Private Louis Leon (1841-1919) -- A Tarheel Confederate Soldier

Louis Leon (1841-1919) pictured in his United
Confederate Veterans (UCV) uniform.

Louis Leon was born on November 27, 1841 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, U.K. to German-born Jewish parents Abraham Leon (1898-1878) and Eva Hirsch Leon (1800-1874). The family immigrated to America and settled in New York City, then sometime around 1858, at the age of 16, Louis moved to Charlotte, North Carolina and settle into the small Jewish community in Mecklenburg County, finding work as a clerk in a clothing store.

When the State of North Carolina seceded from the Union on May 20, 1861, Leon -- then 19 years-old -- joined the "Charlotte Grays" Company C of the 1st North Carolina Volunteers Regiment under Captain Egbert Ross, and began his tour of duty on May 21, 1861 in Richmond, Virginia, one day after North Carolina seceded from the Union.

His tour of duty through Virginia lasted six months, during which time he participated in the Battle of Big Bethel on June 10, 1861. The 1st North Carolina Regiment was commanded in the battle by then Colonel Daniel Harvey Hill. This was also the battle where the war's first enlisted Confederate soldier -- 19 year-old Private Henry Lawson Wyatt -- was killed, the only Southern soldier to die that day.

The regiment disbanded shortly after, and he returned to Charlotte.

On April 14, 1862, Leon would again join the service of his new country and become a private in Company B, 53rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment. The regiment was mustered into Confederate service at Camp Magnum in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 30, 1862 and sent to Virginia to serve in General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia throughout the war.

Leon kept a diary of his wartime experiences as a private soldier through the war and later as a prisoner of war when he was captured along with other members of his regiment at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. Leon would remain a POW at the infamous Elmira Prison in New York until the end of the war when he would take the Oath of Loyalty to the Union upon learning of General Lee's surrender. Once he was released, he visited his parents in New York City, then returned to Charlotte to resume his career as a store clerk.

After the war and the Reconstruction Era, Leon became a Major in the North Carolina United Confederate Veterans (UCV) becoming very active in that organization both locally and nationally, and was known locally in Charlotte a "Major Leon" in honor of his service. Leon was also instrumental in helping to erect Charlotte's Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence Monument on May 20, 1898.

He married Sarah Levy (1850-1909) of New York and the couple had three children: Rebecca Leon DeLane (1874-1920), Henry L. Leon (1876-1943), and Clarence Leon (1886-1955).

His youngest son, Clarence, would serve in the United States Army in the American Expeditionary Forces as a Private in World War I. There is a photo showing the aged United Confederate Veterans at the State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina welcoming home North Carolina's American Veterans from Europe in early 1919 -- both father and son were in attendance.

North Carolina UCV members welcoming home North Carolina's "Doughboys" from the
European Western Front at the NC State Capitol in Raleigh in early 1919.
Image courtesy of the NC Department of Archives and History.

In 1913 at the age of 72, Louis Leon published his Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier with Stone Publishing Company in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the time when most first-hand accounts of the War Between The States were written by officers, Leon wanted to show the war from the point of view of the private Confederate soldier. The diary, which he kept throughout his military service and his time as a prisoner of war, shows the grizzly reality and horror of war up close and personally.

The following are the excerpts of Leon's account of the Gettysburg Campaign including the three days of fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) and aftermath:

June 25 -- Marched on, passed through Leesburg, Canada, Hockinsville, and Centerville, all small villages. We got to Carlisle, Pa., at sundown. Marched 21 miles to-day. This city is certainly a beautiful place. It has 8,000 inhabitants, and we were treated very good by the ladies. They thought we would do as their soldiers do, burn every place we passed through, but when we told them the strict orders of General Lee they were rejoiced. Our regiment was provost guard in the city, but were relieved by the 21st Georgia Regiment, and we went to camp at the U. S. barracks. So far we have lived very good in the enemy’s country. “We stayed here until the 30th, when we took the Baltimore pike road, crossed South Mountain at Holly Gap, passed through Papertown and Petersburg. We then left the Pike and took the Gettysburg road – 17 miles to-day. This has been a hard day for us, as we were the rear guard of the division, and it was very hot, close and very dusty, and a terrible job to keep the stragglers up.

