The Corporals of the "Randolph Hornets" are the final set of officers to review. Like the
Sergeants, the Corporals do not seem to follow any sort of promotion schedule like the
Captains and the
Lieutenants. The following men served in the War as Corporals for the 22nd North Carolina Infantry, Company M.
Remember,
future Sergeants Stephen W. Trogdon and James E. Campbell were also Corporals in their time with the Company. I will not go over their time with the Company again, but I will instead continue on to the other men who served in the position. Since there did not seem to be a determined ranking of the Corporals in the unit, I will present them in order of enlistment instead.
First, we'll begin with
M. R. James. He was a 24-year-old when he enlisted with the Company on 10 June 1861 as a 4th Corporal. I'm not sure what happened to M. R. James, but he was discharged from service on 1 August 1861.
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| Taken from Service Records |
You'll remember, the Company didn't actually muster into service until March 1862 having been at camp since their organization the previous June.
Maybe camp life wasn't suited for M. R. Or maybe he had some emergency at home. I don't know much about M. R. outside of this service, so I can't even venture a guess on what happened to him.
The next Corporal in the Company I'll cover was
John T. Turner. John was only 18 when he enlisted as a Private on 10 June 1861.
John seems to stay out of trouble for a full year until he shows up being wounded on 26 June 1862. The next month, in July 1862, he is listed as being
absent due to his wound(s). It is also the first time he shows up as a Corporal.
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| Taken from Service Records |
I'm not sure how long his leave was supposed to last or if he was in a hospital somewhere during this time, but
he shows up as being AWOL in September 1862. By October, however, the records show him as still being wounded instead of AWOL.
While I'm unsure what his wound was or how badly he was wounded, it seems to have been so bad that he was
discharged 18 March 1863 because of his wound(s).
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| Taken from Service Records |
The next Corporal for the Company to discuss is
Wesley C. Siler. Wesley enlisted as a 21-year-old on 10 June 1861 and was immediately made a Corporal.
Wesley's service leaves only question after question though. In December 1861, he was listed as being absent with leave.
There is no mention online on the reason for his leave.
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| Taken from Service Records |
Then, he signs with
Power of Attorney for the Hornets which seems to have been granted to him on 30 March 1863 at Camp Gregg.
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| Taken from Service Records |
I'm curious the reason for him having Power of Attorney, and I'm curious what he was signing on behalf of the Company. Further research into this matter would be required to find out the reasons for it.
Then, just a few months after being granted Power of Attorney, Wesley was
killed at Gettysburg. His record shows he was a 3rd Corporal at this point in the War and that he had served in 10 battles.
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| Taken from Service Records |
Wesley wasn't the only man to be elected Corporal upon enlistment.
James M. Routh also enlisted 10 June 1861 and entered as a Corporal.
Unfortunately, James didn't start his time as Corporal off very well. By 28 August 1861, he was sent off to Fredricksburg sick.
Remember that future 4th Sergeant William Franklin Hays and future 5th Sergeant Thomas B. Hays were also sick and sent to Fredricksburg and future Captain Columbus F. Siler went to wait on them there.
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| Taken from Service Records |
I don't know how long James was sick at Fredricksburg, or if he ever showed back up with the Company again after that as he disappears from the records until 23 February 1865. I'm really curious what happened to James during those three-and-a-half years because when he shows back up,
he shows up as a deserter.
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| Taken from Service Records |
I tried to find a record of his Union service, but all I could find out about him, I found in his Confederate records.
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| Taken from Service Records |
One record says he was sent to Captain Potter. I can't discern from the record if Captain Potter was located in City Point, Virginia or if the Provost Marshall was, but wherever Captain Potter was located, James was sent there on 24 February 1865. Another says he was sent to Colonel T. Ingraham in Washington, D.C on 26 February 1865.
Then James disappears from the records.
I'd like to look into what happened to James after he joined Colonel Ingraham, but more in depth research will be needed for that outside of what I can find online.
The final Corporal to cover for the unit was
William C. Jones. The 22-year-old blacksmith enlisted the latest of all the other Corporals. He enlisted 6 March 1862.
Remember, the company organized in June of 1861, but they actually didn't join the fighting until 10 March 1862.
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| Taken from Service Records |
I don't know if it was at all related to William missing the nine months of camp that all of the other men in the unit endured, but William seemed to spend a lot of his time in the War in the hospital.
In the September-October 1862 muster rolls, he is listed as being "wounded." On 16 September 1862, we see him at the
Chimborazo Hospital No. 3 in Richmond with
rheumatism.
He seems to have stayed at Chimborazo No. 3 for about three months. In December 1862, he is transferred to the
CSA General Hospital located in Farmville, Virginia.
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| Taken from Service Records |
William seems to stay at the hospital in Farmville for seven months. While he doesn't seem to have any mention of why he had such a prolonged stay, he shows up as having been issued clothing at the hospital in the months of February, March, and June. Then, on 1 July 1863, he was sent to the fortifications at Richmond.
He probably wasn't well enough for Gettysburg anyways.
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| Taken from Service Records |
The next time William shows up in the records is January 1864, and
he was listed as a Corporal.
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| Taken from Service Records |
I'm not sure what happened to William from January/February to May, but on 5 May 1864, he shows up as being "wounded" again.
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| Taken from Service Records |
By June, he shows up at the CSA General Hospital in Danville, Virginia, and I have found what his wound entailed.
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| Taken from Service Records |
He was shot in the hand! Now, I don't want to read too much into this, but in my mind, this seems self-inflicted.
(I may have just been watching too much "M*A*S*H" lately, but this reminds me of a real-life Corporal Klinger.)
William stayed in Danville for just about a week before being transferred to
General Hospital No. 2 in Columbia, South Carolina where he is shown as being issued clothing.
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| Taken from Service Records |
I don't know how long he stayed in South Carolina, but by September 1864, he is back at the hospital in Danville, Virginia. Just a couple of weeks later, William is listed as being furloughed.
I don't know how long William's furlough was supposed to last (most seemed to be, at most, 30 days), but the last record I find for him lists him as being
AWOL since 30 October 1864. Maybe he really did run away from the War, or maybe he was simply hiding out at the hospitals like he had been doing for the two years before.
In any case, it doesn't seem as though William saw much, if any, actual action in the War.
How in the world did he ever manage to actually get promoted?
Well, this concludes the officers portion of the Company. In the next four installments of this unit, I will break up and go over the Privates of the "Hornets." Look for those posts over the next several weeks!
Sources:
- Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of North Carolina (accessed on Fold3)
