A Confederate Soldier

Dilling Horton Elledge was born and raised in the South and when the Civil war started in 1861, he was appointed to the rank of a Captain in the Infantry of the Confederate Army. He and Elizabeth already had seven children when the ward started.

The family farm was close enough to Chickamauga Creek that Elizabeth and the children could hear the sounds of that great battle for three long days. She felt the terrible anguish of having her husband in it leading his men against a superior force with superior arms bent to killing every last man. A short time after the Battle of Chickamauga, Elizabeth had to gather up her children and take them up into the Blue Ridge Mountains where they all suffered from fear, hunger and privation while Sherman and his spoiling men swept the country clean on their march to the Atlanta and the sea.

Dillingham was taken prisoner by the Union Army and became sick while a prisoner. He was released a little before the war ended by swearing he wouldn't fight anymore against the Union and by taking an oath of allegiance. His farm had already been raided by the Union Army and his slaves had been freed. Before the Union Army raided the farm, Elizabeth had dug a hole and buried all their valuables and put a big brush fire on top of it. The valuables were retrieved after the war was over. Dillingham rented the land to Negroes who had been his slaves and some of the Negro women helped Elizabeth in the house.