civil war soldier. Obviously hard to prove, especially on the conferderate side, but here's the story. I have his pension application that provides most of this, including his age.

In TN he was "hey you" drafted by a TN confederate militia unit at 13 years old. A few weeks later he left and found his way to the 1st TN Cav, where he enlisted. He was captured soon after and given his age and I guess the fact that they didn't know he was a deserter from the confederates, he was sent home rather to a prison camp.

He went back not long after and joined back up with the 1st TN Cav, where he was once again captured (not very good at the soldiering thing I guess) and sent to Belle Isle prison camp (on the James River just outside of Richmond). Interestingly, our family first settled in Prince George County VA in th 1630's, so not far from the original family homestead. He contracted TB while there and was released as part of a prisoner exchange after about 18 months. He went home on a medical discharge.

As a farmer, TB made things hard so he taught himself to read and eventually passed the bar and became an attorney.