Residents Kinfolk Fought in Civil War
Transcription:BY MAUD GREEN
Texas Civil War Appreciation Week, being observed April 20 through April 26, reaches into the lives of many residents of Winkler county.
The state-wide observance is sponsored by the Texas Historical Society while Winkler County Historical Survey Committee is in charge locally.
Two county residents, Mrs. H. C. Murrie of Kermit and O. O. Whitten of Wink, have copies of documents which report activities of their grandfathers, fighting on opposite sides, during the Civil War.
Whitten's grandfather, B. B. Beard, began a daily journal in January of 1863. Mr. Beard was a Yank soldier and his chronicle recorded many of the monotonous events, many of the excitements and sometimes the loneliness of a young soldier as the advance was made to the Siege of Vicksburg.
It was on Jan. 7, 1863, Soldier Beard wrote: "Today we marched from Coldwater to Lagrange which is 15 miles."
The march continued, day by day, until Jan. 10 when they reached Moscow. Scattered reports include:
Jan. 13 -- Today I was out in the country a foraging. We went out about 6 miles and there we got some corn and I got a sack of sweet potatoes and a baking skillet and I saw two pretty girls.
Jan. 21 -- Today we marched to Memphis.
Jan. 24 - It has been raining all afternoon. We killed two beeves today so we will get along for beef for a few days.
Jan. 27 -- We got paid today. I drew 12$ 20 cents.
Jan. 30 -- Today I was to town and got one lb. of butter for 35 cents. That is pretty dear butter but I can't do without butter all the time.
Feb. 20 -- This morning we got on board of the Mary E. Foresaythe for Lake Providence.
Feb. 22 -- This morning the boat left Memphis for Lake Providence. The boat ran all day and night.
March 1 -- I have been fishing today but did not catch any because they would not bite.
March 3 -- I was put in as second corporal. We had chicken and turkey for dinner.
March 8 -- Today I was fishing but they would not bite. It is raining tonight and there is some hail among the rain.
March 14 -- This is Saturday. I caught a catfish this evening.
March 18 -- Today we marched from Lake Providence four miles up the Mississippi River.
March 23 -- Today we marched on a boat and went within 10 miles of Vicksburg and it was so muddy that we could not get off the boat.
May 12 -- We marched on the Jackson road. The fight began at 10 o'clock and lasted until three o'clock and the the enemy retreated.
May 13 -- We marched from Raymond to Clinton which is 8 miles. We marched 6 miles and then we had a little fight.
Beard's journal, written daily through the month of May, gives a detailed report of marching and fighting.
May 22 -- There has been heavy firing all day. We shelled the tar out of one of their forts.
May 29 -- We fired 53 rounds and our Captain was killed.
On into June the daily report shows: June 1 - 27, rounds were fired; June 3, 73 rounds (we tore their works some); June 5, 74 rounds and only 6 rounds on June 6.
June 25 -- I was down at the river today and I got a good dinner and just when I came back our boys blowed up the rebs fort and then our men run up and they had a hot time of it throwing handgrenades and striking with their muskets.
July 2 -- This is the second day of July and I expect we will be in Vicksburg pretty soon.
July 3 -- This afternoon the rebs came out with a flag of truce but I don't know what it was for.
July 30 -- Today some of the boys went out in the country and got some good peaches.
The daily record ended Aug. 31, 1863, with this notation: "Today I was in town and bought a barrel of potatoes for our mess. Franklin Meek died this evening. He was our best man.
Irregular notations were recorded during August and September of 1864, and the last notation reported, Sept. 22, was "We are going to get on the train for Watterloo at 8:30."
Beard was 19 years old when he enlisted. When he came home from the Army, his mother and a little sister were dead. After he was married, he and his wife came to Texas in 1874. He died at the age of 41 years.
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Mrs. Murrie's grandfather was Michael William Shanahan, born Sept. 29, 1841 at Limerick, County Cork, Ireland (Free Irish State), near Belfast.
He stowed away on an army ship and came to the New World around 1855 or 1856 and became a citizen of the United States.
He was at Senatobia, with "good friends" when the Civil War broke out.
A portion of the family history includes the following report:
"Still young, he joined the First company formed at Senatobia, Miss. This Company later combined or reorganized at Pensacola, Fla. Thereafter, throughout the war, he belonged to the 9th Miss. Infantry Co. B, under Capt. J. P. Holihan.
"Lt. Shanahan participated in the following battles, Shiloh, Stone River, Chicamauga, Missionary Ridge, Dalton, Resaca, Lost Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Jonesboro, GA., Franklin, Tenn., Nashville, Atlanta and others.
"There at Atlanta he was wounded in the arm." Crumbling records prove he was given sick leave for six months. The family also has, among many other mementoes, the thin shirt he wore when wounded at Atlanta. His sword, bayonet and other keepsakes also are family treasures.
Shanahan was discharged in Greensboro, N. C. He was given no transportation home and he, like many others, trudged home. When he reached his destination he had no shoes, and his feet were sore, cracked and bleeding.
Life continued for a time for former soldier Shanahan. He was married, had a family and was a teacher by profession and part-time farmer by necessity. There is a bit of a coincidence in lives of these two men, who fought on opposite sides.
Shanahan, like Beard, died in his early 40's.
Families of both men atrribute their early deaths to hardships and sufferings and wounds received during the Civil War.
Notes:
Beulah "Billie" Pearl Shanahan, wife of H. C. Murrie and daughter of Dennis Potter Shanahan and Ellen Wilkerson. Mrs. Murrie's father, Dennis Potter Shanahan was the son of Michael William Shanahan mentioned in this article.
This is a direct quote from a letter written by Nora Mildred Shanahan Phillips, daughter of Michael William Shanahan. A complete transcription of this letter is available by clicking HERE or by cliking on on the Letters link on the navigational map for this web site. This statement of a birthplace for Michael is misleading/inaccurate. Please reference footnote #25 found on Nora's Letter.
Unknown at the time of this transcription what the source for designating the ship that Michael arrived on as an "army" vessel is. This is the only mention we have ever seen regarding the "type" of ship on which Michael traveled.
Michael became a naturalized Citizen of the United States in DeSoto Co, MS 21 Sept 1876. Original Naturalization Papers said to be on file at the DeSoto County Court House in the Minutes of the Circuit Court Book R, page 28. The original circuit court book which contains this record has yet to be located.
This quote comes from Nora Mildred Shanahan Phillips letter. Click HERE to read this letter. Nora's reference specifically to a wound in the arm is not entirely supported by Michael's Civil War records. While it does mention on Company Muster Rolls that he was wounded 22 July 1864, ( View Record Online ) it does not specifically indicate that he was wounded in the arm. However, oral family tradition supports the idea that it was his arm, and in the absense of contradictory evidence I am inclined to accept this as fact.
Sword and bayonet are believed to currently be in the possession of Paul "Skip" Elwyn Phillips, Jr. but attempts to reach him and verify this have been unsuccessful to date.
Transcribed 24 June 2001 by K. L. Rhodes. Source: Photocopy of a newspaper article found at a Shanahan Family Reunion in New Mexico in 2000. Name of Newspaper is Unidentified, but is must have been a Texas Newspaper (most likely from Winkler County). Published the week of April 20 to April 26 Year Unknown. Information in the article as it pertains to Michael William Shanahan was obviously furnished by Beulah "Billie" Pearl Shanahan Murrie (referred to here as Mrs. Murrie).
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