He Once Was lost, But Now He's Found- Finding Corporal Alburto L. Poteet

(c)2024 By Researcher and Historian for the 6th North Carolina State Troops- Frederick Walton

Collecting remains of killed at Cold Harbor for re-internment

 Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

LC-DIG-ppmsca-35035 

 I recently received an email  from Fold3.com, a military records subscription service that I belong to, about a collection highlight describing The Bowie List.  The description got my interest. It read:

The Bowie List is a valuable resource that records the burial locations of Confederate soldiers who fought and died in Maryland during the Battles of Antietam, South Mountain, and Monocacy during the Civil War.

The Battle of Antietam was the deadliest one-day battle in American history. It became a mass casualty event, with 22,000 Union and Confederate soldiers killed, wounded, or missing and captured. Both sides were overwhelmed with tending to the injured and hastily burying the dead.

If you are a subscriber to Fold3 you can access this list here. Another source for the list is at Western Maryland's Historical Library. They have a free digitized copy of the Bowie List available.

In 1868 Maryland Governor Oden Bowie (1826-1894)  appointed Thomas Boult of Hagerstown to oversee the project of locating and identifying the Confederate dead from the battle that occurred in the region around Sharpsburg, Maryland. Boult hired Sharpsburg residents Moses Poffenberger and Aaron Good to do the work. These men and their employees catalogued and eventually exhumed over 3,200 bodies, transporting the remains to Rosehill Cemetery in Hagerstown, Maryland. Once there, they reinterred them in a newly established section called the Washington Confederate Cemetery. They also produced a complete list of Confederate graves, known as "The Bowie List." [1]

I spent some time one recent morning reading the introduction on pages 3-10 describing the circumstances of how this list came about. An interesting story, especially considering the important part a N. Y. legislator played in "shaming" the Maryland legislature to do something with the forgotten and ill treated Confederate graves across their battlefield. I then manually searched the lists of names for any mention of members of the 6th North Carolina State Troops.

This search revealed a single soldiers name on page 30. 

"F. L. Pollet. 6th N. C."   

I maintain a database of known gravesites for members of the 6th North Carolina State Troops and was happy to document another name, especially one from an obscure source like this.  

Page 30 of the Bowie List containing the name of a soldier from the 6th N. C.

Using the compiled service records on Fold3, I searched the 6th North Carolina State Troops compiled service records for the last name "Pollet". The result was nothing found. Perhaps he belonged to the 6th N. C. Volunteers, which by the time of the battle of Antietam had become the 16th N. C. Troops.  I searched the 16th North Carolina Troops compiled service records for the last name "Pollet". The result was also nothing found.  This was disappointing to say the least.

Clearly either the name was misspelled or the wrong regiment was attached to this name. Was he a member of the 6ht North Carolina State Troops or the 6th something else, or the 26th or the 56th... the possibilities are endless if this was incorrectly recorded. 

My next thought was, 

"Who, from the 6th North Carolina was actually killed, at the battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam)?" 

That is a relatively simple thing to answer because on September 17, 2012, I published, in this blog,  the complete 6th NCST Roster of  Killed from the battle of Sharpsburg, Maryland as reported in the October 1, 1862  North Carolina Weekly Standard newspaper and verified against the North Carolina Troops Roster (Jordon), Bloody Sixth Roster (Manarin), The O.R's and Compiled Service Records, as well as other historical and genealogical sources. This data was transcribed by me, and included the 12 members of the Sixth North Carolina State Troops killed in action. Some "official" sources list 8 killed, but I found 4 additional names during this research.

They are listed in the following table:

Looking through this list, I only found one name that closely resembled the Bowie list  name of  F. L. Pollet. 6th N. C. Do you see the match?  Look at the 5th line and you will see A. L Poteet listed. This is probably the correct identity of the name in the Bowie list, but I decided to do further research to be sure.

In 1869 agents were hired by the board of trustees of the National Cemetery at Antietam and where directed to:

"go over the battlefield and mound up the trenches and graves, and also to make careful notes of their location and as far as possible identify the dead" [2]

 After the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) the Confederate Army withdrew over the Potomac river into Virginia leaving many of their dead and wounded on the battlefield. It fell upon Union burial crews to inter the deceased. They naturally focused on their Federal comrades first, burying them with great care. At various places around the battlefield dead horses were dragged together and burned, the inky black smoke drifting across the battlefield, mingling with the stench of dead and decaying bodies. Being assigned to a burial detail could not have been a pleasant task, and after caring for their own soldiers, the tired and nauseated men of these details did not treat the dead rebels with a great deal of respect. The graves were frequently long, narrow, shallow trenches containing masses of their enemies.  

