Larkin H. Poe married to Sarah Brotherton.
http://www.battleofchickamauga.net/families_of_chickamauga.htm
The land bordered on its west and south by Chickamauga Creek on the Georgia-Tennessee boundary was made for farming. Its mountainsides, glens, valleys and coves were a natural breadbasket. The families who lived within its nine square miles were quiet farmers. Everyone knew each other, or at least was aware of their neighbors; they married each other at times, like Larkin Poe who took Sarah Brotherton for his bride.
Larkin Poe, who had married Sarah Brotherton, was with
Company K, 4th Georgia Cavalry. Some three days after the
Chickamauga Battle, Poe was able to return to his home, which was just east of
the
Robert Dyer’s farm, west of Brotherton’s and Poe’s, sent his
two sons, Spill (ok) and John. Robert was forced by Gen. Rosecrans to guide him
safely out of the valley when Rosecrans was departing for
The families of
by Fred Brown
Like a great predator soaring down from the mountain slopes, and swooping into the lush, undisturbed valleys, large armies of soldiers moved over the farmland, foraging and feeding, preparing to do what they did best—kill with intensity and precision.
Fall was prickling the air, but it was not yet the harvest season. The fading days of summer had been dry for weeks, too dry. The Dyer, Poe, Kelley, Brotherton and Snodgrass families, all with big farm fields almost ready for harvest, had been watching with worry as small bands of men in blue and gray uniforms took off their grains, cattle and vegetables. These were the mounted foragers, arriving in front of the big, hungry armies, gathering what they could for food.
The land bordered on its west and south by Chickamauga Creek on the Georgia-Tennessee boundary was made for farming. Its mountainsides, glens, valleys and coves were a natural breadbasket. The families who lived within its nine square miles were quiet farmers. Everyone knew each other, or at least was aware of their neighbors; they married each other at times, like Larkin Poe who took Sarah Brotherton for his bride.
On
Sept. 18, 1863, life changed forever for about 25 farm families, caught within
the sites of the Army of the
The
two commanders had met a couple of months prior at the Battle of Stones River
at
In a classic series of blunders, Bragg was unable to smash Rosecrans’s separated forces, mostly because of the bungling by his subordinate commanders, with whom he argued and berated.
Once
Rosecrans realized he was in grave danger, he concentrated his army on the west
side of the winding and broad creek, and Bragg was on the east bank. Like
boxers sparring with each other, both of these armies moved up a four-mile line
of battle, situated along the
On Sept. 19, the fighting began with ferocity, both forces becoming entangled in the farmland’s many wooded areas. Open fields became deadly scenes of overt carnage. Fighting in the thickets and underbrush, men often fired blindly, or took on their opponent in hand-to-hand combat.
Bullets began to fall upon the homes of the families like deadly rain drops. Although the combatants had been moving into place a few days prior, they seemed to arrive with alacrity.
War had come to the peaceful valley.
The Brotherton family, Brock family and Dyer family each had two sons in the Confederate army, fighting near their homes. The Snodgrass family had one son in the battle.
Each of these families suffered tremendous losses, most losing their homes. In some cases, their soldier sons saw their home place in smoke and ashes from artillery shells.
It
offers a broad passageway between these high ridges,
Set
like a thin slice of pie, with its broad bottom on the north and the point to
the south, McLemore Cove in the valley is a neat V between
At
the time,
To its south stretched valley farmlands of from 100 to 150 acres, a patchwork of fences, and fields of rye, wheat and corn. Families who had come to the area long in the past had hewed red cedars, shagbark hickory, poplar and willow oaks for their notched-log cabins.
Sag
ponds, or sinkholes, are prevalent in the valley. The most famous is Bloody
Pond, which was on the
After a series of movements and huge failures by Bragg’s subordinates, fighting broke out on Sept. 19, 1863, at 7:30 a.m., just after dawn on the Elijah Kelly farm, being rented by his brother, Elisha Kelly.
Fighting quickly spread, moving southwest from the Kelly Farm into the Winfrey Field, a farm owned by George Winfrey, where he lived with his wife and five children.
Appalling
fighting took place the night of the 19th around the Winfrey House,
and then later on southward to the Viniard House, just west of the
An early book on the battle and the National Park by H.V. Boynton, published in 1895 by the Robert Clarke Co., describes the land around the McDonald’s farm as partially fields and woods.
The
east side of the
Just east of the Viniard’s was dense woods. Just past the Brock field was slashed timber.
Soldiers of both sides had to contend with those thick forests and dense underbrush. Getting into one of the fields was an invitation to die.
Without going into a detailed description of the battle itself, here is a brief outline of what some of the families witnessed over the two days of fighting on or around their farms.
George
Brotherton, a Virginian, had come to the valley in 1860. He brought his wife,
Mary, and seven children. The Brotherton cabin and lands are just south of the
Poe Field. George Brotherton was too old for military service at the time of
the war, but his two sons, James and Thomas fought during the two days at
In something of a miracle, the Brotherton’s four cows managed to elude foragers and shells. During the two days of fighting, Adaline Brotherton, one of the seven children, returned to her home to milk the cows, and then give the milk to wounded Confederates scattered about the family’s front yard.
During
the first days’ fighting, some of the fiercest battle took place on John
Brock’s farm, which is about a mile east of the Brotherton Farm on the Jay’s
William
suffered a bullet wound to the scalp. The bullet split open his scalp from
front to rear, somehow not killing the soldier. After the war, the family moved
away to
Robert
Dyer’s farm, west of Brotherton’s and Poe’s, sent his two sons, Spill (ok) and
John. Robert was forced by Gen. Rosecrans to guide him safely out of the valley
when Rosecrans was departing for
The Widow Glenn, as Eliza Glenn was known then, is an especially intriguing story. Her farm house was used by Rosecrans on the second day of fighting as his headquarters.
Her
husband, John Glenn, was wounded and died in a Confederate hospital in
When he arrived at Eliza’s home, Rosecrans told her she had to leave, that shelling would soon follow him there. She was taken to a ravine by a family slave, John Camp.
The ravine was packed with about 60 people from other families in the valley, who had been forced out of their homes by the fighting.
Eliza’s home was hit by a shell and reduced to ashes.
Larkin
Poe, who had married Sarah Brotherton, was with Company K, 4th
Georgia Cavalry. Some three days after the Chickamauga Battle, Poe was able to
return to his home, which was just east of the
He found his wife and two children in the ravine, cold and hungry, with the other families, too afraid to return to their homes. He gave a startling account of his search in the book, “A History of Walker County, Georgia.”
“. . . “I had hardly started till I began to see dead soldiers, yet unburied, lying in and near the road. I rode on, turning my horse first to the right and then to the left to avoid the thick-strewn bodies. In places I saw where great trees had been splintered by shells and riddled by bullets. Most of the dead were on the knolls and higher ground; I saw few on the lower ground. Just before reaching the Brotherton house I came upon a scene of death and destruction noteworthy even on that terrible field. I saw a piece of artillery evidently a Federal piece, which had been knocked from the wheels by a direct hit from our guns, and apparently most all of the horses and men belonging to the gun had perished there, for their bodies lay in grotesque heaps around their piece. The bodies I saw were apparently all Federals.”
Poe found his father-in-law and together they went to see Larkin’s home. The house was an ashen heap. He learned that Union soldiers had taken refuge in his house. Confederate artillery blasted them out of the house.
Poe observed one Union soldier who had fallen near the house. The soldier’s legs, he said, had been burned off up to the trunk of the body.
Help on the displaced families of
