-----Original Message----- From: Cora McDonnell [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 3:28 PM To: [email protected] Subject: {not a subscriber} Naturalization Records I am so happy that I don't know whether to laugh or cry. For years I have been searching for my grandfather's place of birth in Germany. On all the records I've found, they only say Germany or Prussia. One story I've heard is that he came to Memphis, TN because a family from his village in Prussia now lived in Memphis. Since he was only a teen-ager, running away from German military service, he stayed with this family - that of Gustav Palm. This morning I searched the IGI database and found G. A. Palm's marriage record in 1865. He was married in Marshall, Mississippi! I found your website and began browsing. Gustavus Adolphus PALM is listed on your county naturalization records. Please tell me how to get a copy of his petition. I'm hoping it gives the name of the town in which he was born. Why am I so happy? Please thank Bobby J. Mitchell. Just by chance I found "The Gray Ghost" article he(she) wrote about G. A. PALM. It gives everything I could have hoped for, except where he was born in Prussia. I'm fascinated to learn that Mr. Palm was such a Civil War hero. If anyone can add to all this information, I sure would appreciate names of his children - any descendants. I'm going to copy the article - below. Thanks, and best wishes, Cora McDonnell Tallahassee, FL [email protected] Vol. XII, No. 4, July-Aug 1993 Gustavus Adolphus Palm was born July 11, 1839 in Prussia. After obtaining a thorough Prussian military training he emigrated to the United States. By 1859 he was in Holly Springs, MS. After his first wife, Martha, died in 1871, he married Ada Woodson. When War broke out in 1861, Gus Palm joined the 9th Mississippi Infantry. His knowledge of military strategy and drill service was of great benefit to his regiment. At one time he acted as an instructor for a company of Confederate Officers. During the Battle of Perryville, KY, he received a severe wound and was left for dead on the field of battle. He recovered from his injuries and returned to his regiment. Some years after the War he became a citizen of the United States. He had lived in Memphis for 30 years when he died at his home on the Raleigh road, near Trezevant. Although his obituary states the body was taken to Hudsonville Presbyterian Church for interment, there is a Palm plot at Hillcrest Cemetery in Holly Springs that has monuments for him, both wives, a child and one other person, who has only a first name on the monument. His obit in the Holly Springs REPORTER of Feb. 1, 1917, was copied from the Memphis SCIMITAR. The following is a quote from the 1917 paper. "BURY VETERAN WHO ENABLED FORREST TO CAPTURE CITY" "The funeral of Gustavus A. Palm 78, Confederate Veteran, who secured the plans of the fortification of Memphis, which enabled Gen. Forrest to capture the city, was held Sunday from his home on the old Raleigh road. The body was taken to Hudsonville, MS for interment. His death occurred Sunday. M. Palm was ordered to secretly map the federal fortifications. He returned safely to the Confederate lines, making possible the success of Forrest's raid into the city." And now we know the rest of the story.