July 1 -- We left camp at 6 A.M., passed through Heidelsburg and Middleton. At the latter place we heard firing in the direction of Gettysburg. We were pushed forward after letting the wagon trains get in our rear. We got to Gettysburg at 1 P.M., 15 miles. We were drawn up in line of battle about one mile south of town, and a little to the left of the Lutheran Seminary. We then advanced to the enemy’s line of battle in double quick time. We had not gotten more than 50 paces when Norman of our company fell dead by my side. Katz was going to pick him up. I stopped him, as it is strictly forbidden for anyone to help take the dead or wounded off the field except the ambulance corps. We then crossed over a rail fence, where our Lieutenant McMatthews and Lieutenant Alexander were both wounded. That left us with a captain and one lieutenant. After this we got into battle in earnest, and lost in our company very heavily, both killed and wounded. This fight lasted four hours and a half, when at last we drove them clear out of town, and took at least 3,000 prisoners. They also lost very heavily in killed and wounded, which all fell into our hands. After the fight our company was ordered to pick up all straggling Yankees in town, and bring them together to be brought to the rear as prisoners. One fellow I took up could not speak one word of English, and the first thing he asked me in German was “Will I get my pay in prison?” After we had them all put up in a pen we went to our regiment and rested. Major Iredell, of our regiment, came to me and shook my hand, and also complimented me for action in the fight. At dusk I was about going to hunt up my brother Morris, when he came to me. Thank God, we are both safe as yet. We laid all night among the dead Yankees, but they did not disturb our peaceful slumbers.

July 2 -- Our division was in reserve until dark, but our regiment was supporting a battery all day. We lost several killed and wounded, although we had no chance to fire — only lay by a battery of artillery and be shot at. The caisson of the battery we were supporting was blown up and we got a big good sprinkling of the wood from it. Just at dark we were sent to the front under terrible cannonading. Still, it was certainly a beautiful sight. It being dark, we could see the cannon vomit forth fire. Our company had to cross a rail fence. It gave way and several of our boys were hurt by others walking over them. We laid down here a short time, in fact no longer than 10 minutes, when I positively fell asleep. The cannonading did not disturb me. One of the boys shook me and told me Katz was wounded by a piece of a shell striking him on the side, and he was sent to the rear. We went on to the Baltimore Turnpike until 3 in the morning of the 3d.

July 3 -- When under a very heavy fire, we were ordered on Culps Hill, to the support of Gen. A. Johnson. Here we stayed all day — no, here, I may say, we melted away. We were on the brow of one hill, the enemy on the brow of another. We charged on them several times, but of course, running down our hill, and then to get to them was impossible, and every time we attempted it we came back leaving some of our comrades behind. Here our Lieutenant Belt lost his arm. We have now in our company a captain. All of our lieutenants are wounded. We fought here until 7 P.M., when what was left of us was withdrawn and taken to the first day’s battlefield. At the commencement of this fight our Brigade was the strongest in our division, but she is not now. We lost the most men, for we were in the fight all the time, and I have it from Colonel Owens that our regiment lost the most in the Brigade. I know that our company went in the fight with 60 men. When we left Culps Hill there were 16 of us that answered to the roll call. The balance were all killed and wounded. There were 12 sharpshooters in our company and now John Cochran and myself are the only ones that are left. This day none will forget, that participated in the fight. It was truly awful how fast, how very fast, did our poor boys fall by our sides — almost as fast as the leaves that fell as cannon and musket balls hit them, as they flew on their deadly errand. You could see one with his head shot off, others cut in two, then one with his brain oozing out, one with his leg off, others shot through the heart. Then you would hear some poor friend or foe crying for water, or for “God’s sake” to kill him. You would see some of your comrades, shot through the leg, lying between the lines, asking his friends to take him out, but no one could get to his relief, and you would have to leave him there, perhaps to die, or, at best, to become a prisoner. Our brigade was the only one that was sent to Culps Hill to support General Johnson. In our rapid firing today my gun became so hot that the ramrod would not come out, so I shot it at the Yankees, and picked up a gun from the ground, a gun that some poor comrade dropped after being shot. I wonder if it hit a Yankee; if so, I pity him. Our regiment was in a very exposed position at one time to-day, and our General Daniels ordered a courier of his to bring us from the hill. He was killed before he got to us. The General sent another. He was also killed before he reached us. Then General Daniels would not order any one, but called for volunteers. Capt. Ed. Stitt, of Charlotte, one of his aides, responded, and he took us out of the exposed position.

