Robert Henry Little

In 1860 he was a 22 year old mechanic in Randolph County, AL. In March 1861 he was living at Newnan, Coweta County, GA while his wife and two small sons were back in Alabama, and on the 18th he enlisted for one year as a Private in the Newnan Guards, later Company A of the First (Ramsey's) Georgia Infantry, and saw service with them at Pensacola, FL to June, then in Western Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. They returned to Georgia and disbanded in March 1862.

He returned to his family in Alabama and, along with his brother John W. Little and brother-in-law William O. Robertson (1843-1915), enlisted again, at Arbacoochee, AL, on 24 April 1862 and mustered as a Private in Company I, 44th Alabama Infantry. He was promoted to 2nd Sergeant on 1 July 1862.

He was with his unit at Harpers Ferry to the garrison's surrender on 15 September and marched with them to Sharpsburg, arriving early on 17 September 1862. He was slightly wounded in action there, and later described his actions in the Sunken Road, after his only Company officer, Lt Gus Ray had been killed:

Now for 4 hours, I never saw a single commission[ed] officer of ours. We would drop on our left knee to load and rise and shoot. After a time [I] thought I would stop and survey the ground ...[finding only dead men near him] I decided no use of my trying to hold that gap by myself and I will go to the living and I looked to the nearest and I saw no one I knew and I looked to my right and saw two of my company ... and they were both killed there and I was soon after this shocked by a shell and dirt in my eyes and crawled back to an old barn and firing soon ceased ...

He was sent to a hospital in Staunton, VA on 20 September, was a nurse there by the end of the year, and rejoined his company by January 1863. He was reduced to Private on 1 June 1863 and was listed as absent without leave on the Gettysburg Campaign, but may have been with support troops in the rear.

He was captured at Lookout Creek (Wauhatchie) near Chattanooga, TN on 28 October 1863, held briefly at Nashville and Louisville, KY, then sent to Camp Morton near Indianapolis, IN on 5 November. He was paroled there on 4 March 1865 and sent to City Point, VA by way of Baltimore for exchange. There is no later military record.

In December 1865 he took his family west for Texas, spending a year in Mississippi, then moved on to Arkansas. By 1870 he was a farmer near Little Rock. He continued on to Texas in 1876, living in or near Belton in Bell County, TX for the rest of his life. He owned and operated flour and cotton mills and other businesses; he was making a living as a gunsmith in 1900 and a cotton gin machinist in 1910. He'd finally retired there by 1920. He died in 1926 at his daughter Geneva May's home in Houston some time after having been hit by a car in Belton. He was 88 years old.

His service from the State of Alabama1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3, also as Robert A Little. He's also on a Sharpsburg casualty list in the Richmond (VA) Enquirer of 17 October 1862. Further service and other details from his own 1922 war memoir, transcribed by great-grandson John E Woods (2014), source of the quote above. Additional personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1920. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of an excellent post-war photograph.

He married Sarah Julathy Robertson (1839-1900) in September 1857 and they had 9 children. He married again, Jane Sheldon (1847-1933) in October 1901.

His brother John W Little (b. 1838), also in Company I, died of measles in Virginia in August 1862.

12/10/1837; Decatur, GA

03/25/1926; Houston, TX; burial in Rest Haven Cemetery, Belton, TX