Jasper Denmark

Jasper Denmark

Jasper Denmark CSA g2grandfather

From Madison County, Florida, enlisted with his brother Newton as a Private on 20 August 1861 at the age of 23.  Mustered in Company M, 2nd Infantry Regiment Florida. Sick over that winter, he was discharged from Company M, 2nd Infantry Regiment Florida on 26 Dec 1861.  Enlisted in Company G, 5th Infantry Regiment Florida on 3 Mar 1862.  Captured while serving rear guard in Company G, 5th Infantry Regiment Florida a few days before 7 Apr 1865 during Lee's retreat from Petersburg.

There was a lot of fighting the bureaucrats in his widow’s pension applications, as he was mistakenly listed a deserter the week after Lee’s surrender.  Numerous fellow-soldier veterans had to testify that he was not a deserter and was in fact captured.  To quote one, “…about April 1, 1865, at which time Jasper Denmark with some others were left in the breastworks to look out for and guard against the Yankees while the command marched to Appomattox Court House…When we left, Jasper begged not to be left, saying he was ‘too tall and his back too broad for the enemy to shoot at,’ but he was ordered to stay in the diches (sic) and we left him there…to my knowledge, two of the men who were left with him were shot and killed and Jasper was captured and made prisoner of war.  He was in my Company all the time and made a good soldier and never did desert.” – Thomas J. Freeman.

Probable campaigns:  Yorktown under Magruder, September 17, 1861 to first discharge.  Pryor’s Brigade, Second Bull Run (Second Manassas) August 28-30 1862.  Sharpsburg (Antietam, including “Bloody Lane”) Sept 17-18 1862.  Perry’s Immortal Brigade, Fredericksburg Dec 11-15 1862.  Chancellorsville Apr 20-May 6 1863.  Gettysburg July 1-4 1863.  Bristoe Station October 1863.  Wilderness May 5-6 1864.  Cold Harbor May 31-June 12 1864.  Siege of Petersburg 1864-1865.  Lee’s Retreat Mar 25-capture Apr 2 1865.