RICHARD TAYLOR, Commanding, &c., Selma, Alabama

GENERAL: General Beauregard has informed me by telegraph that you will take the immediate command of the forces in

Georgia

, and directed me to report to you by letter. My own proper command consists of one division of militia, four brigades of infantry, numbering in all 1,900 effective muskets when we left Lovejoy's. I have not yet received the return since their arrival here yesterday afternoon.

Besides the militia, there was temporarily assigned to me by General Cobb one regiment and two battalions of reserve infantry, numbering about 900, some 300 reserves and local cavalry, and one battalion of Confederate artillery. The forces other than the militia proper will, I take for granted, be now placed under some other commander.

The enemy moved their strongest column through McDonough, and when I was at Griffin they had passed through McDonough, and were nearer Macon than I was. When I reached Forsyth, having made fifty miles in forty-eight hours, they were reported crossing the Ocmulgee, and could, by a rapid march, reach Macon by the left bank of the Ocmulgee without opposition. General Cobb ordered the cars to Forsyth for the infantry, and directed me to move the whole command to this place without delay. General Wheeler was the senior officer on this theater of operations, and without giving direct orders to the infantry and artillery, strongly advised so soon as he developed the strength of the enemy, that I should move to Macon at once.

I fully concurred in opinion with both General Wheeler and General Cobb. General Wheeler is confident that Sherman has with him in this movement at least 35,000 effective men, and informs me that the Fourteenth Army Corps is moving in addition to join Sherman.

Since I commenced this letter Lieutenant-General Hardee has come in. I will show him this letter before mailing it to your address. I remain, general, very respectfully and truly, yours, G. W. SMITH, Major General, First Division, Georgia Militia.

P. S: General Hardee has just shown me his orders from Richmond, dated 17th instant, stating that he commands all Georgia south of the Chattahoochee, and directing him to gather convalescents, local troops, &c., to garrison this place. G. W. S.

In the above I omitted the two regiments of State Line troops; they joined us the day before we left Lovejoy's. The two together number about 400 muskets. G. W. S. O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME XLIV

NOVEMBER 15 through DECEMBER 31, 1864: The Savannah (Georgia) Campaign. The Report of Brig. Gen. C. D. Anderson

Georgia

Militia, commanding brigade of engagement at Griswoldville,

Georgia

on November 22nd.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD BRIGADE, East Macon November 24, 1864. Major General PHILLIPS, Commanding First Division, Georgia Militia

GENERAL: Below please find a report of the casualties of the Third Brigade, which would have been forwarded sooner had I not been too unwell since my return to camp to do any business until this morning: My brigade went into the action on the 22d instant, I suppose about 2 o'clock, as you are aware, on the extreme left of the command. After driving the enemy through the field, across the ravine to the edge of the woods, about 100 yards beyond the ravine, I halted them, and although our ammunition was nearly exhausted I held that position, firing slowly, until dark. The enemy having ceased firing, and having been informed that our forces were being withdrawn on the right, I withdrew my brigade slowly and in good order, and reported to you at Griswoldville. I am glad to be able to say that the men and officers of my command, although they suffered severely, as the list of casualties will show, acted well. Respectfully submitted: C. D. ANDERSON, Brigadier-General, Third Brigade. O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME LIII

A report detailing the move from East of Macon to Griswoldville and the ensuing fighting that took place, involving men of the Georgia Troops.

NOVEMBER 15 through DECEMBER 31, 1864: The Savannah (Georgia) Campaign. Report of Brig. Gen. Pleasant J. Phillips commanding Second Brigade, Georgia Militia, of engagement at Griswoldville November 22 HEADQUARTERS SECOND BRIGADE,

GEORGIA

MILITIA, December 8, 1864. Col. THOMAS HARDEMAN, Assistant Adjutant-General

COLONEL: I have the honor to make the following report of the operations of the four brigades under my command on the 22d of November last:

The command left East Macon at about 8 a.m. and arrived without incident at 12 or 1 o'clock within about one mile of Griswoldville, where I found the Athens and Augusta battalions (under command of Major Cook) drawn up in line of battle. I also met a number of cavalry at and near this point, all of whom informed me that the enemy was in Griswoldville and had been engaged with some of our cavalry. He was represented to be about 800 or 1,200 strong.

I formed a line of battle, with General Anderson's brigade on the right, the Athens and Augusta battalions on his immediate left, and Brigadier-General McCoy's brigade on the left of the line. The Second Brigade, under Colonel Mann, was formed in the rear as a reserve. The State Line, under Lieutenant-Colonel Evans, was deployed as skirmishers and advanced on Griswoldville, where the enemy had just burnt some buildings and retired before we arrived, of which facts I informed the major-general commanding at about 2 p.m.

Whilst in Griswoldville Major Cook withdrew the Athens and Augusta battalions from the line, informing me that he was ordered by Lieutenant-General Hardee to proceed to Augusta and proceed down the Central railroad. I soon ordered the command to move down the Central railroad until it should clear the village, and halt to await further orders from Major-General Smith. The rear of the column had not cleared the village when firing of small arms was heard some half a mile in advance of our column, which was between the advance and rear guards of Major Cook and the enemy.

I ordered an advance of the command, and on arriving I met Major Cook, who pointed out to me the enemy posted on the opposite eminence in line of battle behind some temporary entrenchment’s and fortifications. Major Cook's skirmishers were then engaged with the enemy on his left.

I disposed of the forces represented by the accompanying diagram, viz: The Athens and Augusta battalions on our right (owing to the position they then held), making rather an obtuse angle, with the State Line on their left, and General McCoy's brigade on the left of the State Line, General McCoy's left resting near and south of the railroad. General Anderson's brigade was formed on the north side of the railroad, his left resting parallel with the railroad, and posted Captain Anderson's battery of four guns at an eligible site on the railroad on the north side. The Second Brigade, under Colonel Mann, was drawn up in rear of the State Line, and General McCoy's brigade in a secure place to act as reserves.

In this position an advance was ordered. General Anderson, with the brigade, to attack the enemy on his right flank; Major Cook, with his, to attack him on his left flank, whilst Captain Anderson, with his battery, the State Line, and General McCoy's commands attacked him in the front.

The State Line and General McCoy's brigade moved forward in fine style under a heavy and galling fire until they reached within some fifty yards of the enemy's works, which position they maintained during the contest, and from which position they delivered a telling fire. Colonel Mann, deeming that his brigade could be of more service near the lines, advanced it to near the same position, where it participated in the general action. From some misconception of orders, when the general advance was being made General Anderson's brigade faced to the right and swept across the railroad (save a small detachment on his extreme left that was cut off by a deep cut in the railroad) and participated with the State Line and General McCoy's brigade in the direct attack, where they, both officers and men, sustained themselves with decision and gallantry.

After the action had progressed for some hours General Anderson took the detachment of his men that had been cut off, went round to the enemy's right flank, when a most spirited and desperate fight ensued, lasting some hour and a half or more; but the enemy was too firmly established and the general's force too small to dislodge him.

