Location:
US Highway 11
DeKalb County, Alabama
34.63360, -85.61330
Find A Grave Cemetery ID: 23331
Date of Visit: April 13, 2013
Moses C. Hengar
Corp Co F 7 Ala Cav
Confederate States Army
CW Patty
Corput’s Co
Ga Lt Arty
Pvt
Richard Mahaffey
Co F
Malones
Ala Cav
CSA
1836
1863
The following is posted on Mahaffey’s Find a Grave memorial:
July 6, 1863 Richard Mahaffey died of Pycemia of Vaccination. Effects of deceased sodier ($43.50) turned over to Quartermaster, C.S.A. 1963 (Conf. Arch. Chap.10, File No. 21, pg.405). Name appeared on a list of sodiers killed in battle, or who died of wounds or disease, Certificate number 1679, "remarks" Q.M.R. (Conf. Arch., Chap. 10, File No. 2, pg.169). Measles and small pox killed many many soldiers, and the military vaccinated soldiers and civilians in mass in an effort to forstall an epidemic. Richard died from pyacemia, which is blood poisoning or general septicemia, resulting from the absorption of septic matter into the circulation. An ulcer developed from a measles vaccination. Vaccination material, live virus, was obtained from a blister on an individual with an active case of measles. If the amount given was too great, or if the sample taken was septic, the recipient could easily contract measles as well as blood poisoning. Richard developed an ulcer at the point of the vaccination, then measles, and, finally, blood poisoning according to the records. Imagine how he must have suffered for those 8 days in a hot, un-air conditioned hospital in the month of July at Tunnel Hill, Georgia! When I visited the site of the Tunnel Hill hospitals and the Tunnel during the annual reinactment, we saw photographs of the actual hospitals. "There were so many hospitals at the Tunnel Hill location," one observer said that "it looked like a city." "The Tunnel Hill location was an excellent site for the hospitals, because there was abundant fresh water from a spring on the site, the railroad provided easy transport of patients, and the mountain on the North side of the hospital provided protection from the enemy." The following from the Tunnel Hill Historical Foundation, the Daily Citizen. The Tunnel Hill Historical Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic sites in and around Tunnel Hill, GA. 138th Anniversary Reenactment, September 7-8, 2002, beginning on page 34. "... from the battlefields of Chickamauga, Ringold and the cemetery at Tunnel Hill. The following note was made on the lists that were kept as the soldiers remains were disinterred. 'They were buried at Tunnel Hill in the Citizens' Graveyard, about one mile from the village on the Cleveland wagon road. Thirteen of these were in the east part of the Graveyard commencing at the South end. Thirty-five were put in the cars for shipment from Ringgold last Wednesday and we suppose reached their destination before this. Ninety were placed in the cars at Tunnel Friday evening and will go forward Monday next.' The first three removals began in May 1867; the second, October, 1867 and the final removal concluded July 28, 1869. The firm of Scott & Lyle of Dalton was paid $1,427.70 for the removal and shipment of 1126 Confederate remains. They were received at the Confederate Memorial Cemetery in Marietta, GA, for re-burial and still rest there today. As a December 1999, sixty-seven names of soldiers removed from Tunnel Hill have been identified. Their names were gathered from several sources and are listed below" (Beginning with Alabama) Number 9. was - Mahaffey, Richard d: July 6, 1863 Pvt. Co. F 9th Ala Cav This information about the Tunnel Hill location, medical information, and military unit information was given to me by Marvin Sowder, a local historian at Tunnel Hill, Georgia.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15568401/richard-mahaffey: accessed 24 July 2022), memorial page for Richard Mahaffey (1836–1863), Find a Grave Memorial ID 15568401, citing Head Springs Cemetery, Valley Head, DeKalb County, Alabama, USA; Maintained by Evening Blues (contributor 46587085).