Bodies of Confederate dead gathered for burial at Antietam
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
LC-DIG-cwpb-01095

Many of the descriptions in the Bowie list tell of scattered bones and accoutrements near the burial sites. When read carefully, the list betrays the horrors of the battlefield when it describes gravesites as:

"a trench of supposed 30 unknowns" (page 23) 

or

"Eighteen trenches supposed to contain 290 unknowns"  (page 35)

or

"Eight trenches supposed to contain 305 unknowns" (page 36)

What is worse is that many of these battlefield burials were in open farm fields. Convenient to bury the soldiers where they lay during the battle, but inconvenient to the farmers working those fields the following spring. By 1869 it was a common and disturbing site to see skeletal remains exposed where the farmer's plow had done it's work. This is why the commission was established. The end result of that 1869 effort was the publication of the Bowie list. 

Now imagine the condition of the mouldering remains of a disinterred soldiers body. How could they ever be identified? It is amazing that the Bowie list contains as many names as it does, suggesting that the wounded who succumbed to their wounds after the battle may have received a more proper burial than the battlefield dead, dumped into mass graves. At least, in some cases. their identities have been preserved.   

Confederate Dog Tag made from coin

Modern dog tags did not exist at the time of the Civil war, however personalized identification disks could be privately purchased and worn by individual soldiers. This appears to have been more common among Union troops. No records exist to indicate that "Pollet"/Poteet wore one. There are also numerous occasions during the war that soldiers wrote their names on paper and pinned it to their jackets because they felt doomed in the upcoming battle. Such a paper, if it existed, would have been long gone by 1869. Clothing and accoutrements may have been marked with the owners name or he may have carried  something like a bible with his name. How well these might have survived in the grave is anyone's guess. How the agents discovered the identities of the bodies is not recorded, although many descriptions mention "boards" used as grave markers. If this was the case you could see how a weathered wooden grave marker may have been difficult to read allowing Poteet to be mistaken as Pollet. The name may also have been recorded on a list created at the time of his original burial. Remember, 19th century lists were composed by pen and ink. Cursive writing. Not neatly typed on an iphone or computer. Write "Poteet" in script. Even with neat handwriting you must admit it could be interpreted as "Pollet". An uncrossed t is simply an l, a loopy e could pass for another l. Look at this example of an actual 19th century document featuring the very name of our assumed soldier, from the 1850 census.

This is Alburto Poteets name as hand-written by the enumerator on the 1850 census [3]. This cursive writing could easily be mistaken for Poliet, Poleel or even Pollet!

Let us assume then that the name F. L. Pollet from the Bowie List is actually Corporal A. L. Poteet who served in  D Company, 6th North Carolina. Examining the published roster found in "North Carolina Troops 1861-1865" we can learn more about his military history: 

Company D., Sixth North Carolina State Troops

 POTEET, ALBURTO L., Corporal  

Born in Burke County where he resided prior to enlisting in Mecklenburg County at age 41, May 28, 1861, for the war. Mustered in as Private and appointed Corporal on February 25, 1862. Mortally wounded at Sharpsburg, Maryland, September 17, 1862, and died prior to September 30, 1862. Place of death not reported.[4]

Despite the final sentence, his death at Sharpsburg was, in fact, reported in several period newspapers, including the Weekly Standard, Raleigh, North Carolina, October 1, 1861; Semi-Weekly Standard, Raleigh, North Carolina, October 01, 1862; North Carolina Standard, Raleigh, October 8, 1862; Fayetteville Semi-Weekly Observer,  Oct 02, 1862 and the Fayetteville Weekly Observer, Mon, Oct 06, 1862. So we have confirmation that he died at Sharpsburg. Was he buried there?

The Weekly Standard, Raleigh, N. C. , Wed, Oct 01, 1862, Page 2

Turning to the Compiled Service Records, available on Fold3 , we find 24 documents filed under the name of Alburto L. Poteet, including several documents relative to his death at the battle of Sharpsburg. 

The Compiled Service Records:

"contain card abstracts of entries relating to each soldier as found in original muster rolls, returns, rosters, payrolls, appointment books, hospital registers, Union prison registers and rolls, parole rolls, and inspection reports. They may also contain the originals of any papers relating solely to a particular soldier." [5]

The first card, relative to Sharpsburg, on page 8 of his file, is dated September 17,1862. It is an abstract from the Company Muster roll of May 1 to Oct 31, 1862. It shows he was last payed on April 20, 1862 and was "Killed at Sharpsburg, Sept. 17, 1862". 

