Stories of the Wracken Sacker: Reflections of the War Between the States

By Julious Walter Elmore

My interest in my grandfather's war history of the Gee-Johnson's 15th AR Infantry Regiment started with a conversation
between myself and Dr. Robert Walz; a History professor at Southern Arkansas University, who had a friend, Dr. John Ferguson, an AR State
Historian who found an article written by Benjamin F. Cooling, a park historian at Fort Donelson National Military Park. The only information I had
of my grandfather's service was that he was in Johnson's AR 15th Company. So this began lots of studying and research. I have compiled
some history for my decendants living in South Arkansas from 1861-1865, through four years of war and then the reconstruction the next
twelve years. My goal is to leave my family with history of Colonel's Gee and Johnson and the 15th AR. This book contains the results of that
research.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477291368

Julious Walter Elmore

Julious Walter Elmore was born May 7, 1925 to Wordie and Vernenia Thomas Elmore on a small cotton farm 7 miles south of Magnolia, Columbia County, AR. The first eight years of schooling was in a two room rural schoolhouse in the Philadelphia community. The next four years he attended Magnolia High School. After graduation he received a "greeting card" from Uncle Sam. This card reshaped his life. Later, he spent four days at Camp Robinson, AR and moved by troop train to a signal corps camp near Sacramento, CA called Camp Kohler. He scored relatively high on the general aptitude test, then after basic training, was selected and cleared by the FBI for top secret code room work as a cryptographic technician. He served overseas in New Guinea, Biak Islands and the Philippine Islands. One of his favorite stories is to tell of a Top Secret message to come across his desk to General MacArthur. It was on August 15, 1945 at 10:00 p.m. Manila time. It was a direct order to "cease fire". The war had ended. The next three years he attended Magnolia A & M College, now Southern Arkansas University, under a GI Bill. He graduated in 1948. The next 48 years he worked as a brick mason after marrying and raising five children. He is a lifelong member of Philadelphia United Methodist Church in Magnolia, where he has served on numerous committees and is currently historian. He is a lifetime member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He is a World War II Army Veteran, and a Real Grandson. At 87 years of age, he finds time to garden,fish,spend time with grandkids and "truck patch" as hobbies.

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© 2012 by Julious Walter Elmore. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/12/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9138-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9137-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-9136-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012921816

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

This book is dedicated to the memory of the brave men who fought under Gee and Johnson in the 15th Arkansas Infantry Regiment.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Fifteenth Arkansas Infantry Regiment

Roll of the Company Officers

About the Author

Acknowledgments

At a genealogy meeting at the Magnolia Library in July 1979, my friend, Dr. Robert Walz, a history professor at Southern Arkansas University, began my long journey gathering information on Colonel James M. Gee’s and Colonel Benjamin W. Johnson’s 15th Arkansas Infantry Regiment. On July 23, 1979, Dr. John L. Ferguson, Arkansas State Historian, sent a letter to Dr. Walz. On August 1, 1979, Dr. Walz sent a letter to me. These two very special people helped make this project possible.

Thanks to my five children, who put this information together for an old retired brick mason, and to my wife, Jackie, for her love, support, and understanding. I am also grateful for a special friend I never knew, Benjamin F. Cooling, a park historian at Fort Donelson Military Park, 1962-1963, and chief of the Special Histories Branch, Office of the Chief of the Air Forces History, Washington, DC, 1987.

Special thanks to Captain Joe Daniels and his brother Lieutenant Z. L.(Dock) Daniels who left a manuscript, written in pencil, which was found by Mrs. Mary Butler, his daughter, after his death in 1926 at Magnolia, Arkansas. This manuscript was reprinted by Glenn Martel, a college professor and later postmaster at Magnolia, under the title The Escape of Captain Joe.

Thanks to Columbia County Library; David C. Edmonds, The Guns of Port Hudson, Volume 2; Albert A. Nofi, Butler the Beast and A Civil War Treasure; Peggy Fox with the Confederate Research Center in Hillsboro, Texas; Edwin C. Bearss (research historian, National Park Service), Steele’s Retreat from Camde n

Very special thanks to Bobby N. Downs with the Arkansas 15th (Gee-Johnson) Regiment Infantry, 1861-1865.

If I have overlooked anyone or anything, it was not done intentionally, and I wish to extend full credit wherever it is deserved. My goal in writing this book was to share some of the history left by the 15th Arkansas led by Colonels Gee and Johnson.

