Interviews with Confederate Soldiers

Lee Franklin Yancey of Fayette County, Tennessee
and Thomas Yancey of Gibson County, Tennessee


Lee Franklin Yancey of Fayette County, Tennessee.

Question: State your full name and present Post Office address:

Answer: Lee Franklin Yancey, Oakland, Tenn., Fayette Co.

Question: State your age now.

Answer: 76 yrs

Question: In what state and county were you born?

Answer: Fayette County, Tennessee

Question: What was your occupation before the war?

Answer: Farmer

Question: What was the occupation of your father?

Answer: Farmer and Carpenter

Question: What kind of property did you own at the opening of the war?

Answer: None, but one horse

Question: Did you or your parents own slaves? If so, how many?

Answer: Father owned about 6 slaves

Question: If your parents owned land, state about how many acres?

Answer: 130 acres

Question: State as near as you can the value of all property owned by your parents, including land, when the war opened.

Answer: About $2,000.00

Question: What kind of house did your parents occupy? State whether it was a log house or frame house or built of other materials, and state the number of rooms it had.

Answer: Log House with five rooms

Question: As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe, and did other kinds of similar work.

Answer: I did all kinds of work on the farm - planting, cultivating and gatherine crops, made a regular hand.

Question: State clearly what kind of work your father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all the kinds of work done in the house as well as you can remember -- that is, cooking, spinning, weaving etc.

Answer: Father made a hand at all kind of farm work. Mother did all kinds of house work. Cooking, weaving, spinning. She wove nice coverlids.

Question: Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many?

Answer: Not any.

Question: How was honest toil - as plowing, hauling and other sorts of honest work of this class - regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable.

Answer: It certainly was.

Question: Did the white men in your community generally engage in such work?

Answer: Nearly all did.

Question: To what extent were there white men in your community leading lives of idleness and having others do their work for them?

Answer: About one out of fifty lived in idleness.

Question: Did the men who owned slaves mingle freely with those who did not own slaves, or did slaveholders in any way show by their actions that they felt themselves better than respectable, honorable men who did not own slaves?

Answer: There was no distinction shown between slave owners and non-slave owners provided the latter class were upright honorable people . . . There were a few big slave owners with the "swell head" who thought they were better than the people, but they were few.

Question: At the churches, at the schools, at public gathering in general, did slaveholders and non-slaveholders mingle on a footing of equality?

Answer: They did with few exceptions.

Question: Was there a friendly feeling between slaveholders and non-slaveholders in your community, or were they antagonistic to each other.

Answer: All mixed and mingles in the friendliest manner.

Question: In a political contest in which one candidate owned slaves and the other did not, did the fact that one candidate owned slaves help him in winning the contest?

Answer: Think not.

Question: Were the opportunites good in your community for a poor young man -- honest and industrious -- to save up enough to buy a small farm or go in business for himself?

Answer: He had to be very economical for several years before he would be in shape to go into business.

Question: Were poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make something of themselves, encouraged or discouraged by slaveholders?

Answer: They were encouraged by all sensible people.

Question: What kind of schoos did you attend?

Answer: Small Neighborhood school.

Question: About how long did you go to school altogether?

Answer: About three months each year for 8 or 10 years.

Question: How far was it to the nearest school?

Answer: One mile.

Question: What school or schools were in operation in your neighborhood?

Answer: 3 small schools and one in the town of Oakland.

Question: Was the school in your community private or public?

Answer: Private.

Question: About how many months in the year did it run?

Answer: From 6 to 10 months.

Question: Did the boys and girls in your community attend school pretty regularly?

Answer: Tolerably Regular.

Question: Was the teacher of the school you attended a man or woman?

Answer: Sometimes woman and sometimes a man.

Question: In what year and month and at what place did you enlist in the Confederate or of the Federal Government?

Answer: I joined in the fall of 1861.

Question: State the name of your regiment, and state the names of as many members of your company as you remember.

