Since writing John T. Bennett – 41st Georgia Infantry last week, I’ve learned a little more about John. I spent some time poking around in Ancestry’s Civil War records and found several record groups that I need to explore further but the one that gave me the most additional information about John Bennett was the 1907 Alabama Census of Confederate Soldiers.John lived in Heard County, Georgia when he enlisted in Company I, 41st Georgia Infantry, but after the war he lived in Randolph, Chambers, and Morgan Counties in Alabama. In 1907 he was living in Morgan County and this Census of Confederate Soldiers record contains some information I have not seen anywhere else.
First off, he is listed in this census as John F. Bennett, but I have no doubts that this is my John T. Bennett. The birth date of 7 Feb 1831 listed here is the same birth date that is on John T.’s headstone. Other records indicate John T. was born in South Carolina. John T. moved to Morgan County, Alabama with his daughter, Mollie Bennett Hester, and her family sometime between 1900 and 1910. They lived near the Morgan and Cullman County line. Baileton [Baileyton] listed as his Post Office address is in Cullman County, about 4 miles from the Morgan County line.
This record gives two separate enlistments for John. I have copies of his service record for the second enlistment but was unaware of the first one. According to this, he enlisted on 1 Nov 1861 at Savannah, Georgia. Considering that John was living on the opposite side of Georgia in Heard County (bordering the Alabama line) at that time, that seems a little odd to me but “Herd Co” is listed in the space that should have been Company and Regiment. I have not been able to find his service record for this enlistment.
The most exciting thing I learned from this record is that John was born in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. This is a new location for the Bennett family! A Lewis Bennett is listed in the 1830 U.S. census in Darlington County, South Carolina. It is not clear (yet) if this is John’s father or not. Definitely the family was in Troup County, Georgia, in 1840. Later census records show that John and some of his siblings were born in South Carolina, so I was working under the theory that they may have been born in Darlington County before the family moved to Troup County.
