He enlisted at age 30, on 5th Sep 1862 for the war. The rolls on November & December list him 'absent or sick'. He died of Typhoid Fever on 19 January 1863 at the Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. He left a widow and 5 children behind. He is supposed to be buried in the Oakwood Cemetery, but no records were found for his place of burial. He does now have a marker in the Marlow Memorial on the Brushy Mountains, Wilkes County, North Carolina where he was born and raised.

*From 1 Sep 1861 - 1 Sep 1862, 4882 soldiers were buried at Oakwood Cemetery.
with the war in full swing by 1862, Oakwood adapted and according to the Enquirer "A plan had been since adopted, of digging trenches, which was performed more easily, and the burials were now conducted as expeditiously as might be desired. One can envision Oakwood lined with rows upon rows of trenches, waiting to hold the bodies of Confederate dead. Although Oakwood may have been short on gravediggers, they remedied this through mass burial techniques.

However, shortly after this article, the Richmond Examiner wrote, "We have it on the authority of a gentleman, an officer of the army, who has visited Oakwood Cemetery, that the coffins are often piled, in two and three deep, in one excavation and thus covered up, of course rendering it out of the question for an inquiring relative to recognize and reclaim a corpse. Locating and retrieving loved ones from burial places throughout the South would become a major issue in post-war America. Soldiers were marked mostly with wooden boards with names, ranks, and regiments painted on them with the occasional soldiers receiving a lasting stone tablet, some of which can be viewed even today.

Confederate soldiers were treated with as much respect and care as possible given the circumstances at Oakwood. Unfortunately, horrible instances of multiple bodies in a grave emerged, but this was not the norm.

Marlow, W. J.
Battle Unit Name:
18th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry
Side:Confederacy
Company: D
Soldier's Rank In:Private
Soldier's Rank Out: Private
Alternate name:
Film Number:
M230 ROLL 24
Notes:
Battle Unit Note - (Formerly 8 North Carolina Infantry)
War Side Note - Vols
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1860 Alexander Co NC Census

Name: W J Marlow
[William Jones Marlow]
Age: 30
Birth Year: abt 1830
Gender: Male
Birth Place: North Carolina
Home in 1860: Alexander, North Carolina
Post Office: York Collegiate
Family Number: 282
Household Members:
Name Age
William Jones Marlow 30
Rebecca Marlow 30
Abel Lafayette Marlow 10
Joseph A Marlow 8
John Monroe Marlow 6
Martha Elizabeth Marlow 2