Confederatevets.com



Help support ConfederateVets.com


Search for soldier.

Last Name


State

or

Browse by Last Name

Main
Documents
Bookstore

About Us
E-Mail Comments


More Information on Names in Article
Anthony Hayes Turney

Father And Four Sons In Ranks. By James L. Anthony.

When the war began in 1861, I was barely fifteen years of age, but my father, W. H. Anthony, and my two older brothers, Robert H. and Roddy S. Anthony, volunteered in Col. Peter Turney's 1st Tennessee Regiment, which was afterwards designated "The 1st Confederate," it having been mustered in and left the State in State in April, 1861, before the State seceded. My father served the regiment as chaplain till May, 1862, when he resigned on account of being afflicted with rheumatism contracted in camp.

My two brothers served through all the battles in Virginia, beginning with the first battle of Manassas and continuing through to Gettysburg. They were in the famous Pickett's charge, where Robert H. lost his left leg, taken off above the knee.

On the fiercest day of the battle at Gettysburg, the third day of July, 1863, Roddy S. was captured and carried to Fort Delaware prison, w[h]ere he remained until the close of the war. He is now living near Tullahoma, Tenn., hale and hearty, at the age of 81. Robert H. Anthony died in Victoria, Tex., at the age of 72.

I had another older brother, Nicholas, who volunteered in another regiment in 1862, but he served only a few months and was discharged on account of disability.

In the fall of 1864, Maj. Jordan Hayes had instructions to raise a battalion of cavalry. He raised three companies of perhaps fifty men each, or boys, I should say, for there were not sufficient whiskers in the entire bunch to line a bird's nest. We attempted to go out with Hood's army, but were cut off, so we turned and went out through East Tennessee and into North Carolina, across South Carolina, and across Georgia below Atlanta into Alabama, to a point on the Coosa River, some miles below Gadsden, where we were when the war ended. We broke camp there May 15, 1865, and were paroled in Chattanooga on the 16th and went into Tullahoma in a box car, upright, however, on the 17th.

I make no claim to any heroic deeds, but am entitled, perhaps, to one distinction. I belonged to a family whose father and four sons all served in the Confederate army and were all honorably discharged. The three oldest, or two of them at least, served in the first regiment made up in the State, and I, the youngest, in the very last command made up in the Confederacy and perhaps the last whole command paroled. I have the muster rolls of my company.


SOURCE: Confederate Veteran Magazine, June, 1922.


ConfederateVets.com

Promote Your Page Too