Contributed by Claude T. Hardison Jr.
Corporal Richard H. Koonce
Confederate States of America
Army of Northern Virginia
North Carolina Infantry
27th Regiment, Company I and 2nd Regiment, Company G
April 11, 1862 ~ June 30, 1865
On April 11, 1862, two young sons of James Wiley Benjamin Koonce and Mary Jane Hawkins mustered into the Confederate Army from Jones County, N.C. The older of the two brothers, Elijah Benjamin Koonce, who was named after his Grandfather, Reverend Elijah Koonce, paid the ultimate sacrifice on the bloody battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 2-3, 1863. As a result of a bullet wound to his shoulder, Elijah died 7 July 1863 at the tender young age of 20. His body rest in one of the mass gravesites with a multitude of brave young lads who sacrificed their lives for the Cause, in one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. After the War, his family was awarded the Southern Cross by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
