William Baker married Laurana Baites 6 March 1832 in Lincoln County, Georgia. In 1850, Laurana was enumerated in the Lincoln County federal census with six children ranging from eight to seventeen years old; Bearey was 15 years old. The father was not present; he is assumed dead. Laurana’s mother and her uncle or brother lived in the home. The family showed no net worth.
Bearey Baker married Emaline Fullbright 7 February 1856 in Thomson, Georgia. She was the daughter of Levi and Zelphia Roberts Fullbright. In 1860, the Baker family lived in Columbia County and had two small children, Isabella and Laura.
Captain Thomas Hamilton enlisted Private Bearey Baker 4 March 1862 in Columbia County for the duration of the War. On 29 June 1862, Baker was in a Danville, Virginia, hospital with a contusion of the side. From November 1862 to February 1863, he was with the provost guard. In March and April 1863, he was with the division provost guard. From July 1863 to October 1864, he was present in camp. On 3 April 1865, he was captured and placed in a Richmond, Virginia, hospital. He was released from Newport News, Virginia, on 14 June 1865, after taking the oath of allegiance to the United States government.
Bearey Baker’s two brothers-in-law, Green and John Fullbright were also privates in the Hamilton Rangers. Baker’s brother, Wilson Baker was a soldier in Company F, Thomson Guards, of the Tenth Georgia. All survived the War.
On 4 June 1899, Baker applied for a pension while residing in McDuffie County, Georgia. He indicated that he was born 5 November 1830, and was a farmer. He was indigent as a result of being shot in the bowels during the War. He owned two acres of land and a house but had turned it over to a merchant to pay his debts. He had a wife and two children and depended on a son for support.
It is an understatement to say that most Confederate veterans lived a very hard life after the War. They lost almost all material wealth during the War; they farmed without markets to take their goods; they withstood the government’s reconstruction oppression; they suffered from mental and physical wounds without proper medicines; many had little or no education to help them build a sustainable future. But, they did not give up; they did not whine and complain about their plight. They worked hard and kept their faith in God. They knew that eventually with His help that they would prevail – and, prevail they did.
God bless the South.
Lest we forget; lest we forget.
Respectfully submitted:
Tom Holley
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Jonathan S. Lassiter of Edgefield County, South Carolina married Caroline Farrar 7 November 1833, in Lincoln County, Georgia. She was born 29 January 1817, in South Carolina and died 11 May 1887, in Baldwin County, Georgia. Their children included: Virginia A. Lassiter; Thomas Chesley Lassiter was born 23 November 1835, in South Carolina; Robert Augustus Lassiter (see his image and biography in the Thomson Guards); William C. Lassiter; Samuel A. Lassiter.
Thomas Chesley Lassiter married Cordelia Elizabeth McCorkle 12 June 1860, in Columbia County, Georgia. She was the daughter of Archibald McCorkle and Hannah Thompson of Lincoln County. (See the bios and images of her brothers, Hezekiah and John in the Pettus Volunteers). Thomas and Cordelia had these children: Enola Lassiter was born in 1861; Boswell Lassiter was born in 1862; Oswald Thomas Lassiter was born 4 June 1862; Archibald McCorkle Lassiter was born in 1866.
Captain Thomas James Hamilton enlisted Thomas Lassiter in the Hamilton Rangers 4 March 1862 in Columbia County. The company trained in Grahamville, South Carolina before taking the train to Richmond just before the Seven Days battles. On 1 August 1862, Lassiter was appointed corporal and received his pay in Richmond. On 2 July 1863, he was wounded in the abdomen at Gettysburg and captured. He was paroled at the U. S. General Hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania, and was exchanged 23 September 1863, at City Point, Virginia. For the balance of 1863, he was home on wounded furlough as a paroled prisoner. He became an ambulance driver until he surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox Court House.
Thomas Chesley Lassiter was married twice more after the war. He married Martha Morris 2 March 1871, in McDuffie County and Martha Alabama Rogers 27 November 1883, in Richmond County. He had children by both.
In 1911, the Lizzie Rutherford Chapter #60 of the Georgia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy® bestowed the Southern Cross upon Thomas Lassiter.
