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  • 1922 Interview with Civil War Vet John Norris Epps

    State of Tennessee Interview with John Norris Epps 1841 – 1929

    The following is an interview with John Norris Epps in 1922 at age 81 about his civil war memories. The interview was part of a Tennessee state project to record some of their old veteran’s before they were all gone. The words are in the style, spelling, and grammar in which he was recorded by the interviewer:

    1. STATE YOUR FULL NAME AND PRESENT POST OFFICE ADDRESS
    Ans: John Norris Epps, Fayetteville Tennessee, Rt 5
    2. STATE YOUR AGE NOW
    Ans 81
    3. IN WHAT STATE AND COUNTY WHERE YOU BORN?
    Ans: Tennessee, Lincoln County.
    4. IN WHAT STATE AND COUNTY WHERE YOU LIVING WHEN YOU
    ENLISTED IN THE SERVICE OF THE CONFEDERACY OR THE FED GOVT
    Ans: Tennessee, Lincoln County.
    5. WHAT WAS YOUR OCCUPATION IN THE WAR?
    Ans: Farming
    6. WHAT WAS THE OCCUPATION OF YOUR FATHER?
    Ans: Farming
    7. IF YOU OWNED LAND OR OTHER PROPERTY AT THE OPENING OF THE
    WAR, STATE WHAT KIND OF PROPERTY AND THE VALUE OF YOUR
    PROPERTY AS NEAR AS YOU CAN.
    Ans: Nothing
    8. DID YOU OR YOUR PARENTS OWN SLAVES? IF SO, HOW MANY?
    Ans: I owned a boy 13 he was about 18 when he enlisted. My mother owned 13, including 5
    children under age 12.
    9. IF YOUR PARENTS OWNED LAND, HOW MANY ACRES?
    Ans: None
    10. STATE AS NEAR AS YOU CAN THE VALUE OF ALL PROPERTY OWNED
    BY YOUR PARENTS, INCLUDING LAND, WHEN THE WAR OPENED.
    Ans: About ten thousand dollars slaves and other personal property
    11. WHAT KIND OF HOUSE DID YOUR PARENTS OCCUPY? STATE WHETHER
    IT WAS A LOG HOUSE OR BUILT OF OTHER MATERIALS, AND STATE
    THE NUMBER OF ROOMS.
    Ans: Seven room house ordinary comfortable for that day
    12. AS A BOY AND YOUNG MAN, STATE WHAT KIND OF WORK YOU DID. IF
    YOU WORKED ON A FARM, STATE TO WHAT EXTENT YOU PLOWED,
    WORKED WITH A HOE, AND DID OTHER KINDS OF SIMILAR WORK.
    Ans: All kinds of farm work.
    13. STATE CLEARLY WHAT KIND OF WORK YOUR FATHER DID AND WHAT
    THE DUTIES OF YOUR MOTHER WERE. STATE ALL THE KINDS OF WORK
    DONE IN THE HOUSE AS WELL AS YOU CAN REMEMBER- THAT IS,
    COOKING, SPINNING, WEAVING, ETC.
    Ans: My father did farm work. Mother did house work, cooking, spinning, weaving, making clothes for black and white.
    14. DID YOUR PARENTS KEEP ANY SERVANTS? IF SO, HOW MANY?
    Ans: Very few
    15. HOW WAS HONEST TOIL – AS PLOWING HAULING AND OTHER SORTS OF
    HONEST WORK OF THIS CLASS REGARDED IN YOUR COMMUNITY? WAS SUCH
    WORK CONSIDERED RESPECTABLE AND HONORABLE?
    Ans: Honorable
    16. DID THE WHITE MEN IN YOUR COMMUNITY GENERALLY ENGAGE IN SUCH
    WORK?
    Ans: Yes they did unless they owned a number of slaves
    17. TO WHAT EXTENT WERE THERE WHITE MEN IN YOUR COMMUNITY LEADING
    LIVES OF IDLENESS AND HAVING OTHERS DO THEIR WORK FOR THEM?
    Ans: Very few
    18. DID THE MEN WHO OWNED SLAVES MINGLE FREELY WITH THOSE WHO DID
    NOT OWN SLAVES OR DID SLAVE HOLDERS IN ANY WAY SHOW BY THEIR
    ACTIONS THAT THEY FELT THEMSELVES BETTER THAN RESPECTABLE
    HONORABLE MEN WHO DID NOT OWN SLAVES?
    Ans: Yes they did
    19. AT THE CHURCHES, AT THE SCHOOLS, AT PUBLIC GATHERINGS IN GENERAL,
    DID SLAVEHOLDERS AND NON SLAVEHOLDERS MINGLE ON FOOTING OF
    EQUALITY?
    Ans: no
    20. WAS THERE A FRIENDLY FEELING BETWEEN SLAVEHOLDERS AND NON
    SLAVEHOLDERS IN YOUR COMMUNITY, OR WERE THEY ANTAGONISTIC TO
    EACH OTHER?
    Ans: Not very much friendship
    21. IN A POLITICAL CONTEST IN WHICH ONE CANDIDATE OWNED SLAVES AND
    ANOTHER DID NOT, DID THE FACT THAT ONE CANDIDATE OWNED SLAVES
    HELP HIM TO WIN THE CONTEST?
    Ans: I think not as there was so much more of non-slave house holders
    22. WERE THE OPPORTUNITIES GOOD IN YOUR COMMUNITY FOR A POOR
    YOUNGMAN-HONEST AND AMBITIOUS- TO SAVE UP ENOUGH TO BUY A
    SMALL FARM OR TO GO INTO BUSINESS FOR HIMSELF?
