Streets at Chickamauga

Honoring my forefathers who endured through the Battle of Chickamauga 150 years ago.
STREET (relation to author)
George M.D. Street (1845-1923) - 2x great grandfather,
James Joseph Street (1824-1916) - 3x great grandfather,
John Waller Street (1826-1909) - 3x great grand uncle

Confederate troops advancing through the woods. (Library of Congress)

The battle is over. It was 150 years ago from this past week that the Confederate troops engaged the Federal forces along the Chickamauga creek in northern Georgia.  Although in the end, the Confederates had forced back the Union troops into retreat, the three day long confused and exhausting conflict would be considered a tactical defeat for the South when General Braxton Bragg failed to pursue the defeated forces back to Missionary Ridge and then Chattanooga.  

In the midst of the Confederate forces, three men from Tippah County Mississippi fought together through the frightening and exhausting troop movements and violent conflicts of those three days of September 18-20, 1863. 

Link to animated map provided by the Civil War Trust.

In April of 1862, James Joseph Street and his eldest son, George M. D. Street, and James' younger brother, John Waller Street, enlisted with a large group of Tippah County men to join in the defense of northern Mississippi and the Confederacy from the advancing Union forces in Tennessee.  The next several years proved to be severe tests for the three men through long forced marches in harsh rugged terrains, ferocious battles, limited supplies, injury, disease, hunger, rain and drought, cold winters and hot summers.  At this point in the late summer of 1863, the Confederate forces had been forced back into northern Georgia where General Bragg was massing all of the forces from the marches of Tennessee and as many reinforcements he could obtain.  

The Streets were a part of Company G, 'The Sons of Liberty', in the 34th Mississippi Infantry. It is impossible to say exactly what each men faced in their long fight on these days.  But the fight would not end here as they would be found at Lookout Mountain above Chattanooga in late November in another great struggle. A brief history of the regiment at Chickamauga is found in "Dunbar Rowland's "Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898".

"In the Chickamauga campaign Walthall's Brigade was part of W. H. T. Walker's Reserve Corps, so called, which was one of the first commands in battle, fighting on the second day in the woods between the position where General Thomas made his famous stand, and the creek, and on the third day crossing the road between Thomas and Chattanooga. The strength of the regiment was Maj. W. G. Pegram, commanding; Adjutant Miller acting as field officer, one staff officer, 24 company officers and 28~ enlisted men when it went into the first fight at Alexander's bridge over the Chickamauga, September 18, where 24 were wounded, 2 mortally. Finding the bridge destroyed, the brigade crossed at Byram's ford. Next day they moved to the north and finding a large part of Walker's Corps defeated made a gallant charge which caught King's Brigade of United States regulars in the act of changing front. They were swept back with the loss of three or four hundred prisoners and Battery H of the Fifth United States Artillery. One gun of this battery was brought away by two men of the Thirty-fourth before Walthall was in turn forced back. Here the regiment had 5 killed and 54 wounded out of 583 engaged. Among the killed was Sergeant Morrison, Company D, color bearer, whose place was taken and gallantly filled by Private Felix Holland, Company G. Lieutenant Morrow, Company A, and Adjutant Miller were wounded. Patrick Beaty, Company F, compelled an officer of the regulars to surrender, taking his sword. In the evening of the 19th the brigade had another battle in which the Thirty-fourth had 2 killed and 5 wounded. Major Pegram, a gallant officer, was severely wounded, and Captain Bowen took command. Sunday, September 20, with no field officers left, the regiment of 177 had two more battles. In the morning they advanced and came under a severe enfilading fire from Thomas' log works, under which Lieutenant-Colonel Reynolds, assigned to temporary command, fell mortally wounded. In the evening they were again ordered forward, between Thomas' main position and Chattanooga, on the State road, and were enveloped by the fire of a semicircle of artillery. The casualties of the three days were 15 killed, 91 wounded, 19 missing."

In the coming months, I'll discuss events that occur to these three men after this battle up until the end of the war. 

A full history of the 34th Mississippi Infantry Regiment is written in the book "Honor Without A Stain", by David B. Boone, Jr. The book is available at Google Play Books.  It should be noted that the listing of soldiers in the End Notes misidentifies George Street as having died in 1931 and buried in Benton County, Mississippi. George M.D. Street died in, and was buried in, Wapanucka, OK in 1923.

George Morgan Dallas Street (1845-1923)

Battle flag of the 34th Mississippi Infantry captured at Lookout Mountain.

Charles Page and The Home

In 1903 Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, Hardie Street and Margaret Kennedy married and started their lives together in Phillips, a town just south of Coalgate. They had six children, with a seventh on the way, when Hardie died suddenly of a stroke on December 8, 1917. Hardie was buried near his mother, Nancy (who had died just two years earlier), in Rose Hill Cemetery in Wapanucka. As harsh as this was, times were to become much more desperate for Margaret and her family. On February 13, 1918, her new son William Hardy was born.

