Upper Big Branch Mine - 2 years later

Statement from Goose and Mindi Stewart

“First, my wife Mindi and I would like to express our sadness that another family is being impacted by the tragedy of April 5, 2010. We're certain Mr. May's family is suffering tremendous fear and sadness at this time. 

That being said, we would also like to express our gratitude to the Federal Prosecutor and his staff for pursuing justice in this case. Nothing can bring back the wonderful and brave men who were murdered and injured on April 5th and our hearts still go out to the families of those miners. The best outcome of this entire investigation would be the indictments, trials and prosecutions of all those who were responsible for UBB's explosion from the upper Management at UBB up to and including Don Blankenship. 

Everytime an event occurs that has to do with the tragedy at the mine, our family suffers the pain of reliving that horrible day. I ask you to respect our family and our need for privacy. We will not be releasing any further comments regarding this story.”

This message from Goose and Mindi Stewart posted on WSAZ News Channel 3 website on March 29, 2012

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Stanley “Goose” Stewart worked 34 years in the coal mine, 15 of those at Upper Big Branch mine.  Goose testified before the Committee on Education and Labor, U.S. House of Representatives, during the Hearing held May 24, 2010 in Beckley, West Virginia regarding the  the Upper Big Branch mine tragedy. Goose made the following statement at the Hearing; “There wasn’t no air. It’s hard to ventilate a place when you ain’t got nothing to ventilate it with.  A ticking time bomb because the ventilation system they had didn’t work.”

                                     

We are on the 2 year anniversary of the Upper Big Branch mine tragedy this Easter weekend. For family members, loved ones and all coal field residents  Easter weekend holds a different meaning from the normal festive occasion of Easter egg hunts, beautiful spring dresses and the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.  On Monday, April 5 of the 2010 Easter weekend  at approximately 3:02 pm a powerful explosion tore through the Upper Big Branch mine, owned by Massey Energy and operated by its subsidiary Performance Coal Company. The mine was located at the convergence of the Boone and Raleigh Counties in southern West Virginia. Twenty-nine miners were killed and one seriously injured. The blast rocketed through more than 2 miles of underground workings tearing apart everything in its path nearly 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Coal River.  So, Easter weekend will forever serve as a reminder of the horrible tragedy at UBB.

 Once again Easter weekend is upon us two years later and we have yet another family impacted by the tragedy of the Upper Big Branch mine where 29 miners were killed and one seriously injured. This is my story written March 29, 2012:

I’m so sad tonight, simply heartbroken that our coalfields have suffered another deadly blow; claimed another casualty.  Is it not enough  we lost 29 coal miners and another one seriously injured on Easter Monday in April 2010 at Upper Big Branch Mine Explosion in Raleigh County, West Virginia owned by Massey Energy.  The latest heartbreaking  news all over the newspapers, internet and television stations is that Gary May, former mine superintendent at Upper Big Branch mine, has entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to prevent MSHA from doing their job.  I don’t want to think of what this may entail—we are family in the coalfields caring and looking out for one another.

This news is too hard to bear.  How can residents of the coalfields comprehend much less accept the possibility that those hired and empowered to provide and enforce a safe work place, to look over our miners, serve as their guardian angels, their underground brothers voluntarily give up that control at the miner’s expense. It was a well known fact the Appalachian coalfield’s native son,  former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, born in Shopover, Kentucky, raised in Delome, West Virginia and a graduate of Matewan High School,  pushed coal production at all costs. He made no bones about that as evidenced in a memo Blankenship sent in October 2005 to all deep mine superintendents, "If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e. - build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever) you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that coal pays the bills." Reported in the West Virginia Record.

To make a long story short, after this explosion at Upper Big Branch mine, the worst disaster in the US since 1972, Blankenship, head of the UBB mine operation, retired after almost three decades at Massey. He left practically in the middle of the night. The announcement of Blankenship’s “retirement” came late on a  Friday after the markets closed – a sure-fire sign that the ouster was abrupt and awkward. It came one day after a West Virginia judge ruled against Blankenship’s motion to dismiss  two lawsuits holding him personally responsible for the Upper Big Branch mine explosion.

While family members of the men killed were tossing and turning—grieving in the night over the loss of their loved ones and their painful deaths, in the event Blankenship suffered from any nocturnal unrest, he left the company with enough funds to pay for sleep therapy for a long time.  CBS Money Watch reports Blankenship left with $12 million cash, health insurance including dental, five years' use of an office with secretary, free use of a house and land that formerly were Massey property, and reimbursement of taxes on the free house and land and the title to a1965 blue Chevy truck previously transferred to the company.

Cecil E. Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of American characterized Blankenship’s  retirement as bringing to a close a long and difficult chapter in the history of the coal industry, one that has all too often been associated with human tragedy.

