"Off To War" Jesse M. Bateman, 9th Georgia Volunteer Infantry

Military Images, Sep/Oct 2004 by Fitzpatrick, Mike

A Georgia lad and his sister experience the war years.

An amazing family grouping of four identified ambrotype images recently came to light fresh from a Georgia estate. Three of the images are of a young girl who can be seen growing to womanhood over the course of a few years. The fourth ambrotype is of a young man wearing a kepi and a rose-colored cockade pinned to his lapel.

Two of the ambrotype photographs are mounted side by side in a single thermoplastic union case. The notes written behind these two pictures say, "Jesse 16 years off to war," and "Fannie Bateman 15 years in college." It seems likely that these two images were taken in 1861. Two other youthful photographs identified as Fannie Bateman also survive; one taken about 1857 when she was 11 and the other in 1864 when she was about 18. Not much else is known about Bateman's background or family.

Jesse M. Bateman was only 16 when he enlisted at Geneva, Georgia, as a private in Company E, 9th Georgia Infantry. This company, recruited from Talbot County, was known as the Talbot Guards. The 9th Georgia regiment fought with Anderson's Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia, from the Seven Days in June 1862, through Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. The regiment was whittled down steadily from the 411 effectives it had in April 1862. At some point prior to February 1863 Jesse Bateman was appointed second sergeant. During the fighting in the wheatfield at Gettysburg, the 9th Georgia took more than 50% casualties out of the 340 who went into battle. Bateman was apparently one of the lucky ones who came through uninjured.

In the fall of 1863 Anderson's Brigade was transferred with Longstreet's Corps to northern Georgia and east Tennessee, but it arrived too late to take part in the battle at Chickamauga. While his regiment was with the Army of Tennessee, Bateman was listed on the company muster roll for November and December 1863 as being "absent, sick at hospital." He appears on the "Receipt Roll for Clothing" issued at the General Hospital at Liberty, Virginia in January 19 and again on February 15, 1864, but he is listed as present with his company again by the end of February. He still may not have been feeling well, however, because the next month he is listed as being "present sick."

The spring of 1864 brought several changes for Jesse Bateman and the men of the 9th Georgia. Longstreet's Corps was returned to the Army of Northern Virginia. And sometime early in the year Bateman was appointed first sergeant. Then came the fateful day of May 6, 1864. While engaged in the battle of the Wilderness, Jesse Bateman received a gunshot wound in the right arm. The injury was serious. His arm was amputated and he spent some time in various Virginia hospitals. He was admitted to the Episcopal Church Hospital, Williamsburg, Virginia on June 12. He was then transferred to Jackson Hospital in Richmond on June 19 where he stayed only a few days. He is listed as being furloughed from Jackson Hospital for 30 days beginning on June 23, but the records also show that he was admitted to the Wayside Hospital-also referred to as General Hospital No. 9- in Richmond on June 24.

From here on the records for Jesse Bateman become scarce and confusing. The company muster rolls for the rest of 1864 and into 1865 list him as either being "absent home on furlough", "absent wounded", or "absent sick." But he shows up on a "list of killed, and those who died from wounds received, of the 9th Regt., GA. Vols., for the year, 1864," and also on the regiment's "wounded and missing list dated near Richmond March 6, 1865," which gives May 6, 1864 and the Wilderness as the date and place of his wounding along with the remarks, "wounded right arm amputated." The 9th Georgia surrendered only 15 officers and 174 men at Appomattox. Needless to say, Jesse Bateman was not one of them.

The Georgia adjutant general's report lists Jesse Bateman as having been wounded seriously in the right arm at the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. It also lists a William Bateman from Company E, 9th Georgia as having been wounded, with right arm amputated, on May 6, 1864. Since there was no William Bateman on the company muster rolls, it is likely that a careless scribe somewhere along the line mistook a hand-written reference to J. M. Bateman as being Wm. Bateman and made a duplicate entry in the adjutant general's report using both names.

We don't know for sure if Jesse survived. But from the available evidence it would appear that he did not. Nor is there any census entry for Jesse Bateman in the post war years, which further reinforces the belief that he must have died from his wound or complications from the amputation.

As a post-script to this story, a pencil note behind the last photograph of Bateman's sister shows that the perceived-if not the real- horrors of war were everpresent in the minds of the civilians living in the South. Their lives were much affected as a result, especially when the Union army under General William T. Sherman invaded the State of Georgia. The note behind her photograph says, "Fannie Bateman in Macon at her Sister's 1864. Learning French, Booking, Millinery. Ran to Florida from the Yankees." She would have been about 18 at the time.