Retired from twenty-two years in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1990. Retired as programmer of multi-axis CNC workcenters in 2004 and moved to beautiful East Tennessee. Author of two novels, "A Quickening Spirit" (partially an homage to Find A Grave) and "Life & Times of a Private Dick" (both available on Amazon.)

I am a descendant of the Herrings of Madison County, Georgia. In 1861 and 1862, four Herring brothers (along with their half-brother, James W. Payton) enlisted in Company A, 16th GA Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Confederate States of America (Madison County Greys.) The Regiment of 488 effective in April, 1862, was transferred to Virginia and served with the Army of Northern Virginia, CSA. On April 9, 1865, at close of the war, the Regiment surrendered two officers and 51 men at Appomattox Court House.

Only one brother, Henry L. Herring (my gg grandfather), survived the war although, at Chancellorsville, he suffered a gunshot wound and lost the use of an arm.

Also, their father (my ggg grandfather), Alpheus Herring (age 51 in 1862), in the defense of his country, joined Echol's Light Artillery, CSA after it was organized in July, 1862; he survived.

"Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth forevermore." - Ecclus 44: 14

"The past isn't gone. It isn't even past."

William Faulkner

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the lives of our ancestors by the records of history?"

Cicero, Roman orator