USA > Tennessee > Shelby County > Memphis > The Old Guard in Gray. Researches in the Annals of the Confederate Historical Association. Sketches of Memphis veterans who upheld her standards in the war, and of other Confederate worthies.. > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
PARKER, MINTER, born in Memphis October 24, 1842; his father, Robert A. Parker, was one of the pioneer mer- chants of Memphis ; was at college at LaGrange, Tenn., when Fort Sumpter fell ; joined the Shelby Grays, Fourth Tennessee Regiment ; after the battle of Murfreesboro was promoted to a position in the corps of topographical engineers on the staff of General Leonidas Polk, and after his death was with Gen- erals Johnston and Hood, and was again on the staff of General Johnston and surrendered with him at Salisbury, N. C., April 26, 1865; rode to Memphis on horseback and reached home on the first day of June ; was married November 20, 1867, to Miss Fannie Pillow, daughter of Jerome B. Pillow, near Columbia, Tenn .; wife died March 17, 1890, and he died Oc- tober 7, 1894. They are survived by six children.
PATTERSON, HON. JOSIAHI, is the grandson of Alex- ander Patterson, who came from the north of Ireland before
-
-
·
272
SKETCHES OF SOLDIERS
the Revolutionary war, settling in Abbeville District, S. C .; became an officer in the patriot army ; was severely wounded at the battle of Cowpens. Malcolm, the son of Alexander Patterson, born in North Carolina, removed to Morgan county, Ala., in 1817, where he married Mary De Loache. Their son Josiah was born September 14, 1837; was admitted to the bar and began the practice in 1859. In 1861 he became first lieutenant in Clayton's First Alabama Cavalry, and was pro- moted to captain for gallantry in the battle of Shiloh ; was on detached service in North Alabama ; was highly complimented in a general order issued by General Bragg; became colonel - of the Fifth Alabama Cavalry Regiment and was in command of it until the close of the war; he was in the battles of Cor- inth and Iuka and numerous other engagements ; was in com- mand of the District of North Alabama ; resisted the advance of Wilson's raid ; was captured in the battle of Selma, but escaped a few nights afterward and returned to North Ala- bama to reorganize his command ; surrendered and was paroled May 19, 1865. Since the war he has been prominent at the Memphis bar and in politics, and is recognized as one of the ablest men in Tennessee. He has served two terms in Con- gress, making a national reputation, and will contest for the seat of E. W. Carmack in Congress, to whom the certificate of last election was given. Colonel Patterson was married to Josephine, the daughter of Judge Green P. Rice, of Ala- bama, December 22, 1859. They have three children, Mal- colm R., Mary L. and Anna E. The son is Attorney-General for the Criminal Court of Shelby county.
PILLOW, GIDEON J., was born in Williamson county, Tenn., in 1806 ; was graduated at the Nashville University in 1827; was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law at Columbia, and was soon after appointed upon the staff of Governor Carroll, his relative, with the rank of general. His ancestors on all sides were in the Revolutionary war, and are mentioned in Ramsey's History of Tennessee. When the war broke out with Mexico he was commissioned brigadier- general by President Polk and led a brigade of Tennesseeans. He was promoted to major-general, and commanded a divis-
CONFEDERATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
273
MAJ .- GEN. G. J. PILLOW During the Mexican War.
ion at Cherubusco. the storming of Chepultepec, and taking of the city of Mexico. He was wounded severely several times, and had some friction with General Scott, but came home crowned with honors and applauded by the people. He engaged in planting in Tennessee and Arkansas, and had acquired a large fortune when the late war began. Governor Harris appointed him to command State troops with the rank of major-general. He was a man of tireless energy and superb executive ability, and aided materially in the organization of some 25,000 men, advancing his own means to the State. When the State seceded he was commissioned as brigadier- general by Mr. Davis. This meager recognition of so illus- trious a man was attributed, whether justly or unjustly, to personal prejudices engendered in the Mexican war. General Pillow took prominent part at the battle of Belmont, and made a splendid fight at Fort Donelson. Not believing the surrender necessary he left the place with his staff, and made his way 18
1
-
274
SKETCHES OF SOLDIERS
to Nashville, For this act of quasi insturlination he was suspended for some time, though General. ben Colonel For- rest, was not. General Pillow was never crain given a com -. mand in the field, though he was given charge of the recruit- ing service in several States with beadquevers at Marietta, Ga., and rendered most efficient service, which was highly complimented by General Bragg and other igh in command. After the war he resumed planting, and it. . 368 formed a law partnership with ex-Governor Isham G. Harris, which con- tinued for several years. His first wife was Miss Mary Martin of Maury county, from which marriage the following children survive: Mrs. T. J. Brown, Nashville, Conn. ; Mrs. J. D. Mitchell, Helena, Ark; Mrs. W. F. Jol son, Atlanta, Ga. : Mrs. D. F. Wade, Mrs. Melville Williams. Mrs. L. C. Haynes, Nashville, Tenn. ; Mrs. D. B. Fargason, Morphis, Tenn., and R. G. Pillow, Little Rock, Ark. General ? How died October 8, 1878, near Helena, Ark., leaving a wis and three young children, one since dead, by his last ni viage. He was a man of unquestioned courage, fine address and high culture. a charming conversationalist, and in all respects a typical chivalric Southern gentleman of the best school. His name deserves the respect and honor of all true ': ennesseeans. He became a member of this Association Ju !: 15, 1869, and for some years attended the meetings regulan. y.
