ABERNATHY, Milton Thomas The Record 29 Jun 1938
Last Giles Confederate Veteran Dies
M. T. Abernathy, who would have been 93 years old in July, died at his home in the Conway section Friday morning at 6:30 after an illness of two weeks. Mr. Abernathy was believed to be the only surviving Confederate veteran in Giles County.
Born and reared near Conway, he was one of ten children of Mr. and Mrs. Hartwell T. Abernathy. He joined the Confederate army and was discharged in February 1863 for being underage. After three months he re-joined the same regiment, Company A, Third Infantry. He acted as courier for General John C. Brown until he was wounded in the battle of Atlanta and was in a hospital in Macon, Ga. when he received his parole in May, 1865.
Surviving are his wife [Lucinda Meadows Abernathy]; two sons, J. B. Abernathy of Pulaski and Tom Abernathy of Denver, Colorado; three daughters, Mrs. Tully Birdsong and Mrs. Tom Brown of this county, and Mrs. Emory E. May of Chambersburg, Pa.
Funeral services were held Sunday afternoon at Bethesda Methodist Church, of which he had been a member of sixty-five years, and burial was in the Birdsong Family Cemetery near Tarpley. The Rev. A.R. Gibbons, pastor, the Rev. Cullen T. Carter, of Winchester, presiding elder over the Pulaski District, officiated.