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He died of apoplexy 4 November 1920, at the age of 84 at the Tubman Home in Augusta. He was a pattern maker and a member of the Central Christian Church. He is buried in the West View Cemetery in Augusta and the grave is marked with a Confederate veteran’s stone.
Lest we forget! Lest we forget!
Respectfully submitted:
Tom Holley
Special thanks to Mr. Skip Lassiter of Columbus, Georgia, for the photo and family information.
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| “But the tattered flag in the State Capitol will still serve as a memorial to a brave soldier who gave his all for the cause that he loved.” And, so it was with the young, brave McGahee. (Dr. Elias Jones Denson of Allentown, Georgia, provided this information to the Confederate Veteran in April 1932.)
William McGahee was born in 1842 to David and Sophia Anderson McGahee. He and his siblings were raised in Columbia County, Georgia, near Lombardy (present day Dearing). They were prosperous planters. In 1860, at 18 years old, William was married and had a one year old child.
William was enlisted as 4th corporal 4 March 1862 by Captain Thomas James Hamilton into Company K, the Hamilton Rangers. After training at Camp Davis near Grahamville, South Carolina, the company took the train to Richmond and was quickly engaged. They would soon be part of the 48th Georgia Infantry Regiment in General Ambrose Ransom Wright’s brigade.
On July 2, 1863, Wright’s brigade found itself part of the massive Confederate attack aimed toward Cemetery Ridge. The commanders of four brigades in General Richard Anderson’s division of Hill’s corps had received orders to move forward together; the signal for each brigade to begin the attack was to be the forward movement of the one on the right. The battle raged along the entire Confederate line when at 6:15 pm Wilcox’s brigade stepped off, followed by Perry’s and finally by Wright’s.
The efforts went smoothly until they reached the Emmitsburg Pike, where a strong body of Federal infantry and a battery of Yankee cannon raked the field with deadly fire. Although the brigade was steadily losing soldiers, they swept past the road and captured five or six enemy cannon.
Having gained the turnpike, Wright’s brigade charged upon the enemy that was posted behind a stone fence which ran along the abrupt slope of the heights some 150 yards to the rear of the pike. They were now within 100 yards of the crest of the heights, which were lined with artillery and supported with a strong body of Yankee infantry. Wright’s men, by a well directed fire, soon drove the cannoneers from their guns and leaping over the fence, charged up to the top of the crest, and drove the enemy’s infantry into a rocky gorge on the eastern slope of the heights. Wright’s brigade was now the complete master of the field.
It was soon discovered that, unfortunately, the Confederate brigades on the right had given way and that the Confederate brigades on the left had never left Seminary Ridge. Wright’s ranks were now so desperately thinned that without support he had to retreat back across the same territory he had won. At the end of the day the brigade had lost 668 in killed, wounded and missing; Elias Denson and William McGahee were among them – brave and committed sons of the South.
Lest we forget! Lest we forget!
- Respectfully submitted
- Tom Holley
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“At the end of the year, I was transferred to the 48th Georgia Regiment, and was made Standard Bearer of the regiment… I carried it through the Seven Days Battles around Richmond, the Battle of Chancelorsville, Spotsylvania, and finally, Gettysburg…
“A bullet grazed the sleeve of my coat. One came so near my head that it barely missed me. Another whizzed through the air. I was not so fortunate this time, for it hit me in the thigh and I fell to the ground severely wounded.
“My first thought was the flag. ‘McGahee,’ I said to the young soldier next to me, ‘take the flag and keep it flying.’”
“’But what must I do with my gun?’” he asked.
“Throw it down,” I shouted.
“`But won’t I have to pay for it?’” he questioned.
“Throw down your gun,” I commanded, “and protect the flag at all cost.”
