CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: JAMES B. LUNSFORD - Smith County, TX ***************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by Doris Peirce - ginlu@home.com 20 October 2001 ***************************************************************** TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson JAMES B. LUNSFOR Among the young men who volunteered at Dallas, Texas, in June 1867 in the company afterwards known as Douglas' Texas Battery, was James B. Lunsford. He was of that unpretentious type of men who, without hope of personal distinction, made duty thier watchword and measure up to every lawful demand on their loyalty. Such men deserve to live in the annals of their country. James B. Lunsford was born in East Tennessee in 1840, and resided there until 1852 when he came to North Carolina where he remained two years. When fourteen years of age he came to Texas and resided in Harrison and Rusk counties until 1860, when he went to Dallas, living in the western part of that county until his enlistment in Douglas' Battery. In the capacity of a private soldier, he served the Confederacy every day of the war, participating in every battle and skirmish in which his company was engaged, with the exception of the engagement across Duck River, on Nov. 29, 1864. This duel and show of force was for the double purpose of attracting the attention of the enemy and of permitting the execution of a flanking and intercepting movement to the left and rear of the enemy as they faced the Confederates. Young Lunsford was detailed to serve with an improvised artillery company on this expedition--which unfortunately proved to be fruitless--and so missed the battle of Columbia. He escaped all casualties during the war excepting a slight wound from a bursting shell at Elkhorn. He had, too, a horse killed from under him while acting as one of the drivers at Richmond, Ky. He was captured December 17, 1864, on the retreat from Nashville and was surrendered with the other troops at Gainesville, Alabama, on the eighth day of May, 1865. On account of the unsettled conditions of the times he decided to return to North Carolina and has since resided there. Mr. Lunsford spent his youth on the farm in daily toil and had only meagre school privileges, his last attendance being at the school at Bunker Hill, near the present site of Overton, during the session of 1858-59, when its principal was Prof. O. N. Hollingsworth, one of the State Democratic Superintendents of Public Schools in Texas since the war. While Mr. Lunsford's educational advantages were limited, he had what has been called the "divine hunger for knowledge," and all through his strenuous military service he kept some text books with him and was everlastingly "pegging away" at them during his intervals of leisure. After peace was established and people settled down to the ordinary pursuits of life, he very naturally became a school teacher and has taught in the private and public schools of North Carolina thirty- seven years, and for four of those years belonging to the board of county school examiners. In the meantime he was rearing and educating a large family of children. He was married in 1870 to Miss Arta Buckner, whom he lost by death in August 1902. Instead of making the accumulation of property their ideal in life, this devoted couple gave themselves up to the moral and educational culture of their children. The oldest son is now superintendent of public instruction for East Feliciona Parish, Louisiana, while a younger son is principal of the graded school in the town of Selma in the same State. A grown daughter is also teaching, while the younger children are attending Rutherford College, the father having moved there to give his children its benefits. Mr. Lunsford joined the Baptist church in 1868 and the Masons in 1886 and after the record here given it would be superfluous to add that he as honored both relations. Having served well in his day and generation and being retired from active life on account of ill health he awaits the summons of the King to enter into his reward.