When I teach the American
Civil War to my U.S. History classes at Americus-Sumter County High School in
Americus, Georgia, I am fortunate to be able to incorporate a number of original
documents, photographs, and artifacts from my family's collection. I have found
that students tend to be more engaged in the subject when they are able to see
and touch actual pieces of history from their own community. Students begin to
see that history is more than a textbook narrative. They see that history is
the story of real people with whom they share a connection through time and
space.
On April 27, 1861, one hundred and fifty-five years ago, my
own great-great grandfather, Moses Speer,
enlisted in Company 'K' of the 4th Georgia
Infantry, "Sumter Light Guards." Speer saw
action with
the Army of Northern Virginia during the Peninsula Campaign
and was severely wounded by a shot to the face at the Battle
of Malvern Hill, Virginia on July 1, 1862. The care given to
him by a farmer's family near the battlefield undoubtedly
saved his life, and he later recalled passing the time
happily playing dominoes with the farmer's children while he
recovered. Speer's domino set survives in the family
collection.
Eventually
Thomas Dixon Speer,
Moses' uncle and a prominent planter in Sumter County, travelled to Virginia to bring his wounded nephew home.
Known as "Liberty Hall," the Speer home
still stands south of Americus on the Lee Street Road.
The army discharged Moses Speer for
his disability on July 13, 1862, and he remained in Americus
to recuperate. While convalescing in Americus, he married my
great-great grandmother, Laura Hicks Cowles, to whom most of
the letters in the collection are addressed. Commissioned a
2nd lieutenant
in the Americus Infantry on August 8, 1863 and later elected
major in the Georgia Militia in 1864, Major Moses Speer left
home and returned to service in the spring of 1864 to assist
in the defense of Atlanta.
In a letter dated June 21, 1864, Major Speer writes
to his brother, Amos Coffman Speer,
who also served in the "Sumter Light Guards" and was
fighting in Virginia at the time of General Sherman's
Atlanta Campaign. Major Speer discusses
the birth of his daughter, my great grandmother, May Speer,
born May 19, 1864, and he describes the hopeless situation
Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston faced as Union Gen.
William Tecumseh Sherman continued his drive toward Atlanta.
In another letter, dated July 29, 1864, Major Speer writes
to his wife in Sumter County about the defense of Atlanta
from his position at Fort Hood, a part of the entrenchments
surrounding the city and located out the Marietta Road about
1-1/2 miles northwest of downtown. In the midst of these
defensive fortifications stood the Ponder House, which Major Speer describes
in some detail. Interestingly, George N. Barnard, a
photographer travelling with Sherman, documented Fort Hood
and the Ponder House following the surrender of Atlanta on
September 2, 1864. Barnard's famous photographs confirm
the devastation described by Speer in
his letter. Today, the western edge of Georgia Tech's campus
stands on the location of Fort Hood and the Ponder House.
Following the Civil War, Major Speer built
the first brick house in Americus, Georgia in 1868 on the
northwest corner of Jackson Street and Church Street. It was
demolished in 1939. Major and Mrs. Speer entertained
many of the famous visitors to Americus during the late 19th century,
including Henry W. Grady, "voice" of the New South, and
Alexander H. Stephens--member of the United States Congress,
Vice President of the Confederate States of America, and
Governor of Georgia.