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Gents,
I have started some research on the 2nd and wanted share some of my findings. Thisis pretty initial stuff so details aren’t extensive. I tried to focus a lot on the area of Mississippi that the regiment came out of. Primarily the area that Co. H came out of so forgive me for not finding information on all the companies. The idea is to give myself a little background on the things that the men knew beyond the material side. I don’t know if any 1st person is planned but, if so I hope that some of the following info will help.
I have sources and links listed at the end.
The companies that comprised the 2nd Mississippi were raised in the then four counties that made up the northeastern corner of the state - Tishomingo, Itawamba, Tippah, and Pontotoc. Following the Civil War, these counties were partitioned into several new ones that, in addition to the four "old" counties above, include all or parts of these "new" counties: Alcorn, Prentiss, Lee, Union and Benton.
Here is a list of companies of the 2nd with counties they were raised/mustered:
Company A -- Tishomingo Riflemen (raised in Tishomingo County, MS)
Company B -- O’Connor Rifles (raised in Tippah County, MS)
Company C -- Town Creek Riflemen (raised in Itawamba County, MS)
Company D -- Beck Rifles, aka Joe Matthews Rifles (raised in Tippah County, MS)
Company E -- Calhoun Rifles (raised in Itawamba County, MS)
Company F -- Magnolia Rifles (raised in Tippah County, MS)
Company G -- Pontotoc Minute Men (raised in Pontotoc County, MS)
Company H -- Conewah Rifles (raised in Pontotoc County, MS)
Company I -- Cherry Creek Rifles (raised in Pontotoc County, MS)
Company K -- Iuka Rifles (raised in Tishomingo County, MS)
Companies G, H and I were mustered in Pontotoc County. That county currently includes Lee and Union counties. Pontotoc is a Chickasaw word meaning "land of hanging grapes. The 1860 census showed that Pontotoc County had 22,113 inhabitants. In 1870 there was only a little over 12,000. Don’t know why the significant drop but that is another story I suppose.
“The region of Pontotoc Co. is interesting in the fact that there are no rivers but several creeks and small watersheds through out the area. Pontotoc also has three distinct topographical regions. The western half of the county is known as the FLATWOODS, so called because it is largely flat, with very few hills, and the water-level is near the surface. The western half is known as PONTOTOC RIDGE and is made up of steep hills and bluffs, of which many are in cultivation or in use as pastures. The PRAIRIE BELT touches the southeastern part of the county. This is a rich fertile part of the county, which produces fine crops of hay.”(PCGS)
Here is a parts of a letter dated, July 30, 1861 and was written by T. J. Matthews to Nancy Elizabeth Fortescue. Great details on crop conditions, farming technique in the area, and even mentions troops from the county in Virginia. Undoubtedly Matthews is talking the boys in the 2nd:
July 30, 1861
Dear Elizabeth,
I take this opportunity of writing to you to let you know that we are all well at present, and I hope these few lines will reach you enjoying the same blessing, for it is a great blessing to enjoy health. Altho I am in good health I am afflicted with pains now and then.
We received you letter the sixth of this month. It gave us great pleasure to hear from you all. I went to town that day to put five letters in the office to T. B. Scott and one to Clark McGraw (McGaw) and one to Kitty and Agnes Martin and the balance to other places. I got one from you and Tom backed to Jane , and one from Mat backed to Dick , and when any of us gets a letter from South Carolina it is who and who will get to read it first, until all reads it. We get so little news from there and it comes so seldom that it turns us all upside down to get a nice letter that come from there.
I have not much news to write as times are so hard. The people here are all for fight, and doing all they can to secure arms and munitions to fight with. There are a great many gone to Virginia from here and have been in some battles there, and I expect they have been in a very large battle by this time, and a great many have gone to Tennessee to stop the progress of the enemy there and they want more men to help them. I expect we all will have to go there or somewhere else yet to fight. We are fixing up shotguns and rifles and having bowie knives made in the blacksmiths shops to fight with, because we can't secure the right kink of arms; they ain't to be had, at least not enough of them.
