James R Montgomery¹ was born, in the late 1830′s, in Madison, Mississippi. The son of Allen, and Ellen, he was the second of eight children. With the outbreak of sectional hostilities, young James entered the army, enlisting in the 17th Mississippi Infantry, Company C – the Quitman Grays – he would be mustered into Confederate service on May 23, 1861, in Saltillo. It would join the rest of the 17thMississippi at Corinth, MS, before being sent to Virginia.
Young Montgomery would fight in many of the most brutal battles, in the east: First Manassas, Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days, Second Manssas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. At Fredericksburg, the 17th would be assigned to William Barksdale’s defensive line along the Rappahannock River. They would offer stiff resistance against the Federal crossing in Fredericksburg. After Gettysburg, Montgomery would move to Georgia, with James Longstreet’s 1st Corps. He would fight at Chickamauga, in CS Brigadier General Benjamin Humphrey’s brigade, of CS Major General John B. Hood’s Division (commanded by Evander Law). After Chickamauga, the 17th Mississippi would participate in Longstreet’s Knoxville Campaign.
In the spring of 1864, Montgomery would be back in Virginia, in time to participate in the Battle of the Wilderness. Arriving with Humphrey’s Brigade, they would be one of the first brigades into the Wilderness. Longstreet would be seriously wounded, at the Wilderness, and CS Major General Richard Anderson would take over corps command.
The position of Anderson's Right Flank at Spotsylvania.
With US Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s flanking movement, southeast of the Wilderness, Anderson would push his 1st Corps, along shortened interior lines, arriving at Laurel Hill, near the Spindle Farm, where they would engage the Federal army. Over the coming days, the two armies would slug it out, in one of the bloodiest battles of the entire Civil War – Spotsylvania Court House.
For private James R. Montgomery, Spotsylvania Court House would be his last battle – and final resting place. He would fight bravely at Spotsylvania, where he would take a shell fragment to his right shoulder. Like so many soldiers, during the Civil War, James sent a final letter to his father, “Death is inevitable. This is my last letter to you. I write to you because I know you would be delighted to read a word from your dying son.” Young Montgomery would die four days later. Ethelbert Fairfax, a friend of James, would send another note to the Montgomery family, “I have never witnessed such an exhibition of fortitude and Christian resignation as he showed. In this sad bereavement you will have the greatest of all comforts in knowing that he made peace with God and was resigned to his fate. He retained consciousness to the last… His grave is marked.”²
These letters were very common during the Civil War. Many of these soldiers were fighting hundreds of miles from their homes. Their families, especially many in the financially destroyed south, would be unable to bring their dead soldier home, for a proper burial. These letters served to provide the family comfort, letting them know that their loved one fought bravely – and in many cases that they had accepted the Lord, as their Savior – assuring an afterlife free of the cruelties of the current world.
¹ Information, used to research this article, was partially obtained from Civil War Soldiers and Sailor System and the Muster Roll of the 17th Mississippi Infantry.
² Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering (Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), pp. 16-17.
One of the sad aspects of battle was the fact that so many soldiers are buried away from home. At least some received proper burials as opposed to those dumped in mass graves.