This was in the TENNESSEAN last Wednesday (26 Sep 2000) I attended the ceremony today - it was something new for me. I've never been one who spent much time rehashing or even studying the War Between The States, even though I live just a couple of miles from the Stones River National Battlefield. I found out today that the Doctor who accompanied John J. back to Jackson County treated him for 40 days, and John almost gave up the ghost !! And, gulp, this was before he ever married Mariah and they had William Henry ... I also spent some time at the Pleasant Grove cemetery where Elizabeth Chaffin Birdwell and her son James Marion Birdwell (as well as Marion's wife Canzada and one or two of their children) are buried. Anyway, here is the article: (Walnut Grove is just across the Robertson Co. line into Sumner Co.) Jerry SUMNER COUNTY Descendants to honor Confederate veteran WALNUT GROVE -- The Birdwell family will have a reunion of historic proportions Saturday at Walnut Grove Methodist Church. The family will honor ancestor John J. Birdwell, who is buried in the cemetery there, a Confederate veteran who was badly wounded at the Battle of Stones River near Murfreesboro in 1863. A unit of re-enactors in period dress from the John Hunt Morgan Chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, along with an accompanying ladies' group also dressed in period attire, is scheduled to attend. "Six or seven of the direct line will be represented, and into the eighth generation of him," said Helen Baggett of Greenbrier, one of John Birdwell's great-grandchildren. She is organizing the reunion. Birdwell, who grew up in Gainesboro, Tenn., was 20 when a Minie ball went through his hip at Stones River on Dec. 31, 1863. His recovery took a long time, Baggett said, but he lived a long life, dying in 1915. His family moved from East Tennessee to Sumner County in 1890.