The Life and Times of
James William Reed
Son of Hugh and Jane
McSpeddon Reed of Ireland
Confederate Soldier
James William Reed was born on the 14th of June, 1827. He was the son of Hugh “Hugie” and Jane “Jenny” McSpeddon Reed of Blackville, South Carolina. Hugh, James father, was the first son of Samuel and Mary Clark Reed who were from Ireland. Hugh was born in Ireland and came to America with his parents and sister, Jane, prior to 1791. James was the eighth child and youngest of the lot. He had two brothers, Samuel (1810-1887) and George J. (1812-1857) along with sisters Elizabeth Jane (1808-1851), Mary (1819-1861), Ann Clark (1818-1890), Sara, who only lived one year (1818-1819) and Jane Levicy (1820-1837).
James married Anna Rebecca Tyler on July 25, 1844. He and Anna Rebecca were only 17 at the time but that was a very acceptable age for marriage and starting of a family in the day. James and Anna apparently took well to the family life theme as they had thirteen children born to them in their lives together. They were William Hugh (1845- ), Ann Jane lived only two years (1847-1849), George Sylvester (1848-1883), Michael Joshua ( 1851-1924), Henrietta (1853-1879), Adella Ellen (1855-1911), Ann Rebecca (1857-1915), James Alexander (1859-1909, Stanmore Judson (1862- 1933), Mary Salina (1864-1890), Charles Clinton (1867-1928) and Lula Thira (1870-1898).
On the August 23, 1850 US Census James was listed as a “Planter” with land valued at $1500 (about $37,500 dollars in 2013 standards). A planter designated someone that had a farming operation more involved that self- sustaining farming. He had slaves employed in his operations.
According to the 1860 US Census taken on the 11th of July, James worth had increased substantially. His land worth had increased to $5600 (about $140,000 in 2013 dollars) and his personal worth to $16,300 dollars (about $407,500 in 2013 dollars).
In the pre-war south after succession from the northern part of the country, it was incumbent upon the individuals to raise up a fighting force. These men came from experienced fighters left over from the Mexican-Amercian War and state militias that were in place for homeland defense. When someone chose to organize a group of fighters they would be elected to be in command by the assemble force they formed. Volunteer regiments were paid by the individual states, and officers at first were normally elected by popular vote, or were appointed by the state governors (particularly the colonels, who were often the men who had raised and organized the regiment). James assembled such a group but fell sick prior to the group’s full organization and was not “elected” as their Captain. On July 15th, 1862 James wrote a petition to the Honorable GW Randolph asserting the fact he had missed out on his commission and was requesting that he be given a command of his own. George W. Randolph was Secretary of War. Randolph was the grandson of Thomas Jefferson and was actually born at Monticello.
Randolph was the third of a total of five Confederate Secretaries of War – serving throughout most of the remainder of 1862. He strengthened western and southern defenses, along with improving the order of the department in terms of procurement, organization, and conscription policies. Conflict with Jefferson Davis and poor health due to tuberculosis led to his resignation in November.
GW Randolf agreed and assigned men to James forming Captain James Reed’s Company, 1st. Battalion Calvary, South Carolina Volunteers. James took charge December 28, 1862. He served throughout the entire war. A event of some interest happened to wife Anna and his children when General Tecumseh Sherman made his malicious march through the south at wars end whereby Sherman stated that he would “Make South Carolina Howl” because of her succession. He was on a brutal rampage either killing every living thing and/or burning any crops or infrastructure that might be of use to the civilian population as the war ended. As his troops neared the plantation of James Reed, his wife Anna was notified and the following account shows her alertness and cunning to handle what could have decimated her life and holdings.
Gen. William
T. Sherman Meets Anna Rebecca Reed
As told by
Roger Ganis
During January & February 1865, Anna Rebecca was at home on the Reed Plantation with her nine children while her husband, Capt. James William Reed, was off serving with the Confederate Army. The children were: William Hugh, age 19, George Sylvester, 16, Michael Joshua, 13, Henrietta, 11, Adella Ellen, 9, Ann Rebecca, 8, James Alexander, 5, Stanmore Judson, 2, and Mary Salina, 1.
