Monday, May 13, 2024
Monday, May 06, 2024
The Life And Death of Brigadier General Micah Jenkins C.S.A. (1835 - 1864)
(This article was re-posted from an earlier date in memory of the 160th anniversary of the death of General Micah Jenkins on May 6, 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia.)
Micah Jenkins came from a long and proud line of American military servicemen from the State of South Carolina. His Grandfather, Joseph Jenkins (1762-1828), was a Patriot veteran of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) and served in the 20th Regiment South Carolina Militia during the War of 1812 (1812-1815). His father, Captain John Jenkins, served as an officer in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). His uncle, Joseph Evan Jenkins (1793-1874), also served in the War of 1812 but never saw any combat action and would later be a Signer of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession in December of 1860.
At the age of 15, Micah Jenkins entered the South Carolina Military Academy -- later name The Citadel -- near Charleston in 1851, later graduating in 1854 top of his class at the age of 19.
It was at the military academy that Jenkins met his classmate and life-long friend, Asbury Coward from York County, South Carolina. Later Jenkins and Coward would become the co-founders of the Kings Mountain Military Academy in Yorkville (York, South Carolina) in January of 1855.
It was during his time as a cadet at The Citadel in 1853 that Micah Jenkins met his future wife, then 16 year old Caroline "Carrie" Harper Jamison (1837-1902) of Orangeburg, South Carolina. Caroline was the daughter of General David Flavel Jamison (1810-1864), one of the founders of The Citadel and later president of South Carolina's Secession Convention in December of 1860.
Micah and Carrie would marry on Thursday, July 3, 1856 and move to York where they would raise their family. The couple would have five male children: Micah John Jr. (1857-1912), Robert Flavel (1858-1936), William Edward (1860-1930), Whitemarsh LaRoush (1861-1863), and John Murray (1863-1958); all born in York County.
In 1855 at the age 20, Micah Jenkins was confirmed at the York Episcopal Church. He was a devout Protestant Christian and remained so for his whole life.
Colonel Micah Jenkins just before the war as Colonel of the 5th South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. |
Though a strict drill master from his years as founder of the Kings Mountain Military Academy, Jenkins was generally well liked by the men under his command. With his experience and their trust in him, they formed a superb unit.
Serving as a part of Brigadier General David R. Jones' brigade, the 5th South Carolina along with the 17th and 18th Mississippi Infantry Regiments were sent across McLean's Ford at noon during the battle in order to silence an eight-gun Federal artillery battery. The battery was positioned on a hill just across the ford and was supported by four New York regiments. In the advance up the slope, the two Mississippi regiments halted and began to withdraw, leaving Jenkins and his Carolinians unsupported. Despite this, Jenkins managed to drive back the artillerymen and their infantry supports, holding his position for nearly an hour. He then sent three messages back to Jones requesting for further orders but, according to his report, received no reply and, being outnumbered and unsupported, eventually decided to unwillingly withdraw. Jones himself states that he sent Jenkins three orders to withdraw, the 5th South Carolina eventually retiring "well formed and in good order from the field."
The 5th South Carolina suffered 3 killed and 23 wounded during the battle. They had fought well for their first battle. As General Jones later wrote in his official report, "Too much cannot be said in praise of the gallantry displayed by Colonel Jenkins and his regiment of South Carolinians."
Later that fall, the 5th South Carolina was placed in a division under Major General James Longstreet. Longstreet's aide, Major Thomas J. Goree, would write in a letter home that the general thought Jenkins was the best Colonel in the army and that the 5th South Carolina Infantry was "one of the finest, if not the finest, regiments in the army." Colonel Jenkins and the 5th South Carolina Infantry was put in a brigade under General Richard H. Anderson.
In a review of Longstreet's division at Centreville, Virginia, on Thursday, November 28, 1861, General P.G.T. Beauregard presented each regiment with the first patterns of the new Confederate Battle Flag made of silk for the army.
As reported by the hometown newspaper, the Yorkville (S.C.) Inquirer on Thursday, December 12, 1861, upon receiving his, Jenkins gave a short speech:
"As Colonel of the 5th S.C. Regiment, I accept this as our battle-flag. Our native soil is now oppressed with the footsteps of the fell invader; his beacon fires are lighted upon our headlands. To us a battle flag can only be one under which we must conquer or die. As such, I accept this."
Upon the expiration of its one-year term of service, the 5th South Carolina regiment was then reorganized in April 1862 from re-enlistees and new recruits. Jenkins retained his command as Colonel of the regiment. Five companies of the 5th South Carolina were detached to form part of Micah Jenkins' newly organized regiment, the Palmetto Sharpshooters, which also consisted of companies from the 4th and 9th South Carolina Infantry Regiments. The Palmetto Sharpshooters would be placed under the command of Colonel John R. R. Giles from Union County.