Page 8 from the Compiled Service Record of 
Corporal Alburto L. Poteet, Co. D, 6th North Carolina State Troops

On page 9 of his file, is a card dated September 17, 1862. It is taken from the Confederate Roll of Honor, compiled from records in the office of the Adjutant General of the State of North Carolina.  It lists him as killed, Sept. 17, 1862, in the battle of Sharpsburg. 

Page 9 from the Compiled Service Record of
Corporal Alburto L. Poteet, Co. D, 6th North Carolina State Troops

The Roll of Honor (N. C. State Archives Record ID: SR.55.32.130), that this card was abstracted from is located at the N. C. State Archives in Raleigh, N. C. I searched for and found the actual page with Corporal A. L. Poteet's name. See highlighted entry on line 52. It simply says "Killed Sept 17, 1862 in the Battle of Sharpsburg".

photo of Roll Of Honor Book taken by Author at the North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh , N. C.

On page 10 of the CSR his card is dated Sept 27, 1862 and is an abstract stating his name appears on a Parole of Prisoners of War from the Provost Marshal General, Army of the Potomac. This suggests that Poteet was probably wounded and captured during the battle. He would have been transported away from the battlefield and ended up in the hospital at the George Line House. Perhaps his comrades saw him fall and assumed he was dead, not knowing he had been captured and survived, at least for a short time after the battle.

Page 10 from the Compiled Service Record of 
Corporal Alburto L. Poteet, Co. D, 6th North Carolina State Troops

How do I know Poteet was transported to the George Line house? Because the CSR card on page 11 says so! This is the real clincher! It ties F. L. Poteet, Co. B, 6th Regt. No. C. Vols, who appears on a list of Confederates wounded at the battle of Antietam and who died at various hospitals near Antietam, Maryland. His place of death is specifically listed as the "Lines Farm Hospital"  

Recall the name on the Bowie list that started this investigation: "F. L. Pollet. 6th N. C." And where was he buried? Near the George Lines House.

This card also gives us a clue as to where the confusion in the name first came about. Notice that the name on the card is "F. L. Poteet". Not A. L. Poteet or Alburto L. Poteet. In fact you might even interpret the handwriting as F. L Potect! But somehow back in the early 20th century, when the war department was compiling these records, this card found its way into Alburto Poteet's file.

Page 11 from the Compiled Service Record of 
Corporal Alburto L. Poteet, Co. D, 6th North Carolina State Troops

The Bowies list is composed of three columns: Name; Company, Regiment and State; and Remarks and Locality used for the description of where the body was located  and a description of the condition of the grave.

Paging through the list, it is somewhat confusing about which description belongs to which individual or group of  soldiers. Rarely is a single soldier listed with a specific description. More frequently there is a larger group buried together. In the case of F. L. Pollet, there is no description next to his name, but as you can see from the photo of page 30 at the beginning of this article, the description starts 5 names below his name, leaving the area at the top of the page, and specifically next to his name, blank. Are we to assume that this description is for every name on the page? There are no instructions or keys in the document to tell us how to interpret this.

Look closely at the top of the page and you will see dashes across each column. This seems to be the dividing line used to separate the locations described in the "Remarks and Locality" column and can be universally observed throughout the list once you notice it.   

I have come to the conclusion that this description covers the names listed beside it, residing between a set of dashes. In the case of F. L. Pollet on page 30 the description reads:

"Are buried west of George Lines House in his new ground along side of an old white oak tree near his pond and north of the road leading to his house. The ground is low and wet and has been plowed. Grave has been plowed. Grave pretty much exposed. " [6]

So now we have a confirmation that Corporal A. L. Poteet died at the Line's hospital and the mystery name from the Bowie list, F. L. Pollet, was buried at the Line's hospital site. Am I getting warm?

 The George Line house is located on the extreme northern portion of the battlefield, beyond where the 6th North Carolina fought that day, and well behind the Federal Lines. At first glance it seems unlikely for a Confederate soldier to have been buried here, much less the 30 Confederates listed on Page 30-31. Since these are named Confederates they are most likely not battlefield deaths, considering the high point of the battle they were in was miles away. The Line's house was used as a hospital, therefore it makes perfect sense to find wounded soldiers from the northern part of the battlefield where the 6th North Carolina State Troops fought on to be there. The fact that there is a name associated with the body further suggests that a record was kept of his burial. From the CSR we know that record was the list of Confederate wounded who died at Hospitals.

