At the other end of the age bracket were newly eligible men between 45 and 50. One unit of such men from Caswell County was formed and it served as Company F, Seventy-Seventh Regiment (Senior Reserves). Most of the enlistments are dated June 23, 1864. The company commander was Captain A. A. Mitchell and the lieutenants were J. S. Glass, A. M. Fuller, and J. J. Chandler. There were 65 privates, and included among them were some distinguished names: Blackwell, Baynes, Coleman, Flintoff, Gwynn, Gunn, Gatewood, Graves, Hinton, Herndon, Jones, Lashley, Lunsford, Malone, Page, Pool, Rudd, Sartain, Strader, Stamps, Stephens, Walker, Warren, and Yates.

The record of this regiment is not always clear, but it seems to be correct to say that it was used at first on guard duty at the Confederate prison in Salisbury, later to round up deserters in the Cane Creek Mountains of southern Alamance County, and finally to help defend Savannah, Georgia, when Sherman's forces approached. The men afterwards headed toward home ahead of the Federal army as it swept through the defenseless South. They were participants in the Battle of Bentonville. A comparison of the rosters of the Junior Reserves and the Senior Reserves presents the distinct possibility that there may have been several fathers and sons engaged in that three-day fight. The regiment rested near Smithfield and then made its way to Raleigh where the men were given twenty-day furloughs which in effect were discharges.

Source: When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County North Carolina 1777-1977, William S. Powell (1977) at 209.

1. Details: The Heritage of Caswell County, North Carolina, Jeannine D. Whitlow, Editor (1985) at 148-149 (Article #117 "Pleasant Chandler Line" by Elizabeth Chandler Plumblee)