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Confederate soldier's razor


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Today I bought a few hundred knives that had been gathered by a dealer/collector. In the boxes were a couple of old razors including one wrapped in a piece of paper:

 

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The razor is made by THOMAS TURNER SHEFFIELD and I was able to verify that this style does indeed date to about 1860:

 

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The soldier's initials are scratched into the handle:

 

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U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 about James R. Choate

Name: James R. Choate

Side: Confederate

Regiment State/Origin: Tennesee

Regiment Name: 48 (Voorhies')Tennessee Inf.

Regiment Name Expanded: 48th Regiment, Tennessee Infantry (Voorhies')

Rank In: Private

Rank In Expanded: Private

Rank Out: Private

Rank Out Expanded: Private

Alternate Name: John R./Choat

 

He was wounded three times:

 

>From "Who's Who in Central, North and Eeast Texas," published between

November, 1910 and March, 1913, by the Forrister History Co., Regan

Printing House, Chicago, Illinois

 

CHOATE, James Rufus

 

Mr. J. Rufus Choate, Treasurer of Kaufman County and a man of a

remarkable family record, was born on a farm in the Wolf Creek

neighborhood of Lawrence County, Middle Tennessee, July 27, 1843. His

great grandfather, Thomas Choate, was married to Elizabeth Keeth in

Ireland, and came to America--they being among the earliest Virginia

colonists. He was killed at Old Fort Dinwiddie by the Tories during the

Revolutionary War, and his wife died in Virginia. His grandfather,

Thomas K. Choate, was born and reared in Virginia; was in the war of

1812, and was a soldier in Gen. Andrew Jackson's army when he fought and

won the battle of New Orleans in 1815, and immortalized the American

Army. He was married to Miss Elizabeth Renfro, oof Virginia, and both

died at a ripe age in Lawrence County, MIddle Tennessee. Mr. Choate's

father, Esq. Edward Choate, was born in Virginia in 1818, but reared in

Lawrence County, Tennessee. In the Florida war of 1836, he helped to

drive the Indians out of that state. He was married to Miss Nancy

Atwill, who was born in Virginia but reared in the same neighborhood of

Lawrence County, Tennessee, where she died in 1861. Thirteen children

were born to them, eleven of whom lived to maturity, and as reflection

of those helathy days, "only haad the doctor with two of them." Just

after the Civil War, his wife having died, the fathr migrated to

Johnnson County, Arkansas, where he died in 1882 t the age of

seventy-five, and in which neighborhood there still live many of his

descendants.

 

When the time came to test the steel of Southern manhood to cross swords

with the North in the CIvil War, Mr. James Rufus Choate showed the

courage that was handed down to him by an ancestry that hadnever failed

to respond to their country's call in time of peril. Elnlisting April

16, 1861 at Wayland Springs, Lawrence County, in Company I, Capt. John

D. Ives, and Forty-eight Tennessee Regiment, Col. George H. Nixon who

was a Mexican war veteran and was in the battle of Monterey. Mr. Choate

experienced service in Tennessee, Kentucy, Mississippi, Alabama,

Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina andd was with Gen. Joseph E.

JOhnson near Greensboro, North C. when the surrender came. Was three

times wounded, as follows: In the battle of Perryville, Ky., Oct. 8,

1862, in left leg; batle of Chickamauga, Sept. 20, 1863, brokken thigh

and laid on the the battle field four days and nights without any food

and ony three drinks--two fo water and one of whiskey, the last named

given him by Rev. Williams Qualls, a Baptist minister of Wayne Co.,

Tennessee. Was a third time wounded in the battle of Atlanta, July 28,

1864, and laid out for dead, but he soon afterwards recovered. Mr.

Choate fought under Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson in the battle of Shiloh,

under Gen. Kirby Smiithat Richmond, Ky., ;aug. 13, 1862; under Bragg at

Stone's River and Bellbuckle, and was in all the battles of the Georgia

campaign, and was never out of hearing of the artillery or small arms

from battle of Resaca on May 16 to July 28th, 1864. In 1871 (1870) Mr.

Choate left his Tennessee home, and settled in Kaufman County March 1 of

this same year, where he spent the greater part of his life as a

farmer. On Sept. 19, 1872, he was happily married to Miss Mary Jane

French in this, Kaufman County, but who was born near Florence, North

Alabama, and for thirty-nine years they have fought side by side the

battle of life, blending their joy and tears. They lost three sons in

infancy and have reared four sons and three daughters to strengthen

their lives. Mr. Choate never went to school but four months in his

life--previous to becoming nine years of age--and never had but one

book, that of the old Blue Back Speller, a jewel representative of the

good old days. However, he had the greatest God-given gift to man, that

of a liberal store of good common sense, and being a chosen observer and

a student of affairs in general, absorbed a useful and sufficiennt

education. He informed the writer that he learned most of his academic

education through the methood of instructing his children in their

school lessons, novel as it may seem. Mr. Choate was elected Treasurer

of Kaufman County in November, 1910, for a two-year term, and the

efficient manner in which he is conducting his office affairs, and his

popularity throughout the county among all classes, insures him a

re-election for a second term. Personally Mr Choate is a gentleman of

the highest traits of honor and is one among the most congenial of men,

being a full blooded American Irishman. He and his family worship with

the Christian Church, he is a Past Master Mason, and has been a member

of this, father of all orders, since 1872. While attending the national

gathering of the United Confederate Veterans at Little Rock in the

summer of 1911, Mr. Choate took occasion to attend a family reunion in

Johnson County, of that state, where were gathered sixty-four

descendants, there bing in existence something more than one hundred at

present time. Mr. Choate belngs to the J.B. Stewart Camp, C.V>

Association, Terrell, and also the Terrell Guards. Died February 26,

1913. Buried at Terrell, Texas, March 1, 1913

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craig_pickrall

Maybe not old enough to shave but they sure could fight and shoot. You a Yankee are ya?

 

Bob, that is a great piece, especially with all the documentation.

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craig_pickrall

Are you talking about the names frtom the last 40 years or so? Those are post Civil War you know. Were you actually born in California? I thought every one there was from somewhere else. That brings me back to my original question, Were you born a Yankee?

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craig_pickrall

I don't think you would be considered Yankee. Check with Bob to confirm. He's from PA and should know.

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