Edward F. Powell

Age 19, from Gates County, he enlisted on 30 May 1861 in Weldon, NC as a Private in Company H, 5th North Carolina Infantry. He was appointed 3rd Corporal before 18 August 1862.

He was severely wounded in action at Fox's Gap on South Mountain (near Boonsboro, MD) on 14 September 1862. He was struck by a bullet which entered his left cheek, fractured his inferior maxillary (cheek) bone, and went out his neck or shoulder near the spine.

He was disabled by his wounds and absent in hospitals in Richmond, VA (to April 1863) and Greensboro and Salisbury, NC for the rest of the war, and was detached for duty as a nurse in CSA General Hospital #10 (and/or #9) in Salisbury, NC by May 1864. He was promoted to First Corporal about January 1863, 5th Sergeant on 1 September, and 4th Sergeant by November 1863. He was in a Richmond, VA hospital from 27 July to 2 August 1864, then furloughed home to Gatesville, NC for 2 months; his wound was then still open. He was again serving as a nurse, at Way Hospital #3 in Salisbury, by February 1865. He was paroled at Salisbury on 2 May 1865.

By 1880 and to at least 1910 he was a farmer in Holly Grove, Gates County, NC.

Service information from Moore,1 who lists him as a deserter, and his Compiled Service Records via fold3.2 Personal details from family genalogists and the US Census for 1880 - 1910. His memorial is on Findagrave, with slightly incorrect cemetery information. His picture from an excellent photograph now in the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs at the Library of Congress.

He married Margaret A Benton (1842-1911) in February 1866 and they had 9 children between 1867 and 1889.

Thanks to GGGrandson Josh Powell for his ancestor's later service history, burial details, and for the poke to improve our information about him. Josh also kindly supplied a fine post-war photograph, posted to the blog.

03/20/1842; Gates County, NC

06/24/1920; Holly Grove, NC; burial in Private family cemetery (on Savage Road), near Sunbury, NC