February 12 commemorates Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. As a descendant of two gg-grandfathers who fought for the south during the Civil War or War Between the States which might sound better to some, I feel the war became inevitable as years went by without slavery being abolished, although the issue was brought up back in George Washington’s time! Later members of the US Congress debated and even came to physical blows but the matter continued to fester until a terrible war solved it.
William Loren and Alfred Ervin were sons of William Terry and Caroline Keener Dickerson, a farming family of Wolffork Valley, Rabun County, Georgia. William reared fine horses and when Alfred – “Uncle Erv” – went to war at age 17 he rode a horse into battle in Co. F, 11th Georgia Cavalry. His primary service was fighting against General Sherman in a long retreat across Georgia and into the Carolinas. Near Savannah he was wounded as the war was closing and rode his horse home to Wolffork Valley.
William, called “Lorn,” the oldest, joined Co. F. 52nd Georgia Infantry, and made a long march to fight in Tennessee and Mississippi, where they rebuffed five assaults by General Sherman’s Union army at Chickasaw Bluffs north of Vicksburg. At Champion’s Hill (Baker’s Creek), May 16, 1863, the 52nd was overrun by a superior Union force and Lorn was captured. Later exchanged, Lorn served in Co. E, 24th Georgia Infantry, fighting at Petersburg, the Shenandoah Valley, and a final bloody battle at Saylor’s Creek just before General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, April 9, 1865.
I love to learn of the past and realize that it helps a person understand life and hopefully benefit from the bad lessons of history. My grandmother, Leila Dickerson Justus, passed on some war stories from Lorn and Erv. It was probably Lorn who told her of hiding behind a house to escape Yankee shelling but soon the whole building disappeared and he had to hunt another cover. Erv told of his wound near the end and how the Yankees saw how young he was and wounded so they let him ride home on his horse.
Some 600,000 Americans died – north and south – so Lorn and Erv were fortunate to come home.
Mama Leila was told of the desperate times for the folks at home in the south. She said men took wagons and drove to the Gulf of Mexico to extract salt from the Gulf waters. People were robbed and sometimes homes burned by roving bands of looters and outlaws near the end of the war.
Mama Leila said Erv grew old on his farm in Germany Valley, Rabun Co., Ga., and had been to a corn shucking on a cold winter day. He stopped by Papa Jesse and Leila’s home to warm by the fire and then went on toward home.
He didn’t reach home.
After dark he was found lying under a brush pile by the trail. He probably had a stroke and thought it was warmer under the pile.
