Drummer boy Tommie Wood died of pneumonia. Matthew Nunnally fell at Gettysburg. My trips to a Georgia county and 2 photos put their stories together

Pvt. Thomas G. Wood (left, courtesy David W. Vaughan Collection) and Matthew and Josiah Nunnally (Findagrave)

I had an “aha moment” this week that came after two road trips, a phone call, email exchanges and online research into two young Georgians who died during the Civil War.

Months after I traveled through Walton County on two occasions, I was able to connect young drummer Pvt. Thomas “Tommie” Gaston Wood and Capt. Matthew T. Nunnally. 

Photographs of the two clinched the deal by showing they were in the same unit. The gray frock coats are single-breasted, bear seven buttons, a black collar and distinctive black striping, or scallops, on the sleeves. I realized both were members of the Walton Infantry, better known as Company H, 11^th Georgia Infantry.

The portrait of Wood is very well-known and haunting: Tommie is 17 years old, but looks even younger. The orphan’s expression is innocent. “You can see the sweat around the hat and sideburns,” said David Wynn Vaughan, who collects Civil War portraits. Tommie’s is one of his favorites.

I knew nothing about either soldier when I trekked through Walton County in September and October. I live in adjoining Gwinnett County and I thought it would be interesting to check out Civil War markers and sites in Monroe, Jersey and Social Circle, where young Tommie lived.

The Federal army caused mayhem in Social Circle twice in 1864. Kenner Garrard’s cavalry burned a depot and warehouses in July and the 20^th Corps destroyed much of the railroad in November during the March to the Sea

The town’s welcome center has a section on its Civil War ties, and affixed to one wall is a July 2007 article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Picket photo, below). My former colleague Jim Auchmutey did an excellent job describing Vaughan’s collection of Georgia soldiers, including Tommie Wood.

A few days later, I called Vaughan about the photo -- a 1/9 plate tintype taken by an unknown photographer -- and asked what drew him to purchase it more than 20 years ago. He described Tommie’s expression and lack of tinting on his face, often applied by photographers. Regarding the uniform, “his buttons have been gilded.”

Took a while for me to put 2 and 2 together

As is (way too) often the case, I did not immediately write a post about Tommie, who sadly died from pneumonia a few months after his portrait was taken. As I write this post, I have several good stories in the hopper, but have not found time to finalize reporting or get around to writing them. The procrastination nags at me.

But back to our story ...

During an October trip to Athens, a month after I spoke with Vaughan, I stopped by Monroe’s post office. As I drove off, I spied a monument at Rest Haven Cemetery.

Matthew Talbot Nunnally stands at attention, half of his hat brim lost to time. His sword is broken. I read that he was killed, age 24, at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.

Several tablets, commissioned by one of the young officer’s sisters, describe his life and service. I posted a few a photographs on the Civil War Picket’s Facebook page and moved on.

On neither road trip did I remember references to Wood and Young serving in the 11^th Georgia. I was more interested in Tommie’s portrait and Nunnally’s statue.

Two photos show members of 11th Georgia

After a recent email to Vaughan on another matter, I decided to get back to the Wood post.

Auchmutey’s article mentioned Keith Bohannon, a professor of history at the University of West Georgia. The author is an expert on Georgia troops, the Army of Tennessee and Reconstruction and has an interest in portraits.

Pvt. Thomas Gaston Wood (Courtesy David W. Vaughan Collection)

Bohannon has assisted Vaughan with research, including when the latter purchased the Wood portrait for thousands of dollars from an individual in 2004.

Vaughan, an Atlanta Realtor, is well-known in Civil War photography circles for his premier collection of hundreds of images and his precise research. About 50 of his photos and biographies have been published in Georgia Backroads magazine, with 8-12 hours of work going into each profile.

Bohannon provided information on the young musician that was included in a spring 2015 Georgia Backroads article about the compelling portrait of Tommie.

A review of my notes and Vaughan’s emails on the portrait led me to reach out to Bohannon this week. The professor replied as a teen he first saw the plate at an antique mall in metro Atlanta.

“I seem to remember that the seller said that it was a photograph of a drummer from Walton County, but I am not sure. That was a long time ago. I seem to remember that he wanted somewhere between 70-100 dollars for the image, which was far more than I could afford.

