USA > North Carolina > Guilford County > The History of Guilford County, North Carolina > Part 4
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Thirty-seven deeds were proven in open court this term.
Abner Weatherly, sheriff, came into open court and protested against the goal of this County, the same being insufficient in his opinion. (August 1797, page 34.)
John McMurray is appointed trustee for the year 1796 who gave bond in the sum of 500 pounds. (Page 35.)
Ordered that the following insolvents be allowed to John Henley, Sheriff for 1796, by the oath of Joseph Hoskins, deputy sheriff in Hubbard Peeple's District. Fifty-three deeds at this term of Court. (Page 37.)
. Also "the certificate of a procession made for William and Andrew Jackson on the 8th day of June, 1797, all of which are filed with the petitions of the Court, (fees not being paid).
Gottlieb Shober, Esq., produced a license from their honorables, the Judges of the Superior Courts of this state, licensing him as an attorney in the County Courts of this state who it appeared had taken the oaths prescribed by law and was admitted accordingly." (Page 41.)
At the November Court of 1797 one hundred and twenty-one deeds were proven in open court and thirty-seven deeds the following February. (Page 48.)
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
Abner Weatherly was re-elected Sheriff and allowed 30 pounds for year's service. Ordered that the clerk be allowed 22 pounds for his ex- officio services for 1797. (May 1798, page 65.)
John Hamilton proved a power of attorney from William Bridges to Andrew Jackson impowering him to make a title to David Dawson, Jr. Andrew Jackson proved release from Robin Weeden and Wife to Christian Full. (Page 69.)
Andrew Jackson, attorney for William Bridges, acknowleded a Deed from Daniel Daeson for 74 acres of land. At this court one hundred deeds were proven.
Present at this term of Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Samuel Lindsay, William Armfield, Matthew Cunningham. Abner Weatherly, Esq., (elected Sheriff by the Court) produced his commission from Gov. Saml. Ashe appointing him as Sheriff of Guilford County.
Ordered that it be entered on record that John Goodrich came into open court and acknowledged that he expected that some time ago in a quarrel he deprived John Wright, son of Francis Wright, of a small piece of his right ear.
William Farrington - Charged with passing base metal as money in the similitude of a Spanish milled dollar.
VS. State
William Farrington was bound over to Salisbury Superior Court. He gave bail of 100 pounds.
Forty-six deeds were reported at this court. In November Court thirty-seven deeds reported. Ordered that Duncan Cameron be appointed attorney to act for the State during this court. (August 1798.)
At this court were present Hance McCain, Hubbard Peebles, George Mendinghall, John Howel and Jonathan Parker. (Feb. 1799.)
Abner Weatherly was re-elected Sheriff unanimously at the May Court. William Armfield was appointed Trustee for Guilford County.
Ordered that George Rankin be appointed to procure and keep a proper standard of weights and measures for this county. (May 1799, page 102.)
John Howel was appointed entritaker for Guilford. His duty was to keep the public and confiscated lands, and to sell them. His bond was 2,000 pounds. (Page 103. Page 113.)
Ordered that James Loumer, a wounded soldier in the services of the United States, one of the militia of his state, wounded in 1779 in Ashe's Defeat in Georgia, being shot through the body and right arm, which was broken, rendering him incapable of pursuing his business as a blacksmith, be allowed the sum of 17 pounds 10 shillings per year and the certificate
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NORTH CAROLINA.
of same be made known to the General Assembly of North Carolina. (Nov. 1799, page 121.)
Abner Weatherly was unanimously elected Sheriff by the Court. Ordered that George Bruce, Samuel Lindsay and John Hamilton be appointed to judge the paper currency in the county agreeable to the Assembly. William Armfield was appointed trustee for county.
Ordered that Charles Bruce, John Howel and John Hamilton be appointed a committee to establish a standard of weights and measures for this county which shall be a guide for the person appointed to regulate the same. (Feb. 1800.)
At an extra session of this court held in February, 1801, there were present George Bruce, John Moore, Jester Knott, Zaza Brasher, David Price, Robert Bell and William Armfield. Court called to try a negro charged with rape, sentenced to be hanged. (Page 156.)
