Family History
A Poor Man’s War
The story about my 4th great-grandfather’s life and service in the Confederate Army.
The Civil War cut short the lives of well over 600,000 Americans. It is to this day the bloodiest war America has ever been in, beating all other wars combined. Every part of this young country was impacted by this terrible conflict. This is especially true for the South and my ancestors. While researching this project a song always popped up in my head, especially one lyric: “You fought all the way, Johnny Reb.” The song by Johnny Horton is about a Confederate soldier serving in general Lee’s army who was killed during fighting. I will always link that song and my ancestor’s life from now on:
“You fought for your folks, but you didn’t die in vain.”
As I researched further, I learned that the Civil War was a poor man’s war. Those with property often watched from the sidelines with picnic baskets. I sometimes wondered if my ancestor knew what he was fighting for.
When the Civil War broke out, my 4th great-grandfather, Joseph Alexander Thomas was a poor yeoman farmer just scrapping by in York County in the Backcountry of South Carolina. He did not own any slaves or had plans to; he owned two hundred acres of land and only twenty-six of those acres were used as farmland. In the winter of 1861–1862, he signed up into the 18th Regiment of the South Carolina Volunteers, G Company.
Joseph left his wife Margret with their seven children and newborn child to fight for the Confederacy. Shortly afterward, his newborn child died which was quite common back in the 19th century. His unit was soon thrown into the hell known as war in the late summer to early fall of 1862. His first major battle was the 2nd Battle of Manassas (August 28–30, 1862) followed by the Battle of South Mountain (Sep 14, 1862) and finally the bloodiest day in American history; the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862) where over 22,500 Americans were casualties in a single day. Joseph’s unit was then called back to Charleston, South Carolina to help with the siege operations in the winter of 1863–1864. This would be the last time my 4th great-grandfather would see his home state of South Carolina.
In the spring of 1864, his unit was ordered to march back up to Virginia and help combat the siege of Petersburg. The Union knew that if they took over Petersburg they could launch an attack against the Confederate capital in Richmond, 25-miles north.
During the Battle of Proctor’s Creek, an engagement in the larger Petersburg Campaign, Joseph was shot in the arm and was taken to Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond to recuperate.
Joseph was to receive “medical aid” which would be hacking off his arm to prevent infection. This was normal practice on both sides of the Civil War. The idea at the time was that if you would cut off the limb infection would not spread throughout the body. Despite having his arm lobbed off, Joseph Alexander Thomas would still die of infection on June 9, 1864, leaving behind his eight young sons and his wife Margret. He was buried in a mass grave at Hollywood Cemetery, where many CSA generals are buried, along with CSA President Jefferson Davis. I after finding his tombstone, I wanted to get a better understanding of why my 4th great-grandfather left his family to go and perish in the Civil War and how his death impacted his family, especially in the Reconstruction era in the South.
This story is larger than my 4th great-grandfather. It is also the story of the 600,000 plus Americans who gave their lives during the Civil War. It is about the families of the soldiers on both sides who never saw their fathers, sons, brothers, and husbands. Even if they did see their boys come back home, their lives were changed forever.
It is interesting that no one in my family had prior knowledge about Joseph Alexander Thomas’s life and sacrifice. Joseph Thomas’s son William Cicero Thomas died at the age of 26. His son, John Jackson Thomas, was killed by a train in 1940 when he was 65. My great-grandfather Charles “Ned” Thomas I was the seventh of eight children, born over a span of 23 years. The early deaths of the father figures of my family could have caused the story of Joseph’s life to be temporarily forgotten.
This project has also evoked an interest in Joseph Alexander’s homeplace in York County, South Carolina.
A scholar and a gentleman
An Interview with Zachary Lemhouse
Since I cannot interview my 4th great-grandfather, I will be interviewing York County historian Zach Lemhouse. Mr. Lemhouse is the Director of the Southern Revolutionary War Institute, awarded history teacher and a musician who has been volunteering for York County since the late 2000s. I am hopeful that he can provide me with some information that would point to why my 4th great-grandfather would fight for the Confederacy and how his death impacted my family.
My father and I skipped Father-Son Weekend at Christ School to meet Mr. Lemhouse at Historic Brattonsville in York County, South Carolina. Brattonsville is a plantation that housed the Bratton family for over a hundred years. In the 1800s, it was more of a community center where people would come to get their mail and vote among other things. Brattonsville has been the place where several movies have been filmed including Mel Gibson’s “The Patriot.”
