George Boswell, Sr.  Vernon Parish Louisiana
Submitted by: Cal Boswell, August 1998
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George W. Boswell, Sr. was born in Virginia in about 1809.  His parents 
had immigrated to the United States from Scotland circa 1800.  By the 
1840's George W. Boswell, Sr. had found his way to what is now the 
Beaumont, Texas area.  At least one publication lists him as one of 
the founding fathers of that community.  While in Texas he met and 
married Esther (also Ester and Easter) Nelson.  
Eventually the Boswell's settled near what is now Hineston, Louisiana 
in Rapides Parish.  It was there that seven of their nine children died 
between April, 1858 and July 1858.  Upon their deaths, both George W. 
Boswell, Sr. and wife, Esther Boswell, were buried in Laurel Hill 
Cemetery, Vernon Parish, Louisiana.
With the advent of the Civil War the oldest son of George and Esther 
Boswell, George W. Boswell, Jr. enlisted in the army of the Confederacy.  
Civil War records show him as a corporal in Co. G of the 16th Louisiana 
Infantry.  He received training at Camp Moore, which was located 
approximately 80 miles north of New Orleans.  The Company Muster Roll 
for September and October, 1863 shows George W. Boswell, Jr. as 
"missing since battle Chickamauga, September 20, 1863."   Another 
document entitled Prisoners of War shows that Boswell had been 
captured by the Northern Army near Chicamauga, Georgia and forwarded 
to Louisville, KY on October 1, 1863.  On October 2, 1863 Boswell 
was forwarded to Camp Douglas, Illinois where he was held prisoner 
for the duration of the war.  On June 14, 1865 Boswell was discharged 
from Camp Douglas and headed back toward Rapides Parish.  
I have been told that while in a Confederate Hospital in Jackson, 
Mississippi George W. Boswell, Jr. met Miss Georgiann Burns. CSA 
records do show that he was admitted to the 1st Mississippi C.S.A. 
Hospital, Jackson, Mississippi on March 17, 1862 and was returned to 
active duty on April 8, 1862.  Family members were told that he was 
hit by a ball from a musket rifle and was removed from active duty 
for recovery.  In any event, upon his return to Rapides Parish 
following the war he again met Georgann Burns and they were married.  
Most of the Boswells now residing the Rapides and Vernon Parishes can 
trace their ancestral history directly back to these four individuals.