Sunday 25. Pretty day. Rhoda, Lizzie and I went to the Baptist Sunday School. Did not go to church. I went to Uncle
Caswell's this eve, stayed all night. Came to church tonight at Presbyterian Church. Lt. Wiseman and James
Crookshanks came down on the train to see Rhoda and I this eve. Called on us tonight. [Myran Inman, Cleveland,
Tenn.] These two officers, both of Co. G of the 43rd, then stationed in the Charleston area where they were guarding the
East Tennessee & Georgia RR bridge, would call again the next morning. [1st Lt. William H. Wiseman, age 33 and 3rd Lt.
James W. Crookshanks, age 19]
Crookshanks would die of wounds received in action the morning of June 22, 1863.
“Lieutenant Cruikshank’s burial was devoid of any pomp or ceremony. Rather, Father [Capt. Wiseman] selected a spot
between two trees that would serve as identification markers--an Oak at the head, a Southern Gumwood at the foot--and
there the comrades dug a soldier’s grave. Without a coffin, without even a blanket, they laid the body to rest. Then as a
futher marker for future identificiation, Father placed oyster shells from a near-by heap, one by one at short intervals
in the head of the grave as it was being filled. Since the fortunes of battle soon turned into defeat, I do not know the
sequal--whether one of the family afterward found the guiding line of shells that would lead to the body, or whether
that line is still unbroken.” (Capt. Wiseman by Louise Wiseman Parks, Genealogical Society of Davidson County, PO Box
1665, Lexington, N. C. 27292) His body was subsequently reinterred in the Confederate Rest section of the Vicksburg
City Cemetery.
Capt. John Tonkin, Co. A, 43rd Tenn. signed a certificate that he crossed at D. [undeciferable] Ferry with 63 men and
one - two horse wagon men 5 cents each, wagon 50 cents 3.15 + .50 = $3.15
Letter From Pvt. John SPURLIN, age 34, To George WRIGHT - 25 May 1862
Camp Martin Zolicoffer
Sullivan County Tennessee
Company H., 43d Redgment Tenn. Vol.
May the 25th day 1862
Dear friend
I this day take my pen in hand to write a few lines to you to let you know that I am well and doing very well and I hope
that these lines may find you all well and doing well Mr. WRIGHT I have nothing very strange to write at this time I
expect you have heard that I was in the southern army I have bin in the service now a goingon seven months in the 43d
Redgment and I have not heard from my Mother in law Nancy M. HICKS since I joined the army that is I have got no
letter from her and I dont know where to write to her that is I dont know what post office to Send a letter to for her to git
it the last I knew of her she was living on your land down in the Elisha ROSE house down by the long Island and as I dont
know now where she lives I will take it as a kinde favor if you will please write to me and let me know where to Direct a
letter to her or otherwise see her and tell her what I want her to write to me and to back the letter
Thus
John SPURLIN
Martin Zolicoffer, Sullivan Co., Tenn. Cear of Captin Lapoerty [Lafferty] and to write soon for we dont know how long
we will stay here if you will grant this request you will oblige your friend so I must now come to a close.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch
A substitute for Spanish flies.
--The present scarcity of Spanish flies for medical use in blister plasters, makes a proper substitute a desideratum. A
writer in the Savannah Republican says we have in this country many representatives of the same genus, and
enumerates the blistering bustle, or potato fly, so prevalent in our gardens, and so injurious to vegetation, as efficacious.
He states: The insect is of a dull, tawny and light yellowish color, with two black spots on the head, two black stripes on
the thorax, and three broad ones on each wing cover. The under side of the body the legs, (excepting the first joint,
which is yellowish,) the entennas or feelers, are black. Its length is from 5 to 8 lines. Its breadth of body 2 lines. The
body is quite soft. These bustles are very shy, timid insects, and whenever disturbed fall immediately from the leaves,
and attempt to conceal themselves among the grass, or draw up their long, slender legs and feign themselves dead. In the
night and in rainy weather they descend from the plants and burrow in the ground, or under leaves and tufts of grass.--It
is, therefore, during clear weather, in the morning and evening, that they feed and are to be collected. They should be
killed by throwing them into scalding water for one or two minutes, after which they should be spread upon cloth or
paper to dry, and may be made profitable by selling them to the apothecaries for medical use.
Send vegetables.
--We would earnestly impress upon our friends in the country, that the convalescence of our soldiers now languishing in
the various hospitals in this city would be speedily promoted by a supply of fresh vegetables. Let all who have our
country's cause at heart, and who sympathize with the brave men who are now prostrated by disease, contribute all the
vegetables they can afford, and our hospitals will soon be emptied.
Transportation of the dead
--As the peculiar circumstances of the times renders this sad duty to our friends often necessary, and generally very
expensive, or even impracticable, to procure iron coffins for the purpose, we would call attention to the following simple
means by which it can be effected, at any season, at a very moderate cost. Take any wooden coffin, and after the body is
deposited in it, wrap it in a cotton cloth which has been perfectly saturated in tar that has been heated to a boiling point.
This renders it even more impervious to the escape of official than the best iron coffin. This can be placed in a box of
much less size than those usually used where charcoal is introduced to all the space between the coffin and the box to
absorb the effluvia. If it is wished to show the face of the deceased, glass can be inserted in the lid, and covered with
paper so that the cloth can be cut and the features exposed, the paper preventing the tar from interfering with the glass.
The writer his seen bodies transported long distances in this manner, in warm weather, without the least inconvenience--
Macon Messenger
May 25, 1862 [Sunday]
A Day in the Life of the Confederacy