The small, remote coalfield communities in Appalachia are close knit and Bloomingrose in Boone County, West Virginia where Gary May lives is less than 25 miles from Montcoal, Raleigh County, West Virginia where the Upper Big Branch mine is located. That’s a rock’s throw away. That’s like family.  One of my questions as a life-long resident of the coalfields is; what could Massey Energy run by Don Blankenship possibly offer Gary May to entice him into this web of deceit which led up and ended with the loss of 29 lives. Was it money, threats, power...please, will someone fill in the blanks for us. Did he cross the line from protector of his workers to protector of Massey Energy and CEO Don Blankenship?

According to reports, May has agreed “to be named as an unindicted co-conspirator and unindicted aider and abettor, as appropriate, in subsequent indictments or informations,” and will also appear again before a grand jury. May faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when sentenced on August 9, 2010.  

Five years doesn’t seem that long in comparison to what 29 miners received-death.

 U.S. Attorney for  the Southern District of West Virginia, R. Booth Goodwin, II had the following comments regarding May’s guilty plea, “People who run coal mines have a fundamental obligation to be honest with mine regulators.  When mine operators resort to tricks and deceit to keep government officials in the dark, our mine safety system unravels and miners are put in harm's way. The least we can do for coal miners is protect the integrity of the laws designed to keep them safe" (WSAZ Channel 3 news website)

 Under the conspiracy charge, “May, together with others known and unknown, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly combined, conspired, confederated, and agreed together with each other to defraud the United States and an agency thereof, to wit, to hamper, hinder, impede, and obstruct by trickery, deceit, and dishonest means, the lawful and legitimate functions of DOL and its agency, MSHA, in the administration and enforcement of mine health and safety laws at UBB,” according to court documents.

May told court officially  that he was responsible for tipping off mine managers when U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors were coming. The person receiving this information-advance notice would conceal and cover up violations of mine health and safety laws to avoid citations that would  be issued. Those involved in the cover up used code phrases to pass the information along to sections of the mine to be inspected.  May stated that he engaged in acts such hanging or rehanging ventilation curtains to direct additional air to the area where an inspection was to take place. He said that if he inspectors were going to take samples of respirable dust, he would rock dust those areas. He admitted to falsifying safety records ordering an employee to omit from the record book conditions of high water that made it unsafe to travel in parts of the mine.  May admitted to telling miners to rewire a methane monitor rewired so a continuous miner would not automatically shut-off when excessive methane was detected.

 CNN reported that in a December report, MSHA found a methane ignition that set off flammable coal dust was the immediate cause of the 2010 explosion, but it also blamed the "unlawful policies and practices" of Massey Energy, which it said "promoted and enforced a workplace culture that valued production over safety."

It has finally come out that Massey kept two sets of books to mislead federal inspectors and its own workers about hazards in the mine, and had twice as many accidents as it reported to regulators.  MSHA found this company failed to conduct adequate inspections and as intimidated their workers to prevent them from reporting violations. (CNN & AP)

An earlier (state) investigation found the mine lacked adequate ventilation; water sprays on equipment were not properly maintained and failed to function as they should have; and the mining company didn't meet federal and state safety standards for the application of rock dust, a crucial tool in keeping highly volatile coal dust from exploding.

Alpha Natural Resources purchased Massey in 2011 and has agreed to a $209 million settlement to  avoid prosecution.  The deal includes payments of $1.5 million to each family that lost a member in the Upper Big Branch mine. May, became an employee of an Alpha Natural Resources subsidiary following Alpha’s acquisition of Massey Energy last year. May has been placed on administrative leave, according to a company spokesperson

The news of this breakdown in trust is counterproductive to any number of laws proposed or passed to protect the coalminer or any dollar amount paid to family members. I believe it is a necessary insult to equate the loss of a loved one to a dollar amount.  Although a sad commentary, I am interested in seeing how far up the ladder this goes.

The FBI and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General are handling the investigation. Counsel to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia Steve Ruby is handling the prosecution.

 After almost two years of investigations by state, federal and independent agencies, pieces of this puzzle are finally coming together. Whether we like what we hear or not, facts are coming out and we can only hope and pray for the dead miners, their families and the family of Gary May and trust our Justice Department to put the pieces together and give  the residents of the coalfields something to live for—that they do matter,  their lives are valuable and that the outside world recognize the dangers of coalmining.

