John Humphries Word

In 1860 he was a 24 year old farmer living with his parents, 3 siblings, and 5 slaves on their farm at Bowdon, Carroll County, GA; his brother Benjamin and family were next door. He enlisted there on 30 July 1861 and mustered as 4th Sergeant of Company B of the Infantry Battalion, Cobb's Legion.

He was wounded by a gunshot to his left thigh and knee in action at Crampton's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862 and captured there.

His leg was amputated above the knee in the US 6th Army Corps field hospital in Burkittsville, MD and he was admitted to the US Army General Hospital at Camp A in Frederick,MD on 16 November. He was sent on to Baltimore on 5 December and then to Fortress Monroe for exchange on 8 December 1862. He was home on furlough by March 1863 and still on the payroll to at least August 1863, the last record in his military file.

He was elected superior court clerk in Carroll County in 1863 and served to 1865.

By 1870 and to at least 1900 he was a retail dry goods merchant back in Bowdon, GA. He served a 2-year term in the state legislature 1884-86 and was elected county commissioner in Carroll County in 1893.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1900, and a bio sketch in the Southern Historical Association's Memoirs of Georgia (Vol. 1, 1895). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Harriette Virginia Colquitt (1845-1908) in 1866.

His brother Benjamin Cleveland Word (1831-1904) had also been a member of Company B of the Legion.

There's a fine c. 1870 photograph of John and wife Harriette Virginia online from the Digital Library Georgia.

09/30/1836; Carroll County, GA

03/13/1919; Bowdon, GA; burial in Bowdon City Cemetery, Bowdon, GA