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In 1861, a young man in Holly Springs, Mississippi, walked away from a bright and promising future to take up the life of a
soldier. The young man in question was named Solon L. Whittington, and he was the owner and editor of the "Democratic Star," a newspaper he had started in Holly Springs in 1860. Whittington enlisted in the "Mississippi Rangers" on May 27, 1861, at Corinth. This unit subsequently became Company B, 17th Mississippi Infantry, and was sent to Virginia to become part of the Confederate forces defending the Old Dominion State.
Although he was a full-time soldier, Whittington was still a newsman at heart, and he very quickly began a regular column in The Memphis Daily Appeal writing about the life of a soldier and commenting on the events he witnessed. One of my favorite letters is the following one, published in the Appeal on October 13, 1862. It was written just a few weeks after the battle of Sharpsburg, the single bloodiest one day battle of war, which took place on September 17, 1862. The 17th Mississippi was heavily engaged in this battle as part of Barksdale's Mississippi brigade, and Solon Whittington's account is a very poignant reminder of just how terrible this battle was for the men who fought in it.
LETTER FROM OUR VIRGINIA ARMY
Camp Near Martinsburg, Virginia, September 24, 1862
EDITORS APPEAL: I will employ a portion of the brief time allotted us for rest here in writing a brief account of our recent active operations in Maryland. Our government yielded to the importunate solicitations of the public press in changing our policy, from the defensive to the aggressive, and, whether owing to the indefatigable zeal of our generals, or the irresistible ardor of our brave troops, or from both combined, the result, so far, has been all, yea, more, that the most sanguine could wish. Our motto was “onward, ever onward,” and from Cedar Run, Manassas, Centerville, Harper’s Ferry, Sharpsburg to Shepherdstown, our pathway has been traced in victorious gore.
When Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade reached Leesburg, the scene of our former actions, and learned that Maryland was to be our theater for a time, their enthusiasm could not be restrained, although visions of toils and hardships presented themselves, for the railroad bridges over the Rapidan and Rappahannock had been destroyed by the retreating foe, thus rendering the transportation of supplies extremely difficult, seemingly giving us no base of operations. These doubts were soon dispelled however, by the great confidence reposed in Providence and old “Stonewall,” who par parenthesis is the Jupiter Ajax and God of the Valley people, and no matter what troops pass the road, their ears are continually greeted with “hurrah for Jackson,” who is the most uncouth, unshaven, unbespangled man in his corps.
Well, on Monday, the 6th instant, our brigade crossed the Potomac, wading the stream. Nothing of interest occurred, save
cutting the locks on the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, and we reached Frederick City, an old, substantial town of some fifteen thousand inhabitants. Here we halted for a day or so, blowing up the fine iron bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, thus severing the last artery of Washington and the West. We drummed and fifed in the city very furiously for the secesh recruits, but they were non est as we obtained but few soldiers, all having been enrolled by old Abe.
A large force of the enemy being in the occupancy of Harper’s Ferry, our generals set a line to entrap them, and Jackson crossed the Potomac and threatened the town in front, while Walker occupied Loudon Heights, near the mouth of the Shenandoah, overlooking the town, while Kershaw’s South Carolina brigade and Barksdale’s Mississippi brigade, of McLaw’s division, were marched to capture Maryland Heights, a point of the Blue Ridge, also commanding the town.
Taking possession of the latter place caused quite a battle, in which Kershaw’s brigade suffered considerably. The enemy were posted on top of the mountain, about three thousand strong, hid behind breastworks, made of logs of old winter quarters, with an almost impregnable abattis of fallen timbers in front. Their flanks were protected by the sides of the mountains which were so rocky and precipitous as seemingly to defy an ascent. But Barksdale’s brigade, climbed the rocks, laying their guns on the rocks and crawling up to them, thus succeeding in flanking them effectually, which was no sooner done than the Yankees left, basically giving us possession of the most important position toward the capture of the town of Harper’s Ferry. The following is the list of the casualties of the 17th Mississippi regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel John G. Fiser, formerly of Memphis, whose coolness, bravery and intrepidity on every occasion of danger, excites the love and admiration of his men:
Company C – Wounded: James W. Bridges, mortally in lungs
Company G – Wounded: Sergeant F.M. Palmer, slightly
Company H – Killed: J.R. Lamb. Wounded: Samuel O’Briant
Company L – Wounded: E.F. Cummings, slight.
