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(1839 - 1926)
Home State: Texas
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 5th Texas Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
He enlisted on 20 August 1861 near Harrisburg, TX and mustered as a Private in Company D, 5th Texas Infantry. He was promoted to First Corporal on 1 December, to 5th Sergeant on 27 February 1862, and to 4th Sergeant on 23 August.
On the Campaign
He was with his company in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862, where, he later remembered,
... we went in with eighty rounds of ammunition to the man. When we had used up all our ammunition we were ordered to hold our position at all hazards. My Captain came to me and asked if I had any ammunition and I told him yes that I had just taken some from a dead man's cartridge box. He asked who else had any and I told him Parker as I had just divided with him. He said he wanted me to go to that big tree in front and shoot all the officers and color bearers. We agreed to go, but asked him to not go off and leave us, and he agreed to call uswhen he went to leave.
In a little while Parker looked around and said, "They are all gone." I looked and said that Capt. Turner was there yet as he promised to call us if he went to leave. Presently, we looked around and sure enough they were all gone and Parker wanted to know what we wound do and I said, "run."
We were very nearly surrounded and we ran nearly half a mile across an open field to our regiment which we found in a grove of timber and neither of us was hurt. The boys all gave us a hearty cheer and Capt. Turner comlpimented us very highly on our escape.
The rest of the War
He was appointed First Sergeant on 30 April 1863 and was wounded by a gunshot to his scalp at Gettysburg, PA in July. He was briefly absent without leave in February 1864 and reduced to Private. He was wounded twice more, near Petersburg, VA at Cold Harbor and at Darbytown Road, but was surrendered and paroled at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.
After the War
He was a farmer in Walker and Coryell Counties in TX.
References & notes
Birth
04/25/1839; Centerville, AL
Death
04/09/1926; Gatesville, TX; burial in Masonic Cemetery, Gatesville, TX
1 US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927 [AotW citation 32615]
2 Yeary, Mamie, Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, 1861-1865, 2 Volumes, Dallas: Smith & Lamar, 1912, Vol. 1, p. 337 [AotW citation 32616]
3 Schmutz, John F., "The Bloody Fifth" The 5th Texas Infantry Regiment, Hood's Texas Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia, El Dorado Hills (CA): Savas Beatie, pp. 307-308 [AotW citation 32617]