The order to Major Cook (from some cause of which I am not aware) to turn the enemy's left was never carried out, yet his command participated fully in the action, deported themselves gallantly, and, I regret to say, suffered much from wounds and deaths. Captain Anderson, with his battery, did good and valuable service, soon silencing the enemy's battery and forced upon him many telling shots. He is a skillful, brave, and meritorious officer. The officers and men deported themselves well during the entire action, which lasted from 3 p.m. until dark; held their positions and retired in good order to Griswoldville, where I had intended to encamp and bring off those of our wounded and dead that had not been removed from the battle-field, but on my reaching Griswoldville, I received an order from the major-general commanding ordering me to fall back to the trenches at Macon, where I arrived about 2 a.m. I can but believe if the flank movement had been carried out with all the forces assigned to that duty that it would have resulted in dislodging and probably routing the enemy, notwithstanding he was, I am satisfied, fully equal, if not superior, to our forces.

Whilst we have to regret the loss of many gallant officers and men, yet we cannot but hope that they died not in vain. Accompanying please find a diagram of the field and position of the forces and the reports of all the officers that I have been able to procure. I am, with high regard, your obedient servant, P. J. PHILLIPS, Brigadier-General, Commanding Division, Georgia Militia. O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME LIII

Another Yankee report details the movement and possible strategy behind the move of Georgia State Troops.

UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY, SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA, TENNESSEE, MISSISSIPPI, ALABAMA, AND NORTH GEORGIA, FROM DECEMBER 1, 1864, TO JANUARY 23, 1865. #18

DALTON, GEORGIA December 31, 1864. [Capt. H. A. FORD] Acting Assistant Adjutant-General, District of the Etowah:

One of my scouts from Spring Place informs me that General Runnells, commanding Georgia State troops, has ordered them all to Murray County, with a view of capturing Dalton and Cleveland.

General Findley, C. S. Army, commanding in Lumpkin County, is to have immediate command, and is probably at Carter's plantation, on the Coosawattee, the general rendezvous. One regiment, 500 strong, is now encamped at Carter's. J. B. CULVER, Colonel Thirteenth Michigan, Commanding. O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME XLV/2

Confederate correspondence places members of Georgia State troops in the area of Savannah 1 February 1865.

CONFEDERATE CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA (FROM FEBRUARY 1), SOUTH CAROLINA, SOUTHERN GEORGIA, AND EAST FLORIDA, FROM JANUARY 1, 1865, TO MARCH 23, 1865: #1 LAMAR COBB, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General. [Memorandum]

The governor of South Carolina (General Bonham) had ordered his South Carolina State troops back from Georgia, where they had been sent to assist in the defense of Savannah. General Hardee had complied with the order, so that the Georgia State troops, of which Col. Cumming's command formed a part, thought it but just that they should not be sent across the Savannah River to assist in the defense of South Carolina soil. General Cobb, to whom they appealed, has given his views on that question. O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME XLVII/2

Confederate Correspondence, Orders, And Returns Relating To Operations In Southwestern Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, West Florida, And Northern Georgia: #33 EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Milledgeville, Ga., April 15, 1865. Major-General SMITH:

The movements of the enemy in Central Alabama indicate an intention on their part to make an early movement upon Columbus and other points in Georgia. To enable us to meet this successfully, it will require the united efforts of all who are able to bear arms, whether they belong to the State or Confederate service.

You are, therefore, hereby directed to order out the militia of the State, subject to your command, to rendezvous at Columbus, as fast as possible.

All who, re subject to your command under your former orders from these headquarters are embraced in this call, and all subject to militia duty under fifty years of age who fail to respond will be turned over to Confederate service. I regret exceedingly to have to require them to leave their crops at this important period, but the movement of the enemy leaves no other alternative. JOSEPH E. BROWN.

GENERAL ORDERS No. 1. HDQRS. FIRST DIV., GEORGIA MILITIA, Macon, Georgia April 15, 1865.

1. In obedience to the above directions from the Governor and commander-in-chief, the militia of the State of Georgia, except those between fifty and sixty years of age, are hereby ordered to rendezvous, without delay, at Columbus.

2. The publication of these orders will be considered sufficient notice to all subject to militia duty in this command. Officers and men will observe that not only those under fifty years of age, who have previously reported, but all others subject to militia duty are embraced in this call, and all must report accordingly or be dealt with as deserters.

3. Captains of companies will send their men forward immediately, and will themselves be allowed three days, if necessary, to gather and send to Columbus all who fail to start. General, field, and staff officers and detachments will report at the rendezvous immediately. Captain Pruden's battery of artillery is included in this call.

4. No excuse will be accepted from those who carried their arms home with them in case they fail to bring them back. All are enjoined not only to obey this order promptly, but they are authorized and directed to bring out all who owe service in the militia, and all public arms not in public use in their respective districts must be brought to the rendezvous.

5. The militia between fifty and sixty years of age in each county are required to hold themselves in readiness to respond at a moment's notice to future orders of the Governor calling them into active service. G. W. SMITH, Major General. O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME LII/2

Yankee orders of 3 May 1865 call for Governor Brown to surrender the Georgia State troops and their supplies.

Union Correspondence, Orders, And Returns Relating To Operations In Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, Northern And Central Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, And West Florida, From March 16 To June 30, 1865: #24 HDQRS. CAVALRY CORPS, MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Macon, Ga., May 3, 1865. Maj. Gen. GEORGE H. THOMAS, Commanding Department of the Cumberland, Nashville, Tenn.:

I have sent Majors Williams and McBurney, of my staff, to Milledgeville to receive the surrender of troops there, and to direct the transportation of the Confederate stores to this place.

I have also demanded of Governor Brown, commander-in-chief of the Georgia militia, the surrender of his troops and the military stores pertaining to them. He is to meet me in person at this place to-morrow afternoon for the purpose of arranging the details of the capitulation. I have already conferred with General H. C. Wayne, adjutant and inspector general, who assures me that the terms prescribed will be carried into effect. General McCook will start to-morrow with a small force to Tallahassee, FL., to receive the surrender of the troops under the command of General Sam Jones in that district. As you doubtless know General Cobb surrendered this place with its garrison to me on the 20th of April, immediately after the appearance of my advance before it. Since then he has put my officers in possession of all Confederate supplies within our reach by rail in Central and Southwestern Georgia. O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME XLIX/2 [S# 104]

Union Correspondence, Orders, And Returns Relating To Operations In Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, Northern And Central Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, And West Florida, From March 16 To June 30, 1865: #24 HDQRS. CAVALRY CORPS, MIL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Macon, Ga., May 3, 1865. JOSEPH E. BROWN, Commander-in-Chief of the Georgia Militia, Milledgeville, Georgia:

SIR: In accordance with the terms of the convention between General Sherman and General Johnston, C. S. Army, similar in all respects to that between General Grant and General Lee, I have the honor to request that you will take the necessary steps to surrender the troops under your command, with all the arms and military stores pertaining thereto. The terms of the convention are as follows:

First: Bvt. Maj. Gen. J. H. Wilson, U.S. Army, or such officer as he may appoint, is designated to receive the surrender.

Second. Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer designated by General Wilson, the other to be retained by such Confederate officer as may be designated by the Confederate commander at the time of the surrender.

