HUDDLESTON, Leroy Samuel - C.S.A.
AND
HUDDLESTON, Anthony "Berry" David

Leroy Samuel Huddleston and Anthony "Berry" David Huddleston Leroy Samuel Huddleston was born in North Carolina, May 11, 1839 and was a resident of Canton, Trigg County, Kentucky. His parents were Jesse and ? He had a stepmother named Mary Ann Crane Huddleston. Leroy and his brother, Anthony "Berry" David Huddleston, traveling together on foot from somewhere in Stewart County, enlisted September 22, 1861 for a twelve-month tour of duty at Fort Donelson Tennessee, near Dover. They were in Co. D, 50th Tennessee Infantry, C.S.A.

During a heavy attack on the fort by Union forces, some of the men were pinned down for many hours and had been without water for some time. No one wanted to risk getting shot going for water. Finally, Leroy gathered all the canteens that he could carry and crawling for the spring on his belly, he retuned with water amidst cheers of delight. He told that the short trip took him over an hour to go there and to return, safely.

Leroy Samuel Huddleston was captured at Ft. Donelson in February 1862 and was imprisoned at Camp Douglas, Illinois. He was later exchanged for Yankee prisoners of war. Both brothers were later in the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia. To Leroy Samuel's misfortune, he was wounded in the front lower right leg. As he was being helped to a boat, he yelled to his brother Berry to limp and to act wounded so they could stay together. There is no found record to show if Berry did or didn't go with him. Shortly thereafter, Leroy Samuel Huddleston was once again recaptured at Kennesaw Mountain, Ga., and again imprisoned at Camp Douglas until the close of the war.

After being paroled he did not take oath of allegiance. He was enrolled on March 30, 1865 in to the Federal service when the war closed and was sent to the Dakota Territories in April of 1865 to fight Indians. He was in Company I, U.S Vol. Infantry and was stationed at Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie and Fort Casper, Dakota Territory. He served under Captain John T. Shanks. So far as can be determined his rank throughout both wars was a Private.

After mustering out on October 10, 1866, he returned to Tennessee, where he married a young widow woman by the name of Temperance Brown, daughter of Jesse and Henrietta Carr Brown. Temperance had a small child when they married, Benjamin Franklin Brown, Jr. Temperance's name was also Brown, before her first marriage to B.F.F Brown. He died just a few months after the marriage and never got to see his son born. Leroy and Temperance had three children, before her untimely death, due to a heart ailment. The children were Jesse Lee, Henrietta Cathelia, and John Huddleston.

Leroy married another widow shortly after Temperance's death. It was said that he had to do this in order to have someone to care for his small children while he worked the fields. Her name was Courtney Strawbridge. Her maiden name is not known. Courtney died a few years after they married.

Leroy Samuel moved to Trigg County Kentucky after Courtney died, and he made his residence there. He lived there the rest of his life. He was employed at two different times in his life as a ferryman, taking a ferry across the Cumberland at Tobaccoport, Tennessee, which is just across the Kentucky/Tennessee line, near Bumpus Mills, Tennessee, and also for a short while he and his brother Berry attended a ferry across the Cumberland River, at Linton, Kentucky, where they both lived.

Third marriage was to my grandmother, Malinda Jane Walker. She was the daughter of William Johnson and Martha Ann Castile Walker. They had eight children, but only four lived to adulthood. They were Samuel Jefferson, Mary Jane, Alvin Green and William Bunyan Huddleston.

L. S. Huddleston and his wife, M. J. Huddleston, are assessed with 5 acres, valued at $20.00 and with no personal property this 14th day of August 1912. He suffered from general disability on account of age, also rheumatism of the legs and hips, which rendered him unable to do manual labor.

At the age of 87 on June 28, 1926 he applied for a Claim of Soldier for Service Pension, Indian Wars. It was attested by G. S. A. Wallace and M. M. Wallace that this applicant is a good, honorable citizen and neighbor. Do not know anything about his army service.

Leroy Samuel Huddleston's brother, Anthony David Huddleston, known as Berry all of his life in Trigg County, returned home from the war and shows up living in Linton, Trigg County, Kentucky. This is where he married (Mary) Jane Weeks, of Trigg County using the name of Berry. They were married on October 24, 1872. He was thirty years old, first marriage, farmer, born in Tennessee. Berry died in April of 1905, at his home near Linton, Kentucky.

The author has been unable to find war records of Berry, only that he is registered as a Civil War Veteran. He is buried in the Linton Community in a small family graveyard with no stones.

Leroy Samuel Huddleston died January 29, 1927, in Trigg County and is buried beside his third wife, Malinda Jane Walker Huddleston, born August 1, 1865. She died in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, on September 11, 1933, at the home of her son, Alvin G. Huddleston. They are buried in the Lock E. area between Linton and Donaldson Creek. The cemetery is the McIntosh Cemetery. It is still very well kept. A number of their children are buried there. A son-in-law's family donated the land for the cemetery.

Submitted by;
Jean Clark
Grand daughter of LeRoy Samuel Huddleston

References:
Taken from Don Simmon's Book, Vol 5. Trigg County, Kentucky Historical Records, 1989.
 
 

Notes by Jean Clark, taken from records applied for and received from Washington D.C. and from family stories told by my grandfather, L.S. Huddleston to my father and Mother.