Pvt. William Baxter Tucker, Company I, 54th NC Infantry, CSA

William Baxter Tucker, great-great-grandfather of William Herbert Martin Tucker, was from Guilford County, North Carolina. He enlisted in Wake County on April 1, 1864. He was wounded at Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia about May 22, 1864. He had a bad ankle wound and was hospitalized in Richmond on May 23, 1864. Later, he was transferred to a hospital in Danville, arriving on or about May 26, 1864. He was furloughed on the same date and put on a stagecoach for a point nearest his home in Guilford County. High Point was the closest place they could take him for family to pick him up. He had a terrible infection in his ankle with a very bad smell. Passengers on the stagecoach wanted the driver to put him off before getting to the station in High Point. However, the driver told them that he was determined to take the wounded soldier as close to his home as possible. Some of Pvt. Tucker’s family came for their loved one there. After the war, he was able to farm a little, with the help of his family, despite steel fragments in his back. The musket he brought home is in the possession of his great-great-grandson, William H. M. Tucker.