April 21
On this day in 1864, a 39-year old illiterate private, Robert Sparks (1825-1864), desperately dictated a plea to Governor Zebulon Vance, begging for his life and that of his two comrades, J.F. Owens and William W. Wyatt, all sentenced to death for desertion. A poor, married farmer with five kids in Trap Hill, Wilkes County, Sparks had been conscripted at Camp Holmes near Raleigh, into Company E, 4th North Carolina Infantry, on April 28, 1863. A few days after reaching his unit at Fredericksburg, he deserted, but later returned under an amnesty proclamation that December. On March 25, 1864, Sparks deserted again (with Owens and Wyatt) from winter quarters near Orange, Virginia. They made it 50 miles before being captured trying to cross the James River at Warren’s Ferry. Convicted by a court-martial, they learned of their death sentence just a few hours before they wrote their appeal to Vance, promising “all our honor and our lives and all that is dear to us that we will never–no never–adhere to any counsell that is contrary to Southern rights any more.” They begged for a reprieve “for the sake of our dear wifes and tender little children and for the sake of our own soles.” But their words fell on deaf ears; Vance did not intervene. An example had to be made and Sparks knew it. Their brigade commander, General Stephen D. Ramseur lamented, “Oh! Why will these poor miserable men commit this crime and folly?” Sparks confessed to regimental surgeon, J.F. Shaffner that they had been led to believe “that in leaving the Army and going home they would be sustained by the people.” One of the men (we do not know if it was Sparks) claimed his wife had taunted him for lacking the courage to flee! Sparks believed he could have safely hid in the hills of Wilkes County, but instead, one week after dictating this letter, he was marched before the entire division, tied to a stake, and executed by a firing squad–his body pierced by nine bullets. Owens and Wyatt met the same fate. His story reveals the brutality of Confederate discipline, where authorities used fear and draconian punishments to maintain control as the war dragged on.
Photo:
Chief Surgeon J.F. Shaffner, who wrote on April 30, 1864, “The one said his wife had influenced him to desert, promising him the protection of the neighborhood if he would come home, and taunting him with his want of nerve, as exhibited by fear of risking the consequences! What a miserable woman she now must be!”
Sources: Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr., comp., North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, 4:65, 740; 1860 U.S. Census: Wilkes County; Aldo S. Perry, Civil War Courts-Martial of North Carolina Troops (2012), 129-131.