Third: The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the United States Government until properly exchanged, and each company, battalion, or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men under his command.

Fourth: All arms and public property to be stored and packed and turned over to an officer to be named by Brevet Major-General Wilson to receive them. This will not embrace the side arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage.

Fifth: This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by the military authorities of the United States, so long as they preserve their parole and obey the laws which were in force previous to January 1, 1861, where they reside. For the purpose of arranging the details, I will meet you on your arrival at this place Thursday afternoon. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. H. WILSON, Brevet Major-General O.R.--SERIES I--VOLUME XLIX/2

It has been my attempt to get as much specific information about the men of the 11^th Georgia State Guard Cavalry. Because of the state of reporting of State Guard, Militia and Reserve regiments, or at least in records that I have found or have access to, much general information about the overall movement and deployment of the militia has been compiled.

Without further research and the coming forth of letters and diaries from the very men themselves, it may be difficult to pinpoint more information about the actions of this specific regiment.

Questions that linger are "How many men re-enrolled following the mustering out of February 1964?" "Where were these men specifically assigned?" "What was their designation?" Certainly thoughts of turning back the Yankee invasion and protecting the home state became mixed with the concerns of the family and farms back home. "At what point did men leave to protect their own counties, farms and homes?"

One can only speculate at this time. As we reflect on the 11^th regiment’s story and in fact on the entire story of the Georgia State Guard and Militia, it brings forth visions of honor and terror at the same time.

Perhaps, we the descendents of these brave men best appreciate this split sense of duty to state and family. This was certainly no "Civil War" and most certainly not a war fought to keep black men slaves. Perhaps the entire country would do well to learn of these men’s stories as it most likely more accurately defines the reason Georgia men, young and old, took up arms in defense of their homes and families.

Fort where G-G Grandfather James C. Barrs was captured by overwhelming Union troops at Twilight on December 13, 1864

GENERAL: You have doubtless observed from your station at Rosedew that sea-going vessels now come through Ossabaw Sound and up Ogeechee to the rear of my army, giving me abundant supplies of all kinds, and more especially heavy ordnance necessary to the reduction of Savannah.

I have already received guns that can cast heavy and destructive shot as far as the heart of your city; also, I have for some days held and controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison of Savannah can be supplied; and I am therefore justified in demanding the surrender of the city of Savannah and its dependent forts, and shall await a reasonable time your answer before opening with heavy ordnance,. Should you entertain the proposition I am prepared to grant liberal terms to the inhabitants and garrison; but should I be forced to resort to assault, or the slower and surer process of starvation, I shall then feel justified in resorting to the harshest measures, and shall make little effort to restrain my army -- burning to avenge a great national wrong they attach to Savannah and other large cities which have been so prominent in dragging our country into civil war. I enclose you a copy of General Hood's demand for the surrender of the town of Resaca, to be used by you for what it is worth.

1. For the purpose of military operations, this army is divided into two wings, viz.: The right wing, Major-General O.O. Howard, commanding, composed of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps; the left wing, major-General H.W. Slocum commanding, composed of the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps.

2. The habitual order of march will be wherever practicable by four roads as nearly parallel as possible, and converging at points hereafter to be indicated in orders. The cavalry, Brigadier-General Kilpatrick commanding, will receive special orders from the commander-in-chief.

3. There will be no general train of supplies, but each corps will have its ammunition-train and provision-train, distributed habitually as follows: Behind each regiment should follow one wagon and one ambulance; behind each brigade should follow a due proportion of ammunition-wagons, provision-wagons, and ambulances. In case of danger each corps commander should change this order of March, by having his advance and rear brigades unencumbered by wheels. The separate columns will start habitually at 7 a.m., and make about fifteen miles per day, unless otherwise fixed in orders.

4. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather, near the route traveled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten days' provisions for his command, and three days' forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but, during a halt or camp, they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock in sight of their camp. To regular foraging-parties must be entrusted the gathering of provisions and forage, at any distance from the road traveled.

5. To corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc.; and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according to the measure of such hostility.

6. As for horses, mules, wagons, etc., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit; discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor and industrious, usually neutral or friendly. Foraging-parties may also take mules or horses, to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regiments of brigades.

In all foraging, of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain abusive or threatening language, and may, where the officer in command thinks proper, given written certificates of the facts, but no receipts; and they will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance.

7. Negroes who are able-bodied and can be of service to the several columns may be taken along; but each army commander will bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important one, and this his first duty is to see to those who bear arms.

8. The organization, at once, of a good pioneer battalion for each army corps, composed if possible of Negroes, should be attended to. This battalion should follow the advance guard, repair roads and double them if possible, so that the columns will not be delayed after reaching bad places. Also, army commanders should practice the habit of giving the artillery and wagons the road, marching their troops on one side, and instruct their troops to assist wagons at steep hills or bad crossings of streams.

9. Captain O. M. Poe, chief-engineer, will assign to each wing of the army a pontoon-train, fully equipped and organized; and the commanders thereof will see to their being properly protected at all times. By order of Major-General W.T. Sherman, L. M. Dayton, Aide-de-Camp.

James C. Barrs was born in 1821 to Arthur Barrs (Born 1792 in Lenoir County North Carolina to John Barrs, Jr. and unknown mother) and Nancy Elizabeth Campbell-Barrs (Born 1793 in Lenoir County North Carolina of Irish parents. Her mother’s name was Sarah Campbell who was born about 1765.). James C. Barrs was born on the Arthur Barrs’ plantation located in Twiggs County Georgia. All of Arthur and Nancy Barrs 6 children were born in Twiggs Co.

James C. Barrs was next to the oldest child and second son of six children; three sons and three daughters of Arthur and Nancy Barrs. James C. Barrs grew up on his father's Twiggs County Georgia plantation. In later life he would become and 'Overseer' for another plantation owner in Lowndes County Georgia, a Mr. Samuel Porter.

One brother, William W. Barrs was born in 1824 in Twiggs County Georgia. He and his wife Lauraney Wood-Barrs lived out their lives in the Nankin District of Brooks County

Georgia

. They are buried in the Columbia Primitive Baptist Church cemetery in the Nankin District, as are many Barrs descendants, relatives and related family members, as well as some slaves, who may have belonged to William W. Barrs, who gave the land for the church and cemetery..

Isaac L. Barrs, the oldest of the three Barrs brothers, was born in 1820 but died at an early age of 30 years in August 1850 in Nankin. He and his family lived next door to William W. Barrs, his youngest brother. Several Barrs children were named after this Isaac Barrs...Isaac Newton son of James C., Isaac son of William W. Barrs and Isaac Jackson son of Henry J. aka Andrew J. Barrs who was a son of James C. Barrs and Martha Elizabeth Land-Barrs.

James C. Barrs' father, Arthur Barrs, owned considerable farmlands or plantation lands in Twiggs County Georgia in the 1830s and 1840s, and worked the plantation with sixty-five slaves during the late 1830s. By 1940 all but 4 of Arthur's slaves had been transferred to his youngest brother, James Barrs' (Born 1795 in Lenoir County North Carolina) household.

