2018/2019
Vol. 14
Forty-Eight Years
(Followed by Author's Annotation)
1862, 1910; Cades Cove, Tennessee, USA
 The sweet grass waved gently in the breeze, reflecting the sun’s light on Carter Shields’s face. A smile shone upon him as he looked at the glade. It was dotted with broad, green-leaved dogwood trees casting shadows over the dusty dirt path leading up to a wooden cabin. Its chimney was made of stone, the top melting into the shingles tiling the roof. The sides were made of horizontal wood, going from darker to light and back again, and a small porch sat out in front, with four strong beams supporting the overhanging roof. There was a window to the right of the door, as well as two windows on the side of the cabin — a tall, thin one below a shorter, fatter one.
Carter took hobbly steps toward his new cabin, the one he had chosen to retire to, right in the same place he’d been born and raised — Cades Cove, Tennessee. But he had been born a long time ago, back in 1844. Now it was 1910 — forty-eight years since he had been wounded, forty-eight years since the Battle of Shiloh in April of 1862.
The South was in Carter’s blood, so when the Civil War1 broke out, he’d known he had to fight for his people. He’d joined the Confederacy and had become a part of the 6th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, organized in May 1861 at Camp Beauregard, Jackson, Tennessee. Carter’s involvement in the military was cut short on one fateful day — April 6, 1862.
As his regiment had neared the battle, Carter could feel his heart beating in his chest, like the drum of thunder after a flash of nerve-wrenching lightning. Soon the soldiers were given the signal to attack, and suddenly the air was filled with shouts and cries of anger, fear, and pain. In the thick of fighting, Carter didn’t remember much of what he saw — just flashes of gray and blue uniforms, and gunfire ringing in his ears like an echo in a deep canyon. He couldn’t tell how long it had been, but some Federal soldiers made stands against the Confederates, and the fighting lasted longer than he could remember.
At some point, when he was sweating and struggling to stay on his feet from tiredness, Carter had felt excruciating pain in his hip. All he recalled was being carried off the battlefield, his view being blotted out by dark clouds that faded in and out — just a few clips of things that no longer fit together, and most of all, the pain in his leg.
Carter Shields left the military and was forever crippled by his wound in the battle of Shiloh; it is unknown if he was hit by a bullet or artillery. He retired to his cabin in Cades Cove in 1910, living there until 1921. He was born February 5, 1844, and died on November 20, 1924, at the age of eighty. He is buried at Maryville, Tennessee. Carter Shields was my great-great-grandfather’s uncle, and his cabin still stands in Cades Cove today.
Maddy Pense; Missouri, USA
Illustrator: Emma Holmer; Missouri, USA
1. In the U.S. Civil War, the Confederacy was a group of Southern states that had left the United States and formed a new country. They fought the Union Army, which represented the United States, or “the North.”
Annotation
January 2023
Since the publication of “Forty-Eight Years” in 2019, I have done extensive research on my family’s history, and through that have come to find that the events I wrote about are mostly incorrect. The story of Carter Shields as a soldier in the Confederate Army, wounded at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862, is widely spread across the Internet and is accepted in my family history, and is therefore the one I initially believed.
Further research, however, has shown that Carter was a private in the 6th Tennessee (East) Infantry Regiment, a Union regiment, having enlisted on March 8, 1862, in Boston, Kentucky. This regiment was not officially organized until April 18th of that year, after the Battle of Shiloh was fought. While Carter was injured during the war, that was not until May 14, 1864, at the Battle of Resaca in Resaca, Georgia.
This new information is evidenced by a variety of sources, including Carter’s muster records, documents published by the Office of the Adjutant General of the State of Tennessee, the National Park Service’s registry of Civil War soldiers, pension files, and documents Carter himself filed, detailing his role in the war in order to receive benefits at the state level.
After his injury at Resaca, Carter was transferred to a general hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, and later to Knoxville. He returned home to Cades Cove in 1865 and married Lorina Gregory that September. After spending forty-one years away from the Cove in various locations, Carter and Lorina returned in 1910, moving into the cabin now known as the Carter Shields Cabin.
I was, and am still, glad to have submitted my story to The Grannie Annie, and am grateful that it was selected for publication. I believe that history, especially that of our family members, is important, and needs to be remembered and preserved. It is my hope that the true story of Carter Shields’ service in the American Civil War will soon become the version widely available to the public. I am thankful for the opportunity to make this annotation to my story, and intend to continue my efforts to amend inaccurate accounts of Carter’s life.
Maddy Pense
This copyrighted story and annotation may be copied and/or printed for limited classroom or personal use. To reprint this story and/or annotation in an article about The Grannie Annie, please contact The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration for permission.
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