“I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting — its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers … it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated … that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.”
Gen. William T. Sherman
In researching our late mother Ann Grayson Guevara‘s paternal ancestors we discovered an honorable military heritage that spans nearly every conflict in American history. I felt disappointment that famous battles and battlefield glory weren’t part of Ann’s heritage. Sadly, her extended Grayson relatives were not spared those horrors and lamentations.
The Graysons of Loudoun and Fauquier Counties, Virginia
In a previous post we met four children of Benjamin Grayson III (1763-1835) in pre-Civil War Virginia, and some of their children:
- George Mason Grayson (1795-1858), his wife Ann Luisa (Fitzhugh, 1798-1860), and their son Alexander. Ann’s two older daughters, Ann Henry (Rose) Loughborough and Mary Jane Rose, step-sisters to Alexander, lived nearby.
- Dr. Richard Osborn Grayson (1804-1842) and his wife Maria Margaretta (Fitzhugh, 1810-1841, younger sister of Ann L. Grayson). Both died young. Five of their children, including sons Richard O. Grayson, Jr. and Thomas F. Grayson, were being housed and educated by:
- Bettie Grayson Carter (1797-1885), twice-widowed with two sons of her own – George Jr. and Benjamin.
- Mary Grayson Stephenson (b. 1801), her Irish-born husband William, their sons Joseph L. and James A., and their daughter Bettie, married to Irishman and school administrator J. Welby Armstrong, parents of newborn May Armstrong (b. Oct. 1859).
The Armstrongs Move to Memphis
In 1860, after seven years as principal of the Upperville Academy in Fauquier County, J. Welby Armstrong relocated his new family to Tennessee, where he was to found Memphis Classical School in the fall. Accompanying the family was Bettie’s older brother Joseph L. Stephenson (1834-1913) and two Stephenson cousins.
Why they went to Memphis is not known. Perhaps the anti-Irish “Know-Nothings” threatened the success of the Upperville school. Perhaps they desired a more healthy climate for 22-year old Bettie. Their welcome to Tennessee may have been warm, but the cold settled in quickly. Bettie died in August, her daughter not yet one-year old. Abraham Lincoln was elected in November, southern states seceded throughout the winter, Fort Sumter fell in April, and Memphis Classical Academy was shuttered by May.
2nd Tennessee Infantry Regiment, Belmont, Missouri
Welby joined (Walker’s) 2nd Tennessee Infantry Regiment in May 1861, and was assigned command of Company “G.” Composed primarily of Irishmen from Memphis, the 2nd Tennessee was eventually sent north to Columbus, Kentucky, a recent Confederate stronghold that commanded the heights above the Mississippi River. On November 7, 1861, a flotilla of 3000 Union troops anchored a few miles north on the opposite shore. They surprised a Confederate garrison in the village of Belmont, Missouri. When reinforcements were ferried from Columbus, including Walker’s 2nd Tennessee (the “Sons of Erin”), the outnumbered Federals broke through the Confederates to reach their transports. It was reported that the little-known general leading the Union troops was killed in the fighting. In truth, Ulysses S. Grant survived three close calls that day.1 History considers the Battle of Belmont a meaningless clash – excepting as it related to the combatants and their families.
From the diary of Rev. J.G. Law: “November 8th.—This has been a gloomy day in camp. All day long our dead, wounded and dying were coming in by wagon loads. Many gallant men fell in the bloody action of yesterday, among whom from the list of my personal friends, were Captain J. Welby Armstrong and Lieutenant James Walker of the Second Tennessee regiment. I recognised the body of Captain Armstrong, as we passed over a part of the hotly contested field. There lay the gallant soldier stark dead with his face to the foe. He fell fifty yards in advance of his company. Strange emotions swept over my heart as I gazed for a moment upon the prostrate form of my friend, and then hurried on in pursuit of the retreating enemy.”2
Welby and Bettie’s orphaned daughter May Armstrong was apparently returned to Virginia by her uncle Joseph L. Stephenson. In 1870 the 10-year old is living in Fauquier County, her only memory of her parents being the stories she was told by her grandparents and aunts.
A Regiment of Cousins
The 8th Virginia Infantry Regiment was officially organized in May 1861 in Leesburg, the Loudoun county seat. It included six companies from Loudoun, two from Fauquier, and one each from Fairfax and Prince William Counties. “This was a regiment of brothers,” stated a unit history, “four sets of four, sixteen sets of three and more than eighty pairs, gave it the air of a family gathering.”3
The 8th Virginia was undoubtedly a regiment of Grayson first cousins. In July 1861 it included at least seven:
- Lt. Richard O. Grayson, age 23; his younger brother
- Sgt. Maj. Thomas F. Grayson, 21; and their older cousin
- Capt. Alexander Grayson, 27, all of Company “F.”
- Lt. Benjamin Grayson Carter, 20, attached to Co. “I.”
