Thomas Rienzi Burnside

In 1860 he was a 20 year old overseer of 45 slaves on Henry P. Hampton's cotton plantation at Thomson in Columbia County, GA. He enlisted there on 27 February 1862 and mustered in Appling, GA on 4 March as a Private in Company K, 48th Georgia Infantry. He was appointed First Corporal by 30 April and promoted to 3rd Sergeant on 1 August.

He was slightly wounded in the leg at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was on wounded furlough to February 1863, then back with his company. He was wounded again, at Gettysburg, PA on 3 July 1863, was in a hospital in Richmond, VA by 13 July, and returned to dury on 1 September. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 5 January 1864 and was wounded for the third time in July 1864. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 30 July, furloughed home from a hospital in Petersburg, VA on 20 August, and was still absent at the end of October 1864, the latest record in his military file.

By 1870 he was again an overseer on the Hampton plantation at Thomson, GA, but was living in McDuffie County, GA in 1880. By 1900 he was farming in DeKalb County.

His service from Henderson1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. He is also on a Sharpsburg casualty list in the Richmond (VA) Enquirer of 17 October 1862. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1900.

He married Palmyra Florida Baber (1838-) in June 1866 in Macon County, AL and they had 3 children by 1870; they named their first E. Hampton Burnside (1867-1926). He married again, Ada A West (1849-1901) in January 1884 in McDuffie County, GA, and they had a daughter, Lassie.

c. 1840 in GA