Company K – Killed: D.S. Coker. Wounded: William Prestage, slightly.
Total: Killed, 2: wounded, 5
We succeeded in getting four rifled pieces in position, and while Longstreet was holding the large body of Yankee reinforcements sent to the support of Harper’s Ferry in check, about ten miles up the valley, Louden and Maryland Heights belched forth a perfect storm of shell upon the enemy, and we soon had the pleasure of seeing the white flag displayed, and a surrender took place to the indomitable Jackson, who marched into the town, and with a magnanimity in striking contrast to the actions of our infamous foe, extended to the officers the privilege of retaining all private property and their side-arms.
This was a glorious victory, and only marred by the disappointment in failing to capture some three thousand cavalry, who escaped the night before, but the majority were afterwards captured by Longstreet and Stuart. It was the more glorious from being in a measure a bloodless one. The result of the victory was the capture of eight thousand prisoners (all paroled), eighteen thousand stand of arms, forty-seven fine cannon, three hundred horses, several dozen fine wagons, and seventy thousand rations, which were indeed a God send. We crossed the river on a fine pontoon bridge, drew our portion of the captured rations and started to the assistance of Longstreet, who was hotly pressed by all the available strength of the enemy. The paroled prisoners that we passed expressed the utmost pleasure at their release from military rigor, and were extremely jocose and blithesome.
I come now to the battle of Sharpsburg, which took place on the 18th [17th] inst., and which was decidedly the most hotly contested as well as most sanguinary engagement of the war. The entire available force of the enemy were concentrated against us, with decided advantage in position. Their artillery were well posted and well handled, and acted far better than their infantry. We were compelled to act entirely on the defensive and could have taken no advantage of a success. It was also necessary to protect the fords on which our wings rested, at which point the enemy strove to beat us back.
Our division marched the entire night of the 17th, [16th] waded the Potomac at Shepherdstown, and reached the field of battle, all jaded and worn down, about 9 o’clock, and immediately placed in the field. We found opposed to our brigade two heavy columns of infantry, which we charged and soon put to rout. The foe ran five or six hundred yards over the top of a knoll, we pursuing them, when suddenly a powerful battery was unmasked, which dealt grape and canister by the wholesale, but, undaunted and undismayed, on pushed our boys, our regiment headed by the gallant Fiser. We succeeded in running the gunners from a portion of the battery, but failing to receive support at that juncture, we were unable to hold the pieces and fell back under the cover of a fence, from whence we were soon drawn off. We occupied our battle ground all night, amid the dead and wounded, and it must not be considered exaggeration to say that the enemy lost five to our one, and a large majority of the enemy were shot in the back, a place a Southern soldier deems it a disgrace to be wounded. Their dead and wounded lay in heaps, giving unmistakable evidence of what our trusty rifles had done. The loss of our brigade was about two hundred and fifty, and of our regiment eighty-eight.
All of the 19th [18th] was spent burying the dead, and at night we took up our line of march from a point where we could possibly gain nothing. We crossed the Potomac once more that night, and halted near Shepherdstown. The Yankees were found to be in hot pursuit; D.H. Hill being in the rear, succeeded in crossing and got some pieces in position on the bluff commanding the ford, and very soon there commenced quite a spirited affair, General Hill literally bridging the Potomac with the worthless carcasses of the enemy. But he executed a strategic move; he fell back and allowed about four thousand to cross the ford and capture two pieces of artillery! But while the enemy were making merry over the capture, General Hill hove once more in range and soon sent the whole force down the precipitous banks, annihilating a whole brigade, capturing nine hundred prisoners. He was then allowed to pursue his way unmolested. The most unfortunate result accruing from our retreat was the loss of nearly all our wounded, whom the want of conveyance compelled us to leave behind.
