Standing 5 feet, 8 inches tall, a blue-eyed George Atkinson enlisted in Company I of the 68th USCT Infantry Regiment on February 17, 1864. He was a 25-year-old farmer living in Benton County, Missouri, at the time of his enlistment there, but his birthplace was Albemarle County, Virginia. His owner was a man named John Atkisson who had moved his slaves, including fellow member of the 68th, Patrick Henry Atkinson, from central Virginia to Missouri before the start of the war.

Though George entered service as a private, by the fall of 1864 he was promoted to corporal, increasing his role in the company. His regiment’s first major duty was to defend the captured city of Memphis, Tennessee, a task they held until February of 1865. By March, George and his comrades had marched through Louisiana and Florida, stopping in the city of Mobile, Alabama. There, the 68th USCT participated in a massive Union assault, culminating in their capture of Fort Blakely on April 9, 1865. In combat—the same day General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate forces at Appomattox, Virginia—George received life-threatening wounds. He died the following day, April 10, 1865.