At the May court, 1801, Abner Weatherly was elected Sheriff, receiv- ing twelve votes out of sixteen cast.
The following Jury: Andrew Jackson, William Dick, John Wheeler, Thomas Rose, George Waggoner, George Starbuck, James Thompson, John Swicher, Zeal Shepherd, John White, Isaac Hiatt. (Page 168.)
Ordered that the seven sets of the Acts of Congress (1 Vol. lacking) furnished this county be distributed as follows: One set left in the office and the remainder to each three Justices, it appearing that there are seven- teen Justices in the county, and the broken set to go to the class of Justices that contains two. Justices are to be classed as follows: Ralph Gorrell, Roddy Hannah, Jonathan Parker; David Price, George Bruce, John Moore; James McNearry, Alex. Gray, Samuel Lindsay; John Howell, George Men- denhall, William Armfield; William Gilchrist, John Cummings, Zaza D. Brasher; Jestin Knott, Robert Bell.
For 1801 the county tax was two shillings to the poll and eight pence for every 100 A.
George Bruce, David Price, Jestin Knott presided. Archibald Murphy, Esq., produced license from the Judges of the Superior Courts of Law and Equity authorizing him to plead and practice law in the different Courts, on his taking the oaths by law he is admitted to practice in this Court. (May 1802, page 202.)
Andrew Jackson is appointed road overseer from Reedy Fork Bridge to the Widow Flack's branch. (Page 218.)
Ordered that Abner Weatherly, sheriff, be fined for swearing. (Page 234.)
Agreeable to an order of Court, the sheriff summoned a jury to inquire into the sanity of David Coble's mind, it being suggested to the
.
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GUILFORD. COUNTY,
court by Barnabas Troxlow that the said David was of mind, wasting his estate. Twelve good men duly summoned in behalf find the said David Coble to be of sound mind and that he is not wasting his estate. (May 1803.)
On petition of Elizabeth Wheeler, widow, the owner of a slave called Saul, who has performed divers meritorious services, of fair and good character, it is ordered that the said negro Saul be let free and that he be called by the name Saul Wheeler forever hereafter. (Aug. 1804.)
Two indictments for retailing spirituous liquors by the small without license. Sixty-three deeds recorded. (August 1805.)
A bill of sale from Andrew Jackson to Latham Donnell of one negro woman slave was proven. (November 1805.)
(The word dollar is used instead of pound. Feb. 1806.)
· Administration on the estate of Andrew Jackson, dec'd, is granted John Starrat and Edward Gran. (Aug. 1806, page 387.)
Martinsville was the first county seat of Guilford, known in history as the scene of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The wealth of the town was, in 1806, as follows :
John Adam's lot. 150 pounds
John Hamilton's lot. 250 pounds
John Hamilton's lot, where he dwells. 525 pounds
Charles Bruce's lot. 200 pounds
Saul Cummings' lot. 175 pounds
Robert Lindsay's lot. 325 pounds
David Brice's lot. 125 pounds
Smith Moore's lot. 275 pounds
James Cannon's lot.
375 pounds
Robert Lindsay's dwelling lot.
400 pounds
John Hamilton's lot. 40 pounds 10
Alexander Martin's lot 275 pounds
David Price's lot 43 pounds 10
Town lots 25 pounds
The Commissioners to appraise the property of Martinsville were John Cunningham, George Nicks, Geogre Swain. (Page 392.)
Thomas Dick, William Ryan and Abner Weatherly, Esqrs., are ap- pointed a committee to arrange and prepare a list of persons qualified to serve as Jurors in the Superior Court of Law hereafter to be held for this county and that they make report of proceedings at present term of this court. (Feb. 1807, page 398.)
Ordered that Thomas Dick, William Lease, William Ryan, Charles Bruce and Joseph Davis, Esqrs., be appointed commissioners for the build-
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ing of a new Courthouse and jail, by plans agreed upon by commissioners. A sufficient tax was levied for 1807-8-9-10. (Page 398.)
Elections were held at Martinsville, Jamestown and Findley Stuart's. (Page 407.)