Answer: 7th Tenn. Cavalry, Col Duckworth Lt. Col. W. F. Taylor, Company B. Capt Russell, S. G. Bradsher, Bob Rogers, Billy Broadnax, Bill Jackson, Kit Poindexter, Dr Frazier, Bill Clenningham, Lesly O'kelley, Frank Mason, Wildon Bratcher, Bob Wells, Geo. Jackson, Frank Jackson, Nat Mason, Sam Buckheart, Louis O'Kelley. Most all dead and gone.

Question: After enlistment, where was your company sent first?

Answer: Columbus, Ky.

Question: How long after your enlistment before your company engaged in battle?

Answer: About six months before we were engaged a regular battle.

Question: What was the first battle you engaged in?

Answer: First battle was at Shiloh.

Question: State in your own way your experience in the war from this time on until the close.

Answer: Next fight at Corinth, Miss. Next at Hollysprings, Next Crawfordville, Next at Cross Roads, Next Harrisburg, Miss, Oklona, and Vicksburg. Fort Pillow, Union City, Paducah. Then at Johnsville and Columbia, Springhill and then the bloody battle of Franklin, Tenn. Then on to Nashville to fight several days. Our folks at home clothed us and generally we had plenty to eat such as it was. Was wounded at Harrisburg, Miss. also suns stroke. Was sent to a private house in the country at Dr. Davis.

Question: When and where were you discharged?

Answer: On the 9th day of May 1865 at Gainsville, Alabama.

Question: Tell something of your trip home.

Answer: Mounted "Old Price" my horse and struck a line for home and have ever since been loyal to my country - though vanquished I not downcast. I am still Southern to the core.

Question: What kind of work did you take up when you came back home?

Answer: Farming.

Question: Give a sketch of your life since the close of the Civil War.

Answer: Farmer, lived here all the time.

Question: Give the full name of your father.

Answer: William H. Yancey; Mecklenburg Co., Va.

Question: Maiden name in full of your mother, and her fathers name.

Answer: Betty Perkins Yancey; George Perkins;

Question: Remarks on ancestry.

Answer: As I have no old family record, I will leave these questions unanswered.


Thomas Yancey or Gibson County, Tennessee

Question: State your full name and present Post Office address:

Answer: Thomas Yancey, Milan, Gibson Co., Tennessee

Question: State your age now.

Answer: I am seventy seven years and four months old.

Question: In what state and county were you born?

Answer: In the state of Tennessee, Gibson County.

Question: Were you a Confederate or Federal Soldier?

Answer: A Confederate soldier.

Question: What was the name of your Company?

Answer: Co. I 12th Tennessee Inf. Col. Russell, first commander.

Question:What was the occupation of your father?

Answer: Farmer.

Question: Tell us about your father.

Answer: Charles F. Yancey, born near Culpeper Court House, Culpeper Co., Virginia. There until he married and then moved to Tennessee. He was a Magistrate of the 13th District of Gibson Co., Tenn.

Question: Tell us about your mother.

Answer: Martha Ann V. Withers of Halifax Co., Va. They lived in Halifax Coi., Va.

Question: Tell us about your ancestry.

Answer: My grandfather's name was Thomas Yancey. I never knew the name of my gr gandfather on my mother side. Born and raised in Culpeper Co., Va and died there. My grandmother Withers came to this country with my father and died before I was born.

Question:What kind of property did you own at the opening of the war?

Answer: I owned no property. I lived with my parents.

Question:Did you or your parents own slaves? If so, how many?

Answer: My father owned about forty negroes.

Question: If your parents owned land, state about how many acres?

Answer: Four Hundred Acres in one track.

 

 

Question: State as near as you can the value of all property owned by your parents, including land, when the war opened.

Answer: His farm was copnsidered one of the finest in the county. I expect he could get 50 or 60 dollars an acre of it.

Question: What kind of house did your parents occupy? State whether it was a log house or frame house or built of other materials, and state the number of rooms it had.

Answer: A double log house with two shed rooms on the back weather boarded and plastered on the inside and contained six rooms.

Question: As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe, and did other kinds of similar work.

Answer: As a boy I plowed and hoed corn and cotton. Just the same as the negroes did. When I was going to school every Saturday I had to do something to help catch up.