Your correspondent’s opinion of the political status of Maryland has remained the same it always was. Under the principle of State Rights, no armed force can prevent a State, as a State, from taking its wanted position; hence if Maryland has been as Southern in sentiment as many represented, no tyranny could have kept her down. But the response we have met with there has served to cure many of the mania of ‘Maryland My Maryland.’
We found all stores closed, and an almost complete refusal to take any money but specie. And the women – God bless their pretty faces – didn’t seem to appreciate the self-sacrificing devotion of the boys, and with a few exceptions took particular care, by a contemptuous elevation of their tiny proboscis, to show their contempt of ‘you dirty rebels.’ Maryland has a few noble patriots in her limits, but as a State, she resembles Ephriam – she is tied to her idol, the g-l-o-r-i-o-u-s Union, and ought to be let alone.
Viewing the position of the combatants, I think the Confederacy has cause for congratulation over the result of the campaign so far, and we now have additional facilities for prosecuting it, which our generals will not be slow to avail themselves of. We have thrown the enemy hors du combat in every encounter; relieved Virginia for a time of his polluting tread; deprived him of the services of near fifty thousand good troops, and retarded to a great extent the effective organization of their new levies. While on our side we have yielded to the universal wish of every Southern soldier – activity, activity – abolishing thereby the ‘sick-list’ and rendering one man now equal to two before; while our unexampled success has inspired us all with an eagerness and impetuosity which no fatigue or enemy can resist.
Our generals are able and daring; our soldiers brave and eager: now inured to fatigue and hardships; hence you may be prepared at any moment for news of victory after victory. When we will leave here or where we will go, is a secret that our generals are too sagacious to reveal hence I cannot even speculate.
S.L.W.
Company B, 17th Miss. Vols.
An articulate, well educated young man could go far in the army, and Solon Whittington certainly made an impression on the officers of his regiment. In March 1862, Colonel Winfield Scott Featherston, Major John M. Lyles, and Adjutant John C. Fiser all recommended Whittington for a commission in the Confederate army. Writing to Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin they praised him as "a young man of sobriety and uprightness of character, also as having near a year's experience in military affairs, which will, in our opinion eminently qualify him for the position of a Lieutenancy in the C.S.A. (Compiled Service Record of Solon L. Whittington, 17th Mississippi Infantry, accessed on Fold3.com)
Despite the sterling recommendation, no promotion was forthcoming, but in December 1862 he was detailed to the staff of General William Barksdale, the 17th Mississippi's brigade commander. Whittington was still serving on Barksdale's staff when he was killed at the 2nd Battle of Fredericksburg, May 3, 1863. Soon after the war one of his comrades in the 17th wrote a tribute to Whittington in which he spoke of how the young soldier lost his life:
"I think I see him now in his position of peril; upon the work; on the lookout for the advance of the enemy. He was repeatedly
advised by his friends (the writer among others) to seek a more secure position. He had been directed to keep the General (who was at the time on another part of the line,) advised of any movement of the enemy. He knew that was the place for reconnaissance; he felt that a soldier's first duty was to obey orders; and he scorned the safety which could be had only be the negligence of duty. Every member of his company will bear witness that he did his duty, upon every march and in every fight: at Masassas, Leesburg, Malvern Hill and Sharpsburg, at First Fredericksburg and this his last. Just as he was about to be relieved a shell bursted in his front, and a fragment entered his forehead: he fell upon the bosom of his native South; his last act one of devotion to her...He now sleeps in the cemetery at Fredericksburg, Va. No tomb marks his resting place; but his memory will ever be cherished by his comrades." ("Solon L. Whittington," The Daily Clarion and Standard, Jackson, Mississippi, May 30, 1866)