Anderson Keith Parker

Known as Keith, he was a 28 year old laborer in the Jefferson Ward of Portsmouth, VA in 1860. He enlisted as a Private in the Portsmouth Light Artillery on 20 April 1861 at Portsmouth.

He was with the Battery in Maryland where their Captain Cary Grimes was killed.

Soon after we were ordered to retreat to the Virginia side of the Potomac; we then disinterred the [Captain's] body [from the battlefield], put it in an ambulance in charge of Keith Parker and John W. Snow, who brought it over the river and buried it on the farm of Mr. Levi Mohler, the father of Mrs. Arthur Wilson, of this city [Richmond, VA].

After the battery was disbanded in October 1862 he was transferred on the 8th to Captain Frank Huger's (later Moore's) Norfolk Light Artillery. He was on extra duty as a teamster from May to December 1863, was surrendered with the Battery at Richmond, VA on 10 April 1865, and signed a parole on the 18th.

By 1870 and to at least 1880 he was again a laborer in Portsmouth. In 1900 he was a watchman there.

Service and other details from Crew & Trask1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 via fold3. The quote above from Lt John H Thompson in a history of the Battery he delivered in Richmond in 1906, published in the SHSP;3 it's online from the Perseus Project. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph contributed to the FamilySearch database by Catherine Stash. Thanks to his great-great grandson Will Kiger for the pointer to Parker and to his role in the burial of Captain Grimes.

He married Mary Frances Stokes (1828-1907) in March 1860 and they had 3 daughters.

He was named for his maternal grandfather Dr. Anderson Keith (1774-1850).

08/08/1832; Isle of Wight County, VA

11/23/1900; Portsmouth, VA; burial in Oak Grove Cemetery, Portsmouth, VA