One hundred and forty-six years ago was the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was raging. It started on June 19, 1864, and lasted several days. The fighting w as not only on Kennesaw Mountain but was scattered here and there, such as Cheatham Hill, and Kolb Farm.
I better stop telling the history of the battle before I blunder.
My great-grandfather William A. Trammell fought at Kennesaw Mountain. He was in the North Carolina 39th Infantry, Company I. Their camp was on the ridge that connects Kennesaw Mountain to Little Kennesaw Mountain.
William was shot in the knee by a Yankee when he was stooping down at a spring getting water. His friend was shot in the head and was killed instantly. His other friend, Posey Wild took off running. William fell and played dead when the Yankees ran by him chasing Posey.
Posey lived to be an old man in Macon County, North Carolina.
William lived to an old man too. He recuperated in a private home in a little small community just north of Woodstock, Georgia, named Andersonville*
*Yes, there were two Andersonvilles in Georgia , at the time.
William probably got to know the people of Andersonville very well. About 14 years later, he and his family moved to roughly the same area, just west of Woodstock.
If he had not been shot in the knee, and if he had not played dead for the Yankees, and if he had not recuperated in Andersonville I would not exist, or at least with the same DNA makeup anyway. And that is also true for my many cousins with the same Hunter ancestry.
There is a bunch of “if”s there. Whole mankind is based on a chain of ifs.
William was married to Emaline Ray before his Kennesaw Mountain mishap. So, that part of the genes would still be intact. But if William and Emaline stayed in Macon County, North Carolina after the war, and his off-spring would have went forth and multiplied most likely in North Carolina.
Instead, they went forth and multiplied here in Cobb County and Cherokee County, Georgia.
At this time I do a bow and sweepingly extend my ball cap outward and say, “And here we are!”
THANK THE LORD FOR GRAMPS WILLIAM, OR WE WOULD HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE A ROCK.
ReplyDeletePAUL
"WOULD NOT"
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a big "if" - glad he had the smarts to play dead! It reminds me of watching a time travel movie - the least little thing changes all that comes afterward. Great story!
ReplyDeleteSusan,
ReplyDeleteThe "If" reminds me of a story by Ray Bradbury that was adopted by one of EC Sci-fi comics that a time machine with crew and technicians traveled to a preshistoric time and everybody was warned "do not change a thing". One of the men picked up a unique leaf or nut and put it in his pocket. When they returned back to the present time it was almost the same as prehistoric times, just some runins of buildings and strange creatures lurking here and there. The narrator, sort of liek whatzhis name in Twilight Zone went on to explain that whatever he picked up was destined to be eaten by a little creature, which was to be eaten by a larger creature, which needed that piece of food for his survival diet - and also that creature was to be eaten by something else... but it didn't, and that species took over the world.... or the story went something like that, I may have flubbed up on the chain of details. But you get the jest.
Interesting history-and neat that you have it in your family. I stumbled upon your site this morning-hunting for a picture of Choestoe Cemetary in Union Co. GA. I've been posting details of the Patriots found in the Dyer-Souther-Collins line-written by Ethelene Dyer Jones.
ReplyDeleteTipper,
ReplyDeleteI am descended from John Hunter of the Choestoe area. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the Old Salem Cemetery in the area.
If you are related to the Southers, Dyers, and Collins family members we are probably related.
I too read Erthlene Dyer Jones' column in the Union Sentinel.