Henry Gray Turner, Captain, Company H, 23rd North Carolina Regiment (N.C.T.)

 Author's Note: Henry Gray Turner was a first cousin of my great-great grandfather, Lysander Turner.

Henry Gray Turner, a brother of Vines Edmunds Turner and a first cousin of Lysander Turner, was born March 20, 1839.  Enrolled as a freshman at the University of North Carolina in June, 1857, he was prevented from joining his class due to illness.  As a result, he entered the University of Virginia at Charlottesville but was unable to complete his education due to financial distress brought upon his family by the death of his father in December, 1857. Thus, Henry went to Alabama and accepted temporary employment as a schoolteacher, prior to becoming Principal of the Piscola Academy in Brooks County, Georgia in 1859.

In the early summer of 1861, Henry joined Company B of the 18th Battalion, Georgia Infantry, the “Savannah Volunteer Guards,” as a private.  He was elected 2nd Lieutenant of Company H of the 23rd North Carolina Regiment, the “Gaston Guards,” on or about July 15, 1862 and Captain on August 18, 1862.  Participating in the battles of Mechanicsville, Gaine’s Mill (also called First Cold Harbor), Malvern Hill, and Chancellorsville, he was present with the Company until seriously wounded in the left shoulder and left for dead on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1-3, 1863).  Captured by the Union, he was hospitalized in Gettysburg, and later in Chester, Pennsylvania, before being transferred as a prisoner, first to Sandusky, and then to Johnson’s Island, Ohio on August 31, 1863.  Henry was transferred to Point Lookout, Maryland on April 22, 1864 and to Fort Delaware, Delaware on June 23, 1864 (where he was paroled on September 28, 1864) and received for exchange at Varina, Virginia on October 5, 1864.

On his way home to Quitman, Georgia, Henry stopped at his old home of Henderson, North Carolina to gain strength.  Returning to Georgia, he married Lavinia C. Morton (daughter of Judge James O. Morton) on June 18, 1865 and they had five children: James Morton Turner (born October 11, 1866; died January 8, 1878), Henry Turner (born March 27, 1870; died November 4, 1933), India Turner (born May 13, 1872; died April 28, 1960), Simeon Morton Turner (born August 23, 1878; died October 28, 1960), and Archibald Alpheus Turner (born February 25, 1885; died April 17, 1886).  Henry was admitted to the bar at Nashville, Georgia in October of 1865 and enjoyed a distinguished legal career, developing a noteworthy reputation in the Southern judicial circuit.

In 1874, Henry was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives and served three successive terms.  During his tenure in the Georgia House, he proved to be a conservative legislator, supporting legislation to promote domestic peace and combat official corruption.  In 1876, he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.  In 1881, he was elected to the United States Congress, serving until 1896.  Henry’s congressional assignments included: Committee on Elections (Chairman), Committee of Ways and Means, and Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior.  From 1882 to 1895, he earned a reputation as a fierce opponent of protectionist tariffs.  Henry declined candidacy for re-nomination for the 1896 election, retiring from his congressional seat to resume his practice of law at Quitman, Georgia.  After eight years of retirement, with no expressed desire to return to public office, Henry was appointed Associate Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court in July, 1903. 

Following the acceptance of the responsibilities necessitated by his appointment to the Georgia Supreme Court, Henry began suffering from an illness, described as “serious kidney trouble” and as “a gall stone of the bladder,” that had first plagued him in 1894.  Traveling to Baltimore, Maryland to consult with a Doctor Ostler, it was determined that Henry was too weak to undergo surgery and doctors attempted to defer it with medication, instructing him to return in thirty days if there was no improvement.  On his return to Georgia, he stopped at the home of his brother, Vines Turner, where he died on June 9, 1904, at 2:00 a.m., following a severe attack brought about by his illness.  He is buried in West End Cemetery at Quitman, Georgia.