John Cotlett Garrett Key

A lawyer in Gonzales County, he helped organize (July 1861) and was Captain of a Company that became "A" of the 4th Texas Infantry on its organization in Richmond that September. He was on recruiting duty in Texas in February and March 1862, and he was appointed Major on 21 May (to date from 3 March), after Colonel Hood was commissioned Brigadier General. He was wounded in action 27 June 1862 at Gaines Mill, VA and afterward promoted to Lieutenant Colonel to date from that battle. He wa promoted again, to Colonel, on 10 July 1862.

He was with the regiment and commanded it up to 15 September - for action on South Mountain - but was too ill afterward. He passed command to Lieutenant Colonel Carter.

He was seriously wounded at Gettysburg on 2 July 1863, was unable to return to the field, and retired from active service on 29 April 1864. He was in hospitals in Richmond and on furlough in South Carolina through October 1864, then returned to Hamburg, SC and was assigned to the Invalid Corps on 5 November 1864. He was asked to report to the Reserve Forces of Mississippi with no later military record.

Service information from Davis1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 via fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, notably Juliann C. Lane's Key and Allied Families (1931), and the US Census for 1860. In some sources his first middle name is Catlett and he died in 1866.

He enrolled his brother Henry in Company A in March 1862.

He married Ann Ardis (1810-1855) in Louisiana in 1831 and married again, Martha B. Hamon (1832-1885) in October 1858 in Gonzales County, TX, and they had 3 children.

02/25/1817; Edgefield County, SC

01/07/1868; Gonzales County, TX; burial in Gonzales Masonic Cemetery, Gonzales, TX