Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsOne "Cold Harbor" Stick Came To Jacksonville And Another Whacked General Grant!
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
We last left the Civil War at Jericho Ford, Virginia, - where Major John Durham was mortally wounded and died the next month at Richmond and was buried, like many others, in Hollywood Cemetery there. Telfair County's Ga. 49th, Company B lost Uriah Newton Watson at Jericho and the Selph boys, Charnick and Ezekiel, were wounded. Charnick, we remember, had a finger shot off in the process. Coffee and Telfair soldiers from the Georgia 20th and 50th were there also.
We now move, reluctantly and slowly, toward a last battle site - that place at the end of the line. Lee knew that. He knew that a stand must be made and in terms of his army's numbers and condition they would be forced to "dig in" and pray that they could preserve their scant numbers against the numerous blue hordes which came to bear on them.
Grant also knew what Lee knew. They had read the same books at West Point and learned the word well. Siege! "Siege" meant the last desperate measure of an army. It meant the last stand when there was no place to go. It meant you were no longer on the offensive but on the defense. It meant the other side had you barricaded and boxed in - starving you out, cutting you off. It also meant that you could only do this for so long. Then, the end.
But that end was to be prolonged for quite a while because Grant got in a hurry and was going for it all - he headed toward Richmond to take the Confederate capital!
The reveille bugles were heard by the Telfair and Coffee boys and all the other soldiers of General Lee's 65,000 troops. Across the way other bugles were sounding, held by men in blue, who woke the 122,000 teeming souls of Grant's war machine. It was 4:30 in the morning.
And, as the Georgia 49th laid Major Durham in his grave at Richmond in June, 1864, Captain James B. Duggan took his place and was promoted to Major. This War had a way of killing off good and brave men. And, likewise, those of the other ilk. It was something someone wrote home about but no one wanted to check the mail.
Battles had strange names, memorable names - names which have held their own through history. You never heard of anyone who forgot one of those battles. Cold Harbor. Nobody forgot Cold Harbor.
Some even brought souvenirs away from some of those places. Henry Fussell, young soldier from Telfair County, Jacksonville, Georgia, now buried at Blockhouse Baptist Church, brought home an intricately carved walking stick with the words "Cold Harbor" carefully and skillfully engraved along its length. "Cold Harbor" was also indelibly etched upon the minds of those present at that bloody occasion.
As I stood by the grave of Pvt. Henry Fussell, CSA, I thought about him being at Cold Harbor. How he was probably given the stick by a fellow soldier - who might not have been as lucky as Henry. Henry brought the walking stick home and for a few years it carried the memories and stories of "Cold Harbor." As Henry ran his fingers over those words on the stick he probably recounted the essence and tragedy of that hour. And he probably recounted the blessing of having survived it - having come home with the stick.
And then, like many other things, "Cold Harbor" was laid aside - to be used as a "propping" stick to place in the window framing to hold up the window in the Fussell home in the hot summer Telfair days after the War.
And then, the house burned and "Cold Harbor," the prop stick, burned with it. But, all was not lost, because still, in her memory, to be passed along, Mrs. Vaunita Fussell Waldon remembered what "Cold Harbor" stood for and what that stick represented. Also bad to lose that work of art. She said it was expertly and painstakingly carved in great detail and fineness. And just think of the circumstances under which it was carved!
And, another person never forgot Cold Harbor. That would be General U.S. Grant because he really was trying to wrap up this War real quick-like and was pressing toward Richmond to run old Jeff Davis right out of the Confederate White House. He wasn't going to settle for less - he thought.
After all, he was within nine (9) miles of the place! But it might as well been 309, because the almost indomitable and fiercely competitive and competent Lee blocked his path.
After the War, and probably before it was even over, General Grant admitted he fed too many men to the slaughterhouse at Cold Harbor. Thousands of the Union men fell and he would have to remember it - not only in his memoirs - but in the faces of those remaining and in the words of the critics who pleasured in bringing up one of the worst catastrophes of the War.
Indeed, one stick from Cold Harbor had gone home to Jacksonville, Georgia, with young Henry Fussell, Private, CSA, but the other Cold Harbor stick had whacked Ulysses S. Grant, General, USA, right across the head!
As the tidal waves of blue-clad warriors receded with their leader, the Telfair and Coffee men and others of the Georgia 20th, 49th and 50th cleaned their weapons, caught a wink of rest, and had at least another day coming full of war and misery.
But they had fought and the enemy, for the time being at least, was forced to pull back and lick the wounds of their mistake. All too profound was becoming the pronouncement of Forrest - "fightin' meant killin'." And both sides were paying dearly.
But, the Telfair and Coffee boys were fortunate, considering the carnage of the affair. And Pvt. Henry Fussell made it home with his stick. He and his wife were destined to have a large family. Clark Fussell, one of his sons, raised his family around Jacksonville in Telfair County and Leonard Fussell left Telfair for Coffee and left many descendants in that county. Someone once said the dictionary points out that you "rear" children and "raise" corn. With that many children you have to "raise" them to "raise" the corn.
But, Grant was trying to raise his army from its latest setback and now he had to change his plans and quit thinking about Richmond for the time being. It was farther down the road than he thought. He began to think about another Virginia town - Petersburg!
Credits:
Telfair History 1807-1987;
Telfair Soldiers In The Civil War by Robert H. (Bob) Swain;
the Henry Fussell Story by Vaunita Fussell Waldon;
various other sources.