We chose this place because my 4th great-grandfather would have known about the Brattons and their plantation in York County. My father being a detective for over 20 years has conducted thousands of interviews, this would be his first one with me. I had informed him about my research on our ancestor, and he was willing to help.
As we made the 55-minute trek from his apartment in Gastonia, North Carolina over the state-line to Brattonsville, we talked about the questions and we had our own theories how they would be answered. When we got to Brattonsville we were greeted by Mr. Lemhouse and taken to the Visitor Center to sign in. Mr. Lemhouse took us around the whole site including both Bratton houses and the surrounding 800-acre plantation. He then led us to a picnic table for the interview.
Q: Could you please state your full name and occupation?
A: My name is Zach Lemhouse. I am the resident historian for the culture and heritage museums of York County. The Culture and Heritage Museums is a family of four different museums in York County, South Carolina that includes Historic Brattonsville, The Museum of York County, a natural history museum, The Main Street Children’s Museum in Rock Hill, and the McCelvey Center Campus which houses my office at the Historical Center of York County which also houses all of our archives and historic objects. I am also the director of the Southern Revolutionary War Institute, that is a scholarly research library that focuses on the study of the Southern Campaigns of the Revolution. My institute is housed at the Historical Center of York County. Which is at the McCelvey Center Campus, one of our four museums.
Q: Did you grow up in York County? How did you develop an interest in York County history?
A: I did grow up in York County. I was born and raised in York, South Carolina. I attended high school and college in York County as well. I developed an interest in York County and South Carolina history due in large part to my father, who was a South Carolina history teacher for 20 years. Dad would take us on family vacations to historic sites like Brattonsville, or Kings Mountain, or Camden, or Fort Sumter in Charleston and Fort Moultrie. I grew up with someone who was very passionate about state and local history. So it was just second nature when I decided I wanted to educate people in-state and local history.
Q: After doing some research, I learned that you are also a teacher and you’re a musician. How would you describe your career arc to becoming York County’s Historian?
A: You are right. I, like my father, taught eighth grade South Carolina history for five years. After that I had an opportunity to, take this job. Which we will talk about in a minute. I am a musician. I have been playing the violin for over twenty years now. Started when I was seven years old. I play bluegrass music, classical music, Irish and Scottish music, all sorts of different music. I like to combine my love of history and my love of music, which is really cool. I like to focus on 18th century violin and fiddle music, which would have been played in this area of South Carolina during the Revolution.
I have extensive knowledge in Scottish music, which is neat because a lot of the people that migrated here. Migrated from Scotland and Ireland and they brought with them, their music. A lot of them migrated into Philadelphia and from there they migrated south. On what we call the Great Wagon Road or the Great Pennsylvania Wagon Road, and they came down the wagon road south, and a lot of them broke off and came into this part of South Carolina. Brought with them their culture and music. So I really like joining my love of, of fiddle music and my love of history.
As far as getting this job, my love of music and my love of music helped me find a kindred spirit in my predecessor. So his name was Michael Scoggins and he was the historian for York County before me. He was also a music lover, he played guitar and he liked bluegrass a lot. We got together and we played music sometimes and we’d talk and I actually helped him write a book that he did on music in the backcountry. The Scottish and Irish influence on music in this part of South Carolina. So I helped him do some research for that book. I helped him with some other things. Numerous other projects and really got to him and really got to know this organization.
I started volunteering at Brattonsville in 2007. My music kind of led me to that, I would play 18th century fiddle music out here to kind of provide some music to provide some ambiance. To get them in the spirit of this time period and I did that since 2007 at big Brattonsville events and then unfortunately my predecessor passed away due to a lung, struggle with cancer and when his position came open.
I truly love this organization; you know, it’s been a big part of my life for a very long time. I’m gonna go out on a limb and try to just apply and see what happens. And typically they, just in general typically historians are not my age. I’m 29 years old, they typically give, historians positions to people that, are much older than myself. Just because this kind of position people stay in it until they either are too old to work or they pass away. So, someone else that has been waiting a long time gets the job. I was lucky enough to be able to get the job and I’m very blessed and very happy that this is my new career. So that’s my story it was a long and conjugative story but there you have it.
John Thomas: Very apparent to see you passionate and I can certainly see why they chose you.