    Ans: No
    23. WERE POOR HONEST INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG MEN WHO WERE AMBITIOUS TO
    MAKE SOMETHING OF THEMSELVES ENCOURAGED OR DISCOURAGED BY
    SLAVEHOLDERS?
    Ans: Discouraged
    24. WHAT KIND OF SCHOOLS DID YOU ATTEND?
    Ans: Subscription in late winter and early spring. Free school in late summer and early fall
    25. ABOUT HOW LONG DID YOU GO TO SCHOOL ALTOGETHER?
    Ans: 3 or 4 months in the year
    26. HOW FAR WAS THE NEAREST SCHOOL?
    Ans: 2 ½ to 3 miles
    27. WHAT SCHOOL OR SCHOOLS WERE IN OPERATION IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD?
    Ans: just neighborhood schools with an academy now and then 6 to 10 miles apart
    28. WAS THE SCHOOL IN YOUR COMMUNITY PRIVATE OR PUBLIC?
    Ans: some public some private
    29. ABOUT HOW MANY MONTHS DID IT RUN?
    Ans: 3 to 5 months
    30. DID THE BOYS AND GIRLS IN YOUR COMMUNITY ATTEND SCHOOL PRETTY
    REGULARY?
    Ans: Some did others did not
    31. WAS THE TEACHER OF THE SCHOOL YOU ATTENDED A MAN OR A WOMAN?
    Ans: sometimes one and then the other
    32. IN WHAT YEAR AND MONTH AND AT WHAT PLACE DID YOU ENLIST IN THE
    CONFEDERATE OR FED GOVT?
    Ans: May 1861 in Confederate service at Norris Creek
    33. STATE THE NAME OF YOUR REGIMENT AND STATE THE NAMES OF AS MANY
    MEMBERS OF YOUR COMPANY AS YOU REMEMBER?
    Ans: Company D 8th Tennessee: Captian G. W. Higgins, First Leut. E. S. N. Bobo, 2nd Leut.
    W.C. Growell, 3rd Dvid Sulivan, Privates Jack Corigan, Rice Corigan, Tom Crenshaw,
    ______Curtis, Harvey Dobs, Jim Bell, P. G. Epps, Milton Dollins, Jackson Dollins, Bob
    Small, Gorge Small, Wison Smith, Tom Smith, Ben Thomas, Tobe Ashby, Elisha Ashby, Jim
    Sulivan, John Cunningham, Billy and Ben Thompson, P. O. Groce, John D. Yant, and others.
    34. AFTER ENLISTMENT, WHERE WAS YOUR COMPANY FIRST SENT?
    Ans: To Alisona and sworn into service.
    35. HOW LONG AFTER YOUR ENLISTMENT BEFORE YOUR COMPANY ENGAGED IN
    BATTLE?
    Ans: About six months
    36. WHAT WAS THE FIRST BATTLE YOU ENGAGED IN?
    Ans: Near __?___eutersville West, Virginia
    37. STATE IN YOUR OWN WAY YOUR EXPERIENCE IN THE WAR FROM THIS TIME
    ON UNTIL THE CLOSE. STATE WHERE YOU WET AFTER THE FIRST BATTLE
    WHAT YOU DID AND WHAT OTHER BATTLES YOU ENGAGED IN, HOW LONG
    THEY LASTED, WHAT THE RESULTS WERE: STATE HOW YOU LIVED IN CAMP
    HOW YOU WERE CLOTHED, AND HOW YOU SLEPT, WHAT YOU HAD TO EAT
    AND HOW YOU WERE EXPOSED TO THE COLD HUNGERAND DISEASE. IF YOU
    WERE IN THE HOSPITAL OR IN PRISON, STATE YOUR EXPERIENCE.
    Ans: About this time we were cut off in the mountains of West Virginia, and wandered
    around hardly knowing where we went for seven days with food finally cut out and came to
    Valley Mountain we were ordered to Dublin Depot thence to South Carolina on the seacoast
    for the winter fought one small engagement at Buford’s Island … There went to Corinth
    thence to Chatanooga lieving there went to Kentucky fought a battle at Perryville. Afte
    leaving Perryville got slightly wounded came through Cumberland Gap to Knoxville thence
    back to Murfreesboro Tennessee and fought the battle of Murfreesboro was shot through the
    foot after recovery went back to the Army at Chatanooga fought a battle their on at
    Chicamauga went Rockyface Mountain also at Resaca Ga. thence to Atlanta Ga. where on
    the 28th day of July 1864 was shot through the right hip and was unable for service anymore
    I was finally sent to hospital Macon Ga. staying there until I was able to walk on crutches at
    this time they gave me a furlough to Iuka Mississippi and from there I hopped home on
    crutches one hundred mile to Fayetteville about the best I could do was 6 or 7 miles a day my
    right foot never touched the ground.

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    Published on January 22, 2010 · Filed under: Civil War Epps;
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