Samuel
Washington Jenkins
Samuel was
the first doctor in the Soddy,
Tennessee
area. He
was born in
Bryson City
,
North Carolina
in 1848, in a family of 11 children.
Five brothers fought for the Confederacy, but Samuel was too young (13)
when the war began. When he was 16,
he tried to enlist in the Confederate Army but they refused to take him.
So he joined the Union Army in
Maryville
,
Tennessee
, with the Tennessee Calvary Volunteers.
This group carried supplies to General Sherman in his “March to the
Sea” from
Atlanta
to
Savannah
,
Georgia
.
Samuel’s
assignments involved building a bridge over the Tennessee River, fighting in
Okolona
,
Mississippi
, participating in a Union victory at Ivy
Farm,
Mississippi
against Confederate General Nathan Bedford
Forrest. Later General Forrest
returned to
North Alabama
where Samuel and 300 members of his 3rd
Regiment were taken prisoners after a hard-fought battle.
They were taken to Castle Morgan at
Cahaba
,
Alabama
.
Conditions
were harsh as it was located on a bluff where the
Cahaba
River
joined the
Alabama River
. Flooding
was quite common in the spring, leading to poor sanitation and disease.
After six
months at Cahaba Prison Samuel’s group was moved by train to
Vicksburg
,
Mississippi
, for a prisoner exchange.
They were put on a large steamboat, the Sultana, which was overcrowded
and had faulty boilers. At 2 a.m. on
April 27, 1865, seven miles out of
Memphis
, all Hell broke loose.
Three of the four boilers erupted with volcanic fury.
Sam was on the top deck and blown to the deck below which resulted in a
hernia that caused problems for him all his life.
Samuel,
being a good swimmer, made it to the shore and was in a
Memphis
hospital for a few weeks.
After being discharged from the army in
Nashville
, he walked home to
Bryson
City
.
Little
mention has been made of the Sultana disaster since it occurred the week after
President Lincoln was assassinated. However,
more died on the Sultana than did on the Titanic, and almost as many as in the
9/11 terrorist attach in 2001. Samuel
was certainly a survivor at 17.
A year later
he married Eliza Rose, and they had a family of five boys and two girls.
They lived on a farm in
North Carolina
, but soon moved to
Ducktown
,
Tennessee
. When
Samuel was 39, he moved his family to
Soddy
,
Tennessee
, where he worked in the coal mines and did
light farming. In 1889, Eliza died,
leaving seven children for him to bring up.
In 1894, Samuel graduated from the
College
of
Medicine
in
Chattanooga
,
Tennessee
, and began a new career as a doctor in
Bakewell, and
Soddy
,
Tennessee
. In
1901, he married Sallie Goode, and over the next 23 years they had 13 children,
making a total of 20 children for Samuel.
Samuel
lived to be 84, outliving both of his wives.
He traveled to many homes to care for the sick even though many were
unable to pay for his services. Jerry
Berry was a faithful black man who drove his buggy for his house calls and a
trusted companion to Samuel.
Rachel J. Penney,
Granddaughter of Samuel Jenkins
Arlene
P. Chissom, Great Granddaughter of Samuel Jenkins
Submitted
by Arlene Chissom
abchissom@comcast.net