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491
Days
by Archie P. McDonald | |
Civil
War enthusiasts, especially rare book collectors, know that William Williston
Heartsill's Fourteen Hundred And Ninety-One Days In The Confederate Army
is among the rarest and most valuable reminiscences of the era. This is true because
of Heartsill's accuracy and insight and also because of the way the book was presented.
Heartsill was born in Louisville, Tennessee, in 1839, and later operated
as a traveling salesman for a wholesale merchandising firm throughout Tennessee
until he moved to Marshall, Texas,
in 1859, to become a clerk in a store. He enlisted in Company A, Second Texas
Cavalry when the Civil War began and served under legendary leaders Walter Paye
Lane and John Selden "RIP" Ford on the frontier and in Arkansas until captured
in January 1863.
Heartsill was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Camp
Butler, Illinois, until exchanged three months later, when he was enrolled in
a company assigned to a Confederate army commanded by General Braxton Bragg.
After
participating in the successful Battle of Chickamauga, fought in northwestern
Georgia near the Tennessee border, Heartsill left Bragg's command to rejoin the
Second Cavalry in Texas. Among other duties, Heartsill guarded Federal prisoners-of-war
at Camp
Ford, the largest such facility in the Confederacy located west of the Mississippi
River.
When the war ended, Heartsill returned to Marshall
and opened a store to sell groceries and leather goods. When not busy with store
work, between 1874 and 1876 Heartsill printed his wartime journals, a single page
at a time, and pasted in illustrations, again, one page and one copy at a time.
When he completed the project, Heartsill vowed never to repeat it.
Needless
to say, original copies of Fourteen Hundred And Ninety-One Days In The Confederate
Army, few in number from the beginning, remain rare and constantly increase
in value among collectors. Even copies of a reprint, edited by Bell I. Wiley and
issued in 1954, sell for several hundred dollars when available.
Heartsill
served as an alderman and mayor of Marshall and also as an officer of the Marshall
and Northwestern Railway Company. He died in 1916 and is buried in Marshall.
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© Archie P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
>
April 9, 2007 column
A syndicated column in 70 East Texas newspapers
Distributed
by the East Texas Historical Association. Archie P. McDonald is director of the
Association and author of more than 20 books on Texas. | |
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