Pee Dee Rifles

Captain George Thomas Parker, Company H (the “Gates County Minute Men”), 5th Regiment N.C. State Troops.

George Thomas Parker, a native of Gates County, is apparently identical to the individual of the same name and date of birth (also born in North Carolina) who resided in 1860 as a merchant in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. However, by May 1861 George had returned to Gates County and mustered in as first sergeant of the “Gates County Minute Men” when that company enlisted for three years or the duration of the war on May 30, 1861. The “Minute Men” were assigned to the 5th Regiment N.C. State Troops as Company H on June 18-20 and George was appointed regimental sergeant major.

Just three months later he was promoted to “brevet second lieutenant” and transferred to Company G, a Wilson County command. That assignment continued until January 1862 when he was transferred back to Company H, still a second lieutenant. The 5th North Carolina sustained horrific casualties in a bungled attack at the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862, losing 258 casualties including eighty-seven men killed or wounded in action and 128 captured, many of whom were also wounded. George was apparently one of only four officers of the 5th North Carolina to survive the battle unscathed. He was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, but apparently not hospitalized. Promotion to first lieutenant followed on October 12.

George was chronically sick and frequently hospitalized with various enteric illnesses during much of 1863 and early 1864. However, he received promotion to captain on June 15, 1863. He was wounded in an unspecified battle in late May 1864 and wounded again in late August during General Jubal Early’s Shenandoah Valley campaign.* Hospitalization for that wound and a recurrence of his earlier illness kept him from returning to duty.

George was reported absent without leave in early January, but he was in fact still in a hospital, a matter he promptly cleared up by writing General Lee’s adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Walter H. Taylor.**

More than 180 men and boys served in Company H, 5th Regiment N.C. State Troops, but just nine were present for the surrender at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865. From the original muster of 118 members in Gates County in May 1861 only Captain Georget Parker and Private Elbert Cross remained.

George Thomas Parker (May 6, 1836-January 18, 1911) is buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Suffolk, City of Suffolk, Virginia.

*Possibly at the Battle of Smithfield Crossing, August 25-29, 1864.
**See Comment 1, below.

Image: Digital file, courtesy Mr. Tom Nelson.

Source Note: 1860 US Census, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, population schedule, p. 12, family 84, William R. Bothe household; Manarin et al., North Carolina Troops, 5:128, 209, 222-233; Mast, “North Carolina Casualties”; Mast, State Troops and Volunteers, 1:295; service record files of George Thomas Parker, 5th Regiment N.C. State Troops, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers from the State of North Carolina (M270); https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9799324/george-thomas-parler

From my collection

Second Lieutenant Franklin Harrison Weaver (left) and two unidentified non-commissioned officers, Company H (the “Iredell Independent Grays”), 4th Regiment N.C. State Troops.

(Note: Another image of Lieutenant Weaver, a copy of a sixth-plate ambrotype, was posted shortly after this page relaunched in autumn 2024, and may be seen in Comment 1, below. The essay here is a slight revision of the earlier one.)

On the morning of September 17, 1862, the men of the 4th Regiment N.C. State Troops filed onto an ordinary farm road near Sharpsburg, Maryland, now known as “Bloody Lane.” Taking position between the 14th North Carolina on their left and the 30th North Carolina on their fight, they numbered no more than 150 men, commanded by a handful of officers. Nearly five hundred of their comrades had fallen in the summer battles from Seven Pines to South Mountain, and hundreds more were absent because of sickness and exhaustion.

The appearance of the enemy to their front offered an imposing sight: “mounted officers in full uniform, swords gleaming, banners, plumes and sashes waving, and bayonets glistening in the sun.” Advancing with “stead tramp and confident mien,” the Federals marched straight at the waiting Tar Heels, who rose and volleyed with “terrible effect.” Nevertheless, the enemy returned again and again, and the ranks of the 4th North Carolina rapidly dwindled. Captain William Marsh of Company I, temporarily commanding the regiment, fell mortally wounded. Command passed briefly to Captain Edwin A. Osborne of Company H before he too was shot down. One by one the other officers were killed or wounded, until only Second Lieutenant Franklin Harrison Weaver of Company H remained. Weaver bravely grasped the regimental colors and began waving them, but he was killed. Another member of the 4th North Carolina claimed that Weaver had taken the flag to warn a Mississippi brigade, advancing in support, that the Tar Heels were friends, and was killed by friendly fire. However, the appearance of the flag is also likely to have drawn additional enemy fire.

Casualties in the 4th North Carolina at Sharpsburg amounted to fifteen men killed or mortally wounded, more than twenty wounded, and thirty-two captured: no extraordinary number for that day’s butchery but nearly half the little regiment’s strength.

