SOCIAL CIRCLE GA  MAY 26th 1916

  SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF D.H.MOBLEY WRITTEN BY HIMSELF

            Thomas M. Mobley was my father; Harriett Coleman was my mother.  They came from South Carolina in about the year 1835, with their parents.  My grandfather's name on my father's side was Daniel A. Mobley.  My grandfather's name on my mother's side was David Coleman.  They were men of means and owned a number of slaves.

            I was born on the 16th day of June, 1840.  My sister Dulciny Elizabeth was born in 1838 and died at about the age of 21.  I am the oldest of nine boys, four dead and five living.  Those living are D.H. Mobley, Joseph L. Mobley, Coleman T. Mobley, Iley C. Mobley and Robert L. Mobley.  There were three girls, Dulciny E., Nancy A. and Amanda Mobley.  I grew up in the home near then Centerville , now Jersey .  I attended the common schools, along with the other children of the community until I was about grown, and in 1859, under the preaching of the Reverend J.W. Baker, of the Methodist Protestant Church , I was converted and joined the Methodist Protestant Church at Centerville , known as Browns Chapel, in 1860.  Having attended the school taught at Centerville that year, several of my friends made choice of me to teach for them the next year, 1861, in the neighborhood of Dr. W.S. Barrett and S. W. Forester.  We went to work, went into the woods, cut and hauled the logs, erected the house, and I took charge and taught the spring term.  The Civil War having broken out, at our country's call at the suggestion of Dr.W. S. Barrett, we made up a company of volunteers in Walton County of about sixty members, organized at Walnut Grove.  We elected officers with Dr. W. S. Barrett Captain.  I was tendered a Lieutenancy in the Company but refused and agreed to accept a Corporal's place.

            About August 27th, 1861, the Company was ordered to report to Atlanta in October and was placed in General Thomas's Regiment as Company G.  Afterward it was known in Virginia as Thomas's Brigade, Branches Brigade, then Penders, Willcock's, then A. P. Hill's Corps at the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse Virginia on April 9th, 1865.

             I came home once on sick furlough in 1863.  I went back after recovering from sickness, reached my Command in time to be at the surrender at Harpers Ferry .  I was in the two days battle at Gettysburg .  I was in the charge on the 4th at Round Top.  I was in the Battle of the Wilderness at the beginning of the seven days battle around Richmond .  I was wounded on the morning of the 6th day of April, 1864 [D.H. seems to have gotten his Wilderness battles mixed up as he aged. In his writings recorded in the Georgia Dept. of Archives & History he gives the day he was wounded as May 6, 1863. - mj.]  I was sent to Lynchburg Hospital .  My father came while I was there [His father also came to see another son, Daniel, who was mortally ill & died while his father was there - mj].  He made an effort to get me furloughed on account of my wound and if I had lied to the Sergeant who examined me for a furlough he would have succeeded in getting me a furlough of 30 days, but I could not conscientiously do it and so stated to my father on his leaving me.  I returned to my Command when able for duty and just at that time our Commissary Sergeant for the Regiment had been court-marshaled and reduced to ranks.  Our Colonel McCullan was commanding the Regiment and without my knowledge he appointed me Commissary Sergeant for the Regiment, which office I held until the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on the 9th day of April 1865

            I was at the formal surrender at Appomattox Courthouse which took place under or near the apple tree.  I was permitted, with many of Lee's men, to take the hand of General Lee and bid him goodbye, as we cried and wept with him on parting with him and with each other - he said to his weeping comrades who had followed him in battle and on many bloody fields - to "Go home, boys, and be men".  Those words of his will never be forgotten by those who parted with him on that dark day.

            On my return home and after getting somewhat in shape by my father and mother, my mind began to lead me to the home of the girl that I had left behind when I went to the war, and who had never failed to let me hear from her as often as possible, and who had suffered a severe attack of typhoid fever.  I hardly knew her as she was changed so much in appearance, and I had seen her but once in all the four years.  As soon as possible I hastened to see her with my parole in my pocket and when I showed it to her she saw that I could not go out to fight again until legally exchanged, and so I am a "paroled Confederate Soldier" to this day, having never been exchanged. On the 7th day of December, 1865 I married Miss Fannie E. Blasingame, with whom I lived in peace and harmony until March 1888, when she died, leaving me with eleven children: Cora L., Junius B., Eliza A., Lily, Charles J., Michael C., Maggie M., Laura S., Mehetabel, Thomas P., and Mattie, (the baby which died in infancy, just after the death of its mother).

            After my first marriage in 1865 I took up my work of teaching at Centerville , Walton County , Ga. , now Jersey , where I bought land and settled in 1866, at which place I taught for ten or fifteen years, with a limited education owing to the four years service which I had given the Confederacy.  I also did some farming in connection with my teaching, as teaching in those days was not a very remunerative calling.

            It was while I was teaching at Rock Cut on the Georgia Railroad in Newton County , that my wife died.  After two years I found that it became my duty to marry again, which I did, having met my present wife, Miss Sarah T. Hayes, of Newton County, best known as "Miss Dolly" Hayes.  We married February 13th, 1890 and to us were born three children, two boys and one girl; Marvin Coleman Mobley, Benjamin Harvey Mobley, and Winnie Davis Mobley. (Named for the daughter of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy).

            I am nearing my seventy-sixth year.  I have served the Public nearly all of my life since I became of age.  First I gave four years of my young manhood days to my country.  Since then I have taught school about twenty-five years, served as Pastor of several Methodist Protestant Churches, in and around Jersey and in South-Georgia.  I have served as Justice of the Peace for many years.  I have found from experience that he or she who gives of himself or herself to serve the public cannot expect to have much of this world's goods, but in my case I have had a very full and satisfactory life, with two loving wives and a fine family.

                                       Signed:  D.H.Mobley

   Note:  David Harrison Mobley moved to Decatur , GA in 1918 and lived a happy and active life until his death in 1928, at the age of 89.  He was working in his garden the day he became ill.  A   copy of the original handwritten document was given to his great-granddaughter, Martye Tucker Jeffords, by his daughter Winnie Davis Mobley.