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Thomas Marion Bradwell was a Confederate soldier from March 17, 1861, to May 6, 1865. He was the oldest son of Dr. Daniel Bradwell and Jane Gordon Bradwell, born February 5, 1835, and was eighty-five years old at the time of his death, May 4, 1920.

Before the War between the States there was a military company at Bainbridge, Ga., called the "Bainbridge Independents." made up of young men of the most prominent families of the town and county. They were handsomely uniformed, well armed and drilled. When the State seceded, they offered their services to Governor Brown and were organized as a part of the 1st Georgia Regiment. This command was sent to Pensacola, Fla., and thence to the mountains of West Virginia, where they suffered untold hardships from hunger and cold. Thomas Bradwell was of this command and was among those Confederates who were surrounded and captured at Cheat Mountain; but his company and regiment made their escape after marching many days without food in the mountains until they got back into the Southern lines. They were afterwards with Stonewall Jackson in his winter campaign in West Virginia, when he marched to Romney. The suffering of the men on this occasion from cold was almost beyond human endurance. Many of the men died from exposure. Jackson was ordered to withdarawl from that advanced position, very much against his judgement, to the vicinity of Winchester.

The 1st Georgia had gone into the service of the Confederacy for twelve months, and their time expired before the conscript act was passed. The regiment was mustered out at Lynchburg, Va., and the men returned to their homes to join other commands. Tom Bradwell joined Captain Dunlap's company of the 2d Georgia Cavalry, Col. C. C. Crews. With this command he served first under Forrest, part of the time in the artillery. His regiment was then put under Wheeler, with whom he served until the surrender in North Carolina. He was in many battles and skirmishes, but was never wounded, although he had seven horses killed under him.

In 1873 Thomas Bradwell moved to Texas, where he married Miss Bird, and from this union there were three daughters and a son, all surviving. In 1891, to educate his children, he went to Kerrville, where he lived respected by all his acquaintances for his learning and kindly disposition and also for the service he had rendered to his country.

There was but one Confederate veteran to march at the head of the procession that laid his body to rest. Adieu, my brother.

[I. G. Bradwell]