Tombstone Tuesday - Israel A. Alligood

So, I need some help in gaining traction here at Heirlooms and Heritage!  It has become apparent that I spend way too much time trying to come up with witty, creative, or clever storylines and titles to make the blog entries more interesting.  I will not give up that pursuit but if I am to gain any credibility here and post more regularly I must get some sort of a schedule.Taking a hint from GeneaBloggers, Tuesdays will become "Tombstone Tuesday." Just a picture and a few facts about one of our deceased relatives.  That, interspersed with stories of heirlooms, should help me get a foothold here.  So, excuse the silly title and enjoy at least one short story per week.  I just got back from dragging my sister to cemeteries, me the historian and she the driver and photographer.  She is amazing, we had a blast!

Israel Augustus Alligood, I think that is an awesome name.  If you have read my post Veni, Vidi, Vici, then you might remember that my maternal grandmother took four years of Latin.  Apparently there was quite the Latin influence in baby naming in southern Georgia in those days.

Israel was my great, great grandfather...my maternal grandmother's grandfather.  Israel was born in Laurens County, Georgia, to Hillery and Nancy Alligood, June 15, 1835.  It appears from records that he lived in Laurens County in the Dexter area his entire life with the exception of his years serving the Confederacy during the Civil War.  According to history, the men of Laurens County were not in favor of succeeding from the Union but were forced to, in the larger picture when Georgia, as a state, succeeded.  He enlisted on April 3, 1862 at the age of 26.  For the history fans, here's a recap from GA GenWeb Project of the action that his unit saw:

49th Infantry Regiment was organized in November, 1861, with men from Wilkinson, Talfair, Washington, Irwin, Laurens, Pierce, and Pulaski counties. After serving in Georgia and North Carolina, the regiment moved to Virginia. Here it was assigned to General J.R. Anderson's and E.L. Thomas' Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. The 49th took an active part in the campaigns of the army from Seven Pines to Cold Harbor, fought in the Petersburg trenches south of the James River, and was involved in the Appomattox operations. It reported 68 casualties at Second Manassas and 61 at Fredericksburg. The unit lost thirteen percent of the 280 at Chancellorsville and more than twenty-five percent of the 329 at Gettysburg. It surrendered with 8 officers and 103 men. Its field officers were Colonels John T. Jordan, A.J. Lane, and Samuel T. Player; Lieutenant Colonels Oliver H. Cooke, Seaborn M. Manning, Jonathon Rivers, and Wiley J. Williams; and Majors James B. Duggan, John A. Durham, and John H. Pate.

Israel married Mary Ellen Knight and they were the parents of six children including my great grandmother, Minnie Eucebia Alligood.  (See, there's another Latin derived name!)  He died at the age of 74 in 1909 and is buried in the Alligood Cemetery near Dexter, Georgia.