My great grandfather, Michael Thomas Peacock, joined in 62 from Pike Co., AL and fought for the 17th AL Infantry. He was captured 2 times and released. I have his papers on those, along with a few other items.

During the Battle of Atlanta he was hit in the left arm by a “ball” and it was just hanging on. The story is a comrade cut it off with a knife. That was in July and he was sent to a hospital. Funny thing is he was ordered back to service in November with ONE arm missing.

He was surrendered at the end, and later moved to TX with his wife’s Barron family. I have been to Pike Co., AL several times and always got upset when I didn’t see his name on a monument they have honoring the CSA vets from Pike.

He lived to be 93 and he cowboyed around TX after his wife died. He was a very good shot with one arm missing. My dad said he would lay his rifle over the stub and could hunt with the best.

When my dad was about 9 they were out hunting and dad was bitten by a rattlesnake. Grandpappy Mike put a baling wire tourniquet on his leg ( a no no in today’s world) and over the years dad leg caused problems until it was finally amputated when he was about 18. He used a crutch until he was 25 and got a wooden leg.

In later life very few people would know he was wearing an artificial leg as he did everything, even played softball one or two times for a church team!