Private Bluford  Lafayette  Scarlett,
F Company

        Born Bluford Lafayette Scarlett on the 27 December 1843 near Cookville, Putnam County.  He was the son of Moses N. and Angelina Scarlett he was also the last surviving member of the 16th Tennessee Infantry, F Company, to die.

        His parents were Moses N. Scarlett, born, 13 November 1814, died 03 January 1889 and Angelina Cates born 11 May 1817, Orange County, NC, and died 19 May 1848 in Putnam County, TN.  On Angelina’s death his father married Sarah Emaline Wilson in 1853.  He had one brother John Woods Scarlett born 13 January 1846, Putnam County, TN, died 14 February 1925 in Jackson County, TN.

        Coming from Putnam County, Tennessee, he enlisted in the 16th Tennessee Infantry Regiment on the 9 June 1861. (The Regiment at that date was at Richland Station, Tennessee.)

        (Whether all of his military service was in the 16th seems doubtful as he is listed by Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System as having been in the 8th Regiment Tennessee Cavalry (Baxter Smiths), C Company.  (8th (Smith's) Cavalry Regiment, also called the 4th Regiment, was organized in November 1862, but was annulled. It was reorganized in January 1863.)

        If he was only with the 16th Tennessee he would have participated in: Robert E. Lees West Virginia Campaign, 1861; the Siege of Corinth, Perryville (Chaplin Hills), Murfreesboro (Stones River), 1862; Chickamauga, Chattanooga (Missionary Ridge), 1863; also started with Joseph E. Johnston's retreat from Dalton to Atlanta. (If he joined the 8th Tennessee Cavalry at the reorganization he would have served with them from January 1863 until his capture in 26 May 1864.)

        Having served through all this he walked away from the colours and was captured at Cleveland, Tennessee on the 26 May 1864, he refused to take the Oath when captured.  (Cleveland is some 18 miles north-east of Chattanooga so it’s likely that he deserted sometime after 1st Dalton, 22-27 February 1864, and Cassville, 19-22 May 1864.  Dalton being some 30 miles from Cleveland.)

        Finally he took the oath on 29 May 1864 at Chattanooga, Tennessee, this bound him to stay north of the Ohio River until the end of the war.

        He was sent to Rock Island prisoner of war camp on 7 July 1864.  After release it is as yet unknown whether he ever returned to Tennessee.

        Information is not known, as yet, as to where he met, and married, his wife but he married Annie Elgin Ellis of Brimfield, Peoria County, Illinois, on the 14 February 1872, with whom he had seven (ten) children.  One of whom was John Frederick Scarlett born 20 February 1879, died 15 December 1962.

        Just two weeks after their marriage the couple moved to Iowa by covered wagon. Here they farmed, and kept bees, in the vicinity of Anita, Cass County, for many years. In 1910 retired from active farming and moved to Anita.

        Annie died in Walnut Twp., Adair Co., IA on July 14, 1939 and he died at Anita, Iowa on the 20 January 1935, when he was 91 years old.