- Lt. Joseph L. Stephenson, 26, newly returned from Memphis and attached to Co. “C”; his younger brother
- Sgt. James A. Stephenson, 17, attached to Co. “C” before a promotion to commissary sergeant. All six of these young men were unmarried. Finally
- Maj. John Benjamin Grayson, a 47-year old married first cousin from Prince William County, who served as regimental quartermaster.
July 1861 – First Manassas
The 8th Virginia camped in the Loudoun village of Waterford, and engaged in military drill while protecting nearby river crossings until July 1861, when they marched south and saw combat at Manassas, especially in heavy fighting in defense of Henry Hill. The casualties included 6 killed (K), 31 wounded (W), and 1 captured (C), this last being Sgt. Maj. Thomas F. Grayson, who was imprisoned, paroled in November and, likely as a result of wounds he received, did not serve in a combat role for the remainder of the war. By 1870 Thomas lived with Fitzhugh relatives in Iowa, where he became a respected physician. He never married, and died in Iowa in 1912.
October 1861 – Ball’s Bluff
Returning to Loudoun, the 8th Virginia engaged Federal forces who crossed the Potomac River at Ball’s Bluff in October. Relatives watched the action from a distance as the unit sustained heavy losses: 14K, 39W, and 1C. Lt. Benjamin G. Carter was wounded in the hand, and did not return to the regiment. By 1870 he is married and farming in Loudoun County.
In November the regiment marched to Centerville, Virginia, where the Confederate army was making winter camp. The 8th was there brigaded with four other Virginia regiments under the command of Gen. George E. Pickett.
March-July 1862 – The Peninsula Campaign
In March and April 1862 the Confederate Army headed south to defend Richmond against Union Gen. George McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign. In May the unit was engaged in a muddy firefight at Williamsburg, (3K, 2W, 7C) and again at bloody and brutal Seven Pines (4K, 19W, 1C).
Lt. Joseph L. Stephenson resigned from the 8th Virginia Infantry on June 16, one year after enlisting. According to his obituary, Joseph went on to serve in the Western Confederate Army, surrendering first at Vicksburg in 1863, then ultimately in North Carolina in 1865. He died in Utah in 1913, a respected civil engineer.
June 27, 1862 – Gaines’ Mill
In late June the brigade was called upon to attack a heavily fortified Union position at Gaines’ Mill, the third of the so-called Seven Days Battles, where the 8th Virginia earned the nickname “The Bloody Eighth”
Eighth Infantry commander Col. Eppa Hunton wrote, “The 8th had been put into a little body of woods to clear it of the enemy. From that point for some 200 to 250 yards, the ground descended very rapidly, so that there was a descent on both sides to this ravine. To make the charge, the charging column was exposed to the fire from three fortified lines. It was a fearful position…. Pickett ordered the whole line to charge the enemy. This was done with the rebel yell. As soon as the brigade showed themselves over the crest of this hill, the three fortified lines opened up on us with the most terrific fire I ever witnessed, except at Gettysburg. In this charge down the hill our brigade carried the three lines in the most beautiful style I ever saw. We came upon this large body of artillery in the open field beyond the woods. Its fire had been very destructive to us. We captured the artillery, and just after that, Jackson’s men who had been fighting on our left, came up somewhat obliquely on our left. We were met by a charge of cavalry. I have never seen saddles emptied so fast in my life, and we soon dispersed the cavalry in our front, and the fight ended. The losses on both sides were very heavy. This was a great victory, and I think one of the hardest fights I was in, except Gettysburg.4 (13K, 43W).
Among the more disturbing Civil War photos are those taken at Gaines’ Mill months after the battle, with the bodies of men still laying on the field, garments in tatters and bones bleached by the sun. The officers of the 8th Virginia gathered on July 28, 1862 “in commemoration of the gallant dead who have fallen in the battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Gaines’ Mill, and Frazier’s Farm.”5 Included in the list of 28 soldiers honored was Lt. Richard O. Grayson, killed in action at Gaines’ Mill.
August 1862-June 1863 – “Barefooted to Fredericksburg”
The 8th Virginia was involved at Chinn Ridge at Second Manassas (2K, 15W), and passed through Loudoun County on their way to Maryland. A vast majority of the regiment could not resist the pull of home. Only 34 soldiers from the unit crossed the river in September 1862 to see action at South Mountain (3K, 1W) and Antietam (1K, 5W, 2C), after which the Confederate army retreated to winter camp at Culpeper, Virginia, enjoying a liberal furlough policy until early November. On the 20th of that month, 8th VA regimental quartermaster Maj. John B. Grayson resigned, perhaps out of frustration for being unable to requisition adequate supplies. In reaction to a movement of the Union Army, Col. Hunton wrote, “[We] left Culpeper on the 24th of November and made a forced march towards Fredericksburg. Many of the soldiers were barefooted, and General Lee had ordered that moccasins be made out of the hides of the beeves slaughtered for the army. These were worn with the hair next to the foot, and the naked skin of the beef-hide on the ground. Very many of the soldiers of my brigade were shod in this way, but on the march to Fredericksburg it rained and snowed, the ground became very slippery, and the moccasins caused the soldiers to slip and fall in the mud. The result was that most of them threw the moccasins away and marched barefooted to Fredericksburg.” The regiment saw limited reserve combat action there, but assisted in burying Union dead. The brigade, now under the command of Gen. Richard Garnett, camped south of Fredericksburg until being loaded on railroad cars to Tarboro, North Carolina on a “hogs and hominy” foraging campaign in support of now-division commander Gen. Pickett. In June 1863, having missed Chancellorsville, the 8th Virginia returned to Culpeper. Feeling confident of victory, the Confederate Army, this time including about 220 men from the 8th Virginia, once again crossed the Potomac into Maryland and Pennsylvania.
