To the Bitter End
XIII. To Tupelo to Regroup
The Army of Tennessee abandoned Tennessee and fled in disorder to Tupelo, Mississippi. The army had been routed from the field. Only an orderly rear guard action helped stave off complete defeat. On January 17, 1865, General Hood requested to be relieved of command. His request was granted and General Pierre Gustave T. Beauregard was placed in interim command of the shattered Army of Tennessee.
On the 19th of January, Lee's army corps was ordered to Augusta, Georgia1. The men moved by rail and foot down the lonely northeastern portion of Mississippi to Meridian. There, the AOT continued to Montgomery; some passing through Selma, with others crossing the Alabama River north of Mobile. The weary men passed through Auburn and Columbus, near where the eager men had enlisted almost three years before. It is probable that many of the men had not been home in those three years. The trek continued through Macon and Milledgeville until reaching Augusta, Georgia.
The Confederate States had suffered a tremendous blow by the defeat of the Army of Tennessee. As the invading federal armies snaked their way further and further into the south, the lack of men and material began to smother the confederacy's hopes of survival. One slim chance for independence remained - if the Army of Tennessee could move into North Carolina, and work its way into Virginia, perhaps Lee's Army of Northern Virginia could withdraw from the confederate capital and join forces with the Army of Tennessee. The two combined armies could then be led by General Robert E. Lee, and could engage General Sherman's forces (who had abandoned the cat-and-mouse game with Hood after Jonesboro, and had marched to Savannah, and were now in the Carolinas) on better, if not even, terms. If Sherman could be significantly beaten, the two confederate armies could then march upon Grant and perhaps swing the momentum of the war again toward the confederate cause.
To set this last-chance scenario into operation, General-in-chief Robert E. Lee ordered General Joseph E. Johnston out of retirement on February the 22nd and re-assigned him to command of the Army of Tennessee and all troops in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Johnston was ordered to concentrate all available forces and drive back Sherman. On February 25th, Johnston was reunited with the survivors of the Army of Tennessee2.
Following a parallel path to Sherman's path of destruction through South
Carolina, the men marched to Chester, South Carolina, and then to Charlotte,
North Carolina. Boarding train cars in Charlotte, the men were
transported to Salisbury, Greensboro, Durham, and finally, Raleigh. When the
Army of Tennessee stepped off the trains in Raleigh on March 9th and 10th of
1865, the army was only 4,500 men3.
XIV. To the Carolinas, a Final Act
On Sunday, March 19th, the men of the Army of Tennessee marched southward down what is now called State Route (SR) 1009, toward the community of Bentonville, North Carolina. Sherman's federals, advancing northward, encountered confederate cavalry skirmishers near the present-day intersection of SR 1008 and SR 1194. The men of Deas' brigade, commanded by Colonel Harry Toulmin, from the 22nd Alabama, could hear scattered musketry fire as they double-quicked southward. Reaching a point approximately one mile from the action, the men spread into an east-west line, to the west of S.R. 1194. A historical marker along SR 1194 marks the approximate location of the Army of Tennessee in their initial position.
It was approximately 11:00 in the morning of a beautiful, mild sunny Sunday morning.
The 39th deployed skirmishers along a woodsline north of a ravine. Federal infantrymen of the 33rd Ohio and the 88th Indiana advanced toward the 39th's thin line. It was probably at this point that a bullet struck and killed Captain Louis A. Robert of Company A, the son of the surgeon of the regiment, Dr. William A. Robert. Captain Robert died instantly on the battlefield.
The Ohioans and the Indianians pressed the skirmishers back to the main Confederate line, where the hardened Army of Tennessee veterans pressed them back with a withering fire. The federal command ordered their breastworks to be strengthened, in preparation for an assault from the Army of Tennessee.
While fighting continued with other units to the east of Deas' brigade, The 39th rested on their arms behind makeshift shelters. Finally, at 2:45 pm, the Army of Tennessee was ordered forward for what was to become the last assault. Federal skirmishers in advance of the strengthed federal breastworks were brushed aside as the brave men marched forward. The 33rd Ohio was the first federal unit to break under the attack. The 88th Indiana and the 94th Ohio soon followed, as the thin, ragged gray and brown Confederate line overwhelmed the vastly superior federal numbers in their front.
A steep ravine was positioned behind the federal position. The fleeing federal troops were forced to scale the backslope of this ravine in their flight. The Army of Tennessee halted on the forward slope of the ravine, and began to pour a devastating fire upon the fleeing federals. Many federals were killed and wounded on the bloody slope as they tried to escape the overwhelming fire from the Army of Tennessee. When the federals reached the top of the slope, they were horrified to find a wooden fence along the top bank. As the federals scrambled to cross this fence, they were once more exposed to a deadly fire from the southern men.