“I do remember noticing the initials on the underside of the bill of his kepi. The coat he is wearing matching those of two other uniformed members of the ‘Walton Infantry,’ Co. H, 11^th Ga.”

Wood’s initials are painted on the underside of the brim in the image.

Bohannon’s reference to two other uniformed members of the regiment sent me scurrying to the internet.

Estate record mentions Tommie Wood as serving under Capt. Matthew Nunnally of Monroe.

And there was a picture of Capt. Nunnally, standing next to his brother Sgt. Josiah Nunnally. You can clearly see the same black sleeve stripes on Josiah’s frock coat as the ones on Tommie’s uniform. 

Josiah lost a leg after Second Manassas. The farmer died back home in 1908 at age 73.

So there it is: The connection between Nunnally and Wood. The former commanded the latter. It may be of no real interest to anyone but me.

Still, you should read the following section, which focuses on the brief life of Tommie Wood.

Tommie drummed but for a short time

Bohannon said Thomas G. (Tommie) Wood appears on the 1850 Walton County census as a student in the home of his parents, Baptist minister Thomas G. Wood and Emily J. Wood. His father died in 1852 and his mother died in 1858. (Image below)

The boy appears on the 1860 census a boarder in the household of Social Circle schoolteacher J.M. Smith. (Tommie’s brother William lived until 1924).

Tommie enlisted in early July 1861 and the 11^th Georgia Infantry traveled north to serve in the Army of Northern Virginia. After missing the battle at Manassas, the regiment went into quarters at Center Hill, where it spent most of the winter at the camp and lost men due to discharge as well as death resulting from illness, according to Wikipedia.

An ill Tommie landed in a Confederate hospital in Richmond. He died on Dec. 13, 1861, at age 17 or 18, without every being in combat. He is believed to be buried in Richmond’s Oakwood Cemetery.

During his research, Bohannon came across a January 1862 article in the Augusta Constitutionalist by Dr. William W. Crumly, a chaplain of Georgia military hospitals in Richmond.

Crumly wrote this poignant passage (left):

“In taking my morning round through one of the hospitals, I find in one of the wards a youth of more than ordinary beauty and intelligence. His name is Wood, the drummer boy, from Social Circle. Young Wood was the pet and idol of his regiment. And he is struggling with pneumonia, that terrible scourge of the camp and the hospital. When asked whether he was afraid to die, he calmly answered: ‘No. I joined the church when but eight years of age; my father and mother are both in heaven, and I would rather go and be with them there, than to stay and suffer here.’ He was beautiful in death – lovely as the fresh cut rosebud, dripping with the dew of morning. Taking his post in the centre of the long line of the dead at Oak Wood, no sound of his drum shall ever awake the sleepers there.”

Records on Fold3 and Ancestry.com indicate Tommie’s maternal grandfather, Gresham Herren, settled the teen’s estate. Online records indicate the estate was due $91.76 from the Confederate government.

Historian long displayed Wood's portrait

Civil War photo collector Lee Joyner of Madison, Ga., remembers seeing the Wood portrait at the home of a man, since deceased, who subsequently sold it to Vaughan.

Joyner noted the dark trim typical of early-war Georgia uniforms. I asked him what is special about the image.

“You don’t see many Confederate drummer boy images. And, secondly, it is an identified one. It is kind of a poignant image.”

Bohannon told the Picket he has always had a fascination with Georgia Confederate soldiers and units, including the Wood portrait (detail, right, courtesy David W. Vaughan Collection).

“I did have an enlarged black and white print of the image up for a long time in dorm rooms, apartments, etc., but now I have it stuck in some files. I've always found the photograph particularly poignant given the extremely youthful and delicate appearance of Wood. I also like the initials on the bill of his kepi and the uniform of the Walton Infantry which exhibits characteristics of many jackets worn in 1861 by Georgia Confederate soldiers.”

Joyner and Vaughan, who has about 300 images, are part of a small, but dedicated community of Civil War photo collectors. They realize they are caretakers of a piece of history.

“The image collecting world is not very big. Sometimes, another collector will tell you about them,” said Vaughan. ”Of course, we are competitors, though we are friends.”

Rolling the dice: Discovery of piece of gaming object at Georgia's Camp Lawton an example of the 'shadow economy' at POW sites

Views of the remains of the die, which may have had numerous sides (Camp Lawton Project)

Somewhere at an archaeological site in Georgia are the remains of a sutler’s cabin, where captured Federal soldiers could buy a whole range of goods, temporarily lifting them from misery that took the lives of 800 comrades.

