The Last Roll: Dr. George H. Bailey

Confederate Veteran
Volume 18, Number 7, Page 342
July 1910

George Henry Bailey, son of George Charlesworth Bailey, a native of London, England, and Lutetia Cecilia Edwards, of Greensboro, N. C., was born in Augusta, Ga., on April 7, 1837. His father died when he was about four years old, and his mother afterwards married I. J. Brookshire, and the family removed to Fort Bend County, Tex., where he grew to manhood. He took the medical course at Tulane University, graduating in 1860. At the beginning of the war, in 1861, he enlisted as a private in Col. B. Frank Terry's 8th Texas Regiment, known as "Terry's Texas Rangers," and was ordered north into Kentucky. The severe weather gave him bronchial trouble, which kept him in the hospital several months. His health became so bad that he was discharged and went back to Texas. His health improving, he made application and received commission as assistant surgeon C. S. A., and was assigned to duty in Texas. He was post surgeon at Beaumont, Tex., at the time of the battle of Sabine Pass.

He went to the Pass in the face of a heavy cannonade from the fleet, feeling sure that his services would be needed. As a reward for this action a sword was presented to him "for gallant conduct in action" by order of Gen. J. B. Magruder, commanding the Department of Texas. General Magruder's order was that the finest sword on the captured ships be given him. He was also presented with a silver medal, one of those given to each of the Davis Guards, and with a Maltese cross, which is still attached to a piece of faded green silk, embroidered with shamrocks.

Dr. Bailey participated in the battle of Bowling Green, Ky., and while stationed there he obtained leave to go to Winchester, Tenn., to take his sister and cousin home from Mary Sharp College, which was near the enemy's lines. With the two girls he crossed the Mississippi River, then overflowed, in a small skiff. The Yankee vessels in the river shelled them, some of the shells striking so near as to soak the little party with spray. He kept the frightened girls quiet by his courage, landing safely on the other side.

At the close of the war Dr. Bailey settled in Milheim, Austin County, Tex., and began the practice of medicine. In 1870 he was married to Miss Sophie Ansler, a daughter of Marcus Ansler, one of the pioneers of Austin County. In 1873 he went to California for the benefit of his health, having contracted bronchitis and asthma during the war. He resided in San Diego and Los Angeles Counties until 1882, when he returned to Texas and resumed the practice of medicine, but in 1889 he was compelled by failing health to return to California. He lived at Anaheim, Orange County, until 1900, and from that time to 1909 he was at Phoenix, Ariz., where he obtained some relief from his malady. In the hope of prolonging his life, his family took him then to Southern California, where he died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Henry Kuchel, in Anaheim, on August 4, 1909. He is survived by his wife, two sons, and three daughters.