Honoring Pvt. George E. Daft (31st Virginia Infantry, C.S.A.)

[As a part of our Confederate Flag Day celebrations this past Saturday, members of the Michigan Camps of the SCV and those from the 'Confederates of Michigan' drove in procession to Oakwood Cemetery in Grass Lake Twp., MI to honor Pvt. George Edward Daft, who served as a Private in the 31st Virginia Infantry and was twice a prisoner of war. The following is the text that was read at Pvt. Daft's gravesite that day. - Jonathan McCleese, Sergeant-at-Arms, SCV Camp #1321]

[Image Credit: Cmdr. Jim Perkins, MG Patrick R. Cleburne SCV Camp #2257]

George Edward Daft was born March 14, 1839 in Virginia, probably in or around Rockbridge County. He was the second child known to be born to Jacob Daft & Margaret Showalter. In all, he would be one of about 15 children born to that union. George's Dad was a farmer and a general laborer, and not particularly wealthy, certainly not wealthy enough to own any slaves. Under his father's guidance, George undoubtedly learned to work the land and do things with his hands in order to scratch out a living.

As a young adult, George was 6'0" tall & light skinned, with steely blue eyes and brown hair. It was around this time in his life, at age 22, when he would be called on to serve his new nation in military service.

The backstory of how & why the first 7 southern states left the Union, and how they came together to form a new republic in February 1861, should already be known to most of us. Abe Lincoln was inaugurated as U.S. President in early March, and immediately instigated hostilities against the South. In early April Confederate forces in South Carolina defended that state's sovereign soil against the occupying Union Army at Fort Sumter, and then on April 15th, Abe Lincoln called for each state still in the Union to raise up regiments of troops to invade & bring under submission the 7 sovereign southern states where he no longer had control. It was after that audacious request that another six southern states would make their exit from the Union, starting with Virginia just 2 days later. These states would indeed raise up troop regiments, but it would be in defiance of Lincoln's tyrannical intentions and in the defense of the Southland from an invading foreign Army they would serve.

George Daft, like so many thousands, enlisted at Huttonsville, VA on May 24, 1861 for 1 year of military service to defend his new nation, his state, his family and his home. He enlisted as a Pvt. in Company F of the 31st Virginia Infantry, which would muster into service little more than a month later.

In the earliest days of the war, the 31st was attached to the Army of the Northwest, and mostly fought and skirmished around the mountains of western Virginia, not far from the place George Daft knew as home. These early battles were often real scrappy affairs, and both sides had young troops who were just learning how to conduct themselves in the bloody art of war. Placed in a brigade commanded by Brig.Gen Robert S. Garnett, the 31st saw it's first bit of action in the second week of July. After five days of skirmishing, Pvt. Daft's regiment was a part of the Battle of Lauren Hill & Rich Mountain on July 11th. It was probably there George first saw the horrors of military combat, with Confederate casualties numbering in the hundreds, and just a few dozen on the other side. Two days later, in the Battle of Corricks Ford, Garnett's brigade of 4500 was caught by 20,000 Union troops. Union casualties were again very low. Confederates suffered 20 men killed, including BG Garnett, and had 600 men listed as missing after retreating.

These losses at the start of the war must have been highly disheartening, and showed the need for some early reorganization. By the start of September, the 31st was placed in the 1st Brigade of the Army of the Northwest, commanded by Brig.Gen. Henry Jackson. On September 12th & 13th in the battle of Cheat Mountain, uncoordinated attack strategies between the three CSA brigades involved, combined with visibility limited to minimal distances due to rain, fog, mountainous terrain, and a dense forest, led to another Union victory, albeit a minor one in the grand scheme of the campaign in the war. Several weeks later was the Battle of Greenbrier River, where after two days of non-stop rain & chilly temps, camp guards left their posts unattended, and Union General Joe Reynolds brought his 5000 man army upon Confederate forces numbering less than half of that strength with almost no warning. Caught off guard in wet and muddy conditions, our boys in gray had trouble working their weapons and while they were trying to fix them they were forced to move out into the open due to the Union armies significant firepower. Nine miles away, Colonel John B.Baldwin, who was in charge of the 52nd Virginia Infantry, heard the gunshots and he immediately left camp with all of his men and went to help the Confederates. By the time they reached the battlefield they thought it was too late, but when the Union army saw more men coming they continued to fire and the battle continued for approximately five more hours. As bad as all of that sounds, Not much was actually accomplished by the Union forces, both sides losing less than 45 men each. After ineffectively expending hours of resources Union Gen. Reynolds ordered his troops to return to Cheat Mountain breaking off the battle.

All of this in the months between July & October in 1861 that I have detailed to you happened in a very small area of what is now West Virginia. These men in both Armies were constantly walking right around one another in the hills and woods. Just five days after that Battle at Greenbrier, on October 7th, Pvt. George Daft was captured by Union forces and sent to Camp Chase Military Prison in Columbus, Ohio, where he would remain for 10 months.