Crops look fine now but begin to want rain, except cotton. It is very small for the time of year. I think if we have good luch we will make eight hundred or one thousand bushels of corn. I intend to sow about twenty ............crops in wheat and oats this fall if nothing happens.
Tell Tom we have fine fun catching raccoons and ground hogs in our corn. We have shot and caught a great many. We don't have to go far from the house to catch them, for they come up to the house and go to fighting, and the dogs take after them, and trees three or four up a tree, and the deers come in our field, and there are several large droves of wild turkeys come in the plantation every day. Sometimes they come to the spring which ain't more than twenty-five yards from the house and then come in the lot. Dick and John Lewis killed one apiece the other day.
O' Liza you ought to be here to eat watermelons. We have more than we can destroy. We all have a patch apiece, and I have more than a hundred fine large orange watermelons ripe in my patch now, and have them to weigh from sixteen pounds to twenty pounds apiece. One watermelon is as much as Jane and myself can eat at a time. Sometimes we don't get through with it. You had better come over to get a bite of the nicest you have ever seen. We have had them for sometime, and will have them until frost. I could take them to town and get from 40 to 50 cts. apiece for them but I won't, for that is taking up a negro's trade, although a good many white folks do it.
I will give you some idea how crops grow here. We planted about six acres of corn in new ground and some little in old land on the fourth and fifth of July, and now it is from waist high to as high as my head, and it never has been worked until now. We are working it, and this is the seventh of August. It would make good corn even if it never was worked. We had a beautiful rain this evening that stopped us from work. We lack about one day's plowing of getting through the new ground. (PCGS)
Farming and agriculture was the top trades in the north east part of Mississippi. I haven’t been able to find yet what the slave owning population was in the region. Or the slave ratio of the population. I did find this “By 1860, of the 22,517 residents of Tippah County, 6,311 were black or about one out of four. In 1860, Tippah County produced 20,327 bales of cotton, 814,625 bushels of corn and 58,049 bushels of wheat“. (TCHS) So one can safely assume that all four counties were in similar situations. Farming being the main occupation of the men of the 2nd.
Here is some bullet points I found on the 2nd in its organization and some events leading to the battle:
-Co. H was mustered in at Chesterville on March 1, 1861. (Chesterville is still in Pontotoc Co.) Co. G was organized in March 1861 with a total strength of 129 men. This company had been drilled and partially equipped prior to the secession convention that assembled in Jackson and passed on the Secession ordinance Jan. 9, 1861. Co. I was commissioned into service April 1, 1861. I couldn’t find much on the Cherry Creek Rifles.
-“From Corinth, the Regiment traveled by train to Lynchburg, Virginia, where on Wednesday, May 10, 1861, the companies drilled until noon. After lunch, they were mustered into the services of the Confederate States of American by a Major Clay. The enlistment was for 12 months, and the men obtained a bounty of $50.00 for joining. A total of 932 men, exclusive of officers, was sworn in as members of the Second Mississippi Regiment.”(TCHS)
-From Lynchburg, the Second Mississippi took the train to Strasbury via Charlottesville and Manassas. They marched the 18 miles between Strasbury and Winchester and boarded a train to Harpers Ferry.
-By May 31st disease had started to work on the farm boys of the 2nd. Measles seem to be the biggest culprit with 13 cases reported.
Interesting to note that around the same time a AIG report from the Mississippi state archives had this to say about the 2nd. "very careless in its appointments. The officers are entirely without military knowledge of any description, and the men have a slovenly and unsoldier-like appearance."
Around June 19th the 2nd was placed in the Third Brigade under Bee. The brigade consisted of:
2nd Mississippi
11th Mississippi
4th Alabama
6th NCST
Stanton Battery(4 guns) Imboden.
Again, this is just the start of my research. I hope that anything that can be added from any of you will be.
Sources:
-Pontotoc County, Mississippi Genealogy and History Society.http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mspontot/
-Diary of Maj. John H. Buchanan
-http://www.2ndmississippi.org/
-Tippah County Historical Society.
