Robert W. Wells was born around 1840. By the early 1860s, he was probably living near Natchez, Mississippi. He enlisted in the Confederate army on August 15, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company E of the 4^th Louisiana Infantry Battalion. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 8 inches tall, with light hair and blue eyes. He eventually earned a promotion to sergeant major. The regiment took part in the Battle of Chickamauga and the Atlanta campaign.

 

He fiercely supported the Confederate war effort. In August 1862, he celebrated the “noble sons of South Carolina who have taken up arms in defense of honour, liberty and independence.” Union forces captured him near Atlanta, Georgia, on August 5, 1864, and imprisoned him at Camp Chase in Ohio. They transferred him to Point Lookout in Maryland in March 1865, and he received a parole on June 21, 1865. He died sometime after the war.

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