My gg/grandfather, Sgt. Joseph Sherrod, Co. H, 48th Georgia Volunteer Infantry, Wrights Brigade, Andersons Division, Hills Corp, Lees Army, died 150 years ago today. Specifics are hard to come by but the best I can put together is that he was killed in Mahones counterattack after the Yankees mined the Confederate lines. Mahone was commanding Andersons Division, Anderson was standing in for Longstreet, wounded at The Wilderness; the Army of Northern Virginia was a shadow of its former self and had in many ways lost its identity by the time of The Crater. I dont know the precise circumstances of his death; it was probably from artillery fire and might well have been from friendly artillery. It was a very confused battle. There is an old family story that some relatives went to Petersburg - Richmond in the 30s or so and found his grave. Ive not been able to find any record of his burial and the best I can come up with is that hes buried in the mass grave of Georgia soldiers at Blandford Church in Petersburg. I spent two days in the hot August sun stomping around there trying to find anything definitive back in 07. I have a copy of the letter from his Lt. to my gg/grandmother informing her of his death; it is remarkably cold and matter of fact, but by then thered been a lot of dying. I have the archetypal blood-stained testament he had in his pocket when he was killed and I have a lot of his letters home. He was a very reluctant soldier. He was an educated man of some stature and tried about everything he could to avoid Confederate service, but when the day came, March 4, 1862, he did what so many Georgia men did and volunteered. As Shelby Foote said about Picketts Charge; it would have taken more courage not to. As an educated man, he was able to spend a lot of the war on various administrative details. As the Confederacy ran out of men and began robbing the cradle and the grave in 64, his ability to stay out of the ranks just ran out. I have a series of letters in which he is proposing buying a substitute and clearly has the money. I dont have her letters to him - letters from home to a Civil War soldier are extraordinarily rare - but it is clear that my gg/grandmother is having nothing of her man lying abed while other men are fighting. She paid for that by losing the place and being on the Indigent Soldiers Widows and Orphans Relief List in 68. Fighting in the combat units of the Provisional Army of the Confederate States was about the very worst thing you could do for your family. Rest in Peace, Sgt. Sherrod.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 02:56:22 +0000