 Men who lost their lives in the Upper Big Branch mine:

Carl Calvin Acord

Jason Atkins

Christopher Bell

Gregory Steven Brock

Kenneth Allan Chapman

Robert E. Clark

Cory Thomas Davis

Charles Timothy Davis

Michael Lee Elswick

William Ildon Griffith

Steven Harrah

Edward Dean Jones

Richard K. Lane

William Roosevelt Lynch

Joe Marcum

Ronald Lee Maynor

Nicolas Darrell McCroskey

James E. “Eddie” Mooney

Adam Keith Morgan

Rex L. Mullins

Joshua Scott Napper

Howard D. Payne

Dillard Earl Persinger

Joel R. Price

Gary Wayne Quarles

Deward Allan Scott

Grover Dale Skeens

Benny Ray Willingham

Ricky Workman

And to the man who was seriously injured in the explosion- James Woods

WWII Veteran - Ted McClung by Betty Dotson-Lewis

"A Mother's Prayer"
Oral History Interview with Ted McClung, WWII Veteran
February, 2001 10:00 a.m.
Summersville, West Virginia


Theodore "Ted" McClung, Army - WWII
November 5, 1942- November 3, 1945


Ted McClung, 89 year old WWII Veteran, receiving his high school diploma from Nicholas County Board member, Jim Cox, February 26, 2001. Photographed by Jurgen Lorenzen


Are you a native West Virginian and Nicholas County?

Yes, I was born September 2, 1923 at home, Mt. Lookout, West Virginia. My parents were Ira and Nora McClung. I have five brothers and four sisters. I was the fifth one going in the service. We all served during WWII. Out of the five, four of us were overseas. We all served in the Army.

When did you enlist in the Army and what motivated you to join up?

I was in my second year at Nicholas County High School when I enlisted in the Army. Four of my brothers were already in the service and I felt dissatisfied and enlisted in November 5, 1942.

Where did you take your Basic Training?

I had my Basic Training at Camp Grant, Illinois, just out of Rockford, where the temperature got down to 45 degrees below zero. Finished Basic Training the 1st of February 1943 and I was sent to Camp Campbell, Kentucky on February 4, 1943 to the 29th Field Hospital.

What were the train of events following Basic Training, serving as a medic during the War?

I finished training in the hospital at Camp Campbell and was transferred to Ft. Ord, California sometime in May. There we had amphibious training with guns (live ammunition) getting ready to go to the Luzon Islands. The Japanese didn't recognize our Red Cross, so we had as much training on how to use guns as the infantry.
We shipped out from Ft. Ord for the Luzon Islands on the 1st day of July, 1943, on a LST Ship, and landed in the Luzons on the 26th of July. We landed on Adick Island. We were there until the 14th of August, 1943. From there we made the invasion on the 15th of August, 1943, at midnight. It was partially daylight (it just gets dusk there, never dark). We were lucky that the Japanese had evacuated the Island. According to reports received, 12,000 Japanese were on the Island but all we found were six in a plane hanger drinking coffee but their guns, supplies and everything was still there. (I always wondered if it were tea instead of coffee they were drinking because they are big tea drinkers).
They left behind between twenty to twenty-five suicide submarines. (It was a great honor for them to be killed like that; chained to a suicide submarine and sent out to die).
We were there until February 12, 1944. We had snow at least twenty feet deep. You could walk on top of the snow. The wind blew all the time. We were medics, but we also unloaded supplies used to invade Japan. We got back to Seattle, Washington on the 20th of February 1944. I went to Ft. Lewis, Washington and then to Camp Bowie, Texas. We got a twenty day furlough and then back to Camp Bowie.
Three weeks later, we were at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and from there I was shipped to our Division in England where we opened a hospital station. On the 15th of August, 1944, we moved to France and set up our Field Hospital to care for our troops. The closest the Field Hospital could be set up to the front line was from one half mile to one mile. Our job was to take care of our wounded soldiers and the wounded Germans. In November just out of Antwerp, Belgium, we opened up a Station Hospital.
Before Christmas, twenty-five of us were sent to Brussels to open up a hotel for the men coming back from the front lines to rest. In March, 1945, twenty of us were transferred from the hospital to the infantry.
We had infantry training in France but we had already had tougher training at Ft. Ord. Then we went to Nuremberg, Germany as occupational troops. We were there for one; they put us on a train to Marseilles, France for direct shipment to Japan. We were there approximately from one month to six weeks.
We were supposed to load on a ship the 15th of August to go to Japan. The Japanese surrendered on the 14th of August, 1945. They got us out of bed at midnight and told us that we would not be going to Japan; we would be going home.

When were you discharged from the Army and what were your feelings arriving back in America?

On the 1st day of September, 1945, we got on a ship and headed for the US. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life was the Statue of Liberty when we arrived in New York Harbor. We sailed right by it, close enough to touch, I thought.
We went to Ft. Meade, Maryland. We were given a forty-five day furlough to go home and then report back to Ft. Meade. There, I received my discharge, November of 1945.

What medals did you receive?

I was awarded on the Asiatic, One Battle Star, European Theater, two Battle Stars, Good Conduct Medal, Victory Ribbon, American Theater Ribbon.

Did all your brothers survive the War?

