Confederate ancestor: Thomas James McFaddin. 20th Arkansas Volunteer Infantry, CSA

Thomas James McFaddin, a biography…

This history is written by Edward Fitzgerald McFaddin II, whose paternal grandfather was Thomas James McFaddin, who was born June 4, 1830 in Sumter, South Carolina, the eldest child of John Gamble McFaddin and Martha Mills English. He graduated from Davidson College in South Carolina. When he was 20 years of age, he married Mary Stewart Bradley at the home of the bride’s father, Samuel Bradley, on November 28, 1850. She was his 1^st cousin on his mother’s side; so the McFaddins were as bad as the Somervells about marrying relatives.  My aunt, Mrs. Cornelia Payne wrote me many years ago, and sent me the copy she made of the entries from the family Bible of Thomas J. McFaddin. I presume that my cousin, Eva Payne Glass or my cousin Isabel Sprague have the copy of that Bible. Mary Bradley McFaddin, first wife of Thomas J. McFaddin, was born on November 14, 1832. On February 28, 1852, the daughter of Thomas J. McFaddin and Mary Bradley McFaddin was born: she was named after her mother: “Mary Bradley McFaddin”. Then, on March 8, 1852, Thomas James McFaddin’s wife, Mary Bradley McFaddin, died; and the little baby girl died in March of 1853; so that Thomas J. McFaddin was left without wife or child. Under the laws of South Carolina, at that time, Thomas J. McFaddin inherited all of the slaves and other property of the wife and child; and he had a considerable number of slaves of his own. My Aunt Cornelia Payne wrote me several years ago, and I still have the letters, that the McFaddins were Presbyterians, and did not believe they should sell their slaves; and Thomas J. McFaddin came to Arkansas to get land so he could have a place for all of his slaves. This letter indicating this id dated January 21, 1926. At all events, he came to Arkansas in 1857….a few years after the death of his wife and daughter.  He settled near Washington, Arkansas in Hempstead County, along with several other families from South Carolina that came: Bradleys, Nelsons, and the Muldrows. At some point, TJ McFaddin’s parents came: Martha Mills English and John Gamble McFaddin: they settled about a mile north of Washington, and his place was about 3 miles south of Washington, thus they were about 5 miles apart.

Thomas J. McFaddin wrote to some of his people in South Carolina that he had that day seen the most beautiful young lady that he had ever seen, and that her name was Alice Teresa Duffie, but, she was Roman Catholic. They eventually married on January 31, 1858 in the vestibule of St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, La. Thomas J. McFaddin was accompanied to New Orleans by his uncle Thomas G. McFaddin, and the bride was accompanied by her uncle Colonel Cornelius Duffie. The four went by carriage to Camden, Arkansas and there they boarded a steamer and went to New Orleans, where the marriage took place. They returned to Arkansas and their first child was born on November 29, 1858. He was a boy, named Manton Charles McFaddin. Manton McFaddin was their only son; he moved to Lafayette later in life. He married Alma Prather--they were married in Hempstead County, Arkansas on September 20^th, 1889 by clerk of court R.M. Jones. They had one child, named Ellen McFaddin. She later became Mrs. Otis Matthews; and Manton McFaddin died October 11, 1892. Ellen McFaddin Matthews and Edward Fitzgerald McFaddin are cousins. Ellen McFaddin and Edward F. McFaddin visited in Hope, Arkansas; and she brought her daughter, Dorothy Mavis Matthews, with her.

Thomas  J. McFaddin and Alice Theresa Duffie McFaddin: their second child was a girl, named Mary Cornelia, born March 13, 1860 or 1861. This child became Edward Fitzgerald’s  “Aunt Cornelia Payne”, who gave Edward most of the McFaddin family history. Her daughter, Eva Payne Glass has a volume that traces the McFaddins back to Robert the Bruce of Scotland, and on back to the Norman Conquest.

The 3^rd child was a boy named Thomas James McFaddin II. He was born on May 31, 1863 or 1864 and died June 16, 1865.

The 4^th child was Edward Fitzgerald McFaddin, my father, born on July 21, 1867.