Q: What historical era of York County do you find the most interesting?
A: So like I said I’m the Director of the Southern Revolutionary War Institute and Revolutionary War is my passion. From a young age my dad bringing me to sites like this. I just kind of fell in love of Revolutionary War history. It is fascinating some of the most influential battles of the Revolution took place in South Carolina, not to mention York County. We have Huck’s Defeat that took place in York County. We have Kings Mountain which is just real close to us here. So, yeah there is just so much Revolutionary War history here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZlAoRsocps
Q: What was life in York County like in the mid 1800s?
A: Oh, that’s a great question. So, life in York County in the mid-1800s was like life was like in a lot of other places in South Carolina. In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Sells more copies than any book in history except the Bible. This is a very tumultuous time in South Carolina’s history. You have the rise of the abolitionist’s movement. You have abolitionists propaganda that is coming into South Carolina you have post masters burning, this propaganda pulling it from the mail and burning it in large heaps outside post offices. To prevent this information from getting in the hands of South Carolinians. They are so scared that this is going to sway slave owners against the institution of slavery.
It’s a very tumultuous time but, at the same time you have people in this part of the state that are just trying to survive to. They are trying to support for their families, you know support their families. They have fear ever present in the back of their mind, that their slaves are gonna rise up and kill them. So, in the midst of abolitionists propaganda and this fear that slaves might rise up. Primed to just, keep going with your life and farm and provide for your family, because. Yes you have large plantations owners but then you have some assistant farmers that just want to get by they just want to survive.
Q: When did York County become known as “the Charleston of the Upcountry?” Would you say this was an apt description?
A: Ok so this is really interesting. So, York County became known as the “Charleston of the Upcountry” at some point in the 1970s or 1980s. It’s more of a current term. It was coined more recently to refer to industrialization. Regardless of its origin, I do believe that it is an apt description. In the late 1800s, York County will begin to experience the same industrialization as other parts of the state and country.
South Carolina is slow to industrialize, but they do. York County experienced a cotton mill boom which led to textile mills spring up everywhere. You have mill villages where people live and work all in the same place. It will attract white people from other areas. Now African Americans typically were not welcome in mill villages, but you do have, poor people migrating from other places in the state and other places in the country, to South Carolina. You don’t get a lot of foreign immigrants, foreign immigrants aren’t attracted to mill life, they’re attracted more to the, the industrial North. The big factories there but, we do have a boom in York County and I think that this is, it is aptly named “The Charleston of the Upstate” even though that’s more of a recent term.
Q: In 1850 Joseph Thomas had 200 acres of land only 26 acres was used as farmland. He owned 2 horses, 1 milk cow, 1 other cow, 2 sheep, 12 pigs, 3 bundles of wheat, 250 ears of corn and 50 pounds of butter. What was life like for the yeoman farmer in York County?
A: I wish that Eli would have been here today cause Eli is our historic farmer. That’s what he does for a living, he dresses up in 1850’s clothes and he farms every day. We’ve got, goats and sheep and pigs and horses and cattle all here at Brattonsville. So, he does all that. I wish he were here but, I can tell you a little bit about it.
Like I said earlier if we go back to what I was saying when you asked me what life was like in the mid-1800s you have people trying to survive in a very tumultuous time. You would’ve had if you had children they would have gone out and they would have been working. They would have been getting the eggs, or milking the cows going to market to sell the eggs or any other products to bring money back to the family. It would have been a lot of hard work. I can’t imagine, how much hard work it would have been.
John Thomas: What would the typical cash crop be in that time?
A: So during that time you would have had, if you were on a larger plantation you would pick cotton. Cotton was the main cash crop, by this time cotton was king. Now earlier in like the colonial times cotton was not king, cotton was not a buyable cash crop. You would’ve had more indigo and rice. But, at this point in history the cotton gin has been invented. Definitely have large plantations in this part of South Carolina. So, it depends on what kind of people we’re talking about. If we are talking about your plantation owners, slaves would have been doing the majority of the work. You would have been making your money off the backs of these slaves from the cotton they produce. If you are talking about poor people, you would have more subsistence farming.
John Thomas (my father): But a smaller family farm like he described the ancestor having at that point that was basically just for family survival? They would have grown food that they would have ate they would have been just, trying to be totally self-sufficient.
