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H.L. Guerrant
(1834 - 1899)
Home State: North Carolina
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
In 1860 he was a 25 year old merchant with Robert W Lawson at Lawsonville, Rockingham County, NC. He was elected 2nd Lieutenant of Captain Giles P Bailey's Company - the Dixie Boys - of the 3rd North Carolina Volunteers on 4 May 1861 (his commission dated 22 May); they became Company K of the 13th North Carolina Infantry in November 1861. He was reelected at the army reorganization on 26 April 1862.
On the Campaign
He was with his Company on the Maryland Campaign of 1862. An 1880 newspaper had this great story:
A peach tree grows in Rockingham County, North Carolina that sprung from the seed of a peach that the late General Garland held in his hand when he was killed at Boonsboro. He was eating a peach when he was shot down. Capt. Guerrant got the seed and planted it on his place in Rockingham.
The rest of the War
He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 15 October (or 8 November) 1862 and Captain on 15 January 1863. He was wounded at Chancellorsville, VA on 3 May 1863. His Brigade commander, Colonel William L. J. Lowrance (34th NC) recommended him for a Staff appointment as Brigade Inspector (Major and Assistant Inspector General) on July 1863 for his "zeal and efficiency," while he was acting Brigade Inspector (26 June - 30 July), but he was not so commissioned. He may have been wounded again, in the Wilderness, VA in 1864, and was surrendered with his Company at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.
After the War
In 1880 he was a tobacco buyer at Danville, Pittsylvania County, VA.
References & notes
His service from his Compiled Service Records, via fold3.1 The quote above from the Reidsville (NC) Times of 19 August 1880. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 and 1880. His gravesite is on Findagrave. Thanks to Bill Guerrant for the pointer to Captain Guerrant, the 1880 news story, and the excellent picture of him, from a photograph in his collection.
He married Lucy Rebecca Watkins (1846-1914) in November 1866 and they had 2 daughters.
Hugh's brother John Wyatt Stubblefield Guerrant (1842-1917) was also in Company K of the 13th North Carolina, and was probably in Maryland in 1862.
Birth
12/25/1834; Rockingham County, NC
Death
04/02/1899; Danville, VA; burial in Green Hill Cemetery, Danville, VA
1 US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927 [AotW citation 27565]