| Confederates in Cecil County |
| By Bill Stubbs |
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Lucien Bean is buried a few feet from the foundation of the Episcopal Church in the tiny village of St. Augustine just south of Chesapeake City. A short inscription on the headstone reads, first at the top, "Cap't," then in an arc below it, "Lucien Bean," then, below the arc, "Co. A, 17 Miss. Vol., CSA" revealing that he is one of a small number of Confederate veterans buried in Cecil County.
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| Captain Bean is one of a small number of Confederate veterans buried in Cecil County. |
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Captain Bean's 17th Mississippi Volunteers were a part of the Army of Northern Virginia. Coming to Cecil County out of the misfortunes of war, he was already undoubtedly beginning to realize, as did so many in those death dealing days of 1864, that no matter how sure you are that you have total control of your life, fate will always prove you wrong. Little did he know that this would become even more true in the six months to come.
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"Captured in front of Richmond near Darbytown . . ." on Saturday, December 10th, 1864, as he wrote in his fascinating and sometimes hastily scribbled diary, he was soon after sent to prison in Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island. Now a museum, it can be visited by boat, sitting as it does in the middle of the Delaware River opposite New Castle and only a few miles, as the crow flies, from Cecil County.
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While there Lucien and many of his fellow prisoner, destitute, often sick, and with little hope, were the recipients at times of small amounts of food, clothing, and money delivered to them by local residents who were Southern sympathizers. Among them were a "Mifs Julia A. Jefferson," of New Castle County, Delaware, and a "Mifs Annie
M. Foard" of Cecil County, Maryland.
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| A Visit to St. Augustine |
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Upon his release from prison, "on Monday, June 19th," after the war was over, he visited the Foards where they lived in St. Augustine here in Cecil County. He then returned to Mississippi via the war torn railroads where he hoped to learn the fate of his family and bring full cycle his sojourn to war. So bad were those Southern railroads still usable in that summer of 1865 that he records after leaving Petersburg, Virginia, for Lynchburg on one leg of his trip, that the ". . . train fell through a bridge Killing fireman and engineer and wounding all on board except
a Federal Sgnt who saved himself by jumping . . ."
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At another spot on the way, an ". . . old Parish House . . ." in ". . . Norfolk, Virginia," he wrote and posted a letter to "Mifs A.M.F." back in Maryland.
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He eventually found his family after a long eventful train ride. He says finally, "Arrived at home 11 P.M. found all in bed - So ended my campaign after a combined attack by all hands on my arrival (home)____"
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| Capt. Bean Returned to Cecil County |
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He then returned to Cecil County, no doubt irresistibly drawn to "Mifs A.M. Foard" because he had written, before he left: "Arrived at St. Augustine 8 P.M. 20 June. 21st Spent a most pleasant day with Mifs Annie M. Foard. I suffered from some cold and cough" (The prison sat on little more than a marsh). "Met Dr. Bings in the afternoon. Spent Much pleasant time till the 24th of June when I took my Departure for Dixie; formed many pleasant acquaintances on Bohemia
Manor Cecil County, Md." And again he says "The most important events of my life occurred during the week I remained with my friends at St. Augustine, Md."
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There are no more events recorded after his train ride home except for an entry where Nov. 8, 1864 should be. It is dated instead "Bristol Sunday 25th, 1871." It is a letter to his mother saying he and his family, daughters "Maggie and Flora" and wife "Annie" are coming by train for a visit.
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There are many events recorded prior to this, however; battles, incidents, weather, and his capture. They make the diary especially interesting because, as a personal account, it is an original source opening a window for the reader, giving a first hand view which almost places you there. Suddenly, history is someone's feelings and actions and it comes alive. You sense how Lucien was caught up by life in its ebb and flow and he becomes a fallible, believable human being.
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For example, several times through the diary he records this name: "Sargent Chas. Howard Co. C. 76 New York Regt. McClean Thompkins Co. N.Y." Then, under the date May 6th, 1864, Friday, he writes the name again and says the Sargent ". . . was wounded and left on the field of mine run. Had him laid on a pallet and afterward came (sic) for by our ambulance corps." At another spot he says, "I had him moved to the side of the road to a shade. Gave him water too wine. Ordered to advance. Never heard from him afterwards (sic)." And, in the calendar for 1864 which was in the front of the pocket diary there is a check mark beside May 6, the day Lucien found him.
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It is clear that the memory of this incident recurred again and again to Captain Bean so that he was moved to write it down several times over as though trying to balance it against all the accounts of skirmishes, Pickett fights, and battles.
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| Twenty-Eight Times He Took Part in Battles |
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Twenty-eight times he took part in battles either directly or holding his cavalry brigade in reserve. These battles included Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Sharpsburg (Antietam), Cold Harbor, Wilderness, what he called "2nd Chancellorsville," Spotsylvania Court House, and Chickamauga. All were awful slaughters and could not have failed to have marked him deeply. Perhaps this one act of kindness helped him a little with unbelievable memories of death and mayhem.
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| At another point there is this entry: |
| "Abraham Lincoln Presd't U.S. |
| Assassinated in Washington |
| died at daylight - 14th Apr D.C. |
| Sectry Seward was assaulted |
| and seriously injured - at same time." |
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One can only guess at his thoughts as he wrote.
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The expression "died at daylight" is striking. In our day we would say the precise time, 7:22 A.M. which time was actually recorded by those at Lincoln's side when he died. But the expression "at daylight," an expression describing the passing of time used in an era less concerned with the precise detailing of happenings, illustrates that the Civil War period marked the beginning of dramatic changes from an older, slower, more absorbable world to a newer, faster, bigger than life world of which we still have not begun to realize the consequences.
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Another entry, put down on June 17th, 1865, (a little over two months after Appomattox) reads "Took the oath of allegiance to the U. States with 740 officers at Ft. Del." "A very memorable day"
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Back a few weeks on April 26th he had written "Oath of allegiance offered to officers Ft. Del. was refused by all but a few Scala wags." This was just two weeks after Lee had surrendered and about eight weeks before his change of heart.
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The diary has other interesting excerpts which makes it especially worth reading. I tried to keep in mind, as I read, that history is not history unless it is the full picture, the good with the bad, what we want it to be as well as a recognition that there are things in it which we might not want to be there, but which, altogether, go to make up a reality not always uplifting or positive. Instead, there are uncertainties and ambiguities in which we recognize much of ourselves. And only in that way can the study of history (more an art than a science) have its reason for being. Knowing this can help us live our lives so that, as we experience the ups and downs of our own day-to-day history making, we still keep some kind of balance. Perhaps then it is possible to see that life is fleeting poetry, both joyful and tragic, the touchstone of our soul, blooming rampantly out of the richly cultivated soil of raw history.
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