TX Meridian Cemetery, Meridian, Texas, 11/20/2020

Her grandfather Lemuel Jefferson Hale's Find A Grave memorial shows the main marker lying flat on the ground and a small foot marker with the initials L J H.
I saw that and I could see that I had already clicked on his FindAGrave memorial. When I am going through the burials before I visit a cemetery, I click on all the ones that have DOB-DOD that are Civil War period and also those that have a military rank in their name. I look for any Civil War information in their FindAGrave memorial. If not, I check fold3 or Ancestry when I have time. Guess I didn't have time for that when I saw him the first time.
 
Pvt.William H. McMurry, Co. B, 31st Texas Cavalry. A number of his comrades are buried in Meridian Cemetery. Apparently, Co. B, 31st TX Cavalry was raised in Bosque County. 9 pages of fold3 records. Enlisted on April 2, 1862 for the war and Mustered-in on April 11,1862. Those are the same dates as one of his 31st TX Cavalry comrades that I have already profiled in this thread. Present on all Company Muster Rolls which end at Jan.-Feb. 1864.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15450920/william-h.-mccurry


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Checked Ancestry for records on Pvt. McCurry too. He served short stints in Texas State Troops before mustering in to the CSA Army.

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James Fields, Confederate States Army. His FindAGrave memorial says his name was James Wiley Fields, Sr. Quick search of fold3 only turned up 2 possibilities for a Texas soldier. Went to Ancestry hoping for some help and didn't find much. No pension records, Texas State Troops muster records or headstone application. Oldest daughter's, listed on FindAGrave memorial, Death Certificate is on Ancestry and says she was born in Hopkins County, Texas in 1850. Most likely fold3 possibility for this soldier is a "James Fields" in Co. F, 35th Texas Cavalry(Liken's Regiment) , but there are only 2 pages of sketchy fold3 records, both undated, and one says he "Resides in Anderson Co." The other "James Fields" in fold3 enlisted at Corpus Christi in Co. F, 1st TX Cavalry(Yager's Regiment) at age 23 in 1862. He was quite a bit younger than the James Wiley Fields, Sr. in Meridian Cemetery and Corpus Christi is 340 miles from Meridian.


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25366620/james-wiley-fields


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Pvt. P.W. Neely, Co. E., Frontier Regiment Texas Cavalry. This soldier was fun to research. Never heard of such a regiment. I actually started with Ancestry. More on that in the next post. 7 pages of fragmented fold3 records...one Index Card, one Company Muster Roll and 5 Regimental Returns. The Muster Roll is for May-June 1863 and says he enlisted on December 20, 1862 but not for how long. It also says "Pay due from time of enlistment". The 5 Regimental Returns are for Oct.-Dec. 1864 and March-April 1865. He is listed as sick on 3 of them and absent with leave on 2. No idea from the records what kind of duty and where this regiment performed. The records call it McCord's Frontier Regiment Texas Cavalry.



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Pvt. Neely. I started with Ancestry because FindAGrave said there are 16 Neelys buried at Meridian Cemetery but FindAGrave had no information on Pvt. Neely other than what is on the gravestone. I figured somebody took a picture of his gravestone and created a FindAGrave memorial for him using nothing but that. I don't know why anyone would do that. On Ancestry, I found an 1860 Census page for Meridian,Texas that showed a "Philip W. Neely", age 19, and other members of his household. That meant he was born in 1840 or 1841. It shows this to be one of his brothers:



ETA: A quick check of fold3 and Ancestry shows that David H. Neely served in the same Regiment with this brother. He gets a flag next time I am at Meridian Cemetery too.
 
Pvt. P.W. Neely. He also appears at the top of a list of POWs. Not sure if he was actually imprisoned anywhere.

