c. 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

Sgt. Major John C. Anderson was among the first men to enlist in the battery on April 4, 1862.  At the time, he was 27-years old, unmarried, and a native of Knoxville, Tennessee.  His parents were James Anderson, a stonecutter, and Mary Anderson (possibly James V. Anderson and Mary Simpson who married in Knoxville 1831).  In 1867, John C. Anderson married Gertrude, a woman born in New York to German immigrants.  They resided in Louisville, Kentucky, 1870-1910, and were the parents of two children:  Alice, born around 1871; and Clarence Anderson, born in 1876.  John C. Anderson followed his father’s vocation, and was a stonecutter. He last appears in the Louisville City Directory in 1910; his wife is listed in the 1911 City Directory as a widow.  Captain Barry’s letter of 1990 to Fritz Maunz states that Anderson has lived in the Louisville area “since the War.”  He also appears to have been active in the Louisville Confederate Veterans Association and is listed in a book of Confederate Veterans of Kentucky.  Sgt. Anderson resided in Louisville until around 1910; his date of death and burial location are unknown.

Rayford E. Autry transferred to the Battery from the 26th TN, along with Rap Garrett, his neighbor at Pond Springs, Walker County, GA.  He was captured near Atlanta Sept. 2, 1864, and transferred to Camp Douglas, Illinois.  On March 24, 1865, he enlisted in the United States Army, along with Tony Douthitt, and went west to fight Indians.  His US Army enlistment states he has Hazel eyes, black hair, dark complex, 5’8” , born Abbeville, TN, occupation – farmer; 23 years old on March 24, 1865.  He was promoted to 1st Sergeant on May 1, 1866 and discharged in October of the same year.  Upon his return to Georgia, he married Rap Garrett’s younger sister, Mary Elizabeth Garrett.  The family moved to Texas in 1877 and remained there until their deaths.  Rayford died Nov. 17, 1922, and is buried at Smithfield Cemetery in what is now North Richland Hills in Tarrant County, Texas.

  • Fort Worth Star Telegram, 1922 Nov. 17  OLD RESIDENT OF COUNTY DIES AT HOME HERE – R. E. Autry, for 43 [48?] years a resident of Tarrant County, died early Friday morning at his residence, 2417 West Twenty-seventy Street, North Side.  Autry was 80 years old.  He resided at Smithfield until 12 years ago when he moved to Fort Worth.  There are eight children, 21 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren surviving.  The children are:  Mmes. J. E. Hukill, G.M. West and M. Terry, Fort Worth; Mrs. H. L. Shaw, Phoenix, Ariz., and L. W. Autry of Childress, R. A. of Quanah, C.E. of Fort Worth and J. W. of Phoenix.  The funeral will be held in Smithfield Saturday at 2:30 p.m.  Rev. J. F. Murrell conducting the services, and the funeral party will leave from the North Fort Worth Undertaking Company’s chapel at 1:30 p.m. [www.genealogybank.com]
  • see also –http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txtarran/military/autrey_rayford_e.pdf

Lt. John McMillan “Mac” Armstrong joined the Battery in May 1862 at Chattanooga.  He was from a Knoxville, Tennessee, and moved to Chattanooga to work as a clerk in the hardware store owned by Patrick Henry Watkins, husband of John’s sister, Evelyn Armstrong Watkins.  He remained with the Battery throughout the War.  Letters written by John Mac Millan Armstrong in 1862-1863 provide significant insight into the Battery’s activities.  After the War, he married Martha J. Turnley and they made their home in Chattanooga.  Their children were Turnley Armstrong and Zella Armstrong, a historian whose sought to memorialize the Lookout Artillery.   John McMillan Armstrong died in 1897 and is buried with his family at Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga, TN.    More about Lt. Armstrong with photo:  http://genealogytrails.com/tenn/hamilton/chattanoogasownjohnmcmillanarmstrong.htm  Full transcriptions of his letters:  http://genealogytrails.com/tenn/hamilton/chattanoogalettersltarmstrongindexpage.htm

Amos Naman Bice, joined the Battery on May 5, 1862, after serving a 12-month enlistment with the Jackson Guard (later known as Co. G, 7th AL).  He was born Feb. 1845 in South Carolina, and would have been 18 years old at the time of his enlistment in the Battery.   On the retreat from Jackson, MS, he fell off a caisson and suffered a broken jaw.   He is listed as present on all remaining rolls of the Battery.  His Confederate pension application indicates he was wounded in the leg at Spanish Fort.   He married Eliza J. Benson in June 1866, at Jackson County, AL, and they resided in Jackson County in 1870.  He appears in the 1904 and 1905 Chattanooga city directories, listed as working at Chattanooga Plow Co.  Bice died in Chattanooga in 1908 and is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery, although a grave marker was placed at the Confederate Cemetery bearing his name.  Children include daughter Carrie Bice Orange died 1941 Dec 29 at Chattanooga; buried at Forest Hills; a son, Mose or Moses Bice, born 1887 Apr 12; died 1931 Aug 10 at Birmingham, AL; daughter Mary Bice Blaylock born 1880 and died Birmingham, AL, 1918 Mar 29; and daughter Alice Elizabeth Bice Hassell born about 1885, and died 1965 Aug 8 at Birmingham, AL.

