Bound by Honor: Discovering My Grandfather’s Civil War Legacy

 

“Fort Pulaski, GA, November the 13 1864

Dear Wife…

 

It is with pleasure that I appeal to my this one time more for the purpose of dropping you a line to let you know that I am still alive and enjoying the best of health. Lieut Andis is well and hearty.  I desire that those few lines may come to hand in due time and find you all enjoying the same like blesings(sic). The health of the prisoners that is in the Fort is verry(sic) good at this time. And we are faring mutch(sic) better than we were a short time ago…”

Barney B. Cannoy, 2nd Lt., Co. F, 4th Virginia Infantry Brigade

 Over a century ago this letter was penned by a 27-year-old Confederate prisoner at the Fort Pulaski in Georgia. He was a Second Lieutenant in the 4th Virginia Infantry who had been captured at the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia six months earlier. As one of the “Grayson Daredevils,” he fought under General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson with the famous “Stonewall Brigade” in some of the most pivotal conflicts of the Civil War. Following his capture, he would become part of the “Immortal 600,”  six hundred Confederate officers who suffered the harshest and cruelest treatment as prisoners of war.

His name was Barney B. Cannoy, and he was my great, great grandfather.

Barney was born on 26 November 1836, to John and Eva Cannoy in Elk Creek, Virginia. Barney’s grandfather, also named Barney, had homesteaded the farm along Elk Creek after the American Revolution. He raised his family, including Barney B.’s father John, on about 400 acres there. After the elder Barney’s death, the farm was passed down to John, who continued the family tradition, raising hay, horses, cattle and pigs.

Elk Creek Valley, Grayson County, Virginia. Unknown date

When Barney was 21, he married Sarah Cornett, the 18-year-old daughter of neighbors Hazel and Catherine Cornett. Soon they welcomed a daughter and a son to their family. Barney and his brothers worked with their father on the family farm, tending to seasonal chores including raising cows and hogs, planting and harvesting various crops, chopping and splitting wood, and hunting in the nearby hills. Life on Elk Creek was hard, but things were about to change.

In the fall of 1860, Southern states began to secede from the Union due to deep-seated disagreements over several key issues, particularly slavery. Many Southerners relied heavily on slave labor for their agricultural economy and feared its abolition would lead to economic collapse. They also believed they

had the right to govern themselves and make their own laws, feeling that the federal government was infringing on their rights, including the right to maintain slavery.

While many farmers, such as Barney, did not own slaves, they feared the economic instability caused by the abolition would lead to irreparable hardship for their families. Additionally, they felt a deep loyalty to their home states and communities, believing they needed to defend against Northern aggression.

On 24 April 1861, Barney and his 21-year-old brother Peter enlisted  in the Confederate Army with 135 other young men from Grayson County. They were assigned to Company F, 4^th Virginia Infantry Regiment, otherwise known as the “Grayson Daredevils,” under General Thomas “Stonewall Jackson”. The brothers’ ability to hit a target while running secured them a place with the Daredevils, soon to be known as The Stonewall Brigade.

Barney and Peter marched from Grayson County to Richmond, then to Harpers Ferry with their brigade. Along their route, they were joined by four regiments and an artillery battery to form the First Brigade, Virginia Volunteers. They then began their march to Manassas Junction, where they would participate in the first major land battle of the Civil War, the First Battle of Manassas (also known as the Battle of Bull Run). It is here, the story goes, that General Jackson told the 4^th Virginia to wait until the Yankees came to within 50 yards, fire, and then give them the bayonets, yelling like “furies” on the charge. This would become known as the “Rebel Yell,” a high-pitched, intimidating battle cry used by the Confederates thereafter to unnerve the Union troops and boost the morale of the Confederates. The charge of over 2600 men using that yell must have indeed been unnerving!

Neither Barney nor Peter suffered any injuries during the Battle of Manassas, although over 1500 of fellow soldiers were wounded and nearly 400 were killed. But their efforts resulted in a victory for the Confederacy, and it was in this battle that the Jackson’s brigade (including the Grayson Daredevils) earned the moniker “Stonewall’s Brigade.”

