James Frederick Anthony
(March 09, 1846 - December 14, 1927)
Amanda
(1858 - 1951)
(March 09, 1846 - December 14, 1927)
Amanda
(1858 - 1951)
James was born March 9, 1846 in Tennessee, the son of William H. Anthony and Elizabeth Pollock. He married Amanda. James died at the age of 81 on December 14, 1927 in Bell Buckle, Bedford County, Tennessee. He was buried on December 16, 1927 in the JE Justice Cemetery. James was a retired farmer.
The following is James Frederick Anthony's answers taken from "The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires" by Gustavus W. Dyer and John Trotwood Moore (1922):
"My name is James Frederick Anthony, at the time living in Bell Buckle, Tenn, 76 1/2 yrs. old. I was born in Franklin Co., TN. A confederate soldier in Company B - 28 Tennessee Cavalry. My father was old style Methodist Circuit rider.....my father being a minister had often as many as 15 churches under his charge and preached every day in the week and so of course was at home less than 1/3 of his time. While Father was gone, Mother had charge of her six boys, did all the house work, carded and spun and wove and would cut and make the clothes for her family, including her own, doing the sewing with her fingers. She never used a sewing machine in her life. They had no servants.....I went to school two or three months every fall - advanced rapidly - had completed the Bluebacked Speller at 14. School was about three miles [away].....I enlisted in the Confederate army in November 1864 and was sworn in the woods in Lincoln county in company B 28th Tenn. Cavalry, Capt. Reed Holmer, Major Jordan Hayes Battallion; Brig. Gen. B.J. Hill. [Our company was first sent] to Follow Hood's army out of Tennessee but got cut off. We turned back and went out through East Tenn. Our company was in only one regular battle and I was 30 miles away with a scouting party at the time. I was always with a scouting party - Our battles were "shoot and run" but we did not always work in the lead. I was cook for my mess and I will tell how the best bread I ever ate was made. The boys got the meal and of course it was not sifted but I spread an oil cloth on the ground, put the meal on it, took a canteen of good branch water, poured it on the meal and worked it to the right consistency. Took a flat rail, rolled out my dodgers and filled my rail full. Sat it up before the fire until it toasted brown on one side - then turned the bread over & toasted the other side - of course there was some in the middle not quite done...But we had appetites and I want to say I never in all my life ate batter bread. And we ate hundreds of meals of just such bread and nothing else and this is to some extent how we lived in camp. Our uniforms were uniform ragged! There was no two suits alike. We had rags of all sizes, rags of all shapes, rags of all colors, texture and makes; rags of bright colors and gloomy ones too; rags of all shades the world ever knew. "Rummage amongst them and twist them around; But a suit that will please you can never be found!" I was paroled in Chattanooga on the 16th day of May 1865. I have my parole now. We were discharged about sundown and given transportation to Tullahoma on a freight car. We climbed on the top and laid down and were soon asleep. The train either stopped or ran very very low for we were only about 30 miles from Chattanooga when daylight came. We landed at Tullahoma about two o'clock - walked six miles home, from there and found the whole family down with small pox - could not go in the yard - slept a whole week under a shade tree - But oh! how thankful I could see and talk to my mother. [Since the close of the war] being under age I was subject to my father's demands for two years. He sent me to school for ten months which is practically all the education I ever got. My life since the war has varied but slightly from the general run of Confederate soldiers. The war taught me that a man could do without everything he couldn't get so I took as my motto "Pay as you go and when you can't pay don't go." I don't only preach this but I practice it. My estate is not large but it is worth one hundred cents on the dollar. I have had nine children born to me, six of whom were raised to maturity - Five of them are now living and to my credit - there is not one of them has ever served term in the penitentiary yet. I never held an office. I ran for a county office once and I didn't think I had an enemy in the world. When the votes were counted I concluded my friends were "darned nigh" as scarce as my enemies. However "Alls well that ends well" and I have no fears for the rest of my allotted time for I can say with the poet in all sincerity, 'What ever my lot, thou has taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul.'"
The following was sent to the authors on Mar 17, 1922:
"...In the fall of '64, Maj. Jordan Hayes had instructions to raise a battalion of cavalry, he raised three companies of perhaps 50 men each. - or boys, I should say - for there were not sufficient whiskers in the entire bunch to line a birds nest. We attempted to go out with Hood's army but were cut off - we turned and went out through East Tenn. and into North Carolina across South Carolina and across Georgia below Atlanta into Alabama, to a point on Coosa River some miles below Gadsden, where we were when the war ended. We broke camp there May 15th 1865 and were paroled in Chattanooga on the 16th and come into Tullahoma in a box car - upright however - on the 17th. I make no claim to any heroic deeds, but am entitled perhaps to one distinction, I belong to a family whose father and four sons all served in the Confederate army and were all honorably discharged - the three oldest served or two of them at least, served in the first regiment made up in the state and I, the youngest - in the very last command made up in the Confederacy and perhaps the last whole command paroled."
