Alan J. Pitts
T. E. Gilchrist
Sat Jun 30 10:01:26 2001


I looked at the index for the 1860 census and saw the name listed in Coosa County, page 339. If I can look him up on the microfilm I could determine if he had a profession (pastor, mechanic, teacher, politician) that might allow him to avoid military service. Gilchrist is a somewhat unusual name -- there's not that many Gilchrists listed in Alabama -- so was interested that there was an exact match for this name -- Thomas E. Gilchrist -- in Co. "E", 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles. I don't see anything in Alabama that's really close. It would be worth checking, esp. since I found no pension application for him. Brian Howerton on the Arkansas message board might be able to help in the Arkansas area.

My theory is this: Southerners usually found a reason to move every so often during antebellum times. Of course Mr. Gilchrist moved at least once, from South Carolina to Coosa County AL. The usual reason had to do with cotton: it took ten to fifteen years to wear out the soil, and there was always cheaper, better land to the west. The eastern Alabama area opened up with the Indian removal in 1836, and people flooded in to buy new land. By the late 1850's much of this area had been depleted of organic matter necessary to maintain high crop yields, and people began moving west. It's possible that he moved to Arkansas just before the war, and returned afterwards. It's alos possible that he knew men in this company who were friends and relatives, and volunteered from Coosa County.

I see no reason to believe he served in any Alabama unit, and certainly not Stuart's Battalion, which was raised in north Alabama along the southern bank of the Tennessee River.