My father, James Lester Golden , tells me that the Panorama of the Civil War in Atlanta shows a scene of a brave young boy carrying a mail pouch and riding , lickity split , down a trail . That daring young Confederate lad represented there on that massive mural grew up and married Peggy Golden , making her Mrs. Dameron. Peggy Dameron is my great aunt. I am Lee Merrill Golden .

My great grandmother was Martha Elizabeth Golden Godwin and she lived with us in a four generation household. Grannie Godwin was blind and could not work on the farm but she could entertain the children. She would sit in the swing on the front porch under the wisteria vine and tell us about the Civil War. I now cannot remember if it was her husband (Jack Godwin)or father but someone fought on Kennesaw Mountain in the Battle of Atlanta and lived to tell about it. She said that the fighting was so fierce that the creek ran red with blood and the men had to clench their teeth to strain out the debris as they drew water into their mouths. She told us the battle was fought above the clouds. Since we lived in extreme south Georgia and had never seen a mountain we could not understand about being above a cloud. Grannie would explain that it was like the fog that drifted up from Mule Creek Swamp just down from our home. She told us the fighting was so fierce that no soldier thought they would survive and they knew there would not be any reinforcements so they fought until they collapsed. Grannie said her husband was older than she was and had died from a "rose" cancer on his back. She had to make his shirts with a special "pouch" to accomodate the growth. Grannie was born on December 24, 1869 (although the 1880 census said 1863)and married when she was around 20 and was widowed at 29 with 3 children. The oldest boy, Cornelius Jake Godwin, was my grandfather. I think Grannie's father was Jonathan Golden because she said her mother's maiden name was Ard and I have found the 1880 census with Martha Golden and a mother named Nancy A. Golden. They were all in Alabama, not north Georgia. Grannie died on Nov. 11, 1958 and is buried in Pleasant Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Colquitt County, Georgia. I have not been able to locate a white Jack Godwin nor have I found a census record of Grannie while living with her husband. I have viewed the cyclorama in Atlanta many times and wondered if one of the people dipicted was my grandpa!