Comer was injured during the Battle of Atlanta and was rescued from the battlefield by his body servant, Burrell. Body servants were slaves who were often brought into battle by those who claimed their ownership. Burrell, who was only 16 at the time, took Comer to a bateau and rowed him down the Chattahoochee River to Columbus, Georgia, a distance of almost 260 miles. Comer's mother met them there and took Comer and Burrell to Spring Hill where Comer recuperated. Comer maintained throughout the war that Burrell was a "Negro", not a Confederate soldier. Modern historians have described the relationship between black soldiers in the Confederacy and their masters as complex, but "...clearly was not a soldier-soldier relationship." Following the war, Burrell received a pension from the State of Alabama.