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FORWARD
Biographies of the military and naval chieftains of the Southern Condederacy abound. There is a paucity, however, of narratives which recount the wartime experiences of those who served in the rank and file.
For this reason, this book is notable. It is the saga of Pvt.
Marion Francis Baxter, who volunteered for service with the Adams Rifles at Handsboro, Mississippi, in April, 1861. Although he was then only thirteen, the recruiters accepted without further inquiry his assurance that he was eighteen, and enlisted him.
Shortly thereafter the Adams Rifles became Company E of the 20th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, an organization which subsequently became famous for the valor displayed by its officers and men in many fierce engagements of the War Between the States.
Marion Francis Baxter, who had been born in Sumter County, South Carolina, and taken by his parents as a small child from his birthplace to a new home in Mississippi City, Mississippi, came of Revolutionary stock.
One of his kinsmen, John Baxter, a Major and Colonel, and a great grandfather, Sam Ervin, a mounted rifleman, fought for American independence with the famous Brigade commanded by General Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, who was first cousin to his great great great grandfather, John Marion.	h*/{-	?	t
Numerous other collateral ancestors enacted worthy roles in the heroic exploits of the redoubtable Swamp Fox, which did so much to keep the love of liberty burning brightly in South Carolina during the darkest days of the Revolution and ultimately contributed so much to winning independence.
Another great grandfather, Captain William Flagler, came south with General Nathanael Greene to fight the British and
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