"A Few Steps Into Hell": The Wartime Letters of the Berryman Brothers of Company I, First Texas Infantry, Hood's Texas Brigade

A Few Steps into Hell is an unusual personal record of the Berryman brothers of Hood’s Texas Brigade in the American Civil War. Foremost, it is primarily the text of actual letters they wrote at the time, not recollections from their later years.
The wartime service of the Berryman brothers covered some of the most significant battles of the war: Gaines’ Mill, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg (Antietam), Gettysburg, and the Wilderness. It is well known that the regiments of Hood’s Texas Brigade, comprised of the 1st, 4th, and 5th Texas infantry and, at times, additional troops from Georgia, South Carolina, and Arkansas, were often used as “shock troops” within the Army of Northern Virginia. General Robert E. Lee called out when Texas troops arrived at a critical juncture at the Battle of the Wilderness, “Texans always move them!”

In addition, the brothers and their family were educated and well-informed. Their father, Captain Henry N. Berryman of Virginia, graduated from West Point in 1817 and served in the U.S. 7th Infantry until 1833. Their mother, Helena Kimble Dill, was the earliest documented Anglo baby born in Texas, at Nacogdoches in 1804. Her parents sent her to school in Natchitoches, LA, where she met and married Captain Berryman.

In 1913 Waters Berryman attended the 50th Reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg. The moving essay he wrote about that experience is quite stirring and a lesson all Americans will still find relevant today.

A 7th generation East Texan, James Michael Pittmon's love of history was instilled in him by his great grandmother, Helena Elmina Berryman Ginn, granddaughter of Pvt. Henry Waters Berryman.  She was born at Forest Hill in December 1900 and was 21 years old when her grandfather died.  Michael was 16 years old when she died so she shared many, many family stories with him, his sister and brother.  The stories she shared seemed almost first-hand accounts, bringing them to life in a way that made the siblings understand that history was the story of the lives of real persons, just like themselves, but without the benefit of knowing how events would play out.  By learning and understanding history, they would have a better understanding of other people and the world.
Michael holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Management and an M.S. in Industrial Safety from the University of Texas at Tyler.  After a 13-year career in manufacturing, he joined his wife Cynthia in the medical management company she founded in 1993.  They are proud that their family is taking leadership of the company, guiding it into its fourth decade.  Michael is a life member of the Hood's Texas Brigade Association, Reactivated, and a co-founder of the Berryman Family Cemetery Association with his cousin Mr. Joe Berryman.