IN BARRACK AND FIELD

This is the second blog in the “Lo and Behold Series” begun April 20.  This was written by Pat Harrington, a member of the CCGS and Alabama resident.

As a young girl, my grandfather showed me a copy of a War Between the States book that a relative had written.  Lieut. Col. John Bramblett Beall, my fraternal GGG Uncle, wrote In Barrack and Field: Poems and Sketches of Army Life while he was in the army out West before the War Between the States and continued while he was in the War 1861-1865. The book was published in 1906 by Smith & Lamar.

When I retired and began my search for ancestors, I remembered what Granddaddy had said.  However, to find the book was an ordeal but I kept looking and found it. The Carrollton library was able to get it on loan from the University of Georgia Library. What a day of excitement that was!

Beall described the US Army in 1855 while he spent five years serving on the frontier with the 1st Cavalry. At the outbreak of the War Between the States, he came back to Georgia and raised a company that was mustered into the 19th Georgia Infantry Regiment. Beall served in the Virginia campaigns in 1861 and was wounded in the hip at Mechanicville in 1862. During his recovery he was assigned to administrative duties as a conscription officer at Manning, SC and as a tax collector in Carroll County, Georgia. In 1864, he was elected Major of a battalion of cavalry raised in Carroll and Heard counties. It was this battalion of young men and boys that protected Carrollton by storming up the street singing “Dixie”. With guns that had been abandoned by the North, they were able to save the town.

That street’s name was changed to Dixie Street and a historical marker was placed there so it would always be remembered how these brave men saved the small town of Carrollton, Georgia.

Can’t wait to read the other member’s contributions.

Note:  Thanks to Pat for sending this contribution in response to the email call for blog narratives.  We are particularly seeking stories of how the Carrollton Library and Special Collections helped you in your research or in your assistance to others in their searches.   Remember the Library offers many resources in addition to books—maps, surname files, internet connections including free access to ancestry.com, photographs, genealogy quarterlies and newsletters.