Notes for William Spious EADDY

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Notes for William Spious EADDY

SPIOUS EADDY IN THE CIVIL WAR

I Wm. Spious Eaddy was born and reared near Prospect Neighborhood in
Williamsburg County, South Carolina.

On September 1, 1861, feeling the manifestation of that Southern pride
and honor for our States Rights, which were being so unmercifully
trampled upon by the Northern States, I enlisted with a Confederate
Company at Indiantown, this being only two days after the surrender of
Forts Clark and Hatteras, at the opening of Pamlico Sound, N. C., to
General B. F. Butler. For to me it seemed the North not only opened the
"War between the States" by sending armed vessels and troops into our
peaceful harbor of Charleston, but was encroaching upon the rights of our
sister states also.

Our Company -- fifteen South Carolina volunteers -- was soon sent to
Light-wood-knot Camp (now Fort Jackson) near Columbia. After a short
stay there, we were sent to Summerville, and from there to Hilton Head,
S. C. to guard the coast against Northern encounters.

While at the coast we were ordered to Virginia to aid in the "Peninsular
Campaign," and put in Longstreet's Corps, Kershaw's Brigade and McLow's
Division of Lee's Army.

At Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock in that terrible slaughter of
December 13, 1862, I received my only wound of the war. It being a flesh
wound, I soon recovered. There were only three divisions of Lee's Army
that took part in this conflict, one of Longstreet's holding the center
on Marye's Heights and two of Jackson's on the right. For six times
Burnsides stormed our position and each time with less success.

I was in the Chancellorsville Campaign and saw General T. J. Jackson on
May 1, 1863, in his last flanking march, only one day before he received
that unmistakable fatal wound, which sent an aching pain to the hearts of
the Confederacy.

I was not with Longstreet and Lee at Gettysburg but was with that
division that had been left to guard prisoners taken by Ewell on June
14th at Winchester.

Within a short time after Lee's return from Pennsylvania, Longstreet with
two, one of which I was a member, was sent to reinforce Bragg in
Tennessee.

On the 19th of September, 1863, at Chickamauga, sharp fighting ensued
between us and Rosecrans, in which Bragg endeavored to turn the left of
our company and cut him off from Chattanooga. This not being
accomplished, both armies slept on the field of battle. During the night
the remainder of Longstreet's corps came up. Our army was divided into
two corps with Lieutenant General Polk on the left opposing General
Thomas and General Longstreet on the right opposite General Cook. The
battle was ordered by General Bragg for a very early attack Sunday, on
the morning of the 20th. Owing to a dense fog and the confusion of
reorganizing the army, the battle was not opened so soon (between ten and
eleven o'clock). When it did open we had a very hard fight to hold the
enemy back. But in the run of the day the tide turned and, as we
expressed it in those days, "We gave the Yankees a gentle dressing." The
enemy came into the battle from a little thicket and fought us with a
field piece, of which we had none; therefore they played havoc with our
lines.

Abner Brown, Spivey, and I were kneeling while our men were reforming
lines. We three decided to cut the colors down. Each of us took aim.
Brown gave the orders to fire and we obeyed, with the consequence of the
northern colors falling.

Finally our men charged on the field piece cutting our men down as they
went. It was my fortune to reach the cannon first and capture it with
the man who was left to spike it. He had been successful with his work
for the cannon was of no use to us.

We routed the enemy about dark. A courier came up to Kershaw who had
command of the 15th S. C. Regiment and asked if we could hold our
position. We answered, "We will hold it or die in the attempt to." Soon
the Musketeers of the enemy were on the retreating run. It was while
holding these lines that the evacuating army came so close to us in their
nightly retreat, that I called to one of them to "Come over and get a
good chew of tobacco." His answer was, "I can't -- haven't time -- come
go with me to get a good cup of coffee." To show the terrible slaughter
of this battle I shall say that there were only six privates left in my
company that night.

During the Battle of Chickamauga my rear rank man -- for I always fought
in the front rank -- by some means fell too far back. The regulations
being fourteen inches from the fore rank man's back to the rear rank
man's breast with barrel of the gun over the fore rank man's shoulder.
The muzzle of his gun being over my shoulder when he fired, seemed to
have burst in my head. This so crazed me with the terrible shock that I
turned to fight him instead of the enemy.

