Resting
in a display case in the Pittsylvania
Historical Society Museum in Chatham,
Virginia, is a 35 mm (1 3/8 inch) ball with a painful
history. The shot hit a tree before lodging in the back
of the thigh of Pvt. James
Lafayette Oakes, Co. B, 38th Virginia Infantry,
during an engagement at Chester Station, Virginia, on
May 10, 1864.
The shot resulted in no broken
bones for Oakes, so he was able to walk a considerable
distance to the field hospital, during which time the
ball moved significantly in his leg. Surgical removal
of the ball left a long black scar which Oakes carried
for the rest of his life.
James Lafayette Oakes was born on
Sept. 19, 1836, at Callands to James Washington and
Evaline Oakes. He enlisted on August 14, 1862, into
Company B (“Pittsylvania Vindicators”) of
the 38th Virginia Infantry, Pickett's Division, Longstreet's
Corps. After his injury at Chester Station, Oakes appears
on the register of the Chimborazo Hospital No. 2 in
Richmond, from which he was given 40 days' medical furlough
on June 10. He is listed on the register of the CSA
General Hospital in Danville on October 18, from where
he was transferred on November 26 to the Pettigrew General
Hospital No. 13 in Raleigh. He was paroled April 26,
1865, from a hospital in Thomasville, NC.
Oakes returned to farming at Riceville
and then at Chestnut Level. He had first married Mary
Ann Elizabeth Gardner of Callands on January 31, 1860;
their children were George (11/8/60), Laura (1/8/62,
and married a Hamlett), and William Thomas (7/12/67).
He then married Nannie Ellen Eddy of Boone's Mill on
May 15, 1870; their children were Mary Evaline “Molly”
(6/12/71, and m. Moon), Eddie Lafayette (4/24/73), James
David (12/24/74), Gillie Jane (9/28/78, and m. Dalton),
John Calvin (2/29/80); Belle Boyd (2/11/83, and m. Ford);
Walter Whittle (11/24/86); and Ernest Norman (1/17/90).
It can be speculated that James
Oakes gave three of his children Civil War–inspired
names: Belle Boyd from the famous Confederate spy; Walter
Whittle probably from Lt.
Col. Powhatan Whittle, commanding officer of the
38th from 1861 through Gettysburg; and Ernest Norman
(by his own report) after a now-unidentified fellow
soldier and friend of James.
James Lafayette Oakes died August
23, 1920 at the age of 83, and is buried at Chestnut
Level Baptist Church. He left the canister ball in the
possession of his son Norman, who in turn gave it to
his grand-nephew Terry Lee Oakes of Blairs
(son of Woodrow, grandson of Walter, and great-grandson
of James L. Oakes), who placed the ball on loan to the
collection of the Rawley Martin Chapter UDC for display
in the Pittsylvania Historical Society Museum.
The ball may well have come from
a hotly-contested “Napoleon gun posted on the [Richmond
and Petersburg] turnpike [which] had annoyed us very
much,” according to a report of the Chester Station
battle by Brig. Gen. Seth M. Barton (who had succeeded
Gen. Armistead as brigade commander after Armistead's
death during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg). Barton
continued, “The rapid movement of the 9th and 38th
prevented [the gun's] being carried off [by Union soldiers]
and it was captured.” Major General Robert Ransom,
Jr. was displeased with the efficiency of Barton during
the Chester Station action, and as a result relieved
him of his command. In a letter requesting that Barton
be restored to command and signed by 85 of Barton's
officers, Capt. G. A. Martin of Co. I, 38th Virginia
Infantry, stated that “when the enemy were driven
from their gun [Gen. Barton] was the first to take possession
of it.”
[Top]
[Back]
|
|
During
the the Chester Station engagement, Gen. Ransom's troops
clashed with “the forces of General Butler, United
States Army, estimated at from twenty to thirty thousand
strong, upon the Richmond and Petersburg turnpike”
(in the words of Capt. George K. Griggs, who was promoted
to commander of the 38th and Colonel after Lt. Col.
Joseph R. Cabell was killed in the engagement). Brig.
Gen. Barton left the line of battle “about three
minutes” (one of several complaints Ransom made
against him) to request horses from Gen. Ransom for
removal of the captured Napoleon gun. Barton reported,
“Shortly after rejoining we were forced back beyond
the gun, which again fell into the enemy's hands and
was used. After a desultory fire of artillery on our
new position the enemy withdrew, leaving us the field.”
The controversy between Brig.
Gen. Barton of Virginia and his commanding officer Maj.
Gen. Ransom of North Carolina prevented Barton from
commanding his brigade again. Maj. Gen. Ransom was convinced
that, because of Barton's perceived failure to carry
out orders and make accurate reports during the Chester
Station incident, “General Barton was not equal
to a proper management of troops under the ordinary
emergencies of battle.” Ransom did admit that “Of
his gallantry I have no question, as he was under fire
all the time, and if injustice has been done him an
investigation will prove it. My conclusions may be wrong,
but I do not believe it.”
Interestingly, on December 12, 1863,
Bedford County native Sgt. Timothy E. Mitchell of Company
F, 8th Virginia Cavalry, had written his wife Ardelia
from his position “on picket near Rafaelville,
Tennessee,” that “our Brigadier General [William
E. ‘Grumbles’ Jones] is a brave man and a
gentleman, but I cannot say the same of Major General
Ransom. He thinks nothing of shooting at his own men
even for stopping for water.”
Upon reading official reports of
the Chester Station engagement, one might surmise that
Ransom may have been unreasonably harsh on Barton and
his troops, whereas Barton may have been reacting responsibily
to battlefield conditions, including canister shot from
the front and an attack on the left flank and rear of
the 38th. On the other hand, this was Barton's second
conflict with superiors in 1864, having been blamed
by Gen. Pickett in January for the failure of an attack
on New Bern. Barton was reassigned to command another
brigade in the defense of Richmond in September. In
the retreat toward Appomattox he was captured along
with Gen. Richard Ewell and many others on April 6,
1865 at Sayler's Creek, the last major engagement of
the war.
James Lafayette Oakes
sits on his back steps with his dog Kate. The photograph
was taken around 1915. The house was later known as
the W. T. Shields home, now the property of Marshall
Kendall, and is on the Spring Garden Road (VA 640),
just east of its intersection with U. S. 29 north of
Blairs. Kate survived her master, living until around
1930 with the family of J. L. Oakes's son E. Norman
Oakes at Chestnut Level (where the elder Oakes also
spent his last years), about 3 miles east of the location
shown here. (This photograph is from the collection
of Virginia Doss Oakes and Terry Lee Oakes.)
|
