(By Stephen Kelley from the Peoples Defender, 1984)
Continuing from the 12/21/22 article, we gave a brief history of the Locust Grove United Methodist Church. Writing in 1948, historian H.C. Pemberton recounted that “It was in this church that the soldier boys of the community volunteered for their service in the Civil War. At several different dates they gathered here to offer themselves as a sacrifice to their country. Many of them never came back.”
One of those local boys who volunteered for duty in the Union forces was thirty one year old James F. Summers. Although a Virginian by birth and a son of slave holders, he has moved with his parents to Marble Furnace when but five years of age and exhibited no hesitation in fighting his Southern brethren. Summers was born to Jacob and Elzabeth Elmore Summers on January 15, 1830 in Loudon County, Virginia. James was the grandson of John Elmore, soldier of the French and Indian War and a seven year veteran of the American Revolution. Perhaps it was hearing of his grandfather’s many exploits as a soldier that inspired young James and encouraged him to not only enlist at the outbreak of the War between the States, but also to raise a company of volunteers in the Locust Grove-Marble Furnace area. He was popular and well respected as a merchant in Locust Grove when he began his efforts to form what became Company B of the Adams County based Seventieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. As a result of his efforts and because of his popularity among the men he recruited, James was elected captain by the company members.
According to THE DEMOCRATIC UNION a weekly newspaper published in West Union during the Civil War, Captain James F. Summers arrived at Camp Hamer in the middle of October of 1861 “… with a company of recruits number in forty-all fine-looking men. The officers… are all gentlemen and will make excellent officers.”
Camp Hamer was a hastily constructed training ground established on the south side of West Union on the old county fairgrounds. Here, the 70th OVI trained until ordered south to the battlefields. This regiment participated in many of the major battles of the Civil war including Shiloah, the siege and capture of Corinth, the siege of Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattanooga, Atlanta and Sherman’s March to the Sea.
It was in Summer of 1864 that Union forces converged upon Atlanta, Georgia. It was heavily defended by Confederate’s soldiers under the command of Lieutenant General John Bell Hood. The forty day siege of the city the Yankees was marked with several major clashes between the opposing armies. One of these, known as the Battle of Ezra Church, occurred on July 28. During that great battle of the Blue and the Gray, the 70th OVI had hastily constructed a defense rampart made of “logs, chunks, stump’s and rails…about knee high.” Between skirmishes with the Revels, the men were able to reinforce this line of defense by “digging trenches and pilling up dirt against the logs and chunks we had thrown together.” From behind this bulwark, the men of the 70th Regiment repulsed the Confederates as they charged the line seven different times between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. that day.
The official historian of the 70th OVI was Thomas W. Connelly of Company G. In the history of that unit published in 1902, Connelly wrote, “About four o’clock P.M. Captain H. L. Phillips, of the 70th Ohio, and member of the Division staff, rode up and said to us: “Boys, it is our time to make a charge. You must cross over the works and go for them. It is hard I know, said Captain Phillips, “but we must do it.”
The right wing of our regiment sealed the works and was over. The left wing was following in turn, when the lion-like voice of the Rebel commander was heard in front, Giving the command, “Forward! Guide center! March! Instantly Captain Phillips ordered our regiment back into the works…
“This time the enemy came up close enough for us to see the whites of their eyes and within five years of the 70 Ohio’s lines. The Rebel commander of the brigade in our front was killed…
“Captain J.F. Summers, of Company B, and acting as our Major, was shot through the breast while standing within two feet of the writer of this history. He was pointing toward the enemy and telling the boys, “There they come! Pour it into them!” when he fell mortally wounded. He was carried to the rear and died within three hours after being carried back… his last words on earth were, “Tell my friend that I died at my post.”
The following day the dead from this battle were buried by Union troops as the Confederates had abandoned the field. Connelly wrote, “Long trenches were dug, and in some of these would bury as many as three hundred without coffins or boxes, nothing but a soldier’s blanket for a winding sheet. These trenches were dug about three feet deep, and some not so deep; but they were wide enough to admit two men. It looked hard to bury these soldiers, friend or foe, just like we bury animals, but this was all we could do the best was done that could be done under the circumstances.”
Although most troops were buried in this manner, Captain Summers was apparently buried in a single grave separate from the mass graves. After the war was over, his remains were removed, brought to Adams County and reinterred at the Locust Grove Cemetery. According to Pemberton, memorial services were conducted at the Locust Grove Methodist Church and “… the bell tolled when Captain James Summers… was brought back home for burial. A very large crowd was at his funeral in the church, and … the fife and drum led the way to his grave.”
The captain was laid to rest beside his sixteen month old son, Albert, who had died while his father was stationed at Memphis, Tennessee. Over three decades after thirty four year old James Summers was buried at Locust Grove, his widow, Hannah was interred beside him. Having chose not to remarry, she remained loyal to the young captain’s memory until her own death in 1897.