Arthur's wife, Nancy Elizabeth Campbell-Barrs (Mother Sarah Campbell), had assumed the head of household role by 1840. We believe Arthur Barrs was extremely ill and could no longer manage the Barrs plantation. Arthur Barrs died in Twiggs County Georgia in 1842-43.

We believe the Barrs family of Twiggs County Georgia moved south to Lowndes County Georgia in the mid-1840s and after Arthur Barrs had died.

In 1850 James C. Barrs and his new wife, Martha Elizabeth Land-Barrs, born 1821 in Lenoir County North Carolina to William Land and three of his children, including my Great Grandfather Issac Newton Barrs were living in the household of Samual Porter. James C. Barrs was listed as "Overseer" for Mr. Porter.

James C., Barrs' Mother Nancy Elizabeth Campbell-Barrs and his youngest Sister, Julia Barrs, were living in the household of Nancy's youngest son William W. Barrs, who had not yet married, in 1850. There was also an Elizabeth Barrs in the 1850 Lowndes County Georgia Federal Census Report who was living next door to William W. Barrs. This Elizabeth Barrs was the wife of an Isaac L. Barrs born 1820 in Twiggs County GA. He died in AUG1850 just before the Federal Census was taken. This Elizabeth Barrs' maiden name was Hinson. She was born in Twiggs County GA. Her father was Elam Hinson.

WILL OF

ELAM

HINSON, Book A., p. 2 Oct. 1875:
Gives to Wife, ELIZABETH HINSON, in lieu of a dower...one hundred one and a quarter acres of land...south half of lot No. 67...one hundred and three-quarters acres of land in the south west corner of lot No. 54. At wife's death the land is to belong to daughter, EMMA B. HINSON, or her heirs. If she has no heirs at her death the land is to belong to daughters FRANCES M. HINSON and ANNA READ...

It is my will that as long as my daus. EMMA B. and FRANCES M. remain single they shall have a home where I now live and be supported & maintained off of the land bequeathed in this item as they always have.

All personal property is bequeathed to wife.

To daus. FRANCES M. HINSON and ANNA READ one hundred eighty-six acres of lot No. 202.

To dau. MARTHA A. WALL and her children seventy acres of land being the N. E. Cor. of land lot No. 79 . . .

land to son, TILMON.

To dau. JULIA MANNING and her children . . . seventy acres of land lot No. 78.

To dau. ELIZABETH (HINSON) BARRS and her children...the remainder of lots no. 78 and 79

To the remainder of my children I give nothing having already given them what I consider an equal share.

Exr. brother, WILLIAM HINSON

Wit: J. R. Nelson; Jas M. Dupree; John N. Jones
(probated) Oct. term 1875

This is the will of Martha Hinson Wall's father,
abstracted by Eleanor D. McSwain in her book,
"Abstracts of Some Documents of Twiggs, County,

Georgia

", 1972, page 147:

This Elizabeth Barrs and her deceased husband Isaac L. Barrs had three sons and a daughter named Joseph, Francis, James T. and Martha Barrs. Francis and James T. may have been twins.

During the mid-1850s James C. Barrs took his family, other family members and slaves of Mr. Solomon Porter to the mouth of the St. Marks River in Wakulla County Florida to manage and operate Salt Works on the Gulf of Mexico. One son, Henry J. (Andrew) Barrs, was born to James C. Barrs and Martha Elizabeth Land-Barrs in Wakulla County Florida in 1857.

Remnants of these Gulf of Mexico Salt Works still exist even today. Salt was a valued commodity in the pre-war south and even more so during The War. Salt became and invaluable resource for the Confederate States of

America

military establishment during the War Between the States. Its primary use was to preserve meats and particularly pork (Salt Pork, Bacon, Shoulder, Ham and Sausage), which was a major food resource for the Confederate States of

America

soldiers. Salting and smoking pork to reduce or postpone decay was the only safe means for preserving meat during this period. The Confederacy had no means to can food as did the Federals. Many Union soldiers died from improper preserved and canned food during The War.

During the fall of 1862 Union gun ships and marines shelled and raided the Salt Works along the Gulf of Mexico and destroyed the evaporators and buildings. James C. Barrs, most of his family and slaves had returned to Brooks County Georgia.

On February 1, 1861, probably on his way back from Wakulla County Florida to Brooks County Georgia, James C. Barrs detoured through Tallahassee Leon County Florida, which is situated north of Wakulla County and bought 320.12 acres of land in Taylor County Florida.

Brooks County Georgia divided from Lowndes County Georgia in 1858. And, there was a state line dispute between

Georgia

and Florida. James C. Barrs thought he was living in Florida in 1861 when he bought land in Taylor County Florida. He had been in Wakulla County Florida from about 1855.

James C. Barrs volunteered on at least three different occasions to serve the Confederate States of

America

in a military capacity. He may have also received an exemption early in the War Between the States because of his occupation, supervising the making of salt in Wakulla County Florida. We know James C. Barrs in the late 1850s supervised the making of salt in Wakulla County Florida at the mouth of the St. Marks River and the Gulf of Mexico. Salt was a valuable commodity used to preserve food stocks.

James C. Barrs and William W. Barrs volunteered in the fall of 1861 for the Brooks County Militia, which became a part of the 81st Battalion in the spring (February) of 1862. They along with James C. Barrs’ oldest son, James Henry L. Barrs enlisted in the 11th Georgia Calvary State. James C. Barrs then enlisted again on May 6, 1864 in Quitman,

Georgia

in Company E, 1^st Regiment (Symon's) of the Georgia Infantry State Reserves CSA for the duration of The War.

James C. Barrs and his brother, William W. Barrs, served together first in the Brooks County Militia. The Brooks County Militia was called into service during the spring of 1862 and became a part of the 81st Battalion in which officers were elected and commissioned by the Governor on March 4, 1862.

Then James C. Barrs and his oldest son James Henry L. Barrs (Born 1845 in Lowndes County Georgia) along with William W. Barrs rode their horses to Quitman

Georgia

to enlist in the CSA 11^th Georgia Calvary for a 6- month enlistment. James C. Barrs was 43 years of age when he enlisted.

Finally James C. Barrs enlisted on May 6, 1864 again in Quitman,

Georgia

in Company E, 1^st Regiment (Symon's) of the Georgia Infantry State Reserves, CSA for the duration of The War. He, along with the entire CSA garrison of Ft. McAllister Georgia were attacked by superior forces of Union General Sherman's army at the end of their "March to the Sea" campaign, were over run after fierce hand-to-hand combat and captured. He then was assigned to a Union Military Provost Hospital in Hilton Head South Carolina with Typhoid Fever and later was transported to the infamous Union Military Prison, Fort Delaware for the duration of The War. He was released in 1865 after taking The Oath, "to never aging take up arms against the

United States of America

James C. Barrs, born 1821 and Martha Elizabeth Land born, 1821 had the following children:

James Henry L. Barrs born 1845 in Lowndes County Georgia died Hillsboro or Citrus County FL

Isaac Newton Barrs born 1849 Lowndes County Georgia d. Lafayette County FL

Francis Marion Barrs born 1852 Lowndes County Georgia died Suwannee County FL

James C. Barrs, along with his brother, William W. Barrs, was in the Brooks County Georgia Militia as part of the 81st Battalion during 1861-62. He then enlisted August 4, 1863 at age 42 in Quitman, Brooks County, GA in Captain Wiley W. Groover's 11^th Georgia Calvary, Georgia State Guards of Company "D" Confederate States of

America

for a regular enlistment of six months, as did his oldest son James Henry L. Barrs (Born 1845 in Lawndes County Georgia.)

