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"John"
(1843 - 1929)
Home State: Alabama
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 13th Alabama Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
In 1860 he was a 17 year old farmer living with his parents, 3 siblings, and the soon-to-be mother of his child on their small farm at Rockdale in Randolph County, AL. He enlisted in Eastville, AL on 12 July 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company E, 13th Alabama Infantry.
On the Campaign
He was with his company in action at Turner's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September and was seriously wounded at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 and captured there.
The rest of the War
He was at Fort McHenry by 14 October, then sent to Aikens' Landing, VA for exchange, and was furloughed for 30 days from a Richmond, VA hospital on 23 October. He was in and out of hospitals in 1863 and mid-1864, but fought was with his company in the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania Court House, VA in May 1864. He deserted his unit on 15 (or 17) August 1864 at Petersburg, VA and took an oath to the United States on 7 October 1864 at Knoxville, TN. He was sent to Chattanooga the next day and given a pass to go to Indiana.
After the War
In 1870 he was a farmer in Williamson County, TN but by 1880 and to at least 1900 he was farming in Williamson County, TN. He'd retired there by 1910 and lived with his daughter Rosa and her family. He was back working in 1920, then a 76 year old farm laborer living with his second wife Sarah and 7 year old daughter Nolah (1913-1925).
References & notes
His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3, and the Archives,2 both as Samuel M Burdett. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1920. His gravesite is on Findagrave.
He and Catherine Mahala Ogletree (1821-1922) had a daughter Georgia Ann (1860-1958). He married Sarah Hargrove (1840-1900) in January 1865 and they had 10 children. He married again, the widow Sarah Lena Howell Stewart (1869-1945) in April 1911 and they had 2 more children; she had 8 in her first marriage.
His brothers Littleton and Benjamin were also in Company E and at Sharpsburg with him. Littleton was mortally wounded there.
Birth
03/06/1843; Randolph County, AL
Death
10/28/1929; Leipers Fork, TN; burial in Leipers Fork Cemetery, Leipers Fork, TN
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 32376]
2 State of Alabama, Dept. of Archives & History, Alabama Civil War Service Database, Published 2004, first accessed 01 January 2010, <https://archives.alabama.gov/research/CivilWarService.aspx> [AotW citation 32377]