Civil War Veteran Questionnaire for
Calvin Henderson Ferrell


1. State your full name and present post office address:
Answer: Calvin Henderson Ferrell, Humboldt, Tenn.

2. State your age now:
Answer: 84

3. In what State and county were you born?
Answer: Tenn. Dyer County

4. Were you a Confederate or Federal soldier?
Answer: Confederate

5. Name of your Company?
Answer: A; 12th Tenn.

6. What was the occupation of your father?
Answer: Farmer

7. Give full name of your father: Dent Ferrell; born at _______; in the County of Wake Co.; State of North Carolina; He lived at Dyer Co., Tenn..
Give also any particulars concerning him, as official position, war services, etc.; books written by him, etc.:
Answer: _______________

8. Maiden name in full of your mother: Charity Shaw; she was the daughter of: (full name) _______ and his wife: (full name) _______; who lived at: _______.

9. Remarks on ancestry. Give here any and all facts possible in reference to your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., not included in the foregoing as where they lived, offices held, Revolutionary or other war service; what country they came from to America; first settled-county and State; always giving full names (if possible), and never referring to an ancestor simply as such without giving the name. It is desirable to include every fact possible, and to that end the full and exact record from old Bibles should be appended on separate sheets of this size, thus preserving the facts from loss.
Answer: Ireland and Scotland

10. If you owned land or other property at the opening of the war, state what kind of property you owned, and state the value of your property as near as you can:
Answer: About 213 acres and 6 negroes

11. Did you or your parents own slaves? If so, how many?
Answer: Parents owned 6 negroes

12. If your parents owned land, state about how many acres:
Answer: about 1500 acres

13. State as near as you can the value of all the property owned by your parents, including land, when the war opened:
Answer: land $25,000 negroes $30,000

14. What kind of house did your parents occupy? State whether it was a log house or frame house or built of other material, and state the number of rooms it had:
Answer: Frame 6 rooms

15. As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe and did other kinds of similar work. (Certain historians claim that white men would not do work of this sort before the war.)
Answer: Worked on farm doing ploughing hoeing splitting rails rolling logs etc.

16. State clearly what kind of work your father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all the kinds of work done in the house as well as you can remember - that is, cooking, spinning, weaving, etc.:
Answer: General farm word. Mother sewing, spinning and weaving for negroes.

17. Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many?
Answer: 3

18. How was honest toil - as plowing, hauling, and other sorts of honest work of this class - regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable?
Answer: Yes

19. Did the white men in your community generally engage in such work?
Answer: Large majority did

20. To what extent were there white men in your community leading lives of idleness and having others do their work for them?
Answer: very small percent

21. Did the men who owned slaves mingle freely with those who did not own slaves, or did slaveholders in any way show by their actions that they felt themselves better than respectable, honorable men who did now own slaves?
Answer: majority slave owners mingled freely with ones who did not.

22. At the churches, at the school, at public gatherings in general, did slaveholders and non-slaveholders mingle on a footing of equality?
Answer: as a rule they did

23. Was there a friendly feeling between slaveholders and non-slaveholders in your community, or were they antagonistic to each other?
Answer: they were friendly

24. In a political contest, in which one candidate owned slaves and the other did not, did the fact that one candidate owned slaves help him any in winning the contest?
Answer: no

25. Were the opportunities good in your community for a poor young man, honest and industrious, to save up enough to buy a small farm or go in business for himself?
Answer: yes

26. Were poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make something of themselves, encouraged or discouraged by slaveholders?
Answer: encouraged

27. What kind of school or schools did you attend?
Answer: pay schools

28. About how long did you go to school altogether?
Answer: about one year

29. How far was it to the nearest school?
Answer: 1 1/2 miles

30. What school or schools were in operation in your neighborhood?
Answer: pay schools

31. Was the school in your community private or public?
Answer: public

32. About how many months in the year did it run?
Answer: about 6 months

33. Did the boys and girls in your community attend school pretty regularly?
Answer: yes

34. Was the teacher of the school you attended a man or woman?
Answer: man

35. In what year and month and at what place did you enlist in the service of the Confederacy or of the Federal Government?
Answer: 1861 April Newbern, Dyer Co., Tenn.

36. After enlistment, where was your Company sent first?
Answer: to Jackson Tenn.

37. How long after enlistment before your Company engaged in battle?
Answer: Belmont, Mo. dont remember date

38. What was the first battle you engaged in?
Answer: Belmont, Mo.

39. State in your own way your experience in the War from this time on to its close. State where you went after the first battle - what you did and what other battles you engaged in, how long they lasted, what the results were; state how you lived in camp, how you were clothed, how you slept, what you had to eat, how you were exposed to cold, hunger and disease. If you were in the hospital or prison, state your experience there:
Answer: _______________

40. When and where were you discharged?
Answer: at close of war

41. Tell something of your trip home:
Answer: walked home from Atlanta, Ga.

42. Give a sketch of your life since the close of the Civil War, stating what kind of business you have engaged in, where you have lived, your church relations, etc. If you have held any office or offices, state what it was. You may state here any other facts connected with your life and experience which has not been brought out by the questions:
Answer: Merchandising

43. What kind of work did you take up when you came back home?
Answer: Merchandise business from 1865 to 1873 then farming and nursery business to 1887 then organized Merchants State Bank at Humboldt, Tenn. and was elected its president which position I have held since that time but I still take an active part in agriculture. Am a member of the Methodist Church.

44. On a separate sheet, give the names of some of the great men who you have known or met in your time, and tell some of the circumstances of the meeting or incidents in their lives. Also add any further personal reminiscences. (Use all the space you want.)
Answer: _______________

45. Give the names of all the members of your Company you can remember. (If you know where the Roster is to be had, please make special note of this.)
Answer: _______________

46. Give the NAME and POST OFFICE ADDRESS of any living Veterans of the Civil War, whether members of your Company or not; whether Tennesseans or from other States.
Answer: _______________


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