James Austin Hays

A doctor's son, in 1860 he was a 15 year old living with his parents and 7 siblings in Columbia, AL. He enlisted there as a Corporal in Company L (later A), 6th Alabama Infantry on 5 March 1862.

He was wounded by a gunshot to his shoulder and neck in action near Turner's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862 and captured; the bullet entered at his clavicle (collar bone) and lodged in his shoulder blade near his spine.

He was sent the US Army General Hospital on Camden Street in Baltimore, MD on 26 September where a surgeon removed the bullet. He transferred to Ft. McHenry on 29 November 1862 for exchange and was afterward in a hospital in Petersburg, VA until furloughed home on 9 December.

He was detailed away from his regiment in June 1863 and from 8 October 1863, when he reported, to at least March 1864, by then a private, he was on detached duty as a guard at Howard's Grove Hospital in Richmond, VA. He'd been found unfit for field service because he had an enlarged heart. He was back with his Company again as a Corporal in September 1864, but had returned to Howard's Grove by January 1865. He was captured on about 2 April 1865, briefly held at City Point, VA, then sent on to Point Lookout, MD. He was released on 28 June 1865 after taking an oath of allegiance.

By 1870 he'd gone to Panola County, TX with his parents and siblings, and was a farm worker, probably on his parent's farm at Evergreen, TX. By 1880 he was a saddler in Walker County, TX and in 1900 was a merchant there.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. Wound and hospital details from the MSHWR.2 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Ida Wade Holland (1851-1919) in February 1870 and they had 4 children.

07/15/1844 in GA

12/16/1906; Bexar County, TX; burial in Mission Burial Park South, San Antonio, TX