The 58th
North Carolina
Photographs
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Albert "Bert" Johnston Franklin, born December 8, 1843, enlisted as a corporal in the 58th N.C. on December 30, 1861. He sustained injuries when he was struck by lightning a Johnson Depot, Tennessee around August 15, 1862. From this he never fully recovered. This injury probably explains why he was transferred between the 5th Battalion N.C., the 65th Regiment N.C. and the 58th North Carolina. His photograph shows him as a handsome young man, clad in a combination shirt-coat or "battle shirt." After the war, Albert married Martha Elizabeth Wise, whose family home was located about a mile from Grasslands, the home of Colonel Palmer, commander of the 58th. In 1877, Bert and Elizabeth built a beautiful home, which is today a landmark in Linville Falls, North Carolina. Albert Franklin died in 1917. |
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Frederick A. Tobey was born in New York in 1842 but came south to North Carolina in 1850 with his family, the Childs's who settled the area known as Childsville, near present day Ingalls, Avery County. Fred was promoted through the ranks from sergeant to captain of Company A of the 58th N.C. His sword still prized by his descendents was a popular foot-officer's model and appears to have a single brass-wire wrapping on the grip, which was a trait of Confederate manufacture. The belt over his right shoulder provided extra support for his waist belt and any gear suspended from it. Captain Tobey was one of the youngest Captains in the Confederacy and rallied his troops and led them to victory at the Battle of Snodgrass Hill during the Battle of Chickamauga. General Alexander Welch Reynolds wrote that Tobey was "one of the bravest of the brave." Tobey survived the war and was paroled at Greensboro on May 1, 1865. Captain Fred Tobey died at the age of 82. |
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John C. Keener was born in 1818 and fought in the Mexican War. John Keener rose through the ranks of the 58th N.C. to become a Lieutenant Colonel. In 1863, his eight year old son died. Col. Keener wrote a letter of resignation. "I am near fifty years of age...(and) now consider it my duty to retire from the (service) for the purpose of going home to attend to the wants &c. of my family." His resignation was accepted and Col. John B. Palmer noted on the resignation letter that Col. Keener "is not competent to perform his duties of the office he holds and the interests of the public service demand, in my opinion, that his resignation be promptly accepted. John Keener married Lydia Eliza Wiseman and was well educated and a well-to-do respected man of the community. He operated a store and post office in Ingalls and died at the age of 92. |
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Thomas Jefferson Coffey was born in 1828 near Patterson, in present-day Caldwell county. Before the war, he was a schoolteacher in Valle Crucis, North Carolina and later a merchant in Eastern Tennessee. When the war started, he enlisted, at age 33, as a private in Company E of the 58th North Carolina. Later he was promoted to 2nd and then 1st lieutenant as well as assistant quartermaster of the regiment. In this tintype he holds a Whitney of C. S. manufactured Spiller & Burr revolver. His sword, although covered in gilt paint, resembles a type manufactured in Richmond. Coffey was hospitalized at Charlotte on March 14, 1865 with phthisis, which is a wasting away of the body, usually caused by tuberculosis. He was furloughed on the same date. He returned to Tennessee and joined his brother in business. Before his death he and his brother entered into an agreement that whichever survived the other should carry on the firm business as long as he thought fit, and then divide the property. Coffey died in 1901. |
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