By the time Pvt. Daft got to Camp Chase, it had only been used as a military prison for a few months, but was already becoming over populated with less than 300 prisoners at the time, encompassing less than an acre of the lowest swampy ground on post. The U.S. Army expanded the prison, but did so on more of the lowest, sloppiest land in their possession there, causing the prison interiors to be damp and unhealthy. Despite the expansion of space, it wasn't enough to hold the influx over the the first 8 months of 1862, when the Prison would hold just shy of 2000 Confederates. The food at the prison was another problem. One of it's former inmates who escaped days before George probably arrived said that "the food furnished the prisoners was of the most inferior kind, and in insufficient quantities for the sustenance of the famishing men." By June of 1862, a smallpox epidemic swept the prison. Nearly every official report and personal account by prisoners speak of muddy, unsanitary conditions. There were drainage problems that contributed to poor health and sanitation. Shallow ditches designed to drain off water quickly filled in the rain and turned into stagnant, trash filled cesspools. Drains emptied into prison sinks. Water accumulated, along with the waste of 1,726 prisoners, creating a foul smelling septic for the entire camp. If it rained particularly heavy, water would overflow the sinks, and refuse from more than a thousand men would backwash into the drainage system and into the large ditch which ran past the prison wall, through the entire garrison. Poor sanitation combined with crowded prison conditions produced a horrid smell. One visitor to the prison said, "a terrible stench everywhere prevails, overpowering the nostrils and stomach of those impermeated with it." The stench was so offensive to the Union regiments in training at Camp Chase that regimental officers complained to the governor, who entertained the idea of moving the prison far away from the city and Camp Chase. There was no effective trash collection system. Spaces between barracks were heaped with bones, food scraps and discarded rags. Inside, damp trash and dirt accumulated, because there were no brooms to sweep it out. Cooking utensils and stoves were caked with grease. Barracks walls were unpainted and filthy with stove smoke. Wash basins were not provided for the prisoners to bathe in, "not even a basin or tub to wash their clothes." Soap was provided, but it was of the poorest quality. Many of the prisoners here in the summer of 1862 were wearing little more than rags, and the Union Army wouldn't even supply them with enough wood to cook rations. As a result, they ate poorly cooked food and experienced long waits before cooking. While inspectors did come and occasionally order improvements to be made, it is unsettling to think that men were forced to live like this for even one day (much worse for months on end) when considering the vast resources of the U.S. gov't in comparison to those of the fledgling Confederacy fighting to establish existence. Still, as horrible as this time must have been for Pvt. Daft, it was nothing compared to the treatment Confederates would receive in POW Camps later on in the war. By the end of summer in 1862, though, Pvt. Daft was chosen to be traded in a prisoner exchange.

On August 25, 1862, George was released on parole to Vicksburg [MS] and delivered there two weeks later aboard the 'John H. Done,' a steamer ship with over 1000 other POWs aboard for exchange. [The exchange accounting process of checking off names (man for man, or equivalents) that resulted in an exchange declaration for each individual soldier was done in Virginia and it took some time to gather up copies of the several delivery rosters and go through the accounting process.] The final exchange at Vicksburg was agreed to on November 10, 1862 by Lieutenant Colonel William H. Ludlow, the Federal Agent of Exchange, at Aiken's Landing in Virginia.

No records exist to tell when Pvt. Daft returned to his duty in the 31st VA after being exchanged. It seems logical that he probably missed some time in the field to recuperate from his treatment while in Prison in Columbus. Records do indicate, however, that he did return to duty. From November 1862 till June 1864, the 31st was attached to the famed 2nd Corps of Gen. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, serving under some of the Confederacy's best known generals (Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, A.P. Hill, J.E.B. Stuart, Richard Ewell, and Jubal Early) and participating in some of the most well-known & bloodiest battles of the war (Fredericksburg in Dec. 1862, Chancellorsville in May 1863, Gettysburg in July 1863, Battle of the Wilderness & the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May of 1864, and the Battle of Cold Harbor in early June of 1864.

Days after the Confederate massacre at Cold Harbor, most of the Army of Northern Virginia's 2nd Corps (including the division to which the 31st VA belonged) was placed into the Army of the Valley, which was initially commanded by Gen Jubal Early. Right away they launched the Lynchburg Campaign, and The Battle of Lynchburg was fought on June 17th-18th.

The next official record we have for Pvt. Daft is from late August, and states that he had been absent due to being wounded since June 19th. It seems entirely likely that Pvt. Daft was wounded in the Battle of Lynchburg, or possibly in the battle of Cold Harbor just two weeks earlier.

[After this, there are no further records of his service until May of 1865, a month after the war's unofficial end. Once again Pvt. Daft is listed as a prisoner of war, but the circumstances of his capture aren't known. All that can be said for certain is that on May 12, 1865, Pvt. Daft was paroled at Charleston, WV upon taking an oath of loyalty to the United States, just like those members of his regiment who'd managed to make it to Appomattox Court House where Gen. Lee surrendered the troops under his command had done a month earlier.

After his honorable service throughout 4 years of war, George Daft went back home to be with his family in Randolph Co. (now a part of West Virginia). At some point he met Ms. Pauline Lake, who he married in 1871. In their first couple years of marriage they would start a family, having a son and a daughter enter their lives. Between 1875 and 1880, George packed up his small family and moved north to Michigan, settling in Riga Township, down near the Michigan/Ohio border. After arriving to Michigan, George and Pauline had another daughter and another son. It was here that they would raise their children and live most of the next 35 years. George Edward Daft died on February 1st, 1912 in Blissfield, MI, about 40-45 miles southeast of where we stand. Some of George's children lived in this area, near Jackson, and so the family chose to have him buried here, probably so they could be near the final resting place of their father. His wife Pauline followed him in death 10 years later.

So here we stand today, at Pvt. Daft's final resting place, in solemn appreciation for the life he lived and the honorable service he rendered as a private soldier in the struggle to defend Southern independence. Thank you Pvt. Daft, and may God forever bless your memory and the memory of every southern soldier who served with honor as you did.