Rough sketch of the battlefield showing Miller Cornfield, where the 6th North Carolina State Troops were engaged and the George Line house (upper Right) 

Who was he?

Another interesting document within his compiled service records (page 21) describes Alburto L. Poteet physically, lifting the curtain a little so we see him, not just as a statistic, but as a fellow human being who died for his country.

Who was Alburto L. Poteet the person?

He was Age 41 at enlistment in Charlotte, N. C. on May 28. 1861. This is an "old" man for this time. Most of his fellow soldiers were in their teens and twenties. He voluntarily enlisted, but his reasons for doing so are unrecorded. Was it duty? Honor? Adventure? 

Alburto  was 5 feet 10 inches tall. He had a fair complexion, Grey eyes, and dark hair. By occupation he was a farmer. He was born in Burke County. [7]

What it doesn't mention was that he was someone's son, someone's brother, someone's father and someone's spouce. He must have left a big hole in the community and in his family. They would never see him again. They never had the closure of  laying his body to rest in a family plot since his body lay buried on a battlefield hundreds of miles away.

Reviewing the 1850 U. S. Federal census can tell us a little bit about him and his family before the war. Alburto Poteet, age 29, is living in Burke County, N. C. working as a farmer. Despite his foreign sounding first name he was born in North Carolina. He is married to Louisa, age 31, and together they have 3 children: Eliza (7), Wm (4) and Marcus (2) 

Two houses away lived his father, Elrod Poteet, age 59, a farmer, his mother Martha, age 57, and two of his younger siblings  Eliza (18) and William (18) a farmer [8].  The roster of the 6th North Carolina State Troops shows a William Poteet serving alongside Alburto. He is about the correct age, could this be his brother? More research will be required to confirm this. 

In both cases the line for value of property is blank, which can be interpreted as both families living in rented homes.

By the 1860 Census, Alberto (spelled Elberto), age 39, is living in Morganton, Burke County, N. C. with his wife Louisa, age 40,  and their 3 children: Marthy (Eliza )(17), Wm (14) and M. E. (Marcus) (12).  Alberto's occupation is a rail-road laborer. He has a boarder living in the household, who is also a railroad laborer, named Martin Murphy (age 25). (There is a Martin Murphy serving alongside Alburto in the 6th NCST. He is about the correct age, could this be his friend? More research will be required to confirm this. [9]

According to family genealogy data, Elrod died in 1850 and Martha died in 1855.

This connection to Alburto as a  railroad worker is interesting because in 1860 Charles Frederick Fisher, President of the North Carolina Railroad, was talking to the men under him about the possibility of raising a regiment if the war clouds on the horizon became a conflict. In 1861, he raised the 6th North Carolina State Troops, composed of Railroad men, among others, and became their first Colonel. Fisher was killed at first Manassas. 

Who was he buried with and why were they there?

Looking at the list of those men buried with "F. L. Pollet" on the battlefield and identifying the Divisions/ Brigades they belonged to helps to confirm  that during various phases of the battle, these regiments were in the fighting at the northern end of the battlefield. Wounded men from these brigades may well have ended up at the George Line's House Hospital.

13th Alabama (1) Hills Div, Rains /Colquitt bridade

6th Ga. (2) D. H. Hills Div, Rains /Colquitt bridade

23rd Ga. (2) D. H. Hills Div, Rains /Colquitt bridade

27th Ga. (1) D. H. Hills Div, Rains /Colquitt bridade

28th Ga. (4) D. H. Hills Div, Rains /Colquitt bridade

38th Ga. (1) Ewell/Lawton

61st Ga. (1) Ewell/Lawton

8th La. (1) Ewell/Hays

1st NC (4) D. H. Hill/Ripley

3rd NC (2) D. H. Hill/Ripley

5th NC (1) D. H. Hill/Garland

2nd Miss. (1) Hood/ Laws Brigade

Ezra Towle 10 Miss. (1) (2nd/11th Miss -Laws Brigade- 10th not at antietam)

F. L Pollet- 6th NC (1) Hood/Laws Brigade

1st Texas (2)  Hoods Div/Wofford 

3rd Texas (1)  Hoods Div/Wofford

Washington Confederate Cemetery

In 1870 The General Assembly of the State of Maryland approved legislation to set up a charter for the creation of a national Confederate cemetery, since the trustees of the Antietam National Cemetery refused to inter Confederate remains. By 1872 a site was chosen within the boundaries of the Rose Hill  Cemetery  located in Hagerstown, Maryland to be named the Washington Confederate Cemetery.