July 4 -- We laid on the battlefield of the first day, this the fourth day of July. No fighting to-day, but we are burying the dead. They have been lying on the field in the sun since the first day’s fight; it being dusty and hot, the dead smell terribly. The funny part of it is, the Yankees have all turned black. Several of our company, wounded, have died. Katz is getting along all right. The battle is over, and although we did not succeed in pushing the enemy out of their strong position, I am sure they have not anything to boast about. They have lost at least as many in killed and wounded as we have. We have taken more prisoners from them than they have from us. If that is not the case, why did they lay still all today and see our army going to the rear? An army that has gained a great victory follows it up while its enemy is badly crippled; but Meade, their commander, knows he has had as much as he gave, at least, if not more. As yet I have not heard a word from my brother Morris since the first day’s fight.

July 5 -- Left this morning a 5 o'clock. Only marched ten miles to-day. The enemy being in our rear, and skirmishing very strong. 

Major Louis Leon, at the age of 78, died in his sleep on June 28, 1919 in New York City, New York while visiting relatives. He is buried with is wife in the Hebrew Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The grave of Confederate veteran Louis Leon & his wife, Sarah 
at Hebrew Cemetery, Charlotte, North Carolina.

I would like to add an important caveat to this story.

In doing research on the life of Private Louis Leon, I found that there was a granite marker at the Charlotte Hebrew Cemetery near the old chapel honoring Leon along with 12 other Jewish men from Mecklenburg County who served in the Confederate military. In addition to photographing Private Leon's grave site, I was going to add a photo of that marker as well.

However, I was informed by cemetery employees that the marker had since been removed at some point by staff around 2017 out of "fears of vandalism" following the dishonorable purge of Confederate symbols and markers around that time.

Out of respect for the South's dead, I will list the names of those Jewish Confederates buried there:

Captain Julius Roessler, 13th Regiment NC Troops
1st Lieutenant Edward B. Cohen, 1st Regiment NC Volunteers
2nd Lieutenant Solomon A. Cohen, 1st Regiment NC Volunteers
Sergeant Major Aaron Katz, 53rd Regiment NC Troops
Corporal Henry Wertheim, 53rd Regiment NC Troops
Corporal Phillip Schiff, 44th Regiment GA Infantry
Private Louis Leon, 53rd Regiment NC Troops
Private Charles S. Liberman, 13th Regiment, NC Troops
Private Jonas Engel, 53rd Regiment NC Troops
Private Jacob Donau, 53rd Regiment NC Troops
Private I.C. Levi, 1st Regiment NC Volunteers
Private Sam Oppenheim, 1st Regiment NC Volunteers
Private Jacob Katz, 1st Regiment NC Volunteers

"Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad."
("Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.")
In blessed and eternal memory of those Southern men of Jewish faith who answered the call to defend Dixie 1861-1865.
May their names continue to live on as a blessing to their heritage and community.
Deo Vindice.

Source for the quotes come from the Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ISBN-13: 978-0692288214. Pages 33-38.

Confused Regressive Birmingham Rabbi Confuses Honoring Southern Dead With Nazism -- Owned By The Man Deniers Fear The Most

Greetings and Salutations everyone!

Today I have another special snowflake for y'all, one that goes all out on the whole comparison between honoring Confederate symbols (in this case monuments to the Southern dead) and Nazism. Yep, good ole Godwin's Law strikes again folks. The main argument used by the Social Just-Us crowd. 

On Thursday, July 27th, this extra-special snowflake, a Rabbi from Birmingham no less, decided to post the following article at al.com HERE. It should be noted that the site's message board is heavily edited and several fact-based pro-monument details have been deleted from comments. So because of this once again yours truly will deliver the proper rebuttal here on this blog. 

As always my responses are written in Southern Red:   


Regressive Anti-Confederate Heritage Bigot struggles to understand Southerners' affection for the Confederacy Confederate Dead -- and fails bigtime!

By Jonathan Miller, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham (With special guest C.W. Roden -- The Man Deniers Fear The Most)

I am trying to understand the affection many Southerners have for the monuments and symbols of the Confederacy. That takes an open mind and not one full of SJW nonsense, sir.

