Bryant & Susan Croom

While Bryan and Eveline Croom never had any children of their own, they did care for their nieces and nephews.  Two were listed in the 1850 census:  Bryant, age 11, and Susan, age 8.  Both children were born in Alabama.  Their mother Winnefred Bryan Whitfield died in 1848.  Bryant and Susan were the youngest surviving children.  When Bryan and Eveline moved to Alabama in 1858, the children went with them.  

40th Alabama Infantry Flag

Susan Matilda Croom married James "Jimmie" George Whitfield in Sumter, Alabama, in 1861 (they were distantly related).  She died in 1920.  

Susan Croom Whitfield had four children:

1. Mary Croom Whitfield (born 1868, died that year)
2. Susan Evelina Whitfield (born 1870)
3. Leonie Sauvalle Whitfield (born 1872)
4. James Richard Whitfield (born 1877) 

Bryant Croom married August F. Marshall in Sumter, Alabama, in 1861.  He enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1862 and was killed on November 12, 1863.  He survived the battle of Chikamauga.  It will take more research, but he may have been a casuality of the battle of Chatanooga which took place from September to November of 1863.  The battle of Chatanooga was a success for the Confederates; they pushed the Union troops away from Chatanooga.  However, this battle set the stage for General Sherman's Atlanta campaign.  (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1863.html)

About the company Bryant enlisted with (source www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/regiments.cfm):

40th Infantry Regiment, organized at Mobile, Alabama, in May, 1862, recruited its companies in Perry, Sumter, Morgan, Covington, Pickens, Colbert, Mobile, and Choctaw counties. It served at Mobile until December, then moved to Mississippi where under the command of J.C. Moore it was active in the operations on Deer Creek. Later four companies were transferred to General Extor's Brigade, which fought at Chickamauga. The other companies were part of the garrison at Vicksburg and were captured when that city fell. After being exchanged, the regiment was united and sustained 135 casualties at Chattanooga. Attached to A.Baker's, Gibson's, and Brantley's Brigade, it participated in the Atlanta Campaign, moved to Mobile, then returned to the Army of Tennessee in North Carolina. This unit had 332 fit for duty in January, 1863, and totalled 429 men and 338 arms in December. During the Atlanta Campaign, May 7-31, it lost twenty percent of the 416 engaged. Only a handful surrendered on April 26, 1865. The field officers were Colonels Augustus A. Coleman and John H. Higley, Lieutenant Colonels E.S. Gulley and Thomas O. Stone, and Major Elbert D. Willett.