I am sure many have not heard of the battle of Harris Farm. The house has been demolished because of disrepair. ( fredericksburg/news/local/spotsylvania/historic-spotsylvania-farm-house-demolished/article_4e6ce35f-1df9-5f1f-ac7d-e829cc740749.html ) Here is the story of just one young man who lost his life there: James Zachariah Branscomb was one of seven sons of a cotton farmer named Bennett, who owned a 400-acre spread and several slaves in Union Springs, Ala., once described as a healthy land where lived the wealthiest plantations. Seeking to fulfill his dream to own a cotton farm, Bennett had moved his growing family from South Carolina in 1842. Although of more modest means than the wealthier families in the region, the Branscombs lived comfortably in Union Springs, which before the Civil War was home to thriving tanneries, hotels and several factories. Shortly after war broke out in April 1861, four of 57-year-old Bennetts sons, William, John, James and Lewis, joined the 3rd Alabama in Montgomery, undoubtedly causing great angst for their mother, Eliza, 57. A little more than a year into the war, tragedy landed on the Branscombs doorstep when word arrived of the death from measles of 31-year-old William at a military hospital in Richmond. Dont grieve Ma, Private James Branscomb wrote to his mother on June 25, 1862, 10 days after his brother died. He is better off though tis hard to lose him. You may have more to grieve for than him before this war ends. On May 18, 1864, the day before the Battle of Harris Farm, 3rd Alabama Private James Branscomb wrote this letter to his sister in Union Springs, Ala. We have killed thousands, he wrote. The letter inspired this song. (Image of letter courtesy Frank Chappell) For James, a 25-year-old sharpshooter in Company D, there would be awful battles to come at Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. But the continuous, savage fighting at the Wilderness (May 5-7, 1864) and Spotsylvania Courthouse (May 8-21) was especially difficult for an outnumbered Confederate army. As he took pencil in hand to write a letter home from the front lines on May 18, 1864, James and his comrades in the Army of Northern Virginia must have been exhausted -- and no end to the fighting was in sight. Dear Sister, Branscombs letter to Lucinda Hunter began, I can almost feel the anxious throbbing of your heart but could not write sooner. Today is the first mail we have had since the fight began. Today makes two weeks of fighting. Our regiment has been engaged four times. I have never seen any fighting to compare with this. Our loss has been heavy but nothing to compare with the enemy. We have killed thousands. I have killed two myself. James unsigned, two-page letter was never sent. The next day, he was killed at Harris Farm. (Less than two months later, another Branscomb boy, 21-year-old Willie, was killed by a sharpshooter in Harpers Ferry, Va.)
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 14:20:46 +0000
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