Question: State clearly what kind of work your father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all the kinds of work done in the house as well as you can remember -- that is, cooking, spinning, weaving etc.

Answer: My father when he moved to this country he worked as hard as a Negro he had to clearing land he hewed every log in his house. My mother had a negro womanto do the cooking and spinning thread to make their clothes and had a white lady to live with

her that done the weaving of the cloth.

Question: Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many?

Answer: She kept a Negro woman and girl in the house most of the time.

Question: How was honest toil - as plowing, hauling and other sorts of honest work of this class - regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable.

Answer: All honorable work was respected.

Question: Did the white men in your community generally engage in such work?

Answer: Nearly everybody worked.

Question: Did the men who owned slaves mingle freely with those who did not own slaves, or did slaveholders in any way show by their actions that they felt themselves better than respectable, honorable men who did not own slaves?

Answer: They did. They did not.

Question:At the churches, at the schools, at public gathering in general, did slaveholders and non-slaveholders mingle on a footing of equality?

Answer: As well as I recollect I thik they did.

Question:Was there a friendly feeling between slaveholders and non-slaveholders in your community, or were they antagonistic to each other.

Answer: There was a friendly feeling and respected each other.

Question: In a political contest in which one candidate owned slaves and the other did not, did the fact that one candidate owned slaves help him in winning the contest?

Answer: If the men were respectable there was no difference.

Question:Were the opportunites good in your community for a poor young man -- honest and industrious -- to save up enough to buy a small farm or go in business for himself?

Answer: There was good opportunity, land was cheap.

Question:Were poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make something of themselves, encouraged or discouraged by slaveholders?

Answer: They were encouraged and helped if wanted to be.

Question:What kind of schoos did you attend?

Answer: Subscription Schools

Question:About how long did you go to school altogether?

Answer: I went to school after crops were laid by and through the winter months.

Question: How far was it to the nearest school?

Answer: About two miles.

Question: What school or schools were in operation in your neighborhood?

Answer: They were private schools. Taught by subscription.

Question: Was the school in your community private or public?

Answer: Private, no publick schools.

Question: About how many months in the year did it run?

Answer: Sometimes six months and sometimes 4 months.

Question: Did the boys and girls in your community attend school pretty regularly?

Answer: Pretty Regular

Question: Was the teacher of the school you attended a man or woman?

Answer: Sometimes a woman and sometimes a man.

Question: In what year and month and at what place did you enlist in the Confederate or of the Federal Government?

Answer: I joined the army at Corinth, Miss in April 1862. Just after the battle of Shilough in Co. I 12th Tenn. Regiment.

Question: After enlistment, where was your company sent first?

Answer: We left Corinth and went to Chatanooga and from there went into Ky.

Question: How long after your enlistment before your company engaged in battle?

Answer: The regiment fought the battle of Richmon, Kentucky in September.

Question: What was the first battle you engaged in?

Answer: The battle of Murfresborough, Tenn. Dec 1862. I was wounded there and left in the hospital.

Question:State in your own way your experience in the war from this time on until the close.

Answer: My experience was short. I joined in 1862 and was wounded the last day of 1862, and never with the army any more. We had plenty to eat and wear. I was left in the hospital a prisoner and like to have died. When able were carried to Citty Point and exchanged. I was in the hospital near Petersburg, Va. the winter of 1863.

Question: When and where were you discharged?

Answer: I was paroled at Augusta, Ga in June 1865. I was transferred to Augusta, Ga and put in the hospital there.

Question: Tell something of your trip home.

Answer: I was so fortunate as to get a home with an old gentleman by name Mr. McCormick in the spring of 1864 and stayed until after the surrender. My father sent me money to come home on.

Question: Give a sketch of your life since the close of the Civil War.

Answer: I clerked in a grocery and dry goods store until 1867 and then went to the farm. Crippled, I could not work much. I pumped water for the L & W Railroad for 30 years.

Question: What kind of work did you take up when you came back home?

Answer: I have lived on the farm all my life except the last two years. While on the farm I seen after the hands and tended to the pumping of water for the L & W Railroad for 30 years.