ALABAMIANS IN A TENNESSEE REGIMENT. BY CAPTAIN JOHN W. GRAYSON, COMPANY E, THIRTY SEVENTH INFANTRY. Captain Grayson was born May 23, 1838, in Madison County, Alabama, and has lived in that county all his life. He was educated at the Cumberland University, Tennessee. His father was a successful farmer. His grandfather, John Grayson, came from Virginia to East Tennessee and married a Miss Carter, and moved to the then Territory of Alabama, now Madison County, in 1806. In 1810 he bought lands from the government, and much of it still remains in the family. Early in 1861 John W. Grayson and Thomas H. Owen raised a company in Madison County Owen becoming captain and Grayson first lieutenant. They joined the Humphrey Brigade at Decatur, Ala. Neither the State nor the Confederate States being able to arm the brigade, it was disbanded, but this company joined a Tennessee regiment then being organized, and became Company E, 37th Tennessee. Moses White was elected colonel, R. Dudley Frayser, lieutenant colonel, and Hunter P. Moffatt, major. One company, Captain Hunt. was from near Winchester, one, Captain Tankesley. from Chattanooga, and seven were from East Tennessee. The regiment first belonged to General Carroll's brigade, under Zollicoffer. It was afterwards in Cheatham's Division, and in the end in Bate's Division. This regiment participated in the battles of Fishing Creek, or Mill Springs, and Perryville, in Kentucky, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Stone's River, Murfreesboro, Shiloh, Franklin, and Nashville, in Tennessee, Dalton, Jonesboro, Peach Tree Creek, and Atlanta, in Georgia, Bentonville, in North Carolina, and a great many skirmishes. After serving their term of enlistment, one year, the company reenlisted for three years, or during the war, then Lieutenant Grayson was elected captain, and served in that capacity till the Confederacy fell. This company was at many, many places: Decatur, Ala., Germantown, Knoxville, Fishing Creek, Nashville, and Shiloh, Tenn., Corinth, and Tupelo, Miss., Mobile, Ala., up the Alabama River to Montgomery, Chattanooga, through Tennessee and Kentucky, under General Bragg, by Sparta, Tenn., Glasgow, Mumfordsville, Bardstown, and Perryville, Ky.: Cumberland Gap, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Murfreesboro, back to Chattanooga, and Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the retreating battle to Atlanta, by Decatur and Tuscumbia, Ala., to Franklin, and Nashville, Tenn., then back to Florence, Ala., to Columbus, Macon, and Augusta, Ga., to Columbia, S. C., to Raleigh, and to Bentonville, N. C., where the last battle was fought east of the Mississippi River, March 19, 1865, save the one at West Point, Ga. In the fight at Bentonville the Confederate army was successful, driving the enemy back and holding its ground till next day, then falling back in good order. From Bentonville they marched to Raleigh,! to Chapel Hill, on to Greensboro, where Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered. There were not one fourth enough trains to transport them, hence most of them had to walk, and catch trains occasionally. Captain Grayson arrived home May 20, 1865. He found his father and father in law dead, his mother's residence burned, and a general scene of devastation. He first taught school, then engaged in farming, in which he was successful, accumulating some property to sustain him as age advanced. He married a Miss Sarah Allison about a month before joining the army. They reared four sons and one daughter. The daughter, Nannie P., married Mr. Murphy Laughinghouse, and is now at the Huntsville Female Seminary at Huntsville, Ala. His four sons are James Gordon, a life insurance agent in Birmingham, David A., a lawyer in Huntsville, Ala., Dr. Ambrose Tilden, a physician in Madison County , and Claude A., a lawyer in Mobile, Ala., at the University of Alabama. Captain Grayson was among the foremost of those Democrats in Alabama who overthrew the carpetbag government in that State. He served in his State Legislature in 1870 72 and in 1884 85, the State Senate in 1873 75, and the Constitutional Convention of 1901. He was appointed a member of the Convict Bureau by Governor Gates for 1896 and 1897, and has taken an active part in every political campaign since the war. He has always been lavish with his time and means in helping the cause of education and all efforts for the upbuilding of the country. When our army retreated he was left in the hands of the enemy at Mill Springs, Ky., on his supposed deathbed, but he recovered and made his escape through the mountains of East Tennessee, where many escaping Confederates were murdered by the Tories. He was severely