Mami T-- Part 7

I learned from the ADAH researchers that he had not been killed in December of 1861, because there were Union records of his having been captured at Island 10, in April 1862. 

He was a Prisoner of War, and there are records of roll calls where his name is listed. He was exchanged in November 1862 at Aiken’s Landing near Vicksburg, Virginia. I have copies of these records.

He returned to his Company in Port Hudson, La. And there the trail goes cold. There is no record of his death in any manner, no hospital record, and no record of burial. No other records at all!

The fact is I have no idea of what happened to him. I did later find a discharge record for William McDuffey 1st Alabama Company I, Private.

Even though neither I nor the two Civil War researchers could find any record of his death; it had to have been accepted by the War Department that he had died somewhere, because Mami T began drawing a pension in 1909, at the rate of $120.00 per annum.

He never returned and was never heard from or about by the family again. I did ask the researchers how Mami T would have been notified and they told me that most likely it would have been word of mouth.

On her sworn affidavit which was filed in 1904 there was a place that she had to swear as to how long she had lived in Florida. The date that was typewritten in was May 15, 1824.

Since this could not even possibly have been a correct date, because she was born May 15, 1830; my thoughts are that whoever typed the paper up wrote the year in as 1824 where it should have been written May 15, 1842. I am sure it was a typo error!

And I believe that because she could nor read or write, and no one read it back to her that she was not aware that a mistake had been made before she made her mark. May 15, 1842 would have been her twelfth birthday and she most certainly would have remembered arriving in the Florida Territory on that date.

If this is correct; this then would make the Taylor family Florida pioneer’s; however no papers have ever been filed for a Pioneer Certificate by anyone in our family that I am aware of. Florida was still a Territory, and did not become a State until sometime in 1843.

Mami T-- Part 6

The day I received the copy of her application in the mail I was so excited I was beside myself! As I was reading her sworn affidavit I saw her mark, an X on all of the pages, and I realized that she could not read or write; this was something that I had never even thought about before.

The papers were so clear they looked like originals, but I knew they were copies, I reached out and touched her mark with one finger, and it became a spiritual experience for me, suddenly in that moment it seemed as if all the years just slipped away, and I was actually touching the hand of my gg grandmother; I began to weep.

I saw it so clearly in my mind’s eye. And in that moment I had such an ache in my heart, and I mourned the loss of her for the first time in my life.

It was so real to me, I had loved and admired her all of my life, and I had at just this moment come to realize the fact that I had never known her personally at all, but she had lived in my memories and in my heart since I was old enough to hear and remember daddy’s stories about her.

I felt such a peace wash through me; it seemed to me as if I had actually touched her hand. And I believe that I did in the spiritual realm.

Afterwards I read her application and all of the information she had at the time she filed. She stated that William was in 1st Alabama Company A, and that he was killed in Port Hudson, La. December 08, of 1861, and that his Captain had been William Truett.

Not having much information about my gg grandfather I began to search and dig. In the beginning I only had the 1860 Holmes County census record. His name on the census was spelled William McDuffee born September 1827, Georgia. There was no other information.

I then realized this was why my dad had never talked about him; he had never known him, and you never think or talk about people that you have never known.

William left for the War and he was never heard from again by any family members. This was long before my granddaddy Boss or my dad was even born.

On the very last page of the paperwork I had received from Tallahassee there was a small form from the War Department. It confused me because it sounded as though there had been two William McDuffie’s in 1st Alabama. I contacted ADAH (Alabama Department of Archives and History) I spoke with two of their researchers via email.

And there had been two, one was William A. McDuffie and he had been in 1st Alabama Old Company B. and he was from Eufaula, Alabama and their Unit was called ‘Eufaula Rifles’, he was an officer, and he was black.

The other was my gg grandfather William and his last name had been spelled McDuffey. He was in 1st Alabama Company I his Unit was called ‘Dale Avengers’ his Captain had been William Pruitt, and he was a private.