Brother Against Brother

BILL, BUDDY, AND ELISHA RAGAN

Of Hardeman County, Tennessee and Tippah County, Mississippi

By Keith Wayne Ragan

ESCAPE FROM FORT DONELSON by John Paul Strain

William W. (Bill) Ragan (1843-1864), Paul S. (Buddy) Ragan (1844-1864) [i], and Elisha W. Ragan (1845-1918) have been a part of our family lore forever.  The boys were all sons of my great-great grandparents Nathaniel Simpson Ragan, (1820-1907) and Mary “Polly” Vincent Ragan (1825-1908), born in Hardeman County, Tennessee, but living just across the state line in Tippah County, Mississippi at the outbreak of the Civil War.  Nearby was the farm of their uncle, Samuel Young Ragan and his family.

My grandfather Jacob William Ragan (1894-1972) was the son of Nathaniel Francis Ragan (1863-1926), who in turn was the younger brother of the boys mentioned.  My grandfather had told my father Robert Nathaniel Ragan (1914-2003), the story many times of the brothers differing affiliations and the choosing of different colors and flags to serve during those defining years of our country’s history.  There had always been amazement, perhaps even confusion, that brothers could so align themselves, one against the other.  But, the one thing the stories always came back to was:  What happened to the remains of the two boys who did not return?

Bill, the oldest of the three, married, but at this point of research, no marriage record has been found to substantiate the identity of his new bride, when he marched off to Ruckersville [ii] to enlist in the 23^rd Regiment, Mississippi Infantry, Company C [iii], known popularly as the Tippah Tigers, Confederate States of America.  He enrolled as W. W. Ragan. It has long been speculated that Bill’s in-laws may have been supporters and enlisted in the Southern Cause, leading him to follow suit.  His cousin John Box Ragan [iv] probably was another factor, since he also enrolled in Ruckersville with the Tippah Tigers at the same time as Bill.

A great story has been handed down over the years, and the versions recalled are so similar that there must be truth in the tale.  The story involves Bill’s wife, well known for her hot temper.  At a time when Bill was away from the homestead and wearing Confederate gray, status as a prisoner or active combatant unknown, Union troops came upon the property while she was outside working on the family wash.  Immediately Bill’s wife was angered, seeing the boys in blue ride so casually up to her door.  The Federals asked for nothing more than a drink of water from the well.  They insisted they meant no harm, and her person and property were safe.  But that famous temper overcame young Mrs. Ragan, and in a flash she ran to the well and cut the rope, the bucket falling into the well.  The Union officer took but a few moments to hold the young woman’s gaze, before he turned around and ordered all of the buildings of Bill’s farm doused with kerosene and burned.  Those Yankees didn’t drink from Bill Ragan’s well, but the price of refusing a drink of water was heavy, indeed.

 

But, it is well known in family lore that family patriarch Nathaniel Simpson Ragan was a Unionist and felt strongly that the Union and flag be preserved.  This certainly influenced the two remaining boys and allegiances.  Nathaniel felt so strongly in the Union, knowing it would not be a popular position with his Mississippi neighbors, that, at some point during the war, he took his family to the vicinity of Anna, Union County, Illinois to wait out the final outcome.  His daughter, Tennessee was born there during that time of exile. He would return to Tippah and then Hardeman County, Tennessee at war’s conclusion, but he was a man deprived of two sons, informed only that his young men, less than 21 years of age, had perished of disease and would not return to the center of the family’s core.  Buddy, wearing Union blue, it had always been said died of some disease in Memphis and did not complete his journey home.  That’s all that was known.  Bill died, too he was told; of disease; pneumonia it was commonly said, but the particulars were not known; this while in service of the Confederate gray.  The story coveys the feeling that Bill’s demise was more of a “bits and pieces”, discovery process that never reached full and satisfactory conclusion.

