Descendants Roll Call Of

Noteworthy Regiments That Served

During The Petersburg Campaign

Honoring Confederate Soldiers

Who Fought With Valor And Persistence

Soldier's Notes

Private William D. Harvey, 56th Virginia Infantry, Company I, was from the Charlotte County area of Madisonville. He wrote a letter to his wife on September 11, 1864, from the outskirts of Petersburg. Private William D. Harvey has a Confederate marker and is buried in the cemetery at Salem Baptist Church, Pamplin, Virginia.

William Joseph Howerton, Company C, 3rd. Virginia Calvary, resided in Cluster Springs, VA was wounded at Petersburg, VA and served with General Lee at Appotomax, VA. He was honored each year as the oldest living Confederate Soldier. He died in 1938.

1st Sgt. Paul Peeler, of the 57th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, Co. C., indicates that he was captured in Petersburg on April 3, 1865.

Benjamin Moses Wesley served in the Fourth Alabama Cavalry Battalion (Love’s) which was consolidated with the Phillips’ (GA) Legion, Wade Hampton’s Cavalry Battalion from May to 11 July 1864. Then they merged into the Jeff. Davis (MS) Cavalry Legion. They were involved in The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna, 2nd Cold Harbor, Treviliam Station, and the Petersburg Siege.

Capt. Thomas Hadley, b. May 13, 1842, d. September 5, 1871, is buried at the Hamburg Cemetery, Ashley County, Arkansas. The 3rd Arkansas was serving in Longstreet's First Army Corps, Field's Division, Gregg's Brigade. They came down from Richmond as the battle progressed on April 2, 1865 and stabilized the Confederate lines, which allowed General Lee's orderly withdrawal from the Petersburg lines. Quotes from "They'll Do To Tie To!" 3rd. Ark. Infantry Regiment - C.S.A. by Capt. Calvin L. Collier, U.S.A.F: Enemy bullets were ripping through the brush like a hail storm, knocking down men in appalling numbers. Major Wilkins is down, killed instantly. Captain Hadley of "A" Company falls, stunned but not badly hurt." At Petersburg: "On July 19th T. J. Hadley of "A" Company was again struck down. This time he was shot in the head by a sharpshooter and put out of action for the balance of the war."

Capt. Thomas J. Hadley. Died in 1871 at 29 years of age. He never married.

 

As an ex Confederate States Soldier, I appreciate your efforts in trying to gather up the deeds of that Grand Army of Southern boys and bid your association God Speed.

At Wedowee, Randolph County, Alabama in the early part of the year 1862. I enlisted in Company “G” 59th Regiment Alabama Infantry, Gracie’s Brigade. Our Company was commanded by Captain Gus Reeves, Lieut., Lucus and our Regiment by Colonel Hall. Adjutant Hall, brother of the Colonel. I do not now remember the names of their other officers. I took part in the following Battles: Pea Ridge (East Tennessee), Chickamauga, Richmond, VA, Petersburg, VA, Skirmish at Knoxville TN, and many skirmishes around Richmond and Petersburg.

I was in the ditches at Petersburg. I received a gunshot wound at the Battle of Petersburg and was in the ditches there when the Yankee tunneled under and blew us up and I sustained a broken collarbone and my head was injured from the explosions. It is impossible for me to narrate all the gloomy days of hand fighting, weary marches, sleepless nights and empty Haversacks that we passed through. I was under 20 years of age, when I left a comfortable home and dear parents and became one of the Southern Soldier Boys.

I have never regretted that I offered my services and did all that I could in defenses of my Country and our beautiful Flag, which though furled, I love it yet. I have tried to impress on the minds of my children that the Southern Soldiers were not traitors, but that the North was waging upon us a War of attempted subjugation.

God grant that through the instrumentality of your noble association, a truce and a just history of the Confederacy will be obtained. I was taken a prisoner of War at Petersburg and sent to Point Lookout Md Prison. I was there only a short time, until the sad tidings came of the surrender of Gen Robert E. Lee with the Army of Northern Virginia. I was discharged and Paroled at Point Lookout Md and returned to my house in Randolph County Alabama. I was born in Chambers County Alabama September 1st 1843. I have lived in Limestone County Alabama for quite a while, P.O. Maples Alabama.

Signed, Seaborn Thornton

Peter Boyer Perry was originally from Lancaster, South Carolina. In 1845, he was 19 years old and his younger brother Charles joined the U. S. Army in a frenzy of war excitement at the beginning of the War with Mexico. His mother was afraid that Charles would be killed, due to his youth and rashness, so she asked the older brother, Peter to enlist and go with him. They were in the Palmetto Battallion. After training, they were with the troops that landed in Vera Cruz Mexico. Charles caught Rubella and was hospitalized. The army and Peter moved on toward Mexico City. Charles got better and begged his doctor to release him. He went off to catch up, had a relapse and died on the road. Peter fought on and was seriously wounded in the battle of Chapulpec. He was struck by an almost spent grape shot, knocked down and left for dead. The wound was painful, left a nice scar, but was not fatal and so he recovered and was on guard duty until he returned home. After that war he and his family moved to Alachua County near Hawthorn and near the plantation of the Governor who was a cousin. When the War Between the States started, he remarked to his wife Elizabeth, “I’m glad I’m too old to go. I’ve seen enough blood and guts for any one lifetime.” However, shortly after the battle of Gettysburg, he was drafted (at 39 years of age) and assigned in August of 1863 to the Confederate Army at Cedar Key. He was later assigned to the 9th Regiment, Florida Infantry, Company E as a 1st Sgt and was present at the Battle of the Crater. When he returned home, his wife could not recognize him in the small group of returning soldiers he was among. He was standing in front of her and she began to cry. He said, “Why Elizabeth, don’t you know me?” He had lost a great deal of weight, his hair had turned gray, and he had long hair and beard. The war also apparently left him with bad emotional scars; his wife always said that he couldn’t take noise or conflict without leaving or blowing up. After the War, Peter Boyer Perry moved to a place in Marion County that took on his Mexican war pen name, “Pedro.” He received a small pension from the Mexican War until his death in 1899.

