Category Archives: H. Grady Howell Jr.

The “stillness” at Appomattox

Posted on April 9, 2013 by

The pittance that was the 13th Mississippi Regiment at Appomattox Courthouse played no recorded role in the events surrounding General Lee’s formal surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865. It was the Christian holy day of … Continue reading →

Posted in Captured at Saylor's Creek, H. Grady Howell Jr., Humpreys Mississippi Brigade, Jess N. McLean, Mississippi, Muster Rolls, Newton Rifles, The Minute Men of Attala, The Pettus Guards, The Spartan Band | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Visiting a 13th soldier’s Richmond grave

Posted on September 2, 2012 by

Texan Weldon Nash, Jr., whose ancestor Nimrod Newton Nash wrote so many of the good letters in this digital regimental until he was killed at Gettysburg, recently visited the Richmond grave of Henry T. Nash, another Minute Men private. Henry, … Continue reading →

Posted in Battles: Fredericksburg, Battles: Gettysburg, Battles: Leesburg, Battles: Malvern Hill, H. Grady Howell Jr., Jess N. McLean, Nimrod Newton Nash, The Minute Men of Attala | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Payday and a prisoner’s deception

Posted on November 2, 2011 by

Pay had been sporadic for some time when, on Thursday, August 13, 1863, the 13th Regiment, along with the rest of the brigade, finally received its wages. “We were paid off yesterday to include the 30th of June,” Lieutenant Robert … Continue reading →

Posted in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, H. Grady Howell Jr., Jess N. McLean, The Spartan Band, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

On Pony Mountain

Posted on October 14, 2011 by

Starting on  July 25, 1863, the 13th Regiment spent the first of five days bivouacked on the slopes of Pony Mountain, about two miles south of Culpeper Courthouse. It was a time of rest and preaching by the brigade’s chaplains … Continue reading →

Posted in H. Grady Howell Jr., The Spartan Band, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Night on the battlefield

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

The survivors of the Mississippi Brigade retreated in the evening twilight of July 2, 1863, back to the Peach Orchard and the vicinity of the Sherfy farm. More than twenty Rebel cannon were awaiting them there, having moved from Seminary … Continue reading →

Posted in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, Battles: Gettysburg, H. Grady Howell Jr., The Pettus Guards, The Spartan Band, The Winston Guards, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Hurry up and wait

Posted on September 10, 2011 by

July 1, 1863, was the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg—in which a Confederate division under General Henry C. Heth, approaching Gettysburg in a recon-in-force, collided with a Union cavalry screen. For Barksdale’s Brigade, camped at Greenwood, about fourteen … Continue reading →

Posted in Battles: Gettysburg, Gen. Lafayette McLaws, H. Grady Howell Jr., The Commanders, The Spartan Band, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Four lieutenants demoted

Posted on June 9, 2011 by

Spartan Band diarist William H. Hill said it was snowing at dress parade on the morning of March 12, 1863, when an order from Gen. Lee was read to the regiment. The order said that four 13th lieutenants whom a … Continue reading →

Posted in Fredericksburg, H. Grady Howell Jr., Jess N. McLean, Newton Rifles, The Alamutcha Infantry, The Spartan Band, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Reprise: Clara Barton & the 13th

Posted on May 14, 2011 by

Painting by famed Civil War artist Mort Kunstler of Red Cross-founder Clara Barton on December 15, 1862, at Chatham Plantation near Fredericksburg, VA,  serving a Confederate POW—identified as Captain Thurman Thomas of the 13th Mississippi Infantry Regiment. Or was he? … Continue reading →

Posted in Battles: Fredericksburg, H. Grady Howell Jr., Jess N. McLean, Newton Rifles | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Buried on the battlefield

Posted on March 21, 2011 by

In 1906 a book was published in Ohio listing the names and locations of Confederates who were so badly wounded in the Maryland campaign that they were left on the battlefield by their departing comrades. These men subsequently died in … Continue reading →

Posted in Battles: Sharpsburg, H. Grady Howell Jr., Jess N. McLean, The Spartan Band, Wayne Rifles, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Arrival of the Twenty-first Mississippi

Posted on October 16, 2010 by

The Twenty-first Mississippi Infantry Regiment, the final component of the future Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade (the 13th, 17th, 18th and 21st), arrived Nov. 12 and joined Evans’s Seventh Brigade. The Twenty-first was composed of eleven companies which had all, according to … Continue reading →

Posted in Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, Gen. William Barksdale, H. Grady Howell Jr. | Tagged , , | Leave a comment