This is more self explanatory. This is from Calvin Sheppard who is the
brother to my Nancy Adeline Shepherd. She would be my great, great great
grandmother. He spelled his name differently.
Between 1914 and 1915 a questionnaire form was sent to all known living
Tennessee Civil War Veterans. All were returned by 1922. I will type up
the questions and insert Calvin Sheppard’s response after the question from
the following pages.
The Tennessee Civil War Veterans Questionnaires
Volume 5, Confederate Soldiers, pg 1946-1947
1. State your full name and present Post Office address:
Calvin Sheppard, Dandridge, Jefferson Co., Tenn.
2. State your age now:
Seventy Nine 14th of May
3. In what State and county were you born?
Pulaski County, Va.
4. In what State and county were you living when you enlisted in the service
of the Confederacy, or of the Federal Government?
Newbern (Pulaski county, Va.?) Confederacy.
5. What was your occupation before the war?
Farmer
6. What was the occupation of your father?
Farmer
7. If you owned land or other property at the opening of the war, state what
kind of property you owned, and state the value of your property as near as
you can.
—-
8. Did you or your parents own slaves? If so, how many?
No
9. If your parents owned land, state about how many acres.
My father owned 75 acres.
10. State as near as you can the value of all the property owned by your
parents, including land, when the war opened.
$1500.00
11. What kind of house did your parents occupy? State whether it was a log
house or frame house or built of other materials, and state the number of
rooms it had.
Log house, six rooms, good barn, well wattered and layed.
12. As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked
on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe, and did other
kinds of similar work.
I did all kinds of work on the farm, plowed, hoed, cradled, —ed and did
any and everything that was to do on a farm.
13. State clearly what kind of work your father did, and what the duties of
your mother were. State all the kinds of work done in the house as well as
you can remember – that is, cooking, spinning, weaving, ect.
We had sheep and raised flax, had two good looms and two wheels my Mother
raised her own flax and spun wove and made clothes for the familydid her own
cooking.
14. Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many?
They did not keep servants.
15. How was honest toil – as plowing, hauling and other sorts of honest work
of this class – regarded in your community? Was such work considered
respectable and honorable?
All honest work and toil was considered honorable in those days.
16. Did the white men in your community generally engage in such work?
Yes
17. To what extent were there white men in your community leading lives of
idleness and having others do their work for them?
Every body except a few rich men that owned slaves did their own work,
nearly everybody worked in those days.
18. Did the men who owned slaves mingle freely with those who did not own
slaves, or did slaveholders in any way show by their actions that they felt
themselves better than respectable, honorable men who did not own slaves?
—-
19. At the churches, at the schools, at public gatherings in general, did
slaveholders and non-slaveholders mingle on a footing of equality?
No
20. Was there a friendly feeling between slaveholders and non-slaveholders in
your community, or were they antagonistic towards each other?
Most always friendly
21. In a political contest in which one candidate owned slaves and the other
did not, did the fact that one candidate owned slaves help him in winning
the contest?
Not very much
22. Were the opportunities good in your community for a poor young man –
honest and industrious – to save up enough to buy a small farm or go in
business for himself?
Not much, wages was low and the rich men owned the land in those days.
23. Were poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make
something of themselves, encouraged or discouraged by slaveholders?
No
24. What kind of school or schools did you attend?
We did not have any free schools in those days we had to pay for what we
got.
25. About how long did you go to school altogether?
—-
26. How far was it to the nearest school?
about four miles
27. What school or schools were in operation in your neighborhood?
—-
28. Was the school in your community private or public?
Privet I suppose we had to pay for it.
29. About how many months in the year did it run?
Three months
30. Did the boys and girls in your community attend school pretty regularly?
Yes
31. Was the teacher of the school you attended a man or a woman?
Mostly men
32. In what year and month and at what place did you enlist in the
Confederate or of the Federal Government?
Oct. 1_, 1862 Pulaski County, Va
33. State the name of your regiment, and state the names of as many members
of your company as you remember.
Company C. Jim Marton, Jack Duncan and myself I enlisted in a home guard
company and was on duty for 15 months at Dublin Va. then went in to regular
servis in company C. Horton command Brecanridge brigade.
34. After enlistment, where was your company sent first?
We went to the Saultville we was in a fight there then we went from one
place to another we was in the Clands? Valley.
35. How long after your enlistment before your company engaged in battle?
about 12 months
36. What was the first battle you engaged in?
Cla_ds? Valley
37. State in your own way your experience in the war from this time on until
the close. State where you went after the first battle – what you did, what
other battles you engaged in, how long they lasted, what the results were;
state how you lived in camp, how you were clothed, how you slept, what you
had to eat, how you were exposed to cold, hunger, and disease. If you were
in the hospital or in prison, state your experience here.
We went to Withville and was there one winter on duty we were very poorly
clothed had one blanket no matter how cold it was and very little to eat.
38. When and where were you discharged?
Christianburg, April 15?, 1865 we did not have telephones then and did not
know that Jen. Lee had surrendered.
39. Tell something of your trip home.
I walked home.
40. What kind of work did you take up when you came back home?
I worked by the day just when I could get work.
41. Give a sketch of your life since the close of the Civil War, stating
what kind of business you have engaged in, where you have lived, your church
relations, etc. If you have held an office or offices, state what it was.
You may state here any other facts connected with your life and experience
which has not been brought out by the questions.
I have worked hard all my life, farmed mostly.
42. Give the full name of your father. Born, at, in the county of, state
of? He lived at? Give also any particulars concerning him, as official
position, war services, etc. Books written by, etc.
William Shepard; —-, Pulaski co., va, —
43. Maiden name in full of your mother. She was the daughter of (full name)
and his wife (full name) who lived at?
Nancie Marton, William Marton, —-
44. Remarks on ancestry. Give here any and all facts possible in reference
to your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, ect., not including in
the foregoing, as where they lived, office held, Revolutionary or other war
services; what country the family came from to America; where first settled,
county and state; always giving full names (if possible) and never referring
to an ancestor simply as such without giving the name. It is desirable to
include every fact possible and to that end the full and exact record from
old Bibles should be appended on separate sheets of this size, thus
preserving the facts from loss.
My grandfather Marton ____ came from Irland and him and one son were in the
War of 1812. My grandfather Shepard was dead before I was born so I know
very little about them but they were Virginian.
Sagacity 