A man of great Christian faith in God, Jenkins always took his Bible and prayer book with him, and at any quite moments on the battlefield was to be found reading it. By contrast, he was fearlessly brave under fire he was always front and center leading his men into battle, sometimes recklessly so.
At the Battle of Williamsburg (Fort Magurder) on Monday, May 5, 1862, when someone told him he was unnecessarily exposing himself to danger, Jenkins was reported to have (quite prophetically) said, "I feel the (Yankee) bullet has not been molded that is to kill me."
At Williamsburg, General Anderson was temporarily put in division command while Jenkins, who was still a Colonel, was put in command of his brigade (Jenkins' 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment, the 6th South Carolina Infantry Regiment, and the Palmetto Sharpshooters), all regiments made up of men from York, Union, Spartanburg, Chester, Fairfield, and Lancaster counties in upstate South Carolina.
At the Battle of Seven Pines on Saturday, May 31, 1862, he led Anderson's brigade with distinction in that battle. It was during this action that Colonel Giles of the Palmetto Sharpshooters was unfortunately killed during the battle and would be replaced by Colonel Joseph A. Walker of Spartanburg County, South Carolina.
"After we had driven back four fresh lines of battle General Jenkins drew his lines back a short way and formed a new line, someone said to him 'just look at them coming at the double quick.' Jenkins replied: 'We shall meet them at the double quick.' 'He straightened himself up in his stirrups and gave the command to charge front on twelfth company at the double quick, and I never saw on parade a prettier maneuver, General Jenkins was magic. He could come nearer to making his men work like machinery than any other man I saw. That was the last charge at Seven Pines at which ended the battle. We fought five fresh lines that evening and whipped every one. Jenkins was on his horse all through the battle."
At the Battle of Gaines Mill on Friday, June 27, 1862, Colonel Jenkins led the brigade in a sweep around the Federal flank as dusk fell and engaged in heavy fighting with the 16th Michigan Infantry Regiment capturing their regimental colors along with the regiment's Colonel Thomas B.W. Stockton, another officer and 53 of the Union regiment's enlisted men. For this feat Jenkins was given consent by the Confederate Secretary of War, Judah P. Benjamin, to retain the regimental standard of the 16th Michigan for presentation to the Governor of South Carolina.
Major Thomas Goree, this time in a letter to his mother, describes the attack of Colonel Micah Jenkins' brigade at the Battle of Frayser's Farm (White Oak Swamp) on Monday, June 30, 1862:
His brother-in-law, Lieutenant John Wilson Jamison (1839-1886) who served with Jenkins as his Aide-de-Camp, was hit in the chest and nearly killed at Frayser's Farm where Jenkins was wounded. Jamison had also served as a French language teacher at Jenkins' Kings Mountain Military Academy prior to the war.
In addition to his brother-in-law, other members of Micah Jenkins' immediate family also served with him during the war.
His brother, John Jenkins (1824-1905) served in Company I, 3rd South Carolina Cavalry as a Major. His cousin, John Micah Jenkins (1827-1915) also served in the same company as a 2nd Lieutenant.
His other brother, Dr. Edward Ephraim Jenkins (1831-1904) served in the 5th South Carolina Regiment with Micah as a Staff Surgeon and later as the Brigade's Surgeon.
Another brother-in-law, David Rumph Jamison (1834-1908) served as the regimental quartermaster of the Palmetto Sharpshooters.
All of these men would survive the war and be present at Appomattox during the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865.
For his gallant actions throughout the campaign, Micah Jenkins was officially promoted to the rank of Brigadier General on Tuesday, July 22, 1862, becoming one of the youngest generals in the American Civil War at the age of 26.
A month after his promotion, General Jenkins would again lead his brigade on the second day of the Battle of 2nd Manassas (Saturday, August 30, 1862) where he would be severely wounded in the left abdomen and would be out of action for the next two months, missing General Lee's first invasion of the North and the ensuing battles.
The 5th South Carolina's officer corps had been left in poor shape after the battles of 1862. There were even thoughts of disbanding the regiment. That fall, Jenkins offered the command of his old regiment to his old friend, Colonel Asbury Coward, who'd previously served on the staff of Brigadier General D. R. Jones. Coward accepted the offer and was approved by the War Department. Coward would serve as the Colonel of the 5th South Carolina Infantry for the remainder of the war.
