Meredith T. Norman was born in Surry County, North Carolina, on May 24, 1831. He enlisted and was elected captain of Company F, 37th Battalion Virginia Cavalry, Johnson Brigade in October 1862. Although a Virginia unit, it consisted of primarily of North Carolinians, recruited by North Carolina officers. Norman was wounded at Woodstock, Virginia, in October 9, 1864. He appears to have continued his service, but was hospitalized in Richmond at the close of the war. Sometime before 1853, he married his first wife, Nancy, with whom he had four children (Martha, William L., Sarah, and Joseph). In 1866, he married his second wife, Carolyn Edwards Crouse (1834-1893), with whom he had three children (Willard, Nancy, and Millard). He was also the step-father of Carolyn's four children from a previous marriage (Cynthia, Sarah, Rosa, and Hiram). Before and after the war, Norman was a farmer and land owner in and around Surry and Alleghany counties in North Carolina. He died in 1919.