Jerry Connell, from Adel, was guest speaker at the John B. Gordon Chapter 383’s meeting. He presented a program about Angus McDermid and showed a video about McDermid’s life, which included where he was born in 1843 (Berrien County near Sparks. Cook County had not been formed yet.) through the time of his death Dec. 07, 1864. McDermid was with the 29th Georgia Infantry Regiment, C.S.A.

McDermid’s house actually still remains way out in the middle of the woods on a hunting place in what is now Cook County. Connell stated that McDermid did something very unusual for back during the War Between the States. He found a way to write more than 85 letters to his family while he was in the war. Many soldiers of that time did not know how to read or write. But McDermid wrote many long letters of detail and descriptions of what he saw and felt during the War Between the States. His letters have been interpreted by modern day historians and genealogists through the use of understanding phonetic spelling.

McDermid’s letters were at one point almost destroyed by being thrown in trash for burning. But at the time, 12-year-old Ben Roundtree saw the letters in an old box and he rescued the informative and historical letters from destruction. He kept the letters for years without doing anything with them.

Connell shared that McDermid went to Savannah for enlisting and Sapelo Island for training. McDermid saw his first action on Nov. 9, 1861. This was documented in one of his first letters he wrote home. During the war, he wrote about the diseases he saw, hospitals with wounded soldiers, being homesick, missing his family and home, concerns for his family, how soldiers acted during battle, dead men and dead horses. He continuously wrote about the smell of death and how he could not get away from it.

When McDermid found out about his brother’s death being killed in a battle, he was very saddened. But he said, “I do want to go home bad. But I will never desert my unit.” In 1864 he wrote home about what he saw and experienced in the Battle of Atlanta .At this time, McDermid did not have any shoes or a blanket. He found some lying by a dead Union soldier and he took it. Then on Dec. 7, 1864, Angus McDermid died in battle. He was robbed of everything he had on. By then, McDermid had been in the war for four years,  and sadly was killed about four months before the war ended.

The young Roundtree lad who saved the letters grew up to become Dr. Ben Roundtree from Adel, that later became a professor at Yale University. Dr. Roundtree was the person who actually gave the letters to be saved and protected. The letters are archived at the Thronateeska Museum in Albany and are preserved in acid-free covering and humidity protection. These letters were written on any kind of paper McDermid could find. He used items such as: letter paper, sometimes ledger sheets, parchment paper, and even wrapping paper. He wrote with pen and ink , but mostly with pencil. His letters were written as if it were art work. His penmanship was perfect. The letters were written in excellent formation.

But guest speaker Connell said, “McDermid was a wonderful writer. But he couldn’t spell cat!” His writings at time were poetic. He was very descriptive in what he wrote back home to his family. Letters that are found like these, written by people whom were in the midst of the war, give a true picture of the real history and what happened from their perspective.