Following Manassas, Jackson’s troops fought in numerous battles throughout the Shenandoah Valley. In March 1862, during the First Battle of Winchester, Peter Cannoy was captured by Union troops. He was sent to Fort Delaware where he remained until August when he was part of a prisoner exchange between the Union and the Confederacy. He eventually reunited with Stonewall’s Brigade but deserted in the fall of 1863. No record exists of his return to the unit, but this was not uncommon for many soldiers in both the Confederate and Union armies.

Shortly after Peter was captured at Winchester, Barney was sent to the CSA General Hospital in Charlottesville with pneumonia. By October, however, he had resumed his duties as a brigade teamster, driving wagons, transporting supplies, and loading and unloading at various camps and battlefields. It was a hazardous but crucial role for the army’s logistics.

Barney continued to support the brigade in some of the fiercest conflicts of the Civil War through 1862, including the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam--known for the bloodiest single day in American history, with around 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing--and the Battle of Fredericksburg in December, which ended the year of fighting with a decisive Confederate victory, dealing a significant blow to Union morale and strengthening of the Confederate cause.

The fighting continued throughout 1863, including the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, which saw over 51,000 casualties. At the end of 1863, after serving the Confederacy for two years and eight months, Barney was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Field promotions were often given for exceptional performance and leadership in combat. Unbeknownst to him, his promotion would soon thrust him into the ranks of a group of men whose experiences would leave their mark in the annals of American history.

Brady, M. “Confederate Prisoners at Belle Plain, Virginia”  1864

During the spring of 1864, Stonewall’s Brigade engaged in a series of battles near Spotsylvania, Virginia, just north of Richmond. Amid the brutal conflict at Spotsylvania Courthouse, Barney was captured and marched alongside other prisoners through Fredericksburg to Belle Plain on the Potomac River. The journey was grueling, with the soldiers enduring harsh conditions and scant supplies. Once at Belle Plain, they were transported to Fort Delaware, a Union prison camp on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River.

A week following Barney’s imprisonment at Fort Delaware, Union Major General John Foster assumed command of their Department of the South. Foster set his sights on taking Confederate-held Charleston and Fort Sumter on Sullivan’s Island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. From his post on Morris Island at the southeast end of Charleston Harbor, he lobbed barrages of shells toward Sumpter and Charleston aiming to weaken Confederate defenses and morale. When confronted about shelling in residential areas where no military sites existed, he refused to redirect his fire, stating that “danger to women and children is simply a part of war.”  In response, Confederate Major General Sam Jones placed 50 Union officers in a residential area near a hospital, hoping their presence there would dissuade Foster from shelling innocent civilians of the city. In retaliation, Foster sent 600 Confederate officers, including Barney, to Morris Island, placing them in a stockade within range of Confederate artillery as human shields.

The soldiers—all officers—were packed onto the steamer Crescent City, which transported them down the eastern seaboard to Morris Island. It was a harsh, inhumane trip, with up to four men sharing one bunk. The guards only permitted one hatch to be open and the summer heat and the boiler heat was unbearable. With meager rations and only hot water from the condenser for drinking, the prisoners became seasick and soon the hold was filled with vomit and excrement. When they finally reached Morris Island the weakened prisoners were marched over two miles to the stockade where they were assigned four men to each two-man A-tents. Any possessions marked as “U.S.” were seized leaving some of the prisoners with nothing, but fortunately for Barney, he was allowed to keep a small kettle to use for heating water or cooking meals.

Cousin Pat Granstra, another great granddaughter of Barney, tells of the prisoners in her blog called “The Civil War Primer:”

Library of Congress. “Stockade on Morris

 Island Where Confederate Prisoners 

Were Confined.” 1865 

“The guns Hempstead described in his diary were in Battery Wagner, which the prisoners had passed on their way to the stockade. Similar weapons were also in Battery Gregg, slightly north of the camp. Both batteries fired shells toward Fort Sumter, those from Battery Wagner going over the heads of the prisoners. Rebel guns from Fort Sumter and Sullivan’s Island returned fire.  Although the stockade was not a target and the Confederate batteries took care to avoid firing toward it once gunners learned of the prisoners, it was, nonetheless, a dangerous place. A number of guards outside the pen were struck by shrapnel, and numerous dud shells fell among the prisoners but did no harm. 

