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Friday, March 29, 2024 - 04:53 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Grave-Marker-Dedication-1Oliver Thompson Chapter 1850, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Holds Grave Marker Dedication in Remembrance of William Dennis Crain, Jr., Private, 16th Infantry Regiment, Co. D, “Elford Guards,” Confederate States of America

Oliver Thompson Chapter 1850, United Daughters of the Confederacy, held a Grave Marker Dedication service at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Greer, SC, on July 26, 2014, in remembrance of William Dennis Crain, Jr., Private, 16th Infantry Regiment, Co. D, “Elford Guards,” Confederate States of America. Over 100 family members and friends were in attendance at this ceremony.

The 16th SC Color Guard of Honor presented the Colors. A biography of William Dennis Crain, Jr. was presented by Mrs. Dot Bishop, Past President, Travelers Rest Historical Society. Part of Private Crain’s biography read as follows:

“William Dennis Crain, Jr., had five brothers at the start of the Civil War. When the war was over, he had two.  Two brothers, Jasper and John, were excused from military duty because of their occupations. Jasper was exempt based on his textile mill duty in Augusta. The south needed cloth for uniforms, blankets and the like, so Jasper stayed behind. John was a bridge designer and builder and was exempted from military duty because the South desperately needed bridges and railroads for troops and supplies. John took sick and started home, feeling that if he could get back to his mother, he would be well. John died on the way home and was buried by his wife, “Miss Ezell” somewhere in Mississippi or Alabama. William Dennis, Jr., and two other brothers, Enos  (known as “Manning”), and Henderson (known as “Good”), volunteered for the Confederate cause in the 16th Infantry Regiment, Co. D., “The Elford Guards.” Shadrick (known as“Shade,”) another brother, served in the SC 1st Infantry (Hagood’s) in Virginia . Of the three who enlisted in the 16th Regiment, two were killed. Manning died of exposure and starvation, and was buried in Jackson, Mississippi.  “Good,” a teenager, died of six shots (and his dying words to his commander were, “I don’t mind dying, if it wasn’t for mother and my sisters, they need help so.”) Good died after a week and was buried in Jefferson or Franklin, Tennessee.  “Shade,” in the SC 1st Infantry that was virtually wiped out by the enemy, was possibly in Virginia when his brothers died. Being one of the sole survivors of a bloody battle, and in a last bit of desperation, “Shade” covered himself with dead bodies in order to live.  He said he could feel the bullets hitting those bodies. “Shade” suffered a head injury but survived after being found by confederate soldiers retrieving the dead. William Dennis, Jr., who we honor today, was captured at Kennesaw Mountain , Ga. and was sent to a federal prison in Indianapolis, Indiana, called Camp Morton. And William Dennis’, mother, Lydia, now a widow, having lost her husband shortly before the war began, was left at home with remnants of the farm and other children to raise.

Crain-Jr-and-Dot-Bishop---05The late Steve Batson wrote in www.batsonsm.tripod.com that  “Company D appears to have been a hard luck company and suffered more for officers and in death than other companies. There were fewer wounded but many more killed in action. Of the 185 men of Company D: 28 were captured, 14 at Missionary Ridge, three at Franklin and one at Nashville. Two were captured at Atlanta and Marietta and one each at Citronelle, Alabama, Kennesaw Mt., Macon, Pine Mt. and Spring Hill. 27 were killed in Action, 47 Died of Illness, 5 Died in Prisons, and 4 were wounded.”….Batson wrote, “…the unit served well in and around Atlanta , and the men were certainly more than brave, especially when called into battle.  If being heroic is standing in the face of adversity…there is no more heroic in the Sixteenth than D.”

Alice Mitchell Crain Hawkins, one of William Dennis’ daughters, writes that “they were in all the battles at Vicksburg, Mississippi, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, Chickamauga Creek, Moccasin Bend, and Missionary Ridge.”