PICKETT, EDWARD, born at Huntsville, Ala., in 1828 and died in 1876. He was a graduate of the Kentucky Military Institute; studied law ; was clerk of the House of Represen- tatives at Jackson, Miss., in his youth ; w>> afterward editor of the Natchez Free Trader and an editorial writer on the Memphis Appeal. When the war broke out he promptly espoused the Southern cause and became Colonel of the Twenty-first Tennessee Regiment, which was cut to pieces at Union City; was aid to General A. S. Johnston at the battle of Shiloh, and afterward commanded the post at Milledgeville until the close of the war; practiced low in Memphis until his death. His editorial talents and inclinations were trans- mitted to his son. Mr. A. B. Pickett, who for some years past has been editor and manager of the Memphis Brening Seimitar.
1
.
-
275
CONFEDERATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
PIPER, O. HI. P., enlisted April 12, 1861, in the Southern Guards, commanded by Captain James Hamilton, an experi- enced and accomplished officer from Columbus, Ga., who had been an officer before when quite young in the Mexican war. This was the first company to enter the service from Memphis and the first to go to Randolph, then considered the post of honor; became the nucleus of the One Hundred and Fifty- fourth Tennessee ; was assigned to artillery service, detached and stationed on Hatchie Island under General John P. Mc- Cown ; was sent to Columbus, Ky .; took part in the battle of Belmont ; thence despatched to Island No. 10, and when that post was about to fall the men escaped to the woods and swamps, reformed and went to Corinth. and from there to Mobile and Fort Morgan, and was stationed at the last named place until it was captured. The first captain soon died : the second captain was Richard Hambleton of South Carolina, who died before the company reached Island No. 10; the third and last captain was Thomas N. Johnson, who returned to Memphis after the war and became a member of the Confed- erate Relief and Historical Association but died a few years afterward.
O. H. P. Piper was one of three brothers born in Somerset county, near Princess Anne, Md., who came from Ohio to Memphis when quite young and entered the Confederate ser- vice from here ; he was only 21 years old ; at Columbus, Ky., he was detached from his company to serve with Major Guy in the commissary department and was with him at various points, also later on with Majors J. J. Murphy and B. J. Semmes, thence reported for duty to General Bragg's chief commissary, John L. Walker of Mobile, and back to Major Guy ; most of the time he was in the purchasing department. He was in the battles of Belmont and Perryville; at the latter place he and Maj. Frank Gailor, who were great friends, agreed the night before to go into the fight, though not re- quired to do so; Gailor, a resolute, cool young man, gallant as ever lived, fully conscious of the situation, rode to his death in front of General Wood's Alabama Brigade. Hardee's Corps. Piper took a gun and went in front with his old friends the
-
1
276
SKETCHES OF SOLDIERS
Shelby Grays of Memphis in the Fourth Tennessee Regiment, Cheatham's Division, and escaped unhurt. After the battle he found his horse, which he had left tied in a deserted stable in Perryville, and soon after, on reporting at headquarters, learned the sad news of his friend Gailor's death. After that he saw much active service to the end of the war, when he returned to Memphis, and has since been engaged in various large business affairs.
His next brother, John George Piper, enlisted at the age of 19 in Captain M. J. Wicks' cavalry company early in the war, and shortly after serving in the battle of Murfreesboro was killed in a cavalry charge on a stockade on the pike near. Nashville. His comrades who survived him praised in the highest terms his coolness and unwavering courage to the last moment of his life.
