The following was transcribed by Diane Speyerer in October 1998. Thomas Cartwright of the Carter House (the site of the Battle of Franklin) is a historian who has been on A&E. He took great interest in Hiram’s letter since it portray’s the soldier’s life (the loneliness of a soldier and life in the camp). Thomas portrays Hiram in first person during illumination tours at the Carter House. Thomas said that whenever a family member wants to visit to let him know and he will do the portrayal for them. He dresses in gray and is very good. He is very knowledgeable about this battle and the Battle of Vicksburg. He really lives the Civil War and he says that letters like that of Hiram’s help to personalize and bring reality to the battles.
My name is Private Hiram G. Reynolds, Company K, 7th Mississippi Infantry. I was born in Amite County, Mississippi in 1842. I worked a farm. When the war started, I enlisted in Quitman’s Rifles, which later became the 7th Mississippi. We were stationed on the coast of Mississippi for a while and then transferred to the Kentucky Campaign of 1862, where we fought in the Battles of Munfresville and Perryville. There we were moved over to Murfreesboro, and on December 31, 1862 and January 1, 2, 1863 fought the horrible Battle of Murfreesboro. Then we withdrew to the Tullahoma area where we camped for about five months and then had the Tullahoma Campaign culminating in the great Battle of Chickamauga. It was a great victory at a terrible price. We were positioned on the mountains around Chattanooga, where we suffered more than we ever suffered before. As Chattanooga fell, we withdrew back to Dalton, where we encamped for about five months. This was my last letter to my family before I lost my life at the Battle of Nashville:
March 21st, 1864
Camp Cleburne, Dalton, Ga.
Dear Cousin,
Having been on guard last night I have some idle time. I will therefore occupy it in
writing to my little cousin who I am quite sure has entirely forgotten me. While on guard
last night my mind was filled with recollections of the past. I was almost taken up with
thought. Home with all its endearments was pictured to my mind. Home. What sounds
pleasanter to a soldier's ear than home. His mind wanders far into the past and pictures
to him many events which he ponders over with the greatest pleasure. Perhaps he thinks of
a sister whose helping hand has always been at his bidding who would endear sacrifices of
almost any kind to procure his happiness or perhaps he thinks of a dear old Father or
Mother whose earnest supplications never fail to ascend a throne of grace in behalf of
their dear son who is ever exposed to the dangers of camp life. While these things were
flitting across my mind I thought of you, accusing you of forgetting me. I had almost
forgotten you. I hope you will excuse me for so gross a deed.
Well, I suppose you want to know something about the war. Something of which I am fairly
calculated to give. We are getting along with the war very well as long as the Yankees
stay away but when they come brightness dispenses and gloom and disparity cover all
things. It looks very dark on our side of the question to me. It seems to me that this is
the last year of the war. This war must soon terminate. It cannot last much longer. Our
armies have been falling back ever since the war commenced and I see no indication of them
stopping. This will whip us after a while and another thing very discouraging to our
soldiers is they are continually deserting. A great many often times. I could mention that
is not at all encouraging to our soldiers. For instance, rations that is enough to make
one desert to have to live on what we get to eat. We get about enough of bread and not
half enough meat. But that is the way to make a soldier fight well. Starve and it makes
him ambitious. I have often heard it said that a lean dog for a long race. Short rations
seem to agree with our boys very well for there is scarcely anyone sick now. My health is
good at present. Fred is well.
I do not know what the Yankees are doing up here now. They made a dash in upon us not long
since but did not do any damage. The next day they tried to break through our lines on the
left wing but was repulsed with considerable loss. We are still in winter quarters at this
place I have been ever since before Christmas and I hope we will stay here some time yet.
It is pretty cool here now. The trees have not commenced budding yet. I expect at home now
the trees are full of green leaves and the old fields full of green grass. I expect you
have been a fishing before now. We are living in the huts we build ourselves and you may
know they are by no means fashionable but they are very comfortable and that is all we
care for.
I believe I have written all that I can think of at present. So I will bring my epistle to
a close by asking you to write soon and a long letter to
Your dear Cousin,
Hiram
On May 13, 1864, we fought at Resaca, Georgia and on May 25 we were at the Battle of New Hope Church, Georgia and on June 27 the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia. We fought the Atlanta Campaign and came up in the Tennessee Campaign of 1864. Many of my comrades died here.
The Battle of Franklin began at 4:00 p.m. on November 30. All of Johnson’s Division, including Sharp’s Brigade of Johnson’s Division, S.D. Lee’s Corps, were sent in about 6:30 p.m. with orders to assist Cheatham’s Corps. Johnson’s Division had torches on both columns of the lines and were twenty something strong. With Brantley’s and Sharp’s Mississippi in the front ranks and Dea’s Alabama and Mangalt’s South Carolina and Alabama in the back, we moved forward and captured a portion of Moore’s Brigade line, three battle flags and jumped over the works. Being it was nighttime, we were being fired on by both sides. We pulled back and stayed in the trenches fighting and in the morning of December 1 it was a holocaust. Our division lost 573 out of twenty something hundred men, which is terrible, but nothing like what Cleburne’s and Brown’s Division took in the center.
We moved on to Nashville, where it was warm until the 7th of December, when it dropped down to ten degrees and below zero that night. We were not allowed to have fires because the Union artillery had us in range. We suffered a great deal. On December 15, the Battle of Nashville was fought where I was wounded in the left leg, captured and my leg was amputated on March 1, 1865. On March 15, my spirit went to heaven. There is no pain or suffering anymore, but I do miss my family and I’ve heard there was a song written afterwards that really ties into me:
"Take me back to the Southland,
Mississippi is my home
Let me rest with those green fields above me,
Never more will I roam."
I was buried in City Cemetery in Nashville. Later my sister, Julia, picked up my body and took it back to Mississippi, where I rest today. **
**We don’t know where Hiram is buried as of yet. Tim Burgess, another historian, is supposed to go to Amite County and try to find him. Tim has found 1,200 graves of confederate soldiers and was the one who found out about Hiram’s fate at the Battle of Nashville. Hiram was wounded on the first day (December 15, 1864), taken prisoner and had his left leg amputated on March 1, 1865. He died on March 15, 1865 of exhaustion.
Also, I gleamed the following from the what records were sent to me: Hiram was 5’10", dark complexion, black eyes. He was enlisted in 1862 at the age of 22 and was discharged in July 1862 at Saltildo, MS for disinterry. He evidently re-enlisted but may not have been at the some of the battles, i.e. Corinth, Shiloh , etc.