behind AotW

At 18 years old, in March 1862, Thomas Calvin McBryde left his parents’ small farm at Snow Hill in Wilcox County, AL to enlist in the Cedar Creek Guards, who soon after became Company C of the 44th Alabama Infantry.

He survived a slight wound at Sharpsburg in September 1862 and a couple of serious illnesses through the war to be surrendered at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.

After the war he was a store clerk, bookkeeper, Justice of the Peace, and finally, in his late 80s and early 90s, a railroad watchman at Dalton, GA, as seen in this stunning photograph, which was contributed to this Findagrave memorial by Stephen Gilliland in 2013.