In 1860, Henry and Elizabeth (Winchester) Jordan lived in the Northern subdivision, Lynneville Post Office, of Giles County, Tennessee.  Henry had been born in 1800 in Halifax County, Virginia.  On 19 December, 1827 he married 17 year old Elizabeth) in Maury County, Tennessee.  There were 13 children born between 1828 and 1853, 6 girls and 7 boys.

By 1860, the three eldest sons, John, William, and James, were living on their own.  The 1860 census lists the following children still at home with their parents:

• Henry Jordan     60
• Elizabeth Jordan     50
• Elizabeth E Jordan     24
• Lydia T Jordan     20
• Mary A Jordan     18
• Thos B Jordan     16
• Franklin P Jordan     14
• Caledonia P Jordan     11
• George W Jordan     11
• Robt A Jordan     9
• Eliza C Jordan     7

The Jordan family gave up four sons to service in the Civil War.  Three did not come home; the fourth died in 1874, at the age of 28.

Private William Henry Jordan, Company H, 41st Tennessee Infantry, CSA:

The eldest of the four who served, 27 year-old William Henry Jordan enlisted into Company H, 41st Tennessee Infantry, CSA in 1862.  Company H was recruited entirely from the northeast section of Giles County, Tennessee (a part of Marshall County from 1870 onward). The regiment fought at Fort Donelson in February 1862, surrendered on February 16, and sent to prison camps.  They were paroled at Vicksburg that September and officially exchanged on November 10, 1862.

The regiment moved to Port Hudson, LA as part of Gregg’s brigade.  They fought in the Battle of Raymond, Mississippi and were positioned at Yazoo City when Vicksburg fell on 4 July, 1863.  In September, they were reassigned to the Army of Tennessee and marched to Georgia, where they were engaged in the Battle of Chickamauga (19-20 September) and then Missionary Ridge (November 25, 1863).  (An ancestor through the Nettles line, William T. McLane, serving with the 37th Alabama, was also at Missionary Ridge.)

The regiment wintered in Dalton, Georgia (as did the 37th Alabama).  By this time, the unit was reduced to 201 effectives with 151 arms.  That spring, General Sherman began his march toward Atlanta and the Confederates fought a series of battles and retreats from the Union Army.  On May 14th, the forces engaged at Resaca, Georgia.  William H. Jordan, age 29, was “mortally wounded” on the 14th or 15th and died (the language suggests he did not die on the battlefield.)  His gravesite is unknown.

James Marion Jordan, Company C, 17th Tennessee Infantry, CSA

James Marion Jordan, age 25, joined Company C, 17th Tennesse Regiment.  He was wounded in action (listed as a “minor injury to hand”) on 31 December, 1862, at Stone’s River (Battle of Murfreesboro).  The army retreated south to Tullahoma, were he died — perhaps of an infection from the wound, or from any of the ordinary camp diseases that killed thousands of other soldiers — and is buried in a mass grave at the Confederate Cemetery in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Although he is buried just 48 miles from home, it appears his family never knew where he was buried.  Notations on family papers indicate that his location is unknown.

Thomas Benton Jordan joined the 8th regiment, Tennessee Cavalry.  He was killed in action at the battle for Nashville, 16 December 1864.  He was 21.

Franklin Perry Jordan enlisted in the 11th Tennessee Cavalry in 1865.  He survived the final months of the war, but died in 1874 at the age of 28.  No cause of death is known.

In addition, Lydia Jordan married Pleasant Watson after the war, in 1866.  He also served in the 11th Tennessee Cavalry, enlisting on June 30th, 1863.  The unit surrenderd at Citronelle on May 4 1865, and were paroled at Gainesville, Alabama, May 10, 1865.

These men were elder siblings to Caldeonia Jordan (d), grandmother to Amy Ruth Moore (s).