Delity Powell Kelly

June 4, 1851 – Oct. 31, 1939

Part 2

We can conclude that Miss Delity Powell enlisted with her mother, father, and uncle on or about March 10, 1862, for service in Capt. Dunham’s (also, Capt. H. F. Abell’s) Company A, of the Milton (Florida) Light Artillery and that she (Miss Powell) remained in constant C.S.A. service until her mustering out in May 1865 at Greensboro, North Carolina. Delity was actually age 10 years 9 months 6 days upon inception of her Confederate duties . . . duties that endured some 37 months of sparse rations, rampant diseases, inferior shelters, perilous escapades, imprisonments, violent deaths, sad separations, and spiritual testing, but memory-charged times also of kindly relationships (older comrades eager to dote affections on her- die for her), campfires, camaraderie & singings, and scores of humble life-extending heroisms.

As the sunset of her 88-year life approached, Mrs. Kelly, in 1929, seriously sought a Confederate pension. Fortunately, there yet survived several of her for-sure older “buddies” from Milton’s Florida Light Artillery, compatriots she’d known life-long; they cheerfully shared with pension authorities what they knew. On Dec. 20, 1929, her Uncle and ex-Sgt. Benjamin F. Powell (Sept. 2, 1843 – July 3, 1932), 85, of 1404 E. LaRue Street, Pensacola, testified this way:

“I am 85. I served in Capt. Abell’s Lt. Artillery from 1862 to 1865. I am personally acquainted with Delity Kelly, who served as a nurse for the soldiers in the above named company. I saw her continually giving the wounded and dying soldiers water at the Battle of Oluska [sic Olustee) and the same service at Honey Hill. Almost every week of the war I saw her nursing and giving soldiers water and medicine. I know she was captured at Baldwin, Florida, by the Yankees and kept prisoner for a month and 14 days. Also, as a nurse she wore an artillery uniform of homespun Dress trimmed in red.”

By her own testimony, January 3, 1930, before W. L. Zachary, N.P., Delity Kelly, 79, a citizen of Escambia County, affirmed:

“I did service as a Nurse in the Civil War from my enlistment at Apalachicola to the close of said war 1865. At commencement of my services as nurse I was with my father (at Apalachicola), who was in Capt. Abell’s Co. A. At that time, I put on a uniform trimmed in Red (to note Artillery) I gave soldiers water from my canteens and medicine when they were carried to Hospital Camps. I did my hardest work at Marianna (probably 9/27/64) and at Honey Hill, S.C. The first time I was captured was at Baldwin, Florida. Mother and I broke out a window and escaped after 44 days imprisonment. I was captured again at Savannah, Georgia. Our Company advertised for us, stating they would shoot northern prisoners if we were not produced. Sherman sent us to Charleston, S. C., whence I went to a Ft. ltaligo, where we got back into our Artillery Company {Battery}. I nursed quite a number of soldiers there and at Lake City Hospital, where I nursed the men wounded in the Oluska (Olustee) Battle.”

On January 20, 1871, Miss Delity Powell was married by William F. Wilkerson to James A. Kelly (10/5/1849 – 1925) in Santa Rosa County, Florida, just a few miles east of Pensacola. James was a sash and door maker, a carpenter. Their five children were Arthur, Lulu (Mrs. Brown), Idel (Mrs. Wahl), Rosa (Mrs. Weaver, Mrs. Aplin) and Nora Nettie (Mrs. Wheeler, Mrs. DeBroux, 9/24/1879 – June 1963).

In a Feb. 5, 2001 letter from his native Pensacola, James R. Wheeler, 69, brings us closer-

“Delity Powell Kelly was my great-grandmother, and, as a youngster, I saw her on many occasions. My most memorable visit was when I went to her on her death bed, the day before she died. I was only 7 years old. She was a very religious person and loved reading her Bible. My Grandmother Nora Nettie closely mirrored Delity religiously. She was about 5′ 3″ to 5′ 5″ and weighed perhaps 145 -150 lbs. Delity lived in a wood frame house built on brick pillars. A porch went across the entire front. Her house has been demolished and is just an empty lot now. She was approved as a member of the U.D.C. – Chapter 298 – on March 17, 1908. Delity was a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I am descended from Delity’s and James Kelly’s youngest, Nora, and her first husband, Richard A. Wheeler, who died in 1911. I am a first cousin to James DeBroux, Sr., whose paternal grandfather, Louis W. DeBroux, was Nora’s second husband … so I’m about 10 years older than “Cousin Jim.”

On the same day (2/5/01) as his “Cousin (James) Robert” Wheeler, James E. DeBroux, Sr., also of Pensacola, wrote I am 58 and was not living when Great-grandmother Delity was alive. She was born in Apalachicola to Edward Powell, born 3/23/1834 in Escambia County. Edward enlisted 3/10/1862 at Apalachicola. About a year later or 3/5/1863 he transferred from Company A to Company B Milton Light Artillery. He was present at the last roll call and paroled at Greensboro, N. C., in April 1865. Elizabeth, Delity’s mother, was a laundress, nurse & role model for her in the same CSA unit. Great-grandmother Kelly was the only woman the State of Florida gave a Confederate Pension to for time served.”

“In April 1998, James Robert Wheeler and I were the first ones in Florida to join the S. C. V. under auspices of a woman veteran.”

On January 20,2001, Phillip White, Adjutant, Stephen R Mallory Camp #1315, SCV, of Pensacola, supplied five categories of documented data, the fifth being a bevy of news stories from The Orlando Sentinel and The Miami Herald. These latter concede that in the past 50 years knowledge of Mrs. Kelly had faded to her being nearly forgotten. Adjutant White and compatriots of Mallory Camp 1315 in 1997-98 “dug in” or entrenched themselves to achieve their caliber of worthy goal: to celebrate and honor Mrs. Kelly, U.D.C. Their efforts culminated in a special observance for Florida’s Confederate History Month (April}- namely, a memorial service to be held at her grave site in Pensacola’s St. Michael’s Cemetery on Saturday, April 4, 1998. And so it was … a revival of acknowledgments and eulogies that had been spoken at Mrs. Kelly’s funeral held November 2, 1939, from her 1210 North Davis Street residence, where, a delegation of U.D.C. and S.C.V. (Perhaps even an actual fellow Old Reb or two could well have) attended. Now, some 60 years later, Florida Secretary of State, Hon. Sandra Morthamm; Pensacola Naval Hospital Executive Officer, Capt. Christine Brozek-Kohler; and Camp 1315 Cmdr. Robert Young all spoke movingly.

“This really touches me,” said Renae Adams, 20, of Conyers, Georgia, Delity’s great-great-granddaughter. “I feel I have something that I didn’t have before. It’s astonishing to finally know who my ancestors were.” Some 150 citizens attended. “We knew Kelly was in St. Michael’s, but we were unsure of just where until June 1997,” commented Cmdr. Young. “She richly deserves her new C.S.A. stone.”

If Delity could but convey an abiding sentiment today, it might well be this one that was so close to her heart: “In 1865 we had to start life all over again. Our money was no good, starvation stared us in the face but we managed to keep our courage, and, in the end, I’ll die happy to know I served my country to the best of my ability … There never were braver men than those who wore the Gray, but were for some reason overpowered”

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