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(1835 - 1912)
Home State: Georgia
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 50th Georgia Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
Son of planter Charles Finch, in 1860 he was a 24 year old merchant living with planter W.J. King, his family, and 9 slaves in Tallokas, Brooks County, GA. He enrolled in Quitman, GA on 4 March 1862 and mustered as 2nd Lieutenant of Company K, 50th Georgia Infantry.
On the Campaign
He was wounded by a piece of shell to his left eye in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862, resulting in loss of sight in that eye.
The rest of the War
He was admitted to a hospital in Richmond, VA on 26 September then furloughed home to recover. He resigned his commission due to his disability for field service on 27 July 1863.
After the War
By 1870 and to at least 1900 he was a prosperous retail dry goods merchant in Quitman, GA. He retired in 1909.
References & notes
His service basics from Henderson,1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1900, and his bio sketch in William Harden's A History of Savannah and South Georgia (Vol. 2, 1913). His gravesite is on Findagrave.
He married Mary Louise McCall (1845-1931) in November 1865 and they had 6 children.
Birth
06/1835; Madison County, FL
Death
07/10/1912; Quitman, GA; burial in West End Cemetery, Quitman, GA
1 Henderson, Lilian, compiler, Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861-1865, 6 vols., Hapeville (GA): Longino & Porter, 1959-1964 [AotW citation 2974]
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 32612]