CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: E. S. McCall *********************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net 11 April 2002 *********************************************************** TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson - Page 329 E. S. McCALL Edwin S. McCall, of Cherokee, was born in Claiborne county, Miss., Jan. 24, 1835. His father, Dugald G. McCall, was a native of Argile Shire, Scotland, and a cotton planter in Mississippi and Louisiana. His mother, Susan Coleman, was of Welch decent and a native of Mississippi. He attended school at Oakland College, Miss., and was a graduate of that institution in 1856, in its palmiest days. But, alas! the sad fate of that proud seat of learning, through whose classic halls passed statesmen apd scholars; to be now in possession of the negro. In 1857 he moved with his aged mother to his plantation in Tensas Parish, La., with the thought of its being his permanent home. In May, 1861, he was married to Miss Mary Bowman, a daughter of John I. Bowman, a planter of that Parish. When the war clouds began to darken and the guns of Fort Sumpter proclaimed that hostilities had actually begun, he with a part of the Tensas cavalry, a company organized soon after the Old John Brown raid in Virginia, for home protection, asked permission of the police jury, under whose authorship they acted, to offer their services to the Confederate government, but was refused permission for the present. When, in June, President Davis issued a call for more cavalry, they again asked permission, and it was granted. In August, 1861, the Tensas Cavalry, numbering over 100 men or boys (for most of them were boys,) armed and equipped by private enterprise, well drilled and ready for service, embarked at St. Joseph, La., on the steamboat, Mary Keen, with orders to report at headquarters with Adams Regiment, Memphis, Tenn. On arriving there the company went into camp and was mustered into service, taking the oath for three years, unless sooner discharged. He there took that obligation as a private; never doubting success, for to doubt with him was treason. Before the regiment was formed we were ordered to Columbus, Ky. Then to Bowling Green, where the regiment was organized, and he was appointed sergeant-major. Remaining at Bowling Green until the evacuation in February, 1862, and with Adams regiment was the last troops to leave, and was rear guard for the anny until we reached Corinth, Miss. At the battle of Shiloh he was acting adjutant of the regiment. While at Corinth the office of Jr. 2nd Lieut. became vacant in the company and he was elected to fill the vacancy. Soon after Capt. Harrison was promoted to major of the regiment and he became 2nd lieutenant. At the battle of Denmark, Capt. Berdurant was wounded and Ist Lieut. G. W. Montgomery was killed, which promoted him to lst Lieut. and placed him in command of the company. Capt. Berdurant, never recovering sufficiently from his wounds, resigned, which promoted him to captain. At the reorganization of the army under Gen. Bragg, Wirt Adams' regiment, which was made up of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana companies, was reorganized and the Tensas cavalry was ordered to the Trans-Mississippi Department to raise a regiment of Cavalry and a battery of Artillery, which we succeeded in doing by the formation of the 3rd Louisiana Cavalry regiment and Cameron's Battery of Artillery. A vacancy caused by the death of Lieut. Col. Moore, Capt. McCall, being the senior captain, was promoted to Major of the regiment. The 3rd Louisiana Regiment of Cavalry operated from Gaines Landing, Ark., to below Alexandria; La., and was engaged in numerous raids and skirmishes with the gunboats on the Mississippi and Red River, and the land forces. At the close of the war he came to Texas, not deeming it altogether safe to remain so close to the Federal authorities. Has resided most of the time in Cherokee county, has engaged in fanning, sawmilling and surveying. Has five children living, two sons and three daughters, all members of the church and all married except one.