Green Rieves - "Company Aytch"

Nathaniel Green RIEVES, 6 Feb 1835 - 17 Aug 1907, "DEVIL HORSE" He was was a soldier in Company "H", 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment, C. S. A.

Almost every soldier in the army-generals, colonels, captains, as well as privates-had a nickname; ...Green Rieves was called "Devil Horse"... (Sam R. Watkins, "Co. Aytch", c. 1962 Macmillan Publishing Co. (paperback) p. 71)

The Yankees seemed determined not to fight, no way we could fix it. Every now and then they would send over a "feeler," to see how we were getting along. Sometimes these "feelers" would do some damage. I remember one morning we were away over a hill, and every now and then here would come one of those lazy-looking "feelers," just bouncing along as if he were in no hurry, called in military "ricochet." They were very easy to dodge, if you could see them in time. Well, one morning as before remarked, Lieutenant John Whittaker, then in command of Company H, and myself were sitting down eating breakfast out of the same tin plate. We were sopping gravy out with some cold cornbread, when Captain W. C. Flournoy, of the Martin Guards, hallooed out, "Look out, Sam; look! look!" I just turned my head, and in turning, the cannonball knocked my hat off, and striking Lieutenant Whittaker full in the side of the head, carried away the whole of the skull part, leaving only the face. His brains fell in the plate from which we were sopping, and his head fell in my lap, deluging my face and clothes with his blood. Poor fellow, he never knew what hurt him. His spirit went to his God that morning. Green Rieves carried the poor boy off on his shoulder, and, after wrapping him up in a blanket, buried him. His bones are at Jonesboro today....Green Rieves was the only person at the funeral; no tears of a loving mother or a gentle sister were there. Green interred his body, and there it will remain till the resurrection. (From: "Co. Aytch" by Sam R. Watkins c. 1962 Macmillan Publishing Co. (paperback) pp. 209, 210.)

Photo & Information by Chuck Demastus, a g-g-grandson.