A: Sure, and they would have of course taken some things to market and try to, but we aren’t talking an operation like the Brattons had here. The operation the Brattons had would have been. They would have been making money off the backs of their slaves. It would have been commercial and this was a hub to in the area. Brattonsville was a hub in the area, like I said we are gonna have a post office by the 1840s. One of the Brattons is the post master, John Simpson Bratton Sr. is the post master. Voting takes place here, I mean this is where people will come. This would have been a major place for people to gather. So, not only the Brattons making money off what they produced with their slaves but, they have the general store. So, this is not, the Brattons would not be necessarily your average South Carolinian, your average Backcountry person. Average Backcountry person would have been much smaller operation, trying to survive, maybe had a couple slaves, probably didn’t and, just subsistence maybe selling somethings at market.
Q: In 1860, Joseph A. Thomas owned zero slaves. I know it’s a complicated question, but why would someone like my 4th great-grandfather, who had no interest in slaves, fight for the CSA?
A: Yeah so I think I hit it but I don’t think we were recording when I talked about it. During the Civil War the Confederate States of America are gonna pass a law, called the Twenty-Slave Law. The Twenty-Slave Law says that if you owned 20 slaves or more you do not have to fight for the Confederacy. So, A lot of wealthier people did not fight, but a lot of poor people who couldn’t own slaves. They simply could not afford to own slaves, they did fight. So, even though your 4th great-grandfather didn’t own slaves. He still would have fought, because the Twenty-Slave Law did not exempt him from that.
But, it’s important to understand that the Civil War was not just about slavery. Now, it was about slavery that was a big issue, but if you were to ask me to sum up the cause of the Civil War in one word. I would say sectionalism, would be the cause of the Civil War. And, sectionalism if you’re not familiar with that term. Is simply favoring a portion, a part, a section of the country, over the country as a whole. There’s a lot of things that lead to sectionalism and slavery is probably the biggest cause of sectionalism. But, you also have things like, states-rights. And a lot of people that didn’t own slaves were fighting more for the right of South Carolina to make decisions independently of the National Government. And we see this occur the very first time in 1832.
Way before the Civil War. In something called the Nullification Crisis. Is when Andrew Jackson was president, John C. Calhoun who was Jackson’s Vice President. He’s a South Carolinian himself. John C. Calhoun is actually going to argue for something called nullification. Which is, when you render a national law null, because you believe it is unconstitutional. And, nullification in of itself is unconstitutional, you can’t do that. But, this was a belief that a lot of Southerners held dear. That the state should have the right to disregard laws if they found the to be unconstitutional. I think a lot of Southerners fought for the Confederacy, not necessarily in support of slavery but in support of. This idea that states should have certain rights that they had not up to this point had.
John Thomas: Do you think it was similar view that colonial people had against, that thought of the English? Kinda placing their, the English law, English doctrine, on to them. Were as the Southerners then and that time period felt that they, you know was that the Union, the North, Washington pushing it that similar type of, you know doctrine on to them.
A: It’s really cool that you mention that. During the Civil War we see an increase in, merchandise, paraphernalia with George Washington’s face on it in the Confederate States of America. We see that a big boost after Washington’s death you have plates, you have cups, you have commemorative things with Washington’s face. Then it dies down, and then once the Civil War starts and the Confederates States of America plates, cups, Confederate money has Washington’s face on it. George Washington is seen as almost a Confederate hero, because he fought against the tyranny of the British, we are fighting against the tyranny of the North. They saw, they found a kindred spirit in the patriots from the past. So yeah I think that’s a good point. I think a lot of Southerners did see themselves as freedom fighters.
John Thomas: And you think that is what would motivate someone, that really had no kind of financial skin in the game? When it came to slavery, to jump in there and kinda put it on the line.
A: Absolutely, and I’m not saying that a slave, that someone who didn’t own slaves would not support slavery. You had people who didn’t own slaves that did certainly support the idea of slavery, but you did have people that, didn’t necessarily care one way or the other, but, States Rights was their issue. You’re right this feeling that the North is violation our rights and we need to fight like our forefathers did for independence, because that’s what the Confederate States wanted wanted was an independent country.
Q: Do you know why the causality rate for York County was so high during the war?
