Sgt. Thomas Christian Heidelberg, III (d. 1864)

The image below captures but a small portion of Soldier's Square in Macon, Georgia's Rose Hill Cemetery. Behind and to the left of the centered stone placed for John Smith is a similar marker placed for Thomas Christian Heidelberg, III.

Soon after the American Civil War, Jane Lumsden Hardeman led the charge of "removing the remains of soldiers from graves scattered around the Confederate hospitals" in Bibb County to Old City and Rose Hill cemeteries "and erected wooden headboards at each mound with the name, company, regiment, and date of death of each soldier." [Historical Marker] The number of Confederate dead in Soldier's Square at Rose Hill Cemetery numbers above 600.

Thomas C. Heidelberg, III was one such soldier. He was born about 1836 in Mississippi. In May 1862 he enlisted as a Private in Co. H, 27th Mississippi Infantry. The headstone placed for him erroneously puts Thomas in the 29th Miss., though it does concur with the Roll of Honor published in the Macon Telegraph in 1866.

A couple of months into his service, Thomas spent some time "in hospital at Mobile," but definitely had returned to his company by the fall of 1862.

The following year, Thomas (now a sergeant) was "wounded battle Lookout Mt. Nov 24, 1863 & sent to hospital by order Brigade surgeon." Furthermore, according to his service records, Thomas "Appears on a LIST of killed, wounded and missing, of Walthall's Brigade, in the engagement of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., (Nov. 24, 1863.)" List dated Camp near Dalton, Ga Dec 18, 1863, with remarks: mortally wounded.

Thomas must have survived, though. He was with his company leading up to the Battle of Jonesborough (Jonesboro) in Clayton County, Georgia. Curiously, a card from his service file states he was admitted to a hospital near Jonesboro on 27 August 1864. This was a few days before the battle, yet the same card cites the dates of the battle, and a subsequent card seems to give an injury date of 31 August 1864. Lack of a precise date notwithstanding, Thomas quite possibly was wounded in that battle. A gunshot wound fractured his "middle third left femur." Field treatment received was a "simple dressing" 10 hours after injury.

I cannot imagine the pain.

At least a week would pass before Thomas arrived at Ocmulgee Hospital in Macon (approximately 70 miles south of Jonesboro). I presume an infection had set in at the wound site, as his medical card stated his leg was amputated.

Sixteen days after that last hospital admittance, on 24 September 1864, Thomas Christian Heidelberg, III died. At Ocmulgee Hospital in Macon, Georgia -- more than 400 miles from his home in Jasper County, Mississippi.

We see their gory forms in long procession, embracing the epauletted leader and private soldier, the beardless youth and gray haired sire, the strong and middle-aged, the wan and weary, whole hecatombs, indeed, who went down amid the crash of battle and with garments rolled in blood. Others, not less brave, appear stark and stiff in the hospitals where, too, with equal devotion they had yielded their lives a Holocaust for liberty. -- "Roll of Honor Republished," 26 April 1878, Macon Telegraph and Messenger

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