Confederate Veteran Weary Clyburn (1841 - 1930)

Mr. Weary Clyburn of Lancaster County, South Carolina.
Co. E, 12th South Carolina Infantry Regiment, CSA.
Member of the United Confederate Veterans.
Image courtesy Lancaster (SC) Historical Society.

 

Weary Clyburn was born into slavery in Lancaster County, South Carolina sometime in the year 1841. He was listed as the son of one Phillip Blare and was raised with his master’s son, Thomas F. "Frank" Clyburn.

When the War Between The States broke out in April, 1861, Weary Clyburn went to war with Frank, as his bodyguard. Both men served as members of Company E, 12th South Carolina Infantry Regiment.

The 12th South Carolina Infantry was formed at Lightwoodknot Springs near Columbia, South Carolina in July of 1861. Frank Clyburn was made the Captain of Company E. Both young men were present during all the major battles that the unit fought in as part of the General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. During the war, Frank officially gave Weary manumission (freedom) and though he was under no military obligation to remain with the regiment or work for Frank, Weary elected to remain with his friend. As part of Company E, Weary Clyburn also performed jobs as a forager, cook, and at times picket duty with a borrowed rifle on occasions during the war.

Frank Clyburn would be promoted twice during the course of the war: to Major on Tuesday, November 17, 1863; and then to Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment on Friday, May 6, 1864 during the Battle of the Wilderness.

Colonel Clyburn was badly wounded at the Battle of North Anna near Jericho's Ford on Monday, May 23, 1864. It was there that Weary was reported to have carried the wounded Frank Clyburn off the battlefield and saving his life.

Weary Clyburn was with the 12th South Carolina Infantry Regiment when it formally surrendered at Appomattox Court House on Monday, April 10, 1865. Clyburn, along with the remaining 159 officers and men of the regiment walked back to South Carolina together.  

After the war, Weary and Frank remained friends until the Colonel Frank Clyburn passed away on October 16, 1896. Frank and his wife, Eliza, moved to Union County, North Carolina.

Weary Clyburn was known for his fiddle playing and his enthusiastic approach to life and attended dozens of reunions with surviving members of the 12th South Carolina Infantry after the war, and was a proud member in good standing of the United Confederate Veterans.  One prominent post-war photo shows Weary Clyburn with his fiddle attending the 50th Anniversary 1913 Reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg along with the other 8,750 former Confederate soldiers in attendance. 

Weary applied for a pension for his service in the War Between the States on Monday, February 1, 1926 in the State of North Carolina and was one of the first persons of color to receive a Confederate pension in Union County, North Carolina.

The oral history Weary shared with the Union County pension board tells us he was present at the training camp in Columbia [SC] and also with the company at Charleston, Morris Island, Page's Point and Hilton Head "and other places throughout the war; that at Hilton Head, while under fire of the enemy he carried his master out of the field of fire on his shoulder; that he performed personal services for Robert E. Lee; that he has been a resident of this county [Union County, NC] for four years; that he is eighty-five (85) years old; has a wife and foolish boy to support..." (the family shared that the 'foolish boy' was named Lee) Attorney, J. P. Richards of Lancaster, SC submitted an affidavit dated January 22, 1926 for Weary's pension application that verified that "Worry D. Clyburn seved [served] in the Confederate Army from the years 1863- to 1865, along with Capt. Frank Clyburn of the 12th regiment of the South Carolina volunteers;...he is eligible for pension if he lived in this state. However, as he lives in the state of North Carolina, I sincerely recommend him for pension and any other possible aid obtainable in that state."

However, upon his death and a racist ruling by a North Carolina Attorney General, his wife was denied his pension declaring in a letter that "negro (sic) pensioners are not classified as Confederate soldiers." So few former Black Confederates lived long enough to even see the pensions that they did receive and they were classified as "type B", very similar to the widows of soldiers; so the State of North Carolina at the time probably would not want to extend the pension to the widow.

In spite of this, the former Confederate Veterans that he served with helped raise money for Eliza our of respect for his service to the South, and also because Weary also apparently helped raise money for veterans reunions and expenses through his fiddle playing at hotels.

Weary Clyburn died on Sunday, March 30, 1930. According to a notice of death in The Monroe Journal, Tuesday, April 1, 1930, by Aaron Perry, another former black Confederate Veteran, Weary was "...long a figure here and at Confederate reunions, was buried yesterday wrapped in the Confederate uniform of gray" in accordance with his final wishes. His casket was also covered with a Confederate battle flag.

Nearly 78 years after his death, in the summer of 2008, Weary Clyburn's grave was marked by a new Confederate Veterans' headstone by the James Miller Camp #2116, Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV). In attendance was his then living elderly daughter, Mattie Clyburn Rice -- herself an active member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) -- as well as members of the Clyburn family, some of them remain active SCV and UDC members today.

His daughter, Mattie, passed away in 2014 and her ashes were buried with her father at his grave at Hillcrest Cemetery in Monroe, Union County, North Carolina.