At a "County Court" for Guilford. At the May term for 1808 a plan of a town at New Courthouse was discussed. (November 1807, page 437.) At this term Abner Weatherly, who had been sheriff ten years, re- signed and James Dunning was elected for nine months. (August 1808.)
At the term of Court held May, 1809, at Martinsville it was an- nounced "the new courthouse in Greensboro now ready for reception of court. The court adjourned from the town of Martinsville to the town of Greensboro (which was the centre of the county)" to meet at ten o'clock tomorrow, Friday, 19 May, 1809. (Page 465.)
The esquires present at the first term of Court held in Greensboro were John Starrat, Jonathan Parker, Joseph Gullet, George Swain, John McAdoo, Ephraim Burrow.
This court was interested in laying off new roads, appointing road overseers, patrollers, constables, binding out children, acknowledging deeds, electing county officers, levying taxes. They had only poll and land taxes.
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
..
CHAPTER VII. THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
Slavery, an institution bequeathed to us like the church, the state or other forms of medieval life, was the embryo of a parasite growing from the roots of our republic. In Europe this principle had the form of feudalism; in America, that of negro slavery. Through this system in the south, negroes from African jungles were trained into a class of men with some degree of civilization. In its day, in the South, slavery was the greatest of blessings to the blacks.
Though the institution of slavery had a much stronger hold on industrial life in Warren, Halifax and other eastern counties, still there were many slaveholders in the eastern half of Guilford County. Among the files of the Greensboro Patriot may be found advertisements like the following, offering a reward of ten dollars for a "Runaway negro man named Dutchman, formerly called Cæsar. About forty years old, five feet, eight inches tall, long head, and stooped shoulders, has a down look and 'zacly,' or 'zack- ly, sar,' is a common word with him. He took different kinds of clothing, old suit of blue jeans, and striped pants, some coarse summer cloths, two hats and a cap."
A reward of fifty dollars was offered by another subscriber for a runaway negro from his master in Washington County, Vir- ginia : "On Sunday a negro named Mack, sometimes called Wil- liam, jet black, very free spoken, twenty-four years old, about five feet, eight or ten inches, he wears a blue jeans frock coat, tow- linen pantaloons and straw hat. It is probable he may have pro- cured a pass and aims to get to a free state or to North Carolina. The said negro can write a little. I will pay the above reward for
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NORTH CAROLINA.
the delivery of said slave to me in Washington County, or half the amount, if secured so that I may get him again."
Patriot of 1845 : "In pursuance to a decree issued from the Court of Equity, we shall expose to public sale, to the highest bidder, on the credit of 9 months, at the late residence of William Bayles, dec'd, on 25th day of July next, the following
LOT OF NEGROES :
"Ben, Jim, Logan, Alsy, and Dicey, (two men, two women and one boy), all young and lively. The purchaser will be re- quired to give note and approved security.
"WILLIAM A. LASH, "JOHN BANNER, "Admr. of Wm. Boyles."
Now, there were those in Guilford County having decided conscientious scruples against all this business. The western part of Guilford County was peopled by Quakers, Englishmen coming by way of Pennsylvania, and another type not so mild-the Nan- tucket Quaker, who came to this western part of Guilford about the time of the first brewings of the Revolutionary War. This section was, and is today, the centre of Quaker element in the state. For some reason, or impulse, the Friends, or Quakers, re- garded the freeing of the slaves as their own peculiar mission. In their yearly meeting as early as 1772, according to Stephen B. Weeks, Friends were discussing slavery and the sin of it; and in 1774 they freed their own slaves. The North Carolina yearly meeting of Friends chartered a ship, called The Sally Ann, for the purpose of sending slaves to Hayti, where they might be free. Captain Swain, of Guilford County, was the skipper of the boat. Slaves were bought and sent to Hayti. (Mrs. M. M. Hobbs.)
Even earlier than The Sally Ann, soon after the Revolutionary War, societies were formed all over North Carolina to protect and restore to freedom those negroes kidnapped and sold into slavery. In the first decade of the ninetenth century a society was organized in Guilford County, called the "Manumission Society of North
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
Carolina." Its meetings were held in the Deep River section, and others besides Friends were members, among them many slave- holders, who eagerly discussed the question of slavery. There was at this time in Washington City a society for the colonization of "free people of color."