The confederates followed the federals across the bloody ravine, pausing on the southern slope that had proved so deadly to the federals. General William J. Hardee rode his mount in front of the men at this time, encouraging them to continue their successful assualt. Rallying around their general, the men renewed their attack. The 39th probably consisted of no more than seventy to eighty thin, ragged men at this time.1
The confederates went on to lose the battle of Bentonville, and the Army of
Tennessee was decimated. The entire 39th Alabama could not muster more
than Company I could in 1862. Sadly, this problem was compounded by the
deaths of some of the army's most ablest commanders at
Franklin. On April the 8th, General Joseph E. Johnston re-organized the
Army of Tennessee. Brigadier General Deas was
transferred to another command, and the 39th Alabama Infantry was formally
consolidated with the 22nd, 25th, and the 26th-50th Alabama, to form the
Consolidated 22nd Alabama Infantry. The Consolidated 22nd Alabama was
formed into a new brigade with three other consolidated regiments, the
Consolidated 37th Alabama Infantry (from the 37th, 42nd, and 54th Alabama), the
Consolidated 24th Mississippi (from the 24th, 27th, 29th, 30th, and 34th
Mississippi) and the Consolidated 58th North Carolina (from the 58th and the
60th North Carolina). This new brigade was placed under the command of
Brig. Gen. William F. Brantley, who had commanded an all-Mississippi brigade
during most of the war. The commander of the Consolidated 22nd Alabama was
Colonel Harry T. Toulmin, from the original 22nd
Alabama. Louis was formally mustered into Company E of the Consolidated
22nd Alabama2.
XV. Surrender
On April the 26th, 1865, less than three weeks after the re-organization of
the army, the men of the Army of Tennessee laid down their arms and surrendered
near Durham Station, North Carolina. Brantley's Brigade surrendered less
than 100 officers and 650 enlisted men. 90 officers and men laid down
their arms from the Consolidated 22nd Alabama Infantry1.
XVI. Aftermath
Private Louis Frazier was paroled within a few days after the surrender. Louis, a citizen again, walked back to Mount Andrew, arriving home on May 13th, 1865.
Louis Frazier was not wounded during the war, but he was permanently injured for life as a result of his military service. Louis Frazier would suffer from rheumatism throughout the remainder of his days as a result of exposure. His affliction would forever make it difficult for him to work to support himself and his family.
On April the 23rd, 1868, 27-year-old Louis Frazier married Martha Singleton, the 16-year-old daughter of his comrade, Private Ransom Singleton from Company B. Two short years later, their first child, William Franklin, was born. When the baby was less than one year old, Louis and Martha packed up their belongings and traveled west to the community of Ruston, Louisiana. There, in January of 1871, the Frazier family settled on a farm outside the community and reared eleven more children over the next 24 years. Louis would become an active member of the United Confederate Veterans in the late 1800s. Two of his children would succumb to illness and die at the age of 11, and would be buried in the Cook Cemetery along the Cooktown Road, less than ten miles from the Frazier homestead. In 1895, Louis built a wooden enclosure as a memorial to cover the graves of the two children. The wooden structure stands today.
By 1899, Louis owned 80 acres of land in Lincoln Parish, with a mortgage held by J. J. Booles of Ruston for $ 400.00. Falling upon hard times, Louis Frazier was forced to transfer the 80 acres to Booles as a deed in lieu of foreclosure on December the 6th, 1900. Louis Frazier would always be connected to this land, however, as the rough dirt path that led to his home was widened and paved in later years, and now bears the name Frazier Road.
On January the 2nd of 1901, a few days after Louis was forced to relinquish his farm, Louis filed an application to receive a soldier's pension for his service in the confederate army. In the application, Louis lists two 'comrades' as being John S. Jones of Arcadia, Louisiana, and his father-in-law, Ransom Singleton of Vinings Mill, Louisiana.
Two witnesses were also listed as being present when Louis signed his application - Henry F. Gains of Ruston and Joseph G. McGee of Sibley, Louisiana. Henry F. Gains writes that he served in the 22nd Alabama during the war, in Deas' Brigade. Joseph McGee attests that he served in the same company with Louis at the close of the war (Company E of the Consolidated 22nd Alabama). Louis's application was reviewed and approved, and, within six months, Louis Frazier began receiving checks in the mail for $ 8.00 per month.
In 1911, Louis's son Clarence fathered a son, Boyd Everett Frazier. Everett Frazier recalls sitting on his grandfathers lap when he was a child and smelling a 'horrible pipe smoke'. By the time Everett was eight years old, on July 5th, 1919, Louis Frazier died of heart failure. Louis was buried in Cook Cemetery, near his two 11-year-old children.
Louis Frazier's activity in the United Confederate Veterans was acknowledged on his headstone by the inscription, "U.C.V.". His four-foot tall granite headstone also bears the inscription, "A Friend to his country and a believer in Christ".
Martha passed away less than two years after her husband's death, on February 26th, 1921. Martha applied for and obtained a confederate widow's pension during the last few months of her life. Martha could not read or write, and simply put an 'x' for her signature. Her application had been delayed for a few months for verification, as she could not recall the name of the regiment that her husband had fought in those sixty some-odd years ago.
Martha's headstone simply reads, "wife of
Louis Frazier - Barber (sic) County, Alabama"1. In the summer of 1997, a monument was placed
on Louis Frazier's grave recognizing his service in the 39th Alabama.