|
Source:
Contributed by William McCollum, September 2006
Alvin Cyrus
McCollum
Franklin County, Georgia Pioneer
Alvin Cyrus McCollum was the youngest of seven
children of Samuel McCollum and Sarah Elizabeth Gray. Samuel and Sarah
were born in the Pendleton District of South Carolina between 1790 and
1800 and brought their family to Franklin County between 1831 and 1840.
By 1860 Samuel had died and three of his sons had
married. Sarah lived with her daughter Sarah C. McCollum. Living in the
next three homes when the July 11, 1860 census was taken were her son
William H. McCollum and his wife Delpha, Alvin Cyrus and his wife Linna,
and Samuel A. and his wife Letta Carr. All of the families were farmers.
Cyrus’s life in Franklin County is believed to have been
unremarkable, but his actions on the eve of the Civil War and later as a
soldier demonstrate how remarkable it was. Part of the story came to light
on March 9, 1890 when The Atlanta Constitution interviewed one of
Cyrus’s friends from Franklin County, a former Baptist minister called
“Uncle” Billy Bowers, who was described as a “rock ribbed Republican.” In
the interview Bowers talked about the election of 1860 and the selection
of a candidate.
“I was taught from my boyhood that human slavery was wrong…In my
earliest boyhood I memorized the declaration of independence and I was
thrilled by the opening words of that great instrument, ‘all men are by
nature free and equal.’”
“As McCollum and I rode along I said to him, ‘Cyrus, I think I shall
vote for Mr. Lincoln,’ and after we had talked it over he decided he would
vote the same way.’ When the election day came we went to our voting
precinct and deposited our ballots. The managers knew how we voted, but
very little was said. We were not molested, but we had to be prudent.
McCollum was conscripted and went to the war where he lost his life.
Being a minister and opposed to warfare I was exempt.”
“Cyrus McCollum went to Carnesville a few weeks after he voted
for Lincoln, and the boys got him up and rode him on a rail.”
The March 16, 1890 Sunday edition of the paper carried a follow-up
story headlined, “Cyrus McCollum’s Fate.”
“Cyrus McCollum’s fate is a mystery. In last Sunday’s
Constitution, ‘Uncle Billy Bowers’ related his reminiscences of before
and during the war.
“Among other things he spoke of Cyrus McCollum, the man who voted for
Lincoln and was ridden on a rail.
“Ex-policeman D.W. Smith was a private in the Tugaloo Blues, and
fought through the war. During the latter years of the war McCollum was
conscripted into the Blues and from the time he entered the service until
the battle of Gettysburg, McCollum made an excellent soldier.
“At that battle the Blues were in one of those desperate charges that
have become a part of the tragic history of the war.
“The last seen of Cyrus McCollum he was on top of the hill where the
company was beaten back with a perfect storm of shot and shell raging
round him.
“Private Smith saw him and says that he lay flat on the ground behind
an old goods box that happened to be there and that was the last he ever
saw of McCollum.
“Whether he was killed, captured or deserted was never known and his
fate remains a mystery to Mr. Smith and the remainder of those brave boys
who made the name of Tugaloo Blues famous on many a hard fought field.”
In 1890 access to military records was not as easy as it is today.
The compiled military record of Private Alvin Cyrus McCollum solves the
mystery of his fate.
Cyrus enlisted on August 30, 1862 in Company B (Tugaloo Blues) of the
15th Georgia Infantry. He was captured on July 3, 1863 at
Gettysburg and was transported to Fort Delaware where he was a POW until
his death from typhoid fever on March 22, 1864. The Veterans
Administration register of graves in national cemeteries shows he was
buried at Finn’s Point National Cemetery in Salem, New Jersey.
It is believed that Uncle Billy Bowers and Alvin Cyrus McCollum were
the only two men in Georgia who voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. One
was an educated man with strong beliefs about equality. The other was an
uneducated farmer who came to his personal decision on the eve of the
election. One escaped military conscription because of his beliefs. The
other died doing his duty in the service of his state, although that duty
may have been contrary to his personal beliefs.
|
