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Spurlins in the American Civil War

Spurlins served on both sides of the Civil War. They included Confederates from North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee and Union soldiers from New Hampshire, Iowa, Indiana and Tennessee. This roundup collects service-index records, rosters, pension, pardon and soldiers' home records, and county-history accounts.

Sourcing: strong 5 book · 18 government · 4 genealogy · 4 news · 1 reference

Confederate service

  • Rutherford County, North Carolina. Clarence W. Griffin's History of Old Tryon and Rutherford Counties (1937) prints company rosters of Rutherford men. In Company D of the 16th North Carolina, Isaac J. Spurlin was "discharged May 20, 1862 for disability" and John E. Spurlin "died Nov. 29, 1862 at Petersburg."[1] The regimental roster used in the John E. Spurlin (Confederate soldier) entry gives a different date and place, 18 December 1861 at Warrenton, Virginia. In Company I of the 56th North Carolina, George W. Spurlin "enlisted July 12, 1861, died from wounds received May 12, 1864."[1] In a list of "Rutherford County men in scattered commands," J. W. Spurlin of Company C, 15th North Carolina, "enlisted March 8, 1863, transferred from Mallett's Battalion."[1] The National Park Service's Soldiers and Sailors index has matching entries for Isaac J. and John E. Spurlin (16th North Carolina), George Washington Spurlin (56th North Carolina) and J. W. Spurlin (15th North Carolina).[2][3][4][5]
  • Alleghany County, North Carolina / Grayson County, Virginia. WikiTree says Andrew Jackson Spurlin (1817–1923) served in the 51st Virginia Infantry and that his brothers served in the 22nd North Carolina.[6] The NPS index lists an Eli Spurlin and a William Spurlin as privates in Company F of the 22nd North Carolina Infantry (see Spurlins of Ashe and Alleghany Counties, North Carolina).[7][8] It has no soldier named Spurlin, Spurling or Spirlin in the 51st Virginia,[9] even though that regiment recruited in Grayson County.[10] The index is compiled from National Archives service records, so a missing entry does not by itself rule out service.[9] A transcription of the Grayson County Confederate pension board's minutes shows the board disapproving A. J. Spurlin's application in June 1909 with the note "not a soldier". The board approved an application from him on 3 July 1911 and a higher rating on 5 July 1915.[11] See the entry on Andrew Jackson Spurlin.
  • Georgia. W. H. Spurlin, a Confederate veteran from Shelby, North Carolina, settled in Pulaski County, Georgia (see W. H. Spurlin (Georgia pioneer)). A Josiah C. Spurlin of Georgia, excluded from the 1865 amnesty as a Confederate postmaster, was pardoned on July 5, 1866, according to a list of presidential pardons printed by Congress.[12]
  • Alabama. Camden jeweler W. F. Spurlin served as a private in Company F, 53rd Alabama Partisan Rangers, and was paroled at Augusta, Georgia, in May 1865.[13][14] In December 1913 he wrote a Confederate Veteran account of what happened to the last Confederate treasury notes (see W. F. Spurlin (Camden, Alabama jeweler)).[15][14] In Coffee County, the NPS index lists William J. and Riley Spurlin in Company K of the 25th Alabama Infantry and Jacob R. Spurlin in Company A of the 33rd Alabama (see Spurlins of Coffee County, Alabama).[16][17][18] In 1913 a Mrs. I. L. Bragg of Coleman, Texas, asked Confederate Veteran readers for news of surviving members of Kolb's Artillery, which had left Eufaula, Alabama, in the fall of 1861. Her father, William M. Spurlin, had gone out with the battery.[14] The NPS index lists a William M. Spurlin, private, in Kolb's Battery, Alabama Light Artillery.[19] In October 1929 wire-service items from the Associated Press and the International News Service identified Capt. J. R. S. Spurlin, aged 87, as commander of the Samson Camp of Confederate Veterans in Samson, Alabama. They reported his marriage to a 17-year-old, the granddaughter of the woman who had kept house for him since his wife's death about six months earlier, and said he had 14 children.[20][21][22]
  • Tennessee. George W. Spurlin (1839–1914) of Hardeman County appears in the Tennessee State Library and Archives index of Confederate pension applications, under soldier's pension no. 4853. The index gives his unit as the 1st Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi Infantry (see Spurlins of Hardeman County, Tennessee).[23]

