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Confederate soldier forsees his own death
Malcolm McLeod, and his family lived on a farm near Grove Hill. Even though he was 38 years old at the time, he felt it was his duty to enlist in the army after the war broke out. He enlisted in Jackson on March 19, 1862 as a private in Co. E, 32nd Alabama Infantry Regiment (Bigbee Tigers). This regiment served with the Army of Tennessee. In June of 1863, while Gen. Grant was laying siege to Vicksburg, Malcolm and his regiment were part of a small force under Gen Joseph E. Johnston that had been sent from Tennessee with the objective of reinforcing Gen. Pemberton, and lifting the siege. On July 5th, when they reached the Big Black River midway between Jackson, Mississippi and Vicksburg, they encountered some paroled Confederate prisoners who informed them of the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4th. The army then withdrew to Jackson, where on July 12th they fought a brief, but heavy engagement against Gen. Sherman's forces. After the battle at Jackson the army fell back to the east and went into camp near Morton's Station on the railroad between Jackson and Meridian. It was during the time that his regiment was encamped at Morton's Station that Malcolm had his premonition of impending death. We can only guess as to what may have caused these feelings. Perhaps it was the result of wounds that he had suffered sometime previously. In an earlier letter to his niece, Achsah McLeod in Grove Hill he had written: "I pray the great God to spare me to once more see and enjoy the society of wife, children and friends. The wealth of India is poor in comparison to the riches afforded by the society of wife, children and friends…" In a letter to his wife dated Aug. 10, 1863 he revealed his vision in the form of a poem which he titled simply; a "Song Ballad." The text of that poem is as follows: SONG BALLAD My friends and neighbors, all farewell Your kindness I adore, But with the solemn truth I tell- I shall come back no more. Adieu, adieu- a long farewell My face you'll see no more, So plain it is within my view, I shall come back no more. O'er hills and dales along the road, I never was before, One rolling flood and raging wave- Where I'll return no more. I am now in a distant land- I come to meet the foe, My dissolution now at hand, But I'll return no more. Good friends and neighbors all, farewell, Companions weep no more, But raise my little children well, For I'll return no more. My wife and children, far at home, On earth I'll see no more, But soon to me you all will come, Where parting is no more. My loving wife, refrain from tears, And for me weep no more. My God- My God- I leave them all On this vile world below In death's cold arms I soon must fall And to the grave must go. My wife and children, I am gone, And for me weep no more. For you can meet me, everyone, On Canaan's peaceful shore. But if I die away from home, I hope you'll be ready soon To meet on Canaan's shore. Malcolm survived the subsequent bloody holocaust at Chickamauga in September, and the later battle on the misty slopes of Lookout Mountain at Chattanooga. But later, on Nov. 25, 1863 while fighting on the extreme left flank of Missionary Ridge he suffered a severe wound to the thigh and was captured by the Union forces under Gen. Osterhaus. The Federal surgeons amputated his leg, but complications set in and he died on Dec. 20, 1863.
Thus, four months and 10 days after his vision, Malcolm McLeod's prophecy had been fulfilled. Today he lies in an unmarked grave somewhere in Chattanooga. His wife, Ruth Pugh Chapman McLeod died in 1900 and is buried in the Mathews Cemetery between Jackson and Grove Hill. On the back of her tombstone is engraved: "Malcolm, Husband of R. P. McLeod, Born April 3, 1824, Died From Wounds Received at Missionary Ridge, Tenn."
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