Private George Edward Ballew, Co. K, was captured at Petersburg, Virginia and sent to Hart's Island. This small island is located just outside New York City on the western end of Long Island Sound and was a prisoner of war camp for four months in 1865. He wrote a letter in 1916 just before his death providng a statement regarding the commands to which he and his regiment were assigned. See Soldier's Letters page.
Private Wilson Decatur Cantrell, Company E (Lester Volunteers - Forsyth County), enlisted on March 1, 1862. He was captured at Turkey Bend, Virginia on June 23, 1864 . Roll for February 28, 1865, the last on file, shows him on furlough, returned a paroled prisoner, from EImira, New York. He was born in Forsyth County, Georgia on October 3,1840 and died on May 12, 1917.
Private William Elijay Gilmer, Company G (Jasper Volunteers) enlisted in June of 1861 at Milledgeville, Georgia as a drummer boy and became a rifleman at the Battle of Mechanicsville, Virginia during the Seven Days. William deserted at Petersburg, Virginia in April of 1865 when he received word that his mother died in January. He moved to Upshur County, Texas in 1870, married, and moved to Lampasas County, Texas to work on a ranch owned by Solon Volney Mace and John Calhoun Pinckney Higgins. Both ranchers were from the Macon, Georgia area. William was born on August 14, 1848, died January 11, 1914, and was buried in the School Creek Cemetery on the Mace Ranch. His father was Daniel H. Gilmer (b. 1816, d. 1885), a farmer in Jasper County, Georgia. His mother was Ellen Dotson, (Black Irish) Eastern Cherokee, born into the Ani-Gatucewa Clan (Kituway People) in 1816. She became a citizen of the State of Georgia in 1830 and died in January of 1865.
1st Lieutenant Josiah Blair Patterson , Company E, was born July 19, 1815 in Abbeville, South Carolina, moved to Cumming, Georgia circa 1838, enlisted with the 14th Georgia at its formation on July 4, 1861 in Cumming, Forsyth County, Georgia. He began the war as a 2nd Lieutenant and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on November 8, 1862 (see attached photo taken on the occasion of his promotion). He was killed in action by canister shot at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 12, 1864. Josiah wrote many Civil War “ letters home” while serving with 14th Georgia in A.P. Hill’s Light Division of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Brothers Henry B. Light, George W. Light, and Obediah T. Light, and their cousin, Franklin Sanders Light, joined Company E (Lester's Volunteers), of the 14th Georgia Infantry. They were all grandsons of Obediah Light of Flowers, Georgia.
