To: My Children, Nieces and Nephews:

From: Uncle Mike Mackey

(Note: While this has been written for the benefit and from the perspective of "Mackey" kin (including Pounds, Pearsons, Brewers and Youngs), I am also sending it to Laurie's side of the family (Hilliards, Starks, Evens, Wattenburgers).

Some recent family research has reminded me that I had yet to concisely list the involvement by your great-great-great-grandfathers and other relatives during the War Between the States. As a firm believer in the importance of history ("Now class, who can quote what George Santayana said about those who don't remember history?") I feel strongly that we always need to make history real through the application of its experiences in the lives of our own family members, though now passed-on. To better understand the Second War of the Rebellion, one needs to see how it effected one's own great-great-great-grandfathers.

GGGGrandfather James A Moody and his two older brothers, Hickman and Henry, left Texas in 1863 and headed north to Oklahoma where they joined the Kansas Cavalry. Hickman died of an illness without ever seeing battle. Henry became a sergeant and stood in good with the Republican powers-that-be during Reconstruction, serving brieflly as the federally appointed Kaufman County sheriff. Jim served his tour of duty as a private.

Jim's sister Louisa, however, prior to the war married Jesse L Jones, a young man with a surprisely large amount of personal wealth. In 1860 he owned land worth about $1000 (probably well in excess of 130 acres, a substantial farm in those pre-mechanical farming days. In 1892 he is listed as having 445 acres.) and had personal property exceeding $4000, a tremendous amount of personal wealth. This last figure I found so amazing that my experience in researching these things told me that such wealth probably meant that the young man (about 26 years) had probably inherited the only thing so highly prized by men and further research proved me apparently correct. The slave schedule of the US Census for Kaufman County in 1860 shows one J L Jones owning a 14 year old black boy. According to Ulrich B Phillips, author of “The Economic Cost of Slaveholding in the Cotton Belt.”, Political Science Quarterly 20 (June 1905): pp 257-75. a negro field hand in 1860 was worth approximately $1800. While a fourteen year old could probably not be considered a top field hand, he most likely soon would be and was no doubt worth a great-deal of money and would be worth even more very soon if slavery continued. With the average farm (about 40 acres) of that part of TX selling for approximately $300, we can see how out-of-proportion the wealth of slaves was to the general economy, especially one based on small farmily-owned farms and tenant-farming.

Family holidays must have been very stressful with the extended Moody family about 1860 as the nation headed towards war. The Moodys are reported to have been not just Union-supporters but abolitionists, as well. The three oldest boys joining the Union cavalry certainly supports that report. Yet at least one sister (and probably at least one other-Lucinda Moody Metcalf) married men who supported the CSA and apparently at least one of them actually owned a slave. Jesse Jones did join the CSA in '62 as a private. Jim Metcalf apparently joined the 3rd Missouri Infantry, a confederate regiment and served as a private.

GGGGrandfather John Baird Dey's letters to his grand-daughter Mildred Bloomer tell us everything we know about his service to the Union and his feelings about "the Union forever". We assume as a good Republican and Union-man that he was generally opposed to slavery as a concept though he never once expressed revulsion about "the peculiar institution", rather merely espouses a pro-Union stance. Dey was a private in the Cavalry.

GGGGrandfather Andrew Bloomer was too old to serve in the Union army and his son, Dan, was too young.

GGGGrandfather (John) Bailey Cost (Pappy's grandfather) served in the 44th Alabama Infantry as a private.

G-Great Grandfather John Wesley Clark (Babe's father) served in the 25th Tennessee Infantry Regiment as a private.

GGG-Grandfather Hiram Herndon (Babe's maternal grandfather and Clark's father-in-law) served as a private in Alabama's 27th Infantry.

GGG-Grandfather James M York served as a private in the Alabama Light Artillery

Of course, we know that James T. Mackey was a private in the 31st Mississippi Infantry. Like most young men of the day, his brothers-in-law (he apparently had no brothers) also served, all on the side of the Confederacy. Included among these were Thomas "Uncle Pink" Stovall who was an officer in the Mississippi cavalry (and the only officer in the family I am aware of); and Andrew Jackson Stovall, Pink's little brother, who was a POW at the close of the war (AJ Stovall later became a physician).