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The Tri-Weekly Telegraph (Houston, Harris Co., TX), Wed., 3 Sep 1862, p. 1, c. 4
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In one of the famous charges of the 2d Texas at Shiloh, the Bayland Guards lost 22 of their men. Among those wounded, and who fell into the enemy's hands, was E. P. Wasson. from a letter regarding his death we take the following, regretting we have not room for the whole letter:
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Wasson being so very badly wounded, of course fell into the enemy's hands, and of course was carried to their hospital, where he remained until Tuesday night, having his wound dressed once by the Yankee surgeon. Tuesday night their position was charged by our famous Texas Rangers, resulting in the recovery of some of our lost. Among these was Wasson, whom they put on horseback and sent to Corinth, where he arrived on Friday morning, apparently in fine spirits. When lifted from his horse, and carried into the house he called for the Chief Surgeon, when a brief dialogue ensued:

Wasson - Doctor, I want my leg taken off.

Doctor - Sir, do you think it is necessary?

Wasson - I do, and that immediately.

Doctor - Very well, sir; it shall be done.

Thus saying, the Doctor called for four of his ablest men to place him on the table to do the work. They set him on the table, when the Doctor said: Mr. Wasson, you must breathe chloroform.

Wasson - No sir; I prefer my right mind.

Doctor - You must have it.

Wasson - No, sir; I will not.

The Doctor even tired to force it on him, but failed. He very readily perceived Mr. Wasson to be a man of superior nerve, and without further parley commenced the work. He cut the leg off, and still there was no perceptible change in the subject's countenance. From the 11th to the 15th he appeared to be doing very well indeed; but, to our surprise, he called for his friends and told them that he was going to die -- that he was ready and willing to die. The 16th and 17th of the month of his death was but a protracted scene of rejoicing with him.

A minister was with him one or both days, whom he requested to write to his mother, giving her a full detail of his dying hours, and tell her that all the consolation in his dying was the hope that he would meet her in Heaven, where he was going.

I can but say to his parents and relatives, cheer up, for your son died - - using his own language - - "fighting in the good cause, the cause of my country, which I would do again, if permitted."

If I had forty sons, and thirty-nine had fallen as did Mr. Wasson, I feel, as do his parents no doubt, that:

"I would send the other to the battle,

I would arm him for the fight;

I would give him to his country,

For his country's wrong and right."

= = = = = = RESEARCH NOTES = = = =

Private Eli P. Wasson enlisted on 13 Aug 1861 at Camp McCraven in Co. C, 2nd Infantry Regt., TX.

He appears on the 1860 Census, Grimes Co., TX and is shown as age 19, born ca. 1839, Alabama. He was the son of Wiley Blunt Wasson and Jane Rebecca Thrash.

Kate Cumming served in various hospitals from the Battle of Shiloh until the end of The War. In the book, "Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse," p. 18-21, she discusses her care of Mr. Wasson of Grimes Co., TX and his death.
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NOTE: Have not found his burial location.
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