The third brother, William Augustus Piper, was in a dif- ferent command, the Maynard Rifles, One Hundred and Fifty- fourth Tennessee, Captain Ed. Cole; he enlisted at the age of 18 years, took part in the battle of Shiloh for two days and was greatly exposed, bringing on a fatal illness; he died May 8, 1862, in Major Frank Gailor's tent, receiving every attention and being sustained by the sympathy of friends and the consolations of religion. Major Gailor wrote a beautiful and touching tribute to his memory which appeared in the old Appeal of May '11, 1862. His remains were buried in Elmwood.
These three brothers not reared upon our soil freely risked their lives and their all for the South, and only one came home alive. But they came of a fighting, liberty-loving stock. Their two grandfathers were in the Continental army, one from Philadelphia, the other from Bucks county, Pa. Both commanded companies in the war of American independence. Much is said of their patriotic ancestors in Davis' History of Bucks county, Pa.
PRICE, BERNARD FRANCIS, was born in Alexandria, Va., November 30, 1845; left there when small with his father, who went to Shreveport, La., to live, thenee to Lyons, Ia., thence to Rock Island, Ill. Went to his trade of printer
277
CONFEDERATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
BUN F. PRICE.
at the early age of 10 years at Lyons, Ia .; came to Memphis in 1857, and finished on the old Bulletin under J. M. Keating ; went in the army at the first tap of the drum, as a drummer boy, with the Ringgold Guards, Captain G. W. S. Crook; disbanded at Lynchburg, Va., for want of quota to make the company. Young Price returned to Memphis and went out in the "Sumpter Grays," whose first captain was Jas. A. Lee, subsequently Captain T. W. Rice, and known as Company A, Thirty-eighth Tennessee Regiment, Colonel R. F. Looney, General G. M. Pond's Brigade, and General Ruggles' Division. After the battle of Shiloh the company was placed in heavy artillery service, in charge of a battery commanding the Farm- ington road. After the evacuation of Corinth it was placed in light artillery in Forrest's command. At this time private Price was detailed and sent to Selma, Ala., to assist in getting out the House and Senate journals of Mississippi ; was subse-
278
SKETCHES OF SOLDIERS
quently moved to Montgomery for the same purpose, where he was when the war closed, and was paroled there. He never went to school except for three months, but has attained the highest position in the Masonic fraternity, Grand Master. He was married in 1867 to Miss Mary Virginia Price. From this union have been born eight children, six now living, two daughters and four sons, and there are two grandchildren. The children's names are Mrs. D. G. Dunlap, Velasco, Texas; Mrs. T. W. Avery, Memphis, Tenn .; Bun F., Jr., Robert N., Mack, and George C., are the boys. After the war Mr. Price was for some time in the printing business, but for some years past has been the secretary of a leading local insurance com- pany. He has an elegant home in one of the fashionable suburbs of Memphis and a fine library, and finds time to make valuable contributions to Masonic literature through the daily press, as well as the magazines of the day.
PORTER, EDWARD E., born March 28, 1832, at Lin- colnton, Lincoln county, N. C. His parents removed to Mem- phis in 1835. He graduated at Hanover College, Ind., and also at Princeton College, N. J., and was a graduate of the Union Theological Seminary, Hampton-Sydney, Va. He was married to Mattie C. Rice, daughter of Rev. Benjamin Rice, D. D., President of the Union Theological Seminary, of which he was a graduate. He was pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church of this city when the war commenced; went into the service from a sense of duty to country and from emotions of patriotism which could not be repressed, leaving his young wife and children at home. Early in the contest he received a commission from President Davis to raise an independent company, known as Porter's Partisans. With this command he repaired to Fort Pillow, continuing there and at Colum- bus until the evacuation of those places, when his company was regularly mustered into the Confederate service in the Department of Memphis: was connected with General For- rest's command at the time of the surrender. He lived to lay down his arms before the conqueror when success was no longer possible : but his health was broken in the contest, and on the 6th day of October, 1867, he entered "that low
1
-
279
CONFEDERATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
green tent whose curtain never outward swings." He had as noble a heart as ever beat in a man's bosom, and for gal- lant conduct and dauntless courage as an officer of the Con- federate forces, he was not excelled by any other. He was finely educated, and a man of abilities equaled by very few of his age. He loved his country and his kind, and sought always to do good to both and wrong to none.
PORTER, DR. JOSEPII T., born at Columbia, Tenn., in 1845 ; enlisted at Memphis, June 1, 1861, aged 15 years, under Captain John C. Carter, Thirty-eighth Tennessee (later brig- adier-general) who was killed while commanding a division at the battle of Franklin; served until the evacuation of Corinth, and then was discharged as a non-conscript at Tupelo, Miss .; afterward joined Forrest; was captured near Fort Pillow in January, 1863, and remained in prison at Camp Douglas six months ; exchanged at City Point, Va., joined his command, and surrendered at Gainesville, Ala., in 1865. Has practiced his profession and lived in Memphis since the war.
