Taylor County GaArchives Military Records.....Posey, Elijah Civilwar ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ralph Sheaffer ralphdale33@verizon.net June 14, 2010, 10:38 am Civil War Record MILITARY HISTORY OF ELIJAH FRANKLIN POSEY On October, 1860 at Columbus, Georgia, Elizabeth Coulter (born in or near Griffin, Georgia on 9 Oct, 1842) married Elijah Franklin Posey. In April 1861, six months after that marriage, war broke out between the Northern and Southern States. And a little more than a year later, on August 11, 1862, Elijah Franklin Posey of Taylor County, Georgia enlisted for three years at Butler, Georgia. He became a Private in C Company of the 59th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Army of the Confederate States of America. Records indicate that a J.M. Posey, also of Taylor County, enlisted at the same time. This latter Posey was captured in Richmond, Virginia on April 3, 1865 and died on May 8, 1865 of chronic diarrhea and scurvy. The old file shows that he is buried in grave 110 in Hollywood Cemetery. He seems more than likely to have been a brother of Elijah Franklin. Some records indicate that Camp Brown was in Butler, which is about 40 miles east of Phenix City. However, it was most likely that Camp Brown was in Macon. The 59th was part of Anderson’s Brigade, Hood’s Division, Longstreet’s Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, CSA. Frank’s unit was commanded by Captain William Hampton Fickling. According to the The Macon Georgia Telegraph that I found on the internet, the Regiment was at the 2nd Manassas when Franklin enlisted and was fighting in Tazwell, Tennessee at the time Franklin died in the hospital at Liberty. In between those times the Regiment was engaged in many battles, including Gettysburg. That was followed periodically with being plagued with chronic dysentery. It must have been a miserable experience which finally caused his death on January 30, 1864 at one of the hospital buildings in a town then called Liberty in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Liberty is now known as Bedford, which is a short distance southwest of Lynchburg. Of about 260,000 Confederate soldiers who died, the majority are buried in Virginia. In May 1861 three hospitals were established in Lynchburg. These were General Hospital No. 1 followed by General Hospital No. 2 and 3 in April 1862. There is also a large cemetery in Lynchburg where many confederate soldiers are buried. It’s called the Old City Cemetery and contains the burial of General Jubal Early. Apparently there was such an excess of soldiers needing hospitalization at these three hospitals that this is probably why Frank was hospitalized as one of the overflow patients in Liberty. There were nine buildings and houses that served as hospitals in Liberty, apparently located in the vicinity of Main Street along Bridge Street north to Jackson Street near what was then the railroad station north of present East Depot Street. Benjamin Blackford was the Surgeon in Charge of the hospitals in Liberty. He wrote that Liberty has the largest hospital complex on the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad line (now the Norfolk Southern Railroad). The current Bedford City/County Museum is at the corner of East Main and Court Street and is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. telephone 703-586-4520. The war was still going on when Frank died. The major news about that time was of the Siege of Knoxville. And in the following spring the three day battle of the Wilderness took place in Virginia to the east of where Frank died. Several buildings and houses in Liberty were used as hospitals but it is not known in which one that Frank died. There is a graveyard in Bedford where there is a mass grave of confederate soldiers but there are no markers to identify any of them. But it is pretty likely that he is buried in the mass unmarked grave in Bedford. [some info I have off of the internet is that the Cemetery on Piedmont Hill contains 500 Confederate soldiers and the Longwood Cemetery contains 100 Confederate soldiers] The town of Liberty was founded in 1782 and changed to Bedford City in 1890. As to J.M. Posey, believed to be Elijah Franklin Posey’s brother, he was captured in Richmond on April 2, 1865 (the day that Richmond fell to the Federal troops) and died of chronic dysentery and scurvy in Jackson Hospital on May 8, 1865. He is buried in the Confederate section of historic old Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. According to cemetery records he is in Section W Lot 568. There are 18,000 Confederate dead buried in the Confederate section. It should be easy to find in that a 90 foot high granite pyramid was erected in 1869 to mark it which is in the southeast portion of the cemetery. Acknowledgement: I wish to acknowledge research previously done by Lt. Col. Ralph Sheaffer, Jr., USAR Ret. In order for me to write the description of these two Confederate soldiers I have relied heavily on the official records that were uncovered by Col. Sheaffer through his diligent research. Elijah Franklin Posey and his wife Elizabeth Coulter are the maternal great great great grandparents of Col. Sheaffer and the great great grandparents of my wife W. Dale Kendrick-Sheaffer. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/taylor/military/civilwar/other/posey470gmt.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 5.6 Kb