Family needs could extend beyond a man's immediate household. For example, William C. Jordan of Barbour County expressed concerns for farms belonging to his widowed mother, his widowed mother-in-law and an older sister. Evidently he was the nearest and oldest man in the family. When the early volunteers left, he remained home to tend to these three farms as well as his own. Jordan didn't enroll until March 1862.

Over the years I've explored other people's families and help to discover their family connections to Civil War ancestors. Now I'm now extending my personal family line beyond direct ancestors and find nearly all so far to have been subsistence farmers. Sometimes they worked for other men, like Francis M. (Jack) Pitts, who had an exemption as an overseer and remained home until Sept. 25, 1864. At that time he joined Massenburg's Georgia Battery, a section of which was stationed near his home at West Point GA.

After the war a daughter of F. M. Pitts married the oldest son of Belton Pitts, a near relative. Susan and In February 1861 Belton and his wife welcomed the arrival of another son whom they named Jefferson Davis Pitts. Belton remained home until March 1862 when he volunteered in Hardaway's Alabama Battery, which served in the Army of Northern Virginia. He and eighty other officers and men signed paroles when Lee surrendered his command at Appomattox Courthouse.

It would be interesting to hear about any Alabama parents who named children after Abraham Lincoln, John Brown or U.S. Grant.