The Manumission Society of North Carolina sought to put an end to the slave traffic by allowing no more to be brought into North Carolina; by allowing no slave to be exchanged from one master to another ; and by allowing all negroes born after a certain date to be free. By this means they would gradually promote emancipation, thus averting the disastrous consequences of releas- ing suddenly upon North Carolina civilization about 205,170 slaves (See Census of 1820-1830), of half-savage negroes.
The representative members of the Manumission Society were the Coffins, the Worths, James and Richard Mendenhall. The active members numbered several hundred, many prominent slave- holders being members. A large per cent. of the people of North Carolina at that time were philosophizing about some scheme for the emancipation of slaves.
What to do with slaves when freed was a question. Emigra- tion to Hayti was encouraged. Many of this Society preferred that the negroes be kept in slavery to having them remain in the state when freed. They were all, however, abolitionists. (This information was given by Mrs. M. M. Hobbs.)
The Underground Railway, though in reality an outgrowth of the Manumission Society, was not connected with it. This was a secret organization, begotten in the ingenious brain of the Coffins, by which slaves were sent to the Northwest. The scheme remained a secret for a quarter of a century, in which time many a slave- holder found his number of slaves greatly diminished, and his negroes skipped and gone.
NOTE: Friends did not receive negroes into their denomination as did Presbyterians, Baptists and others. Who ever saw a negro who was a Quaker?
I have several times heard Addison Coffin talk of the Underground Railway and how it was operated. S. W. S.
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NORTH CAROLINA.
The first "depot" of this "railroad" was in southwest Guil- ford County, not many miles from the Randolph County line. The negro escaped from his master by night, went to one of these "agents," was concealed by day in the hiproof of his house; by night he was sent to the next "agent's" home, and so to free territory. A system of nails driven in trees along the way marked which fork of the road to take.
Slaveholders themselves indulged in "heavy threats," which intimidated many non-slaveholders who knew nothing whatever of the "Underground Railroad." Though these were innocent, they could not endure the sentiment. They, too, went to the Northwest. Whole counties in Indiana and Ohio were peopled by Guilford County stock and their homes were left vacant. What was the primary cause of this? Slavery. For forty years before the Civil War, slavery was a pretty hot subject in Guilford County, North Carolina. It was the conjunction of the "Nantucketers" and the Scotch-Irish.
The Census of 1850 brought out the fact that nearly one- third of the population of Indiana was from North Carolina, while Illinois, lowa, Missouri and Kansas each had a large number of Carolinians. In 1835 the region in the far Northwest was opened for settlement and Carolinians were among the first to enter the new territory. In 1849 the gold fever excitement in California attracted "Carolinians who became the first to blaze the way." Far up in North Dakota, near Devil Lake, Addison Coffin found a colony of young men located and holding their claims. Their parents were from Guilford County, North Carolina.
The first emigrants went west by horseback, with pack horses, following the buffalo trails. These animals, now extinct, came to Guilford to feed on the great peavine pastures in the winter. In the spring they went again to the northward, fording the Buffalo Creek, the Haw River, the Dan River, at the best fords. Buffalo
See Guilford Collegian, Vol. 4, published at Guilford College. Paper by Addison Coffin and Stephen B. Weeks on "Southern Quakers and Slavery.
.
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
trails and buffalo fords were an advantage to those seeking outlet westward.
Many places in the west, in Indiana especially, were named for those places left in Guilford County. Knightstown, Ind., was named for a family of Knights living in west Guilford; Greens- boro, Ind., was named for Greensboro, N. C., it is settled by Guil- ford people; Center and New Garden townships were laid off in Indiana. (See Steven B. Week's "Southern Quakers and Slav- ery.") Whole families and monthly meetings went west from Guilford. Deep River Monthly Meeting, Dover Monthly Meeting, Springfield Monthly Meeting, New Garden Monthly Meeting were impoverished by the constant drain of migration.
