Warren Gray Turner, CSA, b. 1837

[Photo courtesy of cousin, name withheld for privacy]

9 Jan 1837, Edgecombe Co, NC - 20 Jun 1913, at his home in Morganton, NC
*buried: Forest Hill Cemetery

Imagine my surprise to receive notification from a distant family member that a photograph of our great great grandfather, Warren Gray Turner, was in storage in the N.C. Museum of History, in Raleigh. It's not this portrait (which appears to be when he was mustered in for the Civil War) because it shows him tired-looking, covered in hair, beard to his chest like Grizzly Adams (most likely post war).

*first assignment: Company E, 6th Regiment, NC Troops - 20 June 1861 (Company E was formed in Charlotte, NC on the 28 May 1861); promoted to Corporal - 30 June 1861; promoted to 3rd Lt. - 17 June 1862; promoted to 2nd Lt. - 24 Dec 1862; promoted to 1st Lt. - 1 July 1863

*commanding officer: Col. R. F. Webb

*battles/engagements: 2nd Manassas - 30 Aug 1862; Chancellorsville, VA - 3 and 4 of May 1863; Gettysburg; Cemetery Hill - 2 July 1863; captured at Rappanhannock Station, VA - 7 Nov 1863

*wounds: wounded at 2nd Manassas - shot in the right leg, disabling it - 30 Aug 1862; admitted to general hospital #7 in Richmond, VA for "fever remit"; second wound was given as "a wound in the left thigh"

*confined at Old Capitol Prison, Washington, DC; transferred to Johnson Island, Ohio - 11 Nov 1863; exchanged at Cox's Wharf, James River, VA - 22 Mar 1865

* moved with his parents to Burke County, NC at age 12

* worked as a school teacher and farmer before the Civil War

* while imprisoned in Ohio, he met the spy Belle Boyd, and was so impressed by her that he named his first daughter Belle Boyd Turner

* after the war, he farmed as well as owned and operated the Shuffler Mill on Upper Creek

* lived on Valdese Avenue in Morganton, in a two story Victorian house on a large acreage of land

* he and his wife were members of the First Baptist Church in Morganton, North Carolina

* worked as Postmaster of Morganton during the second Cleveland administration



*His Obit from a book at the Family History Library:

W. G. Turner Dead
After a lingering illness, Mr W. G. Turner passed away at his
home on North North Morganton last Saturday morning.
Mr Turner was born in Edgecombe County 1837 and came to Burke
County when twelve years of age. His age was therefore 76 years. He
married May 21, 1871, to L. M. Roderick, of this county who survives,
and the surviving children are Mrs Charles Lane, Mrs J. L. Anderson,
Mr C. V. Turner, Morganton; M. W. Turner, Hartville, SC; F. G.
Turner, Greensboro; and Hardy Turner, Lenoir.
Mr Turner taught school in Burke for several years before
enlisting in the War Between the States. He was a 2nd Lieutenant of Co
E, 16th NC Regiment, and proved a gallant, brave soldier. At the
Battle of Gettysburg, he was taken prisoner and removed to Johnson's
Island, where he remained ten months. He was twice wounded.
Mr Turner was a merchant in Morganton for many years after the
war, and was postmaster here during the first Cleveland
administration. He leaves a name for honesty and uprightness of which
his family and friends feel justly proud.
The funeral was conducted from home Sunday morning at 10 o'clock
by Rev H. H. Jordan, and during the service, Mr Hardy Turner, a son,
led very sweetly on the piano the singing of "Nearer My God to Thee"
and "Asleep in Jesus." The remains were interned in Forest Hill
Cemetery.
---From The Morganton News-Herald. Jul 3, 1913. Reprinted in the
Journal of the Burke County Genealogical Society, Vol 10-2, p4.
(Another article in the Jounal in 15-5, p 15, mentions his
participation in the Civil War and veterans activities.)