Major Thomas J. Dove (CSA)

Thomas J. Dove, businessman, farmer, and Confederate officer, was born in Vermont, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, on August 8, 1830, to Booker and Fannie (Vaughn) Dove. In 1854 Dove moved to Texas and settled in Whitesboro, Grayson County. He was active in the Christian church, a Master Mason, and a member of the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Honor. On December 4, 1856, Dove married Julia E. McCook of Missouri in Cooke County, Texas. The couple produced three daughters.

Dove enlisted as a captain on March 8, 1862, in Company H of the Thirty-fourth Texas Cavalry Regiment, also known as Alexander's Regiment. On June 26, 1862, Dove was promoted to major. The unit participated in the battles of Newtonia, Prairie Grove, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Yellow Bayou. Dove was wounded in the thigh at the battle of Yellow Bayou, Louisiana, on May 18, 1864, but quickly returned to duty. The unit disbanded in Hempstead in June 1865 after Confederate surrender. Following the war, Dove returned to Whitesboro in Grayson County, where he worked as a farmer, carpenter, and undertaker. In 1878 he opened and operated a funeral home. By 1900 he was widowed and working as an undertaker. Dove died in 1902 at Whitesboro and was buried next to his wife at the Oakwood Cemetery in Grayson County.