x. WILLIAM D. LEIGH, b. 1844; d. 08 Mar 1864 during the Civil War and is buried at Memphis TN. (Was his full name "William Davis? Was this who my great-grandfather was named after?)
Peggy Scott Holley from TN writes "The Christian's Chapel Church was not pacifist during the Civil War. The minister, John Neely, became Captain of a company which contained many members of that church, including Richard's brother William."
To give you an idea of what the Leigh family may have been going through as the Civil War started, consider this article written in the early 1900's by Samuel Arthur Brown:
"There (near Huntingdon) I lived until I was 21 years of age. At 21 I enlisted in the Union Army. On or a bout the 15th of March 1862 a lot of us met a John Neely to consult among ourselves as what w as best to do. As a matter of fact we had to go one way or the other, either North or South . We had all decided not to fight against the Union. We of about 15 or 20 decided to start out for the Union Army that night....... Here 2 of our number, Clay and Crockett Neely, entered the 11th Regiment of IA and went up the river and were in the Battle of Pittsburg Landing before they had their uniforms. The rest of our bunch went down the river to Fort Henry and there four of us entered into Co. F. 52 Ind. Inf. There was Robert K. Rhodes, Green Giles , John Simpson and the writer, S. A. Brown. The rest of our bunch went North and stayed awhile and then returned home to Carroll Co. and afterwards enlisted."
(William reminds me so much of the song "Billy Don't be a Hero" by Bo Donelson and the Haywoods -- which, by the way, was a Civil War song, redone by the Haywoods in 1974!)
According to his discharge paper (you can click on it for a full view, but it takes about 3 minutes to download) William was 5'6" tall, fair complexion, gray eyes and light hair. He was a farmer, born in Marshal Co., Mississippi. William was just 18 when he enrolled as a private in Co. M, 1 Reg't West Tennessee Cav. which later became Co. M of the 6th Reg't of the Tennessee Vol. Cav. He was on all company muster rolls until his death March 18, 1864 at Germantown, Tennessee.