I have started some research on the 2nd and wanted share some of my findings. Thisis pretty initial stuff so details aren’t extensive. I tried to focus a lot on the area of Mississippi that the regiment came out of. Primarily the area that Co. H came out of so forgive me for not finding information on all the companies. The idea is to give myself a little background on the things that the men knew beyond the material side. I don’t know if any 1st person is planned but, if so I hope that some of the following info will help.
I have sources and links listed at the end.
The companies that comprised the 2nd Mississippi were raised in the then four counties that made up the northeastern corner of the state - Tishomingo, Itawamba, Tippah, and Pontotoc. Following the Civil War, these counties were partitioned into several new ones that, in addition to the four "old" counties above, include all or parts of these "new" counties: Alcorn, Prentiss, Lee, Union and Benton.
Here is a list of companies of the 2nd with counties they were raised/mustered:
Company A -- Tishomingo Riflemen (raised in Tishomingo County, MS)
Company B -- O’Connor Rifles (raised in Tippah County, MS)
Company C -- Town Creek Riflemen (raised in Itawamba County, MS)
Company D -- Beck Rifles, aka Joe Matthews Rifles (raised in Tippah County, MS)
Company E -- Calhoun Rifles (raised in Itawamba County, MS)
Company F -- Magnolia Rifles (raised in Tippah County, MS)
Company G -- Pontotoc Minute Men (raised in Pontotoc County, MS)
Company H -- Conewah Rifles (raised in Pontotoc County, MS)
Company I -- Cherry Creek Rifles (raised in Pontotoc County, MS)
Company K -- Iuka Rifles (raised in Tishomingo County, MS)
Companies G, H and I were mustered in Pontotoc County. That county currently includes Lee and Union counties. Pontotoc is a Chickasaw word meaning "land of hanging grapes. The 1860 census showed that Pontotoc County had 22,113 inhabitants. In 1870 there was only a little over 12,000. Don’t know why the significant drop but that is another story I suppose.
“The region of Pontotoc Co. is interesting in the fact that there are no rivers but several creeks and small watersheds through out the area. Pontotoc also has three distinct topographical regions. The western half of the county is known as the FLATWOODS, so called because it is largely flat, with very few hills, and the water-level is near the surface. The western half is known as PONTOTOC RIDGE and is made up of steep hills and bluffs, of which many are in cultivation or in use as pastures. The PRAIRIE BELT touches the southeastern part of the county. This is a rich fertile part of the county, which produces fine crops of hay.”(PCGS)
Here is a parts of a letter dated, July 30, 1861 and was written by T. J. Matthews to Nancy Elizabeth Fortescue. Great details on crop conditions, farming technique in the area, and even mentions troops from the county in Virginia. Undoubtedly Matthews is talking the boys in the 2nd:
July 30, 1861
Dear Elizabeth,
I take this opportunity of writing to you to let you know that we are all well at present, and I hope these few lines will reach you enjoying the same blessing, for it is a great blessing to enjoy health. Altho I am in good health I am afflicted with pains now and then.
We received you letter the sixth of this month. It gave us great pleasure to hear from you all. I went to town that day to put five letters in the office to T. B. Scott and one to Clark McGraw (McGaw) and one to Kitty and Agnes Martin and the balance to other places. I got one from you and Tom backed to Jane , and one from Mat backed to Dick , and when any of us gets a letter from South Carolina it is who and who will get to read it first, until all reads it. We get so little news from there and it comes so seldom that it turns us all upside down to get a nice letter that come from there.
I have not much news to write as times are so hard. The people here are all for fight, and doing all they can to secure arms and munitions to fight with. There are a great many gone to Virginia from here and have been in some battles there, and I expect they have been in a very large battle by this time, and a great many have gone to Tennessee to stop the progress of the enemy there and they want more men to help them. I expect we all will have to go there or somewhere else yet to fight. We are fixing up shotguns and rifles and having bowie knives made in the blacksmiths shops to fight with, because we can't secure the right kink of arms; they ain't to be had, at least not enough of them.