James C. Barrs had fortunately not been killed or wounded in battle. All captured CSA troops from Fort McAllister were sent to Hilton Head, South Carolina to await Union transportation to prisoner of war camps in the North. James C. Barrs was admitted to the Union Military Provost Guard Hospital in Hilton Head, SC with Typhoid Fever on January 10, 1865.

Fort McAllister had withstood eight attacks from the Union Navy prior to General Sherman's land assault with overwhelming and superior numbers of troops.

Fort McAllister is an earthwork that was built by the Confederate States of

America

during the War Between the States. The fort stands near Richmond Hill

Georgia

and has been cited as the best example of earthworks built by the Confederates. Fort McAllister is located on Genesis Point, a small bluff that overlooks the Great Ogeechee River.

The fort acted as the right flank anchor in the line of earthen fortifications that protected the post city of Savannah Georgia. From its position on Genesis Point Fort McAllister is within ten miles of the Atlantic Ocean and fifteen miles due south of Savannah.

Confederate forces expected Fort McAllister to provide the following services:

●The fort was to deny the Union Navy its passage up the Ogeechee where troops could land and march on Savannah.

●The Atlantic and Gulf Railroad, a major supply and communications line, crossed the Ogeechee above the fort and needed the protection of the earthwork.

●The fort protected cotton and rice plantations along the Ogeechee. In fact, the fort was named after the McAllister family who owned Genesis Point during the war.

Eight separate naval attacks by Union forces (some intense and some limited to a few shots fired) failed to subdue Fort McAllister or gain them passage beyond the work. Then on 13 December 1864 it was attacked from the rear.

While Fort McAllister experienced a major refit, the Union Army put a new plan for Southern defeat into action. The 60,000-man Union Army of the Tennessee, under the command of the fiery, red and grey-bearded Major General William T. Sherman, began a march through

Georgia

and the heart of the Confederacy.

General Sherman intended to capture Atlanta, a railroad and munitions center some 270 miles northwest of Savannah. Once that was accomplished, Sherman then planned to march through the rest of

Georgia

and destroy both the war making potential of the state and the will of her people to continue the fight.

Sherman captured Atlanta in September 1864 after a grueling campaign. On the following 15th of November, the victorious Army of the Tennessee began its well-known "March to the Sea," cutting a sixty-mile wide path of destruction and desolation through

Georgia

. At this point,

Georgia

had given about all she could to the Confederacy in manpower and equipment. The effective Union blockade had almost completely stopped the Confederate blockade-runners, which caused the war-ravaged Confederacy great suffering. Additionally, the best fighting men in the state were either dead or too few to put up any effective resistance to Sherman's army. All hope for

Georgia

and the Confederacy was vanishing fast.

Although Sherman kept the Confederates guessing about his true intentions, they reasoned he would definitely make his way for Savannah where he could hope to be re-supplied by sea. The Southerners began to prepare the city for the attack they believed would happen.

Confederates reasoned that Sherman would approach Savannah from the northwest because his army was located in that direction. Consequently, the Confederates strengthened earthworks that protected Savannah along its western approaches. The large artillery pieces already in place there were augmented by forty-eight field pieces. Additionally, Georgians flooded the low, flat rice lands that lay beyond the western line of defense with two to six feet of water to hinder the advance of Sherman. Finally, the men obstructed or cut all railroad and roadways coming into Savannah from that area as well.

The commander of the forces in Savannah was native Georgian, CSA Lieutenant General William J. Hardee. Hardee's stellar record of service to the Confederacy certainly inspired hope for their city in many Savannians. However, the less than 10,000 troops that existed to defend the city against Sherman's assembled masses seemed to dim those hopes.

To make matters worse, old men, boys, and even convicts and prisoners of war constituted most of Hardee's troops. None-the-less, the Savannians stood ready to fight; however, Sherman's army wanted food more than a fight. On 10 December 1864, Sherman's army arrived in front of Savannah. The Federal proximity to Savannah did not signal the end of their campaign; Sherman had a sure fight ahead of him no matter how lopsided it seemed. But, before the fight could occur, the Union troops desperately needed food and supplies. The need for supplies and communication lay in the fact that the Federal supply and communications lines back to his base in Nashville were voluntarily cut by Sherman when he left Atlanta. He did this to allow his army to move faster. Sherman and his men marched from Atlanta to Savannah and sustained themselves by living off the land for the most part. But by the time they reached the Savannah area, the Yankees were quite low on food and supplies. This fact, coupled with lack of forage in the Savanna area, forces Sherman to think about how to re-supply his army---quickly!

Severed communications lines also hampered Sherman. His departure from Atlanta had marked his last correspondence with President Lincoln and the North. During the entire march, no official word on the condition or the whereabouts of the Army of the Tennessee was head in Washington. Sherman, therefore, needed to hear from his superiors and report his won status and intentions.

Sherman knew that Federal ships lay off shore in the waters around Savannah---including Ossabaw Sound---awaiting word for the arrival of the general and his army at Savannah. The most obvious route to Ossabaw Sound was the Great Ogeechee River. However, Fort McAllister stood in the way.

The distance between Fort McAllister and Savannah, coupled with the small number of troops to defend the city, left General Hardee with two choices: Evacuate Fort McAllister, or keep the garrison there in hopes that it could somehow, miraculously, deny Sherman's overwhelming forces access to the Ossabaw Sound. The garrison, including G-G Grandfather James C. Barrs, remained at the fort.

Accordingly, Major Anderson's men took measures to make Fort McAllister a more formidable foe for the Union Army. Troops arrived to assist the Emmett Rifles---Clinch's Light Battery (Captain Nicholas B. Clinch, CSA), and Companies “D” and “E” of the 1st Regiment Georgia (Militia) Reserves (James C. Barrs' regiment). The fort's garrison now numbered around 230 CSA troopers.

The men also cleared the trees behind the fort to a distance of nearly a mile for a clear line of fire, and the wooden buildings were torn down so the Federals could not use then for cover. Now, the area behind the fort would not provide any cover to Union troops. To further impede a land attack, the Confederates laid a row of abattis (A defensive obstacle formed by felled trees with sharpened branches buried in the ground at an angle facing the enemy) in the open area. The most deadly obstruction however was the artillery shells that were placed just under the surface of the ground at the foot of the glacis. (A gentle slope or incline that runs downward from a fortification) Anyone walking over these land mines (or "torpedoes" as they were called) would set off an explosion, severely maiming or killing its victims. Lastly, the Georgians dismantled the mortar battery to prevent its usage by the Federals.