The Camp Lawton sutler’s cabin and the grounds around it offered more than food and clothing. It was part of the prison’s shadow economy for six weeks in autumn 1864. Soldiers -- either with U.S. greenbacks they still held, or equipment and personal items – could obtain alcohol from guards, tobacco and play games of chance.

Ryan McNutt, who leads the Camp Lawton project at Georgia Southern University, and a couple dozen students have spent the spring looking for evidence of the cabin. Thus far, there have been no definitive finds. Maps produced in the 19th century gave different positions for the structure.

Patrick Sword and Audrey McGill at dig site (Picket photos)

On one bright note, part of a carved die was found a few weeks ago during digging, evidence of apparent gambling in the trade-and-sell part of the stockade.

Patrick Sword, a graduate student from the Atlanta area, is studying the shadow economy at Lawton. I met him and other students in late March during a brief visit to the site on the fenced grounds of an old federal fishery adjoining Magnolia Springs State Park.

The stockade was laid out in a grid fashion (left, click to enlarge) and much of the commercial activity took part on Market Street, Sword said. He is hoping to find more evidence of the shadow economy, but the team in recent weeks has found mostly modern stuff, including trash dumped by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who helped construct the state park in the late 1930s.

McNutt says the die is made of lead, probably fashioned from a small caliber round, likely a pistol or a .54-caliber ball. He says the artifact is probably one-half or one-fourth of the original die.

“Six-sided die are the most common, but there are also 10-sided, 32-sided, and 20-sided. If it's from a six-sided die, it is a half, split down the center to leave a quasi-pyramid shape,” McNutt wrote in an email after my visit.

In its six weeks' existence, the 42-acre Confederate stockade held about 10,000 men before it was closed when Union forces approached. Over the past dozen years, teams from Georgia Southern have found evidence of the stockade wall, Rebel officers’ quarters, brick ovens and sleeping areas for the POWs. Thus far, they have been unable to find the hospital or burial area.

Camp Lawton was one of several prisons in south Georgia that briefly held Federal prisoners sent from the larger Andersonville camp. They were moved back and forth because Confederate officials feared they would be freed by Sherman’s March to the Sea.

McNutt and his students in their spring dig have found a lot of postwar material, but also have come across cut nails, buckles, a bullet and files from the Civil War period. On the day of my visit they were working near a stream that divided the camp, and served as a drinking source and latrine a bit downstream.

“We get good historic Civil War stuff and then a modern fishing weight,” the associate professor tells me.

McNutt (right, on site) believes much of the area they were working on is where Union prisoners who served as an internal police force operated.

Not many prisoner items have been found here, unlike in the hill above. “No one is allowed to camp right near the stream.”

The professor is interested in the relationship between guards and prisoners. They were known to have traded at here and other sites, and morale among the former was low at Camp Lawton, not surprising given the Confederacy’s decline. Guards sometimes foraged away from the property.

Prisoner of war camps are “excellent places to hide contraband, personal items you are not supposed to have," McNutt told me several years ago when he became project director. 

The National Park Service, which maintains the much larger site at Andersonville, has an online page detailing life and diversions for Federal prisoners held there. It, too, had a sutler’s cabin, but it had other shops selling items to the captives as well.

Food, of course, was always on their minds.

Sutler's cabin in rear at Andersonville in 1864 (Library of Congress)

Here is an NPS description of Andersonville:

“Many of the Andersonville prisoners who arrived in the stockade in April and May were well supplied with money. The Federal armies were reclothed and paid off in the spring of 1864 for the spring campaigns. Many of the new recruits and reenlisted veterans had bounty money with them when captured. Greenbacks could be pressed into the sole of a shoe, or placed inside a brass button. Money was concealed about the person in various ways. Some swallowed their rings and others put their money into bowls of large Dutch pipes with a little tobacco sprinkled on top. When searched, they would pretend to be busy lighting their pipes and thus escape suspicion.

“Gambling was carried on quite extensively; faro, dice, and $10.00 stakes were commonly played for. Trade was carried on with the guards on the outside of the wall by talking through the cracks and throwing articles over the fence. Another trade was carried on as well, as noted by prisoner John Northrup, Co. D, 7th Connecticut Infantry: "There is one commodity never had in any market. It is ahead of any Dutch brewery extract; it is meal beer made by letting corn meal sour in water. The vendor cries, 'here is your nice meal beer, right sour, well-seasoned with sassafras.'"