"My name is James Frederick Anthony, at the time living in Bell Buckle, Tenn, 76 1/2 yrs. old. I was born in Franklin Co., TN. A confederate soldier in Company B - 28 Tennessee Cavalry. My father was old style Methodist Circuit rider.....my father being a minister had often as many as 15 churches under his charge and preached every day in the week and so of course was at home less than 1/3 of his time. While Father was gone, Mother had charge of her six boys, did all the house work, carded and spun and wove and would cut and make the clothes for her family, including her own, doing the sewing with her fingers. She never used a sewing machine in her life. They had no servants.....I went to school two or three months every fall - advanced rapidly - had completed the Bluebacked Speller at 14. School was about three miles [away].....I enlisted in the Confederate army in November 1864 and was sworn in the woods in Lincoln county in company B 28th Tenn. Cavalry, Capt. Reed Holmer, Major Jordan Hayes Battallion; Brig. Gen. B.J. Hill. [Our company was first sent] to Follow Hood's army out of Tennessee but got cut off. We turned back and went out through East Tenn. Our company was in only one regular battle and I was 30 miles away with a scouting party at the time. I was always with a scouting party - Our battles were "shoot and run" but we did not always work in the lead. I was cook for my mess and I will tell how the best bread I ever ate was made. The boys got the meal and of course it was not sifted but I spread an oil cloth on the ground, put the meal on it, took a canteen of good branch water, poured it on the meal and worked it to the right consistency. Took a flat rail, rolled out my dodgers and filled my rail full. Sat it up before the fire until it toasted brown on one side - then turned the bread over & toasted the other side - of course there was some in the middle not quite done...But we had appetites and I want to say I never in all my life ate batter bread. And we ate hundreds of meals of just such bread and nothing else and this is to some extent how we lived in camp. Our uniforms were uniform ragged! There was no two suits alike. We had rags of all sizes, rags of all shapes, rags of all colors, texture and makes; rags of bright colors and gloomy ones too; rags of all shades the world ever knew. "Rummage amongst them and twist them around; But a suit that will please you can never be found!" I was paroled in Chattanooga on the 16th day of May 1865. I have my parole now. We were discharged about sundown and given transportation to Tullahoma on a freight car. We climbed on the top and laid down and were soon asleep. The train either stopped or ran very very low for we were only about 30 miles from Chattanooga when daylight came. We landed at Tullahoma about two o'clock - walked six miles home, from there and found the whole family down with small pox - could not go in the yard - slept a whole week under a shade tree - But oh! how thankful I could see and talk to my mother. [Since the close of the war] being under age I was subject to my father's demands for two years. He sent me to school for ten months which is practically all the education I ever got. My life since the war has varied but slightly from the general run of Confederate soldiers. The war taught me that a man could do without everything he couldn't get so I took as my motto "Pay as you go and when you can't pay don't go." I don't only preach this but I practice it. My estate is not large but it is worth one hundred cents on the dollar. I have had nine children born to me, six of whom were raised to maturity - Five of them are now living and to my credit - there is not one of them has ever served term in the penitentiary yet. I never held an office. I ran for a county office once and I didn't think I had an enemy in the world. When the votes were counted I concluded my friends were "darned nigh" as scarce as my enemies. However "Alls well that ends well" and I have no fears for the rest of my allotted time for I can say with the poet in all sincerity, 'What ever my lot, thou has taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul.'"
The following was sent to the authors on Mar 17, 1922:
"...In the fall of '64, Maj. Jordan Hayes had instructions to raise a battalion of cavalry, he raised three companies of perhaps 50 men each. - or boys, I should say - for there were not sufficient whiskers in the entire bunch to line a birds nest. We attempted to go out with Hood's army but were cut off - we turned and went out through East Tenn. and into North Carolina across South Carolina and across Georgia below Atlanta into Alabama, to a point on Coosa River some miles below Gadsden, where we were when the war ended. We broke camp there May 15th 1865 and were paroled in Chattanooga on the 16th and come into Tullahoma in a box car - upright however - on the 17th. I make no claim to any heroic deeds, but am entitled perhaps to one distinction, I belong to a family whose father and four sons all served in the Confederate army and were all honorably discharged - the three oldest served or two of them at least, served in the first regiment made up in the state and I, the youngest - in the very last command made up in the Confederacy and perhaps the last whole command paroled."
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