“McGahee took the flag, and I was taken to the hospital to have my wounds dressed. When the battle was over, I inquired concerning the flag and learned that McGahee had been mortally wounded and that the flag had been taken by the enemy…
“In 1913, I advertised in Northern newspapers, and one day received a letter from Dan O’Mara, of New York, stating that he was the soldier of the 59th New York Volunteers who had taken the flag. He also stated that it was in his possession and that he would gladly return it… I met him in Atlanta and he presented it to me in front of the State Capitol. ‘Let’s shake hands under the old flag,’ he said as he unfurled it… This was in 1913 when the state was collecting old battle flags to put on display in the Capitol. I donated my flag, and it stands there now in a glass case along with other Georgia flags of the Confederacy…
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Try as he may, William Miles Watson would never kill the Yankee hoards that threatened his beloved South. He was among the first to muster; Captain William Johnston of Company F, the Thomson Guards, enlisted him as an infantry private 11 May 1861. In November 1861 he was sick in a Williamsburg, Virginia, hospital. He was discharged by order of disability 5 December 1861 at Young’s Mill, Virginia.
Along with his brother, Tom Peter Watson, the 21 years old William reenlisted with Captain Thomas James Hamilton in Company K, the Hamilton Rangers on 6 March 1862. While at home in Thomson on sick furlough, William died of chronic diarrhea 8 December 1862. Like so many others he died of disease rather than from some Yankee’s bullet. The death certificate indicated that William had fair complexion, gray eyes, dark hair, was 5’ 2” tall, and was owed $172.83 for his service. He is buried at the old home place within a modest wrought iron fence enclosure. His initials are carved into a sand stone.
William Watson hailed from a very prominent Columbia County family. However, like so many other Southerners, they were land rich but cash poor; the family resided in a very modest hewn log cabin. Soon after the war the plantation was lost.
On 5 September 1856, William’s nephew, Thomas Edward Watson was born in that same log cabin. He attended the common schools and Mercer University. He taught school, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1875 and commenced practice in Thomson in 1876. He also engaged in agricultural pursuits; he was a member of the State House of Representatives 1882-1883. He was a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1888 and was elected as a Populist to the Fifty-second Congress (March 4, 1891-March 3, 1893). He resumed the practice of law and was nominated for Vice President by the Populist National Convention in 1896 and for President by the People’s Party in 1904. He published a magazine for many years and later engaged in the newspaper business. He was a prolific author. He was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1921, until his death in Washington, D.C., September 26, 1922. He was interned in the Thomson Cemetery, Thomson, Ga. Tom Watson is known as the Sage of Hickory Hill.
Journalist and broadcast pioneer Walter J. Brown organized the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc. in 1970. Based in Thomson, Georgia, it is one of the state’s largest private foundations; it supports higher education by committing millions annually in college scholarships to qualified students from Georgia and South Carolina. The foundation also awards millions more in grants every year to southern institutions of higher education.
Early actions of the foundation reflect interest in historic preservation, especially of Watson-related memorabilia. In 1973 the foundation bought and restored the log cabin where Watson was born. It also maintained Watson’s first home: a National Historic landmark. The restored Thomas E. Watson House today serves as the administrative headquarters for the Watson-Brown Foundation. Watson’s last home, Hickory Hill, serves as both a house museum and a seminar venue for academics and scholars of the South.
In 2004, the Watson-Brown Foundation moved the General Thomas R.R. Cobb house from Stone Mountain back to within ¼ mile of where it began in Athens. It was painstakingly and accurately restored to include the lovely salmon pink shade of its exterior. It has been open for tours since August 2007. The foundation owns and operates it in much the same way as Hickory Hill; it is both a house museum and scholar’s symposium center.
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The foundation has also given preservation grants to Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson’s retreat in Virginia; to the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home in Tennessee; to Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis’s home in Mississippi and Andalusia, Flannery O’Connor’s home in Milledgeville. The late chairman, Tom Watson Brown, was a major supporter of the Civil War Land Trust and the Atlanta Civil War Roundtable.
Thomas Edward Watson wrote Bethany, in which William Miles Watson was a fictitious character, “Uncle Ralph”. He wrote, “It all rises before me, complete as a picture, vivid as a flash of lightening – a plain, unpretentious, comfortable, happy Southern home of the old regime – and like a castle among the clouds it is gone forever, even while I gaze; just as the republic of our fathers, of which that home was a typical part, is gone, forever gone.”
Thankfully that isn’t completely true. Because of men like Senator Thomas Watson, his descendants and the Watson-Brown Foundation, we are able to see and experience first hand the relics of that time gone but not forgotten.
Lest we forget. Lest we forget.
Respectfully submitted:
Tom Holley
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