The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Serve the Whole War and Get Killed at the End: What a Bummer!

From the July 25, 2011, Travel Wire "Appomattox a solemn site: Flags mark Civil War's last casualties" by Bob Downing of the Akron (Oh) Beacon Journal.

Private Jesse H. Hutchins joined the Confederate Army three days after Fort Sumter was fired upon, enlisting April 15, 1861, in Co. A, 5th Alabama Battalion.  He was initially sent to Florida, but then spent the rest of his career with Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.\

He fought in virtually every battle before being shot and killed on the evening of April 8, 1865, in a skirmish with Union cavalry outside Appomattox Court House, just a few hours before the surrender.  He had survived 1,454 days of Confederate service, just to die on that last day.

Today, he is buried just 500 yards west of the reconstructed McLean house, among 18 Confederate and one unknown Union soldier.  These nineteen were among the 600 killed, wounded or captured during the last two days before Lee surrendered.  All were buried where they were killed before being reinterred in 1866 by the Ladies Memorial Association of Appomattox.

That had to have been lousy to have served all that time and then get killed right at the end.

Poor Private Hutchins.  --Old Secesh

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