Leroy (Lee) Magum McAfee

Home State: North Carolina
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 49th North Carolina Infantry

Before the Antietam Campaign:
He's listed in the 1850 Census of Cleveland County, NC, at 14 years of age, living in the household of John and Eliza Webber, probably his older sister's. Also in the house was listed 14 year old Anisi McAfee - possibly half-brother or nephew Abner Anzi McAfee.

Leroy was commissioned Major of the 49th NC Regiment on 12 April 1862 and Lieutenant Colonel on 19 June.

The remainder of the War:
He was commissioned Colonel on 1 November 1862, and served in command of the 49th through the Appomattox Campaign of April 1865.

After the War:
He may have been a leading figure in the Ku Klux Klan before about 1870 - he is apparently the model for a fictional character in a 1905 book, The Clansman, by his nephew Thomas Dixon, Jr [ see it online ].

References, Sources, and other notes:
Family details from the 1850 Cleveland County census records - transcribed and posted online on RootsWeb by Judith Parker-Proctor. Service information from Moore's Roster1.

More on the Web:
See an 1862 letter from McAfee to his sister, on Shotgun's civilwarhome site.

Birth State: NC
Burial Place: Rose Hill Cemetery, York, SC

Notes

1 Moore, John Wheeler (compiler), and State of North Carolina, Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, 4 volumes, Raleigh: Ashe & Gatling, State Printers and Publishers, 1882, Vol. 3, pg. 394 [AotW citation 1023]

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