H.V. Booth's father was 74 when he was born and sixteen when he entered Confederate service. His father was born in 1847 and had four other brothers fighting for the South and one was killed in Virginia.
He entered service in 1863 and was a guard at Andersonville where he got a fever. There was no medicine to treat it so he was sent home to recover. When he got better, he returned, but on the way found out the war was over so turned around and went back home.
His father died at age 87 in 1934.
H.V. said he had ten half brothers and sisters as his father was married before.
James Brown's father was twenty when he enlisted in 1861 and served all four years of the war. When James was born, his father was 71.
There were a lot of instances of young girls in their teens marrying the sixty and older gentlemen, especially during the Depression since these guys got pensions which made them attractive to these poor girls.
I remember talking about this to my classes back in the early 2000s when the last Confederate widow died, or so we thought, but since then have found that there are several Confederate and Union widows still alive until 2005
See Maudie Hopkins in Wikipedia.
Those Old Guys!! --B-R'er
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