The 5^th child was Mary Eloise McFaddin, born on Sept 16, 1870.

**All three of his daughters were named “Mary”.  His 1^st daughter from Mary S. Bradley (both died), and his 2 daughters from his 2^nd wife, Alice Theresa Duffie.

I have a picture of Thomas James McFaddin given to me by my cousin Isabelle Sprague (daughter of Aunt Eloise).  In the pic, he appears to be a ‘well rounded” man.

When the Civil War started in 1861, Thomas J. McFaddin was 31 years of age; but he volunteered to serve as a private in the 3^rd Consolidated Regiment of Arkansas Volunteers and later in the 20^th Regiment of Arkansas Volunteers. The fact that he served as a private was known by the Confederate Veterans in Hempstead County; and they thought that it was quite fitting to have me recite a poem found in the Confederate Veteran Magazine, entitled: What did the private do?” I recited it at several Confederate meetings in Hope, Arkansas, when I was in school.

Thomas James McFaddin was captured by the Yankees in the Battle of Vicksburg and lived for many months in a Yankee prison there at Vicksburg. Family tradition has it that he and other prisoners lived on rats. Thomas J. McFaddin had been injured in the defense of Vicksburg. As I recall, a cannon caisson was about to fall from a parapet, and in keeping it from falling, he received some internal injury or strain that caused a tumor to form, which ultimately—years later resulted in his death in 1870.

Judge Alfred Carrigan (father of Dr. Pink Carrigan, and Miss Mary Carrigan and Mr. Dolph Carrigan) was a Colonel in the Confederate Army. He lived to a very ripe old age, and the last year or two of his life he was bed ridden because of a broken hip, but he enjoyed visitors very much and his mind was extremely clear. On one occasion, when I was practicing law in Hope, I went to see him to get an affidavit from him about the family history of some of the Carrigans. He gave me the affidavit that I needed, and I visited him for quite some time. In the course of the conversation, he told me that he saw Thomas James McFaddin, the day he was exchanged by the Yankees, and that Thomas J. McFaddin that day looked like a walking skeleton; and that he was literally starved almost to death. At any rate, Thomas J. McFaddin, while he was in the Confederate Army, made several trips back to his home to look over matters. My cousin, Isabel Sprague, has furnished me copies of the pass granted to him on one occasion. Also, the fact that he did come home to his family at times is shown by the fact that his third child, Thomas James McFaddin II, was born on May 31, 1863 or 1864.

At all events, when the Yankees exchanged Thomas James McFaddin, he got a mule from someone and crossed the Mississippi, and finally reached his home place near Washington, Arkansas. The faithful slaves had set up a road block at the gate before his home, he looked so terribly forlorn and weak, that his slaves did not recognize him. When he told them who he was, they insisted that the “Yankees had done killed Marse Thomas”, and still they did not believe him.  Finally, he had them send up to the house, and his wife came down and recognized him; and she and his mother and other members of the family nursed him back to some semblance of health. It is very fortunate for me that they did, because my father, Edward Fitzgerald McFaddin I, was born on July 12, 1867.

As I stated before, Thomas J. McFaddin received some form of internal injury in the defense of Vicksburg, and he died from the effect of that injury. His death was on June 17, 1870. My Aunt Cornelia Payne told me a most pathetic story about his last visit to see his mother, Martha Mills English McFaddin, then the widow of John Gamble McFaddin. Their homes were about five miles apart, and he wanted to see his mother one more time before he died. So, she sent her carriage down to his place and he rode up to her home to see her.  He had a very good musical voice; and as he entered the carriage to leave her home, she was standing in her doorway; and he sang to her: “Kiss me Mother, Kiss your Darlin.” I never heard this son, but someday I will try to locate it.