A: I am not sure. That is a great question. I thought about this for a little bit. So, I have never compared causality rates from, the York County to other counties. I really don’t have a good answer for you. So, if I were to speculate I would say it goes back to Twenty-Slave Law again. I would say that there is a direct correlation between, poverty and service in the Confederacy. And because, parts of the country and parts of the state excuse me like, the Backcountry of South Carolina like York County we had a high poverty rate. So, you would therefore have a direct correlation, a positive correlation between a high poverty rate and a high causality rate. If you got a lot of people that are poor that are fighting in the Civil War because this particular area tends to be populated with poorer people. You’re going to have a higher causality rate in a poorer county than you would in a richer county. That would be my, just if I was throwing something out there, an educated guess. Now I would need to go back and look, I’ve never compared. I’m more of a Revolutionary historian anyway. But, I’ve never compared causality rates, by county. So that is, that is something interesting to do I may have to go back and do that now that you’ve asked the question and I’ve never thought about that before. I don’t even think I realized that the York County causality rate, that statistic, I didn’t realize it was the highest. Like, I’ve never really compared it before so. That’s interesting
Q: How would his death impact his family who were back home, who were like you said just trying to scrape by and make ends meet and stuff like that How would that affect his family and my 3rd great-grandfather who was just 11 years old when Joseph died?
A: Yeah so, it would have been very tough. You see this a lot though. Not to diminish what your 3rd great-grandfather would have gone through. But, you have a lot of children and a lot of wives that if they were lucky enough too have their husbands and father come home at all, forever changed, they would be forever changed. A lot of times psychically they would have lost limbs. A lot of times mentally, something we know as PTSD, which they had no concept of it at the time. They just knew that they weren’t the same. So, your 3rd great-grandfather was not lucky enough to even have his father come home. His wife would had to even during the Civil War with him gone, would have had to bear the brunt of the farm. Making sure that everyone was fed, making sure that everything was running smoothly and unfortunately with his death she would have had to continue that and your 3rd great-grandfather would have to step up and a lot of times children had to step up and grow up a lot faster than they otherwise would have had to with the absence of their father. I hope that answers the question.
That was very common, of course you know it’s not only adults fighting. That pasted away you had a lot of children that participated in the Civil War too. You had drummer boys, but there’s a battle that happens that took place when Sherman was marching to the sea in Georgia. The Battle of Griswoldville, where the majority of the adults were gone fighting elsewhere. Sherman was coming through so they raised a militia of old men and young boys. And it wasn’t just drummer boys, like we had this concept that. Oh yeah, there might have been 13, 12, 13-year old’s drumming but they weren’t fighting. No in Griswoldville they were, because the adults were gone. So, the only people they had to draw from to create this militia to fight against Sherman was old people that were too old to fight or young people who were too young to fight, and they put guns in their hands. So, you have children that die and then you have mothers and fathers that lose their children.
Q: From my limited research, it seems that Reconstruction in York County was especially tumultuous. Do you have any thoughts on that?
A: Yeah we talked about this a little off the record to. I would suggest reading The Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan in York County, South Carolina, 1865–1877 by Jerry West. Great book and he talks a lot about this. During Reconstruction not just in South Carolina but just in the South in general.
You have a large population of people, now known as freed-men that were slaves that are now free to go. And unfortunately, a lot of them don’t know what to do they done have any skills other than the skills they had when they were slaves. They can’t read or write cause they were uneducated, the were unable to learn it was illegal for them to learn due to certain slave codes. So, they really don’t have anywhere to go. Some of them will leave it’s called the Great Migration a lot of them will go north or go west. A lot of them will stay they’ll actually stay on their master’s plantations and do something called sharecropping, which is for all intents and purposes just a replacement for slavery. But, that’s a completely different topic. You do now have slaves with the 15th amendment, that have the right to vote. Excuse me they should be called freed-men not slaves, they’re free at this point. Freed-men with the 15th amendment that have the right to vote, it’s important to understand this is African-American men. African-American women still don’t have the right to vote they won’t get that until the 1920’s with the 19th amendment.
Just your African-American men, but you can imagine that the people in the South the white democratic people in the South. Are not very happy that African-Americans now have the right to vote, so they will go to extreme lengths to keep them from exercising this right. The KKK is going to be formed in part to fight against African-Americans and their rights. Specifically their right to vote, and we have a lot of Klan killings in this area. I think I talked earlier there was one here, about a mile and a half away from Brattonsville. The hanging of an African-American militia leader named Jim Williams. His body is actually gonna be brought back to one of the homes here at Brattonsville for the coroner to examine. The coroner’s inquest will take place here at Brattonsville. There’s another, killing that’s going to take place closer to Rock Hill near Allison Creek, and these killings are going to, influence the national government to send military troops down here. I’ve heard to some people refer to it as a “military occupation,” I think they are being a little overly dramatic using the term “military occupation.” But there was a high military presence in York County, because, due in part to a lot of these killings because they were here to enforce the law. And it was a very tumultuous time as I think you said. Specifically in York County due to these killings.