SEBRING, W. H., born near St. Louis; reared in Gibson county, Tenn. ; came to Memphis just before the war broke out, when about 20 years old, and assisted in making up a company to go to Charleston, but the young men went to Nashville, joined Bate's Second Tennessee Regiment ; served in the Virginia campaign from May, 1861, to February, 1862. The regiment came west and was in the battle of Shiloh. In 1863 young Sebring was promoted to lieutenant; sent west with dispatches to General Kirby Smith ; captured, sent to Gratiot prison. St. Louis; tried, and sentenced to be shot; was in prison eleven months and eighteen days, and was for five months in a condemned cell ; on Christmas eve, 1863. tried with others to escape, and with comrade A. C. Grimes was chained to a post in the back yard of the prison five days and nights and nearly frozen to death. He was to have been shot June 25, 1864, but on the 18th he and eight others charged the sentries. Captain Douglas, Captain Jasper Hill and Lieu- tenant Sebring got through and back to the army; two were
-
280
SKETCHES OF SOLDIERS
killed and two wounded ; afterward he was detailed by Pres- ident Davis and joined Captain T. H. Hines, John B. Castle- man and George B. Eaton in an attempt to release the 10,000 prisoners at Camp Douglas ; the movement was ultimately betrayed, but Lieutenant Sebring escaped back through the lines ; reported back to Richmond, was promoted to lieuten- ant-colonel and sent down the James river on an expedition ; later reported to General Giltner, of Duke's (Morgan's old) Division, and with it was surrendered at Mount Sterling, Ky., April 30, 1865. Colonel Sebring returned to Memphis and on June 30, 1866, was married to Miss Annie Perdue, one of Maryland's fair daughters who had been imprisoned in Memphis and subsequently banished South for her intense devotion to the cause of the stars and bars. They removed to Florida in 1873, where Colonel Sebring took a prominent part in reconstruction times and other affairs, and where he became Brigadier-General of State Militia in 1881. The gen- eral and his family removed to Memphis a few years ago.
SNEED, J. WES., enlisted as captain of Company A, Sev- enth Tennessee Cavalry, May 16, 1861, and fought through- out the war; was wounded and mentioned for gallantry at Corinth by Colonel W. H. Jackson, October 5, 1862. (See Lindsley's Annals.) He went through the war to the end ; engaged in business here after the surrender ; suffered much from old wounds and delicate health and died many years ago.
.
SNEED, JOHN L. T. The life of this eminent citizen, written out in full, would make many volumes of most enter- taining and instructive matter relating to the military annals and jurisprudence of the State. He inherited the intellectual vigor, suavity of manner, high moral tone and magnificent physique of illustrious ancestors. After filling many positions of high trust and taking part in two wars, he is still in the prime of life, genial, industrious and cheerful, filling the posi- tion of Chancellor of the First Chancery Court of Shelby county, to which he was elected in August, 1894, by a vote that was practically unanimous, and as complimentary a pop- ular tribute as could possibly be expressed. He was born
1
-----
-
-
CONFEDERATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
281
JNO. L. T. SNEED.
in Raleigh, N. C., in the home of his grandfather, Hon. John Louis Taylor, then Chief Justice, and for whom he was named. On the maternal side he is descended from Hon. Matthew Rowan, his great-grandfather, Judge Gaston, being a family connection. His father's ancestors, from England, settled in Virginia and soon after removed to Granville county, N. C. Major Junius Sneed, his father, was for many years cashier of the State Bank of Salisbury, N. C.
Receiving a liberal education, he came to West Tennessee when a young man, and soon became prominent at the bar and in politics, and was an officer in the Mexican war ; after that was attorney-general for a number of years; was briga- dier-general in the Provisional Army of Tennessee in the late war and was in the service of the Confederacy until the end ; afterward was on the Supreme Bench for eight years : resumed the practice of law in Memphis and also established a law
-
-
a
282
SKETCHES OF SOLDIERS
school, which he conducted successfully until elected chan- cellor. He has been elector for the State-at-large on the Democratic ticket and held various other positions of honor, and whilst of distinguished lineage and bearing. he has always been essentially a man of the people, affable with all, and a charming, easy talker in whatever circle he is found. He was married years ago in the prime of early manhood to his pres- ent wife, but never had any children ; he is a good churchman, a generous giver to every worthy cause as far as his means will reach, and is doved alike by the rich and poor. Au old-time Christian gentleman, he looks upon the sunny side of life, and by his example makes others happier and better, and with no class of people is he a greater favorite or more congenial than his comrades, the old Confederates. Upon one occasion, a dozen or more years ago, he delivered the annual address upon Confederate Memorial Day at Elmwood ceme- tery, a masterpiece of beautiful thought and pure English.
