Last at Appomattox

My great-great-grandfather was Private George W. Chandler. He was born Jan. 4, 1832, the son of Pleasant and Martha Chandler. He was married to Elizabeth Ligon Boswell Nov. 5, 1857. They owned land, lived and reared their nine children, died and were buried on a periwinkle-covered knoll over looking their ancestral homestead near Milton, North Carolina. George was a farmer most of his life. In 1872, he was chosen Justice of the Peace. He died suddenly at his home on March 30, 1893. The cause of his death was believed to be chronic hepatitis, which he had contracted during the war. On July 8, 1861, at the age of 28, George enlisted in the Confederate States Army in defense of his homeland. George and many of his friends and kinfolk joined the 4th N.C. Cavalry, 59th Regiment. Company B at the Caswell County Court House in Yanceyville. He survived skirmishes and engagements with the Federal army in eastern North Carolina and southern Virginia battles at Brandy Station, Gettysburg and Bristoe Station Campaign. He spent the last year of the war defending the capital of Richmond and Petersburg, and was with General Lee’s retreat from Richmond heading westward, finally surrendering at Appomattox. By this time he was one of 19 men left in his company of 184. He was paroled April 8, 1865. The 4th N.C. Cavalry (Roberts Brigade) has the distinction of capturing the last Federal artillery battery there at Appomattox on the morning of their surrender — as in the popular phrase describing the distinguished North Carolina Confederate soldier: “First at Bethel, farthest to the front at Gettysburg and Chickamauga and last at Appomattox.” In closing, perhaps his obituary from the Milton Chronicle describes George W. Chandler best: “He was an excellent citizen and neighbor of Caswell County and a faithful member of the Presbyterian Church.”