Okay, then, I will post some info on Col. Leonidus Willis.
I wish I had time to read through some original sources to get some quotes about him. This bio will have to do.
WILLIS, LEONIDAS M. (1831–1899). Leonidas ("Lee") M. Willis, businessman and Confederate officer, was born in Huntsville,
Alabama, on September 11, 1831, to Joshua Willis and Martha Hall. Willis became an orphan at the age of two and was raised by foster parents who moved to New Orleans,
Louisiana, in 1847. In 1852 Willis relocated to Texas and settled in
Gonzales County and worked as a district clerk for the county. He married Caroline Jane Mooney in Gonzales County on November 26, 1857. The couple had three sons and two daughters.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Willis, who owned five slaves, volunteered for service with the Confederacy and raised a cavalry company in the spring of 1862. This unit was incorporated in
Waul's Texas Legion which was then forming at Brenham in Washington County. Willis himself joined Waul's Legion as major in command of one of the unit's two cavalry battalions and received a promotion to lieutenant colonel on September 26, 1862. In the autumn of 1862, Waul's Texas Legion was assigned to Arkansas and Louisiana. There, it was stripped of its cavalry and artillery components, and Willis's unit became
Willis's Battalion Texas Cavalry.
Willis participated in numerous actions, including the battle of Vicksburg where he was
captured on July 4, 1863. After receiving parole, Willis reorganized his battalion and served along the Mississippi River for most of the remainder of the war. He
resigned as lieutenant colonel on February 4, 1865, three months before his unit surrendered in Alabama in May.
Following the end of the war, Willis returned briefly to Texas before moving to
Salem, Oregon, in 1871. There, he bought property and established himself in the dry goods, hardware, and real estate business and worked as the city's fire inspection agent in 1880. Leonidas Willis died on April 10, 1899, and was buried in
Pioneer Cemetery, Salem, Marion County, Oregon.
Quoted from : http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwidj
Photo of Colonel Leonidas Willis
There are two links in Find-a-Grave.
Pioneer Cemetery
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...Sst=39&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=24113273&df=all&
City View Cemetery
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/f...Sst=39&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=47440838&df=all&
He had a son,
Percy Willis, served with distinction in both the Spanish-American and World War 1, and rose to the rank of
Colonel. He comes of a family noted for military prowess, his father, Leo Willis, being a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate army, serving under Lieutenant General N. B. Forrest, while his
uncle, John T. Morgan, was a brigadier general in the Army of the Confederacy. Percy Willis was a Willamette University graduate and Trustee, having left the University a very large sum of money. Even now (2014) funds are available to help struggling Willamette University students, thanks to Pery Willis.
Bio of Percy Willis:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jtenlen/ORBios/pwillis.txt
Quote:
http://capitaltaps.blogspot.com/2010/11/wilfred-owen-leonidas-willis-and-unmild.html
I found this book containing letters from a soldier in Willis' Cavalry--partially viewable in Google Books. He apparently enlisted in the 38 Texas Cavalry but was merged with Waul's Legion, I guess. Not much in the letters and the author could not fill in much about the unit.
Link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=wi...Aw#v=onepage&q=Col. "leonidas willis"&f=false