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- Description is exactly "A series of photos and newspaper articles on former Morgan County, AL slave and Confederate body-servant Reuben Patterson (1836-1928) who went to war as the body-servant of Morgan County attorney and future TN state legislator Col. Josiah Patterson (1836-1906) of the 5th AL Cav, CS. When Josiah moved to Florence from Summerville in Morgan County in 1869, Reuben came with him. He married Abbeville Thornton in 1871 and thereafter worked as a cook at local hotels and on the Muscle Shoals Canal before being given his own boot-black stand by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1914. After the war "Uncle" Reuben attended over twenty-five United Confederate veterans reunions across the US and was interviewed in 1906 for *Trotwood's Monthly* magazine regarding his war-time service as the 5th Alabama's company bugler, forager and its unofficial "horse-swapper" (Union horse thief).
1. Reuben Patterson, Mrs. Lutie Patton (18889-1923) of Sweetwater in Florence, and an unnamed Confederate veteran at a United Confederate Veterans (UCV) reunion ca. early 1920s.
2. Three of Florence's former Confederate body servants at the annual 1921 Mars Hill UCV reunion, from left, George W.. Seawright, Reuben Patterson, and Peter Stewart.
3. A Closeup of Reuben Patterson from the 1921 Mars Hill UCV reunion photo.
4. Reuben Patterson and his former master's granddaughter, Mary Gardner, near Birmingham, AL, ca. 1925.
5. Reuben Patterson's CS military marker erected by O'Neil Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp in 1999."
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