Private Francis Bryan Cheek
Dublin Core
Title
Private Francis Bryan Cheek
Subject
Company F, 22nd Regiment N.C. Troops
Description
Alleghany County’s first Confederate company, known as the “Alleghany True Blues,” enlisted for twelve months service on May 27, 1861, and numbered 106 men and boys. The “Record of Events” from the July 15-August 31 muster roll recounts the company’s early history: “[Left] Alleghany County June 24, 1861. [M]arched to Statesville distance 75 miles. [F]rom thence to Raleigh 175 miles, and stationed at Camp Carolina . . . one month 6th of July to the 6th of August. [F]rom thence to Richmond and stationed there 9 days. [F]rom thence to Brooks Station, [Virginia], distance 85 miles and stationed there and vicinity from 16-31 Aug 1861.”
Upon its arrival at Raleigh the “True Blues” were assigned as Company F to the 12th Regiment N.C. Volunteers, commanded by Colonel (and subsequent brigadier general) James Johnston Pettigrew. In November 1861 the 12th N.C. Volunteers were redesignated as the 22nd Regiment N.C. Troops.
Private Francis Bryan Cheek (born April 20, 1841) resided with his parents and seven siblings on a prosperous farm in Alleghany County and enlisted with a brother in the “True Blues” on May 27. Unfortunately, few original documents from Company F survive. Only two muster rolls—the first one covering July-August 1861 and another covering July-October 1864—are still extant. Few details of Cheek’s service remain. We know from a November 1861 letter from his brother that Francis (“Frank”) was ill: “The doctor offered Frank a furlough but he said it was too far and would cost too much to go and he concluded he would stay and see if he couldn’t get well here. It costs a man about twenty-five dollars at least to go home.” [The pay of a Confederate private was usually $11.00 per month.]
There is only one other Confederate military document that pertains to Private Cheek. A regimental return for March 1862 lists Cheek as absent without leave “from the twenty fourth of March when his furlough expired.”
Cheek’s whereabouts for the next three years are not officially recorded, but he appears again in March-April 1865 on several U.S. Army documents. His name is on a register of prisoners of war—compiled at Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 29, 1865—who were “Rebel Deserters,” with the notation “sent to Chattanooga.” Cheek signed an Oath of Allegiance to the United States at Knoxville on March 31 which states that he “Deserted at Culpeper Court House, Va., August 3, 1863.” His name also appears on an undated roll of “Deserters from the Rebel Army” which states that he was discharged from custody on April 3, 1865, “Oath and to remain North of the Ohio River during the war.” Finally, another oath, sworn at Louisville, Kentucky, on April 5, provides a description: “fair complexion, sandy hair, blue eyes, and 6 feet tall.”
Cheek returned to Alleghany County after the war and became a reverend. He died on February 26, 1934, and is buried at the Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery, Whitehead, Alleghany County.
Upon its arrival at Raleigh the “True Blues” were assigned as Company F to the 12th Regiment N.C. Volunteers, commanded by Colonel (and subsequent brigadier general) James Johnston Pettigrew. In November 1861 the 12th N.C. Volunteers were redesignated as the 22nd Regiment N.C. Troops.
Private Francis Bryan Cheek (born April 20, 1841) resided with his parents and seven siblings on a prosperous farm in Alleghany County and enlisted with a brother in the “True Blues” on May 27. Unfortunately, few original documents from Company F survive. Only two muster rolls—the first one covering July-August 1861 and another covering July-October 1864—are still extant. Few details of Cheek’s service remain. We know from a November 1861 letter from his brother that Francis (“Frank”) was ill: “The doctor offered Frank a furlough but he said it was too far and would cost too much to go and he concluded he would stay and see if he couldn’t get well here. It costs a man about twenty-five dollars at least to go home.” [The pay of a Confederate private was usually $11.00 per month.]
There is only one other Confederate military document that pertains to Private Cheek. A regimental return for March 1862 lists Cheek as absent without leave “from the twenty fourth of March when his furlough expired.”
Cheek’s whereabouts for the next three years are not officially recorded, but he appears again in March-April 1865 on several U.S. Army documents. His name is on a register of prisoners of war—compiled at Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 29, 1865—who were “Rebel Deserters,” with the notation “sent to Chattanooga.” Cheek signed an Oath of Allegiance to the United States at Knoxville on March 31 which states that he “Deserted at Culpeper Court House, Va., August 3, 1863.” His name also appears on an undated roll of “Deserters from the Rebel Army” which states that he was discharged from custody on April 3, 1865, “Oath and to remain North of the Ohio River during the war.” Finally, another oath, sworn at Louisville, Kentucky, on April 5, provides a description: “fair complexion, sandy hair, blue eyes, and 6 feet tall.”
Cheek returned to Alleghany County after the war and became a reverend. He died on February 26, 1934, and is buried at the Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery, Whitehead, Alleghany County.
Creator
Unknown Photographer
Source
1860 U. S. Census, Alleghany County, North Carolina, population schedule, page 17, dwelling 314, family 273, H.C. Cheek household; Manarin et. al., North Carolina Troops 7:47-57; Mast, State Troops and Volunteers, 7:47-57; service record files of Francis B. Cheek, 22nd Regiment N.C. Troops, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers from the State of North Carolina (M270), RG109, NA; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/search?firstname=Francis&middlename=Bryan&lastname=Cheek&birthyear=1841&birthyearfilter=&deathyear=&deathyearfilter=&location=Alleghany+County%2C+North+Carolina%2C+United+States+of+America&locationId=county_1653&memorialid=&mcid=&linkedToName=&datefilter=&orderby=r
Contributor
Greg Mast Collection
Format
Copy Print
Files
Citation
Unknown Photographer, “Private Francis Bryan Cheek,” Tar Heel Faces, accessed April 30, 2024, https://tarheelfaces.omeka.net/items/show/142.
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