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Vienna man discovers great-great-grandfather’s past

Photo by Jess Mancini Steve Sandifer holds the May, 19, 2001, program for the dedication of the Medal of Honor marker for Pvt. William Barringer, who served in Co. F 4th W.Va. Infantry at the Battle of Vicksburg.

PARKERSBURG — A Vienna man reading a story about a local Civil War historian’s discovery made a discovery of his own.

Steve Sandifer in The News and Sentinel on Jan. 21 read about Brian Kesterson and a letter from Clarkson Fogg, who died in the Battle of Vicksburg on an ill-fated charge against a Confederate embattlement. Kesterson, a history teacher at Hamilton Middle School, has been recognized for his histories of the war.

Sandifer said his great-great-grandfather on his mother’s side, Pvt. William Barringer, was a member of Co. F 4th W.Va. Infantry, the same company as Fogg’s, who was killed was in May 1863 in the Battle of Vicksburg while leading an assault.

Both Fogg and Barringer came from Ohio.

“I would imagine they did know each other,” Sandifer said. “I can’t say with absolute certainty.”

“I would say most likely those men knew of each other,” Kesterson said.

Commanded by Gen. William T. Sherman and under the orders of Gen. Ullyses S. Grant, the Union volunteers were armed only with ladders and planks with hopes of constructing makeshift bridges for the remainder of the troops to traverse the ditches and other obstacles that protected the Confederate embattlements.

“They came under incredible enemy fire,” Sandifer said. “They lost the majority of their men.”

Pinned down, Fogg was killed when he attempted to espy enemy soldiers while shielding himself with a shovel, according to Kesterson. A rifle ball pierced the shovel, hitting Fogg in the head and instantly killing him.

Barringer and six other volunteers crossed a ditch, climbed a parapet and spiked 14 Confederate cannons, a history of the event said. However, the Confederates returned to the battle and the Union soldiers became trapped, unable to retreat.

“It was basically a suicide mission,” Sandifer said.

Sandifer and Kesterson spoke to each other of the battle. Kesterson said he came out of the discussion with a sense of the savagery of the fight.

“It was early trench warfare, hand-to-hand,” Kesteron said. The Union soldiers were being blown apart and they knew death was certain.

“It was up close and personal,” he said. “It was an un-Godly scene.”

Barringer and another Union soldier survived by donning the uniforms of dead Confederate soldiers to escape the area and float away in the river on bales of cotton, Sandifer said.

They were later found by soldiers on a gunboat, who doubted their stories because of the uniforms and held them as prisoners, Sandifer said. However, Barringer’s story reached Grant, who vouched for him, Sandifer said.

For his part in the assault, Barringer received the Medal of Honor, Sandifer said.

“It was Gen. Grant who recommended my great-great-grandfather for the Medal of Honor,” he said.

Why Fogg didn’t receive a Medal of Honor is unclear, Kesterson said. The letter his commanding officer wrote to his parents said he died a hero’s death in the service of his country, Kesterson said.

“It’s hard to tell what the reasonings were,” Kesterson said.

The 150 volunteers on the Union mission are known as the Forlorn Hope. They had to cross about a quarter mile of ground and were repulsed by the enemy that rained rifle fire and lighted shells — grenades — upon them in the ditches.

Sherman, upon early reports one attack was successful, ordered more, however, the Confederates repulsed those, too, and Union forces suffered heavy losses.

They “fell like grass before the reaper,” according to Sgt. George Powell Clarke of the 36th Mississippi.

Sandifer was born and raised in Lynchburg, Va., where he was taught God, angels and the saints were on the side of the South. Then he learned he was related to a Yankee.

“A decorated Yankee,” said Sandifer, who came to the area 44 years ago for the opening of the Vienna Kmart.

Barringer was born May 27, 1841, at Long Bottom, Ohio, and died April 7, 1917, the year before Sandifer’s mother, Erma Estep, was born.

He was buried in Mount Olive Cemetery at Long Bottom.

A ceremony to dedicate the Medal of Honor marker at Barringer’s grave was held May 19, 2001, and was attended by Sandifer and other descendants.

The ceremony was sponsored by Brooks-Grant Camp No. 7 Sons of union Veterans of the Civil War and Maj. Daniel McCook Circle No. 104 Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic.

The story on Jan. 21 was about a letter Fogg wrote while stationed at Point Pleasant. Fogg said a “submarine telegraph line” was installed in the Ohio River, establishing communications from west to east, lending credence that such a cable, considered high tech for the era, could also have been laid in Parkersburg, Kesterson said.

The cable being under water was protected from Confederate saboteurs, according to Kesterson.

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