Submitted by Sid Stroupe and Mike Stroupe; Edited and vetted by Cheri Todd Molter
Miles Abernathy Stroup, the eldest son of Christopher “Christy” Stroup and older brother of Daniel Matthew Stroup (to read Daniel’s story, see “Daniel Matthew Stroup and the Claim against the Confederate Government”), lived in White Pine [now Cherryville], Cleveland [now Gaston] County, North Carolina. He volunteered for a one-year term of service with the Confederate Army on January 28, 1862 at Goldsboro in Wayne County, North Carolina. He was a Private in Company F of the 34th Infantry Regiment, North Carolina. Miles Stroup was “present and accounted for” with his Regiment until May 28, 1862 when he was admitted to Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond for a period of 10 days. He was treated for dysentery.
A year later, in July 1863, Miles participated in the Battle of Gettysburg. He was not immediately captured but left behind by the Union because he was attending to the wounded Confederate soldiers. On July 17, 1863, Miles was confined to DeCamp General Hospital, David’s Island, New York Harbor as a “Rebel sick or wounded Prisoner of War.” Miles was paroled and transferred to City Point, Virginia and received by the Confederate Army in a prisoner exchange on September 16, 1863.
During the months of October through December 1863, Miles, ill again, was absent from his Regiment. Miles returned to active duty on January 15, 1864.
Over a year later he was paroled as part of the Army of Northern Virginia when General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops to Lieutenant General Grant at the Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.
Following the War, Miles Stroup enrolled at the College of Medicine in Charleston, South Carolina, ultimately earning his Doctor of Medicine degree. In the early 1870s, while still unmarried, he moved from his home in Cherryville, N.C. to Red River, Texas. There, he married and practiced medicine for over 20 years. His Texas gravesite has not been located.