Charles Page, a man building a fortune in oil, had planned and built the city of Sand Springs and was sharing his wealth with the orphans of Tulsa County. He had built a dormitory, called 'the home', where the children he rescued from a failed orphanage could be raised with many of the same opportunities as more fortunate children. Aside from the dormitory, he built a widows colony in 1912 to provide shelter and aid for widowed and divorced women with children to support.  The colony had a chapel and nursery and provided for free rent and utilities and a quart of milk per child per day.

Margaret learned of the home and made the decision to travel north to Sand Springs where she and her family would find a new start and have hope of staying together.  However, the sorrows did not end as Margaret's toddler son, William, died in 1919.  Margaret did all she could do to keep her children safe and fed, but how she could keep her six children together without the help of Charles Page and the colony is uncertain. She worked as a laundress to make her way while the 'Charles Page Home' provided for the additional care and education of the children, the oldest of which, Dreada, was fifteen.  She did not give up and the children would grow up healthy and ready to venture on to their new lives.

Margaret's second daughter, Nancy Lou, or 'Nanny', was my grandmother who, from all accounts, was a most loving and caring soul who gave her all for her family.  Perhaps some of that love was grown from knowing the generosity of another caring soul like Charles Page.

Sand Springs Home is going strong still today, nearly 100 years later, providing hope for desperate and divided families. The legacy of Charles Page lives on in not only in the city he built, but for the many lives given hope.

Sol Street's Demise

The story of Solomon Street in the Civil War is one of those interesting footnotes that came out of the South. Solomon was the brother of my great-great-great grandfather, Jim Street. As it was for most families of the South, most of the young men had journeyed off to war - or soon would - as the call to arms rang out. The Street families of Tippah County, Mississippi were no exception.  Jim Street would join two of his sons in one regiment while Solomon would eventually lead other Streets in his 2nd Mississippi Reserve Cavalry, Company A: The Citizen's Guards of Tippah County.

Well, the historians can speak to the war time activities of Captain Sol Street and his regiment.  There is an excellent history written by Andrew Brown for the Journal of Mississippi History from 1959. This story, however, is about a young man named Robert Galloway and how the career of Sol Street came to an end in Bolivar, Tennessee in 1864.  

The story was posted in Footnote under Interesting Civil War Stories by submitter 'bgill' on May 13, 2007.

View Street in a larger map

"Sol Street was one of 18 children born to Anderson and Keziah McBride Street, one of the earliest settlers of Tippah Co. Miss. Sol was a carpenter by trade and enlisted early in the war (1861) in the Magnolia Guards which later was merged into the 2nd Miss. Infantry. He served at First Manassas, Seven Pines, and the Seven Days Battles. After North Miss. was invaded in 1862 he hired a substitute under the provisions of the Conscription Act and returned home.

Street next is on record as having been made a captain in the Citizen's Guards of Tippah Co. Technically he was under Gen. Chalmers' command but was able to detach himself from the Gen.'s command so that he could harass the Federals along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad between Memphis and Corinth.

Street establish headquarters of sorts in an inpenetrable bottom of Tippah Creek, from which he operated an efficient and unorthodox intelligence system which served him well in his military activities. By 1863, Street had earned the enviable description of "noted Guerilla" and the unsubstantiated title of Colonel.

Finally, Street saw that his days as the leader of an independent group of hit-and-run fighters were numbered. He evaded (regular) Confederate service for the last time by moving into the extreme southwest section of Tenn.

Street's military career reached its peak while he was serving as a Major in the 15th Tn., a battalion under the command of Gen. N.B. Forrest.

After the engagement at Ft. Pillow, Tenn., the following account details Street's last days, which were spent in the Bolivar, Tn. area.

In Dec. 1862 William Galloway, a Saulsbury, Tn. farmer had an altercation with Street over the sale of cotton. Street killed Galloway without provocation.

Galloway had a son named Robert who swore he would avenge his father's death, sending word far and wide that he would kill Street on sight. Robert was not quite 17 but enlisted in Capt. Higgs' Independent Scouts and bided his time.

It was over a year before he ran across the man he had sworn to kill. On May 2, 1864, just after Forrest's command, numbering about 200 all told, had had a brush with over 1,000 Federal troops near Bolivar, Higgs' Scouts camped with Forrest's troops at Bolivar and there Robert met Maj. Street. True to his word, he avenged his father's death.

Shooting a Major of his command was to Forrest an unpardonable crime and young Galloway was placed in charge of a guard of ten men with the cheering information that as sure as the sun rose in the morning he would be shot, and admonished him to make his peace with his God. The guards were instructed to "bind him fast and have him forthcoming when called for, or their lives should answer for his escape." Forrest also ordered that he should be tied with a rope and two men at a time should stand guard over him, one of whom should "hold on to the rope." Accordingly, his hands were tied, a long rope was placed around his neck, which one of the guards held in his hand.

