Tales from the road: The kid who died in Mrs. Cross' yard

Sharpshooter Lewis Branscomb, an Alabaman, suffered a mortal wound in the yard of this house.

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Each morning during my stay in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., I walked a short distance over the hill from the inn on Washington Street once owned by Robert E. Lee’s father, “Light Horse” Harry Lee, and on into the heart of town.

I walked past this house every day during
a three-day stay in Harpers Ferry.

Along the way, I passed two Civil War hospital sites, the fire department, a gorgeous bed of flowers, the Woman’s Club (est. 1915) and a coffee shop that serves massive chocolate chip cookies worth every calorie. At a red-brick house on Washington Street — the one where the 13-star United States flag slowly flaps in the breeze from the front porch — I lingered for a minute or two.

Here, on July 4, 1864 — our nation’s 88th birthday — a 21-year old private from Union Springs, Ala., named Lewis Branscomb fell victim to a Union sharpshooter’s bullet. A sharpshooter himself, the 3rd Alabama soldier ("Blackford’s Sharpshooters") had already lost two brothers during our awful war.

In the flyleaf of the Bible Lewis carried until his death, he had written a short note: “If found on my person please send to my mother Mrs. B.H. Branscomb at Union Springs, Alabama. Do so and oblige (friend) who ever you be.”

Nearly a year later, after the war’s end, the woman who lived in the red-brick house sent a letter to Lewis’ mother. Margaret Cross had discovered Lewis’ Bible in her yard.

Lewis Branscomb

“If you wish for the book you can [write me],” she wrote. “I will send it by mail immediately and if you wish to know any thing more I will then write you all that I know concerning your son. “

Several years ago, I connected with Frank Chappell, a Branscomb descendant, who guided me to the red-brick house over the phone from his house in Huntsville, Ala. What a surreal day that was.

Lewis' Bible remains lost to history and his final resting place is unknown despite efforts of his descendants to find it. But nearly 100 of the Branscomb brothers' wartime letters remarkably survived the war. They surfaced in 1991 in an old BVD underwear box marked "War Letters" in the family's possession.

On every visit to Harpers Ferry, I sneak a glance of the red-brick house on Washington and wonder about Lewis Branscomb, the kid from Alabama.

Where did he fall in Mrs. Cross’ yard?

Did he linger after the bullet tore into him?

What was that Union sharpshooter thinking when he squeezed the trigger of his weapon?

And, most importantly, was Lewis Branscomb’s sacrifice really worth it?

580 Washington Street in Harpers Ferry. Lewis Branscomb died in the yard of this house.

SOURCE

• Chappell, Frank Anderson, Dear Sister: Civil War Letters to a Sister in Alabama, Branch Springs Publishing, Hunstville, Ala., 2012.