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Denmark Presbyterian Cemetery
Madison Co TN
Tim Batross
Big Black Creek Historical Association


Edward J. Peters and Joseph Allen
Confederate soldier who died at the Battle of Britton Lane 1 Sep 1862

The Magic Buttons
The old Presbyterian Cemetery at Denmark sits high on a hill on the left side of the road, just before you come to the little town. It is lonesome up on that hill with large ancient cedars overlooking the graves. In the southwest corner of the cemetery three confederate soldiers are buried. There used to be four. Some three miles south of Denmark the Battle of Britton Lane was fought on September 1, 1862. It is the largest Civil War battle site in Madison County. There a COnfederate cavalry raiding party fought two regiments of Illinois infrantry with supporting artillery and cavalry. Four times that day the Confederate charged the Federal line with disastrous results, leaving 186 fallen comrades dead. Federal casualties, due to the nature of the terrain, were slight. Following the battle the Confederate commander, Brigadier General Frank C. Armstrong, retreated with his troops to Estanaula Landing where they crossed the Hatchie River and retired to North Mississippi. On the day after the battle the fallen Confederates were buried in a long slit trench. Those bodies were to remain there until 1898, when they were dug up and reburied on the 36th anniversary of the battle at a newly dedicated stone monument. They remain there today. Among the dead was the body of a young soldier still in his teens. Because of his age, the burial party hesitated to bury him in the mass grave. Ultimately it was decided to bury him in the Presbyterian Cemetery along with Dr. Joe Allen of Whiteville and Ed Peters. C.W. Henry picked the site for the graves. Before plasing the bodies in the ground he noticed some odd looking buttons on the coat of the young soldier. Henry cut two of the buttons from the coat and later gave them to Captain Guthrie who identified them as buttons from the Revolutionary War. Strangely enough Guthrie kept the buttons and carried them in his pocket as a momento of the young soldier. Years later when attending a Confederate reunion in Atlanta, he met an old woman named Jefferson. While exchanging war reminiscences, she told him of her young son who slept in a unmarked grave in some faraway battlefield. She had refused to let him join the army because of his age, but he had run away to join the fight. She never heard from him except once when he had writen to request clothes to be sent to him at Bolivar, Tennessee. She had made him a uniform coat from an old dress. To tive it a military touch she had attached buttons from her grandfather's coat. He had been a soldier under "Mad ANthony Wayne" in the Revolutionary War at the Battle of Stoney Point. She sent the uniform but never heard from him. Without saying a word, Guthrie produced the buttons. You can imagine the effect it had when Mrs. Jefferson recognized those buttons, placed on a boy's coat so long ago. The story h ad a happy ending. Mrs. Jefferson journeyed to Denmark from Atlanta to claim her son's body. The problem was that C.W> Henry, who dug the grave, was long dead. Finally an old Negro man, Shedrick Pipkins, remembered where the grave was located. Mrs. Jefferson had the body taken back to Atlanta where he was buried in the family cemetery. Was it just a coincidence that Captain Guthrie, who was around thousands of soldier who were killed in battle, would keep the buttons for almost 25 years and would end up showing them to Mrs. Jefferson. As the old saying goes, truth is often stranger than fiction.
