PVT John Tyler Kelley

PVT John Tyler Kelley (1841 - 1916)

Hubbard's Company of Alabama Rangers, 1861

Company K, 1st Confederate Cavalry Regiment, 1861-1862

Company K, 4th Alabama Cavalry (Roddey's) Regiment, 1862 - 1865

       John Tyler Kelley was the sixth child of John and Martha Ann Kelley. He was born in 1841 at Traveller's Rest, Coosa County, Alabama. In 1853 at the age of twelve, he moved with the rest of his family to Eldridge, Walker County, Alabama. There he helped to run the family mercantile, tannery, legal distillery, and farm.
       When the War Between the States erupted in 1861, John and his brothers Esom, James, Philemon, and Benjamin, were invited to join an independent cavalry company that was being formed of men who could furnish their own mounts and tack. Of their own free will, the brothers enlisted in "Hubbard's Company of Alabama Rangers" in September of 1861, and after brief, but intense training, were sent into middle and western Tennessee where they helped Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman in defense of Fort Henry. The company avoided capture as Fort Henry fell in early 1862, which enabled it to participate in many more skirmishes and battles throughout western Tennessee. Along about this time the company left its independent roots and was made a part of the 1st Confederate Cavalry Regiment, C.S.A., and given the alphabetic designation of Company "K". Company K was detached early on though and fought in many fierce engagements during this period also taking part in the Battle of Shiloh in April of 1862. The company suffered many casualties leading up to and including Shiloh, which caused it to be detailed to go to North Alabama to be consolidated with other independent cavalry companies into a new regiment known as the 4th Alabama Cavalry (Roddey's) Regiment, C.S.A., under the command of Colonel Philip Dale Roddey. The company retained the letter "K" as part of its official designation, but Captain Esom D. Kelley, John's older brother, was now in command after the capture of two of its officers and a third resigning. John and Company K served the rest of the war in North Alabama defending it against union cavalry raids that had started to become more numerous as northern armies began to drive southward. He was paroled at the Fayette County Courthouse on May 5, 1865.
       When John, and his two surviving brothers Esom and Ben, came home from the war, they found their home in deplorable condition. As if this and losing the war were not bad enough, John and his brothers found out that their younger brother Tolbert had been killed by pro-union "Tories" under the command of a man by the name of John Stough. Tolbert had gone to a local mill to have some corn ground into meal when a group of men tied him to a horse and made it run and drag him until he was dead. John, Esom, and Ben, sought out Stough and after satisfying themselves that he was responsible, avenged their brothers death by killing him and his dogs under the age-old law of an "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and a death for a death". They made no effort to conceal their trail after the affair was over. Friends of Stough tried to put together a posse to pursue the Kelley's, but cooler heads prevailed as they decided that any confrontation with the Kelley's would not be wise and no effort was ever made to prosecute them.
       With the tragic years of the war now behind him, John was ready to begin a normal life. Around 1868, he married Sarah Blankenship of Fayette County, Alabama. While living there, they raised part of their family and next moved to Eldridge where they stayed a little while before moving on to their final home in Winston County, Alabama. Here they moved into a beautiful log house in a pasture was owned by Tom Moore who was married to Lula Kelley, John's daughter. This community was known as "Cow Branch" and was located close to the community of Millers Stand where a small business and post office were located. One morning Sarah walked to Miller's Stand to visit a friend and died suddenly. She was buried in the Miller's Church Cemetery, but the date of her death is unknown. John died in 1916 of a leakage of the heart and is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in Haleyville, Alabama, beside his sister, Martha Susan Kelley Miller and her husband William. John and Sarah Kelley were survived by six children. A seventh child, Frank, died while he was very young.

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