Part of the Brown Bag Lunch Series
On Tuesday, April 17 at noon at the Lanier Library, Aliene Shields will relate the story of her great-great-grandfather, Private Thomas Marion

Shields of the 3rd South Carolina Infantry. Through letters that have been preserved by her family, she is able to describe his family and their family relationships along the border of North and South Carolina during the Civil War.
Thomas Shields and his wife, Amanda (Steadman), were born within 10 miles of each other on either side on the North/South Carolina border where Rutherford County abutted then Spartanburg District.  They had strong connections to the New Hope Baptist Church and relationships to the Camp, Patterson, Gilbert, Harris and Waters families on both sides of the border.
A farmer with a young family, Shields had not traveled far from home before he enlisted, along with three of his brothers, in the Confederate Army in July 1862 (a fourth brother enlisted later). His wartime experiences, which included hospitalization and imprisonment, took him to such locations as Charleston, Richmond, Leesburg, Gettysburg and Tennessee.
A collection of 34 surviving letters, Shields tells the story of his life, and those of his close family members during the Civil War years. Aliene Shields compiled the letters into the  book “The Legacy of a Common Civil War Soldier: Private Thomas Marion Shields,” which she wrote with historian Mac Wyckoff.
In period costume, Shields will tell the story of Shields’ close and loving family in a period of great hardship and turmoil.
The program, which is free, is part of Lanier Library’s Brown Bag Lunch series. Everyone is welcome.
– article submitted by Frances Flynn