Lieutenant William John Folks

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Confederate States of America

Lieutenant William John Folks

54th Georgia Regiment

By

Ashley Pollette

 

William John Folks, the last child of John and Chloe Sandefur Folks, was born in 1827 in Jefferson County, Georgia, and died in 1902 in Jefferson County, Georgia. His known siblings are:

  1. Ann Folks, b. September 1817, Jefferson County, Georgia; married Moses Deriso (Durouzeaux)
  2. Sarah Folks, b. About 1819, Jefferson County, Georgia, married Geneper (Juniper) Hall, Jr.
  3. Celia Folks, b. September 26, 1820, Jefferson County, Georgia; married Silas Watkins

On November 09, 1854, William John Folks married Sarah Jane Bryant in Jefferson County, Georgia.

The Children of William John and Sarah Jane Folks are:

  1. Mary R. F. Folks, b. 1856
  2. Julia Ann E. Folks, b. May 22, 1859
  3. John H. Folks, b. 1865
  4. Malanda Folks, b. 1867

All the children were born in Jefferson County, Georgia.

 

William John Folks enlisted, as a private, in the "Bartow Infantry," at Swainsboro, Emanuel County, Georgia, on May 6, 1862. The Bartow Infantry mustered into the Confederate army as Company C, 54th Georgia Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry. In 1862 and 1863 the 54th GA Regiment manned coastal defenses along the Georgia and South Carolina coast including Battery Wagner, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Sometime in late 1863 or early 1864, the 54th GA Regiment was transferred to the Amy of Tennessee and the Regiment took part in the Atlanta Campaign. During the Atlanta Campaign William was appointed a courier and elected 2nd Lieutenant.

 

In late 1864, while William was away with the Army of Tennessee, a wing of General Sherman’s Union Army marched by the Folks home on the "March to the Sea." The location of the Folks house site is just behind the site of an old Wadley Southern Railroad station named French Station. The site is just off the present day Pollett Road (French Road) in southern Jefferson County. Julia Ann Folks told her Granddaughter, Julia Belle Rachels Pollette (my Mother), many stories of the war. Here are a few of them as told by 80 year old Julia Belle.

 

"When the Yankee army marched through here, they took my Great-granddaddy’s mare. At the time, the mare had a young colt, but for some unknown reason, the soldiers left the colt. That night, the Yankee army camped by the road at Greenway Community; the mare broke loose and ran away. Granny stated she, her mother, and sister could hear the mare running down the road back home to the colt. The family took the mare and colt deep into the woods until the army passed."

 

"The family had gathered persimmons and dried them for food. One of the soldiers came into the house and took one and after biting into it said, "these things are not fit to eat". He threw the persimmons into the road and as the soldiers passed, they walked them into the ground."

 

"When the war was over, Great- granddaddy came home, but he stopped at the gate and yelled for Great-grandmother to start a fire at the wash pot. His clothes where so full of lice he burned them and he bathed himself before he would hug his family".

William John Folks supported his family as a farmer and a miller. For some reason, possibly the lack of money, John did not have a tombstone marking his grave. In April 1997, The Johnson Greys, Camp # 1688 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, placed a stone marking his grave site at Coleman Chapel Cemetery; Jefferson County, Georgia. Many of John's descendants live in Jefferson and Emanuel Counties.

 

 

File submitted by: Roger Ashley Pollette

 

Ashley Pollette - P.O. BOX 810 - Sneads, FL 32460  
Copyright © 1997 Roger Ashley Pollette. All rights reserved.
Revised: November 27, 1998 01:05:40 PM -0500.

 

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