Thomas Alston Martin

In 1860 he was a 19 year old school teacher living with his parents, 8 siblings, and 22 slaves on their plantation at Franklinton in Franklin County, NC. He enlisted at Graham, NC on 8 May 1861 and mustered as 4th Corporal of Company E of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry on 15 May in Garysburg, NC. He was promoted to 4th Sergeant on 12 July and 3rd Sergeant by November. The regiment was re-designated the 13th North Carolina Infantry on 14 November 1861 and he was elected 3rd Lieutenant on 26 April 1862 during the army reorganization. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 23 June.

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.

He was promoted again, to Captain on 17 November 1862. He was wounded at Gettysburg, PA on 1 July 1863, on wounded furlough to 26 November, then absent on detail in North Carolina until about July 1864, at least part of that time as an assistant enrolling officer at Wilson, NC. He was appointed Major of the regiment on 19 January 1865 (to date from 19 October 1864) and was surrendered and paroled with them at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.

His service from Moore's Roster 1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860. His picture from one of two stunning photographs of him in the Liljenquist Family Collection at the Library of Congress.

Some of his wartime and later correspondence is in the Martin Family Papers at William & Mary [finding aid].

01/1841 in NC