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Pvt. George C. Everett, Co. D, 31st Texas Cavalry. 7 pages of fold3 records. Enlisted at age 26 on May 12, 1862 for the war. Absent on 2 Company Muster Rolls, present on 3 including the last one for Jan.-Feb. 1864. The last one also says "Received no bounty.". There is no DOB or DOD on his FindAGrave memorial so I checked Ancestry for more information. No pension records or headstone application but there was an 1860 Census page for Clifton, Bosque County which says he was 24 in 1860. That matches his age of enlistment of 26 in 1862, so he was born in either 1835 or 1836.


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25349565/george-c-everett



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Before I left Meridian Cemetery, it was late in the afternoon and I just walked around a bit and took a few random pics. I like this one the best.

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As with other states I'm sure, in rural Texas counties the most prominent feature of the county seat is the courthouse. I could see it from Meridian Cemetery and decided to make a quick stop there on the way out of town. I had already done a little research on it and was pretty sure there was no Confederate monument there but it's an old and imposing building and is worth a stop. It was 4pm and there was still business going on. On the courthouse grounds I found a historical marker to Confederate Gen. Allison Nelson. I still have not figured out why it was placed in Bosque County. Apparently, his first name is misspelled on the marker too.

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/nelson-allison


https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/Details/5035002122/print


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Not the best picture of the historical markers on the building. Still not sure how old the building is. Got one pretty decent picture of the Bosque County Courthouse. Next time I go, I am going to try to do that on a weekend time of the day when there might not be much activity around the courthouse.

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Chaplain L.C. Taylor, Confederate States Army. No other information on this man at FindAGrave. Assuming the initials L.C. are correct, I could find no record of a Confederate Chaplain by that name in fold3 or Ancestry. No Headstone Application either. If he was from Texas,I found 2 L.C. Taylors in Texas Cavalry regiments. One was from the Houston area. The other was from Bowie County which is a little closer to Bosque County than Houston. No indication that either was a Chaplain though.





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I was a bit intrigued that Chaplain Taylor would have a VA issued CSA headstone but, no other information so, I spent the morning digging around on the internet to see if I could find anything about him. I did manage to find the application for his headstone (see below) indicating that he died January 28, 1892 and that he was in "Forrest's Original" regiment, having enlisted in Memphis, Tenn.

Within the Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR), unit records show the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry (aka,"Forrest's Old Regiment") was organized in Memphis, Tennessee in 1861, Col. Nathan B. Forrest commanding. As with your search, I did not find anyone named "L.C. Taylor", nor any chaplain named Taylor in the 3rd Tenn Cav. but I did find some notes indicating that some of the companies transferred to various Texas cavalry regiments later in the War (specifically, the 23rd, 26th & 27th Texas Cavalry regiments).

The headstone application was submitted by a Mrs. R.V. Ferguson of Meridian, Texas - I'm guessing that this is Mrs. Minnie Hale Ferguson, wife of Robert V. Ferguson, who are both interred in the same cemetery as Taylor. I couldn't find any family relationships between the Fergusons and Taylor, perhaps she was a member of the local chapter of the U.D.C. or a well meaning citizen who took the time and effort to make sure Chaplain Taylor had a proper headstone.

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I was a bit intrigued that Chaplain Taylor would have a VA issued CSA headstone but, no other information so, I spent the morning digging around on the internet to see if I could find anything about him. I did manage to find the application for his headstone (see below) indicating that he died January 28, 1892 and that he was in "Forrest's Original" regiment, having enlisted in Memphis, Tenn.

Within the Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR), unit records show the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry (aka,"Forrest's Old Regiment") was organized in Memphis, Tennessee in 1861, Col. Nathan B. Forrest commanding. As with your search, I did not find anyone named "L.C. Taylor", nor any chaplain named Taylor in the 3rd Tenn Cav. but I did find some notes indicating that some of the companies transferred to various Texas cavalry regiments later in the War (specifically, the 23rd, 26th & 27th Texas Cavalry regiments).

The headstone application was submitted by a Mrs. R.V. Ferguson of Meridian, Texas - I'm guessing that this is Mrs. Minnie Hale Ferguson, wife of Robert V. Ferguson, who are both interred in the same cemetery as Taylor. I couldn't find any family relationships between the Fergusons and Taylor, perhaps she was a member of the local chapter of the U.D.C. or a well meaning citizen who took the time and effort to make sure Chaplain Taylor had a proper headstone.

