From
the Spartanburg Herald Confederate
Veteran's Edition
August 17, 1910
Williams, John
Henry – Born April 19, 1841, Union County.
Enlisted August 22, 1861, Co. B., 15th S.C.V. Capt.
William H. Gist. Transferred to Gen. R.E. Lee’s
headquarters. Promoted to sergeant. Was courier at
Lee’s headquarters at close of war. Wounded at
Second Manassas, Aug. 30, 1862, and at
Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863. Farmer and
Magistrate.
Twice wounded and disabled from field service; was
detailed and sent to Gen. R.E. Lee’s headquarters
and was sergeant in charge of couriers for Cols.
James L. Corley, chief quartermaster, and R.G. Cole,
chief commissary of Lee’s army. These colonels were
on Gen Lee’s staff. (In the 1940's or 50's,
Anne Sutton Williams Pierce wrote an article about
John's Civil War service. You can read this at Civil War article.)
“I
surrendered at Appomattox Court House with Lee’s
army on April 10, 1865; got my parole the next
day, and on the third day started for home on
horseback, and reached my home in Union after
about ten days’ ride. Just after the surrender I
was sent to Gen. Grant’s headquarters by the chief
quartermaster of Lee’s army with a dispatch to
Col. Lorrence, Grant’s chief quartermaster. While
riding on both sides of the road, I viewed Grant’s
splendid army, so finely equipped with everything
pertaining to war. I could only wonder how it was
that Lee’s army could hold out so long against
such odds as to numbers and resources. But the end
had come and I was in their midst, had fought them
for four years, and the great Robert E. Lee, the
general of the world’s generals, said stop the war
and bloodshed, made his own terms of surrender,
and the chivalrous general, U.S. Grant, accepted
the terms and the war ended. And forty-five years
have passed and gone and may we have a happy
reunion in Spartanburg Aug. 17-18, 1910.”
