Eli McCloud Head ^{2 3 4 5}

  General Notes:

A record of a land purchase:

Name: Eli M Head
Issue Date: 15 Jun 1854
State of Record: Alabama
Acres: 39.99
Accession Number: AL3720__.238
Metes and Bounds: No
Land Office: Huntsville
Canceled: No
US Reservations: No
Mineral Reservations: No
Authority: April 24, 1820: Sale-Cash Entry (3 Stat. 566)
Document Number: 17799
Legal Land Description: Section Twp Range Meridian Counties
1 11-S 1-W Huntsville Blount

A letter from Eli to his sister Sarah Ann:
Walker Co. Ala. Sept. 6th 1856

Dear Sister
I take my pen in hand to let you know that we are well at present hoping you are the same. I received your letter and was glad to here from you. I met Catherine at the Gum Spring meting hous. We arrived at home on Saturday and Catherine taken the mesles on tuesday and Betty Ann on thursday afterwards the week after we got home.

Catherine says tell Dep and Ro that Ban is as fat as ever. I will be up at Cort if I can get any money and if I come I will be there by Sunday night before Cort. I have no more time to rite and get this in the office. read it if you can. I had but five minutes to rite.
Eli M. Head

Note: I've searched the Alabama census for 1860 for Eli and his family without any definite conclusion. I believe I may have found them living beside his wife's family in Walker County. They are listed as E. N. Ward 27 farmer with $80 real estate and $200 personal assets, Catharine 23, Elizabeth 5, John 3, (understated by a year according to his death certificate) and Eliza 7/12. (That would have been exactly right for Sarah E.'s age at that time.) All were born in Alabama. Mary Catherine reported that she had borne 4 children with 3 still living. Elizabeth may have been the deceased child and the Betty Ann that contracted the measles in the letter above. She would have been about 1 year old when the letter was written.

Source Citation: Year: 1860; Census Place: Eastern Division, Walker, Alabama; Roll M653_26; Page: 935; Image: 175; Family History Library Film: 803026.

Eli served the Confederacy during the Civil War and died of illness. He was a private in the second Battalion, Alabama Light Artillery Company: E. The notes also reference his service with the 29th Alabama Infantry, 2 Confederate Engineers. Troops. Company C.

He enlisted 22 Sep 1861 in Blount Springs, Alabama with the second Battalion, Alabama Light Artillery. Company E. He was transferred to the Engineer Troops 31 Jul 1863. He served as a private in Capt. L. Hutchinson's Co. (Engineer Troops), Department of the Gulf. This company subsequently became Company C, 2d Regiment Engineer Troops, C. S. A. He was hospitalized from 23 Sep 1863 until 2 Oct 1863 with acute dysentery. Muster rolls also indicate that he was in the hospital during the period Nov and Dec 1863.

  Additional Information:

• Military Service: as Pvt, 29th Alabama Infantry, 2 Confederate Engineer Troops, Between 22 Sep 1861 and 2 Jan 1864, the Civil War. ^{7 8 9 10}

Eli married Mary Catherine Gravlee, daughter of John Gravlee and Rebecca Cornwell, on 5 Jul 1853 in , Walker County, Alabama, United States.¹ (Mary Catherine Gravlee was born on 7 Aug 1836 in Alabama, United States,¹¹ died on 19 Sep 1920 in Alvarado, Johnson County, Texas ^{11 12} and was buried on 20 Sep 1920 in Bethany Cemetery, Alvarado, Johnson County, Texas ^{11 13}.). The cause of her death was senility.