George Henderson ABNEY

     George Henderson ABNEY, son of William Thomas ABNEY and Charlotte Pope ABNEY, was born on 15 February 1828 in Edgefield County, South Carolina. He was a farmer. When the Mexican War broke out he returned to South Carolina and on 20 January 1847 enlisted as a corporal in company L of the historic Palmetto Regiment. He fought in the battles of Vera Cruz, Contreras and Cherubusco, where on 2 August 1847 he was severely wounded in the right leg. He was awarded the silver medal for gallantry and discharged at Mobile 3 July 1848. In 1855 he moved to Fredonia, Chambers County, Alabama.¹

George married Anna GRIFFITH, daughter of William GRIFFITH and Mary "Polly" ABNEY, on 19 May 1849 in South Carolina.² Anna and George never had any children of their own, but they raised the orphan children of Anna's sister who had died. It is said that they raised thirteen orphaned children. It seemed that everyone wanted Ann to raise their children when they died. She was a Methodist and George changed from the Baptist faith to be with her.

George saw military service on 25 July 1861 in Chambers County, Alabama, when he enlisted, at age 33, as 1st Sergeant in Captain Jeff Faulkner's Independent Cavalry Company which later became Co. B 8th (Wade's) Regiment Confederate Cavalry.³ He then enlisted at age 34 on 12 January 1863 in Fredonia, Chambers County, Alabama, in Co. A, 5th Battalion Hilliard's Legion which later became Co. A 10th Confederate Cavalry. After the end of the war he moved his family to Mississippi.⁴

George appeared in a newspaper article 12 April 1916 in the Edgefield Advertiser, published in Edgefield, South Carolina. The article was written concerning the death of his younger brother, William Henry Abney, and contained an account of the family history including the following about George: "When the war with Mexico was declared, George Henderson, then only nineteen years old, joined a company in Kentucky, but his stepfather and mother, on account of his youth, would not consent to his going and his name was taken off the rolls. He came back to South Carolina and joined Capt. Preston S. Brooks company. Again, however, the youth’s military ardor was nipped in the bud. This time his guardian, Richard Coleman, intervened and objected. Not to be outdone, the embryonic soldier passed over to Newberry District and joined is company commanded by Capt. James B. Williams and went on to the war as a corporal. In several of the battles he was distinguished for gallantry. He came back to Saluda at the end of the war bearing the wounds he had received. That endeared him to his people, and not long afterwards he married to Ann Griffith, the daughter of William Griffith, one of the substantial citizens and planters on that side of the district. A few years more past, and then he and his young wife went to Alabama, where he had planted and accumulated a goodly fortune, when the Civil War came on. He fought through that again to the end. In the cavalry sent by that state, of which he was an officer, none bore himself more valiantly; and he did not escape the marks that distinguish the hero. After the smoke of battle had cleared away, and he returned to his desolate home, he could not bear the scene, and went with his devoted wife to lands near Clay, Mississippi, to begin life anew. There his wife died in 1910, but he still lives at the ripe age of 88 or 89, one of the two or three surviving members of the Palmetto Regiment. The last survivor will receive the Andrew Jackson cup."

George Henderson ABNEY died on 19 May 1924 in Fulton, Itlawamba County, Mississippi, at age 96.² He was buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.