Burrell Nash |
|
|
Private Company C, 18th Louisiana Infantry Born December 24, 1839 in Alexandria, Lousianan Died December 13, 1947 Burrell married Susanna Hester in 1867 and they moved to Texas, living there about 5 years before coming to Indian Territory in 1873 or 1874 They were in Garvin County in 1907 and lived at Iona in 1915. His WPA interview shows him as living near Roff in 1937 Burrell made his living as a farmer In the July/August issue of "Confederate Veteran" magazine he is shown on page 31 in an article about the 1939 UCV reunion held in Trinidad, Colorado. He is referred to as a Cherokee Indian Excerpt from the WPA IPP interview My parents were James Nash and Mary Perkins Nash, both born in Georgia. There were seven children. Father was a farmer and mechanic. I was born in Louisiana, December 24, 1839. When I was twenty-one the Civil War began. I enlisted int he Confederate Army and continued to serve until the end of 1865. My company was stationed on the west side of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to the Arkansas line. It was very swampy and many died with malaria fever and smallpox. Our meals consisted of corn meal mush, hard tack bread, made of corn mean and water, and 'blue' beef. The cattle were very poor. They were driven to our camps from Texas and used as we needed them. The beef was so poor that it stuck like glue to anything it touched. This was put in kettles and boiled and issued to us in small amounts. There was only one helping of feed at each meal. We had no plates except what we made of pieces of tin, picked up as we traveled about. Most of us held our food in our hands. One morning a beef was shot and two standing near were so poor that they fell also. They killed them and skinned all three. Our coffee was made of wheat bran which was burned then put into water and boiled. OUr meals were very irregular and we became very hungry and weak from one meal to the next. The coffee was served in tin cups without cream or sugar. At last in 1865 the War came to an end and we were free to go to our homes. I walked, as did the others. It took me three days to reach my home in Louisiana. I had no food except corn bread which had been issued to us as we were discharged. This gave out and the last twenty-four hours of my journey I had nothing to eat. That was a grand reunion with the folks who had remained at home. I married Susanna Hester in 1867 and we moved to Texas, living there for about five years. We moved to the Indian Territory about 1873 or 1874. We located at Tahlequah in the Cherokee Nation after traveling for many days driving two yoke of oxen to a tar pole wagon. The axles of this wagon were of wood and it was greased with pine tar. Read the entire interview |
Complied & Contributed by: Return to the Wynnewood Confederate Veterans main page |
|