I’ll begin this story with the destiny of the two Ragan brothers, Paul (Buddy) and Elisha that entered into service with the Army of the United States;

My dad died not knowing the answer to where Buddy was interred, but it has been a source of knowledge now for some seven to eight years at least.  Buddy joined the 1^st Mississippi Mounted Rifles, United States of America, enlisting as a Corporal.  "Buddy", properly Paul S, Ragan, died of smallpox in Memphis only two weeks after his enlistment, 24 March 1864. He is buried in Memphis National Cemetery [v],[vi].

Memphis National Cemetery, Final Rest for 8,866 Union soldiers.  Photo from the web and not  the property of the author.  

 It was customary for the recruiters, once they had men signed, to load the men into train or ship [vii] and take them to enrollment and muster before they could change their minds.  Disease was rampant and epidemic during this era of history and it is entirely possible that Buddy contracted smallpox in route to Memphis from the other recruits or the Union soldiers accompanying them.  It does not seem a likely scenario, that travel by horseback from Anna, Illinois or Tippah County, Mississippi to Memphis where his enlistment was recorded would be a safe or navigable endeavor during that turbulent time.  Paul (Buddy) would have been like most young men that begin service to their country; apprehensive, excited, and expectant of adventure.  He and Elisha would probably have talked of nothing else for days but the new chapter of their lives unfolding in the Union army.  But he was deprived of that adventure, and the agony and hardships that went with it.  And surely, his passing had great effect on his remaining brother, Elisha.

Elisha was the youngest of the boys and enrolled as soon as “he could pass” for 18.  It is believed he was closer to 17.  He joined to fight with his big brother, Buddy, in Company B, 1st Battalion, Mississippi Mounted Rifles [viii].  Maybe credit goes to “dad” Nathaniel Simpson for determining Elisha’s choice of uniform, and maybe fighting with his brother Buddy was the determining factor [ix].  But, with some embellishment likely, the story my own father told and to which he left notes, was that Elisha joined on a moment of spontaneous joy.  The story we have handed down was that Elisha was present one day when the Union Army with it’s band playing, on a recruitment swing through the countryside, passed by the road of Elisha’s home[x].  It was told that he was so overcome by emotion that he told family and friends “that when I heard that music playing, I just knew I had to join them.”  Again from my Dad’s notes of the stories, it was said that Elisha was thought too young to join by the officer making the enlistment decisions, but Elisha told the man that he would fight any soldier the officer picked, and would "whip him good".  And this he did several times over, leading the Recruiter to announce, “sign this man up, by God, he’s a fighter!”  If the story is true, indeed Elisha must have been a handful, for he fit the profile perfectly of a horse soldier, the records indicating that both he and Buddy were only 5’ 4” tall.

Elisha survived the war, returned to Hardeman County, Tennessee and both he and his father Nathaniel, returning his family also from Illinois, are enumerated as heads of household on the 1870 U.S. census. Elisha evidently ran into some trouble shortly before the time of this census, in the Middleton area.  There are two stories repeated in family lore, and since I do not know which is factual, I will relay both.  Both involve Elisha and his brother-in-law Blinard Doneil “Neil” Rodgers, husband to his sister Martha C. Ragan Rodgers.  And both story versions involve the newly formed KKK. 

The KKK established at the end of the Civil War was due to the influence of Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest.  The primary purpose was to secretly position the South to again initiate a fight for their independence.  We all know it evolved into something much more ugly and sinister.  Story Version Number 1, and the most accepted, spins that Elisha, as a former Union soldier had joined and was a spy enrolled to inform on the membership, and thus lead to its dissolution. It further relates that his brother-in-law knew this and was going to inform on Elisha. Story Version Number 2 states that he was a hard-core member himself, and it was Doneil that was going to inform on the membership.  What the stories have in common is the forwarding of the notion that Elisha had it out for Doneil Rodgers and Doneil had better leave the country if he wanted to escape Elisha’s fury.  Doneil Rodgers did leave, but was never heard from again.  Anywhere.  And so the local sentiment grew that Elisha had killed his brother-in-law.  By the 1870 Census previously mentioned, Elisha was still there, but his sister Martha was again living with and in the household of father Nathaniel with 1-year-old Nathaniel Francis Rodgers, her son.  Without Blinard Doneil Rodgers.

