Letters from Camp Stephens: Remnants of earthworks at Ga. training site survive, as well as stories of soldiers and their loved ones

Interior of training entrenchments at Camp Stephens (Picket photo)

Letter written from Camp Stevens to Sarah Brinson (Siegel Auction Galleries)

Within weeks of the April 1861 bombardment of Fort Sumter, young men rushed to enlist, and training centers were soon established across the North and South. In Georgia, Camp Stephens trained thousands of eager recruits before they were sent to the front.

Remnants of trenches and breastworks built for training are still visible at two sites in a neighborhood on the northern outskirts of Griffin, a railroad city about 40 miles south of Atlanta. I made a short visit this week and walked some of the grounds on a muggy morning.

(As a side note, the land used for Camp Stephens had been owned by the father of John Henry “Doc” Holliday, a local boy who became a dentist and later gained fame as a gambler and gunman in the Old West. More on him in an upcoming Picket post.)

Several Confederate units, including the 27^th and 44^th Georgia infantry regiments, were formed at Camp Stephens. For most of the men, this was their first extended time away from home, and they became accustomed to drilling, discipline and perhaps a little homesickness.

While researching the camp, I came across envelopes of letters mailed by two soldiers, one of whom died in combat only a few months after his stint at Camp Stephens.

David Greene is believed to have enlisted with the 27^th Georgia in September 1861. Members of his Company K were from Talbot County. Columbus State University in Columbus, Ga., has several of his letters in its collection.

On Oct. 25, 1861, Greene wrote to his mother Isabella, telling her that many in the camp had the measles and he “decided to raise the price of his horse from the $250 to $350.”

The soldier wrote her again on Nov. 8, from Manassas, Va., saying his company was building a bridge over the Occoquan River. In letters from February-May 1862, Greene detailed service at Manassas and Camp Rappahannock.

In an April 23 letter, according to the university archives, Greene “tells that they have now moved to York Town.  Here he was very sick and went to Richmond to get well.  He tells of a fight in York Town in which they lost eight men and the enemy lost between 400 and 500.”

Greene’s last correspondence home may have been on May 5, 1862, telling them the army was evacuating Richmond. He was killed at Seven Pines in Virginia – the regiment’s first major battle -- on May 31, 1862. The unit broke Federal lines the next day, with more than 150 casualties in the two-day battle.

Greene was 25 or 26 when he died. Two brothers who also served in the Civil War survived.

Letter from David Greene to his mother (Siegel Auction Galleries)

My impetus to learn more about Greene was an envelope posted online by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries. The soldier used an envelope (above) he purchased at Camp Stephens to write his mother from Tudor Hall, Va., on Dec. 2, 1861.

The sender information includes the name Capt. Hezekiah Bussey of the 27^th Georgia. According to my brief internet research, Bussey was captured and exchanged in autumn 1862 and later promoted to lieutenant colonel. He died at age 77 in Columbus in November 1917.

Another Siegel Auction Galleries envelope (top of this post) provides no clues to the Camp Stephens sender. It was simply addressed: Miss Sarah Brinson, Cannoochee (sic).

I found that a Sarah Missouri Brinson of Emanuel County married Confederate veteran James Emmett Coleman on Oct. 22, 1865, several months after the war’s end. This letter is postmarked Sept. 7 (likely in 1861 or 1862).

Sarah had two brothers who served in the Southern army and perhaps one wrote her from Camp Stephens. Or it could have been authored by Coleman while they were courting or engaged. I just don't know.

Coleman was a sergeant with the 5^th Georgia Cavalry and Sarah served as a postmistress for both the Confederate and US governments in Canoochee, according to Findagrave.com.

The couple had 10 children and the couple lived to be 74 (1912) and 77 years old (1923), respectively.

Emmett, Sarah Coleman with family (Courtesy Emanuel County Preservation Society)

Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series includes photographs gathered by the Emanuel County Historic Preservation Society. One photograph, taken circa 1895, shows the Colemans with most of their children outside the home.

The caption provides a family memory from the Civil War.

“In November 1864, Emmett was with Company E, 5^th Ga. Cavalry fighting a delaying action in front of Sherman’s army. His unit came to Canoochee, where Sarah Brinson was serving as postmistress, in time to warn her that a Yankee Cavalry unit was just behind them. Arriving soon after, the Yankee unit began loading pigs, hogs, and taking everything they could find including butter out of a butter dish. Sarah gave a masonic distress signal she had learned from her father. A young lieutenant ordered his men to unload everything and posted a guard to protect her. Sarah and Emmett were married shortly after the war.”

(Civil War Picket photo)