Longstreet was ordered back to Virginia through western North Carolina,
this giving us three states through which to tread with our weary feet.
We marched day and night until we reached Lee. He reviewed us and sent
us to Missionary Ridge in Tennessee. On November 25, 1863, the fighting
was heavy, and some say the we lost this stronghold through lack of
courage and patriotic spirit. Being one of the number I say that
Longstreet's men were never lacking on either. We were not whipped but
overpowered. We were reviewed on Missionary Ridge by President Davis.

From Missionary Ridge I was sent back on account of stomach trouble to
rest at the Hospital in Atlanta, where I remained for only two weeks.

When the Battle of the Wilderness came on I was with Longstreet's men at
Gordonsville, a few miles away. We marched day and night in order to
reach Lee in the defense of Richmond. We entered the Wilderness from
"Old Orange Plank Road" just after sunrise on the morning of May 6,
1864. Finding that Grant had opened fire upon Lee earlier in the morning
of this, the second day's fight, than we had expected, we went into
battle on the run, forming quick firing lines.

This was a terrible place for a battle. It was a wilderness in name and
a jungle in reality, for with its dense undergrowth and thick entwined
branches, we could see but a few yards ahead of us. Death came unseen to
us; regiments fought stumbling over one another.

In charging the Enemy the 2nd., 3rd., 7th., and 8th. Regiments of
Kershaw's brigade got a little ahead of the others, and we were being
shot down from the rear. When I discovered this I called our officer's
attention to the fact. Orders were given to fall back and we retired in
good order.

I do not mean to be egotistic with these few war facts, but my own
experience is all I have in mind and I shall ask you to pardon me if I
over-tax your patience. I recall one of my personal experiences in the
Wilderness, which to you may seem a little farfetched, but to me at the
time was a reality. I wore into the dense thicket a pair of home spun
trousers threadbare upon the knees, and in a very short time they were no
more than a mass of fringe from the pockets down. this fringe deterred
my travel and grew burdensome, so I took my pocket knife and cut it off
even with the pockets.

The War for me had nothing so terrible as this bloody contest. A fire
broke out in the thicket, yet we fought on amidst the crackling flames
with no military maneuvering possible. The day ended and our Longstreet
was a wounded man.

On the night of the 7th I was sent twelve miles below the Wilderness to
Spotsylvania with Anderson's division to assist Steward and Hampton in
checking Warren's advance. We held the enemy in check until Lee came.
On the morning of the 8th, with only a hedge row of chunks of fence rails
for a breastworks we met the enemy and realized the we had to fight or
surrender. We swayed back and forth mixing our dead with those of the
enemy upon the battlefield, but we held the fence row and kept it until
the army came that night.

My company was thrown out on a picket duty that night (May 8th) four
paces apart, with orders not to utter a sound or permit any object come
to us from the front. This duty was full of excitement. First, the
night being very dark, Ringole Haselden, a young inexperienced soldier on
guard, through misapprehension thought he had caught a northern spy. But
when the facts were known, he had only caused me, by means of a terrible
error of his, to knock one of our picket men (of four years experience)
down as he came past me in getting away from Haselden. Capt. McCutcheon
was called and the man found to be a member of the 15th S. C. Regiment.
Before we were quite settled over this excitement two of our men were
shot and killed by our picket guards. These men were being moved in the
dead hours of night and were coming around some fallen limbs to the front
of our picket. In a short time afterwards I heard something directly in
front of us slipping into our lines. The night being so dark that I
could not see the object, I raised my musket and made sure of the trigger
before asking, "Who goes there?" His answer being, "Don't shoot me," I
had myself a Yankee prisoner.

The next day, May 9th, we were made heavy hearted again with the death of
our great Virginia cavalry leader, J. E. B. Stuart.

On the 12th of May we met the Federals at Bloody Angle. Before going
into battle that morning, I asked, "who is going to be my rear rank man
today?" "I am Spious, you are all right," Mack Graham answered. In
the hottest of the conflict a ball broke Mack's thigh and a few paces
further my right hand man and my left hand man, Lee Cox and Alfred
Altman, were shot down, I think dead. This left me by myself in the
rank, so I asked the Captain to close up around me.

I was very near General Lee when he was ordered "To the rear."

Kershaw's brigade was afterwards sent to the defense of Charleston and
stationed between Adam's Run and Savannah, but finally fell in with
General Johnson and was at the surrender on April 26 at Greensboro.

With very little exception I walked all the way home, making the journey
in about five days.

W. S. Eaddy

He served in Co. A. 2nd. Bn. SC, CSA. He was wounded at Fredericksburg,
VA on 12/13/1862.

Source: "The Call to Arms" by Danny H. Smith.

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