Union service

  • New Hampshire. Charles Spurlin of Pittsfield served three years in Company G, 7th New Hampshire Volunteers, and was mustered out on 22 December 1864 (see Spurlins of New Hampshire).[24]
  • Iowa. William Swift M. Spurlin, son of Hardin County pioneer Daniel Spurlin, enlisted in the 9th Iowa Cavalry and "was killed while on duty at Ashland Station, on the Red River Expedition," according to the county's 1883 history.[25]
  • Illinois / Missouri. WikiTree records a George Washington Spurlin, born about 1844 in Illinois, who died on 19 February 1863 at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. The profile does not say whether he was in military service.[26]
  • Indiana. Several Shelby County Spurlins served in the 33rd Indiana Infantry (see Spurlins of Shelby County, Indiana). Private acts of Congress in 1910 and 1914 raised the pensions of two of them, Joshua F. Spurlin and Ithamar Spurlin of Company D.[27][28]
  • Tennessee. The 1908 report of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers records an L. Spurlin, private, Company G, 3rd Tennessee Mounted Infantry, born in Tennessee. He was admitted at age 65 on October 8, 1907, and died at the home's Mountain Branch in Tennessee on May 11, 1908.[29]

Historians

Texas historian Charles D. Spurlin edited The Civil War Diary of Charles A. Leuschner (Eakin Press, 1992).[30] The Handbook of Texas article on the Sixth Texas Infantry, a regiment mustered near Victoria in November 1861, lists his edition in its bibliography (see Charles D. Spurlin (historian)).[31]

Finding more

The National Park Service's Soldiers and Sailors Database and FamilySearch's guide to Confederate records are the standard tools for finding other Spurlin soldiers, including those listed under the spelling "Spurling."[9][32] Documents printed by Congress, such as private pension acts, soldiers' home reports and lists of pardons, add further names (see Spurlins in the Congressional Record).