The town of Florence, in Guilford, went west almost bodily. Men living remember when Florence was a thriving little town; now it is a deserted village. Jamestown and Friendship have been depopulated in a similar way. Gardners, Dillons, Winslows, Hills, left almost all of them. About 1830, four hundred families went west from Guilford County. The efficient cause was slavery, the old, old story of the time.
Though Guilford was drained by migration to the west, she probably lost less wealth, and suffered less because of slavery than any other county in North Carolina. Look at her enterprise, her industrial development, her educational system. Compare her towns with those of Warren County, Halifax County, Edgecombe County and others that had an immense wealth in slaves. Though these counties are drowsily waking up, by the demands of the tobacco and peanut markets, still they have no such industrial foundation as Guilford. Why? Their industrial life received the greater paralysis at the loss of so much wealth. With Guil- ford it was not so. Guilford had not, in the first place, so much wealth in slaves to lose. Guilford men were already hardened to labor. Guilford was not "aristocratic." Guilford men had long ago learned to be self-reliant. Guilford had the crafts of New England firmly fixed in her industrial organism by the "Nan-
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NORTH CAROLINA.
tucketers." Though there has been contending and clashing, it was the conflict of ideas which always develops education. The wrangling was not wrangling destructive; it was the throbbing of lusty life. This chapter directly affects our industrial and educational developement. Though Guilford County lost a great many people before and since the Civil War because of the slavery question, still the foundation of her industrial life remained.
Addison Coffin, one of the leaders of the "Underground Rail- road," was also emigration agent from Guilford County to the Northwest. In 1866, once each month he was in Greensboro, N. C., for the purpose of conducting emigrants. Thousands of white people left this County under his guidance until he, in 1872, went out of the business. In May, 1866, he conducted over three hundred; in June of the same year, he conducted a troop of emi- grants, of which 300 were twelve years old and younger, 100 were three years old and under.
The data for this chapter has been collected here and there; from Addison Coffin's Life, from sketches in the Guilford Col- legian, from the complete file of the Greensboro Patriot in the library of the Greensboro Female College, and from conversing with many people, Mrs. Mary Mendenhall Hobbs, Mrs. P. B. Hackney; and Addison Coffin's talks to the students at Guilford College.
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PART OF GUILFORD IN THE CIVIL WAR.
To Governor Ellis's call to arms in 1861 the GUILFORD GRAYS at once responded. Of these, fifty men went into the Battle of Bristow Station, in the fall of 1863, seven men came out alive, and · only three of these were unhurt. (Per Mr. Wm. Rankin.)
From the Roster of North Carolina troops in the war between the States during the years 1861 and 1865 it is learned that the following commanding officers and companies were from Guilford County and there were other soldiers besides these from Guilford County :
TWENTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT, COMPANY B .- OFFICERS.
John Sloan, Captain; cm April 20, 1861 ; p Lieutenant-Colonel September 28, 1861.
William Adams, Captain; cm September 28, 1861 ; pr from Ist Lieutenant ; killed at Sharpsburg.
John A. Gilmer, Captain ; cm April 1, 1862, p from 2d Lieutenant.
J. A. Sloan, Captain.
Wm. Adams, Ist Lieutenant, cm April 20, 1861.
J. T. Morehead, Ist Lieutenant, cm October 5, 1861 ; p Captain 45th Cal. 53d. John A. Gilmer, ist Lieutenant, cm January 6, 1862.
Rufus B. Gibson, Ist Lieutenant.
Rufus B. Gibson, 2nd Lieutenant, p.
James T. Morehead, Jr., 2nd Lieutenant, April 20, 1861, promoted.
John A. Gilmer, 2nd Lieutenant, April 20, 1861, pr-
TWENTY-SECOND REGIMENT, COMPANY E.
Columbus C. Cole, Captain, cm May 23, 1861, p Major June 13, 1862. Charles E. Harper, Captain, cm May 23, 1861, k June 30, 1862 at Frazier's Farm; p from Ist Lieutenant.
Joseph A. Hooper, Captain, cm, -, w- at Seven Pines; r April 20, 1863; p from 2nd Lieutenant.
Cm-Commissioned. K -- Killed. R-Retired. P-Promoted. W-Wounded. Dt-Detailed.
