A family reveres one they never knew

James Mason Anderson fell at the Battle of Shiloh, Miss., April 6, 1862.

Anderson was a member of Company E, 19th Regiment, Alabama Volunteers. He was born May 21, 1826 to Robert C. and Prudence Anderson, a pioneer family who settled in Chattooga about 1830.

The body of James Mason Anderson was never returned home to be buried by his wife Martha Odell Anderson.

A letter belonging to Anderson’s granddaughter Ruth Giles tells of him coming home on leave to visit his pregnant wife less than a month before she gave birth. He got word from a fellow soldier that a major battle was upcoming and asked him to return.

He kissed his wife and their eight children goodbye and returned to his regiment, never to be heard from again.

His brother William H. Anderson witnessed his death. As the body was unrecognizable, his brother placed a red handkerchief around his arm, planning to return to bury his brother. He didn’t return until days later.

It had rained for days, the bodies were plentiful and had been dragged into the woods and partially eaten by animals.

William never found his brother’s body.

The Confederate soldiers were later buried in shallow graves on the battle grounds of Shiloh.

Anderson’s great-greatgrandchildren — Brad Hayes, Peggy Arnold Gayler and Martha Mullis Schug — worked collectively to place a marker honoring their fallen ancestor. They thank Wichman Monuments of Chattanooga for assistance with this memorial to a fallen Confederate.