(the name of the song is actually “I’m Weary, Let me Rest”

Kiss me mother kiss your darlin'
Lay my head upon your breast
Throw your loving arms around me
I am weary let me rest

Seems the light is swiftly fading
Brighter scenes they do now show
I am standing by the river
Angels wait to take me home

Kiss me mother kiss your darlin'
See the pain upon my brow
While I'll soon be with the angels
Fate has doomed my future now

Through the years you've always loved me
And my life you've tried to save
But now I shall slumber sweetly
In a deep and lonely grave

Kiss me mother kiss your darlin'
Lay my head upon your breast
Throw your loving arms around me
I am weary let me rest
I am weary let me rest

That he was a kind man, is shown by a number of incidents. He had a room in his home with an altar in it, so that his Catholic wife could say her daily devotionals. Also, he gave the lumber for the erection of the Presbyterian Church about two miles north of the present city of Hope. That he was loved by his slaves is shown by the fact that when they were freed, they took the McFaddin surname, and even to this day, there are many black McFaddens in Hempstead Country; but they all spell their name McFadden, to differentiate it from the white ones. After I returned from the First World War (World War I), I knew old Bob McFadden, the last of the McFaddin slaves; and he told me many interesting things about the slaves. I remember he told me that when the Yankees advanced on Washington, Arkansas the McFaddin slaves all went into the Red River Bottoms to keep the Yankees from capturing them; and that the slaves were extremely happy when they learned that the Yankees had retreated, so the McFaddin slaves could return to their homestead in Washington.

Thomas J. McFaddin was 40 years and 13 days when he died. He is buried in the McFaddin plot in the Cometary at Washington, Arkansas; and I erected a stone over his grave, and have set up a Trust Fund for the perpetual upkeep of the McFaddin lot--------------------Edward Fitzgerald McFaddin II-----

   

Chapter 2 b). THOMAS JAMES MCFADDIN, Confederate States America: Soldier

From the U.S. National Park Service online:
20th Regiment, Arkansas Infantry

Overview:

20th Infantry Regiment, formerly G. W. King's 22nd Regiment, was organized during the spring of 1862. The unit moved east of the Mississippi River and at the Battles of Corinth and Hatchie Bridge reported 92 casualties. Later it was assigned to General M. E. Green's Brigade, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, and after fighting at Big Black River Bridge was captured at Vicksburg in July, 1863. Exchanged, reorganized, and mounted, the 20th was attached to Dockery's Brigade in the Trans-Mississippi Department and was prominent at Marks' Mills and Jenkins' Ferry. During the end of 1864 it disbanded. Its commanders were Colonels H. P. Johnson and D. W. Jones; Lieutenant Colonels J. H. Fletcher, W. R. Kelley, and H. G. Robertson; and Majors W. S. Haven and J. W. Long.

Predecessor unit:
22nd Infantry Regiment was organized at Little Rock, Arkansas, in August, 1861. The unit saw action at Elkhorn Tavern, then it was reorganized for Confederate service. At that time it became H.P. Johnson's 20th Arkansas Regiment. It was commanded by Colonel G.W. King, Lieutenant Colonel J.H. Fletcher, and Major Daniel W. Jones.

 

Thomas James McFaddin: Company A of the 20^th Arkansas Volunteer Infantry.

6/4/1830 in Salem, South Carolina – 6/17/1870 in Washington, Arkansas.(Died at age 40)

Enlisted on March 1, 1862 at the age of 31 yrs old.

Captured on October 4, 1862: Battle of Corinth, Miss.

Captured on July 4, 1863 after the Seige of Vicksburg, Miss.

His unit disbanded around the end of 1864.

 

20th Arkansas flag.

Highlights of Thomas McFaddin’s military career:

Captured at Corinth, Mississippi        October 1862

Wounded & Captured at Vicksburg    July 1863

**Thomas James McFaddin was in the Confederate Army: initially in the 3^rd Consolidated Regiment of Arkansas Volunteers, then in Company A of the 20^th Arkansas Infantry. Thomas J. McFaddin joined the Confederate States of America Army on March 1, 1862 in Washington, Arkansas; he joined as a Private at the age of 31 yrs old (almost 32 yrs old).

Company A – the "Hempstead Legion" – Commanded by Captain Daniel Webster Jones, organized in Hempstead County, Arkansas on March 1, 1862.

Like most states, Arkansas possessed a prewar Militia organization, which consisted of seventy one regiments, organized into eight brigades, and divided into two divisions. In addition to its standard militia regiment or regiments, each county was authorized to create up to four Volunteer Militia Companies.

