Motte Campbell McGehee Calhoun was born around 1830 in South Carolina to Ephraim and Charlotte Calhoun. His father was a doctor who owned $8,000 of real estate by 1850. The family lived in Abbeville District, South Carolina, and by 1850, he was working as a druggist. He moved to Alabama in the 1850s, and he married Sarah E. Goodwin on September 16, 1856. They had at least three children: William, born around 1859; Rowland, born on November 19, 1861; and Augusta, born around 1864. He worked as a farmer in Sylacauga, Alabama, and by 1860, he owned $3,000 of real estate and $12,000 of personal property.

 

In June 1861, he received a commission as a 2^nd lieutenant in Company K of the 10^th Alabama Infantry. The regiment took part in the Peninsula campaign, the Second Battle of Manassas, and the Battle of Antietam. He eventually earned a promotion to 1^st lieutenant and then to captain. He suffered a “severe shell wound” at Antietam in September 1862, and he apparently believed the injury would be fatal. He penned a note asking a “generous foe [to] return this bible” to his wife, explaining, “I have fallen dear wife but my trust is in God meet me in Haven.”

 

He survived the wound, but he never fully recovered. He resigned from the army in July 1863, writing that he was “confident of my inability ever to discharge the duties of a soldier again.” He probably returned to Alabama after leaving the army, and he died in the 1860s.

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