Confederate Soldier

Prior Harvey was born in 1836 in Grainger County Tennessee to Thomas and Maria Harvey. He married Delphia Hipsher in Grainger on July 17, 1854. By the 1860 census while they were still living in Grainger, the couple had the following children: John 5, Henry 3, and Rutha 6/12.

Prior enlisted at Knoxville as a private in Co C 12th Maj Phipps Battalion, Tennessee Cavalry for the Confederacy on September 1, 1862. He brought his own horse and was paid 40 cents a day for the risk to its health. Although he enlisted for three years his military records show that he deserted December 1863. However, he next appears on a Prisoners of War list for a military prison in Louisville Kentucky in January 1862 and was discharged January 1864. On that day he was given an oath of allegiance and sent North of the Ohio River according to the records. At that time, he was reported as being 5 ft 10 inches tall, with blue eyes and dark hair.

By the 1870 census Delphia and the children had joined him in Lawrence County Illinois where he was farming.  In addition to the three earlier children mentioned, they now had Sarah 8, Thomas 5, and Mariah 2.

Prior died March 23, 1879, in Lawrence Twp, Lawrence County Illinois from an abscess of the liver.  At his death he was 43 years of age and had lived in Lawrence County about 14 years.  Burial was in Sand Ridge aka May Chapel Cemetery, Lawrence County Illinois.