Deborah E, Moorefield
John Bradner
Fri Apr 27 11:06:51 2001


I feel like an idiot...My sons Alfred Dunnreath Mooreield II and Edward Lucas Moorefield are 17 and 18...their dad who lives in NC told us yeas ago that his mother, Evelyn Bradner Moorefield was the daughter of Dunnreath Bradner and granddaughter of John Bradner. He told the boys John Bradner was one of the three survivors of Pickett's Charge..that his granddaddy hid in a tree after the charge..We are now divorced and I am trying to document this history for our sons, as their dad couldn't care less... I recevied a message from Tom Elmore who stated that The 53rd Vas entered battle with an estimated 36 officers and 399 enlisted men, or an average of 3 officers and 40 men per company..The Supplement to the Official Records states that Co. I had 2 Officers, 25 men captured, with 1 officer and 16 men wounded..(some were likely among the captured), so it is quite possible that John Bradner was one of three unwounded men from his company to gather back on Seminary Ridge after the charge.. I have John Bradner's family Bible...which shows he was the son of John Carr Bradner and Henerietta Craft Bradner of Pittsylvania County, Va..He enlisted at age 21 with the Chatham Grays and after the rebellion, married twice and fathered 15 children. He is buried in the Red House Presbyterian Churchyard near Milton, NC..He died in 1904 leaving a widow, Martha Bird Bradner...How can I find out he she or his first wife received a pension? or more regarding his actual record. (I didn't think there were many trees in the vicinity of Pickett's Charge...I don't want my sons to think their Grandfather Bradner was a coward...) Deby