Eugene Scruggs - The Boys of Company K

Eugene Scruggs

THE BOYS OF COMPANY K

Copyright 2020 Eugene Scruggs

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-64895-277-7

ISBN (Ebook): 978-1-64895-278-4

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Other works by this author

Adventures in the Age of Louis XIV

Transitions in Transition: An introduction to France for Americans

The View from Brindley Mountain:
A Memoir of the Rural South (2nd edition)

Tramping with the Legion: A Carolina Rebels Story

Playing the Fool: Survival in the Age of Louis XIV

Selections from Searching for Scruggs (ed.)

The Last Troubadour

For Judith Smith Crider, promoter extraordinaire

Authors Note

T he following story is a work of fiction based on oral history, notes, and letters, and a meticulous search of the official records housed in the national library. None of the boys of Company K are products of imagination. They were all real-life combatants who fought for what they felt was duty and honor. The military engagements, the casualties, the paroles, and the furloughs are all based on reports and extant records. Imagination (or fiction) plays a role in the creation of dialog between individual members of the company.

A significant part of this historical novel can be found in a previous genealogical and biographical study titled Tramping with the Legion , which traces the lives of many of my ancestral families up to the twentieth century. The present story focuses only on the various exploits of the men and boys who formed Company K of the Holcombe Legion of South Carolina Volunteers.

These men felt strongly that they were engaged in a life-or-death struggle to defend families and homeland. To a man, none of these combatants ever owned slaves. They were farmers and artisans who owned little property and no wealth. The men of Company K were hardy stock who withstood almost unimaginable hardship, disease, and starvation. Those who survived endured traumatic stress for the remainder of their lives in an era when no one could understand their psychological pain. These men were far removed from the plantation owners who sent them to war to save the luxurious lifestyle they enjoyed at the expense of slavery. Wealthy landowners often hired substitutes to fight the war for them.

I do not glorify the boys of Company K, nor do I treat them as heroes. In any case, they did not see themselves in that way. It is easy to condemn their actions, yet they had lives that cannot be ignored. What they believed and felt must be recognized and what they sacrificed need to be known. We cannot sweep their exploits into the dustbin of history as though they never lived.

In this work, I attempt only to tell the real story of the wartime experiences of the boys of Company K. I do not seek to aggrandize or augment their actions. Since they share a bit of the code in my DNA, I cannot deny them.

A Few Words about the Dialect

I attempt to create a feeling for the dialect that would have been common in the non-com foot soldiers of the southern hill country. This is not an easy task. I did not want to create something that would be so faithful that it would be difficult to read. I believe the feel for the spoken word can be illustrated with just a few spelling changes.

An extensive list of these colloquialisms can be found at the end of the final chapter.

Acknowledgments

D uring the recreation of this story about infantrymen in Company K of the Holcombe Legion, I received assistance from librarians and archivists North and South who freely offered their valuable time. Special attention came from two archivists at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DCTrevor K. Plante (Old Military and Civil Records Division) and Mary Beth Rephlo (Office of Records Services).

I am grateful for the kind assistance of the head genealogist at the Spartanburg County Public Libraries in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Ms. Susan Thoms. Additional help came from archivists at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia, who graciously directed me to records relating to the early years of Spartanburg District.

Research on the infantry regiment of Holcombe Legion was made easier by the prior efforts of Charles D. Cox. His report titled Tracking the Holcombe Legion (self-printed in 1992) gave me a valuable head start and served as a frequent reference while tracing the regiments trampings across the South.

I spent three days in Elmira, New York, learning what I could about the Union prison camp for Confederate noncommissioned officers that was opened in that city in the summer of 1864. Nothing but a plaque remains of the prison camp. I discovered that the citizens of Elmire whom I met did not even know that there had been a prison camp in their town. However, the members of the staff at the history museum, the archivists at the Booth Library at the Chemung County Historical Society, and the staff in the Genealogy Department of the Steele Memorial Library all offered significant expertise and encouragement.

Helpful suggestions concerning the Union Military District and provost marshals records were passed along by the staff of the National Park Service at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. This information was valuable in recreating the final chapter of the book.

Probably few people know more about Confederate camp life and military tactics than those who spend weekends involved in reenactments. One reenactor, Jim Crocker, offered valuable advice and expertise. Jim is a member of the States Rights Gist Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (a camp that includes members from the Spartanburg and Union Counties of South Carolina, many of whom are descendants of infantrymen in Company K). I am especially indebted to manuscript readersthe late Dr. Roger Cole, Linguistic Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida He was particularly helpful with dialectology. Finally, I am indebted to Dr. DeWitt B. Stone Jr. Special assistant to the president, Lander University, Greenwood, South Carolina. Dr. Stone is editor of Wandering to Glory, a publication containing stories told by the men in General Nathan Evanss Brigade, to which the Holcombe Legion was attached.