behind AotW

John Purifoy was a 19 year old student at East Tennessee University (now U of Tennessee) in Knoxville when he enlisted as a Private in the Jeff Davis Light Artillery in Selma, Alabama in July 1861. He was a Corporal at Sharpsburg and served with the battery to the end of the War. He avoided surrender at Appomattox Court House in April 1865 but later surrendered at Rutherford, NC.

His 1861 photograph above, and a 1914 campaign piece for his successful bid to be Alabama Secretary of State, below, are from the Alabama Archives.