Timing is Everything

Guyton Fulford is not related to me but is the gg grandfather of a friend in Florida. I researched his family because of the common surname when we were trying to figure out if we were related.

 75th Regiment GA Militia Roll 1862

Guyton was born on August 26, 1818 and died on September 22, 1887 in Grady County Georgia. Guyton was born in Georgia but his father was born in Pitt County, North Carolina. Most of the Fulfords in South Georgia and North Florida are from this Pitt County family.


Guyton served in two wars and filed to collect the Land Bounty he was entitled to for the first one shortly before he died. His claim was apparently denied for lack of paperwork.


Today it would be very easy to prove his military service because so many records are available online. I was able to obtain this 1862 Civil War Muster Roll from the 75th Regiment Georgia Militia in a matter of minutes. He was 44 years old when he enlisted so he could have avoided military service because of his age.  




1841 Florida War

The Civil War Pension law in Georgia didn't cover the aged veterans until 1894, seven years after Guyton died. Before that they only paid a pension for those who lost limbs or were 100% disabled.  


The 1841 enlistment for the Florida Indian War was almost as easy to locate. It showed he was a Private in the First Regiment Florida Mounted Militia. His first Cousin Wyche Fulford, who later settled in Taylor County, Florida enlisted with him in the same Company.


I don't know if the folks in Washington denied the Florida War Bounty Claim because they knew he had served with the Confederate Army or if they just said no because the paper trail wasn't good enough.
  



Federal Pension Index

The old US military records were organized in the 1930s as part of the New Deal government program to put folks back to work. Before that many folks were out of luck trying to prove their service if they had lost their original paperwork.