See also

  • John E. Spurlin (Confederate soldier) · History strong
    John E. Spurlin (1841–1861) was a Rutherford County, North Carolina, farmer. He enlisted in the 16th North Carolina Infantry in 1861 and, according to the regimental roster, died of typhoid fever at Warrenton, Virginia, that December; a 1937 county history gives a different date and place.
  • Andrew Jackson Spurlin (1817–1923) · Genealogy mixed
    Andrew Jackson "Uncle Jack" Spurlin (died 1923) was a North Carolina-born farmer and miller in Grayson County, Virginia. His grave memorial and obituary made him 105 or 106, but the 1860 and 1870 censuses put his birth around 1830.
  • Spurlins of Ashe and Alleghany Counties, North Carolina · Genealogy weak
    Spurlins from Fairfax County, Virginia, settled in the Blue Ridge counties of Ashe and Alleghany, North Carolina, in the late 18th century. Descendants served in the 22nd North Carolina Infantry, were merchants and farmers around Sparta and Ennice in the 20th century, and gave their name to three family burial grounds.
  • W. H. Spurlin (Georgia pioneer) · Genealogy mixed
    W. H. Spurlin was a Confederate veteran born in Shelby, North Carolina, who settled in Pulaski County, Georgia. His descendants spread through Worth County, Sylvester and Valdosta.
  • W. F. Spurlin (Camden, Alabama jeweler) · History strong
    William F. Spurlin (c. 1823–1915) was a jeweler in Camden, Alabama, and a Confederate veteran of the 53rd Alabama Partisan Rangers. His 1913 Confederate Veteran account of the last issue of Confederate treasury notes is still discussed by currency historians.
  • Spurlins of Coffee County, Alabama · Genealogy mixed
    Spurlins from Houston County, Georgia, settled around Elba and New Brockton in Coffee County, Alabama, by the mid-19th century. They took up federal land patents, served in Confederate regiments and appear through a century of the Elba Clipper newspaper. The rockabilly singer Tommy Spurlin was born into the Elba family, and streets in neighbouring Covington County carry the name.
  • Spurlins of Hardeman County, Tennessee · Genealogy mixed
    Spurlins lived in Hardeman County, in southwest Tennessee, by the 1830s. Eli and George W. Spurlin are buried at Wesley Cemetery, Piney Grove, and George drew a Confederate pension. Another branch moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and on to Texas.
  • Andrew Barclay Spurling (Spurling variant) · People mixed
    Andrew Barclay Spurling (1833–1906) was a Union cavalry officer from the Cranberry Isles, Maine, and a brevet brigadier general. He received the Medal of Honor for capturing Confederate soldiers near Evergreen, Alabama, in 1865, and is buried in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago.
  • Spurlins of New Hampshire · Genealogy mixed
    A New England Spurlin family lived in Madbury, Dover, Pittsfield and Epsom, New Hampshire, from the 18th century. Several members served in the Civil War, among them Charles Spurlin of Pittsfield in the 7th New Hampshire Volunteers and Charles F. Spurlin of Dover in the 11th New Hampshire Infantry.
  • Daniel Spurlin (Hardin County, Iowa, pioneer) · History strong
    Daniel Spurlin (1807–1868) was a North Carolina-born blacksmith who settled in Union Township, Hardin County, Iowa, in 1851. He was killed in a sleigh accident on his way home from church meetings, is buried in Hauser Cemetery at Whitten, and county histories and newspapers record his family.
  • Spurlins of Shelby County, Indiana · Genealogy strong
    Spurlin families settled in Washington Township, Shelby County, Indiana, in the 1830s. Several of them served in the 33rd Indiana Infantry during the Civil War, and Ithamar Spurlin was elected county sheriff in 1870.
  • Spurlins in the Congressional Record · History strong
    Federal congressional publications mention the Spurlin name in modern tributes and Senate nomination lists, in private pension acts for two Indiana Civil War veterans (1910 and 1914), and in 19th-century printed lists of voters, pensioners, pardons, claims and land entries.
  • Charles D. Spurlin (historian) · History mixed
    Charles Dennis Spurlin (1932–2013) was a Texas historian and Victoria College professor. He wrote Texas Volunteers in the Mexican War and a history of Waller's 13th Texas Cavalry Battalion, and edited the Civil War diary of Charles A. Leuschner.
  • Spurlin Family History in America · History mixed
    An overview of Spurlin and Spurling families in America, from colonial Virginia and New England through southern and western migration, Civil War service, and published genealogies.
  • Spurlin historical markers · History strong
    Nine markers and memorials transcribed in the Historical Marker Database name a Spurlin, from a Georgia church founder of 1842 and an Alabama Masonic officer of 1852 to veterans on Confederate, World War I and Vietnam War memorials.
  • Spurlin research resources · Genealogy mixed
    A roundup of free online tools for researching Spurlin families: collaborative trees, the Spurlin Y-DNA project, surname forums, digitized county histories and newspapers, federal land patents, cemetery and historical-marker databases, and military and African American records.
  • Spurlins in the World Wars · History strong
    Five Army soldiers surnamed Spurlin, from Alabama, Arizona, North Carolina and Texas, appear on the War Department's 1946 lists of World War II dead. Two are buried in American Battle Monuments Commission cemeteries in Italy and the Philippines.