SOUTHERLAND, JAMES, was born on December 24, 1835, and came of distinguished Revolutionary ancestry, being descended from-the old Virginia families of Pendleton, Clai- borne, Rives and Clayton. While still quite young he engaged in the mercantile business in Memphis, being thus occupied at the breaking out of the civil war. At the first call to arms he volunteered his services in defense of his country and was shortly made first lieutenant of the Bluff City Grays under Captain Thomas F. Pattison. Captain Pattison's health failing. Lieutenant Southerland was placed in command of the company, which was engaged in many desperate conflicts, among them being the battles of Shiloh, Chickamauga, Mis- sionary Ridge and Franklin. Lieutenant Southerland bore himself with conspicuous gallantry on the field, and was noted for his daring bravery and his remarkable coolness under fire. He followed the fitful fortunes of the Confederacy from the first outbreak of hostilities until the closing scenes at Appomattox. At the close of the war he resumed his com- mercial life and was several years later married to Miss Imo- gene Latham. a daughter of F. S. Latham, one of the pioneer editors of Tennessee. Lieutenant Southerland died on Jan-
----
283
CONFEDERATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
uary 9, 1875, and is buried in Elmwood cemetery. One sou, James, and three daughters, Imogene, Katherine and Mary, survived him.
STOVALL, GEORGE A., was born in Green county, Ky .; came to Memphis when quite young in 1848. After Mem- phis fell he joined Company A, Seventh Tennessee Cavalry; took part in the battle of Corinth and was in the raid to Holly Springs under Van Dorn; was in the fight at Thomp- son's station ; took part in operations around Jackson, Miss., and was in the Georgia campaign ; the company became the escort company of General W. H. Jackson after Captain Wm. F. Taylor became colonel of the regiment ; after the surrender returned to Memphis and lives here yet. The company to which he belonged was made up mostly of Memphis boys, many of whom he still remembers and mentions in most com- plimentary terms : Captain (afterward Colonel) W. F. Tay- lor, Captain Henry Martin, John T. Hillsman, Mage Martin, Henry Bragg, Dick Ivey, Jo. and I. N. Rainey, Don. Dock- ery, of Hernando, Miss. ; Clad. and Tell Selden, Foster Talley, Bruce Bow, W. W. Shouse, Bill Rollins, of DeSoto county, Miss. ; George Holmes and many others.
STOVALL, W. H., brother of the above, now of Stovall, Coahoma county, Miss., went out as a lieutenant in the Beau- regards, with the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee Regiment, under General Preston Smith, and became adju- tant. He came to Memphis from Kentucky in 1855 and was practicing law with J. R. Flippin when the war began ; he married a daughter of Mr. J. W. Fowler : went to Mississippi, and is now (1896) a prominent planter near Coahoma; he became a member of the Confederate Relief and Historical Association of Memphis August 12, 1869.
STOVALL, JAMES R., a brother of the two named above, born in Greensburg, Green county, Ky .; came to Memphis in 1854 or '55, and removed to Mississippi ; when the war broke out joined the Hickory Rifles, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee Regiment : was wounded at Shiloh and again at the battle of Franklin, where he was taken prisoner ; came here after the war and soon died in Mississippi.
· 284
SKETCHES OF SOLDIERS
&
TALLEY, WM. F., enlisted in Shelby county, Tenn., in 1861, in Captain Porter's independent company ; was cap- tured near Oxford, Miss., and sent North to prison ; he then returned to Vicksburg to be exchanged, but before reaching Vicksburg all exchange of prisoners had stopped, and the boat, loaded with prisoners, was sent back up the river. At Memphis he made his escape and rejoined his command. But his health and constitution had been destroyed by exposure and want while a prisoner, and he died just at the close of the war, aged 36 years. He was one of the four brothers alluded to in other sketches.
TALLEY, FLETCHER H., was General Agent for the Memphis & Charleston Railroad Company at Memphis at the beginning of the war. Upon the capture of the city in 1862 he enlisted in Company A. Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, and served continuously until detailed for railroad service at Me- ridian, Miss., as agent. Upon the capture of Meridian by General Sherman he moved his office to Selma, Ala., where he continued until the capture of that place by General Wil- son. After the war he was re-employed by the M. & C. R. R. Co. as General Freight and Ticket Agent until his death in 1871, being succeeded by the lamented Barney Hughes.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.