A letter of recommendation by his uncle William Starr Basinger.
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Battery Marion, Dec 3, 1863
Brig Genl Thomas Jordan
Chief of Staff & A.A.G.
General:
My appointment as Adjutant of the 18th Geo Batt found me yesterday in the ranks with nothing but the most necessary provision for the Soldier. I respectfully ask for eight days leave of absence to provide myself with necessary arms and clothing.
“I Certify, on honor, that the above account is correct and just: that I have been regularly stationed on duty at Whitesville, by Genl Lawton during the period charged for; that I have not been furnished with quarters, tent, or fuel, by the public, nor received a commutation of money in lieu thereof.”
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“May 28, 1862, one sett amputating instruments – $35.00”
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This is the first indication that he is stationed at Guyton General Hospital in Whitesville, Georgia, now known as Guyton, Georgia.
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Image 27 is missing
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Privates Stewart, Blankenhorn, Agee, & Lynch are on the medical staff. Stewart is the only Wardmaster, Blankenhorn is the only baker in the hospital. Agee & Lynch are very valuable as nurses.
L. B. Gamble was a self-professed newspaper man. He had been many things: a farmer, a soldier, an officer, a newspaper man, and a writer. He left East Tennessee after the war, leaving a wife named Amanda and a child behind. She advertised in the paper that he needed to appear in court so that they could be officially divorced. I can’t find any notice that he actually appeared. He married a woman named Annie Shafe, and they ended up in Brownsville, Oregon.
I found his officer’s file in fold3. You will read with interest page 22 in which Gamble interfered with the removal of another man by the local guards from a house of ill fame.
I was worried that I wouldn’t get to the polls in time. My county was having early voting because of the Covid pandemic, but I was still needing to be at work. Then, it was the last Saturday before the election and the polls were going to be open from 9 to noon. I wondered how early I should get there. Leslie had gone several times throughout the weeks prior to the election and there was always a line around the building. He decided to go the day of the election, and his rationale was that everyone else would have voted by then. That seemed like a reasonable course of action.
I decided to get there before 9am when the polls opened. I was shocked when I got to the polls. Cars were in a line, pulling in slot after slot and then people poured out of the cars to get in line.
The line was around the building before the doors opened. Everyone was wearing masks except for a small cluster of white people who talked the entire time. They had come in some sort of family group.
The line moved steadily. The rest of us were silent.
I turned the first corner. This took 45 minutes.
This was the short side of the building complex. It took less than 10 minutes to turn the final corner.
This side of the building offered no protection from the wind and cold.
Almost 2 hours later, I’ll be next to enter the building.
As one person exited, a poll worker would come outside and call out “Next!”
At the check in window I as asked to present the back of my ID. It was scanned with an electronic device and I was asked to sign my name to an electronic signature pad and to take a cotton-tipped wooden swab from a jar on the counter.
I was escorted to the next available voting machine and was instructed as to how to proceed. The swab was for pushing the electronic buttons on the touch screen.
My mother had told me about a elderly woman in my hometown who always voted straight ticket republican. My mother said that she herself would never do that and always voted for the man. As with many things my mother said, there could be an underlying message. Those moments had caused me to pause and think, and come to my own conclusions.
I looked at each person’s name and party and considered my decision. I reviewed my choices, all the while believing that I was making the right choices for humanity at large.
I finished and left the building and was on the way to the car in less than 10 minutes.
After that was the longest waiting period I could remember except when I was pregnant. I am pleased that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be in office. I am sad that Ruth Bader Ginsburg wasn’t alive to see it.
I’ve had issues with doctor visits, lab work, pharmacies, and insurance. Who would have thought that 3 months of Plaquenil would cost either $568 or $90 or $55.44, depending on insurance and/or conversation with the pharmacy tech. If I can tolerate the Plaquenil well, I’ll take it the rest of my life. I’m tired and everything hurts, and suddenly I understand the psychological yearning to be on prescription medication.
Now there’s a new vaccine for Covid and I hear through the grapevine that my employer will make taking the vaccine mandatory. The office coworker that I call Citizen1 has huge concerns about taking it because she doesn’t know what is in it. This is a woman who has medical facial treatments and injections and needling. She says she’s not taking the vaccine and they will have to fire her. But seriously, she’s 66 so why is she working. They live in a huge house with an elevator situated on the water and have a boat. Does she know what is in an ambiodisc?
My older sister had polio as a very small child, and my parents did not hesitate to have the rest of us vaccinated against polio when the vaccine came out. Both my mother and father and the remaining 3 of us siblings went to the health department in Loudon on a Saturday morning and waited in line in our car before the building even opened. I was missing cartoons. We never went anywhere together except church sometimes. I said why are we so early. My mother, the great procrastinator, said that it was better to get somewhere 3 hours early than 3 minutes late. I said that was ridiculous.
Sometimes you have to trust that things work for the greater good.
But it doesn’t hurt to have a guide along the way.
There’s a local history center in Ridgeland called the Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage. They like everyone else were quarantining because of Covid-19. Recently they had an in-person event featuring 2 indigo dyeing specialists, the owners of Daufuskie Blues.
We turn this silk/cotton scarf…
Into this finished product.
We met inside, socially distanced and wearing masks, and learned a bit about the history and process from the owners of Daufuskie Blues.
You can read more about Eliza Lucas Pinckney HERE.
The dyeing was done outside in the open air by a gigantic live oak.
Once the scarves were rinsed, we clipped them to a line, and they dried in no time at all.
Weeks later, I’m musing on an old question.
How did Captain William Lawton of Edisto Island accumulate his wealth? He died in 1757, and according to Tommy Lawton’s book, Upoer St. Peter’s Parish, Capt. William would have been in the top 2% according to wealth.
I’m wondering if it was in the indigo trade. He was from England, and the New World was developing an indigo trade with England in competition with France. He would have contacts there perhaps, back home in England. Eliza Lucas Pinckney said that the land and labor were mortgaged on her Wappoo plantation near Charleston. Perhaps Lawton was likewise mortgaged, and there are records in England.
In the meantime, you can look forward to another event at the Morris Center.
In looking at the old military files from fold3, I found that Edwin Pearson Starr was a surgeon. He applied for a position as an assistant surgeon, but didn’t get that position. He did become an adjutant for his cousin, William Starr Basinger.
There are several files for him on fold3. I’ve added links for the downloads. The first file is 63 pages. The second file is 18 pages; I’ve converted the file to jpeg images and placed the images below the link to download.
Asks position of Asst. Surgeon in one of the new Georgia regimentsApplies for position of Assistant Surgeon; recommended by Henry R. Jackson
Fort Scriven, Green Isle
Feb 19th 1862
Hon. J. P. Benjamin Esqr
Confederate Secretary
Dear Sir,
I make application to you for the appoint of Asst. Surgeon in one of the Regiments that compose the number that Georgia is called upon to furnish by the 25th of March. References “The Faculty Savh Med. College.” Major Genl. H. R. Jackson. The above have authorized me to use their names.
Respectfully
Your obt Svt
E. P. Starr, M. D.
Address —
Wags Station
Bryan Co.
Geo.
His oath of allegiance signed June 11th, 1865, at Fort McHenry, Maryland, as a prisoner of war. He has a light complexion, brown hair, and blue eyes, and is 5 feet 10 1/2 inches high.
Edwin Pearson Starr died of consumption at the home of his aunt, Jane Susan Starr Basinger, in Savannah in 1873. He was 32 years old, and was buried first at Laurel Grove. When the lot at Laurel Grove became too small for the various family members, they were moved to Bonaventure.
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