Fortunately, none of my brothers were killed, but one of my brothers suffered from Battle Shock. I got one letter from him; he was in France and then the next time I heard from him, he was in England in the hospital. He served in what was called "the Bastard Tank Battalion," 750th Tank Battalion. They were sent out with a Battalion of infantry on the front lines to clear the way. The stress of killing and intense battle fatigue was too much for him.
Two other brothers served in the 2nd Army Division; one was a Lt. and one a Tech. Sgt. One was on limited service.

What was your Mother's prayer?

My mother's one prayer was that she would see all her sons come home from the war alive, and she did. She passed away soon after that.

Comments from Ted:
I belong to the Civil Air Patrol. I have the rank of Lt. Col. I have total of twenty two ribbons from the Civil Air Patrol and the Army. Ted received his high school diploma at the age of 89. "I am so proud I am finally receiving my high school diploma," were Ted's comments.

Veterans receiving high school diplomas in Nicholas County, West Virginia

Veterans receiving High School diplomas in Nicholas County, West Virginia

Press Release-- Girl from Stretchneck Hollow

Kathleen Colley Slusher---------------------------- Betty Dotson-Lewis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MEDIA CONTACT: Kathie McGuire
October 6, 2011 Kathie@BrightonPublishing.com


Brighton Publishing LLC signs authors Betty Dotson-Lewis and Kathleen Colley Slusher for Girl from Stretchneck Hollow

Brighton Publishing LLC announced the signing of authors Betty Dotson-Lewis and Kathleen Colley Slusher for their collection of short stories illuminating life in Appalachia

CHANDLER (AZ)—Brighton Publishing is pleased to announce the acquisition of Girl from Stretchneck Hollow: Inside Appalachia by authors Betty Dotson-Lewis and Kathleen Colley Slusher. This collection of short fiction about life and lives in Appalachia will be released first as an eBook in mid-2012.

Dense forests begrudgingly give way to steep banks which tumble down to swiftly flowing streams throughout the mountains of Appalachia from North Carolina to Kentucky and on through West Virginia. The land and its people are bound together, past and present, with a history and a culture as much their own as they are neglected and misunderstood.

In this collaboration between two accomplished authors, a collection of short fiction has emerged in which readers may revel. Both heart-warming and heart-wrenching, Dotson-Lewis and Slusher put the very raw lives of Appalachia into captivating prose which sweeps the reader into their stories.

“What Pulitzer-winner Charles Wright accomplished in his poetry about Appalachia, Betty Dotson-Lewis and Kathleen Colley Slusher have equaled in their prose,” said Kathie McGuire, director of Brighton Publishing LLC. “They pull no punches in shining light on the realities of the back woods—the moonshine, domestic abuse, holy rollers, coal miners, cock fights, and beyond the shocking, an amazing portrait of the difficult lives of people „up the hollers‟ in the Appalachians.”

Stories rising from this upbringing serve as windows to the souls of those hidden children of the mountains. “The Rooster Fight” is a brutal story of forbidden cock fighting, gambling, drinking, and mob-like behavior, told in a child‟s tender voice. “The Porkpie Hat” story reveals the dangers lurking in the mountains, embodied in a mentally-impaired boy and a sexual predator brought to live with his family after the coal miner father is killed. “The Groundhog” is, in itself, a test of readers‟ nerves. Funny, yet grotesque, it is a true-life, actual account of catching, killing, and cooking mountain cuisine.

A common thread weaves through these stories like the threads of a mountain quilt sewn together over the years: a new piece, an old piece, one worn by a grandmother, one having covered a deceased child. Throughout Girl from Stretchneck Hollow: Inside Appalachia are the lives of all the children raised in Appalachia‟s coal culture. Their voices linger still.

Betty Dotson-Lewis was raised in a coal mining town in the remote mountains of West Virginia. She attended Berea College, and has already authored three books on Appalachian life. Kathleen Colley Slusher, a Berea College graduate, was raised in Haysi, Virginia. Half-Japanese, half-American, she, too, grew up among the coal fields of Southwest Virginia, and today is a retired English teacher.

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501 W. Ray Road, Suite #4, Chandler, AZ 85225 • www.BrightonPublishing.com

Civil War Anniversary - 150 years ago today, April 12, 2011

Read about the hardships of Franklin Branscome, Confederate Soldier from Carroll County, Virginia. He and his 3 brothers walked to Dugspur and volunteered on September 16, 1861. Two brothers died because of the Civil War. Read more. Abraham Lincoln's State of Kentucky joined the Union even though it was a slave-holding state. read the story on Franklin Branscome, Recollections of a Confederate Soldier

Civil War - 1861-1865 Franklin Branscome - Confederate Soldier

Franklin Branscome, Recollections of a Confederate Soldier Snake Creek Section of Carroll County, Virginia, September 16, 1861

By Betty Dotson-Lewis

The Civil War was a military conflict between the United States of America (the Union) and the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy) from 1861 to 1865. The main reason for the war, slavery. Southern states depended on slavery to support their economy. Slavery was illegal in the Northern states and only a small portion actively opposed it. The main debate on the eve of the war was whether slavery should be permitted in the Western Territories recently acquired during the Mexican War.

