Treasure trove: Capt. James Lile Lemon kept spoils of war and all his belongings. Descendants got to see them at Atlanta History Center

Gordon Jones with drum, a revolver and James L. Lemon's prize watch (Picket photos)

Last weekend, dozens of Civil War-period items were laid out on tables in the Atlanta History Center’s Cox Room. Almost all related to a single soldier -- a curator's dream.

There were personal items, a captured drum, revolver, letters, canteen, photographs and much more. Many artifacts were labeled with handwritten notes by Capt. James Lile Lemon of Company A, 18^th Georgia Infantry, who fought in the Virginia theater and survived a year and a half in Union prison camps.

“I am speechless at this entire collection, to see it all together, said Heather Spann, of Kennesaw, Ga., a third great-granddaughter of Lemon (left).

“It is amazing how meticulous he was in keeping records,” said Fred Aiken, a member of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table.

Aiken, along with about 20 members of the Lemon family, most living in northern Georgia, were invited to the AHC to see the impressive collection the institution purchased from the widow of a Macon, Ga., collector in 2020. The set includes three wartime diaries.

“He literally saved everything,” said host Gordon Jones, senior military historian and curator at the AHC. Lemon was “an individual who was thinking ahead about his own legacy.”

Jones told the Lemon family that their ancestor is a quintessential example of the human experience in the Civil War. “This is storytelling stuff. People love it.” It is the history center’s fortune to have such a complete collection, he added.

Lemon descendants and others before seeing collection (Picket photo)

Before the Atlanta Cyclorama painting was moved to the AHC a few years ago, visitors filed through the exhibit “Turning Point: The American Civil War.” Many of the artifacts were collected by an Atlanta father and son team decades ago.

While “Turning Point” still attracts visitors, the AHC believes it is a dinosaur, and it is raising money for a new exhibit that will offer newer, fresher and more inclusive perspectives of the conflict. The Lemon collection, Jones said, will be shown to the public as part of that effort.

When the war broke out, Lemon was living in Acworth, about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta. His family had seven enslaved persons, and Lemon wrote in his memoirs that he freed them. There is some dispute over the claim, according to the AHC.

Descendant Mark Lemon lives in the Acworth home 

Early in the war, the 18^th Georgia was part of John Bell Hood’s Texas Brigade. Lemon enlisted as a second lieutenant in 1861 for a three-year term in the Confederate army. 

The regiment fought in numerous Eastern battles – including Antietam, Fredericksburg, Second Manassas and Chancellorsville. The farmer and merchant had a close call at Gettysburg, when a Yankee bullet struck his canteen, causing it to strike his head.

His combat days came to a close in November 1863, when Lemon was severely wounded by a Minie ball in the pharynx and taken prison after an assault on Fort Sanders in Knoxville, Tenn. 

Mark Lemon (left) brought sword given by Union NCO to J.L. Lemon (Picket photo)

By the time he arrived at Fort Pulaski near Savannah, in October 1864, Lemon had already been at three Federal prisons: One in Louisville, Ky; Camp Chase in Ohio and Fort Delaware, Delaware. 

The captain’s brief time at Pulaski is part of the story of the "Immortal 600", a fascinating footnote to the conflict. The story is involved, but here’s a summary:

In summer 1864, Confederate Maj. Gen. Samuel Jones essentially used 600 captured Union officers as human shields, in a section of Charleston, S.C., in the line of fire. The North retaliated by transporting 600 POWs from Fort Delaware to Morris Island, S.C., in direct line of Rebel guns.

“For nearly three months, the stalemate continued. It wasn’t until yellow fever broke out in the city of Charleston that the Confederacy removed the Union prisoners to newly erected prison camps further inland,” the National Park Service says. “With the Union prisoners removed from Charleston and no longer under fire from Union artillery, there was no need to keep the Confederate prisoners on Morris Island. With this realization, the next phase of their journey began and the Immortal 600 began the journey south, to Cockspur Island and Fort Pulaski.”

While held at Fort Pulaski, Lemon etched his name into a wall. (At right, blanket near top of photo was given to Lemon while he was held there. Click to enlarge)

Lemon and other prisoners were returned to Fort Delaware toward the war’s end.

He earned the respect of one of the prison staff, who also had the name Lemon. Sgt. Lemon Kline of the 215^th Pennsylvania Infantry gifted him an NCO sword when the Confederate was paroled. Lemon, who somehow managed to get the weapon back to Georgia, wrote a notation about it, as was his practice.

