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Lanier Cemetery, 46-3 Summary Report, page 18
The above land transaction records are just examples of the many purchases made by the Lanier family on pre-arsenal lands in Townships 4 and 5 of Madison County. Of course, they also made many land sales in the county, covering 7 pages of the indexes for such sales in the courthouse records. The memoirs and notes (penned up to about 1910) by Isaac Hill Lanier's son, Felix Robertson Lanier, born in 1829, includes descriptions of each of Burwell Clinton Lanier's sons who ran the plantation on the pre-arsenal lands. Felix traveled extensively during and after the Civil War to meet most of his relatives. He described his first cousin Isaac Alexander Lanier as the eldest of the sons of Burwell Clinton and Mary Shelby Lanier, writing that Isaac was born in Tennessee on the 9th day of September, 1816 in Jackson, Madison County (TN). The account by F. R. Lanier continues as given in bold print below, with blue commentary and explanations inserted as this text was prepared by John P. Rankin: “A few years later (after 1816), his parents (Burwell C. and Mary S. Lanier) moved to Madison County, Alabama, where he was reared, educated, and resided the balance of his days. Alex Lanier, as he was called by his companions and intimate friends, was a successful cotton planter until the Civil War destroyed his business. As a joint owner with his two brother, he resided on their plantation, devoting his energy and skill in aiding in the management. He was a genial companion, popular in the county, and when a young man, represented it in the State Legislature. Though pronounced in his political opinions, he preferred the quiet life of a planter to that of a political promotion. In 1861, Alex Lanier enlisted as a private soldier in the Fourth Alabama Regiment of Infantry to serve in the Confederate army and was on its organization elected a Lieutenant of his company. This Regiment became one of the most gallant and famous in the Confederate Army. It was conspicuous in the Battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861, where the Federal Army was routed and driven back, a terrified mob, to Washington. In this engagement Lieutenant Lanier was severely wounded and disabled from further service. Alexander was never married.” [Isaac Alexander Lanier died at the house of his brother Burwell C. Lanier in the town of Madison on December 29, 1894, and he is buried in the family cemetery near Triana, on today's Redstone Arsenal lands.] 18 - (2008)