- January 1861 following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President, a known opponent of slavery, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas followed.

- February 1861 the seven seceding states created the Confederate Constitution. Jefferson Davis was named provisional president of the Confederacy until elections could be held. - February 1861 President Buchanan, Lincoln’s predecessor, refused to turn over southern federal forts to the seceding states, southern state troops seized them.

- March 1861 Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated. Lincoln said he had no plans to end slavery in those states where it already exist, however, he would not accept secession.

- April 1861 President Lincoln in an effort to avoid hostilities alerted South Carolina that supplies were being sent to Fort Sumter. South Carolina feared a trick so Robert Anderson, commander of the fort was asked to surrender immediately. Anderson offered surrender after supplies were exhausted. His offer was rejected and on April 12, the Civil War began with shots fired on Fort Sumter which was eventually surrendered to South Carolina.

- April 1861, the Fort Sumter attack prompted four more states to join the Confederacy, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee. Richmond, Virginia was named the Confederate capitol.

Five months after Virginia’s secession from the Union, Franklin Branscome and his three brothers answered the call of duty to the Confederacy Army. Franklin lived to tell his story. A rough, low estimate of 620,000 soldiers including two of his brothers, never made it back home. Franklin’s brother, Robert, a wagoneer died in 1862. He’s buried in the Confederate cemetery at Emory & Henry where the hospital was located and John, the baby brother, captured at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee on November 25, 1863 was shipped to Rock Island, Illinois, Union Prisoner of War camp. There, he came down with Typhoid Fever and died on January 7, 1864. As far as anyone knows he was buried in the swampy land next to the prison along with hundreds of other prisoners.

Today, Franklin Branscome rests six feet under on the hillside of his farm on Little Snake Creek of Carroll County, high in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia between Fancy Gap and Hillsville. There, his descendants bicker, guard, and care for the memory of their Confederate soldier who lived to tell the story.

Location: Franklin’s grave

Franklin’s voice -

“Y’all back to visit so soon? Good. I like company. Sure do appreciate the nice sturdy fence you’ve put up on top of my underground home. Keeps the animals from walking around on my stomach and head. Must have paid a lot out for this fancy headstone you got for me and your great grandmother. She always liked fancy things.

Oh, I see you’ve brought a stranger up the hill to visit my grave. Say she’s interested in my past- not the moonshine making past, but my Confederate soldier past. I appreciate the interest. I don’t care to tell a little of what I recollect. That was awhile back about-150 years ago since the north and south fought-brother against brother. I proudly served as a Confederate Officer, 1st Lieutenant with the 54th and later Sgt. with the 25th Calvary.

Pertinent information about me is carved deep in the granite marking my grave. Right here with me in this pine box is my sword (a long hunting knife), belt and what was left of my coat that I brought back from the war. Put to rest with me by my kinfolk.

Franklin Branscome 1st LIEUT CO G 54 VA INF CONFEDERTE STATES ARMY Mar 14, 1837 July 12 1927

Recollection - Enlistment

When I was 24, me and my three brothers, Robert (1839), Isaac (1841), and John (1842) left our farms and our families here on Little Snake Creek in Carroll County, Virginia, and walked the eight or ten miles to Dugspur to volunteer in the Confederate Army. We got mustered in on September 16, 1861 with the 54th Virginia Infantry, Company G. I was the eldest of the four brothers.

It was early fall but our crops were harvested with plenty put up for our women and children until we got back from the war. I raised corn and made moonshine.

In Southwest Virginia, slaves, small in number, worked at jobs whites didn’t want as field hands for planters and for big farmers. Some worked as servants looking after rich folks. They cleaned their houses, cooked their meals, washed their clothes and was nanny for their children. Slaves kept the hot springs running, cooking, butchering meat, waiting tables and playing music. As one farmer said any white person willing to work as a servant was deemed worthless. Slaves worked in the area’s iron. lead, and salt mines and factories.

Recollection – 54th Virginia Infantry, Company G, outfitted for battle

Captain George Hylton Turman’s Company G was made up mostly from Carroll County and bordering Floyd County, Virginia men. Captain Turman convinced 78 men to enlist in the Southern cause on the day we volunteered, September 16, 1861. That was the first muster roll. The second muster roll for the 54th is the period from July 9, 1863 to December 31, 1863.

Company G went to Christiansburg to Camp Hall to get outfitted for battle. Standard Confederate uniforms were gray with a wool hat. Soldiers lucky enough to have a pair of shoes that fit would often nail horseshoes to them to prevent the soles from wearing down. My rifle was a Confederate Springfield-a flint-lock with my ammunition in a cartridge box attached to the right of my belt. Each soldier was given a small blanket rolled up, a haversack, cloth-covered canteen, tin cup and small frying pan.

