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E.B. Withers
(1836 - 1898)
Home State: North Carolina
Education: University of North Carolina, Class of 1859
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
Son of wealthy planter Elijah Keene Withers (1803-1870), going by Benton, in 1860 he was a 22 year old lawyer living with his parents, 4 siblings, and 29 slaves on their plantation at Independence in Caswell County, NC. He enlisted at Yanceyville, NC on 29 April 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company A of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry on 18 May in Raleigh. The regiment was re-designated the 13th North Carolina Infantry on 14 November 1861 and he was appointed Captain on 26 April 1862 during the army reorganization.
On the Campaign
He commanded the company in Maryland and was commended for "gallant bearing" in action at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862 by Lieutenant Colonel Ruffin in his after-action report.
The rest of the War
He was appointed Major on 13 June 1863 and was wounded at Gettysburg, PA on 1 July, and was home on wounded furlough to about November 1863. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 14 October 1864 and was surrendered and paroled with his regiment at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.
After the War
In 1870 he was a lawyer living with his partner Robert B Watt (in Watt & Withers) and family in Yanceyville, NC, but by 1876 and to his death he lived and practiced at Danville, VA; he formed the law firm Withers & Withers with his son Eugene in 1891.
References & notes
His service from Moore's Roster 1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1880, a bio sketch of his son Eugene in L.G. Tyler's Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography (1915), and his obituary in the Reidsville, NC Review of 20 April 1898. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a composite photograph in Clark.3
He married Mary A. Price (1843-1868) in March 1863 and they had 2 sons, Eugene (1867-1925), and a boy who died in infancy. He married again, Lemma Price (1847-1907) in December 1875 and they had 4 children.
His partner Robert B Watt's son Robert L Watt was Captain of Company K of the 13th North Carolina before his death of disease in January 1863.
Birth
12/31/1836; Yanceyville, NC
Death
04/23/1898; Danville, VA; burial in Green Hill Cemetery, Danville, VA
1 Moore, John Wheeler (compiler), and State of North Carolina, Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, 4 volumes, Raleigh: Ashe & Gatling, State Printers and Publishers, 1882, pp. 471, 475 [AotW citation 33169]
2 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 33170]
3 Clark, Walter, editor, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War, 1861-1865, 5 vols., Raleigh and Goldsboro (NC): E. M. Uzzell, Nash Brothers, printers, 1901, Vol. 1, before p. 653 [AotW citation 33171]