General Jenkins was back on duty, this time with his new Divisional commander Major General George E. Pickett during the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 11-15, 1862, but Jenkins' Brigade was not engaged during the battle.
In 1863, Pickett's division participated in General James Longstreet's Siege of Suffolk, Virginia (April 16 - May 3, 1863), but Jenkins' Brigade was retained near Richmond, Virginia, under the command of Major General Daniel Harvey Hill, thus missing General Lee's second invasion of the North and the fateful Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) where Pickett's division was smashed during the final day of the battle.
Jenkins' Brigade went with Major General John B. Hood's Division of General Longstreet's First Corps to the war's Western Theater three months later where they participated in the second day's fighting of the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia on Sunday, September 20, 1863.
General Jenkins, now commanding Hood's former Division, led his Confederates at the Battle of Brown's Ferry (Tuesday, October 27, 1863) along the Tennessee River, and again a day later at the Battle of Wauhatchie (October 28-29, 1863).
Sent into combat against superior numbers, General Jenkins was successfully leading the attack when they were attacked in the rear by greatly superior numbers. Even then he succeeded in withdrawing his troops.
Micah Jenkins went home to York on leave in late 1863 to spend some quality time with his family. While Jenkins had been at Chickamauga months before, his then two-year-old son, Whitemarsh LaRoche Jenkins, had died from a disease while his wife and children were visiting family in Summerville, South Carolina.
On Saturday, January 16, 1864, Jenkins led his brigade to victory in the Battle of Dandridge (Kimbrough's Crossroads), Tennessee against Federal cavalry.
When Longstreet's Corps returned to the Eastern Theater and the Army of Northern Virginia in early 1864, the contentious issue of command over Hood's Division command was at last resolved when Brigadier General Charles W. Field, who was senior to both Jenkins and Law, was promoted to Major General and assigned Division command. Jenkins resumed the command of his South Carolina Brigade.
General Jenkins was apparently suffering from ill health and malnutrition by the time the spring campaigning began, but insisted on playing his part in the upcoming second day of the Battle of the Wilderness on Friday, May 6, 1864. He was transported to the battlefield by field ambulance and mounted onto his horse still suffering. According to some accounts early in the morning as the battle began, the sweet notes of the Palmetto Sharpshooters band could be heard playing for their old commanding officer trying to cheer him up.
Riding at the head of the column with General Longstreet, and other staff officers, and in discussion with Longstreet when they came opposite the Confederate Brigades which had just made the successful flank attack, specifically that of William Mahone. The 12th Virginia mistook them for Federal troops and opened fire. When they firing stopped there were dead and wounded men and horses in the road.
Among the possible reasons for this friendly fire incident was the fact the Jenkins Brigade were wearing new uniforms of dark gray wool that appeared almost black. Along with the smokey conditions of the battlefield in the dense trees of the Wilderness (some of which was on fire) Mahone's men mistook the oncoming troops as Union soldiers. One of the Brigade was to later say that: "when a staff member, upon Longstreet's order, picked up and unfurled a Union flag that the General spotted on the roadway, approaching Virginians fired upon it."
Among the wounded were Longstreet and Jenkins -- Longstreet would survive the war. Jenkins had been shot in the forehead with the Minne Ball lodged in his brain near his left temple.
Colonel Coward recalls the friendly fire incident at the Wilderness, in which Jenkins was killed and Longstreet wounded in his memoirs:
With the musket ball where it was little could be done for Micah Jenkins. Only semi-conscious, and not recognizing those around him, he died about six hours later around sunset.
Micah Jenkins was just 28 years old when he was killed. His 26 year old devoted widow, Caroline Jenkins, would never remarry as she was left alone to raise their four remaining boys.
"The remains of the lamented General Micah Jenkins were interred in Summerville in the graveyard of the Episcopal Church of that place where his mother was buried. The body arrived at Summerville a quarter past three o’clock under the escort of the cadets of the Arsenal Academy in Columbia. The coffin with a Confederate flag laid upon it was placed upon a carriage, and a procession was formed from all of the inhabitants of the village and the convalescent solders in the hospital that were able to attend.
Before the procession began the ladies of the village brought in beautiful wreaths and numerous bouquets of flowers and strewed them with profusion upon the coffin.The coffin was followed by several members of the deceased’s family, including his widow, his father in law, General D. F. Jamison, Major John Jenkins and Dr. Edward Jenkins[his brothers].
Jenkins Hall at The Citadel is named in his honor.