Elisha W. Ragan had his family in Morgan County, Alabama shortly after the 1870 census because it is said that warrants had been put on him personally, and several men had pledged to kill him in retaliation for suspected harm to Doneil Rodgers. He is enumerated there on the 1880 U.S. Census. It is known that Nathaniel Simpson Ragan, the father, had to put his farm up in forfeit to somehow pay off Elisha’s debt; whether Elisha’s debt was monetary or criminal was not made known to me by my father or grandfather[xi].  Nathaniel Simpson Ragan was never to own property again, until younger son, and my great-grandfather, Nathaniel Francis Ragan acquired a home for him.

Elisha settled finally near Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas.

He was there by 1885, and he married again to Laura A. Griffis on the 12^th of May 1890.  Elisha became a very successful farmer and cotton ginner in Texas, and the strife of war and the settling of feuds gradually melted away.  His brother Nathaniel Francis Ragan joined him and farmed with him on at least a couple of  occasions, indicating that the family ties were never broken. He died 6 November 1918 near Barry in Navarro County, and is buried in Dresden Cemetery.  

                                                   

  

Photo from Ancestry website submitted by vanstroud315.

                                                                        

Which brings us to the enigma of family history, the son that chose the Confederate States of America, William (Bill).  Bill’s Regiment was one of those assembled and soon attached to the leadership of Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow at Fort Donelson on the Tennessee River.  The “Tippah Tigers” bore the brunt of a savage assault by Union forces, and those men not killed or wounded were taken prisoner, 16 February 1862.  At a subsequent point in time many of the prisoners were exchanged and were to join their old unit in additional campaigns including Coffeyville on December 5, 1862 and they were also present and engaged at Vicksburg.  They were finally merged one last time with the Army of Tennessee in the Franklin, Atlanta, and Nashville campaigns.

CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON map by Robert Knox Sneden

It is almost certain that Bill did not make it past the Fort Donelson battle.  His Second Lieutenant, Pinkney Tapp[xii] was captured at Fort Donelson and was sent to Camp Douglas in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.  At some point in time beginning with the surrender at Fort Donelson, at least ten other of the men from the Tippah Tigers[xiii], in addition to Bill, were sent by train cattle cars to Camp Douglas to join their lieutenant.  The inhumane treatment of Confederate soldiers at Fort Douglas equaled, and many historians of the war claim surpassed, anything the Union prisoners experienced at Andersonville, the Confederate prison of such infamy.  But, victors write the history and while Andersonville has been written about in detail since the end of the Civil War, Camp Douglas’ atrocities have only come to light in the past 10-20 years, at least to the general public.  The history channel has filmed a documentary on Fort Douglas that will shock anyone not informed of the cruelties inflicted there.

William (Bill) Ragan did not survive the cold and brutal conditions of Fort Douglas[xiv].  No clothing or blankets were issued the men for fear they would escape, and there was no heat source.  The men wore sacks with holes cut out for head and arms. Food was gruel, if anything at all, and many men were starved to death.  They were crowded so tightly into their quarters, most living in tents, that men could not even stretch out to sleep.  They slept upright.  Their bodies consumed themselves until they were skeletons of men, and disease was rampant as a natural predecessor.  They died by the hundreds and were stacked eventually like cordwood into the pile that became the Confederate Mound.  In the winter of 1864, in four months, 1,091 men died.  The plaque erected there reads “ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF SIX THOUSAND SOUTHERN SOLDIERS HERE BURIED WHO DIED IN CAMP DOUGLAS PRISON 1862-5.”

Bill, W. W. Ragan, Company C, 23^rd Regiment, Mississippi Infantry died there and is so recorded.  He is included in the mass of bodies in the Confederate Mound, Oak Woods Cemetery.[xv],[xvi]

 

The Confederate Mound, Oak Woods Cemetery

 I have indicated Bill Ragan's name (W. W. Ragan) by the yellow star.  
 