Fortunately the killing of Jim Williams and the other hanging will lead to the passage of a civil rights act not the big one that happens later on but. It’s a civil rights act, referred to as the Enforcement Acts—Ulysses S. Grant is going to pass them. So there’s a silver lining: it’s the Enforcement Acts the civil rights act, which is going to be a good step in the right direction of protecting African-Americans against troops like the KKK like the group called the Redeemers in red shirts. The Redeemers are also gonna act in a very similar fashion as the KKK. So, civil rights act, the Enforcement Acts are gonna go a good way at least be good for a step in protecting African-Americans.
Q: I’m not sure if my Thomas ancestors were KKK members. Do you know where perhaps I could find this information? Why do you think the Klan considered their acts justified?
A: So that is a, not an easy question to answer. But, I will attempt to answer it. You have to keep in mind so there’s something called presentism, which as a historian or in general you should not engage in it. So presentism is when you judge a person of the past based on your convictions of the present. So we know that, the KKK are racist and we know that harming anyone is wrong especially based on the color of their skin. But, you have to be able to put yourself in the minds of those people to truly understand why they are doing it. These people were democrats that was these people’s political party. Democrats at the time are a lot different than democrats today. But, at the time if you were a democrat you were most likely a slave owner, you most likely fought for the Confederacy, you are most likely from the South. Which if you look at modern political maps you see it switch right you see a lot of republicans in the South. But it’s a completely different democrats and republicans from back then. But, the democrats, typically your slave owners they were not too happy, that the Civil War turned out the way it did that slaves that slaves were emancipated that they lost their livelihood. That was their livelihood for a lot of these large plantations that were built on the backs of slaves. So you have a lot of very angry people, who are angry at African-Americans and angry at republicans. Especially a new kind of republican at the time known as Radical Republicans. Radical Republicans were in charge of congress and they, were very bitter towards the South and they wanted to punish the South for the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was not himself a Radical Republican which I don’t want to digress but. It’s kind of ironic that Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth who believes that he has striking some kind of blow for the South. He’s gonna help the South by killing Abraham Lincoln, unfortunately he doesn’t. Cause once Lincoln is dead untimely the Radical Republicans are gonna run the show and they are a lot more extreme than Lincoln was. Lincoln would have welcomed the South back with open arms as far as his policy. Now we don’t really know because he died before he could implement his policy but his policy on paper was very welcoming. The Radical Republicans were not so you have, a large population of democrats in the South that are angry at African-Americans and angry at republicans. So, there going to start out as, forming, well a social clubs, little groups were they can talk about these issues and generally talk, escalates into violence. And the most prominent one of course is the Klan.
So, why did people join the Klan why did they think that what they were doing was justified? I think it’s a combination of everything they had experienced. Their upbringing they had been raised from a very young age to think a certain way. My students when I was a teacher would always ask “Well why is the Klan still around today?” and that’s a great question, and it’s because you have racism spreads from generation to generation like a disease. You know if you were in the Klan and you hated African-American people because of the color of their skin is because you were taught from a young age to hate African-American people because of the color of their skin. And that’s just going to continue from generation to generation. People still hate and it’s very sad, but I would imagine that, that is why. It’s just the natural human resistance to change.
Things had been a certain way for so long and for someone, especially the national government and as we have already said Southerners are not too fond of the national government telling them what to do. They’re not gonna like that change. And it started innocently enough as a social group as much as I hate to say it. They were talking and the next step was . . . pranks. They did a lot of pranks on African-American people. That’s where the ropes they wore come from. A lot of times they would put sheets over them to try to scare them, they were dressing up like ghosts is really what they were doing because your freed-men at the time being uneducated were very superstitious. And they were not uneducated because they wanted to be they were uneducated because as slaves they were forced to be. So, uneducated people tend to be more superstitious.
