My Grandmother's(mother's side) name is Iris Starling,her maiden name was Iris Leonard,shes still alive and in her 90s.
Her Grandfather was Charles Wesley Leonard,my Greatuncle(her brother) Red Leonard found that letter in our family bible.
Sam Knight and Charles Wesley were good friends during the war.Sam Knight wrote that letter,I have a copy somewhere,Charles
Red Leonard's son Bill Leonard and my mother's brother Uncle Fred have that letter and a lot of info on the 45th.
Fred lives in Greensboro NC,Bill lives on Signal Mountian TN,I'm in Chattanooga.
My e-mail addy is drburriss@gmail.com
My father's side were blockcade runners from Smithfield (Southport) NC and fought at FT.Fisher to keep supplies coming to the 45th.
I would be honored to get you a copy,Sam Knight got captured in a skirmish in West Virginia(pretty sure),same engagement Charles was wounded at.
I think he died at Point Lookout prison in Maryland.
This was during Gen Jubal Early's Raid and operations against the B&O Railroad (June – August 1864) and Washington DC to take pressure off Petersburg,they got within sight of Washington before being driven back by Gen. Philip Sheridan's Army.
Charles was wounded at Charlstown WV.
My father's side Capt.George Washington Burriss was Capt.of the Confederate raider CSS Tallahassee(New York Yimes read "HIGHLY IMPORTANT:A Rebel Pirate Ship off the coast).
An incident which occured near New York harbor.With the Tallahassee 20 miles from New York flying the stars and stripes,the yankee pilot boat "James Funk approached the Confederate raider.The yankee Pilot climbed aboard to take her into the harbor.Instead he found himself aboard the Confederate
"Pirate Ship".My father's father,Bertram(Piggy)Burriss was a master Pilot during WW11 learning the trade as a boy,he was the Master Pilot the Brought in and docked the USS North Carolina in 1961,when they said."It couldn't be done" He did it and his picture and plack is on the "Showboat"
"Masters Of The Shoals"
"Tales of the Cape Fear Pilots Who Ran the Union Blockade"
By Jim(Buddy) McNeil
Chapter 6
"Sixteen fatoms-sandy bottoms with black specs.We are not as far in as I thought Capt."
Pilot Thomas Thomas E Burriss reporting to the Capt of the "Banshee" on a run to the coast.
"God almighty,man,there isn't a rock a big as my hat in the whole damned state of North Carolina."
Cape Fear(pronounced by locals as Cape Fare) Pilot Thomas Dyer responding to a report of the lookout of the steamer Giraffe,who thought he spotted a rock in the path of the ship as she approached the bar at Cape Fear.
"The Burriss boys of Federal Point"
"The Pirate Who Kept His Whiskey in His Coffin"
Jim sent me this book,I got it yesterday,in theres a picture of my father(Puddinhead)Burriss and Jim on the "Southport Dolphins Basketball team",1956