Crops look fine now but begin to want rain, except cotton. It is very small for the time of year. I think if we have good luch we will make eight hundred or one thousand bushels of corn. I intend to sow about twenty ............crops in wheat and oats this fall if nothing happens.
Tell Tom we have fine fun catching raccoons and ground hogs in our corn. We have shot and caught a great many. We don't have to go far from the house to catch them, for they come up to the house and go to fighting, and the dogs take after them, and trees three or four up a tree, and the deers come in our field, and there are several large droves of wild turkeys come in the plantation every day. Sometimes they come to the spring which ain't more than twenty-five yards from the house and then come in the lot. Dick and John Lewis killed one apiece the other day.
O' Liza you ought to be here to eat watermelons. We have more than we can destroy. We all have a patch apiece, and I have more than a hundred fine large orange watermelons ripe in my patch now, and have them to weigh from sixteen pounds to twenty pounds apiece. One watermelon is as much as Jane and myself can eat at a time. Sometimes we don't get through with it. You had better come over to get a bite of the nicest you have ever seen. We have had them for sometime, and will have them until frost. I could take them to town and get from 40 to 50 cts. apiece for them but I won't, for that is taking up a negro's trade, although a good many white folks do it.
I will give you some idea how crops grow here. We planted about six acres of corn in new ground and some little in old land on the fourth and fifth of July, and now it is from waist high to as high as my head, and it never has been worked until now. We are working it, and this is the seventh of August. It would make good corn even if it never was worked. We had a beautiful rain this evening that stopped us from work. We lack about one day's plowing of getting through the new ground. (PCGS)
Farming and agriculture was the top trades in the north east part of Mississippi. I haven’t been able to find yet what the slave owning population was in the region. Or the slave ratio of the population. I did find this “By 1860, of the 22,517 residents of Tippah County, 6,311 were black or about one out of four. In 1860, Tippah County produced 20,327 bales of cotton, 814,625 bushels of corn and 58,049 bushels of wheat“. (TCHS) So one can safely assume that all four counties were in similar situations. Farming being the main occupation of the men of the 2nd.
Here is some bullet points I found on the 2nd in its organization and some events leading to the battle:
-Co. H was mustered in at Chesterville on March 1, 1861. (Chesterville is still in Pontotoc Co.) Co. G was organized in March 1861 with a total strength of 129 men. This company had been drilled and partially equipped prior to the secession convention that assembled in Jackson and passed on the Secession ordinance Jan. 9, 1861. Co. I was commissioned into service April 1, 1861. I couldn’t find much on the Cherry Creek Rifles.
-“From Corinth, the Regiment traveled by train to Lynchburg, Virginia, where on Wednesday, May 10, 1861, the companies drilled until noon. After lunch, they were mustered into the services of the Confederate States of American by a Major Clay. The enlistment was for 12 months, and the men obtained a bounty of $50.00 for joining. A total of 932 men, exclusive of officers, was sworn in as members of the Second Mississippi Regiment.”(TCHS)
-From Lynchburg, the Second Mississippi took the train to Strasbury via Charlottesville and Manassas. They marched the 18 miles between Strasbury and Winchester and boarded a train to Harpers Ferry.
-By May 31st disease had started to work on the farm boys of the 2nd. Measles seem to be the biggest culprit with 13 cases reported.
Interesting to note that around the same time a AIG report from the Mississippi state archives had this to say about the 2nd. "very careless in its appointments. The officers are entirely without military knowledge of any description, and the men have a slovenly and unsoldier-like appearance."
Around June 19th the 2nd was placed in the Third Brigade under Bee. The brigade consisted of:
2nd Mississippi
11th Mississippi
4th Alabama
6th NCST
Stanton Battery(4 guns) Imboden.
Again, this is just the start of my research. I hope that anything that can be added from any of you will be.
Sources:
-Pontotoc County, Mississippi Genealogy and History Society.http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mspontot/
-Diary of Maj. John H. Buchanan
-http://www.2ndmississippi.org/
-Tippah County Historical Society.