wounded at the battle of Missionary Ridge, Tenn., but returned to his command in about two months. Captain Grayson, now seventy three, still superintends his farm near Gurley, Ala., where he has resided for forty years, and in seven miles of where he was born. CONFEDERATES WHO ARE CONGRESSMEN. (William Harder, in Courier Journal.) Fifty years after the first guns of the Civil War sounded the Congress of the United States is most creditably represented by the Confederates. If the battle roll of the House and Senate were called to day, it would show more Confederate veterans in each branch of Congress than survivors of the armies of the blue. In the Senate there are six of these Confederate warriors, three of them, Senator Bacon, of Georgia, and Senators Johnston and Bankhead, of Alabama, were captains in the Southern ranks, the others, Senators Martin, of Virginia, Thornton, of Louisiana, and Tillman, of South Carolina, were either privates in the regular army or members of cadet corps enrolled for active service. In the House of Representatives there are eight Confederates: Brig. Gen. George W.Gordon, of Tennessee ,Maj. Charles M. Stedman, of North Carolina, Capts. John Lamb, of Virginia, and William Richardson, of Alabama. The other Confederate Representatives are: Talbot, of Maryland, Rucker, of Colorado , Taylor, of Alabama, and Estopinal, of Louisiana. Representative William Richardson, of Alabama, tells a thrilling story with the memory of nearly fifty, years undimmed as to its important features. He was less than twenty years old when he was, made a captain in the 26th Alabama Regiment. He enlisted in Company E, from Athens, Ala., with eighty seven other young men and boys. The command went through many campaigns, and young Richardson was desperately wounded at Shiloh ami captured. He was sent to an Indiana prison. His wound healed, and after a time he escaped and made his way South to Nashville. The city was then in the control of the Federal forces, and Richardson, though among Southern friends. was unable to get through the Union lines for some time. His friends finally, however, found a man who was going on and who knew all the winding paths by which such a feat could be accomplished. Richardson started with him, and the two dressed in citizens' clothes and made their way safely to the vicinity of Murfreesboro, where the guide's plans went wrong, and the Federal troops capturad them. To Richardson's horror, the Union pickets found upon his companion evidence that! he was an important spy in the Confederate service, and the circumstance resulted in his also being held as a spy. The two men were court martialed, and both were condemned to be hanged. The sentence of death was passed on them July 12. That night a provost marshal came to the jail where the two men were confined and informed them that they were to be hanged at sunrise next day. The opportunity was given young Richardson to take the oath of allegiance, but he refused to do this. A minister who had known him in Athens happened to be in Murfreesboro, and after his efforts to secure the Confederate captain's release had failed, he went to the cell on the night sentence was given and spent part of the night with the two men. In the meantime word was gotten through to General Forrest, and help came just before daylight on the day of their proposed execution. I was lying asleep in the cell, says Mr. Richardson, "when I was awakened by Paul's tugging at my arm. 'Wake up!' he cried. 'Listen! It's Forrest coming. We are saved.' At first I was too dazed to realize more than that there was a sound like an approaching storm. We jumped up on a box so that we could see through the little grated window, and in a few seconds the noise resolved into distinct hoofbeats. A few minutes more and the advance of Forrest's Cavalry stormed the jail where we were confined. That Rebel yell was the sweetest music our ears had ever heard. Our boys began to break down the jail from behind, while they kept the Federal guards busy in front. The jailer had gone with the keys, and during the fighting that followed the jail was set on fire. The Confederate cavalrymen, led by Forrest himself, had to break their way through all the outer defenses of the jail and into our cell corridor. Even then we were released only after the had pried our cell door up with an iron bar." That attack upon Murfreesboro was the turning point in Forrest's career, and established his reputation as a commander. He had pushed his men on a long, forced march, thrown a small body of troops into the town, surrounded the jail, and sent the remainder of his force in two bodies against. the Michigan and Pennsylvania troops that were