travelled to New Orleans by land, took steam-boat to Guyandotte, West Virginia, thence by stage to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and on to Washington. The course of his journey well illustrates the routes of travel in early times from this State east. Colonel Gaines was also largely influential in building the road now owned by the Southern Railway Company, from Meridian to Selma; in fact, he was a large factor in every public enterprise of his day. He reared a large family of six sons and two daughters; several of his sons acquired distinction as soldiers, and one daughter married Captain E. A. Bullock of the regular army, a daughter of whom is now Mrs. M. E. Punch, of Laurel, Mississippi. Fine paintings of himself and wife now hang in the Capitol of Alabama, at Montgomery, presented to the State by Dr. Vivian P. Gaines, a grandson, now a resident of Mobile, who also deposited with Dr. J. M. Owen, the State Archivist of Alabama, two volumes of manuscript in the hand-writing of Colonel Gaines, many times herein quoted, giving his reminiscences of pioneer days, all of which have been consulted by the courtesy of Dr. Owen before the preparation of this article; one series of these letters was published in the Mobile Register in 1872, the other series has not yet been published, and both series are of great historical value.

The wife of Colonel Gaines died at Peachwood in 1868, and he died at the same place in the winter of 1872, aged eighty-nine years. Colonel Gaines was tall in stature, commanding in appearance, very dignified, but a most courteous and elegant gentleman; a most generous entertainer and of unbounded hospitality, a fine judge of good dinners, an authority on fine wines, but a most temperate man in his own habits. It is said by Mr. A. C. Coles that he set the best table in Alabama for many years. A better encomium could perhaps hardly be passed upon him than the common saying current among the Indians in his day, which was that Colonel Gaines knew a good blanket and would not tell a lie. Colonel Gaines was a great pathfinder and pioneer, but of a different type from Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, the rude frontiersmen. He was of distinguished and aristocratic birth, accustomed to ease and wealth. He was an accomplished states

man fit to fill almost any delicate or diplomatic post in the gift of the Government; a brave patriot, at home with the savage in his hut or at a state dinner.

In the Panama-Pacific International Exposition there is a superb piece of equestrian sculpture entitled, "The American. Pioneer," by Solon Hamilton Borglum, sculptor; the following description of the statue is an appropriate closing for this sketch:

"Erect, dignified, reflecting on the things that have been, the American Pioneer appears before us, reminding us that to him should be given the glory for the great achievements that have been made on the American Continent. He it was who blazed the trail that others might follow. He endured the hardships, carved the way across the continent, and made it possible for us of today to advance thru his lead. All hail to the whiteheaded, noble old pioneer who, with gun and axe, pushed his way thru the wilderness; whose gaze was always upward and onward, and whose courage was unfaltering."

16

Colonel Gaines served in the Alabama State Senate from Marengo and Clarke Counties. He was a pioneer banker at Mobile and long a familiar figure there. The town of Gainesville. Alabama, was named for him. In many treaties between the United States Government and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians he was a most influential participant; the Indians had unbounded confidence in his integrity, as did the officials of the United States Government and the pioneer settlers. He was an accomplished patriot and statesman. After a long and successful business and official career, following the custom of his Virginian ancestors, he retired to his estates at Peachwood and passed a serene old age in modest and dignified simplicity.

16 See many interesting references to Colonel Gaines in that valuable historical contribution to the history of the South-West, "Colonial Mobile," published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., by Judge Peter J. Hamilton, now Federal Judge of the District of Porto Rico.

JAMES LOCKHART AUTRY.

BY JAMES M. GREER.

In the small village of Hayesborough in the outskirts of Nashville, and now a territorial part of that beautiful and historic city, on January 8th, 1830, there was born to Micajah and Martha Wyche Autry "a man child" subsequently christened in the Episcopal Church, James Lockhart Autry. In Nashville, Tenn., which was in hearing distance of the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, the cannon were booming, and the people rejoicing over the fifteenth anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, since called "Jackson's day."

After Col. Autry's death at Murfreesborough, or, Stone River, as one chooses to call the battle of the 31st of December, 1862, his mother said: "My poor boy! The first sound that ever came to him was the booming of cannon, and it was the last sound he ever heard." "Peace let him rest! God knoweth best!"

