Franklin Goolsby Colley [CSA] was born on 14 October 1830, Wilkes County, GA to Spain Colley and Nancy Talbot. He married Sarah Elizabeth Staples on 6 December 1853, Wilkes County, GA. He died on 19 January 1924 in Wilkes County, GA. Sarah was born March 14, 1838 and died March 6, 1912. Both are buried at Rock UMC Church Cemetery, Rayle, GA.
Marriage of Franklin G. Colley and Sarah Elizabeth Staples
(GA Archives)
Sarah Elizabeth Staples Colley, wife of Franklin Goolsby Colley
and the daughter of John Staples and Elizabeth Eidson
(Source: Family photo - Will Jackson)
On March 12, 1862 Franklin enlisted with the Confederate Army's 61st Infantry, Company G (Wilkes' Guards) at the Beaulieu Plantation near Savannah. He is shown as having a "dark" complexion, "black" hair, "hazel" eyes and standing 5' 10-1/2". The officer that accepted his enlistment was shown to be "Captain Colley" who was actually Captain Henry Francis Colley, Jr., son of Franklin's uncle Henry Francis Goolsby and Frances Carroll Owens and thus Franklin's 1st cousin. Captain H.F. Colley lost his life from wounds received during the Battle of Gaines Mill on August 22, 1862.
It is important to point out that the Beaulieu plantation where Franklin enlisted had been abandoned months earlier and subsequently taken over by General Robert E. Lee's forces when he established a battery to defend against the Union navy. Note that this area played a key role during the American Revolution and the siege of Savannah. It was a long walk and/or horseback from Rayle Georgia to Savannah to enlist when he likely could have enlisted somewhere much closer to home (Atlanta, for example). He most likely enlisted here to be with his 1st cousins (Henry C., Capt. Henry Francis, Lt. Dempsey (KIA, Fredericksburg) and Gabriel).
Note that per the NPS website, .."the 61st Infantry Regiment [also called 26th Regiment] was assembled at Charleston, South Carolina, in May, 1862. It was formed by using the 7th Georgia Battalion as its nucleus. The men were from the counties of Irwin, Tattnall, Brooks, Bulloch, Montgomery, Bibb, Quitman, and Wilkes. Ordered north in June, the unit arrived at Petersburg, Virginia, with 1,000 officers and men. During the war it was brigaded under Generals Lawton, John B. Gordon, and C.A. Evans, Army of Northern Virginia. It participated in many conflicts from the Seven Days' Battles to Cold Harbor, went with Early to the Shenandoah Valley, then fought in numerous engagements around Appomattox. This regiment sustained 36 casualties at Gaines' Mill, 63 at Second Manassas, 114 at Sharpsburg, and 100 at Fredericksburg. It lost thirty-seven percent of the 288 at Gettysburg and sixty-five percent of 150 at Monocacy. The 61st surrendered with no officers and 81 men, of which only 49 were armed. Its commanders were Colonel John H. Lamar; Lieutenant Colonels Charles W. McArthur and James Y. McDuffie; and Majors Peter Brenan, Archibald P. MacRae, Henry Tillman, and James D. Van Valkenburg."[1]
Per the website "cwhi-org", "...The 61st Georgia Infantry was formed at Charleston, South Carolina in May, 1862. It was assembled by using the 7th Georgia Battalion as its nucleus. The men were from Irwin, Tattnall, Brooks, Bulloch, Montgomery, Bibb, Quitman, and Wilkes Counties. Ordered north in June, the regiment arrived at Petersburg, Virginia with 1,000 officers and men. During the war it was brigaded under the subsequent commands of Generals Alexander Lawton, John B. Gordon, and Clement A. Evans. The Lawton-Gordon-Evans Brigade served in the Army of Northern Virginia, where it participated in the war from the Seven Days’ Battles to Cold Harbor, went with Early to the Shenandoah Valley, then fought in numerous engagements around Appomattox. This regiment sustained 36 casualties at Gaines’ Mill, 63 at Second Manassas, 114 at Sharpsburg, and 100 at Fredericksburg. It lost thirty-seven percent of 288 at Gettysburg and sixty-five percent of 150 at Monocacy. The 61st surrendered at Appomattox with no officers and 81 men, of which only 49 were armed."
Private George W. Nichols wrote a book about his time with the 61st which provides great insight into the war and the 61st in particular. [2] According to Nichols, only nine soldiers from Company G surrendered at Appomattox CH.
It would appear that Franklin participated in numerous historical battles and was very lucky to have survived so much fighting. According to the records on Fold3, he was hospitalized several times in various hospitals around Richmond. He was captured by Union forces near Petersburg on March 25, 1865 and sent to the Point Lookout POW camp in Maryland where he was released on June 26, 1865 after signing his Oath of Allegiance. In 1904 he filed for a Confederate Pension and he indicated that he surrendered at Appomattox with Lee in April which doesn't agree with the Fold3 records. The author has read accounts of him receiving gunshot wounds but he found no records for this. On his pension he indicates that he fell from a mule many years before breaking his skull and as a result is unable to work or do much of anything. He claimed that he had no income, no property and he was depending on help from his "kin folk" for support (most likely his many children). His pension was approved.
Note that his Wilkes County neighbor and future son-in-law (William Barnett Jackson) was also incarcerated at the Point Lookout POW camp. William B. Jackson's 2nd marriage was to Franklin's daughter Frances "Fannie" Esther Colley - see HERE for more on WB and Fannie.