Our first home in the Birmingham area was in a neighborhood named after Civil War battles more than 150 years ago. During these battles, America lost 2 percent of its population to battlefield casualties. Actually the majority of casualties during the War Between the States were the result of diseases caught in camp, rather than actual battlefield wounds. No doubt one of many facts you will get wrong. If we consider the wives and sisters and children and parents who grieved for these soldiers on both sides of the war, the number of people who personally suffered grows exponentially. No doubt there, and I do applaud your ability to think of them. Some of those same Alabama families were the wives, brothers, and children of my own great-great-grandfather, a proud Confederate soldier who was killed at Chickamauga. And considering the fact that the Southern states seceded from the Union in order to preserve its way of life which was dependent on the institution of slavery and built on the backs of cruel taskmasters parading as gentle men and women, it is astonishing to think of this war as a moment of honor. Again your ignorance of the details shows sir.
(1) Slave masters, particularly rich plantation owners, did not personally deal with slaves in the fields. Those jobs went to overseers and sometimes black foremen, who were usually the cruel ones.
(2) The institution of slavery unfortunately was in no real danger of being abolished in the United States when the first seven Southern States seceded from the Union in 1860-1861. President Lincoln himself stated on more than one occasion that he had no plans to interfere with slavery in the States that currently practiced it.
(3) Nobody who honors the bravery of the Confederate citizen soldier thinks of that war, or the idea of war itself, as a "moment of honor" in any significant way. That you would interpret remembering the dead and war in such a manner reflects very poorly on your attitudes as a man of faith, and sense of morality as a human being.

Why would people living in Alabama want to memorialize the Civil War, let alone remember these battles as moments of Southern glory? Why do people in my own state of South Carolina remember and memorialize the American Revolutionary War? I mean slavery was practiced in America then too and the institution was in full force even as Americans fought to maintain independence from the British Crown -- the same British Empire that was already abolishing slavery in its other colonies FYI. 
Also I would again stress that honoring the dead and remember the battles does not mean memorializing war, or calling it "glory" dude.

The South lost.
The entire USA lost Vietnam, what's your point?

And as painful as that was for people living in Alabama so many decades ago, I am glad about that. Well glad you are living in a war that ended long before either of us were born. For me I don't dwell on the war itself, just honoring the dead on both sides. It wasn't my war anymore than it was yours. We kept our place in the United States of America. "We?" Um, you didn't fight in the war, nor do you speak for the events that happened so long ago. We are not a group-think collective, Rabbi Social "Just Us" Warrior. We (Americans in 1865) abolished the stain of slavery, even though the legacy of slavery and its later bigotry and racism still make life hard for the people whose ancestors were bought and sold as chattel. That of course wasn't just a "Southern thang" though was it? Lots of blame on racism and white supremacist attitudes to go all around in the good ole US of A in the late 19th to mid 20th.

And slavery, it should be noted (you missed a comma here) made life far more complicated for the slave owners and traffickers and bounty hunters who were sucked into the vortex of exploitation and violence against human beings. No doubt there, it certainly was for the folks who actually had to do the dirty work in the fields too. Slavery was and is morally wrong, and its discontinuance should be celebrated by every person of every color and religious faith. So remind me again what you and your faith (and I don't mean your religious one....or maybe I am considering the "religion" of SJWs is Liberalism first and foremost) are doing about ending slavery that still goes on in Africa and parts of the Middle East today in the 21st century? So why are some in the South in love with honor and respect the symbols of the Confederacy, particularly when they are symbols of people who lost their war and who inflected pain on their fellow human beings? Why do we honor the US flag and have that great big "participation trophy" (oops I mean wall) in Washington DC to the men who died in Vietnam, who participated in a number of alleged war crimes according to some? Humm?

I am a Jew. Really so is my friend Jenna, who also happens to be one of those "in love with" flags, monuments and graves honoring the Southern dead. I am sensitive to symbols which haunt my historical memory. Probably a little bit too sensitive like all Left-leaning twits too. The Nazi symbol of the swastika evokes fear and terror for me. Ah here we go. When I see it, I feel the pain of the terrible cruelty that Germany and Europe inflicted on their citizens and my people. Um, actually "Germany and Europe" itself did not commit those atrocities, rather it was people who did it. Land masses themselves cannot commit crimes. It makes me shudder. I am also presuming you personally were not old enough to have been involved in the Holocaust were you?

I have traveled to Germany. At first, I did not want to go. I did not want to hear the German language or admire German architecture or German culture. So you admit to being a cultural bigot then? Good, the ability to admit ones flaws is the first step to recovery. It brought back too many painful images for me. Again why? Germany has a long and rich cultural identity that existed for centuries, and that is not redefined by the efforts of the Nazi Party. Far from it. Of course I personally don't accept the concept of "collectivist guilt" nor believe that a people are guilty of the alleged crimes of one's forefathers. But I have found my travels to Germany to be healing to some degree.

