Thanks to local genealogist Gayla Hart, a bit of the history surrounding a Confederate soldier buried at Gladewater's "forgotten cemetery" has been uncovered.

In response to last week's story about Gay-Hagan Cemetery located on Phillips Springs Road, Hart contacted a Civil War web site, www.history-sites.com, to request information regarding Perry Hewitt, whose tombstone is marked "Confederate soldier." His marker indicates he was born in 1845 and died in 1922, and so it is true.

According to "Webmaster" Jim Martin, who responded to Hart's query with information available on www.Ancestry.com, Hewitt was born in South Carolina but lived in Georgia by the time he was old enough to join the Confederate army. Before his death, Hewitt would also reside in Tennessee and Texas.

Hewitt's story begins in Spartanburg District, S.C., where he was born in February 1845. He was living in Gordon, Ga., when he enlisted in the Confederate army on Jan. 1, 1863, a month before his 18th birthday.

The teenager served as a private, Co. E, 40th Georgia Infantry, CSA, and was listed as a prisoner of war on Aug. 13, 1864, in Atlanta, Ga. POW Hewitt was released on June 11, 1865, from Camp Chase, Ohio.

Martin relates a brief history of the 40th Georgia Infantry:

"40th Infantry Regiment was organized during the fall of 1861 and raised its companies in Bartow, Calhoun, Gordon, Whitfield, Paulding and Haralson counties.

"(The regiment) moved to Tennessee, then Mississippi, and was placed in Barton's Brigade, Department of Mississippi, and East Louisiana. The 40th participated in the conflicts at Chickasaw Bayou and Champion's Hill and was part of the garrison surrendered at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863.

"After being exchanged it was attached to General Stovall's Brigade, Army of Tennessee, served on many battlefields from Chattanooga to Nashville, and ended the war in North Carolina."

According to another Internet site, the 40th "shared the battles and hardships of the Vicksburg campaign, forming part of the garrison which surrendered with Pemberton. Exchanged in time to participate in the battle of Missionary Ridge, it bore an honorable part in the Atlanta and Tennessee campaigns. In the spring of 1865 it was consolidated with the 41st and 43rd Georgia, retaining its own number, and after taking part in the campaign of the Carolinas, surrendered with General (Joseph E.) Johnston."

Hewitt was apparently captured or surrendered in one of the battles for Atlanta as he is listed as a POW there in August 1864. The city itself fell to Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman on Sept. 2, 1864. The Georgia private was shipped to Camp Chase Military Prison, a major Union POW internment center at Columbus, Ohio.

In late September 1864, about 5,000 prisoners were held at Camp Chase, even though it reportedly held some 8,000 prisoners in 1863. Some reports indicate there were as many as 10,000 POWS in the prison (originally built for 3,500) at the end of the war in 1865, when Hewitt would have been a prisoner there.

During the winter of 1863-1864 a smallpox epidemic caused many deaths at Camp Chase. Approximately 2,200 Southern soldiers are buried at the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery located on the old prison grounds. Luckily for Perry Hewitt, he was not one of them.

Following the War Between the States, Hewitt married Nancy (AKA Nancie) Rebecca Guthrie on Sept. 15, 1867, in Gordon, Ga. They had a son, William Andrew, born in June 1869 in Giles, Tenn.

Hewitt is listed on the 1850 and 1860 census records as a resident of Gordon County, Ga. Though his parents' names are unknown at this writing, Hewitt states on one census that his father was born in South Carolina and his mother was born in England.

On the 1870 and 1880 census rolls Perry Hewitt resided in Giles County, Tenn. The census of 1890 was completely destroyed by fire. By 1900 he was farming for a living in Palo Pinto County, in north central Texas. The census that year indicates he and Nancy had three children living at home: a 19-year-old son whose name is illegible; 18-year-old Bertha; and 14-year-old Warren. The 1900 census states that a niece, Katie Guthrie, also lived with them. Nancy Hewitt died on June 8, 1916, and is buried at Sturdivant Cemetery in Palo Pinto County. Her husband likely did not come to East Texas until after her death.

There is no known census information for Hewitt after 1900 and, to date, it is not known exactly why or how he came to the Gladewater area. However, Jim Martin's online information revealed his last resting place was "Hagan Gay Cemetery in Gregg County, Texas." The cemetery, however, is located in Upshur County.