Category: Confederate Soldiers
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Jacob Whitler Herndon: Disappeared on the John Edward Plank Farm
Jacob W. Herndon has a small historical distinction—in every source you read about him, he was a courier for General John Bell Hood. General Hood, of course, is famous for his exploits as the leader of the famed Texas Brigade. After his wounding, he was brought back to the John Edward Plank farm where he…
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James Samuel Noble: 15-year-old Sergeant Buried on the John Edward Plank Farm
When the war broke out, James Samuel Noble somehow convinced his family he was old enough—at age 13, he joined his older brother, Dallas, in enlisting in May 1861. Of course, no one could see that he would end up on the John Edward Plank farm just two years later. The Nobles were farmers who…
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John Edward Plank: His Farm and Family
In and around Gettysburg, John Edward Plank was in the news nearly his entire life, and his farm became a critical junction before, during, and after the battle. Because of that, John and his farm remain in the news today. Descended from German immigrants, John Plank married Sarah Ann Rhinehart in Gettysburg’s Saint James Lutheran…
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James Godman, Black Teamster, Alleged Confederate Casualty
One of the curiosities of the records of Confederate dead is the case of James Godman, also listed at various times as Chadman or Codman. He turns up in the Camp Letterman surgical history, one of the best and primary sources on Confederate deaths and burials at Gettysburg. In that record, he is J.H. Chadman,…
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Benjamin Franklin Carter, Henry Johnson, and the Stories We Tell
Benjamin Franklin Carter and Henry Johnson. It’s a story that seems to illustrate the American divide while harmonizing the country. A Union officer is killed in a battle; a Confederate officer so admires his opponent’s bravery that he buries the officer in his own coat. Later, that same Confederate officer is mortally wounded at the…