Leaving the white rose at the Confederate Mound.
  L-R: Matt Ragan, Kent Ragan, and Keith Ragan, Oct 12, 2012.

Copyright by Keith Wayne Ragan

March 8, 2012

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[i] Paul was named for his grandfather, Paul Vincent, thus the family nickname of “Buddy”.

[ii] Historic Ruckersville was located in Tippah County, about half way between Walnut and Ripley.  Some of the men enlisted at Jonesborough in Tippah County.  Jonesborough was but a short way down the road from Walnut to the Southeast just down the road from Chalybeate near the Hatchie River.

23rd Infantry Regiment [also called 2nd or 3rd Regiment] was assembled at Corinth, Mississippi, during the fall of 1861. The men were from Franklin, Tippah, Alcorn, and Monroe counties. Sent to Tennessee, the unit was captured at Fort Donelson. In this fight it lost 5 killed and 46 wounded of the 546 engaged. After being exchanged, it served in General Tilghman's and J. Adams' Brigade, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, and was active in various engagements during the siege of Vicksburg. Later it joined the Army of Tennessee, served under Generals J. Adams and Lowrey, and fought in the Atlanta and Tennessee Campaigns and in North Carolina. The regiment reported 20 casualties at Coffeeville and 7 at Champion's Hill and surrendered on April 26, 1865. The field officers were Colonels Thomas J. Davidson and Joseph M. Wells, Lieutenant Colonel Moses McCarley, and Majors George W.B. Garrett and W.E. Rogers.

[iii] Mustered 1 August 1861 in Ruckersville.

[iv] John Box Ragan would rise to the rank of Sergeant, survive the war and live to age 71.  He died in Noble County, Oklahoma.

[v] As we so often encounter in our genealogical record searches for our surname of Ragan/Ragon/Reagan, Paul is recorded in Memphis National Cemetery with the surname misspelled.  He is listed as Reagan, P. S., CO B, 1^st Mississippi Cavalry.  His exact plot is not verified by the National Cemetery Administration Records Verification Project, and he is currently determined to be at rest in either PLOT 3881 or PLOT 3891.

[vi] Memphis National Cemetery was originally established as Mississippi River National Cemetery when the Union Army forces took control of the city of Memphis during the Civil War.  It served to inter veterans who died while in the many military hospitals in the region.  After the war, several battlefield cemeteries were also transferred to Memphis.  It encompasses 44.2 acres and at the end of 2005 had 41,873 graves.

[vii] The Mississippi River is only about 10-11 miles from Anna proper..

[viii]Organized at Memphis, Tenn., March 1864. Attached to District of Memphis, Tenn., 16th Army Corps, Dept. Tennessee, to June 1864. 1st Brigade, Cavalry Division, District of West Tennessee, to July 1864. 1st Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division, District West Tennessee, to December 1864. 1st Brigade, Cavalry Division, District West Tennessee, to June 1865.

SERVICE.-Duty in the Defenses of Memphis, Tenn., till August, 1864. Expedition from Memphis to Grand Gulf, Miss., July 7-24. Near Bolivar July 6. Port Gibson July 14. Grand Gulf July 16. Smith's Expedition to Oxford, Miss., August 1-31. Tallahatchie River August 7-9. Hurricane Creek August 9. Oxford August 9 and 11. Hurricane Creek August 13-14 and 19. At Memphis and in District of West Tennessee, till December. Grierson's Expedition from Memphis against Mobile & Ohio Railroad December 21, 1864, to January 5, 1865. Verona December 25, 1864. Okolona December 27. Egypt Station December 28. Franklin and Lexington January 2, 1865. Mechanicsburg January 3. The Ponds January 4. Moved from Vicksburg to Memphis and duty there till June 1865. Expedition from Memphis into Southeast Arkansas and Northeast Louisiana January 26-February 11. Mustered out June 26, 1865.

