JAMES HOOD MATHEWS,
Co. H, 2nd NY Cavalry
Submitted by Lorna Marks
Lmarks35@hotmail.com
An Account of the Civil War - written by James Hood MATHEWS
Biography of James Hood MATHEWS
Picture Gallery
- first wife, Mary PECK (daughter of M. L. PECK)
- children, Ethel, Ray, Will
second wife, Allie SUMMERS
- children, Josephine and Helen (my mother)
AN ACCOUNT OF THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR – WRITTEN BY JAMES HOOD MATHEWS FOR HIS DAUGHTER ETHEL MATHEWS.
I was in the battle at Five Forks, fought dismounted and
was in the detail that went over to Moorefield and captured Hary Gilmore and
several other small fights.
The evening before Lee’s surrender I was detailed to go to a church not far in the rear to make farina and tea for the wounded – the church was full as they could lie on the floor as the benches were taken out to make room. I served them all that could partake of the farina and tea. Many were so badly wounded that they could not eat or drink anything.
After I cleaned up I went through the wood (the church was in the woods) and came to a large white farmhouse – none of the owners were there but a few soldiers were searching for valuables etc – and I saw a needle case with thread and needles and as I had lost mine I took that – and then gathered up a lot of pillows and quilts to take back with me – it was just all I could lug on my back – I met Gen. Custer and his staff. I stopped to salute him when he said what in hell have you got – I told him – where did you get them – I told him and he ordered me to take them back – as I picked up the bundle he asked me what I was going to do with them – I said I was taken them over to the church where I was detailed for the wounded soldiers – he then told me to take them to the church. He made his headquarters at that house for the night – I helped the doctors a good part of the night – saw many arms and legs amputated – I remember a Colonel of a Conneticut regiment – he was a fine specimen – he bared his arm – a bullet had went through the elbow – he wanted his arm saved but they took it off the next morning.
After I had fed the wounded I was just starting to join my Company as Custer came along – I fell in at the rear and I heard some of them say that Lee was going to surrender. When I got to the line of pickets the Yanks and Rebs were not over twenty feet apart – I saw Generals Meade and Burnside talking and I dismounted and stood near to hear what they was talking about. I had not dismounted more than five minutes ere they started towards a picket fence – I followed in their rear and saw General Lee ride up under a tree and dismount – his orderly held his horse and the General went into the house where Gen. Grant and other officers were – the two Generals I was with talked with the orderly – I just remember that he said his name was John St. John – his home was in New Orleans – he said all Lee had for his breakfast was a small piece of cold corn cake and that he cried to think that his soldiers had no rations for we had captured the train that had their supplies – Lee was a fine looking man – the Gray suit he had on looked like a new suit – he rode a fine horse.
The house that the surrender was made in was called the McLean place – it was as I remember quite a large mansion and the steps that went up to the piaza must have been about three feet – there was lots of trees about the place. Grant let Lee keep his sword and told him to have his men take their horses home to get their crop in – there was a collered regiment near and they went into the reb lines and brought in their guns.
The next day we started to help Sherman – we had got into North Carolina when we heard that the force he was after had surrendered so we turned back in a couple of day my horse was sick so I let a Confederate have him for a wad of their money – I went to dismonnlet (??) at city point – was there a few days – perhaps two weeks – then took an old steamer for Washington – the trip usually took a day and night but the boat spring a leak as great storm came up – everyone was seasick that I saw except myself – I had been sick with camp fever – we were two days and 2 nights and half of the next day ere we arrived in Washington – the Chesapeake bay was a rough place – we filled the barrells with water where the Rapphanock came into the bay and we got plenty of bread at fortress Munroe. We were glad to get on land again – I did participate in the great parade that took place soon after – as I lay out on the Capitol grounds with cholera morbas I felt like turning wrong side out – Orderly Cole wanted me to go to a hospital but I would not – after a while I felt better and as I got out on the walk I saw two soldiers that I knew that had been in service three years – they were both from Fayetteville – My company was going across the long bridge to go into camp in Alexandra – so I walked along untill I arrived at the bridge – I got on a lumber wagon and rode across – just as we got at the other side two men with a four mule team and one of those heavy army wagons drove into the river to water the mules, got into a deep place and were getting tangled up – so one of the men jumped in to cut the traces – one of the mules bit him – the 4 mules and man were drowned – Well – I had some two miles to walk to get to camp – when I got there I made a cup of black tea – in a few weeks we got our discharge – when we got on a train to start home – there was a train come in with quite a good many soldiers – some were killed outright and others badly hurt – they had started home and a wreck killed and hurt a good many – there were several flat cars that they were brought back – it made us think that we were not home jet and might meet the same fate – father met me on the Jersey ferry – Ad Cole was at the head of the crowd – I saw father looking at Cole – he was laughing to see Ad – his blouse that he wore – the sleeves were short – half way to his elbows – his pants were about six inches to short – and his shirt was sticking out of a hole in the seat of his trousers – that was what tickled father – he hardly knew me – I was thin – cold sores on my face – had not shaved for a long time – I paid 75 cts for a shave in New York – when I got home I had Mother put my clothes in a tub to soak – told her about the graybacks.
