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.

A soldier's death in Mrs. Cross' yard in Harpers Ferry

A Union sharpshooter killed Lewis Branscomb of the Third Alabama in the front yard of
 this house on Washington Street in Harpers Ferry, W.Va.
 (Lewis' photo courtesy Frank Chappell)

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Shortly after war erupted, four sons of  Bennett and Eliza Branscomb enlisted in the Third Alabama Infantry, causing great angst in their household in Union Springs, 45 miles southeast of Montgomery.

A little more than a year into the fighting, tragedy hit home when word arrived of the death from measles of 31-year-old William Branscomb in a military hospital in Richmond. 

"Don't grieve Ma," Private James Branscomb wrote to his mother on June 25, 1862, 10 days after William's death. "He is better off though tis hard to lose him. You may have more to grieve for than him before this war ends."

Those words proved prophetic.

On May 19, 1864, James fell at the Battle of Harris Farm, near Spotsylvania Courthouse, Va. He was only 25.

Private James Branscomb of the 3rd Alabama
was killed at the Battle of Harris Farm
on May 19, 1864.
(Photo courtesy Frank Chappell)

During a break in brutal fighting near Richmond in early June 1864, probably at Cold Harbor, Va., Private Lewis Branscomb wrote a short note to his sister, Lucinda. Apparently unaware of his brother's death in battle, the Third Alabama sharpshooter poured out his feelings about a war that had claimed several of his friends and messmates.

"My mess is all gone but me," the 21-year-old soldier wrote on June 5, 1864. "... I know I have a few good christians far away praying for me. The fighting still continues. No more. Give my love to all and write soon. I have not received but one letter since the first of May. If you all knew how much comfort it would give me to get a letter from home you would write.

"Excuse this note," Lewis concluded, "as I have almost lost my mind."

Less than a month later, on July 4, 1864, a United States sharpshooter killed Lewis in the yard of a house on Washington Street in Harpers Ferry, Va., (now West Virginia). The owner of the house recovered Lewis' Bible, and nearly three months after the war had ended, she wrote a letter to his mother in Alabama:

Harpers Ferry, Va.,
July the 2nd, 1865

Mrs. Branscomb 
Dear Madam

On the 4 of July will be one year since the Confederate soldiers was here and there was a young man killed in my yard by a sharpshooter. At the place he died I picked up a Bible and written on the fly leaf was his name 'L.S. Branscomb, Co. D, 3d regiment of Alabama.' On the next leaf was written.'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.' I should have done so sooner but not knowen that the way was open between here and there and as I have just heard that I could send a letter through embrace the first opportunity. If you wish for the book you can [write me]. 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. If you wish to write address Mrs. 

Margarett Cross, 
Harpers Ferry, Virginia, 
In care of Cathrin Shillings

Lewis' Bible has been lost to history, but nearly 100 of the Branscomb brothers' wartime letters remarkably survived. They surfaced in 1991 in an old BVD underwear box marked "War Letters" in the family's possession. In 2012, Branscomb descendant Frank Chappell edited the letters for publication in an excellent book, Dear Sister. The Third Alabama was one of the hard-fighting regiments in the Southern army, seeing action at Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg and elsewhere.

During a visit to Harpers Ferry, Chappell guided me over the phone from Alabama to Mrs. Cross' house on Washington Street. The two-story red-brick house stands a short distance from the Appalachian Trail Conervancy headquarters.

Postscript: A fourth Branscomb brother, John, survived a wound at Antietam and the war. William Branscomb was buried in the Confederate section of Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond. Despite efforts by Chappell and other Branscomb descendants, the gravesites of Lewis and James are unknown,

SOURCE

• Chappell, Frank Anderson, Dear Sister: Civil War Letters to a Sister in Alabama, Branch Springs Publishing, Hunstville, Ala., 2012. (To obtain a copy of the book, Chappell may be contacted at fchap10220@comcast.net).

Margarett Cross' wartime house on Washington Street in Harpers Ferry, W.Va.

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