John Lewis Carden
Submitted by Sue Martin
John Lewis Carden was born Jan 1843 near Trenton, Alabama and died 26 February 1916. He is buried in Latham Cemetery, Guess’ creek, Jackson County, Alabama. He was a son of Leonard and Margaret Berry Carden. John Lewis married first Alsie Kirkpatrick Williams, the widow of Jonathan Williams. (Jonathan Williams was killed while scouting independently for the Federal Army after being discharged from the First Alabama and Tennessee Vidette Cavalry.) After Alsie’s death, John Lewis married Sarah Elizabeth Frasier. He had ten children.
John Lewis, a farmer, enlisted at the age of 18 in the First Tennessee and Alabama Vidette Cavalry as a private. His description at that time was 6 feet 2 inches tall, fair complexion, light hair and blue eyes. He also had a mark on his under lip. He was sick at home in December 1863 by order of Capt. Ephraim Latham, and few weeks later, on the 27th day of January 1864, he was ordered on a scout at Larkins Landing in the night. The weather was very cold and in order to cross the river he had to swim the horses beside the boat and he got very wet. He was not allowed to have a fire because the enemy was near; was left to guard a house for two or three days and his clothes were frozen to him. Due to this he became ill and had some loss of hearing; many times after this his orders had to be repeated to him. Also on this scout were Tom and Ephraim Latham, Hiram Kirkpatrick, J. W. Williams and others. General Smith excused Thomas Frasier from this scout because of an injury he received while on a previous scout. I will note here that the First Tennessee and Alabama had neither a surgeon nor an assistant surgeon to care for these men. He bunked with Leonard Carden, Jonathan Williams or Jim Latham, Thomas Frasier, and Jonathan Frasier. Jonathan Frasier later became his father-in-law. John Lewis Carden always lived at Trenton, Alabama except for a short while when he moved to Larkensville, Alabama to educate his children. As a boy he played marbles with Joshua Selby "on many a Sunday."
