Notes About Peterson McGill

My 3rd great-grandfather was Peterson McGill, b. 1816 somewhere in Tennessee. By 1823, his family had settled on Sugar Creek in extreme southwestern Giles County, very near where Giles & Lawrence in TN join Lauderdale & Limestone Counties in Alabama. In 1861, at age 45, McGill enlisted in the 26th at Florence, Alabama. Enlisting with him was his third son, 17-year old Eli. At Shiloh, Peterson was shot through the shoulder by a minieball, and the wound cleaned out by running a bandana through it. After a period of recovery & furlough, he returned to his unit and remained with it until the surrender of Johnson's command in NC in April, 1865. Peterson's widow, fourth wife Catherine Daly McGill, drew a pension from Alabama as a result of his service. In several years of research, I have found no trace of Peterson's son Eli in the aftermath of the war. It is my speculation that he died during the conflict.

Peterson was the eldest son of Robert & Elizabeth McGill. Little is known about them, save that both had died and left their seven children orphaned by 1827. It is known that two of Peterson's younger brothers, Eli Taylor McGill and Isaac McGill, were taken in by William Legg, a prominent Limestone County planter. In 1849, Eli married Sarah Meals of Limestone County, daughter of Daniel Meals. Eli and Sarah moved to the west Tennessee, where they lived out their lives, mostly in Benton and Carroll County. Eli was strongly pro-union during the war, and fled north to Metropolis, ILL in 1863 to avoid conscription into Confederate service. One of his sons, David Porter McGill, became a prominent west Tennessee physician. Of Peterson other siblings, little is know except for some information about his brother Joel McGill. By 1849, Joel was living in Johnson Co., AR. He served in the 17th Arkansas Regt, CSA. Apparently, Joel and three sisters, Elizabeth, Mary and a third whose name isn't known, were taken in by the Holland family of Giles Co., which moved west to Ark with the young McGills.

Peterson McGill remained in the Giles vicinity all of his life. He married first Mahala Long in 1836. After her death, he married Eodus Everline Marbut ("Oda" Marbut) of the Giles County Marbuts. She died around 1870. He married his third wife, Sarah Sherwood, in 1870; she died in 1873. About 1875, he married Catherine Daly. Peterson McGill died in 1888.

Virtually all of the many McGill's in Giles and Limestone Counties are descendents of one of Peterson McGill's 17! children.