Private Richard Heath

Private Richard Heath

Company A (the “Greene County Riflemen”), 3rd Regiment N.C. State Troops

Richard Heath, by occupation a farm laborer, resided with his mother and seven siblings in the Bull Head District, Greene County. He enlisted at Goldsboro on May 13, 1862, in Company A (the “Greene County Riflemen”), 3rd Regiment N.C. State Troops. Heath was one of the more than 180 members of the 3rd North Carolina wounded in action at the Battle of Sharpsburg, September 17, 1862, and was hospitalized at Richmond on September 24.

Muster rolls are extant for Company A from the date of Heath’s enlistment through December 1864. In all of them after his wounding he is reported either absent on wounded furlough, “not yet ready for duty,” and in the last one “unfit for duty.” There are no further military records for him. There are no medical documents among Heath’s compiled military service records and the nature of his disabling wound is unknown.

Richard Heath (April 2, 1842-May 19, 1921) is buried in the Heath Family Cemetery, Stantonsburg, Wilson County.

Unknown Photographer

1860 U. S. Census, Bull Head District, Greene County, North Carolina, population schedule, page 1-2, dwelling 10, family 10, Martha Heath household; Manarin et. al., North Carolina Troops 3:495; Mast, “North Carolina Casualties”; service record files of Richard Heath, 3rd Regiment N.C. State Troops, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers from the State of North Carolina (M270), RG109, NA.

North Carolina Office of Archives and History

Black & white copy print.