W. T. Worthington Record
American Civil War Soldiers Record about William Thomas 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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