 The 20th Infantry Regiment was ordered east of the Mississippi River along with the rest of General Earl Van Dorn's Army of the West. The regiment was added to a brigade commanded by Brigadier General Albert Rust. The unit boarded a steamer at Des Arc and moved down White River, out at its mouth, then up the Mississippi River and landed at Memphis, Tennessee, on April 11, 1862. The regiment was immediately ordered with the remainder of Rust's Brigade to Fort Pillow, approximately 50 miles north of Memphis. The unit departed Memphis via steamer on April 12 and arrived at Fort Pillow on April 13. It was here, during the bombardment of Fort Pillow by Union gunboats, that the men of King's regiment saw their first enemy fire.

The unit remained at Fort Pillow for fourteen days. The unit experienced few casualties in the bombardment during its stay at Fort Pillow, but many of the soldiers became sick, and several died due to the very muddy conditions and poor water supply at the fort. The unit left Fort Pillow on April 26 and moved back to Memphis. The unit left Memphis for the Corinth area on May 1, 1862.

 

In late April and early May 1862 the Confederate Army underwent an army-wide reorganization due to the passage of the Conscription Act by the Confederate Congress in April 1862. All twelve-month regiments had to re-muster and enlist for two additional years or the duration of the war; a new election of officers was ordered; and men who were exempted from service by age or other reasons under the Conscription Act were allowed to take a discharge and go home. Officers who did not choose to stand for re-election were also offered a discharge. The reorganization was accomplished among all the Arkansas regiments in and around Corinth, Mississippi, following the Battle of Shiloh. The 22nd was reorganized at Corinth, Mississippi, on May 8, 1862; and redesignated as the 20th Arkansas Infantry, in order to avoid confusion with McCord’s 22nd Arkansas Infantry Regiment. Upon reorganization at Corinth on May 8, 1862 the 22nd Arkansas was redesignated as the 20th Arkansas Infantry.

 

There is record that he was paid on April 30, 1862. He was “absent” from the May 2^nd, 1862 Company Muster Roll because he was “in a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.” He was paid on August 31, 1862.

During the Iuka-Corinth Campaign, the 20th Arkansas was assigned to Brigadier General William L. Cabell's brigade of Brigadier General Dabney H. Maury's Division of Major General Sterling Price's Corps within the Confederate (Army of the West). The regiment was at and in the battle of Farmington, Second Corinth, and Coffeeville, Mississippi. During the Battles of Corinth and Hatchie's Bridge 92 casualties were reported. Colonel Johnson was killed at the battle of Corinth, and Lieutenant-Colonel Fletcher became colonel, but resigned on account of disability, when Major Daniel W. Jones was promoted to colonel, and Captain Robertson succeeded him as major of the regiment.

 

Following the Corinth Campaign, the regiment was reassigned to General Martin E. Green's brigade, in the Confederate Army of Mississippi, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana. Part of Green's brigade, including many from the 20th Arkansas was captured and Major Robertson was killed in the Battle of Big Black in rear of Vicksburg on May 17, 1863. The remnants of the regiment fell back inside the works and endured the forty plus day Siege of Vicksburg. The prisoners from the 20th who were captured at Big Black were sent to prison camps in the north and eventually exchanged at City Point Virginia in December 1863.

The September-October 1862 Company Muster roll shows that he was “absent” again because he was “captured at the Battle of Corinth (Mississippi) on October 4, 1862 and paroled.” Documents show that he was on a list of prisoners that was “forwarded to Columbus, Kentucky from Corinth, Mississippi on October 9^th.” There is a document that showed that Thomas J. McFaddin was a “Prisoner of War, captured” and was paroled on October 13, 1862.

 

He was “present” for the November-December 1862 Company Muster Roll. He was “present” for the Company Muster Roll for January-February 1863. T. J. McFaddin was captured when C.S.A Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton surrendered to Union Forces after the siege of Vicksburg (5/18/1863 – 7/4/1863). There is a document that shows his name on the “Roll of Prisoners of War” dated on July 4, 1863 at Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was paroled on July 8, 1863.

