George Franklin Keiser, (1836 to 1916),was born on April 28th, 1836 in Rockingham County Virginia. He moved with his family to the town of Greenville in Augusta County around 1846. He married Susan Jane Crobarger on September 27, 1860, eventually having six children. Their son Henry James was my great grandfather. Henry’s son Earl Cleveland was my grandfather, and his son Zane Vernon is my father. Confederate granddaddy as I like to call him was said to have had a light complexion, dark hair, blue eyes, and was 6 feet tall.

My great grandfather Henry was only 2months old, when his father and his four brothers enlisted into the Confederate army in Fishersville Virginia on April 19, 1861. Private Keiser was in Company H, “Augusta Lee Rifles”, in the 5th Virginia Infantry. He proved to be an excellent solider and was promoted to Corporal July 1, 1961. He served in the Battle Bull Run on July 21, 1861. On April 12, 1862 he was elected to 2nd Lieutenant by his comrades. He was severely wounded in the right arm at Gaines Mill, at the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 21, 1862 and was sent home to recover and returned to duty in February 1863. He was wounded again, this time, in the groin (not seriously) at Gettysburg. He lost one of his brothers there and his body was never identified. During fighting at Fort Payne, he was wounded for a third time on November 27, 1863 in the left hand and chin- hence why he wore a long beard. He was unable to return to duty until the Spring of 1864, only to be captured at Spotsylvania Court House on May 12.

He was imprisoned on May 17, 1864 at Fort Delaware from Belle Plain. There he was sent to Morris Island in South Carolina on August 20, 1864. There, he was one of 600 Confederate officers that were placed under the guns of the Federal artillery for 45 days. This was in retaliation for the alleged exposure of Union officers jailed in Charleston. These Confederate officers came to be known as the “Immortal 600”. Confederate granddaddy was then transferred to Fort Pulaski, Georgia and then back to Ft. Delaware on March 12, 1865, because he refused to take the oath. He was finely paroled after taking the dreaded oath and was released from Ft. Delaware on June 12, 1865.

Confederate Granddaddy came home after the war and worked as a painter and farmer. He was a member of the Stonewall Jackson Camp of Confederate Veterans in Staunton. He died of colon cancer on November 6, 1916 at the age of 80. He’s buried in Greenville Baptist Church cemetery in Greenville, Virginia.