Charles W. Byington was one of the youngest members of the Battery, enlisting at the age of 15 in July 1864.  He gave his home as Fort Valley, GA, on the parole roster dated May 11, 1865.  The 1850 Census shows him in Baker County, GA, the son of James L. and Jane C. Byington.  The family is in Albany, GA, in the 1860 census, with James Byington, a hotel keeper, and his wife Caroline.  It appears Charles married Annie N. Richardson on July 31, 1870, in Houston County, GA.  He died a few years later and is buried at Rose Hill Cemetery (Holly Ridge Plot), Macon, Bibb County, Georgia, with a Confederate marker.  His stone reads, “Charles W. Byington – Oct. 1, 1848 – June 16, 1875”

  • 1875 June 22,  “Weekly Constitution” (Atlanta, GA) page 4, “DIED IN GEORGIA…C. W. Byington, of Fort Valley””

James Washington Carson transferred to the Battery on June 8, 1862, from Co. H, 26th TN, joining his younger brother, William.  James Carson remained with the Battery until its parole on May 11, 1865.  The 1860 census shows him living in Walker County, GA, Eagle Cleft Post Office.  He was born Sept. 8, 1839, in Tennessee, to Andrew Jackson Carson and Mary Catherine Williamson Carson.  By 1885, James W. Carson had moved to Kansas, where he spent the rest of his life.  He died Jan. 30, 1917  in Geary County, Kansas, and is buried at St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery rural Geary County.  His children included two (2) daughters, Sarah A. Carson, born around 1869, and Jessie d. Carson, born around 1875.

William A. Carson, his younger brother, was born Feb. 20, 1841, and enlisted in the Battery at the first of May 1862.  The March-April 1863 company roster indicates he is “Sick – in quarters.”  William Carson died June 1863 at the hospital in Greeneville, Alabama.

Robert L. Cate/Cates transferred into the Battery from the Camp of Instruction in early February 1863.  He was captured near Jackson, Mississippi, in July 1863, and sent to Camp Morton, Indiana, where he died of Typho- Malarial fever on July 17, 1864.  He was buried at Greenlawn Cemetery, Camp Morton, and later interred with other Confederates in a mass grave at Crown Hill Cemetery.  http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/Indiana/Crown_Hill_Confederate_Plot.html

John Burch Cook, George A. Cook, and John W. (possibly John M.) Cook – pending

 James Knox Polk Douglass – pending 

James H. Douthit/Douthitt – pending

arcelino Guerra (also shown as Marcellus or Marsalena)  joined the Battery in September 1862 at Knoxville, TN.  He was born around 1842 in Central America.  Guerra was captured July 3, 1864 near Marietta, GA, and held at Camp Morton, IN, until May 20, 1865.  At the time of his release, he was 23 years old, 5’4¼ “ tall, with black hair, black eyes, and a dark complexion.  He gave his residence as Demopolis, AL, and occupation as carpenter.  On Feb. 28, 1867, Marcelino Guerra married Malinda E. Tipton (a first cousin of Milo Scott’s wife) at Knox County, TN.  The family resided in Dalton, GA, in 1870, where Marcelino worked as a dentist.  Their children included a daughter Janie, and son, John M. Guerra, who was born in Georgia in 1869.  Marcelino appears to have died very young, and his wife remarried to “Esquire Vincent.”

James Henry Edmondson – pending

James L. M. Erwin – pending

James P. Traynor enlisted in the Battery on Aug. 4, 1862.  He was about 18 years old and a native of Cleveland, TN.   His parents were — Traynor, an engineer from Ireland who laid out the city of Cleveland, and Mary Cozby Traynor.  James’ sister (Katherine “Kate” Traynor Rogers Morris) was second white child born in Cleveland.  Her obituary describes the Traynor family as “one of Cleveland’s most prominent families,” and their brother was Judge Arthur Traynor.  James Traynor remained with the Battery until the parole at Meridian, Mississippi, in May 1865.  After the War, he moved west with his mother’s family, the Cozbys.  The 1880 census shows James P. Traynor as a 36-years old, unmarried “Cow man” at Denton, Texas.  His marker in Fort Hill Cemetery, Cleveland, TN, reads:  James P. Traynor, died Mar 13, 1881, “age 37 yrs – departed this life in the Indian territory.”  The following newspaper clipping was in his sister’s possession:  Died, In Texas, on March 11th, of consumption, Mr. James P. Traynor, aged 35 years.  The deceased left here in May last.  He was the second son of the late John D. and Mary A. Traynor.   (Family note:  His younger brother, John Traynor, established the UCV Camp in Cleveland, named John Traynor Camp.)

MORE PENDING

Additional biographies:  John Wilson and Nat Hughes researched Confederate Veterans of Hamilton County, TN, and published their findings in a book titled “Hamilton County Confederates.”  The information is also available online at the Chattanoogan through the following links.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2005/8/16/70949/Hamilton-County-Confederates-A-B.aspx

http://chattanoogan.com/2005/8/16/70952/Hamilton-County-Confederates-C.aspx

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2005/8/16/70954/Hamilton-County-Confederates-G-H.aspx

http://chattanoogan.com/2005/8/16/70955/Hamilton-County-Confederates-I-K.aspx

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2005/8/16/70956/Hamilton-County-Confederates-L-N.aspx

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2005/8/16/70957/Hamilton-County-Confederates-O-R.aspx

http://chattanoogan.com/2005/8/16/70958/Hamilton-County-Confederates-S-T.aspx

http://chattanoogan.com/2005/8/16/70959/Hamilton-County-Confederates-U-Z.aspx