B.R. Holland served in the Civil War for the 1st SC Cavalry. The document below is a receipt for payment for a horse that was lost on New Year’s Eve, 1862.
Family members have relayed another story of a horse, one that made it back to the farm in Laurens County, SC at the end of the war. The survivor horse was wounded in the war, and carried a scar on his face that never healed properly. The wound had to be tended to often, as that horse returned to finish out his life plowing fields back on the farm.
Bluford Russell Holland was my 3rd Great grandfather, he is buried at Leesville Methodist Church Cemetery. He had never been off the farm, and ended up spending much of the war ill. His health never fully recovered, and he died young, at the age of 35.
Transcription
The Confederate States
To Corp BR Holland
1863
To one Sorel Horse killed at Ellis Ford
on the Rappahannock River on the 31st Dec 1862
and appraised at $200.00
I certify that the above account is just and correct
that said sorel horse was the property of Corp. B.R.
Holland of Co B 1st Regt SC Cavalry and said sorel
horse was killed by the enemy at Ellis Ford on Rappa
hannock River on the 31st Dec 1862 also that said
sorel horse was appraised on the 26th August 1861
at the above mentioned amount by the comm
itte appointed to appraise them
JL Black
Colonel 1st SC Cavalry
N. Nesbitt
Capt Co “B”
1 Regt S.C.C
Received at camp the 20th Dec 1863 of Capt
J.H. Williams as the sum of Two hundred
dollars in full of the above account
B.R. Holland
Notes:
JL Black was John Logan Black, he wrote a fascinating memoir called Crumbling defenses or, Memoirs and reminiscences of John Logan Black, colonel C. S. A., available online at this link.
N. Nesbitt was Niles Nesbitt, from the Spartanburg District. He was been Captain of Company B since its inception, and he was promoted to Major on December 5, 1864, back-dated to September.
The handwritten note below is from my Aunt Mae – Eula Mae Holland Hansen. Bluford was her grandfather. Aunt Mae was big into gardening, hence the note about taking some daffodil bulbs from the site.