References

  1. ↑ ↑ ↑ Clarence W. Griffin, History of Old Tryon and Rutherford Counties, North Carolina, 1730–1936 (Asheville: Miller Printing, 1937) — Internet Archive — filed inside an item mislabelled "ZHaywood County Cemetery Survey"; rosters on pp. 262 (Co. D, 16th Reg.), 285 (Co. I, 56th Reg.) and 290 (Co. C, 15th Reg.) Book
  2. ↑ Spurlin, Isaac J. — 16th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Co. D — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service — alternate name Isaac J. Sperlin Government
  3. ↑ Spurlin, John E. — 16th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Co. D — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  4. ↑ Spurlin, George Washington — 56th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Co. I — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  5. ↑ Spurlin, J. W. — 15th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Co. C — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  6. ↑ Andrew Jackson Spurlin (1817–1923) (Spurlin-69) — WikiTree — user-contributed profile; says he joined the 51st Virginia Infantry Genealogy
  7. ↑ Spurlin, Eli — 22nd Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Co. F — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  8. ↑ Spurlin, William — 22nd Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, Co. F — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  9. ↑ ↑ ↑ Soldiers and Sailors Database — National Park Service — database queried 24 Sep 2026 for Spurlin, Spurling and Spirlin; 51st Virginia roster names beginning Sp also checked Government
  10. ↑ 51st Regiment, Virginia Infantry — Battle Unit Details, National Park Service — recruited in Wythe, Nelson, Bland, Floyd and Grayson counties Government
  11. ↑ Minutes of the Confederate Pension Board for Grayson County, Virginia — New River Notes — transcription by Jeffrey C. Weaver (1991); meetings of June 1909, 3 July 1911 and 5 July 1915 Genealogy
  12. ↑ Pardons by the President — H. Ex. Doc. 16, 40th Cong., 2d Sess. (1867) — GovInfo — Georgia, p. 138 Government
  13. ↑ Spurlin, W.F. — 53rd Regiment, Alabama Partisan Rangers, Co. F — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  14. ↑ ↑ ↑ Confederate Veteran, vol. 21 (1913) — Internet Archive — W. F. Spurlin, "Last Issue of Confederate Money," pp. 578–579; query from Mrs. I. L. Bragg about Kolb's Artillery News
  15. ↑ Paper Money, July/August 2011 (Whole No. 274) — Internet Archive Book
  16. ↑ Spurlin, William J. — 25th Regiment, Alabama Infantry, Co. K — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  17. ↑ Spurlin, Riley — 25th Regiment, Alabama Infantry, Co. K — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  18. ↑ Spurlin, Jacob R. — 33rd Regiment, Alabama Infantry, Co. A — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  19. ↑ Spurlin, William M. — Kolb's Battery, Alabama Light Artillery — Soldiers and Sailors Database, National Park Service Government
  20. ↑ Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 31 October 1929, image 34 ("Confederate Veteran, 87, Weds Alabaman, 17") — Chronicling America, Library of Congress — Associated Press item News
  21. ↑ The Washington Times, 31 October 1929, image 26 — Chronicling America, Library of Congress — International News Service item News
  22. ↑ The Milwaukee Leader, 31 October 1929, image 7 — Chronicling America, Library of Congress News
  23. ↑ Tennessee Confederate Pension Applications: Hardeman County — Tennessee State Library and Archives — soldier's pension no. 4853 Government
  24. ↑ History of Pittsfield, N.H., in the Great Rebellion (1893) — Internet Archive Book
  25. ↑ History of Hardin County, Iowa (1883) — Internet Archive Book
  26. ↑ George Washington Spurlin (1844–1863) (Spurlin-86) — WikiTree Genealogy
  27. ↑ Private pension act, ch. 55, approved Feb. 21, 1910 (Private No. 9), 36 Stat. 1517 — GovInfo — Joshua F. Spurlin, p. 1522 Government
  28. ↑ Private pension act, ch. 237, approved Aug. 7, 1914 (Private No. 108), 38 Stat. 1399 — GovInfo — Ithamar Spurlin, p. 1401 Government
  29. ↑ Report of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, fiscal year 1908 — H. Doc. 1106, 60th Cong., 2d Sess. — GovInfo — record of members, p. 453; key on p. 270 Government
  30. ↑ The Civil War Diary of Charles A. Leuschner, ed. Charles D. Spurlin (Eakin Press, 1992) — Internet Archive Book
  31. ↑ Brett J. Derbes, "Sixth Texas Infantry" — Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association — bibliography lists Charles D. Spurlin, ed., The Civil War Diary of Charles A. Leuschner (Eakin Press, 1992) Reference
  32. ↑ Locating a Confederate Civil War Soldier (1861–1865) — FamilySearch Wiki Genealogy

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Last reviewed 2026-09-24.