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Anderson Intelligencer, May 30, 1900 |
Could the same man have fired the first and last shots of the Civil War? That's the implication of some recently unearthed newspaper clippings.
The Anderson Intelligencer of May 30, 1900, reprinted a story from the Greenville Mountaineer, signed anonymously by "Old Coins," who interviewed eyewitnesses in a quest to document the last "battle" of the Civil War, which involved Stoneman's raiders on May 1, 1865—three weeks after Robert E. Lee's surrender in Virginia. The clipping quotes Butler Dyer, who was a veteran of the skirmish:
Mr. Paul Allan, of Charleston, was one of the Citadel cadets and who was the man who fired the first shot of the war on the steamer "Star of the West," was also a member of this company, and fired the last shot at the enemy on this occasion, thus having the somewhat remarkable experience and distinction of having inaugurated and finished the sanguinary conflict of '61 to '65.
The Bamberg Herald of May 19, 1921, carried an account from The Greenville News, where the skirmish was documented by Louise Vandiver, who authored the Traditions and History of Anderson County in 1928. Mrs. Vandiver (1865-1938) collected historical clippings, and her source may have been the 1900 account. Among the Confederate party was young man named Paul Allen, a Charlestonian, who, it is said, fired the first shot at the Star of the West, having been a Citadel cadet at the time, and who, just to complete his record in a satisfactory manner, fired the last shot at the retreating Federal cavalry in this final skirmish on the lonely road away off in Anderson county, ending, as he had begun, one of the greatest wars in all of history.
Mrs. Vandiver goes on to identify Andersonians who were part of that skirmish, including James L. Dean, D.S. McCullough, F.A. Silcox, J.B. Lewis, G.W. Sullivan, and E.A. Smyth. Ellison Adger Smyth became the founder of Pelzer Mills and helped make Greenville the "Textile Capital of the World." We previously reported that Smyth was involved in the Anderson skirmish. Smyth (1847-1942, raised in Charleston) also claimed to have witnessed the first shot on Fort Sumter. John Baylis Lewis (1848-1929) became an Anderson businessman.
More Civil War coincidences
The possibility that the same man might have fired the first and last shots of the war reminded me of these coincidences.
The war began and ended on farms owned by the same man. The first battle in 1861, called First Manassas (by the Union) or First Bull Run (by the Confederates), was waged on a plantation owned by Wilmer McLean (1814-1882). Seeking to protect his family from combat, he moved to Appomattox Courthouse, Va., where in 1865 generals Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant met in his parlor as they negotiated the terms of surrender.
The Last Casualties of the Civil War
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Jay County, Indiana |
Two Confederates were killed during Stoneman's Raid after Robert E. Lee's surrender April 9, 1865.
On May 3, 1865, in Anderson, S.C., McKenzie "Theodore" Parker of South Carolina, was killed during a confrontation with Stoneman's rear guard. A week later in Madison, Ga., Texas Ranger A.C. Wall was shot by Stoneman's 12th Ohio cavalry.
Several Union soldiers died in Anderson during the post-war occupation. Some were at the hands of Manse Jolly, including a Lt. Chase from the Michigan. And in October, three federal soldiers from Maine were ambushed at Brown's Ferry on the Savannah River. Indiana claims that private John Williams was the last man to die in the Civil War. He was killed May 13, 1865, in the Battle of Palmito Ranch on the Rio Grande River in Texas.
On May 19, a Union detachment delivering mail was attacked by Confederate guerrillas at Hodby's Bridge near Eufala, Ala., resulting in the death of John Skinner of the 1st Florida Cavalry.
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Anderson Intelligencer, May 30, 1900 |