General James Longstreet wrote of him after the war: "He was one of the most estimable characters of the army. His taste and talent were for military service. He was intelligent, quick, untiring, attentive, zealous in discharge of duty, truly faithful to official obligations, abreast with the foremost in battle, and withal a humble, noble Christian. In a moment of highest earthly hope, he was transported to serenest heavenly joy; to that life beyond that knows no bugle call, beat of drum or clash of steel. May his beautiful spirit, through the mercy of God, rest in peace! Amen!"
Two of General Micah Jenkins' sons would go on to continue the family tradition of American military service.
His youngest son, John Murray Jenkins (1863-1958) also attended West Point and graduated in the Class of 1887. John served as a Colonel of the 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) in France on the European Western Front during World War I (1917-1918) and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1919. John Jenkins retired a Major General in the United States Army in 1927. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
The grave of Brigadier General Micah Jenkins and his wife at historic Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina. |
Sources for this article include:
The Civil War Letters of Major Thomas J. Goree edited by Thomas W. Cutrer (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1995), pp. 87, 94-95.
The South Carolinians: Colonel Asbury Coward's Memoirs edited by Natalie Jenkins Bond and Osmun Latrobe Coward (New York: Vantage Press, 1968).
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Vol. 1 of 2.
Also a special thanks to the people at the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum in Columbia, South Carolina, The South Carolina Division Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the South Carolina Historical Society Archives and Museum.
Sunday, May 05, 2024
Jonesboro Confederate Memorial Day Service 2024
This time it was right next door over in Union County, South Carolina attending one of the smaller local events sponsored by the Brigadier General States Rights Gist Camp #1451 Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) from Union. This event took place at the Confederate Soldiers' Monument in Jonesboro, South Carolina.
In attendance were representatives of two other upstate South Carolina SCV camps: the Captain Moses Wood Camp #125 from Gaffney (Cherokee County) and the Captain Adam Washington Ballenger Camp #68 from Spartanburg and various guests -- approximately 40 people overall.
This was one of a couple hundred smaller and larger Confederate Memorial Day services that took place in various smaller Carolina towns this weekend ahead of the May 10th State holiday for both North and South Carolina.
Most of these events consisted of graveside services, the laying of flowers and wreaths at graves and Confederate monuments. In some cases just small groups of men, women, and children gathering annually to clean headstones and place flags on the graves of Confederate soldiers who died during the War Between the States (1861-1865) or aged Southern veterans who survived and were later buried with their fallen brothers.
The following are the photos I took of the event.
Members of the Brigadier General States Right Gist Camp #1451 Union, South Carolina. |
Members of the Captain Moses Wood Camp #125 Gaffney, South Carolina. |
Members of the Captain Adam Washington Ballenger Camp #68 Spartanburg, South Carolina. |
Group photo of those who attended and participated in the event. |
Just like the larger annual service in Columbia sponsored by the South Carolina Division Sons of Confederate Veterans (SC SCV) and United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) I was honored to be a part of this service and remembering those who served in defense of South Carolina and Southern independence.
Their service, and the service of all America's veterans, should never be forgotten.
2024 Confederate Memorial Day Service In Columbia, South Carolina
Confederate Memorial Day is an official State holiday in
South Carolina honored on May 10th, the anniversary of the death of
Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson on the same
day in 1863.
The holiday honors the memories of 26,670 South
Carolinians who served in defense of Southern independence during the
War Between the States (American Civil War) between 1861-1865. The
graves of these men are honored with flags and wreaths, or cleaned
annually by Confederate descendants.
On Saturday, May 4th, your favorite blogger traveled south down Highway 321 to attend the 2024 Confederate Memorial Day service at historic Elmwood Cemetery in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.
The event held annually by the South Carolina Division Sons of Confederate Veterans (SC SCV), the South Carolina Division United Daughters of the Confederacy (SC UDC), the Military Order of the Stars & Bars (MOSB), and the Children of the Confederacy, takes place on the first Saturday of May and usually draws between 300 to 600 attendees -- all of them proud descendants of Confederate veterans.
This year threatening thunderstorms kept many away, although there was still a fairly decent turnout to honor the memories of the hundreds of Confederate soldiers and veterans buried at Elmwood Cemetery, and the thousands more all across the State of South Carolina.
I passed through several heavy patches of rain between Chester County and Columbia before arriving to find that the rain had yet to start and the blessedly overcast sky kept the temperatures about 70F and the sun from blistering everyone this year.
The following are the photos I took of the event for y'all to enjoy.
The laying of the wreath at the grave of the Unknown Confederate Soldier. |
Retiring of the colors. |
I was thankful to be able to attend this year's event (last year unforseen events kept me from attending at the last minute) and to capture these moments for y'all to enjoy.