Southern Graves

Edward Wills Watkins was born 25 September 1839 in Jackson County, Georgia to Robert H. and Margret Winters Watkins. Edward joined the Confederate States Army about 1862 and was a 2nd Lieutenant for Company D of the 6th Georgia Cavalry. Nine months after the Civil War ended, Edward married Georgia Butt in Union County, Georgia. The couple had at least six children, two of which died in infancy. The four to reach adulthood were Estelle Watkins Edwards (1870-1910); Edward Wills Watkins, Jr. (1876-1963); Emory Clifford Watkins (1881-1960); and Claude G. Watkins (1884-1927). Edward W. Watkins graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, Ohio in 1867. According to the Lloyd Library & Museum -- Eclectic medicine was a branch of American medicine which made use of noninvasive therapies and healing practices popular in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Eclectic medicine became a populist expansion of early American herbal medicine customs, such as those

Carrie Zona Penland was born in April 1895 at Gilmer County, Georgia to Thomas Young Penland (1850-1941) and Huldy Corline Orr (1859-1902). She was a sister of Georgia State Representative Samuel Oscar Penland (1882-1961) and wife of East Ellijay merchant Fred A. Reece (1893-1942). Carrie and Fred were married in Gilmer County on 19 December 1916. The couple had four children: Margaret, Ruby, Fred, and Frances. On a Sunday in mid-February 1924, a couple months before her 29th birthday, Carrie committed suicide. Atlanta Constitution  (Georgia) 20 February 1924 Mrs. Carrie Reece Mother of Four Ends Own Life Ellijay, Ga., February 19. -- (Special.) -- Following funeral services Monday for Mrs. Carrie Reece, who committed suicide at her home at East Ellijay Sunday, the husband and four children began the work of rebuilding the shattered home. Mental disorder on account of a religious obsession is said to have been responsible for the act. The children said that the mother came into the yar

4+ years ago I wrote about 1st Lieut. Eugene C. Jeffers and his status as one of the "Immortal 600." I first learned about this Civil War history when visiting Fort Pulaski some 10 or more years ago. An informational marker at the National Monument provided the following: The Immortal 600 were a group of Confederate officers held as prisoners of war at Fort Pulaski during the bitterly cold winter of 1864-1865. They were moved here from Charleston where they had been placed in the line of artillery fire in retaliation for what was viewed as similar treatment of Union POW's. The fallen officers endured many hardships, including a six-week diet of rancid cornmeal and pickles…From dysentery, chronic diarrhea, scurvy, and pneumonia, thirteen of the prisoners died while here at Fort Pulaski. The National Park Service website provides a bit more detail: The story of the Immortal 600 began on August 20, 1864, when a chosen group of 600 Confederate prisoners of war were t

Charles David Anderson was born 22 May 1827 in DeKalb County, Georgia to William Robert Anderson and Annie Coker. Charles married Mary Caroline Hiley about 1851, and the couple had at least six children. After a life that included Civil War service on the side of the Confederacy "conspicuous for its bravery," Charles died on 22 February 1901 in Fort Valley, GA. He was buried there in Oaklawn Cemetery. Per Wikipedia  -- Anderson participated in the Maryland Campaign in the fall of 1862, fighting during the Battle of Antietam on September 17. In the fight he was wounded and captured by Union forces, and exchanged later that year. Upon release Anderson was promoted to major, effective back to the date of the Battle of Antietam... In 1863 Anderson participated in the Chancellorsville Campaign and was seriously wounded on May 3. He was hit in his shoulder, his abdomen, as well as his left hand, losing a finger in the process...Upon returning home to Georgia, Anderson was appointed

Myles Lafayette Green was a son of Peter B. Greene (d. 1836). In 1850, Myles married Ann E. Persons (1832-1879). This union produced at least five children: Ella G. (d. 1892), Myles Claude (d. 1923), Orville Lafayette (d. 1890), George Peter (d. 1926), and Mary Lois "Mamie" (d. 1923). Mamie was born approximately six weeks after the death of her father. And the deaths of Myles Claude and his sister Mamie were separated by just three months. Myles L., his wife Ann, and their three sons were all buried in Oaklawn Cemetery at Fort Valley, Georgia. Southern Christian Advocate  (Macon, Georgia) 5 January 1866 - pg. 8 Obituary. MYLES L. GREENE  was born February 6th, 1826, and died in Fort Valley, Ga., Dec. 8th, '65. He joined the M. E. Church in early life, but never became a decided, experimental, active and zealous christian, until he was the head of a family. From this time, the family altar was erected, and his pious fidelity continued during his entire after life. He serv

John Clayton Walden was born 26 March 1846 in Georgia to John M. and Elizabeth Walden. On 8 May 1862, at just over 16 years of age, the younger John was mustered in as a private in Company E (captained by C. H. Richardson ) of the 57th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry. John's Civil War service record ascribed to him the age of 17 years at the time. Bet he fudged a little bit. In his history of the 57th titled Hell's Broke Loose in Georgia *, Scott Walker wrote the following about the Battle of Champion Hill / Baker's Creek: As the men of the Fifty-seventh Georgia crossed Baker's Creek late on the night of May 16 [1863] and raced through the dark for the Big Black River [Mississippi], they were no longer strangers to such tragedy and horror. Their memories were scarred forever by the early days of the Vicksburg campaign. And this portion he wrote about the Siege of Vicksburg: As soon as [General] Grant resigned himself to a siege, he ordered his engineers to begin mo