Thomas George West

Thomas George West enlisted in the Confederate Army just weeks after the firing on Fort Sumter. He was assigned to Company G of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment, and part of BONHAM's BRIGADE, which in Jan. 1862 would become the infamous KERSHAW'S BRIGADE. Tom West fought in most of the battles in the Eastern Theater under GEN. ROBERT E. LEE. He was a corporal in the same company (G) with "The Angel of Marye's Heights", Sgt. Richard Kirkland, who ventured out into "no man's land"a to carry water to the wounded and dying Yankees. He received a head wound at Gettysburg, and was captured October of 1864 in the battle at Cedar Creek. He spent 8 month as a POW at Point Lookout, MD, before being released to return to South Carolina.

Tom married, had 4 children, and farmed. Some time later he moved to Monroe NC and worked as a grocer. Eventually he moved his family to Laurinburg NC, and then to Rockingham NC, where he died Feb. 7,1899 at age 61.