John Green Hall enlisted as a private in Company C, 35th Regiment North Carolina Troops on September 12, 1861. He served with the Thirty-Fifth until May 31, 1864, when he transferred to Company G, 51st Regiment NCT. On the day that Private Hall wrote this letter, Union troops made an ill-advised frontal assault on dug-in… Continue reading “One of the Most Awful Battles that Has Ever Been Fought” (Hall Letters #2)
Tag: Battle of Cold Harbor
We Began the Fight Just One Month Today…
Casualty Lists North Carolina’s regiments occasionally sent casualty lists to their hometown newspapers. The lists kept the folks at home up to date on how their boys were doing. After a major battle, the papers would be full of the names of the killed and wounded. The list below was written by Company E’s acting… Continue reading We Began the Fight Just One Month Today…
A Soldier’s Letter from Cold Harbor
The following letter was sent to the Fayetteville Observer by a soldier serving in the 51st North Carolina. The regiment suffered heavy casualties during an engagement with Yankee cavalry on May 31, 1864. The next day, the Fifty-First was almost completely surrounded, and 122 men were captured. McKethan’s boys were placed in reserve and didn’t… Continue reading A Soldier’s Letter from Cold Harbor
What Happened to Samson Hawley?
Sergeant Samson Hawley, Company K, didn’t return from the war. Comrades told his wife, Winiford, that Samson was killed near Malvern Hill (Cold Harbor). In 1885, the North Carolina legislature passed a new law granting widows of Civil War veterans a pension. Winiford applied for her pension right away, but the State put her application… Continue reading What Happened to Samson Hawley?