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by Alethea Sayers
Of the more than 2.5 million soldiers who fought in the American Civil War, some 620,000 of them gave their lives, both on and off the battlefields, for a cause they believed in. The majority of these men faced death on a daily basis. Whether it was fighting the diseases that ran rampant through the camps or prisons, or charging into the mouth of a cannon, valor and bravery were in no short supply. Many of these acts of heroism went unnoticed, and indeed unsung. However, a select few would take their place among that most privileged of roll calls, to be named a recipient of the "Confederate Medal of Honor."
Unlike the "Confederate Roll of Honor," which was adopted in November of 1862 and contained over 2,000 names, the "Confederate Medal of Honor" wasn't adopted until 1968, and has just recently grown to almost 50 names.(1) And while the list contains the names of those men who are easily recognizable to students of the Civil War, men such as Patrick Cleburne, Nathan Bedford Forrest and Sam Davis, I have chosen to bring attention to the lesser known of our heroes. Even though their light may have shone all too briefly in their lifetime, their personal courage remains as a brightly lit flame, guiding us through the corridors of history.
Father Emmeran Bliemel, O.S.B.
Chaplain,
10th Tennessee Infantry, C. S. A.
In November of 1863, Father Bliemel joined the 10th Tennessee Infantry just in time to administer to his boys after the disaster of Missionary Ridge. The blue-eyed, 32 year-old German Chaplain was readily accepted by the Confederate regiment of Major General John Calvin Brown's division. His steadfast courage and tireless energy to provide comfort to the soldiers of the 10th saw him through the horrors of Rocky Face Ridge, Mill Creek Gap, Reseca, Pine Mountain, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta and Utoy Creek. His popularity among the men of his own regiment soon spread to the include the 4th Kentucky, who without a Chaplain of their own quickly adopted Father Bliemel.(2)
It was late August of 1864 --Atlanta had fallen and things were not going well for the Confederate Army of Tennessee. But General John Bell Hood had ordered another attack at Jonesboro, hoping Hardee's and S. D. Lee's Corps could stop the Federal soldiers.
Colonel William Grace commanded the 10th Tennessee, of Gen. Thomas B. Smith's brigade, as Brown's division moved forward through a cornfield. Smith's brigade was positioned in the center, behind the front line of Brown's assault.(3)
Federal soldiers lay in wait for the Confederate attack, spraying Brown's front line with fire before falling back to their breastworks. This opened the field up for the Union artillery, which unleashed volleys of solid shot and cannister, creating large gaps in the oncoming gray line.
Father Emery, as his men had nicknamed him, scrambled to help as many of the wounded back to safety, as Brown's division recoiled from the onslaught. Litter bearers dodged shot and shell to retrieve the wounded, with Father Emery remaining at the front despite the dangers. Suddenly, he saw the familiar figure of Colonel Grace go down.
Hurrying over to where the gallant colonel had fallen, Father Emery could see that the wound was mortal.(4) He called for the assistance of two soldiers, determined to removed his colonel from the reach of the Federal artillery. But the wound proved to painful for the colonel to be moved and they lay him back down in the tall grass. Though death was imminent for the colonel, Father Emmeran Bliemel would not desert him yet. Instead, he kneeled beside him and cradled the colonel's head in his lap, his head bowed in prayer. As the Chaplain lifted his hands to the heavens, a solid shot from a cannon screamed through the air, sending Father Emery on his journey home and to his maker.
Colonel Grace survived Father Emery by a few hours, long enough to confirm the Chaplain's heroic sacrifice before the cannonball had decapitated him.
Father Emery and Colonel Grace were buried together, just south of the stone railroad depot in Jonesboro. Today, after being twice exhumed, Father Emmeran Bliemel lays to rest in the cemetery of Our Lady of the Muscle Shoals Church in Tuscumbia, Alabama. On March 12, 1983, he was posthumously bestowed the Confederate Medal of Honor.(5)
Private Dewitt Smith Jobe
Coleman's Scouts, C. S. A.
Nolensville, Tennessee
August 30, 1864
The counties of Williamson and Rutherford, in Middle Tennessee, were where most of the members of a group of spies, Coleman's Scouts, called home. Operating east of Pulaski, Tennessee, one of their members, the 21 year-old Sam Davis, was immortalized when he refused to give information and was hanged as a spy. But this isn't the story of the well known Confederate martyr, Sam Davis, but the story of another lesser known hero of Coleman's Scouts, Private Dewitt Smith Jobe.
