Stone Gardens: The "General" who served as a Confederate Lieutenant in the Civil War before moving to rural Polk County

General Marion Addison

General Marion Addison was born with an unusual name that sounded like a title. Born on July 13, 1834, in Franklin County, Georgia, he was the sixth of at least seven children of Christopher Columbus Addison and Susannah E. Guest.

In the rural South of the 1830s, it was not uncommon for families to give sons grand names such as General, and he carried his through a long life of farming, war, and quiet resilience

.He grew up on a modest family farm in the foothills of northern Georgia. Like most boys of his time and class, his formal education was limited to whatever local common schools could offer between seasons of fieldwork.

On March 11, 1856, at age 21, he married Martha Keziah “Mattie” Mize, daughter of Warren B. Mize and Elizabeth Clarkson Mize. The couple settled into farming life. By 1860, census records show the young family with two small daughters, Missouri E. and Susan J., and a third daughter, Ida, arriving soon after.

The Addisons would eventually have at least ten children together. Their life followed the rhythm of the land until the outbreak of the Civil War changed everything.

In May 1862, General Marion Addison enlisted in Company I of the 34th Georgia Infantry, known locally as the Flintville Greys. The unit was raised from volunteers in Franklin County and mustered at Camp McDonald near Marietta, Georgia.Addison proved himself a capable leader. On May 12, 1862, he was appointed 2nd Lieutenant. Less than a year later, on April 27, 1863, his fellow soldiers elected him 1st Lieutenant.

The 34th Georgia saw heavy action in the Western Theater and was thrust into the Vicksburg Campaign in the spring of 1863. During the long siege of Vicksburg, the regiment endured starvation, disease, and constant bombardment.

On July 4, 1863, when Vicksburg surrendered, Lieutenant Addison was captured along with thousands of his comrades. He was paroled four days later on July 8, 1863. Like many paroled prisoners, he was eventually exchanged and returned to Confederate service, though specific later battles are not well documented in surviving records.

His military file ends with that parole, but the experience of the siege stayed with him for the rest of his days.

After the Confederate surrender in 1865, Addison returned to farming. The family remained in Georgia for some years before joining the westward migration common among Southern veterans seeking new opportunities during Reconstruction.

By the 1880s or early 1890s, the Addisons had settled in rural Polk County in the community of Rocky in the Ouachita Mountains .In 1897, his first wife Martha, died at age 58. Two years later, in 1899, the 64-year-old Addison married Ellen (W. Ellen) Tinnin, who was born in 1864.

Their marriage produced at least one daughter, Etta, born in 1900. The 1900 census lists General Addison, then 65, still working as a farmer in Polk County.

.In 1902, nearing seventy and feeling the weight of age and past service, he applied for and received a Confederate pension from the state of Arkansas. The modest pension provided some support in his final years.

General Marion Addison died on August 15, 1904, in Polk County at the age of 70. He was buried in Rocky Cemetery in the small community of Rocky, Polk County, Arkansas. His headstone notes his service: “Co. I, 34th Regiment Flintville Greys.”

His first wife, Martha and many of his children from that marriage are buried in Georgia and Arkansas family plots. His second wife Ellen, survived him, as did daughter Etta and other surviving children.

The Addison name continued through descendants who remained in the Ouachita region, farming and raising families in the same hills their father had chosen for a new beginning.

General Marion Addison never sought fame or high rank. He was a farmer, a lieutenant, a husband twice over, and father to a large family. His life bridged the antebellum South, the brutal realities of the Civil War, and the hard work of rebuilding in the Arkansas mountains. In the modest gravesite at Rocky Cemetery, he rests among neighbors who shared similar journeys , one of thousands of ordinary men whose service and endurance helped define the post-war South.