Rebel Yell (Georgia, 1855-1870)

War and Remembrance
Americus Stephens Webb was a child of the Civil War and, arguably, one of its last victims.
The 15th child of Walton Polk and Susannah Deadwyler Webb, he was at an impressionable age when Union soldiers, tailing back from Sherman's March to the Sea, ransacked his homeland. Decades later, his modest success--in part by marrying well -- led his brothers to join him in a small town northeast of Atlanta. And when he learned he had fallen ill with what appeared to be a debilitating illness, family legend has it that he chose to kill himself rather than end up as crippled as the Confederate veterans in his family.
Americus Stephens Webb was born Jan. 21, 1856, to a family on the move. Like many before them, Walton and Susannah had decided to leave the Elbert County farmland where they had been born and raised, had married and had produced 14 children. It's not certain whether they had hit the road by Americus' birthday, but given the rough highways of the day, one would think that Susannah wouldn't have wanted to ride a wagon while heavy with child.
No records that I've seen indicate how Americus got his name. Perhaps it was a political statement at a time when emotions over slavery and states' rights were white-hot. (Walton didn't own slaves then, but then again most Southerners didn't, and the two parts of Georgia where he lived tended to have fewer slaves than other regions of the state.) The middle name, Stephens, could have come in honor of Alexander Hamilton "Little Alec" Stephens, a noted Georgia politicians. It could have been a political statement as well--Stephens opposed secession but nevertheless became vice president of the Confederacy.
In any case, by the time Americus was four years old he was living with his family in Beula, Ala., just across the border from Georgia. Four doors away in one direction was Walton's brother, John B. Webb Jr., a carpenter. Four doors in the other direction took him to Americus' elder brother, Fortunatus Webb, who was becoming a cabinet maker.

Battle Tested, Battle Weary
At least two of Americus' brothers and one brother-in-law fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. None emerged intact.
Brother Philip Elcain (also known as Elkana) Webb was a member of the "Mountain Tigers"-- the 31st Regiment of the Georgia Volunteer Infantry. According to a descendant named Earnest Deadwyler (yes, more evidence of Webbs and Deadwylers intermarrying, this time in Harris County), Philip joined in November 1861 and fought with the Army of Northern Virginia. His wartime experiences included participation at Gettysburg where, as a member of Gordon's Brigade, Jubal Early's Division, Richard Ewell's III Corps, he was deployed on the Confederate left flank to the north and east of the city when Early's division attacked through the eastern outskirts of the city southward to Cemetery Hill.
On Feb. 6, 1865, Philip was wounded in the right leg and suffered a permanent disability in Hatcher's Run, Va. He was captured near Petersburg, Va., a month later and wasn't released until June 22, several months after Lee surrendered at Appomattox. According to a record in the Georgia State Archives, Philip had dark complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes and was 5 feet 9-3/4 inches tall.
Another brother, Fortunatus Webb, joined the Confederate Army in April 1862 and was attached to Hilliard's Legion of Alabama. In 1863, the legion was consolidated and attached to Grove's Brigade of the 60th Alabama Battalion. It also served mainly in Virginia. According to a pension application that Fortunatus filed in 1906, sometime before April 1865 he suffered an injury in which "my ankle was knocked out of joint and am disabled." Much of 1864 was spent in and around Petersburg, Va., so the injury is likely to have taken place there.
James Moultrie, husband of Americus' sister Victoria, also was a veteran, serving in Company E, 20th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was discharged on Oct. 17, 1861, roughly four months after enlisting, suffering from an unnamed disability.
Even if his brothers hadn't been in the war, the war would have touched Americus. By the mid-1860s, Walton and several of his children had moved back into Georgia and settled in Harris County, located hard by the Alabama border. No major battles were fought in the area, but following Sherman's March to the Sea, some of his troops circled back through the state and went up the Chattahoochee River, raiding and burning. In addition, on April 16, 1865--two days after Lincoln was assassinated--a Union cavalry force captured West Point and Columbus, Ga., just south of Harris County.
According to Americus' daughter Gertrelle, the eldest brother of Americus--Jeptha Webb--was living in Harris County and had racing horses. "The Yankees came by and stole all their horses," she wrote. "They had been offered $3,000.00 for the horses they stole and this wiped them [out]." What she doesn't note was that Jeptha, a lifelong bachelor, is listed in the census as living with Walton--and Americus--in both 1860 and 1870. Thus, it's likely that when the Yankees attacked (if they attacked) they came to where Americus was living.