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(c. 1840 - ?)
Home State: North Carolina
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
In 1860, going by Robert, he was a 20 year old living with his (widowed?) mother Martha at Tarboro in Edgecombe County, NC, Giving his occupation as miller, he enlisted there on 8 May 1861 and mustered as a Private in Company G of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry on 16 May in Garysburg, NC. The regiment was re-designated the 13th North Carolina Infantry on 14 November 1861.
On the Campaign
He was captured in action at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He was held at Fort Delaware and sent to Aikens' Landing, VA on 2 October for exchange. He was formally exchanged on 10 November and returned to duty in about March 1863, listed as absent without leave since November. He was wounded at Gettysburg, PA on 1 July 1863 and again at Cold Harbor, VA on 31 May 1864. He was captured on the South Side Railroad near Petersburg, VA on 2 April 1865 and was a prisoner on Hart's Island, NY to 17 June 1865, when he took an oath of allegiance to the Unite States and was released.
References & notes
His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3, also as Robert and J.R. Medford. Personal details from the US Census of 1860.
There is all sorts of conflicting genealogical information about him; he may be the man with as many as 4 wives buried as Joseph Robert Medford (d. 1905) in New Bern, NC [memorial via Findagrave].
Birth
c. 1840 in NC
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 33261]