A decade after the battle of Antietam, in September 1872, agents were hired to disinter the remains from the battlefield graves and re-inter them in the newly created Washington Confederate Cemetery. Local citizens were asked to report the locations of Confederate remains they may be aware of to ensure that all the Confederate dead were cared for. [10]

Shepherdstown Register

Sat, Apr 18, 1874 ·Page 2

A Confederate soldier named "Pallet (or Pullet), F. L.- North Carolina"[11] is listed among the re-interred at Washington Confederate Cemetery, where he lies for eternity with his comrades of the single bloodiest day that occurred over 160 years ago. While this name is "etched in stone" (actually it is cast in metal on the cemetery monument), I hope my research has convinced you that this soldiers actual identity is Corporal Alberto L. Poteet, Company D, Sixth North Carolina State Troops

May he rest in peace and not be forgotten. 

Portion of Joseph Coxon's map of the positions of the grave sites
at the Washington Confederate Cemetery in Hagerstown, Md.
notice arrows on right pointing to F. L. Pollet A.K.A. Corporal A. L. Poteet 
who is resting near his commander, Col. J E Ayres A.K.A. Col. I. E. Avery
circa 2000 photocopy of Coxon Map made by author

Notes:

1) The Historical Marker Database, The Bowie List,  (https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=95545, accessed 8/3/2024).

2)  Fold3, US, The Bowie List - Maryland Confederate Burial Sites, 1869, database and images (https://www.fold3.com/publication/1090/us-the-bowie-list-maryland-confederate-burial-sites-1869 : accessed Aug 3, 2024), see  Page 9-10

3) 1850 United States Federal Census, Year: 1850; Census Place: Burke, North Carolina; Roll: M432_622; Page: 367A; Image: 361; Poteet Family 477 AND 479

4) Weymouth T. Jordon Jr.,  North Carolina Troops 1861-1865 A Roster, Vol IV Infantry,North Carolina office of Archives and History, Raleigh, N. C., 1973, C0. D, 6th Regiment N. C. Troops, Pg 314, Poteet, Alburto L.

4a) Louis H. Manarin, The Sixth North Carolina Regiment Roster (published within Richard W. Iobst, "The Bloody Sixth, The Sixth North Carolina Regiment Confederate States of America), North Carolina Centennial Commission, Raleigh, N. C., 1965, Pg 346, Poteet, Alburto L. Note: this is basically the same record as the description in Jordon. 

5) Fold3, US, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of North Carolina, 1861-1865 (https://www.fold3.com/publication/37/us-civil-war-service-records-cmsr-confederate-north-carolina-1861-1865 : accessed Aug 6, 2024), database and images, Compiled service record for Alburto L. Poteet, Co. D, 6th North Carolina State Troops, US, Civil War Service Records (CMSR) - Confederate - North Carolina, 1861-1865, Publication number M270, Record Group 109, NC.

6) Fold3, US, The Bowie List - Maryland Confederate Burial Sites, 1869, database and images (https://www.fold3.com/publication/1090/us-the-bowie-list-maryland-confederate-burial-sites-1869 : accessed Aug 3, 2024), see  Page 30-31

7) Fold3, US, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of North Carolina, 1861-1865 (https://www.fold3.com/publication/37/us-civil-war-service-records-cmsr-confederate-north-carolina-1861-1865 : accessed Aug 6, 2024), database and images, Compiled service record for Alburto L. Poteet, Co. D, 6th North Carolina State Troops, US, Civil War Service Records (CMSR) - Confederate - North Carolina, 1861-1865, Publication number M270, Record Group 109, NC, Page 21, Memo from Capt. Samuel McDowell Tate, co. D summarizing his service, death details and back pay owed. 

8) 1850 United States Federal Census, Year: 1850; Census Place: Burke, North Carolina; Roll: M432_622; Page: 367A; Image: 361; Poteet Family 477 AND 479 Note:Yes, Eliza and William were both listed as age 18, but other family genealogical records indicate William was probably 16.

9) 1860 United States Federal Census, Year: 1860; Census Place: Burke, North Carolina; Roll: M653_889; Page: 431; Family History Library Film: 803889, Poteet Family 989

10) Steven R. Stotelmyer, "The Bivouacs of the Dead", Toomy Press, Baltimore, Maryland,  1992. Chapter 3 describes the Washington Confederate Cemetery.

11)  Steven R. Stotelmyer, "The Bivouacs of the Dead", Toomy Press, Baltimore, Maryland,  1992. Appendic B: Washington Cemetery lists the names and states of soldier re-interred here. Poteet (mispelled as Pallet or Pullet) is listed on Page 85.