October 11
By: Kevin Gamble
On this day in 1862, Samuel Hoey Walkup, lieutenant colonel of the 48th North Carolina Infantry, penned a vehement plea for supplies to North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance. A married, 43-year old lawyer, Walkup was a representative from Union County in the North Carolina state legislature when the war began. Appointed Captain of Company F, 48th NC Regiment on March 4, 1862, and soon promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Walkup earned praise as “one of the bravest officers” in the Army of Northern Virginia. On October 11, 1862, at camp near Winchester, Virginia, a frustrated Walkup pleaded with Governor Zebulon Vance for essential supplies for his troops. Walkup wrote, “There are but two hundred & ninety seven blankets in the Regt.,” to accommodate 619 men. “The pants are generally ragged & out at the seats & there are less than three cooking utensils to each Company,” he continued, confessing, “surgeons have no medicines and don’t even pretend to prescribe for the sick in camp.” Walkup explicitly described the negative impacts on soldier morale: “A spirit of disaffection is rapidly engendering among soldiers which threatens to show itself in general straggling and desertion, if it does not lead to open mutiny.” While Lincoln promised emancipation to enslaved people, Walkup asked, “what might the suffering, exhausted, ragged, barefooted, & dying non slaveholders of the South who are neglected by their government & whose suffering families at home are exposed to so many evils, begin to conclude?” Walkup’s concerns were reflective of the conditions faced by many Confederate soldiers, even so early in the war, who often lacked basic necessities. After the war, Walkup served as the Clerk of Court in Union County and as a Trustee for the University of North Carolina for over a decade. He died on October 26, 1876, from chronic dysentery as a result of his poor diet during the war.
Sources:
Weymouth T. Jordan, Jr., comp., North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865: A Roster, 11:369-432; 1860 U.S. Census: Union County, North Carolina; Lt. Col. S. H. Walkup, "A Plea for Supplies" (1862); William S. Powell, "Walkup, Samuel Hoey." NCpedia. 1996.
