The Long Journey Of Walter M. Bryson And George Mills

Walter "Watt" M. Bryson had just returned home to Henderson County from Charleston, SC with his medical degree from the South Carolina Medical College (now called the Citadel) when the Civil War broke out. Bryson quickly joined the company of men from Henderson County that became known as the "Henderson Rifles" and was sent to Raleigh to train for battle. The Henderson Rifles were mustered into state service early in November 1861 and became Company G of the 35th North Carolina Regiment.

Bryson was promoted to Captain in April 1862 and at some point and time, his lifelong friend, George Mills, was sent to be his servant. The two men had grown up together from boyhood and now were sent off to war to defend their southern homes. Bryson's father, William Bryson, was one of the wealthier people in Henderson County and he sent young George off with the instructions to join the younger Bryson in Raleigh, look after him, and bring him home after the war was over. The first battle that was fought in was the Battle of New Bern, then the Battle of King's School House, followed quickly by the the Battle of Malvern Hill, and Bryson survived all of these actions with George waiting anxiously for him in camp at the end of the day.

On September 17th, 1862, Confederate and Union forces met at the Battle of Sharpsburg in Maryland and unfortunately, Walter M. Bryson was one of three men that the 35th North Carolina Regiment had killed in action that day. When Bryson did not return at the end of the day, George went searching for his body and found him on the field of battle with a single bullet wound to his head. A distraught George picked his friend up and took him to an abandoned farm house near the battlefield that night until he could figure out what to do. George eventually got the body to a train depot in Fredericsburg, VA where he procured a cast iron casket with some money he had found on Watt's body and sealed Watt's body inside. He then boarded a train that eventually made its way to Greenville, TN where he purchased a horse and a wagon with the remainder of the money and started the journey back to Henderson County to return William Bryson's son home from the war.

The rugged and perilous journey from Bryson's death to Mills arrival in Hendersonville, almost took ten months. Mills arrived back in Hendersonville at the end of June 1863. Bryson's body was buried at a Methodist church in Hendersonville and 60 years later, his body was reinterred at Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville. George Mills was present at both ceremonies. George Mills became a free man and he served in the Henderson County Home Guards for the remainder of the war and became active in the Confederate Veterans associations after the war. He was given a full Confederate pension until his death in 1926. The story of Watt Bryson and George Mills is about loyalty, duty, compassion, sense of honor and more importantly, a friendship that transcended the social customs of the times.