Weaver (whose nickname was “Hal”) resided in the Olin community of Iredell County, had been a student at Trinity College, and may have been a harness maker by trade. He enlisted at Statesville on June 13, 1861, as a sergeant in a company known as the “Iredell Independent Grays,” possibly an already existing volunteer militia company. The “Grays” volunteered for a term of three years or the duration of the war and were subsequently designated Company H, 4th Regiment N.C. State Troops. Weaver was promoted to third lieutenant in July-August 1861 and to second lieutenant in November-December. He was granted a thirty-day furlough in January 1862 and was otherwise present or accounted for until his death at Sharpsburg.

Weaver was survived by a widow and child. On October 13, 1862, his father, Amos Weaver, filed a claim for his son’s back pay. The claim was settled on May 20, 1863, for $125.33.

The other men in the photograph are non-commissioned officers, with chevrons visible on the left arm of the seated soldier and right arm of the standing one. The newness of the regulation uniforms suggests that image dates from shortly after Weaver’s appointment as third lieutenant.

Franklin Harrison Weaver (1841-September 17, 1862) is buried at Antietam National Cemetery, Sharpsburg, Washington County, Maryland.

Images: Courtesy of Paul Weaver, descendant.

Source Note: 1860 U. S. Census, Olin, Iredell County, North Carolina, population schedule, page 69-70, family 511, D.W.F. Weaver household; Manarin et. al., North Carolina Troops 4 (second printing with addenda) 35, 746; Mast, “North Carolina Casualties”; Mast, State Troops and Volunteers, 1:360; Edwin A. Osborne, “Fourth Regiment,” in Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina, 1:246-248; service record files of Franklin H. Weaver, 4th Regiment N.C. State Troops, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers from the State of North Carolina (M270), RG109, NA; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/253991979/franklin-harrison-weaver
-- Greg Mast

A single recommendation changed American history, shaping a legendary general’s career, faith, and family long before battlefield fame.

Daniel Harvey Hill was known for his sharp intellect, strong opinions, and fiery personality. A veteran of the Mexican-American War, future Confederate lieutenant general, and later an educator, Hill left his mark on military and academic history alike. Yet one of his most important contributions occurred years before the Civil War, when a simple professional recommendation helped alter the course of another man's life.

In 1851, Hill was serving as a mathematics professor at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. When officials at the neighboring Virginia Military Institute sought advice regarding candidates for a vacant teaching position, Hill reviewed the list and immediately recognized the name of a former comrade from the Mexican War. Impressed by his abilities and character, Hill strongly endorsed the applicant, Thomas Jonathan Jackson.

Thanks in part to Hill's recommendation, Jackson was hired as a professor at VMI. Although students initially found him strict and unconventional, the position provided him with stability, professional respect, and a platform from which he would eventually emerge as one of the most famous military commanders in American history. Years later, the world would know him by a name earned on the battlefield—Stonewall Jackson.

Hill's influence on Jackson extended beyond professional matters. He encouraged the previously uncommitted Jackson to attend the local Presbyterian church, helping introduce him to a faith that would become central to his life. Jackson embraced religion with the same determination he applied to every endeavor, becoming deeply devoted to his beliefs and known for his unwavering spiritual convictions.

Hill also introduced Jackson to his sister-in-law, Anna Morrison. Their relationship blossomed into a devoted marriage that brought happiness and stability to Jackson's personal life. Looking back, it is remarkable how a single friendship influenced so many aspects of one man's future. Through a recommendation, a church invitation, and a family introduction, Daniel Harvey Hill helped shape the career, faith, and family life of the man who would become one of the Civil War's most celebrated generals.

U.S. Cities Dust Off Statues They Hid Away in 2020 A monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is back up in Charleston, S.C., and a giant Columbus awaits a return in Ohio’s namesake capital.

Jefferson F. Davis
June 3, 1808 - December 6, 1889

We are glad to see the people of our State everywhere preparing for the crisis which is at hand. As an offset to the "Wide-Awakes" of the North, "Minute Men" are organizing in all the principal districts of South Carolina. Their object is to form an armed body of men, and to join in with our fellow-citizens, now forming in this and our sister States as "Minute Men," whose duty is to arm, equip and drill, and be ready for any emergency that may arise in the present perilous position of the Southern States.

In Kershaw, Abbeville and Richland Districts the organization is already complete and powerful, embracing the flower of the youth, and led on bv the most influential citizens. The badge adopted is a blue rosette – two and a half inches in diameter, with a military button in the centre, to be worn upon the side of the hat. Let the important work go bravely on, and let every son of Carolina in prepare to mount the blue cockade. – Charleston Mercury

The Camden (SC) Weekly Journal, 23 Oct. 1860

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