[ix] Paul and Elisha made the trip to Memphis and enlisted together, 15 March 1864.

[x] It is quite possible that this was at the Illinois home of the family, since their father quite likely had the family at this location at that time.

[xi] [xi] I find no record of formal criminal charges to Elisha, and family stories, usually containing elements of truth, do not in themselves prove Elisha did in fact, do the deed of which he was accused.  However, the then Governor of Tennessee, John Calvin Brown personally pardoned E. W. Ragan of Hardeman County, Tennessee in 1872, proved by page 17 of 48, Pardons, Paroles, and Clemencies  (www.tn.gov/tsla/history/govpapers/findingaids/gp23.pdf ). A Governor’s pardon would seem likely related to the deed of which Elisha was accused.  I feel it is important to remember that the Civil War’s feudal nature did not automatically cease at war’s end.  There were still scores to settle, and emotions and sentiments still ran deep.  The fact that Neil Rogers left Hardeman County and abandoned his new family is all that can definitively be stated as fact.  I know that my great grandfather Nathaniel Francis Ragan had admiration and love for Elisha, but it is also he who has passed this story on, so that it remains in our family lore today.  If Nathaniel ever knew for certain that Elisha did harm to Doneil Rodgers, he never made it known, relating to family only that Elisha was “accused” of the deed.

[xii] Pinkney Tapp was released by surgeon’s order, 17 Aug 1863 as physically unable to rejoin in the Southern cause.  He lived to old age and died 13 October 1922.  He is buried in Providence Cemetery.  Officers taken prisoner were often given special considerations, a practice common to both armies.  The enlisted men under Lt. Pinckney’s charge would not receive the same compassion and leniency.

[xiii] The “Tippah Tiger” men in service with Bill and taken prisoner were John W. Barnett and Robert F. Dooly.  They are interred in Oak Woods Cemetery at Camp Douglas.  Also included, G. W. Fletcher, John H. Gatlin, Hazel T. Holly, James M. Ralph, Thomas J. Ray, John H. Richardson, E. J. Ritter, and Mark L. Wilbank.  They also died there, and were buried in the heap of Confederate bodies in the Confederate Mound, Fort Douglas.  These are those that perished from the original Company C, 23^rd Mississippi Infantry that I have confirmed to date.  These records and those of Bill were compiled and expanded from Tippah County Historical Society and Mississippi State Archives by Bobby Mitchell.

[xiv] In addition to enlistment records and confirmation at Camp Douglas, as well as Bobby Mitchell’s verification from the archives, this article also is certainly in reference to our Bill: From the Memphis Daily Avalanche; May 25 1866:  Headline “Confederate Dead at Camp Douglas”; W.W. Ragan, Company C, 5^th Mississippi Regiment. This is certainly our William Ragan, though the regiment is probably in error.  Bill’s Tippah Tigers were in several campaigns with the 5^th Regiment, including Franklin, Nashville, and Atlanta, and it could have been that he was in fact taken prisoner at any of these campaigns.  At any point in the latter stages, Bill could have been transferred or his Company attached to the 5^th.  Or he could have provided his captors misinformation.  My guess is that his family never saw this newspaper article, since his site of interment has remained such a family mystery.

[xv] http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mscivilw/23rdMiss.htm.   Refer to this site for the official roster of Tippah Tigers.

[xvi] On October 27, 2012, I visited the Confederate Mound Memorial in Oak Wood Cemetery in Chicago with my wife, Sandy and two of my sons, Kevin Matthew Ragan and Kent Andrew Ragan, to honor our last missing Ragan ancestor from the great Civil War.  He is listed on the monument’s south side underneath the bronze relief entitled “A Soldier’s Dying Dream”. We found his name there, W. W. Ragan, Company C, 3rd Mississippi Regiment, and placed a white rose on behalf of and including all descendants of Nathaniel Simpson Ragan and the Ragan tree in general.  I hope the words and sentiments of my prayer did him honor and gave his spirit peace.

Keith W. Ragan