The Southerners also undertook measures that would hopefully allow the garrison to survive a prolonged siege. The fort received 220 pounds of hard bread and 1000 pounds of bacon shortly before Sherman's arrival---enough to supply the garrison for one month. Other supplies include candles, salt, molasses, and 40 gallons of whiskey. On 9 December an additional fifteen days supplies came to McAllister from Savannah.

However determined the Confederates were to deny the Yankees possession of Fort McAllister, Sherman was equally determined to make contact with the Union fleet. On 8 December, Captain William Duncan, USA, of the 15th Illinois Cavalry, with two scouts, boarded a small boat on the Ogeechee at King's Bridge, above Fort McAllister. The Union soldiers intended to make contact with the Federal ships in Ossabaw Sound and convey Sherman's condition and plans. To prevent capture the crew traveled only at night. They managed to pass Fort McAllister unnoticed. After a harrowing experience, Duncan and his men arrived in Ossabaw Sound and boarded U.S.S. Flag on 11 December 1864. Now the Union Navy knew of Sherman's presence near Savannah.

On 12 December, the Union Army rested its left wind on the Savannah River; its right wing lay near King's Bridge on the Ogeechee. General Sherman rode down to King's Bridge, which had been destroyed by the Confederates. The engineers completed a new bridge that evening.

With King's Bridge rebuilt, Sherman intended to use it for his next operation---an assault on Fort McAllister. Sherman decided to give the assignment to one of General Howard's most trustworthy officers; Brigadier General William B. Hazen,

USA

.

Sherman wrote:

Sherman could not have chosen a more capable man. William Babcock Hazen commanded the 2nd Division of General Howard's XV Corps. Hazen, just 34 years old at the time, was a West Point graduate. "On the battlefield," said one account of Hazen, "he was alert, self assured, concentrated, brave and capable."

General Hazen commanded the 2nd Division, which consisted of nearly 4000 men from five states, many of whom had seen action since the early stages of the war. General Sherman felt a special attachment to the 2nd Division. He proudly noted that Hazen's men made up "the same old division I had commanded at Shiloh and Vicksburg, in which, I felt a special pride and confidence."

Early on the morning of Tuesday, 13 December 1864, the 2nd Division crossed the Ogeechee at King's Bridge. Hazen remarked, "The lovely road of shells and white sand under Magnolias and wide branching Live Oaks draped in long, hanging moss."

While Hazen enjoyed some of the sights on his long journey down to Fort McAllister, the Georgians at the earthwork experienced some indications of the forthcoming action. Major Anderson noted: "About eight o'clock, a. m. desultory firing commenced between the skirmishers of the enemy and my sharp-shooters."

Along their route, Hazen reported passing the old McAllister mansion, called Strother Hall... There was their home, but now they had gone. Major General

Judson H. Kilpatrick's Cavalry had been there before us, and the contents of the house were strewn upon the floors or scattered about the lawn...

The Negro servants showed no disposition to put things right again, thinking perhaps, that it would only invite further mischief.

As the Federals passed the old Hardwick town site, they came upon a narrow causeway that was bordered by the Ogeechee on one side and a marsh expanse on the other. Unknown to the Federals, however, the Confederates had planted torpedoes on the causeway. A mounted Confederate picket guarded the causeway. General Hazen wrote of the Union encounter with the picket: "About a mile from the fort we came upon the advanced picket, who, though mounted, was captured by a sudden dash of my topographical officer...and my orderlies..."

Once captured, the Confederate told everything. Major Anderson frustratingly wrote:

After the Federals had removed the torpedoes, Hazen left eight regiments at the causeway and proceeded with the remaining three brigades (nine regiments) toward the fort. During the late morning, some of the Union troops came within sight of the earthworks. During the Union approach, activity between the two opposing forces heated up somewhat as gunfire was exchanged between the two hostile forces.

About two miles across the Ogeechee lay a rice mill owned by D. Cheves. There, General Sherman, General Howard, and Sherman's staff waited for Hazen's attack to commence. Sherman wrote:

At this point in the day, Major Anderson (Ft. McAllister commander) came to a logical decision. Having heard no word from Hardee in Savannah meant the options for Fort McAllister were few. Anderson concluded:

By this time the Confederates began to fire their field guns at the distant Federals, but with little effect. Hazen began to deploy his skirmishers and sharpshooters despite the Southern cannonaded. The skirmishers advanced "at a run [and] readily approached within 2000 yards [of the fort], and by throwing themselves flat on the ground were well concealed by the high grass, and could pick off the Confederate gunners at their leisure, readily silencing the fire of the fort."

As the sharpshooters continued their harassing fire on the beleaguered Confederate work, the 2nd Division slowly deployed around Fort McAllister.

Hazen ordered his men to move no closer than 600 yards to the work---just out of the effective range of the Confederate rifle fire. The Federals were determined to form a semi-circular line around Fort McAllister and pin the fort in against the Ogeechee. The predicament of the Confederate garrison prompted Major Anderson to note:

While Anderson contemplated the hopelessness of his situation, the Yankee soldiers continued to envelop the Southern fort. Sergeant Saunier of the 47th Ohio Infantry wrote:

Another account of the deployment was from Y. R. Davies, of the 70th Ohio Infantry. He wrote:

While his men enveloped the fort, Hazen decided against an appeal to the rebel's better nature. "I made no formal demand for surrender," wrote Hazen, "believing that it would merely advertise our intentions, and be met by a boastful refusal."

However, the Georgians did their best to hinder the Yankees. A Union soldier's account recalls the effectiveness of one Southern bullet:

Colonel James S. Martin, leader of the 111th Illinois Infantry Regiment, received orders to assume command of the 2nd Brigade almost immediately after Jones fell wounded.

Although the number of Federal troops may have seemed overwhelming, their assignment to capture Fort McAllister would prove difficult to set up. The difficulty lay in the fact that the immediate territory surrounding the fort was not compatible with large troop movements. The ground to the right of McAllister was "cut through by deep streams" and marshland, which caused the 1st Brigade to experience extreme difficulty in positioning itself to attack the fort. General Hazen wrote:

Meanwhile, across the Ogeechee, and anxious General Sherman watched as the winter sun slowly sank in the west. Sherman feared night would set in before his men could carry Fort McAllister, thus his army would be deprived of much needed supplies for yet another critical day. One account described the scene at Cheves's Mill:

While Sherman communicated with Hazen, he was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of a Union vessel down the Ogeechee below Fort McAllister. Sherman noted:

The gunboat pushed its way up the Ogeechee in hopes of finding Sherman's army, since its presence was reported to the Union Navy through Captain Duncan's brave endeavor several days earlier. The crew aboard the gunboat saw a signal platform atop Cheves's Mill and immediately discovered that the men on the building were Union soldiers.

About the time General Sherman and the Navy exchanged signals, the 2nd Division drew up for battle. Shortly before the attack began, the commander of the 70th Ohio gave a pep talk to his men:

General Hazen decided that three regiments from each brigade would actually assault the fort. The other nine regiments were to be held in reserve if needed "---an overwhelming force for the work at hand."

