Elijah grew up at Burlington, his family's farm in Nashville, Tennessee, and attended the University of Nashville. He enlisted 30 December 1861 at Nashville as Private, Company I, "The Nashville Confederates," 55th (McKoin's) Infantry (C.S.A.), and was discharged 19 April 1862.

        "On February 16, 1862 [Elijah's] regiment was placed in the forces commanded by Maj. Gen. Wm J. Hardee, and on February 23, at Murfreesboro, was reported in Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow's Division, Brig. Gen. S. A. M. Wood's Brigade, composed of the 7th, 16th Alabama, 8th Arkansas, 9th Arkansas Battalion, 3rd Mississippi Battalion, 27th, 44th, and 55th (McKoin's) Tennessee Infantry Regiments, Avery's Cavalry, and Byrne's and Harper's Batteries.

        "At Shiloh April 6-7, [the 55th (McKoin's) infantry] regiment participated in the battle as part of this brigade. General Wood, in his enumeration of his forces, listed the 55th with 280 muskets. No record of regimental casualties was found, but Dr Noblitt of the 44th Tennessee Infantry stated its casualties were so heavy it did not have the minimum numbers to preserve its organization. The 44th had also suffered heavily, and on April 18, 1862, the two regiments were consolidated to form the 44th Consolidated."

(Tennesseans in the Civil War: A Military History of Confederate and Union Units with Available Rosters of Personnel, Nashville: Civil War Centennial Commission, 1964, 270–73, 297–98.)

        After his father's death in 1870, the family farm was bequeathed in equal parts to Elijah and his mother, and Elijah assumed proprietorship, occupying the residence with his wife and children and breeding thoroughbred trotting horses until selling all his stock in 1877.

        Public notices of serial real estate transactions published in The Nashville American suggest that Elliston and his mother began transferring parcels of the estate to Vanderbilt University for the expansion of its campus, a program continued by his mother after Elijah's death.

        The cause of death listed on Elijah's cemetery interment record was "nervous exhaustion," likely aggravated by his battlefield experience at Shiloh.

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Parents:

     Elizabeth Blackman Boddie (1820–1904)

     William Robert Elliston, Sr (1815–'70)

Siblings (4):

     Mariah Louisa Elliston (Yandell) (1844–1908)

     Josephine Elliston (Farrell) (1847–1921)

     Lizinka Elliston (Buford) (1851–1919)

     William Robert Elliston, Jr (c1858/'59–'71)

Married (1 October 1868):

     Leonora Chapman (1848–'99)

Children(4):

     Medora Thayer Elliston (1869–'70)

     Elizabeth B. Elliston (Sinclair) (1870–1917)

     William Robert Elliston (1872–1909)

     Louise Elliston (Smith) (1873–1905)