So Company D of the 16th was fraught with hardship.  Great-grandfather William Dennis Crain, Jr., was in the midst of it all.  Though captured at Kennesaw Mountain , and held as a Prisoner of War, William Dennis Crain had already left a great heritage to his children, as told by his daughter, Alice Mitchell Crain Hawkins.  In her book, “Grandmother Alice,” by Reece Hawkins, published in the 1990’s, and written in the late 1920’s and completed in 1936 or 1937,  by McCleery & Sons Publishing, 3303 Fiechner Drive SW,  Fargo, North Dakota, “Aunt Alice” writes: “My father, William Crain, was a devout Christian, carried we children to church and Sunday school. He had an artistic nature. He would point out the wild flowers to us telling us the names of them also the trees and herbs. He would take us out at night and point out all the stars and planets he knew and we would gaze and ask questions that he couldn't possibility answer. He taught me to love nature.He had an eye for beauty even down to women’s clothes. Could beat Ma selecting her own clothes. As she was practical, [she] only viewed the heavens to speculate on the weather, and that in relation to farming operations. No dreamer she! Pa was no financier. [But] what he lacked in financial he made up in kindness. He spent as he went but a more kind, indulgent, thoughtful father no one ever had. Instead of driving us he led us. When he wanted us to perform a task he would call us by name and say, "Will you please do thus and so?” I wasn't afraid of him in the least. No one in the world had a better daddy than I.

I remember as a child watching the spring of the year come in. Our fields were all fenced in with rails of chestnut wood eight to ten feet high. I would follow my daddy to work and gather wild flowers, watch the birds and listen to their calls. Pa taught me about turtle- doves in the Spring, and woodpeckers with their rat-a-tat drilling a hole in the dead chestnuts for their nests. In harvest time [he made me aware] of the bobwhites with their continually calling. In the dead of winter, he made me alert to the lovely sound of the big owl calling, “hooo! hooo!” and others would answer “hooo! hooo!” They gave me a chilly feeling, and sounded to me like souls. But my dad said when they called, it was a sign of snow.  What I missed observing, Pa pointed out. He loved all the beauties of nature. I have seen him stop work lost in the wonder with a rapt expression on his face watching a beautiful sunset. He pointed out where the moon rises and would carry us out at night to gaze at the stars to meditate and speculate on them. He wondered how far away they were, whether they were inhabited or not, never forgetting to tell us that God created it all. He would take us for walks in the woods, pointing out and telling us the names of different trees, shrubs, and flowers. I don't think anyone ever appreciated creation more than he.  He wanted everyone around him to be happy. My parents were poor in this world’s goods but were rich in kindness. They were both devout Christians. They both loved their neighbors, church, and country.

My father was a volunteer in the Confederate Army and served three years and four or five months. He was captured by the Yankees 9 months before the war ended and was sent to a military prison in Indianapolis , Indiana .” (It should be noted here- in an interruption to Aunt Alice’s writing- that the soldiers in prison camps were often given a choice: stay in the camp and face starvation (the Union may or may not have fed them) or galvanize and join with the Union cause.  Many galvanized. William Dennis chose to stay the course and face starvation. Why? Because he believed in his cause.  When we ask ourselves today, “Would we have done that?,” how many of us could say that we would have done what William Dennis did to stay true to that in which he believed?

Aunt Alice continues: “It would take a book to tell of all the suffering the Confederate soldiers underwent. At Camp Morton, he was kept 11 months (note: 2 months after the war was over). He was so emaciated and pitiful-looking after near-starvation after walking home from the war for a year, that [when he returned home], his own mother didn’t know him. [Before the war] he was five feet eleven inches tall and his average weight was one hundred and seventy two pounds. When the war was declared he didn't know his own strength. But the sickness, hardships and starvation and exposure [of the war] left him almost a physical wreck. He couldn't work after that.  In about the year of 1871, he was treated for heart trouble. He was never able after that time to do a full day’s work, so that explains our poverty. I think the rebel yell must have been ringing in his head as long as he lived. He said the Yankees said they couldn't stand to hear it. He said his division would shout and holler to the top of their voices.”

Dan-Wood-and-Carol-Leake

Following the presentation of William Crain’s biography, “Going Across the Mountain” was played on the banjo and sung by Mr. Dan Wood, great-great grandson of William Dennis Crain, Jr. The Dedication Ceremony was presented by Mrs. Carol Leake, Mrs. John Woods and Miss Ann Vaughan of Oliver Thompson Chapter 1850, UDC. Miss Caroline Verdin, SC Division President, Children of the Confederacy, presented a wreath. The 16th SC Color Guard of Honor participated in a Canteen Ceremony and retired the Colors. The benediction was given by Rev. Terry Greene, Pastor, Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, and was followed by the singing of “Dixie.”

The Iron Cross is placed on the grave of a Confederate Veteran. It is patterned after the design of the Southern Cross of Honor Medals, which were presented to Veterans by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The design is a Maltese Cross with a Confederate Battle Flag enclosed in a hero’s wreath of laurel in the center of the obverse. The marker is a way to give survivors and families of the deceased soldiers of the Confederacy in the War Between the States a medal to honor their service in the war.

Jacob-and-Caroline-1

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