The time was 4:45 p. m. General Hazen felt it was time for the attack to get underway. He wrote:

The final battle of Fort McAllister had begun. T. W. Connelly of the 70th Ohio described the advance:

The torpedoes caused numerous Union casualties. Some died in the explosions, others miraculously survived the blasts. One luck soldier was Sergeant Lyman Hardman of the 30th Ohio Infantry Regiment. Hardman replayed:

As the 70th and 30th Ohio Regiments made their way across the open field in the rear of Fort McAllister, the 47th Ohio advanced toward the earthwork's west face along the Ogeechee River. Sergeant Saunier wrote:

The blue line moved steadily forward. General Hazen advanced his men in a single line and noted that "there were not more than half a dozen casualties before reaching the line of torpedoes, which was continuous around the fort and about 100 yards in front of the entanglement.

Davies also went with the 70th Ohio onto the walls of Fort McAllister. He Wrote:

While the 1st and 3rd Brigades conquered Fort McAllister's rear and southern flanks, the men of the 2nd Brigade scaled the walls of the fort. Sergeant Saunier and the 47th Ohio continued their rush into the fort.

Captain George E. Castle, USA, 111th Illinois Infantry found the garrison flag, and 1863-pattern "Stainless White Banner". The Georgians tried to prevent the flag's capture by hiding it in one of the bombproof chimneys during the battle. Captain Castle and his family would retain possession of the flag for many years to come (today it hangs in the Fort McAllister Museum). Shortly thereafter, Union soldiers ran "Old Glory" up the flagstaff to flutter in the

Georgia

twilight. The United States Army now controlled Fort McAllister.

The second Official Flag of the Confederacy: On May 1st, 1863, a second design was adopted, placing the Battle Flag (also known as the "Southern Cross") as the canton on a white field. This flag was easily mistaken for a white flag of surrender especially when the air was calm and the flag hung limply.

The 47th Ohio, 70th Ohio, and 111th Illinois Regiments all claimed the honor of placing the first United States Flag ever on the walls of Fort McAllister. No one has as yet proven who actually was first.

General Hazen agreed with Major Anderson's account. The general said the Union soldiers fought "the garrison through the fort to their bomb-proofs, from which they still fought, and only succumbed as each man was individually overpowered.”

One of those who bitterly resisted the Yankees was Captain Clinch. Major Anderson said of the fierce Clinch:

From the top of Cheves's Mill, General Sherman and his officers were distracted by the sound of gunfire n the direction of Fort McAllister. A fascinated Sherman wrote about the attack:

"They took it, Howard...I've got Savannah!" Sherman's statement resonated with accuracy. Now, the Army of the Tennessee had virtually unlimited access to supplies. When Hardee found out later that evening that Fort McAllister had fallen, and hope that he had at all for saving Savannah must have floated away on the winter's night air.

The assault was over in fifteen minutes. The Union soldiers captured the fort so quickly because of their overwhelming numbers (25 to 1) mostly, and because of the weakness of Fort McAllister's rear defenses. Known more appropriately as the 'gorge' wall, the rear of the work did look quite impressive as it bristled with field guns that were protected by an obstructed moat. However, no amount of defense could have made the rear of the fort impregnable to attack. The Confederates had designed Fort McAllister for battling ships and it had successfully done so on many occasions. The large Seacoast guns in the fort were never intended to fire to the rear. Sherman correctly reasoned Fort McAllister's weakness was its gorge wall. His guess paid off. The "March to the Sea ended with the capture of Fort McAllister.

The casualties were light. Hazen's men suffered 24 men killed, 110 wounded---most of the casualties resulted from the torpedoes (mines). The Confederates lost 16 killed, and 28 wounded.

After he was captured at Fort McAllister, Union army doctors hospitalized James C. Barrs with Typhoid Fever in the Hilton Head Union Military Hospital. Later he was sent to Fort Delaware Military Prison until the end of the war.

South Carolina was among the richest of States, and Hilton Head Island was responsible for several millionaires. South Carolina was the 1st State to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 when Confederate cannonaders firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. In January 1861, General Robert E. Lee was assigned command of the coasts of South Carolina,

Georgia

, and East Florida. By October of 1861, 77 Union ships sailed from Virginia to Port Royal. On board were 13,000 troops, 1500 horses, 500 surfboats, and 1,000 laborers to build a town and fortress for the blockade of the South.

In November, 1861, after surviving a hurricane off Cape Hatteras, the small armada circled Port Royal Sound, firing at all settlements in the area. By noon of that day, on November 7th, the Confederates knew the battle for the area was lost, and withdrew before the attacking forces of the Union.

The Yankees were here to stay until the War's end. Fort Mitchel was built in 1862. It was named for General Ormsby Mitchel, a well-liked leader, who died of malaria that year.

Eventually, Union Forces reached 50,000 on the Island. The blockade of Savannah was accomplished, preventing the Confederacy from exporting cotton to Europe and importing supplies from

France

. Hilton Head was Headquarters for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. The Island became the transfer point for prisoners of war and the wounded as well as Union Soldiers on their way to battle and tons of supplies.

Fort Delaware is located on Pea Patch Island, Delaware. It was used as a Union Prisoner of War Prison to house captured CSA soldiers. It opened for prisoners on April 1862. More than 22, 700 Confederate prisoners were confined there.

James C. Barrs was confined in the Enlisted Prisoner's Barracks Number 14 until his release at the end of The War in 1865.

"As the long procession of prisoners staggered out upon the wharf at Fort Delaware, the universal thought was one of Despondency, as if each had been warned like the lost spirits of Dante's Hell, 'Abandon Hope, all ye who enter here!' The reputation of the place for cruelty was already familiar to all of us and it needed no more than a glance at the massive fort with its hundred guns, the broad moat, the green slime dykes and the scores of sentrys [sic] pacing to and fro in all directions to quench every lingering hope of escape. "

So wrote 2nd Lieutenant Randolph Abbot Shotwell, a Confederate veteran from North Carolina, about Fort Delaware, a mosquito-infested prison camp on a marshy piece of ground called Pea Patch Island in the middle of the river separating Delaware from New Jersey.

Of these prisoners, 2,346 died at Fort Delaware. It was known as the "Andersonville of the North."

The dead were transported across the river to New Jersey, near Fort Mott, which is located near Harrisonville, Salem County NJ for burial. The dead were buried in trenches, and individual identification was lost.

Today a monument stands at the site of the burials with a bronze plaque listing the names of the interred. Luckily James C. Barrs was not engraved on that plaque.

The following story is the account of the personal experience of a living Confederate CSA war veteran, Samuel Lewis Moore. Samual Moore's home at the time was in Quitman, Brooks County,

Georgia

. He moved to Monticello, Jefferson County, Florida after The Civil War and married Julia Bradley. Samuel Moore was 18 years old when he wrote the following personal account of his military experience.

