On the old homestead plantation Dr. Boiling passed the days of his
childhood, under the conditions and influences of the fine old southern
regime, — a patriarchial system that gave to American history its only
touch of generic romance. He was a lad of about fifteen years at the
inception of the war between the states, and his youthful loyalty to the
south was shown forthwith <ind in an insistent way. He tendered his
service in defense of the cause of the Confederacy, by enlisting in May,
1861, and was attached first to the Harris Zouave Cadets, in Memphis,
Tennessee, as Company D of the 154th Sr. Tennessee Regiment. Then he
re-enlisted as a private in Company C, Second Tennessee Infantry, and
with this gallant command he served from May, 1861, to May, 1865,
the entire period of the great conflict between the north and the south.