Grave of Weary Clyburn,
Confederate Veteran.

A special thanks to the members of the Lancaster County (SC) Museum, the James Miller Camp #2116, SCV, South Carolina Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy (SC UDC), and the Clyburn family for the information in this article.

Night Sky Photography -- 02-24-2024 -- Full Snow Moon & Regulus

Tonight I captured a couple of shots of the February Full Moon -- also known as the Full Snow Moon in North America -- along with the bright star, Regulus, in the evening sky.

Regulus is the brightest star in the Constellation Leo the Lion. Regulus appears singular to the human eye, but its actually a quadruple star system composed of four stars that are organized into two pairs. The Regulus system lies approximately 79 light years (or 24 parsecs) from the Sun.

The February Full Snow Moon is 2024’s farthest full micromoon for year at a distance of about 252,225 miles (or 405,917 kilometers) from the Earth. This is in contrast to the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, which is around 238,900 miles (or 384,472 km).

Night Sky Photography -- 02-22-2024 -- Venus & Mars Before Sunrise

Greetings fellow stargazers! 

I had to wake up a bit early -- about an hour, or so, before sunrise -- to capture these two really outstanding shots of our Earth's nearest planetary neighbors: Venus and Mars together just above the trees in the eastern sky.

Mars will continue to rise higher into the morning sky, but will still appear faint and only really be visible before sunrise for most of 2024. Venus will begin to move lower towards the sunrise in its orbit.

Night Sky Photography -- 02-20-2024 -- The Moon, The Twins, & Major Winter Stars

Good evening, fellow stargazers!

On the evening of Tuesday, February 20th, I captured this really clear shot of our lovely Moon near the twin stars: Castor and Pollux -- the two main stars of the Constellation Gemini The Twins -- along with the other nearby winter stars and their constellations.

The first is the original photo taken showing Luna along with the stars and their positions in the sky dome. The second is the same photo with the star constellations of Orion The Hunter, Canis Minor "The Lesser Dog", and Taurus The Bull in relation to the bright Gemini Twins -- the stars for their constellation are unfortunately not visible due to the brightness of the Waxing Gibbous Moon phase.

The Winter Triangle stars of Procyon and Betelgeuse are all clearly visible and mark the positions of Orion and Canis Minor. Sirius, the brightest star of the Constellation Canis Major "The Greater Dog" is at the very bottom making up the final point of the Winter Triangle. Unfortunately I could not get the entire constellation itself into frame.

Luna sits right beside the giant star Pollux, the brightest star of the Constellation Gemini and the 18th brightest star in our night sky. Pollux sits about 34 light-years (or 10.4 parsecs) distance from our Sun and its the closest giant star relative to our Solar System. Pollux is almost nine times the diameter of our sun and about 30 times the sun’s brightness in visible light.

Its "twin" Castor, the second-brightest star in Gemini, is a bit more tricky since its not one, but six stars that appear as one to the naked eye. The Castor system is organized into three binary pairs made up of two bright white A-Type stars with four smaller M-Type red dwarf stars that orbit each other. Castor sits about 51 light-years (or 15.6 parsecs) from the Sun.

Castor Aa, the main star of the system, is more than twice the
size of our own Sun.
Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

Monday Meme: The Cause Of The American Civil War?

 

Night Sky Photography -- 02-15/16-2024 -- The Moon & Uranus/The Golden Gate of the Ecliptic

Good evening fellow stargazers!

I'm thankful to report that here in my corner of South Carolina we've been blessed to have some clear skies overhead the last two evenings so that I can present to y'all some really good night sky photographs of our beautiful moon close to two beautiful heavenly bodies. 

The first photos were taken after sunset on the evening of Thursday, February 15th showing our lovely Luna meeting the distant giant planet, Uranus.

The first shot I took is the wide shot of the Moon -- just one day away from its First Quarter phase -- positioned between the giant planet, Jupiter, and the two open star clusters: The Hyades and The Pleiades (also known as the "Seven Sisters") that make up the Constellation Taurus The Bull. Uranus is positioned just next to the Moon in the night sky that evening. The second photo is a close up where y'all can faintly see the distant seventh planet of our Solar System.

 

Uranus may look small compared to Luna, but in actuality the blue-green gas giant planet is four times wider than our Earth and circles the Sun at a whopping 1.8 billion miles (or 2.9 billion kilometers) in its average orbit. It takes the light of the Sun about 2 hours and 45 minutes to reach Uranus.

At its present distance in our orbits around the Sun, Uranus is about 1.83 billion miles (or 2.94 billion km) away from Earth, which is just about 19.67 AUs.

The next set of photos I took were on the evening of Friday, February 16th when Luna -- now in her First Quarter Moon phase -- moved higher into the night sky and was positioned right next to the Pleiades in the sky inside The Golden Gate of the Ecliptic. This is the place in the sky dome where the Ecliptic (the orbital plain of the Earth around the Sun) passes between the Hyades and Pleiades with both the star clusters represent the "posts" of the virtual gate that makes up this asterism.

