Lawrence Aylett Daffan

He moved with his family from his native Alabama to Texas in 1849 and by 1860 he was a 17 (15) year old "waggoner" living with his parents, 5 younger siblings, and his grandmother Daffin in Montgomery, TX. He enlisted as Private in Company G, 4th Texas Infantry at Anderson in Grimes County, TX on 15 March 1862, and joined his Company on 10 May 1862. He was soon after sick in a hospital in Charlottesville, VA to 29 June.

He was in action with his Company at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September and at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was "sent off on detail at Knoxville" and captured at Kingston, TN on 19 November 1863. He was held at Nashville until sent to Louisville, KY on 10 January 1864, then transferred to the prison at Rock Island, IL on 17 January. He took an oath of allegiance there on 19 June 1865 and was released.

Beginning as a brakeman in 1865, he worked his way up on the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, becoming superintendent of the road's 2nd Division in 1889.

His service from Davis1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 via fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860, the Confederate Veteran (15 CV 184-5) and a memorial to him in the program of the dedication of Hood's Texas Brigade Monument at the capital at Austin in 1910.

Polley's A Soldier's Letters to Charming Nellie (1908) has a good post-War photograph of Daffan.

He married Mollie A Day (1853-1926) in about 1872 and they had 6 children. Much of what's known of Daffan is thanks to his oldest child, daughter Katie Daffan (1874-1951). She wrote My Father as I Remember Him (1907), which is commonly cited.

For much more about Daffan, his part of postwar Texas, and the Klan, see a fine bio sketch from descendant Andy Hall over on Dead Confederates.

04/30/1845; Conecuh County, AL

01/28/1907; Ennis, TX; burial in Myrtle Cemetery, Ennis, TX