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This is the Graves Family Coat of Arms and motto. I belong to the Graves Family Association You can learn more about the Graves Family at www.gravesfa.org
My great grandfather, Lewis Marion Graves, was born in 1826. He fought in the Army of the Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly know as the Confederacy, in the American Civil War (1860 to 1865). Lewis enlisted in the 39th Alabama Infantry in May 1861 at the age of 35. He was transferred to Company E 25th Alabama Regiment in March 1864 and wounded in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864 during the siege of Atlanta. He was hospitalized at the Confederate Field Hospital Atlanta for an extended period and honorably discharged in March 1865.
In his own words from his Soldier’s Application for Pension dated January 6 1901: “I was shot through the right thigh with a ‘minney’ ball at Tensaw Mountain and remained sick in hospital at Atlanta GA for a long time and I am still suffering and can only walk on one foot, and I am not able to do any work ‘attall’.”
Great grandfather was 75 years old in 1901. He had suffered for 36 years since the end of the war, trying to feed his family with a bad right leg and no disability compensation. The examining physician, W.J. Lee MD, wrote, “I find him (LM Graves) in a very bad condition, his right leg is affected from gun shot wound. The issue he can’t walk and thereby will never be so that can walk on it. He is debilitated and is famish away considerably. He can’t earn a living by manual labor.”
Great grandfather’s pension of $96.00 per year was granted on March 19 1902, back dated to January 16 1902. He died on November 13 1902, collecting only eleven months of his disability pension. He was buried beneath a Confederate States of America headstone in the Old Cemetery at Ponce de Leon, Florida.
Lewis Marion Graves (7/14/1826 - 11/13/1902) and his wife Mary (3/3/1837 - 7/5/1904) had one child, my grandfather, William Columbus 6/25/1874 - 10/23/1959 He and his wife, Martha 4/17/1879 - 5/21/1937, had 10 children.
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William Columbus Graves
Standing beside his porch on his farm in Ponce de Leon Florida on his birthday, June 25th 1942
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