Lt. Col. James Lockhart Autry, (CSA)

James L. Autry was born January 8, 1830 near Nashville, Tennessee. His father, Micajah Autry, was one of the approximately 187 heroes of the Alamo, killed in March of 1836.

He was educated at St. Thomas Hall in Holly Springs where E.C. Walthall, James R. Chalmers, and Christopher H. (Kit) Mott were among his schoolmates. When war came he enlisted in the Home Guards, a company of the 9th Mississippi, where he was made a Lt. After a year's service, he was made military governor of Vicksburg. In May of 1862, Admiral Farragut demanded the surrender of Vicksburg, to which Autry replied, "Mississippians do not know how to surrender and do not care to learn."

Lt. Col. Autry transferred to the 27th Mississippi Infantry later in 1862. While cheering his men forward in the Battle of Murfreesboro he was struck in the head with a minie ball and killed. After his death on Dec. 31, 1862, his body was returned to Holly Springs and interred in Hillcrest Cemetery with this epitaph: "He died for his country."