 The remainder of the regiment surrendered with the Army of Mississippi at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863. General U. S. Grant initially demanded the conditional surrender of the Vicksburg garrison, but faced with the necessity of feeding 30,000 starving Confederates and having the idea that these soldiers might do more harm to the Confederate cause by being released to return home rather than being exchanged as whole units, he relented and allowed for the immediate parole of the unit. According to the Confederate War Department, the Union leader encouraged the surrendered Confederates to simply return home, rather than being officially paroled and exchanged. The able bodied Confederate soldiers who were released on parole walked out of Vicksburg (they were not allowed to proceed in any military formations) on July 11, 1863. Paroling of these able bodied men was completed in their respective regimental camps inside Vicksburg prior to July 11. The soldiers of the 15th Northwest Arkansas were paroled on July 8 and 9, 1863. Those who were wounded or sick in the various hospitals in Vicksburg were paroled, and were released, as soon as they could leave on their own. July 15/16 is the most common date of these Vicksburg hospital paroles. Some of the most seriously wounded and sick were sent by steamship down the Mississippi River and over to Mobile, Alabama, where they were delivered on parole to Confederate authorities.

 

Confederate commanders designated Enterprise, Mississippi, as the rendezvous point (parole camp) for the Vicksburg parolees to report to after they got clear of the last Federal control point at Big Black Bridge. Most of the Arkansas units appeared to have bypassed the established parole camps, and possibly with the support, or at least by the compliancy, of their Union captors, simply crossed the river and returned home. Because so many of the Vicksburg parolees, especially from Arkansas, simply went home, Major General Pemberton requested Confederate President Davis grant the men a thirty to sixty day furlough. The furloughs were not strictly adhered to so long as the soldier eventually showed up at a parole camp to be declared exchanged and returned to duty. Those who went directly home were treated as if they had been home on furlough if they eventually reported into one of these two parole centers. The exchange declaration reports issued by Colonel Robert Ould in Richmond for various units in the Vicksburg and Port Hudson surrenders began in September 1863 based upon men who actually reported into one of the two parole camps. Pemberton eventually coordinated with the Confederate War Department and Confederate General Kirby Smith, commanding the Department of the Trans-Mississippi to have the Arkansas Vicksburg parolee's rendezvous point established at Camden, Arkansas.

 

Family verbal history handed down to me was that he lived for many months in a Yankee prison there in Vicksburg. The prisoners lived on rats. He had been injured in the defense of Vicksburg: a cannon caisson was about to fall from a parapet, and in keeping it from falling, he received some internal injury that ultimately resulted in his death a few years later. Eye witnesses remember that the day he was exchanged by the Yankees, he "looked like a walking skeleton; and that he was literally starved almost to death." He reached his home in Arkansas via a mule. His faithful slaves had set-up a road block at the gate before his farm, in order to protect the white woman and children from the scalawags and marauders; and when Thomas J. McFaddin reached the gate to his home, he looked so terribly forlorn and weak, that his slaves did not recognize him. When he told them who he was, they insisted that the "Yankees had done killed Master Thomas." His wife came down and recognized him; and she and his mother (Martha Mills English McFaddin, then the widow of John Gamble McFaddin) nursed him back to health.

 

In November 1864, the remnants of Gee/Johnson's 15th Arkansas, Dockery's 19th Arkansas and the 20th Arkansas Infantry Regiments were combined to form the 3rd Arkansas Consolidated Infantry Regiment. The 3rd Arkansas Consolidated was surrendered with General Kirby Smith's Department of the Trans-Mississippi on May 26, 1865. When the Trans-Mississippi Department surrendered, all of the Arkansas infantry regiments were encamped in and around Marshall, Texas, as war-ravaged Arkansas was no longer able to provide adequate sustenance to the army. The regiments were ordered to report to Shreveport, Louisiana, to be paroled. None of them did so. Some soldiers went to Shreveport on their own to be paroled, but the regiments simply disbanded without formally surrendering. General Robert E. Lee  surrendered his Army of Northern Virginina in early April 1865; General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of the Tennessee in late April 1865; General Edmund Kirby Smith was the last general with a sizeable Confederate force to surrender, and it was in late May 1865.