Former Confederate soldier with local ties is honored in Wilkes service

About 90 people gathered at Lewis Fork Baptist Church Cemetery off U.S. 421 West in western Wilkes County on May 18 for a military marker dedication service for Pvt. Alfred Newton Proffit, the only one of four brothers who returned home alive from the Civil War.

Proffit has many descendants in Wilkes, Alleghany and other counties of Northwest North Carolina.

Among the many descendants present was Tommy Proffit of the Goshen community in Wilkes, who unveiled the military marker that recognized his great-grandfather as a private in Co. D of the 18th N.C. Infantry. He was born in the Lewis Fork community in 1842 and died in 1929.

Tommy Proffit, who was in combat with the U.S. Army's 1st Cavalry Division in the Vietnam War in 1967-68, has a piece of a Union mini-ball that was lodged in his great-grandfather's head for years after the Civil War, causing him severe headaches. It finally came out during a strong sneezing fit.

The Rev. Van Proffit of Ferguson (in Wilkes) another descendant, gave the benediction.

The ceremony was organized and the military marker was secured by the Wilkes-based Gen. James B. Gordon Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which has honored several other Confederate veterans in the county in the same way in recent years.

Pat McNeil of the Gordon camp, and the late Charlie Wright Proffit of the Goshen community started the process of getting the military marker placed near the granite gravestone of Alfred Proffit and his wife, Sarah McNeil Proffit. Pat McNeil is related to Sarah Proffit. Charlie Proffit died last November at age 84.

Attorney Greg Luck of Wilkesboro, a member of the Gordon camp, told the story of Alfred Proffit and his three brothers during the ceremony.

Most of Luck's information came from Mary Alice Hancock's book about the Proffit brothers, "Four Brothers In Gray."

As well as remembering Alfred Proffit, Luck said it was appropriate to pay tribute to the sacrifice of his three brothers — William Henry Harrison Proffit, Calvin Luther Proffit and Andrew T. Proffit. All three are buried near where they died in Virginia as part of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

"As Ms. Hancock points out, the Proffit brothers' letters home to their parents, William and Mary Walsh Proffit, and to their sister, Louisa, speak for the silent Confederate soldier, the man in the ranks."

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