Harley Tuttle McKay

A 27 year old shoemaker at Aston's Store, Marion County, he enlisted as Private, Company H, 26th Alabama Infantry, date not given.

He was wounded in the leg by a "bombshell" in action near Turner's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.

His leg was amputated and he was sent home on furlough. In April 1863 he was detailed as a shoemaker in Columbus, MS and he was there to at least April 1864.

By 1870 he was again a shoemaker in Marion County, but in 1880 he was farming at Alvarado in Johnson County, Texas. In 1900 he was making shoes in Ennis, TX and in 1910 was a janitor there.

His service from Fincham's roster,1 sourced from Tod L. Molsworth's O'Neal's 26th Alabama: the Little Regiment that Did (2000). He's in the Compiled Service Records only as H.T. McKay. His wounding on South Mountain also found in a casualty list for Rodes' Brigade in the Montgomery Weekly Advertiser of 8 October 1862, as H.T. McCoy. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave; his modern stone has him in the 11th Mississippi Infantry, probably in error.

He married Minerva Jane Warren (1829-1888) and they had 7 children between 1859 and 1871. He's mentioned on her (oddly spelled) gravestone as Reverend, so may also have been a preacher. He married again, to Sarah Ann Talkington (1842-1934) in February 1889.

See more about Harley and another McKay and their intertwined burial stories in a post over on behind AotW.

06/22/1833; Marion County, AL

03/26/1918; Ennis, TX; burial in Bristol Cemetery, Bristol, TX