site logo
L.M. McAfee

L.M. McAfee

Confederate (CSV)

Lieutenant Colonel

Leroy Magnum McAfee

"Lee"

(1837 - 1873)

Home State: North Carolina

Education: University of North Carolina, Class of 1858

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 49th North Carolina Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

He's listed in the 1850 Census of Cleveland County, NC, at 14 years of age, living in the household of John and Eliza Webber, probably his older sister's. Also in the house was listed 14 year old Anisi McAfee - possibly half-brother or nephew Abner Anzi McAfee.

In 1860 he was a prosperous 23 year old lawyer in Cleveland County. He was commissioned Major of the 49th North Carolina Infantry on 12 April 1862 and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 19 June.

On the Campaign

He was in command of the regiment as senior officer on the Maryland Campaign.

The rest of the War

He was commissioned Colonel on 1 November 1862, and served in command of the 49th through the Appomattox Campaign of April 1865.

After the War

He may have been a leading figure in the Ku Klux Klan before about 1870 - he is apparently the model for a fictional character in a 1905 book, The Clansman, by his nephew Thomas Dixon, Jr [ see it online ]. In 1870 he was a lawyer at Shelby in Cleveland County. He was a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives.

References & notes

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 1850-1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of his photograph, contributed by Darlene Looper Cole.

Birth

12/17/1837; York, SC

Death

09/23/1873; York, SC; burial in Rose Hill Cemetery, York, SC

Notes

1   Moore, John Wheeler (compiler), and State of North Carolina, Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, 4 volumes, Raleigh: Ashe & Gatling, State Printers and Publishers, 1882, Vol. 3, pg. 394  [AotW citation 1023]

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 30433]