Garland Tolbert Gerald is my 1st cousin 4x removed. His mother is Juliet Trigg Pearis a direct ancestor and his father is Garland Sims Gerald. Prior to about 1840 their last name was spelled Jarrell. Most of the clan has kept the Jarrell spelling my branch kept the Gerald spelling.
1860 finds Garland T. in Giles County, Virginia near the village of Staffordsville. He is day labor for his brother William who is a farm tenant. He lives with his brother William and family on the farm. He is 24 and was born in Giles County, Virginia in July 1837.
On 25 July 1861 Garland enlists in Company H, Virginia 8th Calvary Regiment. This Regiment was organized for about a year with nine companies. Then in May 1862 it was reorganized. On 28 April 1862 Garland is assigned to Company E, 19th Infantry Regiment, Virginia in Yorktown Virginia. They are known as the "Piedmont Guards".
The 7 Days Battle broke out on 24 June 1862 and lasted about 7 days.
BATTLE MAP | American Battlefield Trust's map of the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, Virginia on June 27, 1862
27 June 1862 the companies lined up and faced off with the Federal troops. This was about to be the largest assault of the Civil War and Company E of the 19th Infantry, part of the 16 Brigades called to the location were there with Garland Tolbert Gerald among them. A little over 57,000 Confederate Troops were involved in what became the second bloodiest Battle of the Civil War.
The Battle at Gaines Mill. 1,483 men were killed, 108 went missing or were captured and 6,402 were wounded including Garland Tolbert Gerald. He was wounded by a barrage of "grapeshot" which inflicted multiple wounds but tore up his lower left leg so tremendously it had to be amputated.
Garland meets the Widow Jane Hallett and falls in love. He marries her on 2 February 1875. Their daughter Louisa Pearis Gerald is born in March of 1877.
In 1900 Garland, his wife Jane and daughter, Louisa Pearis Gerald are living on a farm near Jeffersonville in Tazewell County, Virginia and he is farming. 1910 census shows that his wife Jane claims she has had 0 births and 0 children. I have not found much evidence of their daughter Louisa except for an excerpt in a newspaper from May 1900 where she and her father are shopping.
In August of 1911 Garland Tolbert Gerald put notice in the Tazewell Republican newspaper that he was going to run for Constable of the Jeffersonville Magisterial District.
After a lingering illness Garland passes on 19 April 1916 and is buried at Concord Church Cemetery in Tazewell County.
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