ETCHED IN OLD STONE: Joseph Cackett, POW Civil War

Smith/POST: Sarah Sophia Post (sister of 2nd GGF John Franklin Post, Jr.) was married to Joseph Cackett for one day.

detail from Andersonville POW prison camp poster

Let Us Forgive, But Not Forget

Joseph Cackett, the young husband of Sarah Post (sister of my 2^nd GGF John Franklin Post, Jr.) was born in 1845 and served in the Michigan First Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics during the Civil War between 1863 to 1865. Born in Pluckley, Kent, England, Joseph emigrated to America as a child. At eighteen, he enlisted for three years of military service in company L of the Michigan Volunteers on Dec. 14, 1863 at Brownstown, south of Detroit. Ranked Musician 1^st Class, he was taken prisoner at Murfreesboro, Tennessee on Dec. 15, 1864. (See official reports below)

He was held for sixteen weeks as a Union POW at Camp Sumter, better known as the notorious Andersonville Prison, where he was released as part of a prisoner exchange on the 5^th of April, 1865 -four days before General Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.  President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated the following week. Records show that Joseph was discharged from military service at Camp Chase, Ohio, on June 12, 1865.

A year after his discharge and questionable recuperation, Joseph was married to Sarah Sophia Post, 17, “at the residence of John M. Adams” in Frenchtown, Monroe County, Michigan on June 7, 1866. (Officiated by Presbyterian Rev. C. N. Mattoon, D.D., who assisted at the wedding ceremony of Major Gen. George Armstrong Custer two years earlier.) The marriage was witnessed by Sarah’s twin siblings, R[oswell] Harmon Post and Ruth H. Post.

The following day, on his twenty-first birthday, Joseph Cackett died. In one day’s time, Sarah had been transformed from bride to widow. Joseph was buried in the Post plot of Potter Cemetery, the brief record of his life and death etched into the headstone shared with the young wife of Sarah’s brother, Abraham Post. (Abraham also administrated Joseph’s probate estate.)

Potter Cemetery, Ash Twp. Monroe, Michigan

The following reports from the Tennessee Historical Commission help to tell the story of Joseph’s military fate from both sides of the Civil War:  December 15, 1864 – [Confederate] Capture of railroad train near Murfreesborough

[Report of Maj. Jerome B. Nulton, Sixty-first Illinois Infantry, of operations December 12-15, 1864.]
“HDQRS. SIXTY-FIRST ILLINOIS INFANTRY, Murfreesborough, Tenn., December 22, 1864.

SIR: I have the honor to make the following report in regard to the recent expedition to Stevenson, Ala., which resulted in the capture of the entire train and a portion of the escort:

Pursuant to instructions from the general commanding, the Sixty-first Illinois Infantry, 150 strong, and about forty of the First Michigan Engineers, left Murfreesborough, Tenn., on the 12^th instant, with orders to proceed to Stevenson, Ala., and return without delay with the train laden with supplies for this garrison. We arrived at Stevenson on the 13^th with but little difficulty, and after having procured the supplies required we started for Murfreesborough early on the morning of the14th. The train was delayed at the Cumberland Mountains in consequence of being unable to ascend the grade, but we finally succeeded in crossing and reach Bell Buckle about dark in the evening, where we received intimation of an enemy in our front. About 2 o’clock at night [i.e., the 15^th] we were fired into at or near Christiana, and upon being informed by the conductor that he could not run the train back we immediately debarked, formed a line so as to protect the train, and moved on, repairing the road as we came, but our progress was necessarily very slow, from the fact that the enemy had cut the road in various places. Here allow me to state that while in this condition we dispatched a messenger to Gen. Rousseau to notify him of our situation and asking for re-enforcement. Fighting continued by the enemy, at which time we were entirely surrounded by the enemy, with the road cut in our front and rear. Soon after daylight the enemy dismounted and charged our line, but they were handsomely repulsed, with considerable loss in killed and wounded. They then brought their artillery into action, which soon convinced us that we could not hold the train against such fearful odds. Consequently, about 8 o’clock [the 15^th], the colonel, 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, and 81 enlisted men belonging to the Sixty-first were captured, together with the entire portion of the First Michigan Engineers, including the lieutenant in charge.” ~~~ J.B. NULTON, Maj. Sixty-first Illinois Infantry, Cmdg. Regt. OR, Ser. I, Vol. 45, pt. I, pp 620-621.

[Excerpt from the Report of Major-General Nathan Bedford Forrest, C. S. Army, commanding cavalry, on operation from November 16, 1864 to January 23, 1865, relative to the capture of a Union supply train on December 15, 1864.]

“…Brig.-Gen. Jackson, who had been previously ordered to operate south of Murfreesborough, captured, on the 13^th, [i.e., 15^th] a train of seventeenth cars and the Sixty-first Illinois Regt. Of Infantry, commanded by Lieut.-Col. Grass. The train was loaded with supplies of 60,000 rations, sent from Stevenson to Murfreesborough, all of which were consumed by fire, after which the prisoners, about 200 in number, were sent to the rear.” ~~~ OR, Ser. I, Vol. 45, pt. I, p. 756.

Tramp, Tramp, Tramp

Composed by George F. Root in 1863

It is said that this popular Civil War song ‘struck a chord’ in the hopeful heart of every prisoner of war. Rumors within the prison confines of Andersonville -that Union troops were soon to liberate the soldiers held there- bolstered the spirits of men like Joseph Cackett as they waited for their release. Prison conditions were deplorable, with disease, malnutrition, overcrowding and exposure taking many young lives before the war’s end. Used as a POW prison camp for only fourteen months, 13,000 of the 45,000 men held there would never see home again.

CHORUS:

“Tramp, tramp, tramp. The boys are marching.

Cheer up, comrades, they will come.

And beneath the starry flag, we shall breathe the air again,

of the free land in our own beloved homes."