Pvt. Richard W. Follin, Co. B, 18th South Carolina, Wallace's Brigade, Bushrod Johnson's Division, Anderson's Corps was at Petersburg from from June 1864 till April 1865. The 18th South Carolina was stationed at the site of the crater when it blew up, but he was one of the few that lived through it. Heavy loses were suffered during the Battle of the Crater; of the 363 present, 205 were disabled. His pay stubs record him as being a team master, although he came from a rich family that owned a cotton plantation in Omoa, Honduras, but they were originally from Charleston, South Carolina. He was serving as acting consulate for the US to the port at Omoa, Honduras when the war began due to his elderly father's inability to continue in that same position. Because of this, he even joined the Confederate army under an assumed name to fool the Yankees if he was captured or killed, so that the family would stay in good name with the United States government. His real name was Charles Richard Follin.

Private Peter Kemp, Company I, 27th Georgia, died of typhoid in the Chimbrazo Hospital in Richmond in the winter of 1862.

Private Floyd Lemuel Hodges, Company E, 60th Alabama Infantry Regiment (Richard Anderson's Corps, Bushrod Johnson's Division, Young M. Moody's Alabama Brigade) took part in the Battle of White Oak Road on March 31, 1865 and was in the trenches at Petersburg on April 2, 1865. His name appears on a register of the CSA Hospital at Farmville, Virginia, where he was admitted on April 3,1865 for treatment of a gun shot wound, and was transferred home on May 13, 1865. Earlier battles: Chickamauga ( 9/19/1863 and 9/25/1863; Knoxville 11/28/1863; Bean's Station 1863; Drewry's Bluff 5/9/1864 and 5/10/1864; Richmond 5/12/1864.

Stanhope Washington Alexander of Mecklenburg Co., N.C. (he is possibly holding a P53 Enfield, Type 3, rifle and appears to be wearing an 1861 sack coat style of Confederate uniform). He enlisted in Co. H, 35th N.C. Regiment (Infantry), on October 26, 1864, in Mecklenburg County. He was captured at Dinwiddie Courthouse, Va., on April 1st, 1865, and confined at Hart''s Island in the New York Harbor until June 18, 1865, when he was released after taking the Oath of Allegiance. He died on April 4, 1912, in South Carolina, and is buried in Laurelwood Cemetery in Rock Hill, S.C.

Private Stanhope Washington Alexander

 

Private Wiley Hodges was enlisted by Captain A.C. Gordon for 3 years into Company A, 3rd Battalion, Hilliard's Legion, Alabama Volunteers on August 11, 1862 at Abbeville, Alabama. He is shown as present on the muster rolls from June 1, 1862 - August 1863. By July 1864 he was a private in Company E, 60th Regiment, Alabama Infantry where he is shown as present on the muster rolls from July - August 1864 and Jan - Feb 1865. He was killed in the trenches near Petersburg, Virginia on February 8, 1865.

Private Samuel Lemuel Hodges, Company E, was wounded at Chickamauga 20 Sep 1863 and killed in a successful counterattack on Union forces at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia on 16 May 1864. He was the brother of Wiley Hodges and the first cousin of Floyd Lemuel Hodges.

Nine Hodges first cousins all joined the same company on the same day at Tolbert Church, Henry County, Alabama. Company A of the 3rd Alabama Infanty Battalion later merged with the 60th Alabama. Coleman H. Hodges died of disease at Tazswell, Tennessee on September 7, 1862. Joseph Hodges was wounded March 31, 1865, in the right arm, on account of which he was sent home on furlough, and while there the war came to an end. Other records show that he was admitted to hospital April 3, 1865 with a gun shot wound to the right arm and furloughed April 8, 1865. Foreman Hosey Hodges was wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga, Tennessee and was present in the trenches before Petersburg, Virginia. Redding Hodges died February 15, 1864 at the prisoner of war camp at Rock Island, Illinois. Thomas Hodges entered service in 1862 at Tolbert Church, Henry County and later transfered to the 60th Alabama, Company E. He was wounded at Bean's Station, Tennessee on 14 December 1863, captured on 31 March 1865, and paroled on 10 June 1865 at Point Lookout Prison, Maryland. Jordan H. Hodges was present in the trenches before Petersburg, Virginia and apparently was the only one of the nine Hodges cousins not killed, captured or wounded.

If you are a descendant or family member of a Confederate soldier who served in the Petersburg Campaign and would like to be listed on the Descendants Roll Call, please send an e-mail by clicking the mail icon below. Type the name of the regiment in the subject line and provide details in the message.

 

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