- Stood 5 feet 10 inches and had dark hair and blue eyes;
- Mustered into the 1st Regiment, Co. F, of the
N.C. Junior Reserves on May 30, 1864;
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| One side of the original letter that my ancestor, Robert McFarland Welborn, wrote to his father Joseph in late summer 1864 from Halifax County, N.C. A family member punched the holes in the letter, written in pencil on a folded sheet of paper. For entire letter, go to LETTERS page. |
- Left his father’s Randolph County farm in May 1864 for duty at Camp Holmes
near Raleigh;
- Served in east-central N.C.’s Camp Weldon, home of Wayside
Hospital #9 and a prison.
And from a letter home, I know Robert:
And from a letter home, I know Robert:
- Suffered an illness in the summer of 1864 that sidelined him from service;
- Had attitude.
Of course Robert had attitude. He was the youngest of widower Joseph Welborn’s 10
children and was only five months old when his mother Parthena died. I think it's possible, under the controversial "birth order" theory that youngest siblings learn exceptional competition skills to get attention and resources, Robert probably was a scrapper.
Here's what teenager Robert wrote to his father from Camp Weldon:
Here's what teenager Robert wrote to his father from Camp Weldon:
Aug the 5th
1864
My Dear Father
.
. . if the war lasts and they don’t get us
kilt you may have my hat if we ever go into battle with
them it will not last long i heard several of the boys say they would kill (them) as quick as they wuld a
sheep-killing dog and I would not stand back much . . .
Robert’s bring-it-on attitude likely made up for many losses.
In 1863, his older brother, Lyndon — the protagonist of my
book-in-progress, Dear Father I Am Sorry To Tell You — died in battle while defending Richmond, the
Confederate capital. Then the Confederacy drafted two other reluctant brothers,
even as father Joseph objected to secession and the war.
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| North Carolina map shows location of the town of Weldon in Halifax County, home to a Confederate fort, a prison and a hospital during the Civil War. |
Robert probably realized that by late 1864, the Confederacy was running out of steam and
just about everything else it would take to win. Federal forces were scoring
key victories in the Western Theater, things were souring in the Eastern
Theater, and Sherman was about to tighten a noose around the South after taking
Atlanta.
But just how much could Robert see of the war’s big picture from his outpost in a Halifax County, N.C., near the border with Virginia, where battles raged? Was his youthful bravado an
effort to survive by believing something was possible despite
evidence to the contrary? Seems to me that sentiment fortified Confederate fighters right up to the end.
In his book, Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr. Stephen Covey asserts that to be successful, a person
must begin something with the final outcome in mind. We must visualize what we can’t
yet see, then follow our mental vision with physical creation. With an optimistic
outlook, a person maximizes his ability to get through adversity.
So it was with Confederate warriors still hanging in the
fight to the end, I imagine. So it was with Robert, despite illness, debt, hunger and homesickness. More from his letter, written in pencil on a folded sheet of paper, full misspellings and lacking punctuation:
 |
| View today of the Civil War cemetery near the site of Camp Weldon in northeastern North Carolina. Photo, N.C. Division United Daughters of the Confederacy, Chapter 22. |
the
doctor says he will send me to camp holms (Camp Holmes in Raleigh, N.C.) befor long to
be examined again
he says i am not any count in service and i think he is about haf right
we get one pint of corn meal and it is not sifted and hardly ground the grains is
cracked
we often find whole grains we git some kind of a houn (hound*) meat a day i am
in debt $17 and know hopes of drawing any money to pay it
i
would like to be at home to eat beans and rosten ears (roasted ears of corn) i am going to
try to get off every day but i think it will be a hard chore
your son R M Welborn
Despite personal hardship and the Confederacy's long-shot chance of victory, it seems Robert still imagined giving the Yanks a whoopen'. Maybe a spoonful of optimism helped him survive the war.
Robert applied for a soldier's pension in July 1918 and died seven years later on Aug. 16, 1925, at age 76. He was buried in the family cemetery in Randolph County, N.C., near his father Joseph and his fallen older brother, Lyndon.
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* NOTE: I take Robert's reference to "houn meat" to mean the meat of deer or other animals tracked down by bloodhounds as food for the soldiers. The Confederacy also used bloodhounds to help guard prisoners. If you can enlighten me about Robert's reference to "houn meat," please go to the COMMENTS page and post a message.
Robert applied for a soldier's pension in July 1918 and died seven years later on Aug. 16, 1925, at age 76. He was buried in the family cemetery in Randolph County, N.C., near his father Joseph and his fallen older brother, Lyndon.
###
* NOTE: I take Robert's reference to "houn meat" to mean the meat of deer or other animals tracked down by bloodhounds as food for the soldiers. The Confederacy also used bloodhounds to help guard prisoners. If you can enlighten me about Robert's reference to "houn meat," please go to the COMMENTS page and post a message.
SOURCES: North Carolina State Archives; Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr. and Louis H. Manarin,"North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865, A Roster," 1985; U.S. Census; Cadia Barbee Welborn Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC at Chapel Hill; Welborn family genealogical documents