At the young age of 15 years Samuel Moore followed his brother, Spencer Moore, and enlisted in the army of the South in Savannah, GA. Samuel was sent to White Marsh Island, GA six miles below Savannah, GA. Their duty was to see that no Federal or Union boats came up the river. Young Samuel Moore wrote; "During the last two years of the war the Southern Army was largely composed of untrained boys like me and the officers recognized our mistakes and shortcomings, as a result of our youth and lack of military training, and justice was tempered with mercy. Major Patton Anderson knew that (General) Sherman was marching towards Savannah, so he called in two companies of my Regiment from White Marsh Island as re-enforcements for Fort McAllister, twenty-five miles from Savannah, on the Ogeechee River and six miles below the railroad bridge. Sherman had to capture the bridge up the river before he could get to us.

There was nothing but a marsh between us and the bridge, and we boys stood on the battery walls and saw the fight, which lasted about an hour. We knew that our time would come the next day, and the necessary preparations were made to give Mr. Sherman as warm a reception as we could. The roll was called the next morning and 155 men answered for duty. About 10 o'clock in the morning the enemy entered the woods and begun to form in line of battle. We could see the Yankees behind the big trees near the little dairy (McAllister Dairy) and the dairy itself was as full of them as it could hold.

Our sharpshooters would take a crack at every "Blue Coat" that exposed himself. One of the boys asked permission to put a cannon ball through the dairy, which was granted, and a thirty-pound rifle shot was sent through the center. Then business picked up!" "At 4 P.M. the bugle of the enemy sounded for the charge and it took them exactly four minutes to capture the fort, as we had only 155 men and they numbered 9,000.

Our casualties were 55 killed and 60 wounded. The enemy's loss was 200 killed and 250 wounded. The last shot fired was a 12-pound Howitzer cannon. The man who was to fire the cannon had hold of the lanyard and was ordered to let it go by a Yankee officer, before the white flag was raised. The man replied, 'I'm not taking orders from you yet.'

The officer shot him with his pistol and the weight of the body, when he fell, pulled the lanyard. Some of the enemy was not three feet from the mouth of the cannon and the ball opened a space through the crowd. We killed more men than the number on our side at this battle. General Sherman made the McAllister homestead his headquarters and the wounded from both sides were taken there for medical treatment.

I was on the sick list and was placed on a bunk with a badly wounded Yankee boy who died before morning. I told the nurse the boy was dead and he said 'Alright I will take him out directly.' I guess he forgot it for the body was still there when I awoke the next morning. The nurse came and said he was sorry he had not removed it. I told him that was alright, it had not disturbed me at all. We, the prisoners, were carried to Hilton Head, South Carolina. All of the prisoners were issued what was called 'Retaliation rations,' which consisted of one part of rotten meat and a pickle per day. They were retaliation for Andersonville (Infamous CSA Prison in west

Georgia

)." So we were carried back to Fort Delaware, a downcast, disappointed lot of boys. A great deal could be told of prison life, how much I did not gain in weight, on six crackers a day and an occasional rat stew. At one time the prison was guarded by a regiment of United States Regulars, who had been badly cut-up in a battle in Virginia. They were kind to the Southern prisoners and the officers in charge of the Fort decided the Regulars were too good to us, so removed them, putting a Negro regiment in their place.

I was at Fort Delaware when Lincoln was assassinated after which the prisoners were treated worse than usual. The Negro guards would kick and cuff them for the slightest causes.

On July 18, 1865, I took the amnesty oath and was sent, with 500 other prisoners of war, to New York to be transported south." "We went by way of Philadelphia and were marched up into the city and halted by an open square and children were sent among us with baskets of sandwiches and pitchers of lemonade.

One beautiful girl sat at a window and dispensed lemonade and it was lucky for me when the supply gave out, for I was near the breaking point. It was like a change from purgatory to the Seventh Heaven. I was ashamed of my personal appearance, but I was not ashamed of the cause that put me there. Finally, we reached New York and while eating at Castle Garden, awaiting orders, I sold the cotton that was between my quilted blankets, and my woolen socks to an Irish woman for $1.50. This dollar was the first green back I saw and I felt rich. After a few weeks in New York, I was sent south. We had some bad times on the boat, for five hundred men were crowded into the hold of the boat, with 'built-in-bunks.' Something got the matter with the drinking water and they had to condense the water for the passengers. We were given one pint of hot water per day. There were no U.D.C. nor Red Cross chapters to look out for the boys in those days, and they had to look out for themselves.

My shoes were lost over board, but I did not feel the loss of them until I reached Jacksonville, FL and had to walk twelve miles, barefooted, where the railroad bridge was torn up. The train took us up, finally, and when we got to Madison, FL, I had to walk sixteen miles with Mr. Jim Barrs (James C. Barrs) to his home where I spent the night. Mr. Barrs was very kind to me and sent me to Quitman, GA, my home, next day with his boy on a mule." "When I reached home, my mother did not know me and I was indeed a sad looking spectacle. I had on a blue United States Military shirt, a pair of pants 44 inches in the waist, buttoned around to the suspender button. One leg of my pants was torn off halfway to the knee, and the other leg rolled up to match it. I had on a Confederate gray cap, the visor was torn off. I was barefooted and my hair was down to my shoulders.

My appearance did not dampen the joy of my mother and the home folks, however, when they finally realized I was home at last. I guess Sherman made a good, off-hand shot at it, when he made his statement about war, but he had never been hungry, nor thirsty, nor in prison or then he would have said 'War is hell' and then some."

James C. (Jim) Barrs' family in The Nankin District of Brooks County, GA had given him up for dead, when in October 1865 lice and vermin ridden he reached home. His son John Wesley said that he stripped outside, bathed, put on clean clothes and burned his old clothing before going into their home.

James C. Barrs served on a committee to help destitute widows from The War during April of 1866. (See page 8 "Brooks County Georgia: Echoes of Its People.")

Sometime shortly after 1870 James C. Barrs sent several of his sons to south Columbia County Florida to purchase land, clear land and build housing for the family near abandoned Ellisville Florida. The following year the Barrs family loaded up their belongings onto wagons and traveled to the Withlacoochee River and loaded them on a Cotton Barge. James C. and Martha Elizabeth Land-Barrs and several of their children left Nankin Brooks County Georgia for good...never to return. We know Isaac Newton Barrs (My Great Grandfather) stayed in Nankin for a time. He married Mary Elizabeth Boyet of Brooks County Georgia in 1873. Sometime in the early 1880s they moved to Day, a bustling Cotton Gin town located just 5 miles west of the Suwannee River, in Lafayette County Florida and across the Suwannee River from the rest of their family in Columbia County.

Most of the Barrs family traveled down the Withlacoochee River on a Cotton Barge to the Suwannee River and then downriver or south to the mouth of the Santa Fe River on the east bank of the Suwannee. They then traveled up the Santa Fe River and landed near the mouth of the Ichetucknee River where they unloaded their belongings, loaded them onto a wagon and traveled to their new home in Columbia County Florida. The exact location of their landing site is lost, but was known for many years as "Barrs Landing."

liquot Parts	Sec/ Blk	Twnship	Range	Fract. Sect.	Meridian	State	Counties	Survey Nr.

NW	15/	4-S	7-E	No	TALLAHASSEE	FL	TAYLOR	---

W½SW	10/	4-S	7-E	No	TALLAHASSEE	FL	TAYLOR	---

W½NW	10/	4-S	7-E	No	TALLAHASSEE	FL	TAYLOR	---