Beech
Beech 23 job but the boys had a merry time over it. At first, they were rather shy of the mud and water but they soon got used to it. The modus operandi was simple. They would tie a large cable to a tree and as many as could would take hold and walk off with the tree. Large cypress trees—measuring three feet at the butt and carrying their thickness for eighty feet were hauled off with perfect ease—large limbs snapping off like twigs before the tremendous power applied to them.”12 • Cypress Rangers was the nickname of Company F, 9th Texas Rangers from Davis (now Cass), Morris, Titus, and Marion Counties, Texas.13 B e e c h Undoubtedly,CivilWarsoldiersjoinedthousandsofotherpeoplethroughout history in carving their names or initials in the smooth, steel-gray bark of the American beech (Fagus grandifolia). With this unique bark and lustrous , dark green leaves the American beech is one of the most beautiful and unmistakable canopy trees in eastern North America. Closely kin to oaks, beech can grow to four feet in diameter and 120 feet tall. They prefer moist but well-drained soils. During the Civil War, some people claimed that cotton would not grow where beech were once found because this tree depleted the soil of lime.1 The fruits of beech are small edible nuts enclosed within a rough husk. Various components of beech wood, bark, and leaves were used medicinally to treat fevers, vomiting, seasickness, headaches, tuberculosis , and “low spirits.”2 Beech wood is dense and strong, but the lumber must be carefully dried because of high shrinkage. In the Civil War era it was used to make barrels, crates, furniture, flooring, tool handles, saddle frames, shoe lasts, plane stock, spools, and toys.3 Confederate surgeon Francis Porcher stated, “The leaves of beech trees, collected at autumn, in dry weather, form an admirable article for filling beds. The smell is grateful and wholesome; they do not harbor vermin, are very elastic, and may be replenished annually without cost.”4 Beech was also renowned as an excellent fuel wood. The fruit of beech trees is eaten by many species of wildlife. In the Civil War period the now extinct passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) relished the abundant mast in beech forests. Rural farmers in many areas de- 24 Flora pended on these same nuts to fatten free-roaming hogs. Likewise, soldiers roasted beech nuts to supplement their diets on occasion. Sergeant Allen M. Geer, 20th Illinois Volunteers, near Vicksburg, Mississippi , on Nov. 15, 1863: “Gathered beachnuts, which are very plenty in the woods.”5 Sergeant Hamlin A. Coe, 19th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, near Covington , Kentucky, on Oct. 14, 1862: “We marched directly in the rear of the town and camped in a beautiful grove of beech trees. We lay down upon the ground for sleep tonight. I tell you I slept soundly upon beech roots.”6 John S. Jackman, 9th Kentucky Infantry, near Beech Grove, Tennessee, on April 23, 1863: “The hills around here remind me of Kentucky. They are covered with such pastures and beautiful groves of beech trees, which are now leaving-out.”7 Reuben A. Pierson, 9th Louisiana Infantry, in a letter to his sister from Camp Moore, Louisiana, on June 20, 1861: “Excuse the length of my letter . I am sitting in the woods under a large beech tree, upon a pine log about a quarter from the camp where there is not a single thing to disturb me.”8 Lieutenant Theodore A. Dodge, 101st New York Volunteers, near Harrison ’s Landing, Virginia, on July 20, 1862: “Our line is picketed, as I said before, behind a swamp, and in a wood of maple and beech trees, shady and pleasant.”9 Lieutenant Jacob Ritner, 25th Iowa Infantry, in a letter to his wife from near Helena, Arkansas, on Nov. 16, 1862: “We are camped right in the woods. The timber is very large and heavy. Right in our camp it is nearly all Beech, Poplar, Sassafras, Gum, &c.”10 Sergeant Edwin H. Fay, Minden [Louisiana] Rangers, near LaGrange, Tennessee, in a letter to his wife on Sept. 5, 1862: “Good Bye, I have written this sitting on the ground under a beech tree on the bank of the Wolf River ¾ mile south of La Grange, Tenn. Do write me often my dearest one.”11 ...
OR
