T.J. Purdie

Confederate (CSV)

Lieutenant Colonel

Thomas James Purdie

(1830 - 1863)

Home State: North Carolina

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 18th North Carolina Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

A wealthy landowner at the outbreak of the War, he first enlisted as a private soldier in the Bladen Guards, a NC Militia unit. They soon became Company K of the 18th Infantry, and Purdie was commissioned 1st Lieutenant on 20 April 1861. He was promoted Captain of the Company (probably March 1862 to replace Capt. Tait), then elected Major of the regiment on 24 April 1862. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel prior to the Maryland Campaign.

On the Campaign

He was in command of the Regiment in Maryland on the absence of Colonel Robert H. Cowan.

The rest of the War

He was appointed Colonel to date from 11 November 1862 on the resignation of Colonel Cowan (illness). He was wounded in action at Fredericksburg in December, and killed at Chancellorsville on 3 May 1863.

References & notes

The photograph above from one posted by the Averasboro Battlefield Commission; original source unknown. Purdie's service information from Moore's Roster1.

Birth

06/22/1830; Bladen County, NC

Death

05/03/1863; Chancellorsville, VA; burial in Purdie-Richardson Cemetery, Bladen County, NC

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. 2, pp. 72, 109 [AotW citation 1009]

« Search for another Person