Two of my civil war ancestors and a personal statement by one of them

My surname is Clodfelter and as far back as the early 70's I had an interest in finding my civil war ancestors. I was working in Lexington which is the county seat of Davidson County (NC). No internet then; I went to the library and courthouse to view census records. Davidson County is/was full of Clodfelters, I assume we were part of the Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch = German, German-Swiss) who migrated to (Old) Salem, NC (now Winston Salem). I found several Clodfelters in the census lists that were of proper age for service in the civil war, and found them in civil war rosters, but could never make a family connection.
Years later, the wife of one of my mom's 1st cousins researched my dad's family history back to Zurich, Switzerland in 1547. Interestingly, my mom's and dad's families both descended from two brothers. One of my mom's uncles had researched and compiled a history of the Leonard family of Davidson County in 1947. I have had a copy for several years but it's packed away somewhere. When my mom died at the end of May, this year, I got her copy. My wife ran across it yesterday and low and behold, it contains a personal statement by my mom's great grandfather, David Sink Leonard. He was born in April, 1847 and was 14 when the war started. But in 1864, when the Confederacy lowered the age for service from 18 to 17, he was 17 and had the obligation to join the NC Junior Reserves. Initially, the Junior Reserves were supposed to be limited to guarding bridges and prisoners and staying within state boundaries. Those limitations vanished fairly quickly.

Samuel Edwin Leonard, my mom's uncle, compiled the Leonard Family History and obtained this statement from his father in 1915 (his father died in 1926):

Experiences from May 1864 to April 1865

"Started from home about May 1, 1864 for Camp Holmes, northeast of Raleigh. Remained there some time for drill, don't know just how long. From there we went to Goldsboro, was there a while, then went to Weldon, was there some time. There I was detailed to guard a railroad bridge at Fishing Creek between Goldsboro and Weldon. While there I had a very bad case of diptheria and was sent to a hospital in Raleigh. I arrived there the 22nd of July and was there till the 29th of September. The doctor there saw that I had typhoid fever and gave me a furlough home where I remained in bed till nearly Christmas.

"January I left home to join my Company which was Co. C, 1st Regiment of Junior Reserves. I found them at Raleigh just ready to leave for Rocky Mount, Tarboro and on to Hamilton, 20 miles below; I think this was the hardest march on me during the war. There we were in camp some time. Our next move was back by Weldon to Garysburg, north of Weldon up the Roanoke River. Here we were in winter quarters for a short while.

"The next move was to Kinston where we built breastworks but did not get to use them. After maneuvering around they marched us down below the breastworks in the swamp where we met the enemy and here we had our first experience in battle which I never will forget. We thought we had the best of them for they gave back but guess the generals knew better for here we began to retreat towards the south. Next we came along the railroad mostly on the south side. The enemy came up with us at Bentonsville where we had another scrap with them which was the last one of the war so far as I know. We kept the march southward, stopped awhile at Smithfield after which we continued our march through rain and mud wading streams as we came to them. Haw River was the largest and that was swollen so from the rains that it was all we could do to wade it. But we had to press on for Sherman was behind us, there was no time to lose. We came on thorough Chapel Hill on to New Salem south of Greensboro where we made our last stop and was there some days fixing terms of surrender. I don't remember the date, I guess you can find that in history books.

"I walked from below Kinston to your Grandpa Wagner's (Lexington, NC area), didn't ride a step if I remember right.

"This is as near correct as I can remember now. There are a great many things that occurred that I can't get together at this time. Wish I had done this sooner, could have given you so many little occurrences that I have forgotten."



My other civil war ancestor (known at this time): David Sink Leonard's brother, John Adam Leonard. Killed at South Mountain, MD, 9/17/1862, at age 25 (6 months and 10 days after enlistment in Co. B, 48th NC Infantry). Reported as killed at Sharpsburg.


Thanks for following along.

Wayne

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/2015 12:26AM by ncwayne.

That's awesome, Wayne...

It always makes history more real to read the comments and descriptions by the folk who were there...even more so when it's a relative.

mike

Loved it Wayne, thank you.

Thanks for sharing that Wayne.---My wife & I both read it & thought it was so very interesting.

Thanks for sharing---brings history alive.

Thanks for posting that. Very cool that you have that piece of family history.

Very cool reading that buddy. You wouldn't be here if he had gotten KIA. Good thing huh? Thanks TIM

So cool. Thanks for sharing