North Carolina's Gen. Gatlin Remembered-- Part 1

From the Jan. 17, 2014, Kinston (NC) Free Press "Gen. Gatlin's birthday remembered" by Noah Clark.

Lenoir County resident Jim Gaddis has been interested in Richard Caswell Gatlin ever since coming across his name in an encyclopedia 15 years ago and seeing that the general was from Lenoir County. He did more research and has written an account of his life.

Gatlin was born at Red House Plantation two miles west of Kinston on January 18, 1809 and became the first Lenoir County resident to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1828, graduating in 1832.

He served in the Second Seminole War and Mexican War. At the start ofthe Civil War, he resigned his commission and in August was appointed brigadier general by Jefferson Davis and given command of the Confederate Army in North Carolina.

More to Come. --Old Secesh