My Genealogy Hound

James W. Burnside, although a resident of Hillsboro, Ark., was born in Shelby County, Ala., January 11, 1839, being the third of eleven children born to Lemuel and Tabitha (Lawrence) Burnside, the former of whom was born in Georgia, and the latter in Alabama. They emigrated as far west as Arkansas in 1849, and settled in Union County, where the mother is still living, the father having died in 1883, at the age of seventy three years. The most of the family born to them are also residing in this county, and are engaged in farming. James W. Burnside was brought up to a farm life, in this county, receiving the advantages of the common schools, and at the age of twenty-eight years he was united in the bonds of matrimony to Miss E. J. Grace, whose parents, Thaddeus W. and Sarah (Burnside) Grace, were Georgians and emigrated to Arkansas in 1860, and settling in Union County, where they are still living. To Mr. and Mrs. Burnside the following family has been born: Sarah L., Thaddeus L., Birdie, Willie, Hattie and an infant not named. After his marriage, Mr. Burnside started energetically to work to till the soil, and after devoting his attention to this for six years, he opened a mercantile establishment at Hillsboro, which he successfully conducted until 1885. He then resumed his agricultural operations, and is at the present time the owner of 800 acres of fine land, with 150 acres in an excellent state of cultivation. By fertilizing his land he raises one-half bale of cotton and twenty bushels of corn to the acre. He is a supporter of Democratic principles, taking an active interest in politics, and as a citizen his record is untarnished, and in all the affairs of life he has borne himself in an upright manner, and today is recognized as a man of true worth. He entered the Confederate army in 1862, as a private, becoming a member of Company G, Nineteenth Arkansas Regiment, and was principally engaged in Mississippi and Tennessee. He was a participant in the battles of Iuka, Corinth, Baker’s Creek, Big Black and Vicksburg, where he was captured and paroled. He immediately returned to his home in Arkansas, where he remained until September, 1863, when he was ordered to Washington, Ark., where his old regiment was reorganized, and from that time until the close of the war he was on active duty, and faithfully served the cause he espoused.