Per http://www.erols.com/fmoran/coffey2.html document, "There is conflicting information concerning Calvin Coffey (b. 1824). Some report him to have had a second wife, Nancy Tuttle, while other family members provide the folliwng [sic] information: Calvin Coffey died prior to his last child being born in 1865. Calvin Coffey was on his way home from the Civil War when he fell over a broken limb, broke his leg and died from complications. His wife, Serena, raised the children by herself and after 30 yrs. as a widow, she married A. J. Watson in January of 1895. Just three months after their marriage A. J. Watson died.
In 1861 North Carolina called on her sons to defend what she perceived to be her inalienable rights--states rights. Leaving the Union was not an easy decision for Tar Heels, and the dye was not cast until Lincoln called for volunteers to suppress the rebellion in the deep South. Young mountain boys left the nest for the first time, left to put on a gray uniform. Many families supplied more than one son to a company or a regiment, some families gave all their sons to the cause. The 58th North Carolina Infantry was recruited on the eastern rim of the Appalachian Mountains. The men were more akin to their brethren in Tennessee and Kentucky than other Carolinians in the Piedmont and coastal plains. The geography of their mountains made small farms of 200 acres, the norm rather than the exception. Small farmers had few, if any, slaves and little or no need for them. The mountaineers had little vested interest in the economic reasons for the War for Southern Independence. Most of the men who enlisted shared Robert E. Lee's feelings that they did not want a civil war, but they also could not, in good faith, shed the blood of their fellow Tar Heels. Despite the litany of reasons these mountaineers had for remaining Unionist or neutral, they were not and in 1861 embraced secession.
In 1861, the Southern Army was made up of volunteers, by men who wanted to be there. When the ordinance of session passed in May, 1861, there was a flood of volunteers from the Tar Heel State into the new Southern Armies. The prevailing mood at the time was that these volunteers would be enough to secure independence. The idea that one Southerner could whip three to ten Yankees was common in early 1861 as well. The fact that the war was not over in 90 days dispelled this myth, and other Southern boys knew what they had to do. Both sides enacted the first draft in North America and required men aged 18 to 35 years to register, and by default, almost all would be called. Many North Carolinians were so anxious they joined the Confederate Army before North Carolina seceded. This enthusiasm was even found in Appalachian Carolina. Some of of these men did wait and were conscripted in 1863. Many of these late joiners had served in local militia and had some, if limited and ineffectual, military training and could be sent to join the unit without further instruction. It would appear that this unit had desertions at about the same rate as other Appalachian units. Many captured soldiers claimed to have been loyal and deserted to avail themselves of the amnesty proclamation.
It would appear that some of the churches would deal with deserters after the War was over. Many of the churches were divided over the issue of slavery prior to the outbreak of the war into Northern and Southern factions. The Primitive Baptist Church did not so divide, but in the period from 1866-1868, excommunicated their members who deserted from the Confederate Army or who joined the Union League also called the "Red Stingers", which was synonymous with the Heroes of America. The result was the formation of Northern or "Mountain Union" Baptist Churches after the war, at Fox Creek Church in Grayson Co. VA in 1867. Calvinists had an inclination to be bold in battle. They did not and do not think it possible to die before it is one's time to die, and when that time arrives, it matters not what the person is doing, he will die. This theological viewpoint is evidenced in articles of faith adopted by sects in the South, and were derived from the 1683 London Confession of Faith.
The Confederate Armies were almost constantly short on rations, sometimes without a scrap of meat, and frequently in a condition bordering on absolute starvation. The Confederate soldier, almost starving himself, heard constantly of destitution at home, and was distressed with the suffering of his family, and was constantly plied with temptation to go to their protection and relief. This caused some to return to the Carolina mountains without permission. Bushwhackers, known as outliers in the mountains, were rampant in Western North Carolina during and immediately following the war. Any able bodied horse was stolen from 1863 onward by Union partisans or Confederate quartermasters agents. These men came through a region and took produce at prices much below the market value. The Confederate tithe law also burdened farmers in the hills. Despite increased production over prewar levels, what food there was had to be buried to be saved from these bushwhackers and Confederate agents.
[Brøderbund Family Archive #317, Ed. 1, Census Index: U.S. Selected Counties, 1850, Date of Import: May 2, 1998, Internal Ref. #1.317.1.6264.89]
More About Calvin Coffey and Serena White: Marriage: 1850, Alexander, Caldwell County, North Carolina.376
Calvin Coffey (b. 1824, d. Abt. 1865)
Notes for Calvin Coffey: