If there is a hero in the story of Lt. Colonel William McLeod, it may well be his body servant, Moses, who made not one but two trips to Gettysburg: first with William in his travels with the army and then after the war with John Prescott and at the behest of Neil McLeod. Who was Moses, and why did he make these trips? Some of the answers are easy . . . some are impossible to solve.

The first thing to keep in mind is that a Civil War-era body servant was not like a an English valet. During the Civil War, body servants were enslaved men who accompanied Confederate officers on campaign, performing camp duties and personal support. Enlisted armies often brought their household enslaved men into the field. As historian Kevin Levin notes, thousands of enslaved camp servants labored in the Confederate army – cooking, cleaning, caring for horses, foraging, and even delivering messages home.

Slaveholders typically assumed these bonds would ensure loyalty; officers “remained convinced that these men would remain fiercely loyal” even under hardship. In practice, body servants carried baggage, set up tents and kitchens, washed uniforms, cared for wounded officers, and ran messages. They were pressed into duties ranging from hospital attendant to blacksmith’s helper.

• For example, Confederate records and memoirs show servile attendants digging graves when their masters were killed. You may recall that Benjamin Franklin Carter’s body servant, Henry Johnson, stayed with his master through Carter’s death and burial. His whereabouts after that are uncertain, though some evidence suggests that he stayed in the North and joined the USCT in Baltimore.
• You may also recall Richard Jordan, a teamster for the Confederate army and likely the property of Albert Butts. Jordan escaped slavery during the Gettysburg campaign and stayed in Pennsylvania the rest of his life.
• Jordan didn’t meet the same fate as alleged Black Confederate James Godman (really, a slave and teamster hit by a stray) who was mortally wounded by an artillery shell and likely buried in a Confederate cemetery years later.
• Moses himself was said to have been such a servant for Lt. Col. William A. McLeod of the 38th Georgia. When McLeod was mortally wounded on July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg, tradition holds that Moses helped bury him nearby, then later returned to Gettysburg with McLeod’s family to bring the body home.

In short, Moses would have served McLeod by maintaining his camp and horse, cooking meals, and caring for personal needs. According to Levin’s research, after McLeod’s death “an enslaved worker named Moses took steps to bury McLeod on a farm nearby,” then “in 1865 made the long journey back to Gettysburg with McLeod’s brother-in-law to bring the body home.” Family lore identifies this man as Moses. But who was Moses? What happened to him after bringing William McLeod home?

Chasing Moses’s Identity

As a body servant for William, he was the property of Neil McLeod. Neil’s 24 enslaved people ranged in age from 1 to 38. The typical body servant was a young man, usually between 16 and 25 but could be a bit older or a bit younger. The 1860 Slave Schedule shows Neil owning young men who were 13, 15, 18, 25, and 33. When William enlisted, he was just 19 years old. The typical body servant was often a bit younger than the master he accompanied. The servant was almost always a house servant rather than a field hand (in the complicated world of the enslaved, house servants were often thought to be higher in the social order because of their “proximity” to the family, though such proximity for women often resulted in sexual violence).

The ages of the enslaved were typically uncertain, as well. Births weren’t recorded anywhere officially, children were frequently separated from their parents, and birthdays weren’t recognized or celebrated. Last names were rarely given. So knowing which of the enslaved males is likely to be Moses is difficult.

A small piece of information seems revelatory. The 1870 Census shows John Prescott and Sarah McLeod’s household including a young black man named Moses Farmer (see the last line in the image). Given that Moses accompanied John to recover William’s body, this seems to be the most obvious choice.

This would seem to be our Moses . . . except that he is listed as 18 years old in 1870, meaning he would have been born in 1851 or 1852. That would have made him 9 or 10 at the time William McLeod joined the 38th Georgia—too young to be a body servant. But was that really his birth year? That’s impossible to say. Tracking age across census records even among citizens can be variable (you might want to read up on Keziah Kuff). Among the formerly enslaved, the gap between reality and what was reported could get to be ridiculous (see Eliza Armstrong, allegedly 120 years old at her death).

So let’s accept Moses Farmer as older than 18 and likely the former body servant, given his presence in the John Prescott household. All we need to do now is trace Moses Farmer through the years, right? Weellllll . . .

Moses Farmer(s) of Burke County

John Prescott died in 1871, which caused him to be buried in the McLeod family cemetery next to his brother-in-law and former commander, William McLeod. This may well have precipitated the breakup of the Prescott household in which Moses and the other two black servants separated from Sarah who would go on to marry Dr. Benjamin Doyle and move to Montgomery County, Georgia.

Where did Moses Farmer go? In March 1870 a Moses Farmer married Kitty Bynes in Burke County, officially establishing his own household. By the early 20th century, Moses Farmer was a recognized citizen of Waynesboro. Just after World War I, he participated in local Liberty Loan drives: a True Citizen article from Nov. 1918 lists “Moses Farmer – 5.00,” indicating he contributed to a community subscription to buy desks for a local school. This shows he was active in public efforts even at age 80+. In 1914 he also appears on a local subscription list in the paper (among other Waynesboro residents).

By the 1920s, Moses had become a church elder. A 1924 Savannah Tribune (Waynesboro news) item calls him “Deacon Moses Farmer,” noting his serious illness and the concern of “many friends.” These references indicate he was a respected Baptist deacon in the African-American community. In sum, Moses worked as a farmer in Burke County for decades and was affiliated with civic and church life, as evidenced by his newspaper mentions and title of “Deacon.”

So a pretty good life, right? Except, this probably isn’t our Moses Farmer. Burke County is roughly 50 miles from Swainsboro, and while migration wasn’t unheard of, it wasn’t common until later. Further, migration targets tended to be northern cities not similarly rural locations.

In fact, Burke County had at least two other Moses Farmers in the same time period. One married a woman named Ella and had several kids. Is this our man? Maybe. Except that his death record says he and his father were born in Burke County . . . which again, we can’t say is definitively accurate given the problem of slave records, but it’s a strike against.

We also see another Moses Farmer who married a woman named Mintie and had kids.

Is this our Moses? Impossible to say. What’s definite is that there was no Moses Farmer in Swainsboro in available census records. What there is, though, is a black man named Moses McLeod.

When enslaved, black people did not typically have surnames, at least not recorded in official records. After the war, the newly freed often chose their own surnames. In 10 to 20 percent of cases, they chose surnames that matched those of their former masters. In other cases, they deliberately chose other surnames. And in some cases, they started with a surname in one census and had another by another census (for example, the former slave of Edward Rhodes Carswell in Jefferson County, Georgia was named Scipio—he then went by Washington Carswell, then later by Scipio Washington, and in some records, he’s even Wash Washington). In this case, the age doesn’t fit exactly—Moses McLeod is 23 in the 1880 Census, whereas Moses Farmer in 1870 is 18. But again, age discrepancies . . .

What Do We Actually Know?

So what do we actually know about Moses, why he stayed with the family, and why he went back to get William’s body? Was he truly as loyal as the tales make him out to be? We can’t know, though many of the “loyal” body servant narratives are Lost Cause narratives. It’s interesting that at least one of the sources about Lt. Colonel McLeod indicates that Neil paid Moses to go with John Prescott to recover his son.

Why didn’t Moses escape to freedom when he was in Pennsylvania after William’s death? Maybe he was actually “loyal.” Or maybe, he had fewer chances. After all, he would have had to escape not just William but John Prescott as well. Further, if he were as young as 16 or 17, he may not have felt capable of finding his own way. Or he may have had family relationships back in Georgia that we can’t divine from existing records.

What became of him afterward? This might be the most frustrating part. We can be pretty certain Moses Farmer of 1870 is our Moses. Other than that, we don’t know. The Moses Farmer who married Ella was buried in what is still known as “Slave Cemetery.” This is one of the rare cases in which the burial site of the enslaved and former enslaved is known. If our Moses Farmer died on McLeod land between 1870 and 1890, his grave is almost certainly unmarked and may well have been built over. Today, The Black Cemetery Network seeks to locate and memorialize as many such sites as possible.

For now, unless some descendants have oral or written history we don’t yet have, it’s nearly impossible to detail the life of a man who, in many respects, is the hero of the William McLeod story.