The object of this sketch is not to elaborate to weariness, or to eulogize to fulsomeness the story of a son of Mississippi, who once, in the long ago, won honor for himself and "Served The State." When but a baby, he was brought with the family to Jackson, Tennessee. A vivid story of that trip through the wilderness is told by Mrs. Mary Autry Greer in the sketch of their father who fell at the Alamo in 1836 for the freedom of Texas. "Mother, sister, aunt, my baby brother, his nurse and myself travelled in the family coach, a handsome affair drawn by two large bays. Father rode a fine grey horse, and was an agile, graceful equestrian. The slaves were in two immense wagons, with hoops covered with cloth, not unlike in appearance to the large Prairie Schooner of a later day, and drawn by horses and

mules. Although so young, I remember several incidents of the route. The negroes in the wagons always camped out and cooked their own meals. * ** * In a few days more we reached our destination, the flourishing little town of Jackson."

Very shortly after her husband's death, his widow moved with her two children to Holly Springs, Mississippi. It was in "this city of flowers" as it was called, that Autry grew to manhood and had his home at the time of his death. He attended school at Saint Thomas Hall, a school presided over by the famous teacher, Mr. Whitehorn. Among his schoolmates were, E. C. Walthall, J. R. Chalmers, C. H. Mott and many others who afterwards won great distinction. Very few of that generation became what we now call college men. Young Autry did not have a father's hand to guide him, but in his mother he had a woman of strong character, great tenderness and wise judgment. Possessed of small means, his was yet a happy childhood. Coming to maturity, young Autry entered upon the practice of law in his home town along with a bar which was among the strongest in the whole south. L. Q. C. Lamar, who afterwards entered the United States Senate and became a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was one of these practitioners, and Autry was his partner, the firm name being Lamar, Mott and Autry. J. W. C. Watson, who later became a Confederate State Senator, J. R. Chalmers, who afterwards became a Brigadier General in the Confederate army, E. C. Walthall, who attained the rank of Major General in the Confederate Army, and after the Civil war was a Senator of the United States, were all lawyers of Holly Springs. To these may be added, A. M. Clayton, who went on the Supreme bench of Mississippi, Henry Craft, the gentlest man and the most scholarly lawyer the writer ever knew, J. W. Clapp, one of the most earnest, energetic and logical of men, General Alexander Bradford, who ranked among the bravest of the brave, Colonel H. W. Walter, a very prince of chivalry, General W. S. Featherstone, who, also subsequently commanded a division in the Confederate army; his partners, Thomas W. Harris and R. L. Watson, the gallant and generous William M. Strickland, the

safe and sensible counsellor William Finley; Samuel Benton, J. M. Scruggs, and many others of great note. Young Autry, in winning distinction at such a bar, showed more than average merit. In 1853 he was elected to the legislature of Mississippi, re-elected several times. In 1858, he was chosen Speaker and, perhaps, was the youngest person who ever filled that place of distinction.

He was married in 1858 to Miss Jeanie Valiant, and in November, 1859, his only child, a son, was born at their home in Holly Springs, Mississippi. The boy was given his father's full name, and is now a lawyer residing in Houston, Texas. At the outbreak of the Civil war, Autry was a lieutenant in the Home guards, a volunteer company made up of the leading young men of Holly Springs. In March, 1861, the company reported for duty at Pensacola, Florida. There it was attached to the Ninth Mississippi regiment, which chose James R. Chalmers, as its colonel, and Autry as its lieutenant colonel. (At this time the volunteers selected their own officers.) After the year's service, for which they had enlisted, this regiment was reorganized. Autry was then detached and detailed for special service, being made military commandant, or governor of Vicksburg. New Orleans had fallen and the victorious Federals were steaming up the Mississippi river. Autry with a handful of men, at once, undertook the construction of defenses for what proved the doomed city of Vicksburg. Admiral Farragut, another Tennesseean, in command of the Federal fleet, on the 18th day of May, 1861, demanded from Autry the surrender of the city. Autry's reply with his handful of men (which the Federals thought a powerful force) was notable: "Mississippians don't know, and refuse to learn, how to surrender." Some months after this Autry returned to his regiment, the 27th Mississippi Infantry. At the battle of Murfreesborough, or Stone River, as it is variously called, he was killed while in command of his regiment. The following is taken from General Patton Anderson's report as printed in the Mississippi Official and Statistical Register of 1908 at page 654: