Collection Details:

Creator/Collector: William Jay Royster.
Date(s): April 15, 1907.
Size: 1 folder; 2 pages.
Language(s): English.
Processed by: MDAH intern, Kristina Norman, 2021.
Provenance: Transferred from MDAH Subject Files in 1991; Z/U/1991.050.
Repository: Archives & Records Services Division, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Rights and Access:

Access restrictions: Collection is open for research.

Publication rights: Copyright assigned to the MDAH. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to Reference Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the MDAH as the owner of the physical items and as the owner of the copyright in items created by the donor. Although the copyright was transferred by the donor, the respective creator may still hold copyright in some items in the collection. For further information, contact Reference Ser-vices.

Copyright Notice: This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Preferred citation: William Jay Royster Civil War Memoir, Z/2386.000/S, Mississippi Department of Archives & History.

 

Biography:
Private William Jay Royster

William Jay Royster was born in Yazoo County, Mississippi, on August 30, 1847. He was one of seven children of Ellen Jane Stilley (1829-1895) and Nathaniel Royster (1809-1872). His siblings were Alice Royster (1851-1853), Lou Ernest Royster, (1853-1914), Abby Wyman Royster (b. 1856), Carrie Royster (1860-1957), and Nathaniel Royster (b. 1864).

Royster joined the Confederate States Army in 1863. He would serve as a private in Company K, Wood's Regiment Confederate Cavalry (1st Regiment Mississippi Cavalry, Wirt Adams' Regiment Cavalry), where he witnessed the sinking of the USS Baron DeKalb on July 12, 1863, in the Yazoo River. Royster also appeared on a roll of Prisoners of War of Company K, dated Gainesville, Alabama, May 12, 1865. After the war, he returned to Yazoo County, Mississippi.

The USS Baron DeKalb was an ironclad gunboat originally constructed by the United States Union Navy in St. Louis, Missouri in 1861. In 1862, it took part in the Yazoo Expedition and in action at Drumgould's Bluff. On July 13, 1863, a mine – at that time called a torpedo – in the Yazoo River sunk the USS Baron DeKalb about one mile south of Yazoo City.

At 25 years old and on October 23, 1872, William Jay Royster married Margaret Elizabeth "Maggie" Lumbley (October 23, 1855-January 27, 1919), in Yazoo County, Mississippi. Her parents were Lucy Jane Lewis (1829-1922) and William Washington Lumbley (1822-1896). William Jay and Margaret Elizabeth Royster had four sons and four daughters: Mae Alice Royster (1873-1926), Jessie Maude Royster (1876-1950), Robert Edwin Royster (1878-1938), Nathaniel Royster (1880-?), Pat Moon Royster (1881-?) Abbie Lacey Royster (1883-1950), Joseph Alan Royster (1889-1968), and Opal Margaret Royster (1893-1924).

To support his family, William Jay Royster worked as a painter. In 1891, Royster began his career in public service with his election as coroner and ranger. In 1903, Royster and his family moved to Alamogordo, Otero County, New Mexico, for his wife's health. Royster was elected to justice of the peace for Yazoo County, Mississippi, from 1907-1911.

William Jay Royster died on August 17, 1922, having reached his 74th birthday. He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Yazoo City, Yazoo County, Mississippi.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection consists of a handwritten two-page memoir titled "The Sinking of the Baron DeKalb" by William Jay Royster of Yazoo City, Yazoo County, Mississippi. Royster was formerly a member of Wirt Adams' Regiment Cavalry, Company K. The memoir concerns the sinking of the federal gunboat, the USS Baron DeKalb, in the Yazoo River in 1863. Royster wrote August 1863 as the date of the sinking; however, the historical record confirms that it took place in July 1863. He authored the memoir on April 15, 1907, in Yazoo City, using stationary with the letterhead of J.E.B. Blewett, Broker and Commission Merchant, of Yazoo City.

 

Series Description:

Series 1: "The Sinking of the Baron DeKalb by W.J. Royster."

This collection contains an original two-page handwritten account of the sinking of the USS Baron DeKalb. The account is dated April 15, 1907, forty-four years after the events took place.

Box 1, folder 1

 

Transcription:

Please note this transcription retains the spelling of words as written by the author.

The Sinking of the Baron DeKalb at Yazoo City, Miss., By W.J. Royster, Co. K., Adams Regiment Cavalry.

The writer of this was an eyewitness of the blowing up of the Federal gunboat mentioned, some time during Aug. 1863. After Farragut's defeat at Fort Pemberton in April and his return to the Mississippi thru Tallahatchie river, Moon Lake, and Yazoo Pass, the siege guns, six in all, were brought to Yazoo by boat and were mounted on the hill in embrasures well covered. The guns were of the following caliber: 4 – 64# parrotts about ten ft. long; one 96# Heavy Columbia Rifled; one smooth bore 60 pounder. They were manned by Waul's Celebrated Texas Legion and some other troops, all Infantry, detailed as Artillery men. In the fort (still to be sure) on the hill back of the sawmill were a regiment of North Carolina troops, about 450 men rank and file, and other troops who are not known at this time. There were about 1000 men altogether to defend Yazoo City and save the Gun Boat that was on the Stocks if it were possible. Admiral Farragut ordered four of his best boats to go up the Yazoo River and act with the landing force – Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery – to capture the city and to burn the new boat, and destroy the Navy Yard situated on the site where the Saw Mill now stands. The transports landed their troops under cover of the gunboats at the Sessions Place below Short Creek, now known as the Gadberry Place. The landing was made about noon, and the lines formed at 4 P.M. and they started 2000 strong. The North Carolinians left the fort at once and went east on the Vicksburg road without informing the commander at Yazoo City. The Cavalry circled around the town at once in force, capturing the longest portion of the Waul's Legion. The Gunboats, with the DeKalb in the lead, opened fire on the breastworks about 4 P.M., laying broadside below the point firing rapidly. They were answered by our guns shot for shot until near sun down when the artillery men found their support had left them. They then deserted their guns and the boats advanced at once. As the DeKalb rounded the point, she struck the torpedo just as the sun went down. Capt. Chas. Wallace and the writer had fixed the parrott guns with nails and ran two caissons full of ammunition in the river. When the Federals showed up on top of the hill, we were watching the boat as she came on. Capt. Wallace remarked to me, "Well, she is going to hit our torpedo." When we saw the bow of the boat rise out of the water, heard the rumble and saw the water fly up, then we shouted, "Down she goes!" Parts flew open, officers and men took to the water. She settled back, sidled into the bank, careened over and sank in ten minutes to the bottom of the Yazoo river. Her remains can still be seen in low water, having been there forty-four years. She was one of the best boats in the siege of Vicksburg, being 185 feet long, 42 ft. beams and carried ten heavy guns, and was manned by 380 men. Only two were lost on her, both of them coal heavers who were caught by the coal and went down with the boat.

Yazoo City, Miss.
Apr. 15, 1907