A Message in a Bottle

In December, the media widely reported the fascinating story of a message in a bottle. For over one hundred years, the Museum of the Confederacy has owned a message in a small bottle that was donated in 1896 by Captain William A. Smith, the former assistant adjutant general to Major General John G. Walker’s Texas Division. In 2008, the bottle was carefully opened, and the message was extracted and found to be in a secret code known as a Vigenére cipher. Sent to Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, the commander of the force at Vicksburg, Mississippi, the deciphered message reads:

“July 4^th

Gen’l Pemberton, you can expect no help from this side of the river. Let Gen’l Johnston know, if possible, when you can attack the same point on the enemy’s line. Inform me also and I will endeavor to make a diversion. I have sent some caps. I subjoin despatch from Gen. Johnston.”

Probably originating with General Walker, the message is dated on the day that Vicksburg surrendered. Certainly one of the frustrations of the campaign from the Confederate perspective was the inability of trans-Mississippi Confederates (like Walker’s division) to offer any substantial aid to their comrades across the river in Vicksburg.

An excellent article about the message in the bottle was recently published in the Museum of the Confederacy’s Magazine (Winter 2011) and may be read by following the link.

Brigadier General Thomas Neville Waul

Born in South Carolina in 1813, Thomas Neville Waul died in Hunt County, Texas, in 1903. He started heading westward as a young man by first becoming a school teacher in Alabama; next, he was in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he was admitted to the bar in 1835. Waul’s next move was to Gonzales County, Texas, where he established a plantation and practiced law.

For a relatively brief time, Waul served in the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy, and then he recruited “Waul’s Legion, a true legion with infantry, artillery, and cavalry…in late spring 1862” (Ralph A. Wooster, Lone Star Regiments in Gray, Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 2002, p. 100). He served as commander of this unit until its surrender at Vicksburg in July 1863. Brigadier General Stephen D. Lee praised Waul in his after action account—“Col. T. N. Waul, commanding Texas Legion, by his dashing gallantry and coolness, inspired every one around him with confidence, and handled his Legion with skill” (Official Records, v. 24, pt. 2, p. 351). Authorities promoted Waul to brigadier general after his exchange, and eventually he became commander of a brigade in Major General John G. Walker’s Texas division. Waul served during the Red River campaign and fell wounded at the battle of Jenkins’ Ferry. Following the war, he became involved in Reconstruction politics in Texas and eventually took up farming near Greenville in Hunt County. According to Ezra J. Warner in Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Waul had “no blood relatives” when he died and “was the last of his line” (p. 329). You can see Waul’s final resting place not far from Khleber Miller VanZandt’s grave site in Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth. To see a photograph of Waul as well as his grave site, click on the link.

John G. Walker Obtains a Pardon

Andy Hall, a descendant of Major General John George Walker, has written an interesting post on his Maritime Texas blog about Walker’s request for a pardon following the war. Walker served during the Antietam campaign as a divisional commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and then he transferred to the trans-Mississippi and took command of the all Texas division that eventually bore his name. Andy discusses Walker's background and his pardon application, and includes his complete pardon file.