The first two photos are close-up shots with the first showing the details of the Moon in her First Quarter Phase, and the second is a wonderful capture showing Luna and the Seven Sisters meeting in the night sky.

The third is a wide shot of the major stars of the Constellations Orion The Hunter and Taurus The Bull showing Luna inside the Hyades and Pleiades "gates" -- note the positions of Uranus and Jupiter beneath the Moon. The final shot being a closer and more detailed shot of the Hyades and Pleiades with the Moon. All of which came out rather beautifully.

Well I hope y'all enjoyed my photographic offerings for the evening. I'm hopefully that we will continue to be blessed with clear skies enough to get at least two more interesting celestial views before the month of February is out.

Night Sky Photography -- 02-07-2024 -- Mars Returns To The Early Morning Sky

Greetings & Salutations, fellow stargazers!

This morning I got up about an hour before sunrise and took a small drive to the tallest local point near my home which has a largely open and unobstructed view of the eastern horizon above the treeline, which happened to be in the center of my hometown of Chester, South Carolina.

I set up my tripod and was able to capture a couple of really good photos of the Moon and our own planet's two closest neighbors: Venus and Mars. The first shot I took at the top of the hill overlooking downtown Chester, and the second near the bottom using the power line pole and wires for the foreground. The three heavenly bodies appear in a roughly uneven triangle in the sky.

The planet Venus is, of course, the third-brightest object in the sky seen here from the surface of our Earth after the Sun and Luna (our Moon) and is usually most visible after sunset and before sunrise making it one of the first evening "stars" in the night sky, as well as the last of the morning "stars" -- depending on where Venus lies in relation to its orbit around the Sun compared to Earth.

At present, Venus is visible just two hours before sunrise here in the Northern Hemisphere. Its orbit is taking the planet lower in the sky dome towards the eastern horizon and the rising Sun in the mornings.

In contrast, Mars has been, until recently, on the other side of the Sun in relation to Earth, and thus invisible until about the beginning of this month in the glare of the sunrise. However, The Red Planet is slowly rising away from the Sun in the early morning hours.

As you can see in the photos I took, bright Venus is easily visible with the light of the Sun reflecting off the hot, hellish clouds that cover the planet. Cold and distant Mars, by contrast, is very dim since its farther away in its orbit from our vantage point here on Earth, just barely visible in the light of the coming sunrise less than 45 minutes later. 

As Venus sets and Mars rises, our two closest planetary neighbors will appear to move closer and meet in the early morning sky next week with their closest approach (or, conjunction) happening in two weeks on the morning of Wednesday, February 21st of this year.

Monday Meme: A Crossover That Should Have Happened

Two Confederate Veterans In Honor Of Black History Month

Pictured in this photograph are two Confederate Veterans at a reunion of the United Confederate Veterans taken near the battlefield at Brice Crossroads near Baldwyn, Mississippi in July of 1921.

On the left is Joe Wiley, then 90 years old, who served in Company A, 7th Georgia Infantry Regiment, CSA. On the right is Howard Divinity, then 91 years old, who served in Company A, 12th Mississippi Infantry Regiment CSA.

This month of February, designated as Black History Month in the United States, this blogger honors their service, and that of all African-Americans who served honorably in America's wars.

Night Sky Photography -- 01-31-2024 -- The Galactic Anticenter & Winter Stars

Good evening, fellow stargazers! 

As we get ready to exit the winter month of January here in the Northern Hemisphere and start into February, overhead the Winter Circle star constellations rise high into the sky dome in late evenings and travel westward to set in the late night-early morning hours.

Looking up at the brightest of these stars inside the Winter Circle (Hexagon) you are actually looking towards the opposite end of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

In the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, you can look towards the spot in our evening sky where our own galaxy's center is located, as seen in my previous Night Sky Photography post HERE.

The opposite can be seen in the winter months where the season's most prominent constellations show us the location of the Galactic anticenter -- the area of space that's directly opposite to the Galactic Center looking towards the far end of the galaxy as viewed from our Earth.

The actual location of the Galactic anticenter is easy to find since its very close to the bright star, Elnath (or Beta Tauri) located at the point that connects the Constellations Taurus The Bull and Auriga The Charioteer. Elnath is the second-brightest star of Taurus and is located approximately 134 light-years distance from our Sun.

My photographs for the evening show the location of the Galactic anticenter near Elnath, as well as the best way to spot it using the winter constellations as a guide. Locate Elnath and you find the Galactic anticenter in the night sky.

The first photo shows the bright stars overhead just two hours before midnight on the last day of the month of January. In my second photo (taken just a moment later), I outlined the location of the constellations themselves, with the Galactic anticenter located right at the junction where Taurus meets Auriga next to Elnath. 

Well, I hope that y'all enjoyed my photos for the evening. Let me know what y'all think in the comments section and as always have a wonderful evening and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all.