Recollection – 54th Ordered to advance the Southern Cause in President Abe Lincoln’s Union

Kentucky The 54th was ordered to Kentucky after leaving Christiansburg, Virginia where we engaged in battle in Floyd County, Kentucky on Christmas day in 1861. The Union took one P.O.W. Kentucky, birthplace of President Abe Lincoln, joined the Union even though it was a slave-holding state.

Kentuckians had ties to both the North and South. Tobacco, whiskey, snuff and flour produced in Kentucky was shipped to Southern states and across the ocean by way of the Mississippi and north by railroad. Rich plantation owners stood to lose a lot of money if they lost their slaves and slave trade through abolition.

By law, Kentucky was one of the five slave states that sided with Union but many Kentuckians, especially from the rich bluegrass horse region, joined the Confederate army. Battles fought in Floyd County pitted brother against brother. Families were split forever over abolition.

President Abe Lincoln could not afford to have his birth state of Kentucky go Confederate. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy was also a Kentucky son. The outcomes of the battles fought in Eastern Kentucky determined Eastern Kentucky’s course in history. The Battle of Middle Creek has been called the most significant Civil War battle in Eastern Kentucky.

On January 10th, 1862, Confederate and Union troops met in hand-to-hand combat fighting for control of the border state. Fighting began at 4 a.m. Combat lasted 12 hours when our Confederate General Humphrey Marshall took troops still alive and left.

After a piecemeal Union attack slowly forced our soldiers up the steep hill as the sun was sinking over the mountains, the fighting eased. Marshall, commanding the Confederates, feared his hungry men would desert him in droves if they stayed in their position any longer. He burned the heaviest wagons and started his retreat southward traveling down the left fork of the Middle Creek towards the Joseph Gearhart Farm where he knew food for his men and forage for the horses waited.

The Confederates never regained the advantage they surrendered at the Battle of Middle Creek. Confederate Captain Marshall left our 10 Confederate dead soldiers lying on the battlefield. Battle of Middle Creek was initiated under the leadership President Lincoln as part of an overall strategy designed to keep his native state within the Union fold.

In 1861 and 1862, Kentucky saw a number of battles and skirmishes but after the battle of Perryville, Confederate forces retreated from the bluegrass state. The destruction was not over as the war wore on and supplies grew thin, Confederates began raids on Union supply depots, bridges, county courthouses and people’s personal property. As an Officer, one of my duties was to feed, clothe, and provide much-needed medical supplies to our soldiers. At night I would sneak into the Yankees camps and steal their horses and supplies, whatever was needed I could get my hands on.

After about 6 months, our shoes got so worn, we wrapped old feedsacks around our feet because the terrain was so rough it wore out the soles of our shoes. Our feet bled. Our pants, shirts and coats were torn to sheds by briar thickets. We were not too proud to take a Yankee’s shirt or pants.

Recollection—54th Company G changes in command

Captain George Hylton Turman served until February 16, 1862 then, resigned his post because of illness. Jeremiah Spence was elected to the post until he resigned on November 23, 1863. Eli Spangler, the errant 1st lieutenant of the company, was rehabilitated and promoted to Captain of Company G. Later the unit was assigned to Trigg's, Reynolds', Brown's and Reynolds' Consolidated, and Palmer's Brigade, Army of Tennessee.

Company G’s postwar roster is thought to be the least informative or all postwar rosters/records.

Recollection – Battle of Chickamauga

Legend holds that the word "Chickamauga" means "River of Death" in an old Indian language. It is an appropriate legend considering the brutal and deadly fighting that took place along the creek of that name during the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia.

The Battle of Chickamauga was one of the most stunning Confederate victories of the Civil War. It was also one of the most costly. More than 34,000 men in the two armies were reported killed, wounded or missing. This campaign which started three months earlier in Murfreesboro, Tennessee finally came to a head on September 19 on Chickamauga Creek, “the River of Death.”

Gen. Rosecrans, Union Army (60,000) occupied Murfreesboro after the Battle of Stones River. The Army of Tennessee (43,000) was dug in 20 miles away at Tullahoma under the command of Gen. Bragg. Both armies had their eye on Chattanooga. By early September, Rosecrans had moved his Yankee troops south around Chattanooga and over Lookout Mountain into Georgia. Confederates countered this move by leaving Chattanooga and pulling back into Lafayette. Gen. Bragg took the offensive when he learned troops under the command of Gen. James Longstreet from Northern Virginia were on their way to reinforce the attack on the Yankees. On September 18th, we were moved forward to a position along Chickamauga Creek and formed a line that stretched for miles from Reed’s Bridge to close to Lee and Gordon’s Mill.

Fighting broke out on the morning of September 19, 1864 when we collided with Yankee soldiers. The battle spread more than four miles-more Blue, more Gray was fed to the battle line by the Generals. Visibility was limited along the heavy wooded creek beds of the Chickamauga. Neither commander wanted to fight there.