Dee Jobe and Sam Davis had been close friends most of their lives, growing up only seven miles away from each other in Rutherford County. But at the onset of the Civil War each went their separate ways. Sam joined the 1st Tennessee Volunteers, while Jobe enlisted in Co. D of the 20th Tennessee for a year. Sam went to Virginia, while Jobe remained in Tennessee and was captured at the Battle of Mill Springs. After seven long months of imprisonment, Jobe was exchanged just in time to fight in the bloody battle of Stones River.
The spring of 1863 found Jobe working on detached services, by request of General William J. Hardee. He and his friend, Sam Davis, were once again reunited, as both shared the risks of being Confederate spies and members of Coleman's Scouts.
Word of Davis's hanging on November 27 of 1863 was devastating to his friend Jobe. Yet is only served to harden him to the work that would follow in the upcoming year. Jobe may have often wondered if he could show the same bravery if a similar fate should befall him.
On the hot, late summer day of August 30, 1864, Jobe made his way to the familiar home of William Moss in Triune, Tennessee. After enjoying a filling breakfast, Jobe decided to find a safe place where he might rest from his all-night ride.(6) Finding the tall cornfields of the Sam Waters' farm close-by, Jobe secured his horse and lay down among the stalks for a long nap.(7)
A few hours passed before Jobe was startled awake by the sounds of approaching Yankees. Realizing he was surrounded and capture was imminent, Jobe attempted to tear his secret papers into small scraps and devour them. But members of the 115th Ohio Infantry were soon upon him, knocking him to the ground before he could dispose of all of the scraps.
Angered by his defiance, his captors bound him, tied his hands behind his back and demanded he answer their questions or die. Dee Jobe remained silent, enduring brutal slaps and punches by his captors. A leather strap was then wrapped around his neck and brought over his shoulder, the least movement causing him to strangle himself. When he still refused to cooperate, a rifle butt replaced the fists, knocking out his front teeth but Jobe only met this punishment with his silence.
Enraged further, his Federal captors resorted to even more cruel measures, gouging out one of his eyes and then the other. The almost lifeless Jobe had one more punishment to endure before his captors were finished. Repeatedly, his body was drug through the cornfields head-first by the leather strap, until at mercifully last Jobe lay breathless on the ground.
So overwhelmed with grief when the news of their son's vicious death reached them, Jobe's parents sent his lifelong servant, Frank, to retrieve his body for burial in their backyard.
Dee Jobe had no longer to worry if his courage would measure up to that of his friends, Sam Davis. For Dee had remained steadfast and brave until the very cruel end. This so enraged his captors that they had even cut out his tongue.
Dewitt Smith Jobe was posthumously presented the Confederate Medal of Honor on August 17, 1977 in a rare double ceremony. Today, Dee's medal can be seen displayed next to Sam Davis's at the Davis home in Smyrna, Tennessee.
Sergeant Robert Henry Gregg Gaines,
23rd Alabama Infantry, C. S.A.
Battle of Bakers Creek, Mississippi
May 16, 1863
As the dusk approached on a cool spring day in May of 1863, 23,000 Confederate soldiers moved exasperatingly slow towards Jackson, Mississippi. On a single road, the column would move, only to bunch up, stop, wait then move again. But the usual grumbles and complaints were stilled by the prospects that lay ahead.
General Joe Johnston had sent word on the morning of the 15th that Grant had divided his army --and if united, Pemberton and Johnston might strike a victory.
The five regiments of General Stephen D. Lee's brigade, Brig. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson's division, were finally halted at 3 a.m. for a short rest. They had been on the move for ten hours and had traveled but a short 6 miles. Coming from Edwards Station, they were attempting to reunite with Johnston's army of 6,000 at Jackson. But when word came at dawn that Johnston had been driven from Jackson, Pemberton's army was ordered to retrace it's steps.
As the weary Confederates began their retrograde movement, long-range Federal artillery could be heard. Stevenson's division now took the lead, Lee's brigade marching near the rear of the army. Approaching a wooded hill known locally as Champions Hill, the sound of small arms and artillery began to swell.
Finding his army at the crossroads leading to Raymond and Jackson, and deciding the terrain was favorable for a defensive position, Pemberton made the decision to stand and fight. He arrayed his army along the high ridge, Lee's brigade moving north of the crossroads and onto Champions Hill.
The color-bearer of the 23rd Alabama, Co. K, Sgt. Robert Gaines, fell into the line that represented Lee's right flank. Waddell's Alabama Artillery had wheeled into the line, facing eastward, to protect Lee's right flank.
