‘Remember me:’ Author compiles relative’s Civil War letters for book

original article written on the Journal News by Eric Jones: ejones@journal-news.net on Jan 10, 2025 which can be found – here.

HARPERS FERRY — In Benjamin Buckley’s family, there wasn’t much talk of his relatives’ involvement in the Civil War.

Buckley knew that several of his family members had served in the war, seven to be exact, but it wasn’t something that came up casually in conversation. It remained somewhat of a mystery.

“All I had heard was an oral history that my mother had told and other relatives. My mother must have heard it from my grandfather. I don’t think they really enjoyed talking about it,” Buckley said. “My mom said years ago that her father, he said, ‘Well, one of the relatives was killed at Gettysburg,’ and said it was an awful mess.

“It was a great heartache. You hear about how this was so great, and the people were so valiant, and they were, and it was, but I never got an idea this was something everybody was proud about.”

It wasn’t until Buckley stumbled upon letters from his grandfather’s uncle, Henry Christopher Binns Kendrick (H.C. or Chris), who was the relative killed at Gettysburg, that he was able to get a firsthand account of what it was like serving in the Civil War. Buckley is now sharing those letters in a book entitled “Remember Me: How letters from my Civil War uncle helped me confront my childhood CIA attacker.”

“My grandfather was given the letters by his father, who fought in the Civil War. My grandfather’s last job was at (the University of North Carolina), and he gave the letters to the university. They’re at the University of North Carolina right now,” he said.

In 2020, Buckley was searching through the UNC computer system to find information on his grandfather, Benjamin Burks Kendrick, when, much to his surprise, he came across the letters.

“I was looking for things about my grandfather, and I found all the letters there. I was just kind of flabbergasted,” Buckley said. “I thought this would be a fun job for me to transcribe them. I probably spent 120 hours going over these letters. It was difficult to read them, because they’re so old. They’re difficult to read and not in any order. I transcribed them all and put them in chronological letters.”

The series of letters from H.C., who served with the Confederacy in the 9th Georgia Infantry Regiment, begins with a letter dated June 15, 1861, from Atlanta, Georgia, in which he starts by saying, “We are now in the actual service. We are ordered to Richmond, Virginia. We will start tomorrow evening to realize the realities of contention.”

H.C.’s journey, seen through his 52 letters, took him up and down the East Coast, including likely stops in Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry, along with noted stops in Darkesville, as well as Winchester, Fredericksburg, Richmond and Manassas Junction in Virginia, among others.

In a letter dated July 18, 1861, Winchester, Va., H.C., writing to his brother, shares his dismay of not being able to help his fellow soldiers during a skirmish at Manassas Junction, just a few days before the first Battle of Bull Run. He says in the letter, “And as I am the sec. (secretary) of the company, I have to be left behind. Which I do not like at all. I want to be in all fights that ever are in the war. I think, Thom., that I shall kill a yankee before I get back yet.”

Throughout his letters, H.C. also describes the physical toll the war is taking on him. In one letter, he writes, “When I got to Rapidan Station, I had to walk from there to Winchester, which is 75 miles. You may know, I was tired when I got here. My feet were sore.” In another, he writes, “I am very tired, sitting down here on the ground on my knapsack. My knees are weary and hurt me very much.”

“I read Chris’ letters, and he starts off gung-ho, and he gets kind of not so gung-ho after a while, toward the end of the war,” said Buckley, who, in the book, responds to each of the letters.

The last letter of the collection brings H.C.’s story to a tragic end, announcing his death during the Battle of Gettysburg. The letter, dated July 17, 1863, and sent to his father from Lt. S.A. Jameson, reads, in part: “It becomes my painful duty to inform you of the death of your son H.C. Kendrick, who was killed at the late battle of Gettysburg, fought July 2nd. He was struck by a minie-ball in the head.”

Buckley said that H.C., who enlisted at the age of 20, was killed during a battle in the wheatfield at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. He described it as one of the bloodiest battles at Gettysburg and one that’s “not as famous.”

“Chris was left behind on the battlefield, near where he fell. He never had any stone, plaque — just part of the dirt at Gettysburg,” he said. “He’s part of the dirt. There’s no monument for Chris. They have forgotten about him, and he wanted to be remembered. What a shame — he was a young man, 22, when he was killed.

“There were seven men — one killed, one missing forever, and the other five came back. The youngest one, I think, enlisted when he was 15. He came back, and he just kind of drank himself to death, the way I understand it. I think he went in the day he turned 15,” said Buckley, who lives in Florida but has a home in Harpers Ferry. “They had a rough time, and things were bad after the war. My great-great grandfather, he died in 1873, and he was, from all accounts, he was pretty well worn out and wished he had never gone. I don’t think he wanted any of his kids to go into the war in the first place. There was a lot of pressure to do that, because they were so young.”

Buckley’s goal through the book is to make sure those who served in the Civil War, specifically H.C. Kendrick, will not be forgotten. As H.C. wrote home in July 1861, “Remember me.”

Link to Benjamin Buckley’s book “Remember Me” on Trine Day: https://trineday.com/products/remember-me-how-letters-from-my-civil-war-uncle-helped-me-confront-my-childhood-cia-attacker