The day's fighting was fierce and bloody, with the men often fighting hand to hand in thick underbrush and woods. The first day of battle finally sputtered to a close when the Confederates forced the Union line of battle back to the LaFayette Road a mile from where the combat began. Moans and screams of thousands of wounded cut through the night. Woods burned tragically killing the wounded left on the ground and unable to crawl or walk away.

The night was time for reorganization of their lines by both armies. The Confederates planned on taking the offensive with Gen. Polk in command of the right wing and Gen. Longstreet in command of the left wing. Polk would start the attack and the rest of the army would follow with hammer-like blows to the Union troops but the attack was slow getting started.

As the morning progressed the Battle of Chickamauga once again flared to life. A hard fight by Union Gen. George Thomas held back the assaults by southern troops. Even though the attack spread down the line as ordered by Bragg, the Union held their line. Gen. Longstreet held back his main assault realizing the battle was behind schedule. Union Rosecrans shifted his units to reinforce Thomas since he was not facing an attack on his right. A hole was created by this maneuver. Gen. John Bell Hood’s command struck the gap and pierced the Union line.

Longstreek immediately backed up Hood poured in troops and moved his forces to begin rolling up the Union line. The Union troops became confused where Hood broke the line and began to crumble and retreat. Gen. Rosecrans was swept from the field by a mass of running soldiers. Gen. Thomas, Union commander, dubbed the “Rock of Chickamauga” was the only part of the Union army to hold off southern troops.

Thomas held out until sundown when Rosecrans ordered him to withdraw. He fell back to Missionary Ridge. . The next day the Union Army retreated into the fortifications of Chattanooga. More than 34,000 men were reported killed, wounded or missing at Chickamauga.

Recollection – My baby brother John captured during the Battle of Missionary Ridge

The Battle of Missionary Ridge was fought November 25, 1863, as part of the Chattanooga Campaign. Following the Union victory at Lookout Mountain Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Missionary Ridge defeating the Confederate Army of Tennessee under the command of Gen. Braxton Bragg. . My brother John was captured at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee on November 25, 1863 and sent to the largest and most notorious Union Prison camp at Rock Island, Illinois. He came down with Typhoid fever and died on January 7, 1864.

On December 3, 1863, when temperatures were 32 below zero 5,000 Confederate prisoners were delivered to Rock Island before the facility was ready. Brother John was one of those prisoners. The camp was located in the middle of the Mississippi River on a solid bed of limestone. The first groups of prisoners were from Camp Douglas and captured Confederates from battles at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge where my brother John was captured.

The prison had 84 barracks, mere shanties, each 100-feet long, 22-feet wide, 12-feet high with 12 windows, 2 doors and 2 roof ventilators, mere shanties, surrounded by a rough board fence. A 18-feet long cookhouse was at the west end. The rest of the barrack was sleeping/living quarters for the prisoners. Guard boxes were built every 100 feet with double-gate sally ports, the only openings in the prison, where guardhouses were built.

“Pesthouses” were built to house prisoners who got smallpox or typhoid. At the onset, lack of a proper water supply and poor drainage created a sanitation problem. A smallpox epidemic brokeout immediately and prisoners contracted typhoid. Thousands got sick and more than 600 were killed within 3 months. That is where John Branscome died.

Recollection – Hard times

As the war continued, at times we almost starved. During the summer you could survive on berries, bark and greens out in the fields and stealing produce and vegetables. The winter was different it got so bad I would hurry up to be the first in line to march behind the mules and horses to pick the corn kernels out of the manure and save them so that when we got enough kernels we would boil them and eat them just to have food.

I remember one time during early winter we came upon an apple orchard and the trees still had a few apples and some half rotten ones on the ground. I ate until I got the “scours.” I had to march mile after mile suffering.

Recollection – Union Commanders evaluate Southerners

Frank H. Mason of the 42nd Ohio Infantry, serving with Garfield along the Virginia-Kentucky border, wrote of "primeval barbarism," condemned mountaineers as ignorant and crude, and compared them unfavorably to "the happy barbarians of the Pacific Isles." Crook dismissed the natives in his theater as "counterfeiters and cut-throats."

Recollection – End of the Civil War

Our Confederate regiment moved from Chickamauga to Missionary Ridge, then to Atlanta to catch up with Sherman on his march to the sea. From there we marched to Bentonville, North Carolina. Sherman reached the Atlantic at Savannah in December 1864. We’re told Sherman's army was followed by thousands of freed slaves.

There were no major battles along the March. Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Confederate Virginia lines from the south. Confederate Gen. Lee's army, thinned by desertion and casualties, was now much smaller than Grant's.

Union forces won a decisive victory at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, forcing Lee to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond. The Confederate capital fell.

After the defeat at Sayler’s Creek it became clear to Lee that continued fighting against the United States was both tactically and logistically impossible. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered at the McLean House (Appomattox Court House).