on opposite sides of the town. Before the Union forces were awake or armed the Confederate cavalry had ridden them down, killed hundreds, rescued the condemned men, and the Federal troops were forced to surrender. The only Confederate general in Congress is Representative. George Washington Gordon, of Tennessee. At the recent Confederate Reunion at Little Rock, Ark., General Gordon was a prominent figure as the Commander in Chief. His history is interesting. He was captured three times, dangerously wounded once, and slightly wounded several times. He was in every important battle participated in by the Tennessee troops, and was taken prisoner at Franklin and removed to Fort Warren, Mass., where he was held until three months after the war was concluded. General Gordon graduated from the Western Military Institute at Nashville in 1859, enlisted in July, 1861, as a drillmaster of the 11th Tennessee Regiment, and soon was transferred into the regular military service of the Confederacy. He became captain, lieutenant colonel, colonel, and finally brigadier general in 1864. Two men in the House of Representatives, Capt. John Lamb, of Virginia, and Maj. Charles M. Stedman, of North Carolina, were with the 1,200 Confederates who fought the battle of Bethel, the first battle of the war, and were with the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox April 9, 1865. The records show that only twelve men enjoyed this distinction. Captain Lamb was a cavalryman, and finally as a captain commanded his regiment, every field officer having been killed. The last lieutenant, a relative of his, fell dead at his side the day before the surrender at Appomattox. Major Stedman, commanding the 42d North Carolina, fought with Lee throughout the war. He was often wounded. He participated in the thrilling campaigns through the Wilderness, Spottsylvania C. H., and Petersburg. There were thirty two Confederates in the House and sixteen in the Senate when I came here in 1897, says Captain Lamb. "We used to have Confederate gatherings in Washington then, with an evening of story telling and reminiscences. Some of these men have died, some have become Governors of. States, and within the last year or two some have been turned out of Congress by the younger boys." Major Stedman was asked as to his most lasting impression of the great Confederate leader, General Lee, and he replied: "The picture of General Lee that stands out most clearly in my mind is that of Spottsylvania C. H. General Lee, mounted on his horse, held a place at the front of the line and close to a brick kiln, against which the Federal bullets and shells were constantly pounding. I remember that he had on a new uniform, and the brick dust sifted over him from head to foot. During much of that fight I was within twenty paces of General Lee. Our line was intrenched behind hurriedly raised earthworks, but our artillery had their guns so trained that when the Federal infantry, masking their attack behind an artillery fusillade, would reach a certain point in the field in front of us, our guns would rake their line and shatter it. Time and again the Federals made this advance upon us. 0one of the last charges part of the Federal infantry got up within twenty yards of our line. There the fire became so terrific that some of the Federals to escape it dropped to the ground and crawled inside our lines, giving themselves up. Two of them came through the lines close to General Lee's position. Raising themselves from the ground, they caught sight of the striking figure on horseback, 'Is that General Lee?' asked one of them. We assured ! him that it was. 'Well, I don't wonder you fight for him,' said the Federal." Captain Lamb tells a striking story of General Lee's characteristic reverence for the rights of noncombatants. After the battle of Gettysburg, as the Confederate forces formed the next morning for the march, an artillery team turned out of a farmyard through a rail fence that had been lowered for the purpose. The artillerymen left the rails down, and General Lee coming up shortly after, saw the gap in the fence. He dismounted, put the rails back into position, and said to an officer near him: "Our men are too careless about not putting things back into condition." The great grandfather of Captain Lamb, who was a private in the Revolutionary army, had between forty and fifty sons and grandsons in the Confederate ranks. In the company in which Captain Lamb enlisted there were fifteen of these descendants. Atterson W. Rucker, now a Congressman from Colorado, went through a trying prison experience as a fifteen year old boy. He enlisted from Missouri with the Confederate forces, was with Price in the