View attachment 384428
Great find and thanks for posting the Headstone Application. See post #37 upthread. Member @lelliott19 unlocked the Mrs. R.V. Ferguson mystery.
 
Great find and thanks for posting the Headstone Application. See post #37 upthread. Member @lelliott19 unlocked the Mrs. R.V. Ferguson mystery.
Thanks for the ID info on Mrs. Ferguson - I see from several other posts and headstone applications that she was a very busy UDC member.
 
As with your search, I did not find anyone named "L.C. Taylor", nor any chaplain named Taylor in the 3rd Tenn Cav. but I did find some notes indicating that some of the companies transferred to various Texas cavalry regiments later in the War (specifically, the 23rd, 26th & 27th Texas Cavalry regiments).
That is interesting because in my fold3 research I did find an L.C. Taylor in both the 23rd and 26th Texas Cavalry but didn't and don't have enough info to conclude that Chaplain L.C. Taylor is one of them.
 
That is interesting because in my fold3 research I did find an L.C. Taylor in both the 23rd and 26th Texas Cavalry but didn't and don't have enough info to conclude that Chaplain L.C. Taylor is one of them.
I was searching for "L.C. Taylor" within the CMSR of the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry and came up dry (there are 13 Taylors - 12 privates and a sergeant - but no chaplain).

The headstone application says "Forrest's Original" in the field for regiment or organization and that conforms with many of the handwritten notations within the 3rd Tenn Cav CMSR cards where they write "Forrest's Old regiment" however, one of the CMSR instruction cards warns that this may also refer to the cavalry division Forrest commanded later in the war. So, it may be that Chaplain Taylor could have been with one of the many regiments that served within that division.

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In reading old family papers at the archives at Mississippi State University I came across a letter written to my gr-gr-gr-grandfather from a man who signed his name Bone Hughes. He addresses my gr-gr-gr-grandfather as uncle and says he is in the 27th Alabama Infantry. I dug around to figure out who this man was and, in my searching, discovered he is buried in this cemetery. Knowing you had done several in Bosque County @bdtex I dug up this old thread.

William Robert Hughes was born in Franklin County, Alabama in 1841. He enlisted with the 27th Alabama at the start of the War as a sergeant-major. This may have been a bit (or a lot) of nepotism - the head of the company was his father, Adolphus Alexander Hughes. "Bone" relocated to Texas after the War. Find a Grave shows no tombstone photo for him or his wife. Maybe they are in the deep brush you found? His Texas pension documents have the mortuary warrant and it clearly names the Meridian Cemetery in Bosque County.

I photographed a few of the letters but not this one, unfortunately. All my notes have are his name and regiment and the date and location, November 24, 1863 at Canton, Mississippi.
 
William Robert Hughes was born in Franklin County, Alabama in 1841. He enlisted with the 27th Alabama at the start of the War as a sergeant-major. This may have been a bit (or a lot) of nepotism - the head of the company was his father, Adolphus Alexander Hughes. "Bone" relocated to Texas after the War. Find a Grave shows no tombstone photo for him or his wife. Maybe they are in the deep brush you found? His Texas pension documents have the mortuary warrant and it clearly names the Meridian Cemetery in Bosque County.
Glad you remembered this thread. Meridian Cemetery has been on my return visit list for quite some time. Probably need a whole day there.

Visited another cemetery in Bosque County this morning. One of the veterans I couldn't find at Meridian Cemetery is not buried there. He is at the one I visited this morning. That was a surprise find this morning.
 
Glad you remembered this thread. Meridian Cemetery has been on my return visit list for quite some time. Probably need a whole day there.

Visited another cemetery in Bosque County this morning. One of the veterans I couldn't find at Meridian Cemetery is not buried there. He is at the one I visited this morning. That was a surprise find this morning.
I look forward to your posting about it!
 
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