Civil War Book Lowndes

By Dean Poling

The Valdosta Daily Times February 28, 2009 12:47 pm

— CAPTAINS AT REST
Lowndes included in Civil War cemetery book

As they did in the Civil War, past Lowndes County individuals play their parts in L. Harris Churchwell’s massive, hard-cover book, “Captains At Rest: Biographical Sketches and Gravesites of Officers Who Served with the Twelfth Georgia Regiment.”
Capt. James Monroe Briggs commanded the Lowndes Volunteers Company I. He was born in Putnam County, Ga., and died in the Wilderness Campaign of Virginia. He entered Confederate service at the age of 21 as a second lieutenant. He died at the age of approximately 23, a captain. Though buried in an unknown grave in Virginia, a marker commemorates his life in Hightower Cemetery. The area’s United Daughters of the Confederacy Chapter 2582 is named in his honor.
Second Lt. Christopher C. Grace and Capt. James W. Patterson are among others profiled from the Lowndes Volunteers in this book filled with photographs of Confederate grave markers, portraits of rebel captains, and written profiles of dozens of officers.
The Valdosta Daily Times conducted an e-mail Q&A with L. Harris Churchwell of Hawkinsville about his book, which is available for $39.95, with a 15 percent discount by ordering from the author. More information: E-mail hchurchwell@msn.com It is also available through amazon.com

THE VALDOSTA DAILY TIMES: What piqued your interest regarding Confederate gravesites?
L. HARRIS CHURCHWELL: “‘Captains at Rest’ started out as a research tool for my second book, ‘Seeking Glory.’ However, the photographs needed to be published, so we printed the research first.”

THE VALDOSTA DAILY TIMES: This book is specifically the Twelfth Georgia Regiment, but do you have a more general interest in Civil War-era grave markers?
L. HARRIS CHURCHWELL: “No, unless he was a famous Confederate such as JEB Stuart or Jefferson Davis or Stonewall Jackson, then I would photograph the grave. I originally photographed the grave stones as a genealogical documentation.”

THE VALDOSTA DAILY TIMES: How did you get started gathering information for this book? And how long ago did your research begin?
L. HARRIS CHURCHWELL: “There are books in the Washington Memorial Library, genealogical section, that document burial sites for Confederate Soldiers of Georgia. From that information, I would visit the cemetery. I had a lot of help from family descendants of officers who helped with out-of-state gravesites. I had in my files a lot of data on the officers through my research through the years. It took me around two years to gather the research.”

THE VALDOSTA DAILY TIMES: I would imagine you did a great amount of traveling. Did you visit as many cemeteries as possible or seek specific gravesites where you already knew the Twelfth’s officers to be buried?
L. HARRIS CHURCHWELL: “I never visited gravesites that I did not know if the officer was buried there. It is very time consuming to examine each grave stone and not possibly find the specific grave stone. It is better to sit in an air-conditioned library, or phone a county historical society and research the grave. I went three times to Alabama for this one officer without success. A kind librarian in Opelika told me I was in the wrong cemetery and gave me instructions to the correct cemetery five miles from Opelika.”

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