POWS trade new rations for something more palatable (NPS)

McNutt believes there may be beer and rum bottle remains at the Camp Lawton site.

Trade, bartering and gambling were common at virtually all Civil War prisoners, both North and South, though there appeared to be some restrictions later in the war.

At Point Lookout in Maryland, where Confederates were held, a prisoner made compelling illustrations of camp scenes. All depicted guards were African-American soldiers.

“The drawings highlight the concerns and experiences of prisoners of war; most scenes show prisoners playing cards, buying food, or engaging in barter with food vendors,” the historical society says in a description of its collection.

Exchanging buttons for pepper at Andersonville (Library of Congress)

Confederate officer Henry Clay Dickinson wrote about gambling he witnesses while a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware, Delaware, in 1864, according to a Civil War Monitor article on gambling.

“The gambling saloons were a curious feature in prison, and were not only numerous but well patronized. Captain Coffee, of Mississippi, was the prince of faro dealers, being always gentlemanly in his manners and always attracting the greatest crowd. He never played cards until he was captured, except for amusement, and I am told that a Yankee guard was his first victim. The bettor wagered either in Confederate or Yankee money. He always had a large and anxious looking crowd around his booth. Some quartermasters having been captured, the amount of Confederate money in prison was very large, and changed hands frequently.

“I heard that Coffee once sent to Dixie from Point Lookout ten thousand dollars. How much United States money he (Coffee) made I cannot say, though at one time, when the Yanks were about searching quarters and persons, he hid in the grass one hundred and eleven dollars in gold, a gold watch, and several hundred dollars in notes, which, of course, some Yank, who knew he was flush, had seen him hide and took care to not let him find it again.”

Rusted metal likely from the 20th century (Picket photo)

Pennsylvania township remembers horrific train collision that killed prisoners, guards

Marker at national cemetery in Elmira, N.Y., lists Confederates killed in collision.

The men in the first car behind the locomotive never had a chance.

On July 15, 1864, an 18-car train carrying 833 Confederates prisoners and 128 Union guards collided with a coal train about 1.5 miles outside the small town of Shohola, Pa.

The noise and chaos of the head-on wreck brought townspeople and farmers to the rocky site. Folks across the Delaware River in Barryville, New York, also rushed to assist the injured.

“The smoke and debris cleared to reveal a grim spectacle. Both locomotives were elevated high against each other, and cars down the line were crushed, overturned, ripped in half, or on top of each other,” wrote Michael Gray in his book, “The Business of Captivity,” an account of the Federal prison in Elmira, N.Y., the destination of the prisoner train.

Caboose used by historical society (Discover Pike PA)

“All but one man in the first car perished, thrown clear before the impact smashed the car to a length less than six feet,” wrote Gray.

Although the exact number is not known, about 48 prisoners and 17 guards died. The bodies, many disfigured, were buried in a trench along the Erie Railroad. They were exhumed and moved in 1911 to Woodlawn National Cemetery in Elmira.

This Saturday (July 12), the Shohola Railroad & Historical Society is marking the 150^th anniversary of the calamity with living history events, including Civil War re-enactors, a man who portrays President Abraham Lincoln and Ruth Randone’s one-woman show, “A Confederate Soldier’s Tale,” based on the train wreck.

An opening ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. and a shuttle service will take visitors to the park just outside of the village.

Five Rebels are believed to have escaped after the train wreck. An event Saturday will be “a search and apprehension of escaped Confederate prisoners,” said Martha Shadler, president of the society.

(Courtesy of Discover Pike PA)

A memorial service at 1 p.m. Sunday at the site of the Old Congregational Church in Barryville will remember the victims. Two Confederate brothers who died of their injuries are buried in a cemetery there.

A field trip to the 1864 crash site, now on private property, will follow.

Events at a park in the scenic Pocono Mountains community of Shohola are free; a ham dinner at 5 p.m. Saturday costs $10 for adults and $5 for children.

The doomed train was carrying prisoners from Point Lookout, Md., to Elmira. The collision occurred near one of a series of blind bends.

“There was a lot of terrible scalding from the hot water and the steam engines,” said Shadler. Residents in the area helped tend to about 100 injured passengers.