The first two to have charge of him were John W. Key of Washington, D.C. and L.H. Russ. Russ was about 16 years old and not much bigger than a piece of chalk--and for that reason was called the "baby of Forrest's escort." From the first his sympathies were enlisted on the side of the prisoner. Getting into conversation with Galloway, he got the entire story of the killing, talked it over with the guards, and won over the most of them to the idea of letting him get away. Russ stayed awake the whole night, and every 2 hours when the relief was changed, he asked, "is he still there?" hoping to that each succeeding relief would give him a chance to "skip".

Later Key and Russ were on duty guarding the prisoner in the corner of a rail fence and the two begin talking in a way to let Galloway know he had better untied himself and make his get-away. "That fellow is a fool to stay here and get shot," said Ross. "If he tries to get away I shall shoot at him--but I won't hit him," replied Key. "If I was in his place, I'd make a break for our horses over there and take one and ride like the devil," said Russ, "and I would not care if he got mine." Key was holding the rope and Russ laid down across it between Key and the prisoner, and Galloway worked around, got his knife out of his pocket, cut his bonds and stole away quietly to the horses. He perferred to leave on foot rather than give them any chance to track him, as they would be able to do had he taken a horse. Revellie was sounded just as he disappeared in the woods.

Waiting a sufficient time to give Galloway a chance to make his escape, the two guards began shooting their revolvers and running in an opposite direction from that taken by the prisoner. "Boots and Saddles" was sounded at once, the escort formed in lines and in two minutes Forrest put in an appearance, supposing the Federals were about to attack them.

On learning that the prisoner had escaped, and none of the guards being able to tell how it happened, the dashing cavalry leader began cursing the guard, damning them individually, collectively, in detail and by sections; damned his whole escort from the highest officer in it to the cook--not one escaped his wrath--and after cursing all of the State of Tenn. in general and Bolivar in particular he order the guard under arrest, with the statement that he was about to march to Tupelo, Miss., and on arrival there he "intended to shoot every damned one of the ten guards." They were ordered to fall in the rear of the escort and the march began.

On the way to Tupelo, the guards were all dishartened at the prospect of being shot except the "baby" who kept saying "Don't worry boys, Forrest won't shoot ten of his escort--good men are too scarce to kill 'em that way."

Arriving at Tupelo, Forrest put the guard in a little old shanty in which a number of goats had been housed for a year, again telling them he would shoot the whole ten of them at sunrise. They were kept there for a week or more, when Russ one day climbed up the old fashioned chimney while some of his companions engaged the attention of the guard, climbed down the roof made his way to his company quarters and got Capt. Jackson and Maj. Strong to interced with Forrest for their release.

Russ made his way back to the goat pen the same way he got out, and Forrest, who had somewhat cooled down by this time released all except Sgt. Sims, who was Sgt. of the guard, declaring he would court-martial and shoot him. Sims stayed in the goat pen a week longer, when he was tried by court-martial and there being no evidence to convict, he went free. Sims never knew till long after the war who turned the prisoner loose.

Many years later Galloway was visiting the Masonic Library during the meeting of the grand bodies and on looking over the register saw Russ' name. They had not met but each had a letter from the other. Galloway immediately went up to the lodge room, walked in, closely scrutinized every face and at last saw the features of the boy who 39 years before, snatched him from the jaws of death and gave him life and freedom. Going out into the anteroom, he had the Grand Sentinel call Russ out of the chapter room, and when he came Galloway found that he had faithfully remembered the features of the "baby of Forrest's escort."

Then, of course, that fearful night was reconstructed. The writer through a friend met the two and had the story told for his edification. It is no fairy tale, but an actual incident of the war. When Galloway was asked how he could remember the face of Russ so well, he remarked that the features of his preserver were burned into his very soul, and that he could never forget him. He added: "As long as I live that boy shall never want for anything and I have told my wife that, if I died before she does, she must share her last crust with him if he needs it, and you can safely bet that she will cheerfully do so."

Both are Masons and this cemented the bond of friendship between them. Cal Street, a brother* of the man Galloway killed was also a Mason. They are firm friends, but the killing has never been mentioned between them and probably never will be.

Shortly after Galloway had returned to Saulsbury, after the war, some of Maj. Street's friends went quietly to work to have him tried by civil authority for the killing of Maj. Street. The Sheriff put a quietus to it, saying: "Boys, Bob Galloway has more friends in this country than Steet ever had and if anything more is done toward trying him for what he did during the war, there will be a heap more dead men lying around lose in this neighborhood than you ever saw--and they will be those who stir up this matter too."

Here ends the account of how Robert Galloway was saved from the grave by L.H. Russ, a boy who took chances of being shot himself to save a total stranger. The two are fast friends and will be while life lasts."

* - Calvin Columbus Street was born in 1867 to Jim Street and was Solomon's nephew. I have no reference of a brother named 'Cal'.