William Thomas Worthington

This information is contributed by Jane Garner




American Civil War Soldiers Record about W T Weathington 

Name:	W T Weathington 	
Residence:	Greene County, North Carolina 	
Occupation:	Farmer 	
Enlistment Date:	12 May 1862 	
Distinguished Service:	DISTINGUISHED SERVICE 	
Side Served:	Confederacy 	
State Served:	North Carolina 	
Unit Numbers:	128 	
Service Record:	Enlisted as a Private on 12 May 1862.  
Enlisted in Company K, 17th Infantry Regiment North Carolina on 
12 May 1862. 
Hospitalized on 09 March 1865 at Greensboro, NC.   
Hospitalized on 20 May 1865 (Gunshot wound). 
Took Oath of Allegiance on 07 June 1865. Released on 07 June 1865	

Paraphrased from 1906 Kinston Industrial Magazine:

William Thomas Worthington (listed as W.T. Weathington, W.T. Witherington) 
enlisted in the Confederate Army in Greenville in Pitt County on May 12, 1962. 
at age 18.  His branch of service was NC Troops.  He was in the 17th 
Regiment, Company G (or K), and was a courier in Eastern NC.  Later, he 
and his regiment joined Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia.  General Lee 
once approached him while he was on picket duty.  He recalled that "a 
kinder, more polite, more considerate man" he had never met.  He 
stated that one of the hardest battles in which he fought was the Battle 
of Cold Harbor where 13,000 Yankees were killed in twenty minutes.

Another was at Petersburg, July 30, 1864, when Grant mined and blew 
up the fortifications protecting the city.  The Yankees got in, but they got 
out in a hurry.  He was once on the skirmish line in one of the Virginia 
campaigns in which it was his duty to run the Yankee pickets out of the 
dugouts and take possession of same.  He remembered that for the most 
part the attempt was a failure.  He did manage to run out a Yankee, who 
in his haste to depart left behind his knapsack.  Since he was very much 
in need of the things the fleeing Yankee left behind, he decided to take the 
time to exchange the items in his knapsack for those left behind by the 
departing solider.  He believed that an even swap was not the same as 
robbery.  By the time the exchange was made, the Yankees were pouring 
shots over the abandoned dugouts.  He did manage though to get out in 
safety and flee to a nearby woods.

The hardest fight was at Wise Forks near Kinston where he was shot in 
the knee and taken to the hospital on March 9, 1865 (he said Salisbury 
but records indicate Greensboro)*.  He was admitted to an unspecified 
hospital on May 20, 1865.  He was wounded 5 times.  He took oath of 
allegiance on June 7, 1865.

At the close of the Civil War, he returned to Greene Co., NC and remained 
there until 1896.  He then continued his farming interests in Lenoir Co.  He 
was an active Democrat.  He was his party's candidate to represent Lenoir 
County in the General Assembly.  He failed to be elected by only a few votes. 
“Uncle Tom”, as he was known, was married 1st to Penelope Kilpatrick and 
2nd to Hannah Jane Lyons.

Ref:  FGR 0887, Personal Data Sheet for Josiah Turnage, printed 1/24/1996
by descendant, Ada (Worthington) Watson, Charlotte, NC. for the following 
excerpts and notes from Josiah Turnage's Bible, which is presently in 
possession of Bill Worthington, of Kinston, NC.  (1996).  Ada added "when 
my great grandfather William Thomas Worthington entered the Civil War, his 
name was spelled Wetherington.  He apparently could not write and made his 
mark.  When he signed the Oath of Allegiance at the end of the war, he signed 
it, W. T. Worthington".

*”Uncle Tom’s” Oath of Allegiance to the U.S. was signed in Salisbury, so I tend 
to believe he was there as a patient, having been wounded.



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