The German people regret the Holocaust when they slavishly followed history's cruelest madman and perpetuated the worst crimes against humanity. Virtually all of the German people living today of course did not live during the scourge of Nazism and fascism. What would they have to feel any "guilt" over? Again collectivist guilt is garbage. While they may exist in dark alleyways, I did not see any swastikas Did you try the local Hindu temples? or jackbooted soldiers Being a democracy, Germany does not have uniformed soldiers patrolling the streets in any form. or Hitler look-alikes trying to recapture the imagined glory of the Third Reich at its most powerful. Now you're just being stupid to the point of being brain-dead silly. Where are you going with this?

Instead, the German people preserved their history without trying to whitewash it. Good for them. Seriously, I support similar efforts, even though you and I might differ on what would define "whitewashing" I suppose. On the streets of Berlin and Frankfurt and Munich are small monuments of remembrance. "Behind this wall was a Jewish school." "Here was a Jewish home/business." "On such and such a date, Jewish people were gathered in this spot and deported to (name the concentration camp) where they were killed." Sad reminders of terrible events, but I do not deny necessary ones. The victims of Hitler's holocaust of the Jewish People (not to mention any other group -- including some Christians -- that he had no use for) deserve to be remembered with dignity and honor.

Monuments like these, monuments of remembrance (again you missed a comma) remind the people of Germany of the evil their forbearers perpetuated in a brief but devastating period of historical lunacy. Such monuments exist in many countries, including this one. What is your point? In Germany today, the goal of the monuments is not to celebrate German power (comma) or to romanticize the period when the German Volk reigned supreme. Instead, the goal is to remember, to acknowledge responsibility, and then to pledge that this kind of hatred will never be perpetrated in the future against other human beings. Yes, but what does this have to do with Confederate memorials to the dead?

I believe that we Southerners should insist that we erect new monuments. I would agree there. We should not revere the generals and soldiers who lost their battles and died for an immoral cause. If by "immoral" you mean defending one's homes and families from a ruthless invader that sought to loot and plunder said homes and families, then you and I are very much in disagreement. Of course we should remember the casualties and dignify their losses to their family and community. Which is what Confederate memorials and monuments do. Of course we should remember the families who mourned for the dead sons and husbands and brothers who suffered terribly wearing the Confederate uniform and acknowledge their bravery and sacrifice. Wow you and I can agree on that one too! I'm starting to get scared now. But we should not honor the cause for which they gave the ultimate sacrifice. That cause was unjust. I would not call defending home and honor "unjust" though it is not the point. I honor the citizen soldier of the South. I could care less about the Confederate government as an entity.

We should erect monuments of places where slaves were bought and sold. We already have monuments and markers for those dude. We should erect monuments to the unnamed men and women and children whose back breaking work built our economy and sustained the privileged few. Uh we also have those too, though we could build a few more -- without tearing down other monuments or the need to vilify those who honor said monuments. We should erect monuments to the men and women of faith who resisted slavery and worked for reconciliation and wholeness and peace. Dude! We DO have monuments to those people!

The South has many heroes. We should be proud of them and celebrate them. We should also be wise enough to know who our true heroes are.

Indeed we should. In fact allow me to introduce a few of them:

Moses Ezekiel -- VMI Cadet and Confederate Veteran.
One of over 10,000 Orthodox and Messianic Jews
who fought wearing the Southern gray.

Confederate monument to Jewish Confederates in Virginia.

During World War II, it was a US military -- one largely made up of proud Confederate descendants inspired by their grandfathers who helped liberate those nations of Europe under Nazi occupation. Those same Southern-born US soldiers (some of them carrying the Dixie Cross banner in their pockets and knapsacks as reminders of their home) helped liberate those hateful Death Camps and ultimately helped save the lives of millions of Jewish (and non-Jewish) victims of the Holocaust. It was those who honored those same men who wore the hallowed Confederate gray and butternut who defeated fascism and brought Nazi war criminals to justice.

Captain John D. "Stud" Fleming of Columbia, Tennessee and commander
of the B-29 Goin Jesse waves a Confederate flag as he prepares to takeoff
on another bombing run in late 1944.

Oh and just one more thing to add: 

This is a marker placed by some of those same proud Confederate descendants, in honor of slaves buried on the site of an old cemetery near Gastonia, North Carolina. Indeed, these same people -- who honor those monuments, who fly those Confederate flags, who wear those gray uniforms on occasions -- who took the time to clear the land where these unknown graves were once overgrown and largely forgotten. Who maintain it today in memory of those souls laid to rest there, ensuring that their lives are never forgotten again.

How is THAT for erecting new memorials? 

Have a wonderful Dixie day, and y'all come back now, ya hear?