Around the last week of January 1865, she learned that Sherman's troops had left Savannah, GA, and were marching through South Carolina. It was thought he was headed to Charleston, SC. The first week in February 1865 she learned that Sherman's Army had been involved in a battle on February 2 & 3, 1865, at "Rivers Bridge" on the Salkehatchie River, near Ulmer & Ehrhardt, SC. She also learned that most of his army was headed toward Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. The Reed Plantation lay directly in Sherman's path between Rivers Bridge and Columbia. (Near today’s town of Norway or Denmark, Orangeburg County, SC)
After hearing of the battle at Rivers Bridge, Anna Rebecca learned that Sherman's Army was near The Reed place. She had her children and what slaves were left take all of the valuables from the plantation house and hide them by burying them in the ground and hiding things around the plantation. She also had most of the food that had been canned or preserved removed and hidden along with the livestock in the swamp area away from the house so Sherman's Army could not find them.
She had the slaves and her children start preparing food and setting up tables out in front of the plantation house. When the army scouts from Sherman's Army arrived at the Reed place, she advised them the food was being prepared for Gen. Sherman and his officers. Some of the scouts returned to Gen. Sherman and told him about the dinner that was being held at the Reed Home for him.
Gen. Sherman returned to the Reed home along with the scouts and found a large dinner had been prepared. Anna Rebecca Reed, on meeting Gen. Sherman, invited him and his officers to eat. Gen. Sherman accepted her offer, left, and returned to his camp to wash up and put on a clean uniform. A short time later, Gen. Sherman returned along with some of his officers and ate the dinner with the Reed family. Anna Rebecca Reed offered Gen. Sherman the use of her cotton fields for his army to camp on. Gen. Sherman and some of his army set up camp in the cotton fields for the night. The next day before his army continued their march northward, Gen. Sherman gave orders to his army that no one was to take anything or burn anything belonging to the Reed Family. Before leaving, Gen. Sherman went to Anna Rebecca Reed and thanked her for her hospitality.
A few weeks later, Anna Rebecca learned that Columbia, SC, had surrendered to Sherman's Army on February 17, 1865, and the city had been burned.
While Sherman was at the Reed House, a soldier was discovered inside the house on the stairs going up to the bedrooms. One of the Reed daughters was upstairs at the head of stairs, and asked him what he was doing there. He replied that he just wanted to talk with her. Some of her brothers saw what was going on and grabbed him and during a scuffle someone hit the soldier on the head with a shovel. The blow killed the soldier, and they decided to hide his body in a closet under the stairs until the other soldiers left.
The next day, after Gen. Sherman left with his Army, they carried the soldier’s body out back behind the house and buried him in an unmarked grave. No one ever came back to check on a missing soldier. Soldiers were deserting from both the Union and Confederate Armies all the time during this part of the Civil War.
More on James;
James does not appear in a 1870 US Census but reappears in the 1880 US Census with an apparently large reversal of personal fortunes after wars end and the abolition of slavery.
James, at the age of 53, was listed as a wheelwright in the 1880 US census. A craft he may well have learned during his service in the Civil War.
A wheelwright is a person who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the archaic word "wright", which comes from theOld English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker. This occupational name eventually became the English surname, Wheelwright.
The wheelwright tradesmen made wheels for carts and wagons by first constructing the hub, (The nave is what you call the hub ) the spokes and the rim/fellows segments, and assembling them all into a unit working from the center of the wheel outwards. Most wheels were made from wood, but other materials have been used, such as bone and horn, for decorative or other purposes. Around the middle of the 19th century, iron strakes were replaced by a solid iron tyre custom made by a blacksmith, who first measured each wheel to ensure proper fit. Strakes were lengths of iron that were nailed to the outside of wheels to hold wooden wheels together. Strakes were replaced around the mid-19th century by more dependable iron tires that were fastened to the wooden wheel by both the tight fit of the tire/band as well as tire-bolts. Tire-bolts were less likely than tyre-nails to break off because they were flush with the wheel's outer surface. During the second half of the 19th century, the use of pre-manufactured iron hubs, and other factory-made wood, iron and rubber wheel parts became increasingly common.
Anna Rebecca went to her heavenly rewards on October 2, 1882 and is buried in Blackville within Barnwell County, South Carolina. James lived on another nine years until 1901. He died at the age of 74 and is buried at Willow Swamp Baptist Church in Norway in Orangeburg County, South Carolina.
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