Shohola train station in later years (Library of Congress)

A jury found that a dispatcher, who vanished a day after the wreck, mistakenly had allowed the eastbound coal train on the track.

Woodlawn National Cemetery also holds the graves of nearly 3,000 Confederate soldiers who died at the Elmira prison are buried. People from the South occasionally stop by to look for graves of their ancestors. 

A monument at the cemetery lists the Shohola train wreck dead. Fittingly, the side with Confederate names faces the south; the marker listing Union soldiers faces the north.

Shadler said members of the 124^th New York State Volunteers, 1^st New Jersey Battery A and the 141^st Pennsylvania Infantry are among re-enactors expected to attend the weekend events.

(Courtesy of Woodlawn National Cemetery)

(Courtesy of Woodlawn National Cemetery)

“They will be camped out tonight (Friday) probably to Sunday. They will show how they lived, cooked and ate. They are setting up a Civil War-era hospital.” Another group will fire artillery.

The township of Shohola and Barryville are about 70 miles from New York City. The area is known for its pretty lakes and rivers and offers second homes for residents of NYC, New Jersey and Philadelphia, said real estate agent Bridget Gelderman.

Shadler hopes people will learn about local history, which includes mills and the Delaware and Hudson Canal. And don’t forget to look at what nature offers.

“It’s just a beautiful area.”

For more information about the event, call 570-296-2304.

Living historians re-create 8th Arkansas' movements at Pickett's Mill

The 8th Arkansas had a big moment at Pickett’s Mill on the evening of May 27, 1864, participating in perhaps the only successful night assault during the Civil War.

Shortly after a failed Union attack, a horde of about 2,000 Confederates under command of Hiram Granbury charged up a ravine and to a cornfield, surprising the enemy and bagging about 200 prisoners. Roughly 200 members of the 8th Arkansas took part. Four Union brigades had to be resupplied over the coming days.

The Union defeat at Pickett’s Mill in Paulding County (suburban Atlanta) delayed by a week Union Gen. William Sherman’s effort to take Acworth and reconnect with his supplies.

On June 5 (Saturday), some 40 members of the Armory Guards, a living historian group that authentically portrays troops in the western theater, will show the public some of what the 8th Arkansas did and help raise money for the state park, which has suffered budget cuts and flood damage last fall.

“We will be moving over several miles on very hilly terrain,” says Guards vice president Jordan Roberts (right). “Both camping and march routes will be the same as the 8th Arkansas in 1864.”

In the morning, the Armory Guards will do picket duty in the park’s wheatfield and start breastworks construction. At 11 a.m. they move to the wood line and then will work on and hold trenches through the afternoon. Around 4:30- 5 p.m., the authentic campaigners, who will portray Confederates, re-create a portion of the assault.

The event is not a normal battle re-enactment with two sides. It's meant to be purely educational.

Sherman learned some tough lessons when he tried to flank and push back his foe at the Battle of Pickett’s Mill. Troops under Gen. O.O. Howard clashed with those of Gen. Patrick Cleburne. The Federals charged down ravines and uphill against the Confederates. At least 700 of the men in blue died.

Pickett’s Mill is one of the best-preserved Civil War sites in the country. Floods last September, unfortunately, destroyed three foot bridges and washed away the foundation of the namesake mill.

James Wooten, interpretive ranger at Pickett’s Mill Battlefield State Historic Site, this week said only one bridge has been repaired since the floods. He is hoping federal FEMA money will assist repairs, but he is not sure of any timetable.

The Civil War Preservation Trust recently listed Pickett’s Mill as one of the top 10 endangered Civil War sites.

The trust said, “Covering 765 acres retaining a remarkable degree of their war-time appearance, Pickett’s Mill Battlefield State Historic Site is widely regarded as one of the most thoroughly preserved and interpreted battlefields of the Atlanta Campaign. Still, recent economic difficulties have not spared it from the fiscal challenges plaguing state parks across the country. Following the most recent round of budget cuts last July, the park was forced to reduce its hours significantly, and is now only open three days a week. Of its original staff of five, only one full-time employee remains.”

Roberts says the 8th Arkansas was an appropriate choice to model over the weekend. “They fought constantly throughout the war.”

Pickett’s Mill Battlefield: 4432 Mt. Tabor Church Road, Dallas, GA 30157, Click its Web site for more information. Admission is $5.