My great grandfather William Ellijay Gilmer, who was 1/2 Cherokee, enlisted in the Col.Brumby/Col.Fulton's 14th Georgia Infantry, Gen. Edward Thomas' Brigade.

In 1861, at the age of 14, William E. Gilmer enlisted in Col.Brumby's 14th Georgia Infantry in Jasper County Georgia as a drummer boy. By the summer of 1862 he was a rifleman and deserted in March 1865 during the seige of Petersburg Virginia, a few weeks before Lee surrendered at Appomatox.