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The Following article by Andrew Brown was published in the Journal of Mississippi History, Volume 21, Number 3, July 1959. It is copyrighted and is posted here courtesy Journal of Mississippi History, November 30, 2001. If copied or printed this copyright notice must be retained. Permission from the above must be obtained to use it for anything other than personal use.
Solomon G. Street, or Sol Street, was the son of Anderson Street, one of the pioneer settlers of Tippah County, Mississippi. The elder Street's home was about ten miles northwest of Ripley, the county seat, and about fifteen miles south of Saulsbury, Tennessee. Little is known of the early life of his son, who was a small boy when the family moved to Mississippi, beyond the facts that he was thirty years old in 1861, that he was married - his wife's name was Rhoda - and that he was making a good living as a carpenter when the Civil War broke out. Sometime between March and May, 1861, he enlisted in the Magnolia Guards, a volunteer company that had been organized at Ripley in late 1860 or early 1861. The Magnolia Guards assembled at Ripley on April 30, marched to Saulsbury, and there took the cars for Corinth where they became Company F of the Second Mississippi Infantry.
The Second Mississippi was sent almost immediately after its organization to Lynchburg, Virginia, where on May 9 it was mustered into the provisional army of the Confederate States. On the same day Street was made third sergeant of his company and served in that capacity for more than a year. He was a giant of a man, possessed of a booming voice that carried into the farthest recesses of the regimental camp. After Sol Street had become a legend in North Mississippi, a survivor of the regiment recalled Sergeant Street's orders as he drilled his men: "Hold them heads up! Look fierce! Look mean! Look like the devil Look like me!". How well he succeeded in making the men of Company F look like the devil or Sol Street is not known, but it is a matter of record that they were good soldiers.
Street served with the Second Mississippi in the campaign of first Manassas in 1861 and at the battle of Seven Pines and in the Seven Days Battles around Richmond in 1862. While McClellan was being pushed away from the Confederate capital by Lee, however, affairs took an opposite turn in the West. On May 31, Beauregard evacuated Corinth, and within a month Federal troops were ranging far and wide throughout Northeast Mississippi, the homeland of the Second Mississippi. The news was not long in reaching Virginia; and in July a considerable number of the men in the regiment took advantage of a provision of the recently enacted conscription law, obtained substitutes, and returned to their homes. Among those who took this step was Sol Street; he obtained his discharge from the Army of Northern Virginia on July 28 and returned to Tippah County in August. There he found conditions even worse than he had feared. Not only was Union cavalry roaming throughout Northeast Mississippi almost at will, but Confederate and State authorities were bickering over responsibility for the defense of the region while neither was able to offer any effective resistance to the invaders. In the meantime property was being destroyed, slaves were being carried away and the lives of noncombatants were in imminent danger. It became evident to Street within a matter of days after his arrival that the citizens themselves must provide such protection as Northeast Mississippi received.
The first step toward an adequate home defense was taken by William C. Falkner, the first captain of Street's Company F and later colonel of the Second Mississippi. Falkner had been defeated for the colonelcy at the reorganization of April, 1862, and had returned to Ripley. There he recruited, almost entirely from Tippah County, a regiment of cavalry containing about 750 men known subsequently as the First Mississippi Partisan Rangers. The Rangers were mustered into Confederate service early in August and served creditably until the middle of November, when the Conscription Bureau, taking advantage of some irregularities in the regiment's organization, broke it up in a vain attempt to obtain conscripts for the regular Confederate forces. Although Falkner later reorganized the regiment, the result of the Conscription Bureau's action was to leave Tippah and adjoining counties practically stripped of defenders. It was at this black time that Sol Street reentered the picture.
Solomon G. Street, or Sol Street, was the son of Anderson Street, one of the pioneer settlers of Tippah County, Mississippi. The elder Street's home was about ten miles northwest of Ripley, the county seat, and about fifteen miles south of Saulsbury, Tennessee. Little is known of the early life of his son, who was a small boy when the family moved to Mississippi, beyond the facts that he was thirty years old in 1861, that he was married - his wife's name was Rhoda - and that he was making a good living as a carpenter when the Civil War broke out. Sometime between March and May, 1861, he enlisted in the Magnolia Guards, a volunteer company that had been organized at Ripley in late 1860 or early 1861. The Magnolia Guards assembled at Ripley on April 30, marched to Saulsbury, and there took the cars for Corinth where they became Company F of the Second Mississippi Infantry.
The Second Mississippi was sent almost immediately after its organization to Lynchburg, Virginia, where on May 9 it was mustered into the provisional army of the Confederate States. On the same day Street was made third sergeant of his company and served in that capacity for more than a year. He was a giant of a man, possessed of a booming voice that carried into the farthest recesses of the regimental camp. After Sol Street had become a legend in North Mississippi, a survivor of the regiment recalled Sergeant Street's orders as he drilled his men: "Hold them heads up! Look fierce! Look mean! Look like the devil Look like me!". How well he succeeded in making the men of Company F look like the devil or Sol Street is not known, but it is a matter of record that they were good soldiers.
Street served with the Second Mississippi in the campaign of first Manassas in 1861 and at the battle of Seven Pines and in the Seven Days Battles around Richmond in 1862. While McClellan was being pushed away from the Confederate capital by Lee, however, affairs took an opposite turn in the West. On May 31, Beauregard evacuated Corinth, and within a month Federal troops were ranging far and wide throughout Northeast Mississippi, the homeland of the Second Mississippi. The news was not long in reaching Virginia; and in July a considerable number of the men in the regiment took advantage of a provision of the recently enacted conscription law, obtained substitutes, and returned to their homes. Among those who took this step was Sol Street; he obtained his discharge from the Army of Northern Virginia on July 28 and returned to Tippah County in August. There he found conditions even worse than he had feared. Not only was Union cavalry roaming throughout Northeast Mississippi almost at will, but Confederate and State authorities were bickering over responsibility for the defense of the region while neither was able to offer any effective resistance to the invaders. In the meantime property was being destroyed, slaves were being carried away and the lives of noncombatants were in imminent danger. It became evident to Street within a matter of days after his arrival that the citizens themselves must provide such protection as Northeast Mississippi received.
The first step toward an adequate home defense was taken by William C. Falkner, the first captain of Street's Company F and later colonel of the Second Mississippi. Falkner had been defeated for the colonelcy at the reorganization of April, 1862, and had returned to Ripley. There he recruited, almost entirely from Tippah County, a regiment of cavalry containing about 750 men known subsequently as the First Mississippi Partisan Rangers. The Rangers were mustered into Confederate service early in August and served creditably until the middle of November, when the Conscription Bureau, taking advantage of some irregularities in the regiment's organization, broke it up in a vain attempt to obtain conscripts for the regular Confederate forces. Although Falkner later reorganized the regiment, the result of the Conscription Bureau's action was to leave Tippah and adjoining counties practically stripped of defenders. It was at this black time that Sol Street reentered the picture.