The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965 Page: 238
574 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Littlefield was born on June 21, 1842, in Panola County, Mis-
sissippi, the eldest of four children. The marriage of Mildred
Terrell Satterwhite, widow of John Henry White, to Fleming
Littlefield, her overseer, caused ill feeling between the Littlefields
and the Satterwhites who felt that Mildred had married beneath
her social status. Time did not relieve the strained situation, and
by 1850, the Fleming Littlefields thought it best to move. They
settled in Gonzales County, Texas, only a little over two years
before Fleming died in 1853. As Mildred was a shrewd business-
woman, in her able hands the family fortune was increased.
Young George received most of his business training in his moth-
er's service; he spent only slightly more than two years acquiring
a formal education in both the Gonzales school and Baylor
University.
When civil war seemed imminent, eighteen-year-old Littlefield
joined the swelling tide rushing to arms by enlisting in a com-
pany of volunteers in May, 1861. It was not until September
that his company was sworn into Confederate service, mustered
in for the duration of the war as a part of the 8th Texas Cavalry,
affectionately known as Terry's Texas Rangers. In June, 1862,
veteran Littlefield was elected captain of his company of some-
thing less than one hundred men; that was when he was yet
nineteen years old-the youngest man in the company and the
second youngest in the entire regiment. Later, because of cas-
ualties, he served for a time as acting lieutenant colonel of the
Rangers. On December 26, 1863, he was removed from active
duty by a Federal shell, a piece of which detonated several car-
tridges in the ammunition box on his belt. These gashed nine by
eleven inches of flesh from his left hip, exposing the bone. As the
young officer lay on the snow-covered ground, Brigadier General
Thomas Harrison promoted him to major for gallantry in action."
It was by that title he was known in later life."
The twenty-two-year-old disabled soldier returned to his bride5
8David B. Gracy, II, "With Danger and Honor: George Washington Littlefield,
1861-1864," Texana, I, 1-19, 120-152.
4Into the 187o's and possibly later, Littlefield generally was called "Captain."
By the turn of the century and probably earlier, he was known as "The Major."
Apparently with his increased fortunes he was "promoted" title-wise.
"Though Littlefield had been married for about twenty-one months by the time
he reached home from the war, he had actually spent less than one month with his
wife, Alice Payne Tillar.238
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 68, July 1964 - April, 1965, periodical, 1965; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101198/m1/278/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.