And so the people that were in this social group would put on sheets and they would try to scare them. They pretended to be ghosts of Confederate soldiers, and gradually that spiraled into violence. The hatred was not being, relieved their angry was not being released by talking and it wasn’t being relieved by these pranks so I think well they hope that committing these acts of violence would help receive the justice they deserved. When you joined the KKK they didn’t immediately put you into a position to commit violence they would have you hold the horse. So, if you had a, relative in the KKK they probably didn’t jump right in and start killing people they would come along with a group of veteran Klansmen and they’d say “We are gonna go in this house and take care of some business. You hold our horse.” Now they’re an accessory to what’s going on.
So, it was gradual indoctrination it was not “hey you’re brand new let’s go in and kill this guy”. It would have been a very gradual process and before long your part of the group. Kinda like gangs today, like gang indications today they’re not gonna put a gun in your hand immediately. They’re gonna say “Hey we are gonna go in and rob this store, you drive.” It’s a lot easier to get caught up in these kind of situations if it’s very gradual. And that’s how the Klan would recruit members a lot of times a lot of very gradual indoctrination.
Q: In 1879, JA Thomas’s son William Cicero Thomas died in Gastonia, North Carolina. Do you think the Thomas family may have left York County in wake of Reconstruction chaos?
A: It is a distinct possibility. Of course I have no way of knowing for sure. There was a large migration which occurred after the Civil War. Both African-American freed-men, and white people. African-American people are obviously going to migrate due to things called “Push Factors”. There’s two kind of factors push factors and pull factors, push factors are negative factors that are things that make you want to leave and pull factors are things that want to make you want to come. Right, so African-Americans are going to be pushed out by this Klan violence they’re going to want to go to places that are safer. So you do see a lot of African-American migration.
You do see a lot of white migration too. A lot of white Southerners that would have supported the republicans they were not very, fond they weren’t seen as, people in the area did not like them as much is what I’m trying to say. If you are a white republican, you’re not looked on fondly, you were known as a “Scallywag”. So, there was a “push factor” there cause if you were a “Scallywag” you didn’t want to necessarily want to stay in town because you were in just as much danger from the Klan as the freed-men. Cause keep in mind I said earlier, the Klan didn’t just target black people, they targeted Jewish people, they targeted white republicans, they targeted anyone that was trying to help African-Americans, like the, school teachers. So the, Freedman’s Bureau was established right after the Civil War, and they established school houses to teach African-American children and Klansmen would destroy the schoolhouses and beat the teachers, killed the teachers. So they didn’t want to come into school, right. I wouldn’t want to come into school if I was getting beat every morning.
So you do have push factors you have people leaving because of this, not just African-American people but white people too. You also have pull factors you have people called “Carpetbaggers” coming from the north into the South to take advantage of the economic situation that’s going on. So there was a lot of movement I think there’s a misconception that it was just African-American people. Which it was a large movement I think; I may have said it on the recording the Great Migration is what it was called a lot of African-American people moved and a lot of white people moved. So there is a good chance that in the wake of everything that was going on your ancestors decided that this was just too hot. Cause as we mentioned York County was a hotbed for, violence and in. I wanna say military occupation but you know what I mean, the military had a presence here, to maintain law and order and they might have just said “you know what, maybe this is a good time as any to move”. They would not have, that would have not been unique to them. There were a lot of people that thought this and migrated.
ME: Well, thank you for your time.
Mr. Lemhouse: Yeah, you’re very welcome!
The Final Letter
In the final days of researching for this project I found this letter in the University of Winthrop’s archives. It is from Joseph Alexander to his sister in-law Jennet Narcissa Hemphill Bryant. He wrote this letter on James Island near Charleston, South Carolina, while setting up defenses for the city. From this letter I can get a real picture of the man that we was and what he went through as a soldier. He is a God fearing man like most Southerners at the time were. He writes about the hardships that the South is facing from the fighting and how food is scarce in the city. He misses his children and his wife which is always a common feeling of soldiers throughout time. In the letter he predicts his own death just months prior to his final day on earth. From this letter written by my 4th great-grandfather I can get the sense that he was a good ole’ southern boy, who was a God fearing, family lovin’, and a hard worker.
Sources:
Historical Documents from York County, SC
Rigdon, John C. Historical Sketch and Roster of the South Carolina 18th Infantry Regiment.
Eastern Digital Resources, 2005.
Rutkow, Ira M. Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American
Medicine. Stackpole Books, 2015.
Image Sources
