Mahone's Brigade
Then
Sixty-first Infantry Regiment
|
Colonel
William Frederic Niemeyer
By Jean Sylvester Spencer William
Frederic Niemeyer was the eldest of twelve children born to William
Angus and Sarah Howad Chandler Niemeyer, in Portsmouth, Virginia on May
12 1840. The Niemeyer Family moved several times in the next
twenty years but always stayed in the Portsmouth/Norfolk County
area. They were a normal family of their time until war came
to
Portsmouth.
The three sons were old enough to join the Confederate Army upon the call for troops. John Chandler Niemeyer, the second son returned home from the Virginia Military Institute, where he had been a student and he was made a Sergeant in the Old Dominion Guard, Company K, 9th Virginia Regiment. On July 3, 1863, John Niemeyer then a Lieutenant was killed, leading his men in Pickett's charge in Gettysburg. Afterwards, his father went to Gettysburg to the battlefield to look for his son, but he had already been buried in one of the many trenches with other soldiers and his grave was not marked. A memorial stone was placed in the Cedar Grove Cemetery, Portsmouth in his honor. Henry Victor Niemeyer, the third son was only sixteen years old, enlisted as a private soldier. In September 1862, he was discharged for being underage, but he enlisted again in the Signal Corps. Henry was taken as a prisoner of war and sent to Point Lookout, Maryland in July 1864. After Henry's release in March 1865, he returned to the Army and was with Genera Lee's troops at the surrender of Appomattox. William Fredereic had just completed his four years at West Point having been appointed there in June 3, 1857 by President Buchanan and although his resignation was not accepted by the authorities at West Point, he along with other Southern gentleman, returned to their homes in the south. He was within a short period of time, elected Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixty First Virginia Regiment, Mahone's Brigade, composed mostly of local men of Portsmouth, Norfolk and Norfolk County. Colonel Niemeyer was prominent in all the battles in which his regiment participated, and, at the Battle of Rappahannock Bridge, in October 1862, he was severely wounded in the ankle by flying grapeshot from the Federal's cannon. He recovered quickly and re-entered active service. In the next two years, he took part in all the battles fought by Mahone's Brigade. He was personally complimented, on the battlefield by General Robert E. Lee. Brigadier-General William Mahone was promoted to Major General, and recommended Col. Niemeyer to succeed him in command of Mahone's Brigade, Col. Niemeyer was only 23 years old. General Mahone's opinion of Col. Niemeyer was, "that young cock can kill more Yankees in one day than the rest of the whole damned Brigade in a month". Col. Niemeyer would have been only one of two Brigadier-General's at the age of 24, the other one was Brig. Gen. James Dearing, both were in the same class at West Point. In April 1864, he was commissioned a Brigadier-General, but before he could receive, sign and return his commission papers, he fell at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 12, 1864, his 24th birthday. Captain McAlpine of Co. I, 61st Virginia Regiment had just presented the Colonel with a fine Union Officers horse when the Colonel's heart was pierced by a bullet from a Federal sharpshooter. It was the deepest penetration of the "Bloody Angle" on the second day that Col. Niemeyer was killed. General Mahone was deeply moved by the death of his young colonel; it is reported that the young colonel's body, still immaculately uniformed, was laid on top of the table in the General's tent; General Mahone stood with his head bowed in silence, and used his long white coat to wipe the mud from Col. Niemyer's boots, which had been muddied when he fell from his horse. In 1861, he had married Sarah Campbell Smith, daughter of William Campbell and Martha Emmerson Smith of Portsmouth. They had one child, John Frederic Niemeyer, born December 3, 1864, seven months after his father's death. General Mahone once wrote in a letter years after the war, "Of all the gallant band of soldiers from Portsmouth, I remember best the gallant, youthful Colonel Niemeyer, who fell in the van of Spotsylvania." And in a speech delivered to the citizens of Portsmouth in 1863, General Fitzhugh Lee is exhorting the people to help redeem the State from radical rule, said: "I hardly feel the need of urging you to do your duty, for I expect much from the city that produced the gallant Niemeyer." Col. Niemeyer was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, VA and lies there today beside his wife and her parents and other members of the Niemeyer-Smith families. He also has an "In Memorial" stone in Cedar Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth, VA. He was elected posthumously to the "Stonewall Camp" UCV. Bibliography: Genealogy of the Niemeyer, Chandler, Lawson, Calvert Families and others by Louise Niemeyer Fontaine 61st Virginia Infantry by Benjamin H. Trask Norfolk County 1861-1865 by John W. H. Porter Cedar Grove Cemetery Record compiled by Stonewall Camp, SCV |