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J. Purifoy
(1842 - 1927)
Home State: Alabama
Education: East Tennessee University (now U of Tennessee)
Branch of Service: Artillery
Before Sharpsburg
He was a student in Knoxville, age 19, and enlisted as Private in the Jeff Davis Light Artillery on 27 July 1861 in Selma, AL. He was promoted Corporal, date not given.
On the Campaign
He was with his battery on the Maryland Campaign.
The rest of the War
He served in the battery to the end of the War. He escaped surrender at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865 and later surrendered at Rutherford, NC.
After the War
He was a teacher and farmer in Montgomery, AL, and was elected probate judge for Wilcox County in 1880. He served a term in the State House of Representatives in 1890, was State Auditor from 1892 to 1896, and was examiner of accounts from 1897 to 1900. He was elected State Treasurer in 1910 and Alabama Secretary of State in 1914.
References & notes
Service and postwar details from the Alabama Civil War Service Database.1 His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in the Alabama Archives,2 which also has a 1914 campaign piece with his wartime and 1912 photographs.
Birth
03/21/1842; Dallas County, AL
Death
07/17/1927; Montgomery, AL; burial in Greenwood Cemetery, Montgomery, AL
1 State of Alabama, Dept. of Archives & History, Alabama Civil War Service Database, Published 2004, first accessed 01 January 2010, <https://archives.alabama.gov/research/CivilWarService.aspx>, Source page: /civilwar/soldier.cfm?id=164701 [AotW citation 20082]
2 State of Alabama, State Archives, and Dr. Edwin C. Bridges, director, and staff, Alabama Department of Archives & History, Published c.2000, first accessed 08 July 2005, <http://www.archives.state.al.us/index.html>, Source page: /cdm/ref/collection/photo/id/5151 [AotW citation 20083]