Mark Lemon, great-great grandson of Lemon and author of “Feed Them the Steel!”, a history of Lemon and his regiment, brought the sword to the AHC, eliciting much excitement from Jones. The book, written as a narrative, includes many battle and POW accounts written by James Lile Lemon.

Lemon lives in the home built by his ancestor in 1856.

At war’s end, James Lile Lemon refused to take an oath of allegiance to the United States, citing his treatment, but he eventually did take it in June 1865. Family today considers him a “diehard” Confederate.

In his journal, Lemon wrote: “I have done the unspeakable but I am now paroled & to day set out for home. My duty to my country is done, mine to my family remains.”

The officer returned to Acworth and had 11 children with his wife Eliza. He was a retail merchant and then a bank executive, serving as president of the bank when he died on June 12, 1907, at age 72. Lemon had published a compelling memoir in 1886, the same year the Cyclorama was painted.

For Jones, Lemon’s meticulous record-keeping has paid off. “The story was there. It was just matching it to the artifacts.”

Here are some highlights from the AHC’s Lemon collection that were shown to the family:-

(Picket photo of sketch)

-- Original pen and ink sketch by Harper's Weekly artist Theodore Davis of the Lemon home in Acworth when used by William T. Sherman as his headquarters in early June 1864. “This is the only original Davis wartime sketch I have ever seen,” says Jones

-- An Adams revolver with “JL” and “18^th GEO” carved into the grips (see photo at top of this post). Jones believes the officer gave the gun to his brother Smith, who used it while serving in the Georgia State Line. It saw action at the Battle of Atlanta in July 1864. (Lemon’s gun that he lost at Knoxville is today in a private collection in Milwaukee.)

-- Lemon’s engraved gold watch, made in Liverpool, presented by his brother Smith Lemon on October 27, 1861. Lemon lost the watch when he was wounded at Knoxville, but later spotted it on a Union soldier and managed to retrieve it, according to his memoir. (See photo at top of this article)

(Picket photo)

-- Knife/ fork/ spoon set Lemon took from a dead Federal soldier on the battlefield of Salem Church in Virginia, May 1863. He wrote in his memoir: “That evening, as we rested near the church, I had occasion to walk the field nearby. The ground was fairly strewn with every conceivable article of war, hundreds of Yankee dead and wounded lay everywhere, as well as scores of muskets, bayonets, accouterments of every type, haversacks and canteens ... As for myself, I allowed myself but one trophy, a nice little penknife with several blades and attachments, which an unfortunate Yankee corporal would no longer need. (It afterwards served me well and I have it still.”

-- Union canteen (below) Lemon picked up in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg after his own canteen had been ruined by a bullet (a Yankee bullet hit the canteen, and it struck the head of Lemon, who thought he had been shot). The strap bears Lemon's initials, date and initials of the dead 4th Michigan soldier from whom he got it.

(Picket photo)

-- Drum captured from two frightened young Pennsylvania drummer boys the day before the Battle of Sharpsburg (September 1862). Lemon tells the story of its capture by Pvt. Frank A. Boring in his memoir. The drumhead bears Boring's name in ink. This is James Lemon's handwriting, as indicated by pages in the diary and maps of battles shown in the memoir, according to Jones.  

Lemon wrote Pvt. Boring's name into drumhead (Picket photo)

Here is Lemon’s colorful account of the drummer boys, as written in his memoir:

“On the evening of the 16th our briggade was ordered to form line of battle & we advanced into a cornfield & into a piece of timber where we met almost by accident a force of the enemy. We drove them with style back through the woods, capturing some Yanks from the 1st & 3rd Penn'a Reserves. Among this bunch were a couple of drummer-boys, about 12 or 13 years old who were trying hard to "put on a brave face," but who were clearly terrified.

"Col. Ruff ordered their drums confiscated & then released as we were not equipped or inclined to care for children. Our drum had been damaged & thrown away at Groveton, so we took theirs as "spoils of war." Private Boring captured the boys. As he was driving them to the rear at point of bayonet they heaped so much abuse upon him -- out of their fear or nervousness -- that he had to be restrained from striking them with the clubbed musket.

"Of course, instantly the target of many wags among our company who joked with him about "scaring little boys" & etc. He replied that he would be d---d if he'd take such abuse from "d---d Yankee whelps." The boys were release(d) & "beat a hasty retreat" back to their lines, with Boring giving them a rite hard look as they went.”

One of James Lile Lemon's journals (Picket photo)