battle of Lexington, and figured in the long running fight under Shelby and Marmaduke from the Missouri River to the South. Before this fighting retreat was ended Rucker and many others had been captured. They were turned over to the Federal forces, and, with twenty six other men and boys, Rucker was imprisoned at Springfield, Mo. There were twenty seven of us put into the Springfield prison, says Congressman Rucker, "and within six months after I left I was the only one alive. I helped to dig the graves of twenty four of my comrades. Two were in prison when I left, and were soon removed to St. Louis, but within six months they had both died from the effects of their imprisonment. I don't know why I lived," Mr, Rucker added. "I've always thought it was because they made me work so hard burying the others." Mr. Rucker was paroled November 23, 1862, but was never exchanged back into the Confederate ranks. The Confederate battle record of Senator John H, Bankhead, of Alabama, runs through a notable list of engagements. He enlisted with Company K, 16th Alabaam, as a second lieutenant in August, 1861. In 1863, when the captain. Rev. Wm, Powers, resigned, young Bankhead was elected his successor. Through Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Atlanta, and Franklin Senator Bankhead fought his way. He was wounded desperately in Buckner's charge at Chickamauga, and was wounded three times in other engagements. He served throughout the entire war. Senator Bacon, of Georgia, likewise had a long and prominent service in the Confederate ranks. He enlisted at the beginning of the war, and served during 1861 and 1862 as adjutant of the 9th Georgia Regiment in the Army of Northern Virginia. Later he was made a captain and assigned to staff duty, and continued in that rank to the end of the war. Senator Joseph F. Johnston, of Alabama, attained the rank of captain in the Confederate army when he was only eighteen years old. The circumstances of his enlistment at the head of a company were peculiar. He was born in North Carolina, but had gone to Shelby County, Ala., at an early age to be under the care of his guardian. He was in a military school when the call was made for troops. The class went into the army in a body, and Senator Johnston became its captain as the head of the school company. His service was almost continuous throughout the war except when his four wounds kept him out of action. He was in some of the most important engagements of the army. Senator Martin, of Virginia, was seventeen years old and a student at the Virginia Military Institute when he was enrolled with other students as a private in the Confederate army. He served throughout the last year of the war, until Lee laid down his arms in April, 1865. The Virginia Military Institute had an important place in the education of the men who led the Confederate forces. That school furnished five major generals, twenty one brigadier generals, eighty nine colonels, and one hundred and seventeen captains to the Confederate forces. Senator John R. Thornton, of Louisiana, has a long record of Confederate service as a private soldier throughout his entire enlistment. At the age of seventeen years he left the Louisiana State University to enlist, and he continued in the ranks as a private until the close of the war. Representative Albert Estopinal, of Louisiana, served more than three years in the lower Mississippi Valley. He was in the siege of Vicksburg and in the Mobile campaign. He joined Company G of the St. Bernard Guards as a private, and with that company went into the 28th Louisiana Regiment. He commanded the squad which took prisoners from the Indianola to Libby Prison, served later in the quartermaster's department at Meridian, Miss., and surrendered with his regiment to General Canby at Meridian in March, 1865. Representative George W. Taylor, of Alabama, went into the army from the schoolroom. He enlisted at the age of fifteen in November, 1864, from an academy in Columbia, S. C. He procured employment as a courier on the coast near Savannah with the South Carolina State troops. Then he enlisted as a private in Company D, 1st South Carolina Regiment, and served with that command until peace was declared. Representative Joshua F. C. Talbot, of Maryland, the oldest Democrat in point of service in the House of Representatives and the member who administered the oath of office to Speaker Champ dark at the beginning of this Congress, served during the last year of the war as a private in the 2d Maryland Cavalry. (The foregoing has been condensed, but all facts retained.) --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.459 / Virus Database: 258 - Release Date: 2/25/2003