Corp. James K. Estes, (USA)

James K. Estes, was the first of nine children born to Peter and Jane (Justice) Estes, my great-great-great-grandparents.

According to his military records from the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville, he enlisted at the age of nineteen in Company F of the 3rd Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry Regiment on March 15, 1863, at Somerset, Kentucky, for a period of three years.

On August 31, 1863, he was mustered into service as a corporal at Nashville.

He became a prisoner of the Confederacy during the Battle of Sulphur Creek ("Branch") Trestle (near Athens, Alabama) on September 25, 1864 (he would have been imprisoned at Cahaba, Alabama, near Selma**) and remained so until the end of the war.

He was treated for diarrhea at the parole camp near Vicksburg, Mississippi (Camp Fisk), on April 11, 1865, but "returned to duty" the following day.

Tragically, he was "killed or drowned by the explosion of the steamer Sultana"***sixteen days later on April 27 on the Mississippi River near Memphis.

Besides his age of nineteen, his vital statistics at the time of his enlistment indicated that he was a native of Morgan County and had been a farmer, that he was 5' 6" with a "fair" complexion, and had "grey blue" eyes and "light" hair.

(*He is my first cousin four times removed on my mother's side.)

(**William O. Bryant's Cahaba Prison and the Sultana Disaster, p. 128.)

(***His body was never recovered, but a memorial headstone, set in 2018, stands beside his mother's headstone to commemorate his life, service, and cause of death.)

His siblings (in birth order):

1) William Alexander Estes married Annie Ketchum
2) Mary Jane Estes married Chesley B. Jackson (my great-great-grandparents)
3) Sarah Ann Estes married Henry Davis
4) Matilda Florence Estes married Wiley DeArmond
5) Richard Thomas Estes married Jennie (Ashley) Davis
6) George Washington Estes married Annie Butler
7) Elizabeth Margaret Estes married 1) James Buchanan Ritter (divorced) and 2) Chesley B. Jackson
8) Peter Ruben Estes married Margaret (Chiles) Webster
.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 10 2023, 20:07:14 UTC