He was abducted by soldiers from his home while on medical leave from army and his body was later discovered in Troup.
Son of Martin and Jane Keith
Following from the Murray County Museum Website:
REUBEN ROPER KEITH (2nd Lieutenant). Military service records contain this information: Reuben Keith enlisted as 2nd Lieutenant, Co. H, 36th Regiment Georgia Infantry, April 24, 1862. Promoted to 1st Lieutenant March 21, 1862. Captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 4, 1863. Paroled July 9, 1863. Local family history indicates that some of General Wheeler's cavalry had retaken Dalton, then enroute to Tennessee, came to the Loughridge farm in Murray County, where they destroyed fences and crops, then stole all of the family's livestock (because they thought the family sympathized with the Union). The soldiers, upon learning that the husband of one of the Loughridge daughters, Mary Ann, was home on furlough from the Confederate Army to recover from serious illness, went to that nearby dwelling. Somehow they concluded that Reuben was malingering, and should have already returned to duty. It is uncertain whether they actually thought this or decided to further punish the Loughridge family by killing someone. They took Reuben from his bed, tied him to a horse, and took him away. The family later found his body and buried him in the Loughridge family cemetery at Eton, Georgia. His gravestone reads: R. R. Keith, Oct. 23, 1822, Aug. 15, 1864. Beside this grave another stone reads: Mary A. Keith, "his wife", May 5, 1828, Feb. 14, 1909.
Son of Martin and Jane Keith
Following from the Murray County Museum Website:
REUBEN ROPER KEITH (2nd Lieutenant). Military service records contain this information: Reuben Keith enlisted as 2nd Lieutenant, Co. H, 36th Regiment Georgia Infantry, April 24, 1862. Promoted to 1st Lieutenant March 21, 1862. Captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 4, 1863. Paroled July 9, 1863. Local family history indicates that some of General Wheeler's cavalry had retaken Dalton, then enroute to Tennessee, came to the Loughridge farm in Murray County, where they destroyed fences and crops, then stole all of the family's livestock (because they thought the family sympathized with the Union). The soldiers, upon learning that the husband of one of the Loughridge daughters, Mary Ann, was home on furlough from the Confederate Army to recover from serious illness, went to that nearby dwelling. Somehow they concluded that Reuben was malingering, and should have already returned to duty. It is uncertain whether they actually thought this or decided to further punish the Loughridge family by killing someone. They took Reuben from his bed, tied him to a horse, and took him away. The family later found his body and buried him in the Loughridge family cemetery at Eton, Georgia. His gravestone reads: R. R. Keith, Oct. 23, 1822, Aug. 15, 1864. Beside this grave another stone reads: Mary A. Keith, "his wife", May 5, 1828, Feb. 14, 1909.
He was abducted by soldiers from his home while on medical leave from army and his body was later discovered in Troup.
Son of Martin and Jane Keith
Following from the Murray County Museum Website:
REUBEN ROPER KEITH (2nd Lieutenant). Military service records contain this information: Reuben Keith enlisted as 2nd Lieutenant, Co. H, 36th Regiment Georgia Infantry, April 24, 1862. Promoted to 1st Lieutenant March 21, 1862. Captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 4, 1863. Paroled July 9, 1863. Local family history indicates that some of General Wheeler's cavalry had retaken Dalton, then enroute to Tennessee, came to the Loughridge farm in Murray County, where they destroyed fences and crops, then stole all of the family's livestock (because they thought the family sympathized with the Union). The soldiers, upon learning that the husband of one of the Loughridge daughters, Mary Ann, was home on furlough from the Confederate Army to recover from serious illness, went to that nearby dwelling. Somehow they concluded that Reuben was malingering, and should have already returned to duty. It is uncertain whether they actually thought this or decided to further punish the Loughridge family by killing someone. They took Reuben from his bed, tied him to a horse, and took him away. The family later found his body and buried him in the Loughridge family cemetery at Eton, Georgia. His gravestone reads: R. R. Keith, Oct. 23, 1822, Aug. 15, 1864. Beside this grave another stone reads: Mary A. Keith, "his wife", May 5, 1828, Feb. 14, 1909.
Son of Martin and Jane Keith
Following from the Murray County Museum Website:
REUBEN ROPER KEITH (2nd Lieutenant). Military service records contain this information: Reuben Keith enlisted as 2nd Lieutenant, Co. H, 36th Regiment Georgia Infantry, April 24, 1862. Promoted to 1st Lieutenant March 21, 1862. Captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi, July 4, 1863. Paroled July 9, 1863. Local family history indicates that some of General Wheeler's cavalry had retaken Dalton, then enroute to Tennessee, came to the Loughridge farm in Murray County, where they destroyed fences and crops, then stole all of the family's livestock (because they thought the family sympathized with the Union). The soldiers, upon learning that the husband of one of the Loughridge daughters, Mary Ann, was home on furlough from the Confederate Army to recover from serious illness, went to that nearby dwelling. Somehow they concluded that Reuben was malingering, and should have already returned to duty. It is uncertain whether they actually thought this or decided to further punish the Loughridge family by killing someone. They took Reuben from his bed, tied him to a horse, and took him away. The family later found his body and buried him in the Loughridge family cemetery at Eton, Georgia. His gravestone reads: R. R. Keith, Oct. 23, 1822, Aug. 15, 1864. Beside this grave another stone reads: Mary A. Keith, "his wife", May 5, 1828, Feb. 14, 1909.
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