Shelling had a mostly psychological effect on the prisoners, but plenty of physical danger came from other sources. The flimsy tents provided little protection from sun, rain, and wind. Biting sand fleas and mosquitoes constantly swarmed the prisoners. For drinking, cooking, and bathing, the captives collected rainwater and dug into the sand in hopes of finding water. Food rations were few and poor, generally consisting of small portions of wormy hardtack and watery soup or rice. Three prisoners died of disease and/or starvation.

On the 21st, after enduring 45 days on Morris Island, the remaining Confederate  prisoners were transferred to Fort Pulaski at Savannah. There they were incarcerated in open casemates equipped with bunks made of rough planks. Commander Foster had their meals changed to moldy cornmeal and pickles. Whenever possible, the men augmented their diet with dogs and cats that wandered into the prison; eventually, they resorted to catching rats. 

Library of Congress. “Tents on Morris Island, South Carolina.”  1861

The prisoners no longer had to suffer from the heat at Fort Pulaski, where cold combined with malnutrition and disease to test their mettle during the exceptionally harsh winter of 1864-65. They had been issued no blankets or winter clothing. Barney kept his kettle. Like most of the prisoners, he probably wrote letters to loved ones at home. In a letter dated October 26, Andis told his wife he and Cannoy had “very good quarters in the Fort.”  A week later, he wrote that Cannoy had received a letter from his father forwarded from Fort Delaware. Later, probably under Foster’s orders, guards routinely destroyed the prisoners’ outgoing letters.”

Hsieh, Wayne. "Prisoners Quarters, Fort Pulaski, Georgia. 2019

In March of 1865 the prisoners were returned to Fort Delaware. One month later, 9 April 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. However, the soldiers of the Immortal 600 were not released from Fort Delaware until they took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States in June. Barney returned to his home in Elk Creek, having survived one of the most brutal series of events of the Civil War that would forever serve as an example of resilience of the human spirit amidst the brutal realities of war. 

Barney returned to Elk Creek where his wife and two children were waiting for him. He lived on a tract of land given to him by his father near the family home. Barney took over the operations of his father’s farm, which had fallen into disrepair. Five years after he had enlisted with the Grayson Daredevils, his son John Calvin was born. His life, it would seem, was returning to what it was when he left it in 1861. But it seemed that tragedy had one more card to play: At the end of December 1867, his wife Sarah died at the young age of 28.

Barney B Cannoy and wife Margaret Matilda Perkins,

c. 1871

At the age of 31, Barney and his three children, now motherless, moved into the family homestead with his father. Running and repairing the family farm, raising his children, and caring for his aging father left little time for grieving, though he remained an active member of his local church. It was probably there where he met his second wife, Margaret Matilda Perkins, the daughter of the widow Eliza Perkins. Her father had died the previous year. Together, Barney and Margaret had 13 more children—eight boys, five girls. One son, Robert, died at 10 months from scarlet fever and their twin girls died at birth.

Barney’s father died in 1891 of a probable stroke and in his will, he stipulated that Barney inherit the homestead and farm after his death. His intent was to keep his father’s homestead in family hands, and Barney was chosen for this honor. He continued to farm the land with the aid of his sons, Lyda and Greek. In a 1900 letter to his son Ellis in Oregon, Barney tells of his 9-year-old son, Roy, being ill and bringing lambs and a little calf into the house to cheer him up. His letter speaks to the gentle, caring personality of Barney, as does his support of his family, church and community. He did not dwell on being a part of the Immortal 600. In fact, his grandchildren were only told that he served in the Civil War and that he was a prisoner. We, his grandchildren, did not know of this tragic chapter of the Civil War and the part he played until recently, and to this writer it came as quite a shock. Barney had no animosity toward the North. While some of his children moved to Oregon (including my great-grandfather, Lonnie), Iowa, and Illinois, others stayed. The homestead remains in Cannoy family hands today. Barney’s small kettle holds a place of honor in the family living room.

Barney died on October 20, 1901, at the age of 64. When his local church was rebuilt in a new location, making more room for the Old Elk Creek Cemetery, Barney requested to be buried at the site of the old church’s pulpit, where he rests today.