Wayne County Hero To Gettysburg and Back-- Part 1: F.A. Simmons

From the Feb. 2014, Historical News (State of NC: Nash, Wayne & Wilson Counties.

One of the Confederate soldiers fighting at Gettysburg was Francis Alexander Simmons (1828-1897), born in Jones County, raised at the Waterloo Plantation in Albertson, Duplin County, and died in Mt. Olive, Wayne County, North Carolina.

During the war, he was a member of the Duplin Rifles and mustered into the Confederate Army as a private April 22, 1862.  He was sent to Fort Mangum where he joined Company A, 43rd N.C. Infantry Regiment and was promoted to sergeant on May 13, 1862.  His letters indicate that his primary reason for enlisting was the Northern invasion of the South.

After a brief period of training, the 43rd was sent to the Lower Cape Fear River.  A month later, they were sent to Virginia and joined the Daniels' Brigade and defended Richmond. during Lee's invasion of the North which led to the Battle of Antietam.

Just before winter 1862, they were ordered back home to defend Goldsboro during Foster's Raid from New Bern (which was heading to the Goldsboro Wilmington & Weldon Railroad bridge over the Neuse at that city.

More to Come.  --Old Secesh