Source: Tales of Madison - by Harbert Alexander
NAME BIRTH DEATH SPOUSE PARENTS
ALLEN, Joseph Farrar
Battle of Brittons Lane		 13 Jan 1835 01 Sep 1862   Killed in his first battle while charging the Federal troops during the battle of Brittain Lane. He had just graduated in medicine, and went in the army as a private in order to gratify his intense feeling and do something for the good of his beloved Southland. He left no heirs. (Contributed by "Fred" at Rootsweb.com)
BARNES, Allie 20 Feb 1886 14 Oct 1909    
BARNES, Eunice 27 Feb 1896 14 Apr 1917    
BARNES, Fannie (Forrest) 20 Feb 1864 25 Jun 1935 Morgan Barnes  
BARNES, Morgan 24 Jul 1863 01 Sep 1944 Fannie Forrest  
BRYAN, Bessie L. 26 Nov 1888 13 Sep 1959    
BRYAN, Bettie 15 Aug 1847 05 Aug 1882 F.E. Bryan  
BRYAN, Callie L. 04 Nov 1858 27 Sep 1914    
BRYAN, Carolyn Bernice 07 Nov 1921 11 Nov 1921   Louis Thomas and Clara Mae (Bradshaw) Bryan
BRYAN, Clara May (Bradshaw) 17 Jan 1898 03 Mar 1984 Louis Thomas Bryan Charles Cleton and Bernice Eutychus (Gattis) Bradshaw
BRYAN, Louis Thomas 24 Feb 1890 23 May 1970 Clara Mae Bradshaw PFC Tenn Co A 102 Machine Gun En
BRYAN, Thomas W. 28 Oct 1844 28 Apr 1915    
CHISUM, Infant 31 Aug 1868 13 Sep 1868   J.S. and Calie Chisum
FITZ, Elizabeth 11 Dec 1802 03 May 1879 M.G. Fitz  
FOSTER, Giles Nelson 1832 05 Sep 1887 Tabitha Eddinger Tilman and Francis Tucker (Banks) Foster
6 Apr 1862 enlisted as a Pvt.in Co. A, 10th Bat.,NC Heavy Artillery. Appointed Artificer 1 Jul 1862. Transferred to Co. A, 2nd Regt., Confederate Engineer Troopsduring August 1863.
FOSTER, Robert A. 1856      
HARDEE, Adaline T. (Winston) 15 Mar 1844 07 Jan 1911 Lemuel Hardee  
HARDEE, John L.       Lemuel and Adaline T. (Winston) Hardee
MURCHISON, Ann Isabella (Reid) 06 Dec 1799 17 Sep 1865 William Murchison David and Mary (Ramsey) Reid
MURCHISON, Anna 26 Jul 1865 16 Mar 1869   Murdock and Frances A. (Alston) Murchison
MURCHISON, Infant Daughter 09 Feb 1852 09 Feb 1852   Murdock and Frances A. (Alston) Murchison
MURCHISON, John A. 28 May 1853 12 Jan 1855   Murdock and Frances A. (Alston) Murchison
MURCHISON, Murdock 23 Jun 1823 09 Sep 1889 Frances A. Alston William and Ann Isabella (Reid) Murchison
MURCHISON, William 20 Mar 1793 12 Dec 1848 Ann Isabella Reid Kenneth McKenzie and Catherine (White) Murchison
PETERS, Edward J.
Battle of Britton Lane		 1835 01 Sep 1862   Killed at the Civil War Battle Of Britton'e Lane
REID, Catherine 14 Mar 1812 25 Jan 1867 Thomas Reid  
REID, David 09 Sep 1767 14 Nov 1838 Mary Ramsey Thomas McDonald and Isabella (McKay) Reid
REID, Ferby Jane 08 Jun 1804 06 Aug 1835 Thomas Reid  
REID, Isabella 1816 1839 John Ramsey Reid  
REID, James William
Battle of Britton Lane		 11 Jan 1845 25 Sep 1862   Died 24 days after the Battle Britton Lane
REID, John Ramsey 13 Jan 1805 02 Dec 1842 Isabella David and Mary (Ramsey) Reid
REID, Mary (Ramsey) 04 Jun 1781 07 Oct 1850 David Reid John and Sarah Elizbeth (Birdsong) Ramsey
REID, Thomas 25 Aug 1802 14 Oct 1895 Ferby Jane
Catherine		 David and Mary (Ramsey) Reid
TAYLOR, John J. 16 May 1815 19 Jun 1868 Mary N. Alexander Abraham & Jane (Neely) Taylor
TAYLOR, Mary N. (Alexander)   30 May 1859 John J. Taylor
m 20 Jul 1846		  
THOMPSON, Frances (Bryan) 29 Jun 1892 22 Dec 1951    
THOMPSON, Marshall T.   26 Jun 1960    

Denmark Presbyterian Church

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