Civil War Losses

Many cousins fought in the Civil War. Of Joseph Calhoun Mathews' grandsons, at least five gave their lives for the southern cause. Hardest hit was his daughter Nancy Ann Mathews Burns, who lost two of her three sons in the conflict. Joseph Calhoun Burns (her father's namesake and her oldest) died at the age of 25 at the battle of Sharpsburg (Antitum) in September 1862. James Thomas Burns died at the young age of 18, at the battle of Seven Pines in June 1862. Ezekiel Waddell Mathews lost a son early in the war at the battle of Belmont in April 1861, this was 18 year old Andrew N. Mathews. Thomas Jefferson Mathews also lost his oldest son to the war, 18 year old John Lewis Mathews died in a military hospital in Columbus, Mississippi, in 1862. Margaret Eliza Mathews McGaw's son John Joseph McGaw died in a military hospital in Charleston, South Carolina.