Creekmore, Samuel Andrew Jackson

Submitted by Paul L. Kines

Sergeant S. A. J. Creekmore is written on top of his diary. About one or two inches below his name is C.C. Ballard, Kemper Co MS. Charles C. Ballard was a member of The Jeff Davis Legion Co C Enlisted 4/24/63, Scooba, MS, surrendered 5/65. The diary is about 3 or 4 inches wide, 6 inches long and when new 1 inch thick. S.A.J. Creekmore's writing is very small and neat.

He was on a horse leave when the diary starts. When he enlisted he furnished his horse and equipment. The Confederate Army  paid him for his horse and equipment. When their horse was lost in actual combat service, they were paid for a new horse and went south where there were still horses, to get them. Somewhere he paid $ 600.00 for a horse. On 7/3/1863 his horse was shot in two places in the neck.

In his diary he lists single ladies, one from Washington. Any time he lists a man or woman, he put Mr. or Mrs. before their name. You can tell he was raised proper. His diary on the military was kept in military order.

Samuel served in Co. C, Jeff Davis Legion, Mississippi Cavalry Army of Northern VA during the Civil War.  He was captured by the Union Army at Shady Grove, VA on 7 May 1864 and sent to Fort Delaware, Delaware.
 
The following was taken from WAGON WHEELS (Spring 1984, Vol 4, No. 1, page 6 thru 9) a publication of the Logan County, AR Historical Society.  On file at the Ft. Wayne, IN Public Library.
 
"The Creekmore Diary" Material provided by Babe Houser, Story by Elizabeth Titsworth.
 
Samuel Andrew Jackson Creekmore, age 26, of DeKalb, Kemper County, Mississippi, enlisted for Confederate service on March 25, 1861, at Scooba in Company C, Southern Guards, in Captain R.O. Perrin's company of Mississippi Mounted Volunteers.  His initial enlistment was for a period of twelve months, though he served until capture in 1864.
 
On August 17 1861, orders were received for the company to proceed to Virginia and join Lee's Army.  In October, a special order designated Company C as a part of the Second Battalion of Mississippi Cavalry.
Later, the battalion was merged with three companies of Alabama Cavalry and a Georgia Company to form the Jeff Davis Legion.  Records from the National Archives show Private Creekmore was appointed Fourth Sergeant of Company C on May 20 1862, 'upon reorganization of company.'
 
In 1863, at the end of February, Sergeant Creekmore was given a furlough and apparently returned to his home in Mississippi.  His diary begins with the statement:  'I, S.A.J. Creekmore, left home the 22nd of April, 1863.' It notes also that he arrived in camp below Stevensburg, Virginia, June 15,1863.
 
Sergeant Creekmore's diary details the route he took back to the Legion from his furlough home.  He lists places and people he stayed with on a circuitous route through Alabama, George, both Carolinas and to camp below Stevensburg, Virginia.  The trip required from April 22nd, 1863, until June 15, or roughly seven weeks.
 
On his return from furlough, he continued to fight with the Jeff Davis Legion.  His diary follows the Legion through its various skirmishes and battles, including Gettysburg, the Rappahannock campaign, and the Wilderness Battle until his capture on May 8, 1864, in advance skirmishing near Shady Grove on the first day of the ugly battle at Spotsylvania Courthouse.
 
Sergeant Creekmore spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Fort Delaware and was released June 11, 1865, after taking the oath of allegiance to the United States.  He arrived home in Mississippi on June 25, 1865.
 
Samuel Creekmore used his little black diary book for various purposes during and after the war.  He kept certain accounts in it, listed money due him from fellow soldiers and also money sent home -- as well as names and addresses of people he met during the war and in his travels through the various Southern states, including two or three Federal soldiers, apparently his guards at Fort Delaware.
 
The diary lists a number of gifts of money ($1 to $10) and other donations  he received while a prisoner of war.  On May 15, 1865, the diary notes:
 
'Received of Mr. Williams a suit of clothing, second hand, one hat, one pair pants, one pair drawers, two shirts, one pair shoes, one pair suspenders, one handkerchief.'
 
This was shortly before he took the oath of allegiance to the United States and was released from Fort Delaware.  The diary ends with the date - June 25 - of his arrival home.
 
Scattered through the remaining pages of the book are poems, recipes, and lists of men in his company, or men he knew at Fort Delaware or in other units of the Confederate forces.  Sgt. Creekmore also used some of the pages to make his tally of 'Officers/Enlisted men - Usable Horses, Enlisted men - Unusable Horses, Enlisted men - without Horses,' as present for duty.
The diary notes also important incidents, such as:
 
"E. Mount, Company A, 21st Mississippi was drowned on the 2nd of August,1864, trying to make his escape from Fort Delaware.'
 
'J. A. Simmons, Company A, 19 Mississippi Regt. died the 7th of April,
1865, at Fort Delaware, Delaware.'
 
'This day twelve months ago I was captured.  May the 8th, 1865.'
 
Sergeant Creekmore was captured while fighting dismounted near Shady Grove, Virginia, following the Battle of the Wilderness, as both Union and Confederate armies were trying to reach Spotsylvania Courthouse before the other.  The Confederates were successful; and the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse followed, beginning May 8th as the troops skirmished and raced for position, and lasting until May 20, 1864.
 
Sergeant Creekmore's diary also included some interesting personal notes, including the following:
 
  'In 1861 the war begun
   In 1862 thought we was well to do
   In 1863 thought we would be free
   In 1864 thought our independence 'shore'
   In 1865 Southern independence died.'
 
He also made a puzzle out of the twelve letters of his name - S.A.J. Creekmore:
 
  'This puzzle is composed of twelve letters:
  The 4-11-6-7-8 is a small stream
  The 3-2-9-12-1 is a man's name
  The 5-10-1-12 is a beautiful flower
  The whole is the name of your friend.'
 
and wrote out a recipe for Composition Cake:
 
  Five cups of flour
  Three cups of sugar
  Two cups of butter
  Five eggs
  One teaspoon of soda
  Two teaspoons cream of tartar
  One wine glass of wine
  One wine glass of brandy
  One nutmeg
  One pound of raisins
 
After the war, S.A.J. Creekmore moved from Mississippi to Logan County where he was a prominent early settler.  He was a landowner and is buried in Dublin.  He was survived by his wife, the former Jane Priscilla Davis, a son, Montrose, and two daughter, Mantie and Nannie Roberta.
 
Mantie married George Hampton of Prairie View and they had six children. Three are deceased -- Myrtle Hampton Gray; Robert Hampton and Cecil Hampton; three are still living -- Bess Hampton Sponel at the Paris Retirement Inn; Lena Hampton Cummins in Conway; and 'Babe' Hampton Houser in Paris.
 
Nannie married Dennis Petty of Paris, and the have five children --Alex (deceased), Guy Petty of Paris, Woodrow of Texas, John of Little Rock and Irene (deceased).
 
The son Montrose married Thelma Wright, now Thelma Crette of Paris, and they had one daughter, Rose Ann, who lives in Oklahoma City.
 
Note:
Mrs. Babe Houser has donated a copy of the full script of the S.A.J. Creekmore diary to the Library at Paris and the Library at Booneville."