A Black Confederarte Soldier fought for the First (Carter's) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment

  Alford, or Alfred Locke (his name is spelled both ways in records), was a Confederate soldier who lived to be eighty-eight years old, and is buried in Montgomery Cemetery in Rhea County.

  According to Locke's pension application, he was born in Rhea County on May 24, 1846, and was a slave owned by Judge Franklin Locke.  Judge Locke, he stated, was an uncle of Colonel Onslow Bean and sent Alford to Colonel Bean in 1863 to serve him in the army.  Alford was a member of Lieutenant Colonel Onslow Bean's First Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, and served as hostler (person in charge of horses) and general utility man for the Colonel until Bean's death at Marion, Virginia.  Then, Locke became hostler and utility man for Colonel James E. Carter until the close of the war.  This Confederate soldier further noted in his pension application that he was at the battles of Knoxville, Piedmont, Strawberry Plains, Chickamauga, Rogersville, Virginia, and others.   Alford was never wounded, and was never paid in cash, but mentioned that he was clothed by headquarters.