Josie (his sister, Josephine Mathews) was a small girl – she called Mother out to see the grey backs – Mother went out and there were several of those sowbugs floating around – I have been spading all the morning and can hardly write.
JAMES HOOD MATHEWS
Surnames – Beard, Brosseau, Grove, Handley, Hood, Mathews, Peck, Rice, Rivenburgh,
Summers
James Hood Mathews 1844–1926 was born in Chittenango, New York, the first child of Joseph L. Mathews 1821-1888 and Mary Ann Hood Mathews 1822-1891.
Joseph Mathews’ father, John Mathews, with brother Samuel came from Massachusetts and about 1810 John Mathews bought the saw and grist mills on Chittenango Creek a little north of Manlius. About 1823 his brother Samuel had the “Mathews Mills” as they were known. John Mathews’ children were John, David, Henry, James, Samuel, Margaret; and by his second wife Monica, Joseph L.
Mary Ann Hood was 12 when in 1834 her parents, William and Mary (Tincen) Hood and her younger brother Will emigrated from Melksham, Wiltshire Co., England, to New York. Mr. Hood died shortly after their arrival leaving Mary Hood alone to rear the children. Will Hood married Rhoda Barrow – their children James and Emma.
Mary Ann Hood and Joseph L. Mathews were married
in Chittenango, New York, on November 22, 1843, her 21st birthday. Joseph
was a farrier and liveryman. Their children were:
James Hood Mathews 1844-1926 who married September
25, 1873 Mary Peck
1852-1924, daughter
of Marquis L. and Sarah Peck. Their children:
William Henry Mathews
b.1875
Ray Mathews b. 1882
Ethel May Mathews b.
1885
Mary Mathews 1846-1887, schoolteacher, died of TB
William H. Mathews 1849-1870, died from wounds received
in the Civil War
Joseph L. Mathews b.1851, died at two months
Sarah E. Mathews 1852-1882, married Ed Rivenburgh,
died in childbirth, a son
Irving
Rivenburgh
Helen M. Mathews, b. 1855, married Tom Rice, a son
Tom
Josephine A. Mathews b.1857, married Beach H. Beard,
a daughter Caroline
George Selah, b.1861, stillborn
Fred H. Mathews 1868-1946, married Grace Grove, daughter
of Horace Grove,
a son Horace
One day in early September 1864, James H. Mathews came home to find his mother crying because her husband and son, Will, had enlisted. James went immediately to Syracuse to have his father’s name removed and he enlisted in his place. Will, age 14, gave his age as 16, and went as a fifer and drummer. Will Mathews was wounded and later died as a result of the war wounds.
After the war ended, James ran the livery stable for his father. He was a Civil War Veteran – later had a haberdashery, a photography and art business, a grocery. He was a Mason, a Republican, a Presbyterian, and later a Unitarian.
In 1896 James and Mary separated and later divorced.
From 1901-1905 James and his brother, Fred, ran the commissary of George Handley’s coal mine in Handley, West Virginia. Dr. George Summers was the company physician and often invited James to the family home in Milton, West Virginia.
James’ cousin, George Brosseau, in Bellingham, Washington, had told him of the fertile land available in the West. In 1906 James bought 20 acres at $4 per acre under the Homestead Act for Veterans in a farming community along the Skagit River, 6 miles west of Sedro-Woolley, Washington, in the Northern Cascades. He cleared land and made a new home.
In 1908 he married Allie Everett Summers from Milton, West Virginia. They had two daughters – Josephine Hood Mathews 1911-1994, and Helen June Mathews b. 1915. In 1916 Allie died, embolism of injury. On September 9, 1926, one day after his 82nd birthday, James had a cerebral hemorrhage and died four days later. James and Allie are buried in the Sedro-Woolley Cemetery.
Written December 1998 – Helen June Mathews Burns
Please click on each picture for a larger version.
lived in Fayetteville, N.Y.
Born June 10, 1821 (Yates Co., N.Y.)
Died June 14, 1888 (Fayetteville, N.Y.)
Married Mary Ann HOOD, November 7, 1843
b. Nov. 7, 1822 Melksham, England (Wiltshire Co.)
d. Mar. 24, 1891 Fayetteville, NY
married Joseph L. MATHEWS Nov. 7, 1843
The younger is his brother William (Will) MATHEWS b. 1849
Fayetteville, N.Y.
b. Sept. 8, 1844
d. Sept. 13, 1926
m. 1st Mary PECK
m. 2nd Allie Everett SUMMERS
1855 - 1947
Daughter of Joseph L. and Mary Ann (HOOD) MATHEWS
married Tom RICE
1857-1951
Daughter of Joseph L. and Mary Ann (HOOD) MATHEWS
married Beach Huntington BEARD
Updated 11 January 1999
Updated Email Address 12 November 2002