/>
ALFRED MOORE SCALES, GENERAL IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA, GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA, ELDER IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF GREENSBORO. LAWYER-STATESMAN.
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NORTH CAROLINA.
M. M. Wolf, Captain, cm June 30, 1862, w August 30, 1862, at Manassas; r Sept. 15, 1863; p from Ist Lieutenant.
R. W. Cole, Captain, cm Sept. 15, 1863, w at Chancellorsville.
Charles D. Harper, Ist Lieut., cm May 23, 1861, w and k.
Martin M. Wolf, Ist Lieut., cm, p and w.
A. J. Busick, Ist Lieut., cm Sept. 15, 1863, p from Sergeant.
R. W. Cole, Ist Lieut., cm, p and w.
W. H. Faucett, 2d Lieut., May 23, 1861, dt to Comm.
James M. Hanner, 2nd Lieut., cm May 23, 1861 ; r July 21, 1861.
John N. Nelson, 2nd Lieut., cm July 30, 1861, d November, 1861 ; p from Sergeant.
Joseph A. Hooper, 2nd Lieut.
R. W. Cole, 2nd Lieut., cm June 3. O. C. Wheeler, 2nd Lieut., cm -; r Jan. 26, 1864.
TWENTY-FIRST REGIMENT, COMPANY M.
William L. Scott, Captain, cm June 4, 1861 ; p Lieut .- Colonel Feb. 1, 1862. William S. Rankin, Captain, cm April 26, 1862; p Major, August 28, 1862. John E. Gilmer, Captain, cm August 28, 1862; w at Fredericksburg.
William S. Rankin, Ist Lieut., cm June 4, 1861.
Wilson S. Hill, Ist Lieut., cm -
John E. Gilmer, Ist Lieut., cm April 26, 1862.
John S. Dick, Ist Lieut., cm Aug. 25, 1862; w at Fredericksburg.
John Doggett, 2nd Lieut., cm June 4, 1861.
Andrew Summers, 2nd Lieut., w June 4, 1861.
J. A. Cobb., 2nd Lieut., w at Winchester and Gettysburg.
S. F. Stewart, 2nd Lieut., cm
NINETEENTH REGIMENT, COMPANY F.
Barzillai F. Cole, Captain, cm June 4, 1861.
P. A. Tatum, Captain, p from Ist Lieut; cm June 4, 1861.
N. C. Tucker, Ist Lieut., cm June 4, 1861 ; p from 2nd Lieut ; w.
J. A. Hooper, 2nd Lieut .; cm June 4, 1861.
FORTY-FIFTH REGIMENT INFANTRY-FIELD AND STAFF.
John Henry Morehead, Colonel, cm Sept. 2, 1862; p from Lieutenant- Colonel; d at Martinsburg, Virginia, June 25, 1863; p from Captain of Company E, Second Regiment.
Charles E. Shober, Major, cm June 26, 1862; p from Captain of Company B; p Lieut .- Colonel of Second Battalion.
FORTY-FIFTH REGIMENT, COMPANY B.
Charles E. Shober, Captain, cm Feb. 15, 1862; p Major Sept. 1, 1862; Lieut .- Colonel of Second Battalion.
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GUILFORD COUNTY.
Samuel C. Rankin, Captain, cm September 1, 1862; p from Ist Lieut .; w July, 1865, at Gettysburg.
S .C. Rankin, Ist Lieut., cm Feb. 15, 1862; p and w.
James M. Wharton, Ist Lieut. (cm Feb. 15, 1862), cm Sept. I, p from 2nd Lieut.
Charles W. Woolen, 2nd Lieut., cm Feb. 15, 1862.
Henry C. Willis, 2nd Lieut., cm June 29, 1862, w.
R. R. Sanders, 2nd Lieut.
FORTY-FIFTH REGIMENT, COMPANY C.
James F. Morehead, p Captain, cm Feb. 15, 1862, p Lieut .- Colonel of 53d Regiment, p Colonel.
Peter P. Scales, Captain, cm May 8, 1862, Virginia; d of w received at Gettysburg.
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