Franklin Goolsby Colley and Sarah Elizabeth Staples
Rock UMC cemetery, Rayle, GA
Rock UMC cemetery, Rayle, GA
(Author photo, 2016)
Oglethorpe Echo, April 10, 1912
Oglethorpe Echo, April 10, 1912
Known children of Franklin G. Colley and Sarah E. Staples:
- Dr. John Milton Colley, born 27 December 1854, Wilkes County, GA; married Mary A. Hunter, on 10 July 1889, Wilkes County, GA; died on 30 September 1943, Palestine, Anderson, TX. Medical doctor; Graduate of what is now known as the Medical College of GA.
Dr. John Milton Colley and his wife Mary Hunter
(Family photo; Courtesy Will Jackson)
Dr. John Milton Colley
(Source: Stuart Whitaker)
Dr. John Milton Colley
(Source: Stuart Whitaker)
Home of Dr. John Milton Colley, Palestine, Texas
(Author unknown)
From the book "A Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas", Lewis Publishing, 1893
(Non-copyrighted) - Eva Jane "Janie" Colley, born on 9 January 1856, Wilkes County, GA married James Lane Arnold, on 1 March 1880, Wilkes County, GA; She died on 3 February 1942, Woodstock, Oglethorpe, GA. Buried Rock (Methodist) Church Cemetery, Rayle, GA. Her husband is buried in the Salem Baptist Church cemetery in Lexington, GA. Her husband was a descendant of Maj. Isaiah Tucker Irvin who was a man of wealth and influence in Wilkes County. The photo below of Eloise Colley has writing on the back "Please return to Mrs. Howard Faver" - Mrs. Howard Favor is the granddaughter of Maj. Irvin. The author has a letter written by Eva Jane to his grandmother (Zettie Jackson) that was in the her personal effects upon her death that were given to the author's father (son of Zettie).
- David W. Colley was born in 1859 in Wilkes County, GA. Died in San Antonio, Texas on January 8, 1905 of tuberculosis.
David W. Colley
(Family photo; Courtesy Will Jackson) - Dr. Shadrach T. Colley was born in 1861 in Wilkes County, GA. He died in Houston, Texas on June 5, 1919 of tuberculosis.
Dr. Shadrach Colley
(Family photo; Courtesy Will Jackson)
Dr. Shadrach Colley and his wife (unknown name)
(Family photo; Courtesy Will Jackson) - Frances "Fannie" Esther Colley, born September 16, 1864, Wilkes County, GA married William Barnett Jackson [CSA], on 6 February 1890, Wilkes County, GA. She died January 2, 1930 in Douglasville, Douglas County, GA at the home of her oldest daughter Zettie Jackson Hollis. Fannie and William are the author's paternal great-grandparents and Zettie Jackson Hollis is his paternal grandmother - see his research HERE and HERE.
Francis "Fannie" Esther Colley, age 17
Old "Tin type" photo
(Family photo; Courtesy Will Jackson)
Wedding photo of Frances "Fanny/Fannie" Esther Colley Jackson
and her husband William Barnett Jackson (CSA)
(Family photo; Courtesy Will Jackson) - Sarah Lou "Sallie" Colley was born in July 1874 in Washington, Wilkes, GA. Neither Sallie Lou nor her sister Eloise ever married.
- William Gordon Colley, born on 30 December 1872, Wilkes County, GA; married Rosa Elizabeth Nichols, on 19 January 1905, Wilkes County, GA died on 9 April 1950, Wilkes County, GA. Buried Rock (UMC) Church, Rayle, GA.
- Paul Staples Colley, born on 18 September 1877, Wilkes County, GA married Bettie Perkins, on 21 May 1910, Wilkes County, GA; died on 25 December 1964, Washington, Wilkes, GA. An old family story about Paul exists about his fear of being buried; His fear was so strong that he insisted on an above ground interment. His mausoleum is located in the Rock UMC cemetery, Rayle, GA.
Paul Staples Colley
(Family photo; Courtesy Will Jackson)
Paul Staples Colley's mausoleum
(Author photo, 2016) - Eloise Nancy Colley was born on 20 June 1878 in Washington, Wilkes, GA. She died on 25 January 1948 in Washington, Wilkes, GA. She was buried in Rock United Methodist Church Cemetery, Rayle, Wilkes Co, GA. Eloise never married, and apparently lived out her entire life in her parents house, in the town of Washington. After her parents died, she was listed in the 1930 Census of Wilkes County, Donegal district, living with her older brother Paul S. Colley — 52 and married, she 42 and single.
Eloise Colley
(Family photo; Courtesy Will Jackson)
The author would like to point out that the pictures above of John Milton Colley and Shadrach T. Colley bear a striking resemblance to the author's uncle Joseph Pierce Hollis and his son Joseph Pierce Hollis, Jr.. Based on the picture of Franklin Goolsby Colley's wife Sarah Elizabeth Staples, one might conclude that their looks favored the Colley side of the family.
------------
[1] Fold3 records for Franklin clearly show his enlistment into the 61st on March 12, 1862 at Beaulieu. It appears that this might have been originally the 7th Battalion at that time. They then moved to Jekyll Island where they joined the 61st and then later they became part of the Lawton-Gordon-Evans Brigade.
[2] "A Soldier's Story of His Regiment (61st Georgia) and incidentally of the Lawton-Gordon-Evans-Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia." (Publisher and date unknown - available from some bookstores and libraries)
This page was created on 2/24/2025