Thomas Anderson Baber, Jr.

A successful 28 year old farmer in Washington County, TX, he enrolled there and was commissioned First Lieutenant, Company E, 5th Texas Infantry on 19 July 1861. He was sick in November and December 1861, on furlough home from January into March 1862, and left behind, sick, in April. He was back on duty in May and was promoted to Captain on 22 July 1862.

He commanded Company E in Maryland and was wounded by a gunshot in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was admitted to a hospital in Culpeper, VA on 24 September and sent on to a General Hospital (probably in Richmond) on the 25th. He was furloughed home in October and was absent, recovering, to at least February 1863. He was on furlough in January 1864 and detailed on recruiting duty in Texas on 4 March, but was back with his Company in July. He was severely wounded in the arm at Darbytown Road, VA on 7 October 1864, was treated at Howard's Grove Hospital in Richmond, VA, furloughed on 17 November, and retired for disability on 8 December 1864. He was assigned to the Invalid Corps at Houston, TX on 3 January 1865.

In 1870, he was again farming, though at a considerably smaller scale, at Brenham in Washington County, TX. He was sheriff there from 1866-69.

Service information from Polley1 and his Compiled Service Records, online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 & 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Sophia P. Franklin (1836-1873) in June 1864 and they had 4 children. He married again, Eliza Ann Hynes (1837-1922).

His father had moved his family from his native Virginia to Gallatin, TN in 1827, and was a wealthy plantation owner there with nearly 1000 acres by the time he died in 1844, when Jr. was 11. He called his 1836 plantation home "Bellemont" (later renamed Foxland Hall). Thomas, Sr and wife Lucy Ann were buried on the grounds, as were 3 of their children: James, Robert, and Washington, along with other relatives. The house where Thomas, Jr. spent his early years has been re-purposed as a golf and county club house.

03/19/1833; Sumner County, TN

03/08/1888; Brenham, TX; burial in Prairie Lea Cemetery, Brenham, Tx