I wrote this book so that my grandchildren and great-grandchildren could have a correct history.

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Julius Glover Elmore, my Grandfather.

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January 5: most companies left Camden, Arkansas, marching toward the Mississippi River steamboat to Memphis. They took the train close to Fort Henry. They escaped Fort Henry February 6. Gee’s 15th Arkansas, and the Alabama battalion formed the rearguard to Fort Donelson. They fought Grant’s cavalry from 1:30 p.m. until midnight after reaching Fort Donelson. They were in their first combat at Fort Donelson, February 7, 1862, which was McClernand’s disastrous probing attack. On February 15, their assignment was to clear Forge Road for an escape route to Charlotte and Nashville, Tennessee. They were joined by Colonel Drake’s brigade, as a cover for Confederate general withdrawal inside their old works of early morning, then to form the rear guard, being the last inside the perimeter. For the majority of the 15th Arkansas, doomsday began the following day, February 16, 1862.

Fifteenth Arkansas

Infantry Regiment

(Gee-Johnson)

This was one of three Arkansas Infantry Regiments to bear the number fifteen. To distinguish it from the other two numbered units, the officers commanding it are always found after the number.

The regiment began to organize at Camden, Arkansas, in the summer of 1861. Six companies A, B, C, D, E and F of the regiment had been organized for an infantry regiment under the leadership of Colonel Lucius Marshall Walker. This unit never fully organized.

At some point after the companies were organized in to a regiment, they began referring to themselves as Wracken Sackers. Colonel James M. Gee of Camden, Arkansas, commanded the regiment until the surrender of Fort Donelson.

Company A enlisted in Magnolia, Arkansas, on 10/4/1861 by Captain G. P. Smith. They left Magnolia on 12/25/1861 for Camden. They were organized on 1/2/1862 in Camden and left on 1/5/1862 for Gaines Landing (where Arkansas City is today) at the Mississippi River in Chicot County, Arkansas. It was a 150-mile walk from Camden to Gaines Landing.

Company B enlisted in Camden on 10/17/1861 by E. N. Hill. They were organized on 1/2/1862, in Camden. They left Camden on 1/5/1862 for Gaines Landing.

Company C enlisted in Camden on 10/22/1861 by E. N. Hill. They were organized on 1/2/1862 in Camden. They left Camden on 1/5/1862 for Gaines Landing.

Company D enlisted in El Dorado, Arkansas, 11/4/1861 by E. N. Hill. They were organized on 1/10/1862 in Camden, AR. They left Camden 1/10/1862 for Gaines Landing.

Company E enlisted in Magnolia, Arkansas, on 10/27/1861 by Captain G. P. Smith. They were organized in late December 1861 in Camden. They left and traveled to Little Rock and then on to Memphis, Tennessee. They possibly walked. Some recruiting for Company E was in Hempstead County and possibly Nevada County, Arkansas, by W. H. Perkinson; a school teacher with relatives in Macedonia, Columbia County, Arkansas.

Company F enlisted in Forest Grove, in Lafayette County, Arkansas (three miles west of Taylor) on 12/19/1861 by E. N. Hill. They were organized on 1/2/1862 in Forest Grove, Arkansas, and they left for Gaster’s Landing at the Mississippi River, a march of 170 miles.

Companies A, B, C, D, and F went by steamboat up the Mississippi River on 1/18/1862 and arrived in Memphis on 1/20/1862. They linked up with Company E of the 15th Arkansas and fully organized the regiment.

These officers were elected:

• James M. Gee was elected Colonel on 1/2/1862. (He was a veteran of the Mexican War.)

• John C. Wright was elected Lieutenant Colonel on 1/2/1862.

• Paul Lynch Lee was elected Major on 1/2/1862. (Gee, Wright and Lee were elected in Camden.)

• 1st Lieutenant Benjamin W. Johnson was appointed Adjutant on 1/18/1862. (He was a lawyer and farmer from Magnolia, Arkansas.)

The 15th Arkansas (Gee-Johnson) left Memphis on 1/24/1862 for Danville, Tennessee, on the Tennessee River. They rode on the Memphis and Ohio Railroad in slatted stock cars. At night the temperature dropped below freezing. They arrived at Danville on 1/25/1862 where they spent three or four days guarding the river bridge before being ordered to Fort Henry, twenty miles downriver from Danville.