As a sign of Grant's respect and anticipation of peacefully restoring Confederate states to the Union, Lee was permitted to keep his sword and his horse, Traveller.

President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, a Southern sympathizer. Lincoln died early the next morning, and Andrew Johnson became president. Meanwhile, Confederate forces across the South surrendered as news of Lee's surrender reached them.

Most consider Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865 the end of the Civil War but there were still Confederate Forces in the field until June. Confederate General Stand Watie surrendered on June 23, 1865 when the last major fighting occurred.

I was paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina. From there I returned to my home on Little Snake Creek, Carroll County, Virginia to rejoin my family and community and take up farming and caring for 300 acres of Blue Ridge property and timber.

Recollections – Engagements

Floyd Co., Ky (12/25/1861)
Middle Creek, Ky (1/10/1862)
Bourbon Co., Ky (4/15/1862)
Mercer-Princeton, WVa (5/17-18/1862)
Rocky Gap, Va (8/30/1862)
Prestonsburg, Ky (9/20/1862)
Lexington, Ky (10/13-14/1862)
Lancaster Co., Ky (10/15/1862)
Kentucky (10/20/1862)
Bowling Green, Ky (1862)
Lafayetteville, Ky (1862)
Kentucky (1862)
Kelly’s Store, Va (1/30/1863)
Jonesboro, Tenn (1863)
Lenoir Station, Tenn (6/19/1863)
Tullahoma, Tenn (7/1/1863)
Elk River, Tenn (7/2-4/1863)
Winchester, Tenn (7/3/1863)
Bell’s Bridge, Tenn (8/15/1863)
Chickamauga, Ga (9/19-20/1863)
Missionary Ridge, Tenn (11/24-25/1863)
Ringgold Gap, Ga 11/27/1863)
Stony Side Mtn. Ga (2/25/1864)
Dalton/Resace, Ga (5/10-15/1864)
Cassville, Ga (5/19-21/1864)
New Hope Church, Ga (5/24-25/1864)
Dallas, Ga 5/28-30/1864)
Mt. Zion Church, Ga (6/22-23/1864)
Marietta, Ga (7/1-10/1864)
Atlanta, Ga. (7/11/1864)
Atlanta, Ga. (7/20-22/1864)
Ezra Church, Ga. (7/27-28/1864)
Siege of Atlanta, Ga. (8/1-31/1864)
Jonesboro, Ga. ((9/1/1864-9/10/1864)
Saltville, Va. (10/2/1864)
Franklin, Tenn. (11/30/1864)
Murfreesboro, Tenn. (12/7/1864)
Nashville, Tenn. (12/10/1864-12/17/1864)
Egypt Station, Miss. (12/28/1864)
Itawaiba Co., Miss. (1/1/1865)
Nolensville, Tenn. (1/8/1865)
Stoney Creek, N.C. (3/3/1865)
Bentonville, N.C. (3/17/1865 – 3/19/1865)
Final Days in N.C. (3/20/1865-5/1/1865)

From The Sunny Side of Appalachia, Bluegrass from the Grassroots
by Betty Dotson-Lewis (B. L. Dotson-Lewis)


My Near Brush with Bluegrass
by B. L. Dotson-Lewis

I can’t remember when bluegrass music was not a part of my life. This acoustic music came with living in the Appalachian Mountains, part of our roots the way I understand it, but I was never confronted head on with this music until my father took it up.

My family moved west while I was still in high school and it didn't seem a big deal that I would stay behind with my sister and finish school in West Virginia. I was around 15. Like most teenagers I was heavy into listening to popular rock n roll.

When my father moved from West Virginia to the west coast he refused to give up his citizenship to Appalachia. His roots were in Buchanan County, Virginia, Jim Fork and later, Nicholas County, West Virginia. I have heard my father say that he wasn't looking for a western culture, he loved Appalachia. What the west could provide for him was taller mountains, bigger game and a closer relationship with nature. My father was born and raised in Southwest Virginia and his love for everything Appalachian, including mountain music, especially bluegrass never left his veins.

The way I see it, this romantic attachment to our unique culture makes my father totally responsible for my near brush with bluegrass.

You see, I was visiting my parents the summer between my senior year in high school and going off to Berea College. There, I would engage in a life of studying fine arts, foreign languages, and my entertainment would be symphonic concerts on the greens of a renowned institution of higher learning. I was seeking a liberal arts college degree. My father’s formal education went up to the 8th grade but he had common sense and a flare for writing.

Early on that summer shortly after my arrival at my western home, my father traded one of his hunting dogs for an old fiddle. He decided to take up playing bluegrass. The fiddle was his instrument of choice. No, he didn't read music.

The fiddle came in an old worn-out, banged up black case. The latch was broken on the case so a piece of hay baling twine was wound around and . . . (read moe in my book)