July 3, 1863 – Gettysburg
“In 1964, a 12-year old boy followed his father across a mile long stretch of open ground, walking in very the footsteps of the men who, a century earlier, had made the most catastrophic massed assault in our history. We know the assault today as Pickett’s Charge, and we can still walk that ground through the center of the enormous battlefield that spreads beyond the charming town of Gettysburg.”
Jeff Shaara, from an introduction to The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Pickett’s division arrived in Gettysburg late on the afternoon of July 2, 1863. On July 3rd, the 8th Virginia formed as the right flank of Garnett’s brigade, and after a two hour preliminary artillery barrage (“Lie down, men, for soon you’ll hear, the salvo of the cannoneer”), were finally ordered to advance across open ground to the supposed weak center of the Union defenses at Cemetery Ridge. The outcome was as tragic as it was, in hindsight, predictable. Of the 187 men of the 8th Virginia that set off on the charge, 178 were killed, wounded, and/or captured (39K, 79W, 60C). Only six are known to have reached the objective before being killed or captured. Of 28 officers, 7 were killed, 4 wounded, and 5 captured. The regiment, and the entire Confederate Army, would never recover.
A pewter cup came up for auction some years ago. Its description read:
“Pewter Mug Inscribed to Captain Grayson 8th Virginia-Killed At Gettysburg. Captain Alexander Grayson of the 8th Virginia Infantry, the “Bloody Eighth” as it came to be known, especially after Gettysburg where it sustained 90% casualties. On July 3, 1863, the 8th Virginia Infantry was with Brigadier General Richard Garnett’s Brigade at Pickett’s Charge. Captain Grayson was killed that day along with General Garnett. Young Grayson was the nephew of [Union] General H. F. Clarke who, following the captain’s death at Gettysburg, had his body transported to the Grayson Plantation (now the Mellon Estate) in Fauquier County, Virginia under a flag of truce for interment. His mother, General Clarke’s sister, removed this cup from his casket before being lowered to his rest. This pewter mug shows considerable wear having been carried at Gettysburg.“6 (One minor quibble: As both of Alexander’s parents were dead, the grieving relation who removed the pewter cup from the casket in 1863 was probably Alexander’s half-sister Ann Henry (Rose) Loughborough. This is supported by the 1936 obituary of Gen. Clarke’s 97-year old widow, whose survivors included a granddaughter named Rose Loughborough Clarke.)
With the death of Alexander, only one Grayson cousin remained in the regiment: Nineteen-year old commissary Sgt. James A. Stephenson. He remained with the unit until December 1864. James moved to St. Louis shortly afterward, married, and lived to age 90.
Thus the sad statistics of the Loudoun/Fauquier Grayson cousins (with Grayson spouse Welby) in the U.S. Civil War were 8 engaged, 3 killed, 2 known wounded. It’s glory? All moonshine.
- Sgt. Maj. Thomas F. Grayson, age 21, wounded and captured at Manassas, Virginia, July 1861.
- Lt. Benjamin G. Carter, age 20, wounded at Ball’s Bluff, Virginia, October 1861.
- Capt. J. Welby Armstrong, age 37, killed at Belmont, Missouri, November 1861.
- Lt. Richard O. Grayson, age 24, killed at Gaines’ Mill, Virginia, June 1862.
- Capt. Alexander Grayson, age 29, killed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1863.
Statistics and some quotes from 8th Virginia Infantry (The Virginia Regimental Histories Series) by John E. Divine (1983, H.E. Howard Inc., Lynchburg, VA)
1 https://armyhistory.org/general-grants-first-battle-belmont-7-november-1861/
2 Biography of J. Welby Armstrong https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/239004073/j.-welby-armstrong
3 8th Virginia Infantry Regiment, “The Bloody Eighth” https://www.warofrightsforum.com/showthread.php?5755-Regiment-History-8th-Virginia-Infantry
4 Hunton, Eppa, Autobiography of Eppa Hunton (1933, William Byrd Press, Richmond) pg 69-71, 82
5 Richmond Enquirer, 1 Aug 1862
6 Heritage Auctions Lot #74235, historical.ha.com
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