Elijah Taylor Boland

In 1860 he was a 13 year old living with his parents and 7 siblings on their modest farm at Realtown in Tallapoosa County, AL. He enlisted at Yorktown, VA on 3 February 1862 at age 15, and mustered a Private in Company F, 13th Alabama Infantry.

He was with his company in action on South Mountain on 14 September but was absent, sick, at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He returned to duty by May 1863 and was captured at Gettysburg, PA on 3 July 1863. He was held at Fort Delaware, took an oath of allegiance there, and was released on 14 June 1865.

By 1880 he was an artist in Montgomery, AL. By 1900 he was back in Real/Reeltown, AL and had a farm there. In 1910 he was a laborer on a home farm at Brewton in Escambia County, AL and he'd retired there by 1920.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3, also as E. Taylor Boland, and the Archives.2 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860, 1880-1920. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Mary N. “Mollie” Sumblyn/Sumlin (1853-1920) and they had 5 children between 1870 and 1892; their first two, sons James and Andrew were listed as deaf mutes at the 1880 US Census.

He wrote an article titled "Beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg" for Confederate Veteran (June, 1906) and waded into a controversy with another in "Death of Gen Reynolds. An Ex-Confederate Who Was a Witness Describes the Event" in the National Tribune of 20 May 1915.

09/12/1846; Tallassee, AL

04/04/1921; Brewton, AL; burial in Union Cemetery, Brewton, AL