Richard Lauren McClung

Richard Lauren McClung

My great great grandfather Richard Lauren McClung passed this diary down to his grandson Sergeant James Monroe Pepper who was my great uncle and a hero of the Second World War, a combat medic in the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Italy and southern France, he wanted me to understand the cost of freedom.

“Map of army operations Atlanta campaign between Cassville and Mariette and vicinity.” 1 Map, 21 X 15 Cm. Buffalo, N.Y., Matthews, Northrup & Co., Art-Printing Works, [1864]. LC Civil War Maps (2nd ed.), 132.6 Library of Congress Geography and Map Division http://www.loc.gov/item/99447163 (accessed 9/3/2013).

Richard was raised in Georgia, his grandfather fought in the War of 1812. The family were farmers. Richard's father Jonas moved the family to Arkansas, on the Red River in the county of LaFayette. They were close to Monroe Louisiana.

Richard graduated from the Georgia Military Institute in Marietta Georgia which was burned by Sherman's Army and is now the National Cemetery were my great great great grandfather Samuel Spencer is buried, who was in the Illinois Infantry and died at Kennesaw Mountain Georgia.

“Battle of Kenesaw Mountian [i.e., Mountain]--June 27, 1864--Union (Gen. Sherman, com.) ... Conf. (Gen. Johnston, Com.)” Lithograph, color. Chicago: Kurz & Allison, Art Publishers, c.1891. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/91482215/#bib

This is a Lithograph made of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain giving a very idealized vision of the battle. The newspapers at the time were giving depictions of the battles that were extremely unrealistic. If a person was standing up in the line of fire, they would die, very quickly. In reality it was raining, had been raining for days, and the Union forces were going uphill against fortified positions.

Basically the southern forces were engaged in modern trench warfare they learned from the Crimean War of 1853-1856 while the Union forces were using cavalry against cannon and fixed positions. Sort of like what happened in World War I when people sent soldiers against machine guns or when the Polish Cavalry tried to defend against the German Blitzkrieg of World War II. It was a bloodbath.

Richard may have come into contact with Samuel when they were outside of Vicksburg and Richard was moving behind the lines. I have often wondered what would have happened if they had met, thank God they didn't or I would not be here. Richard was a veteran of the war, an officer trained in military tactics, Samuel was a private, drafted into the war. Richard was not afraid to jump into a swamp full of snakes. Samuel died in a rainstorm, pouring rain, they say that many of the men drowned in the mud as they raced forward up a mountain, against a fortified position and this charge was recognized by General Sherman as a waste of good men!

“Judge Field Stephen Johnson appointed to the Supreme Court by Lincoln in 1863 photo c. 1875” 1 negative: glass, wet collodion. Between 1865 and 1880. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division: Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/brh2003002302/PP/ (accessed 9/3/2013).

Another of my relatives was Stephen Johnson Field, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 when Lincoln packed the court to make sure the Emancipation Proclamation would not be challenged in the Supreme Court. So I have family on both sides of this war.

Uncle Jim used to tell me the stories of the family when they left for Texas they buried their loved ones underneath the Veranda. I always thought that this practice would make it difficult for builders to restore historic houses in the South.

My Grandfather, Dr. Pepper of Waco Texas, died before I was born, so Jim took on the role of grandfather. The two brothers in their retirement ran a ranch in Wood County Texas and they were horse traders.

I remember going there as a kid and fishing off of the dock with my brother and one time we at the end of the dock fishing and at the other end was a snake trapping us on the dock. Then I saw the snake leap upwards and heard the shot from his rifle, he was about two hundred feet away and he killed that snake with one shot!

Then at night we would sit around a fire and have a cook out and they would tell me stories of the family and how we all came to Texas. Most of the family came at the end of the Civil War, as refugees, some from Atlanta Georgia, they formed the city of Atlanta Texas. Others had been here for some time, I am a 7th generation Texan.

Richard went on to graduate from Tulane to become a Doctor and his daughter married the son of a US Marshall in Atlanta Texas. So you see the family adapted to the new conditions and built new lives in the new Republic.

Three years In the C.S. Army (P.A.C.S) A Diary of a Confederate Soldier by Jerry Pepper and Richard Lauren McClung
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