06/01/2026
From the local newspaper, The Daily Dispatch: August 10, 1861. "Lieut Mahlon A. Hensley, of the Bedford Rifle Greys, died of typhoid fever in Lynchburg, Va., on the 20th ult".
Mahlon was born 31 March 1832 on the family farm located in Bedford County. He was one of six children born to James Owen Hensley and Nancy Virginia Turner. He was named in part after his mother's father, Admire Turner.
He was an educated man studying at Columbian College in Washington DC., He graduated in 1856 with a degree in mathematics and classical history. A short time later, Mahlon met Mattie A. Tompkins of Franklin County and the following year on the 27th December 1857 they married at Meadville, Halifax County, Virginia. They would return to Bedford County where Mahlon would teach school.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Mahlon and his youngest brother, David joined their fellow Virginians and enlisted at Fancy Grove, Virginia on the 24th of April 1861. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Rifle Grays, his brother a corporal. His unit would later become known as Company B of the 14th Virginia Infantry Regiment, "the Bedford Rifle Grays" from Liberty, Bedford County, Virginia.
During the summer of 1861 Mahlon and his brother as well as a number of the men under his command contracted typhoid fever. Mahlon stayed in Lynchburg to care for his men. From the July 1885 - Virginia School Report 1885, 15th Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, pages 170 & 171. "Hensley started well educated, refined and full of zeal, he bade fair to win a name, but died a soldier-generously sacrificing himself in an effort to save the sick men of his command". He died there in the Lynchburg Hospital on the 26th July 1861 at the age of 29. His brother, David was sent home and survived the bout with typhoid and the war. Duiguids Funeral Home prepared Mahlon's body for burial. His older brother, Samuel, paid the costs and had the body mailed home for burial in the family cemetery.
Mahlon's son, Mahlon Tompkins Hensley, was born in October of 1861, several months after his father's death. The younger Mahlon died at a young age and was laid to rest next to his father in the family cemetery. The original Hensley Family Cemetery was located on the farm his grandfather, Samuel Hensley had established and his father and brothers then worked. In the early 1960's their property was purchased by the Appalachian Power Company for the creation of Smith Mountain Lake. In March of 1962 the 20 some family members buried in the Hensley Family Cemetery were moved to the Staunton Baptist Church where they now rest.
Inscription
headstone birth date in error - born 1832 NOT 1831
Gravesite Details
Mahlon A. was originally buried in Hensley Cemetery #57. He and many others were moved to the Staunton Baptist Church Cemetery in the 1960's when Smith Mountain Lake was built.
