| Alfred Graham Ayres was born December 27, 1825,
at Collierstown, Rockbridge County, Virginia. By 1861 he was a millwright
in Rockbridge and a member of Company E, 8th Regiment Virginia Militia.
His service record describes him as standing 5 feet 8 inches tall
with dark complexion, dark hair, and gray eyes.
In March 1862, at age 36, Alfred Ayres was diagnosed
as suffering from consumption and was rejected for military service.
Nevertheless, he enlisted as a private in Company H(2nd) of the
27th Virginia Infantry, a unit from Rockbridge in the famous Stonewall
Brigade. However, he was soon discharged from the unit, probably
because of his physical condition. In February 1864, he was declared
exempt from the draft and could have avoided further military service.
Determined to serve his commonwealth and country, he nevertheless
enlisted in Company E of the 52nd Virginia Infantry on October 28,
1864, and it was in this unit that he finally saw action against
the enemies of his country.
The 52nd Virginia had been organized at Staunton
in August 1861. Most of its companies were from Augusta County.
It saw its first action at Greenbrier River and Camp Allegheny in
western Virginia in the fall of 1861. It next fought in Stonewall
Jackson’s Valley campaign and joined Lee’s Army of Northern
Virginia as part of Early’s Brigade of Ewell’s division
in Jackson’s Second Corps. It fought with Lee’s army in
every campaign from the Seven Days to Cold Harbor. In early June
1864 it accompanied the Second Corps, now under Jubal Early, to
Lynchburg, where it drove back a Yankee force threatening that city.
It then marched down the Valley, into Maryland, and on to the outskirts
of Washington, D.C. The 52nd returned to the Valley with Early’s
command and fought at Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, and at Cedar
Creek on October 19. |
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It was soon after Early’s defeat at Cedar
Creek that Private Ayres joined the much-depleted 52nd Virginia.
In early December 1864, he accompanied the regiment back to the
Richmond-Petersburg area, where it rejoined Lee’s army after
a six-month absence. The 52nd took its position in the Second Corps
line south of Petersburg, near Burgess’s Mill, where it went
into winter quarters. At Hatcher’s Run on February 5-6, 1865,
the determined 39-year-old private finally saw the white elephant.
In his second battle, Gordon’s March 25 assault against the
Yankee Fort Stedman east of Petersburg, Private Ayres suffered a
severe wound to the scalp and fell into the hands of the enemy.
He was admitted into the Lincoln General Hospital in Washington,
D.C., three days later.
On June 12, two months after the surrender of
Lee’s army at Appomattox Courthouse, Yankee authorities finally
released Private Ayres from their custody. Family tradition says
that he walked from Washington back to his home in Rockbridge, where
he resumed his former occupation as a millwright. He died at his
home near Zollman Post Office on January 11, 1893, at age 67. He
is buried in the cemetery of Oxford Presbyterian Church in Rockbridge
County.
The memory of Private Alfred Graham Ayres of
Company E, 52nd Virginia Infantry, is perpetuated in this camp by
his direct descendant, Compatriot Gregory T. “Bo” Martin.
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