On the opposite side of the Tennessee River from Fort Henry, was a stronger position with higher ground where another fort was being built to help in defending Fort Henry. This was Fort Heiman, on the Kentucky side of the river. Twelve miles northward was Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. At Fort Henry on 2/1/1862 they were issued shotguns and blankets. This is the only equipment known, except food and ammunition, issued to the 15th Arkansas.

They were ordered to Fort Heiman on 2/1/1862 to do construction work on the fort. On 2/5/1862, with Gen. U. S. Grant’s army close by, they were ordered back to Fort Henry (for defensive purposes), where they became part of the Second Infantry Brigade of Colonel Joseph Drake’s 4th Mississippi. All combined would make 1200 men. Colonel Adolphus Heiman, with 1400 infantry, was commander of the First Brigade of the two brigades of General Lloyd Tilghman’s infantry force at Fort Henry.

At 10:30 on 2/6/1862, General Tilghman ordered Heiman’s and Drake’s brigades to retreat to Fort Donelson, thirteen miles northward. The 15th Arkansas with most of Drake’s and Heiman’s brigades left in the field with only the clothes on their backs. Their blankets and other equipment would soon be captured. At 1:30 p.m. Grant’s cavalry attacked the rearguard defending the two brigades. Forming the rearguard was the 15th Arkansas Infantry Regiment with only six companies and two companies of Garvin’s Alabama Battalion. (A full strength infantry regiment was made up with ten companies with 100 men each; 1000 men made up a regiment.)

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Brochure is courtesy of Port Hudson, Louisiana. Printed by the Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism Office of State Parks. Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

There are conflicting reports on Grant’s cavalry and rearguard action at Fort Donelson. The cavalry attack and harassing action could have lasted until midnight, when the 15th Arkansas reached Fort Donelson. No complete casualty list will ever be known. The dead were buried in shallow graves by the invading forces, with no identification or markers. The wounded were given attention by the Union army.

There is no accurate list of prisoners or escapees. A list of names on microfilm from the National Archives lists 21 killed, wounded, captured, or missing from Gee’s 15th Arkansas.

*** Colonel Heiman reported, Our rear was attacked by Union cavalry 3 miles from Ft. Henry. Fire was handsomely returned by Colonel Gee and Major Garvin. Major Lee of the15th ARk and Captain Leach of the Alabama battalion were captured. We sustained no other losses.

At 2:00 p.m. while the attack was in progress, Colonel Heiman would retreat with his little band from Fort Henry. He remained with General Tilghman until after the flag was lowered in surrender. Then he left for Fort Donelson.

** Robert McKinley of the 15th Arkansas reported, We and many others were captured on the retreat to Ft. Donelson.

*** Colonel Isham G. Haynie, commanding the 48th Illinois (Union), reported, When the federal cavalry finally caught the tail of the Confederate retreat a sharp skirmish left two officers of the 15th ARk and the 3rd Alabama battalion dead and 38 men prisoners with loss of one Yankee trooper. Escaping Fort Henry, the rebels were beaten, whipped, and shell battered as they fled.

Colonel Haynie with the 48th Illinois and Morrison’s 17th and 49th Illinois regiments were not bragging one week later when they saw the mettle of the beaten, whipped, shell battered fleeing cowards escaping from Fort Henry. On February 13 and 15, 1862, when they met the survivors of Fort Henry, Robert McKinley, Company A Gee’s 15th Arkansas, reported,

The Fort [Fort Henry] surrendered very quickly and we took the road we supposed led to Fort Donelson and during the night most of the boys got in about 2 days fighting and I must say, I do not agree exactly with any history I have seen relative to the engagements, as my eyes did not see exactly as it has been written. If I should attempt to describe it closely, I would miss still further. But there is no mistake about it, we and many others were captured. As we were about the first prisoners, we were uneasy about what disposition would be made of us. With due respect to General Grant, he relieved us by telling us we prisoners of war would be treated kindly as long as we behaved quietly.

On 2/6/1862 Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman chose to fight Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote’s huge naval force coming up the Tennessee River with seven gunboats, carrying 54 big guns. With his 11 big guns Tilghman defended Fort Henry. The 2600 Confederate infantry troops stood no chance of defeating Grant’s army of 12,000 to 15,000 infantry troops coming up both sides of the Tennessee River. At 10:30, Tilghman ordered his two infantry brigades to Fort Donelson, twelve miles north on the Cumberland River at Dover, Tennessee.

At 12:30, Flag Officer Foote began the attack on Fort Henry with his ironclad boats. For the next hour and fifteen minutes the 11 cannons defending Fort Henry gave Flag