On the Farm--in the Middle of History

52ancestors No. 39

On the Farm — in the Middle of History 

By Myra Vanderpool Gormley © 2018 

It was 155 years ago on 20 September 1863 when the Battle of Chickamauga ended. About 36,000 were killed in that event — 20,000 Confederates and 16,000 Union men, and it was the costliest battle in the war’s western theater. On their small farms nearby in Walker County, Georgia, my large Fricks family struggled to survive the Civil War and then to pick up the pieces when it was over. 

Fricks Gap, Walker County, Georgia ca 1864

Several of their young men, including two brothers (Francis Marion “Frank” Fricks and William Henry Harrison “Harrison” Fricks), sons of S. Davis Fricks (1813-98) and Nancy Riggs (1815-1912) served in Co. E. of 39th Regiment, Georgia Infantry (called the Walker[County] Light Guards), CSA and were in the thick of the fighting. “Harrison” Fricks was killed 23 November 1863 at the Missionary Ridge Battle — not far from his family’s farm at Pond Springs. He was 22 years old.

 In the summer of 1863, my great-grandfather (Napoleon B. Fricks), then only 17 years old, joined 6th Battalion Georgia Cavalry (State Guards). In the same unit was Charles W. Connally, 46, who would become his father-in-law soon after the war was over. Researching the military records pertaining to this family more thoroughly provided an extra bonus when I learned that my great-grandfather was not the only one of that rather unusual name. His uncle, also named Napoleon Bonaparte Fricks, was born in 1820. He was a private in Co. B, 21st Regiment, Georgia Infantry, CSA, and died during the war of typhoid fever while serving in Virginia. Finally, I was able to untangle some mixed-up branches because of this same-name problem. 

S. Davis Fricks  (1813-1898)

Stories were passed down to my grandfather, a son of Napoleon B. Fricks, about the war and the battles near their homes. Most of my Fricks family remained in Walker County until the path of the railroad split their farm (according to family lore) and they sold out their farms and headed west. In the autumn of 1891, great-grandfather Napoleon B. Fricks took his family to the Creek Nation of Indian Territory, but the year before several of his relatives, including his parents, removed to McGregor, McLennan County, Texas. They both purchased farms in their new localities.