Over the last three years one of my most visited blog posts is the one entitled “General Beauregard’s Bones.”  I cannot understand its popularity except that it describes a certain incident in the American Civil War.  There are many Civil War students out there, and perhaps they are attracted to this article. That being the case, I thought it would be of interest to Civil War buffs for me to post an article on my grandfather Clement Hopkins Jordan, a veteran of the Civil War who somehow survived four years in the Army of Northern Virginia.  I’ve written about him before, but those descriptions of Clement were always buried in much longer articles about the Jordan family.

I suppose that I am one of few living persons having a grandfather who saw Civil War service.  My grandfather Clement was born in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1841.  My father was born in 1873, and I arrived fifty-six years later in 1929.

Clement was the fifth son of Elijah Jordan, a Halifax County farmer.  Clement’s four elder brothers all served in the Third Virginia Cavalry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia.   Clement volunteered in April 1861, shortly before his 20^th birthday, and he enlisted in the Danville Grays, a company organized in that nearby town.  A few weeks later the Grays were incorporated into the 18th Virginia Infantry Regiment. A younger brother, only 14 when the war began, also joined the 18th Virginia near the end of hostilities and was captured at Sayler Creek a few days before Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.  Father Elijah served in the home guard, and in 1864 he and other members of the guard joined Confederate regulars in successfully defending the Staunton River bridge.  Elijah was 60 at that time. The records thus show the family’s total involvement in the conflict.  Somehow Elijah and his six sons all survived the war, though four suffered battle wounds. Considering Civil War casualty rates, the survival of the Halifax County Jordans was amazing.  Close cousins in North Carolina lost two of four adult sons.   Cousins in Tennessee lost three of five.  The sons of Elijah certainly lived up to the family motto, Percussa Resurgo (When Stuck Down, I Rise Again).

Clement served as an enlisted man in Company B (The Danville Grays), 18^th Virginia Infantry.  He saw action in the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), and the next year he was engaged in the Peninsular Campaign. He contracted typhoid fever at that time and was hospitalized in Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond.  Following his hospital discharge, he rejoined his regiment.  The next major engagement for the 18^th Virginia was during the Battle of Gettysburg. There the regiment was part of Garnett’s Brigade, Pickett’s  Division, and it took part in the famous charge on the third day of battle.  During that action Clement suffered a serious arm wound, and he was out of action for several months. Rejoining his regiment in December 1963, 1864 saw Clement being promoted to corporal and involved in heavy fighting in places like Cold Harbor as the Confederates were being slowly pushed back toward Richmond. During the final months of the war the 18th Virginia was occupied in defending the Petersburg/Richmond perimeter, and on March 31, 1865, Clement suffered his second major wound in the fighting at Hatcher’s Run (more commonly known as the Battle of White Oak Road). The day after Clement was wounded, the Confederate line was breached at Five Forks, and the retreat to Appomattox began.  Clement was evidently evacuated with other Confederate wounded on April 1^st or 2^nd, perhaps on the same train that took Jefferson Davis west to Danville; and he was not involved in the last agonizing days of the Army of Northern Virginia, ending with its surrender on April 9.

Clement recovered from his wounds (though his use of one arm was permanently impaired), and in 1869 he married Loula Slate of Danville.  They had five children.  My father, Robert Saunders Jordan, was their only son.

Clement died in November 1909 at the age of 68, almost 20 years before my birth.

As one looks at death and destruction, great-grandfather Elijah’s family was among the fortunate ones.  Nevertheless, the Civil War had a devastating effect on family finances.  In 1860 Elijah had more than 400 acres of good farmland valued at approximately 20,000 dollars.  His personal wealth was estimated to be 32,790 dollars.  Though he was not fabulously wealthy, those dollar amounts were impressive for those times.  In 1870 Elijah’s remaining farmland was valued at 6,000 dollars and his personal wealth at 500 dollars.  As with so many other Southern landholders, his money and former way of life had “gone with the wind.”