Every soldier on the line steeled himself for the oncoming battle, looking eastward for the enemy. Suddenly, Lee spotted masses of Federal infantry to the north. Unexpectedly, the enemy was approaching Lee's left flank, attempting to gain his rear. Lee reacted quickly. Ignoring the possible threat to his east and the intersection, he led his 5 regiments north then westward. Waddell's battery remained behind to protect the crossroads.
Lee's line was now parallel to that of the Federals, though they were outnumbered three-to-one. His line kept stretching, trying to keep pace with the blue battle line and to reach the bridge over Bakers Creek. To achieve this, Stevenson ordered Barton's Georgia brigade around the rear of Lee's position to extend Lee's left flank to the bridge.
At 10:30 a.m., the Federal line surged forward but were handsomely repulsed by Lee's and Cumming's brigades. Quickly reinforced, the Federals pushed southward again, and for an hour the battle raged back and forth.
Cumming's line was the first to break under the pressure, with four Confederate guns being captured. The gap widened until Stevenson's right flank fell back in chaos. But in the center of the line, where the 46th, 30th and 23rd Alabama stood, Lee held the line firmly against the Federal onslaught.
Stevenson called on Pemberton for reinforcements but the gap in Cumming's line had already uncovered Waddell's battery to a deadly fire. Overran by their attackers, the gunners fled or were shot down and the four guns captured. With his right and left flank now gone, Lee had no choice but to withdraw the three advanced Alabama regiments.
News of Waddell's disaster spread quickly to Sgt. Robert Gaines, who had served with Captain James F. Waddell in the 6th Alabama Regiment. Gaines had once applied to join the battery but had been assigned to the infantry as a color-bearer instead.
By now, Pemberton's entire army was facing disaster, but help would arrive for Lee in the form of two brigades from Bowen's division: Brig. Gen. Martin E. Green's and Col. Francis M. Cockrell's brigades.
As the two brigades hurried onto the line, Waddell's captured guns unleashed a deadly volley on the Confederate line. Green was still forming but Cockrell's men suddenly rushed forward, sweeping the field before them of Federals. Green, now formed, pushed north across the intersection, bending the Union line back until it broke and fled. Waddell's guns were recaptured.
Lee reformed the 46th, 30th and 23rd Alabama, in addition to gathering up some 400 stragglers, and headed for Champions Hill.
Sgt. Robert Gaines, and others, hurried after Green's men. But a mile into the attack, Green's ammunition began running out and the pursuit slowed. The Federals were multiplying in their front, and flanking fire broke out on their right. Just as it appeared that all was lost, the sound of a 12-pounder suddenly barked from close by.
All heads turned to see who had come to their support but at first it appeared that no one was manning the gun. Through the billowing smoke, a lone figure could be seen darting back and forth..."grabbing the wheel on the recoil...ramming home another charge...rough sighting the barrel and priming the vent in one motion..."(8)
Sgt. Robert Gaines, ignoring the dangers of not swabbing the barrel, knew that every shot counted, as he worked feverishly to prevent the Federal attack on the flanks of the Confederate right. According to eye-witness accounts, Gaines loaded and fired more than a dozen times with the practiced hand.(9)
Eventually, Bowen's division fell back, and Lee's, Barton's and Cumming's brigades were routed from along the Jackson-Vicksburg road, but the lone-gunner of the 23rd Alabama Infantry would go unscathed.
Gaines was captured when Vicksburg fell seven weeks later, but eventually paroled and exchanged. He rose to the rank of Captain before returning home to Wilcox County, Alabama, to serve as Justice of the Peace.
During the unveiling of the bronze monument of Stephen D. Lee at the Vicksburg Military Park, in 1909, Gaines positioned himself near the likeness of his former commander and remembered being overcome with emotion when, "I saw him looking down on me."(10)
Today, Sgt. Robert Henry Gregg Gaines's Confederate Medal of Honor is on display at the Confederate Memorial Park, near Mountain Creek, Alabama.
(1) "Valor In Gray; The Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor," Clemmer, Gregg S. Hearthside Pub. Company, 1998.
(2) Ibid.
(3) "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion," Volume III VIII, pp. 669-70.
(4) "Valor In Gray; The Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor," Clemmer, Gregg S. Hearthside Pub. Company, 1998.
(5) Ibid.
(6) "History of the Twentieth Tennessee Regimental Volunteer Infantry, CSA," McMurray, William, Nashville 1904.
(7) "Valor In Gray; The Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor," Clemmer, Gregg S. Hearthside Pub. Company, 1998.
(8) Ibid.
(9) "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion," Volume II IV, pp. 298, 318.
(10)"Valor In Gray; The Recipients of the Confederate Medal of Honor," Clemmer, Gregg S. Hearthside Pub. Company, 1998.
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