Private Rhesa Read Hawkins of Company K, 11th Mississippi Infantry, was 17 years old when he was wounded at Sharpsburg in September 1862. He returned to duty but was captured at Gettysburg in July 1863 and spent the rest of the war a prisoner at Fort Delaware.

After the war, with help from family, he was a partner in the Kopperl & Hawkins general store in Vaiden, MS, seen above in a photograph taken sometime after 1870. Rhesa is in middle of the back row in the picture below, taken at his store in about 1890. Both photographs are online thanks to Ron Collins.

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