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James M. Long, Lawyer, as featured in an 1885 Paris Texas Progressive Club brochure
James M. Long
12 Sep 1843 - 29 Jul 1924
Private, Co. A, 9th Texas Infantry
By Ron Brothers
James M. Long was born 12 Sep 1843 in Obion Co., Tennessee, the son of George Henry Long. James married Mary E. Caldwell 27 Dec 1868 in Fannin Co., TX. She was born 16 Aug 1849 in Kentucky and died 29 Sep 1887 in Lamar Co., TX.
James’ father, George Henry Long was born 13 Feb 1813 in North Carolina and died 14 Feb 1900 in Bonham, Fannin Co., Texas, at his daughter's home Mrs. Ben D. Hays. George was buried at the Old City Cemetery in Paris, Lamar Co., Texas. His tombstone appears to be inscribed C. H. Long.
George married 1 Sep 1842 in Obion Co., Tennessee to Elizabeth Caroline Whitesides (b: 22 Jul 1824 in Maury Co, Tennessee, died 5 Mar 1875 and buried next to George in Paris.)
According to information from Gay Mathis' research found at http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=lgmathis&id=I27968 the children of George and Elizabeth Long were:
1. James M. Long b: 12 Sep 1843 in Obion Co., Tennessee
2. F. Marion Long b: Abt 1846 in Obion Co., Tennessee
3. Mary Jane Long b: 9 Sep 1848 in Obion Co., Tennessee
4. Margaret (Maggie) A. Long b: 13 Jan 1851 in Obion Co., Tennessee
5. Elizabeth C. Long b: 19 Nov 1854 in Texas
6. Martha Long b: 20 Mar 1856 in Texas
7. William Long b: 18 Jan 1859 in Lamar Co., Texas
8. Sidney J. Long b: 28 Feb 1862 in Lamar Co., Texas
9. Lallie B. Long b: Abt Jun 1865 in Lamar Co., Texas
James M. Long’s Confederate Service Record shows he joined the 9th Texas Infantry, commanded by Col. Sam Bell Maxey as Private in Company A. It notes he was 18 years of age and was detached to the Commissary Dept. on 26 Nov 1861. It states he was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh in the leg and foot both of which were amputated. He was discharged, 22 May 1862 at Corinth, MS. His record shows he was 5'7', gray eyes, fair complexion, sandy hair.
Article from Long, J. M. "A Seventeen Year Old Texas Boy at Shiloh", Blue and Gray, I (1893), pp. 278-279.
A SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD TEXAS BOY AT SHILOH.
J. M. LONG, LATE CO. A., 9TH TEXAS INFANTRY.
On the morning of the 6th day of April, 1862, about three or four o' clock, the firing of a lonely picket was heard, which kept on increasing until day- break, when it grew heavier and louder, awaking the boys in gray, who arose from their bed of leaves and began to prepare for the fray, as it was the first battle and baptism of blood for the 9th Texas Infantry. I was one of the seventeen-year-old boys, who had left my home in Paris, Texas to see and enjoy the fortunes of war. Having enlisted at this place in August, 1861, we went into camp and drilled until January, 1862. I began to get restless for fear the war would be over before we had the opportunity of meeting the enemy and testing the difference between Southern chivalry and Northern grit, and I remembered the first battle of Manassas, how the boys in gray had routed and put to flight the boys in blue – which victory was a blessing in disguise. After marching and countermarching for several hours, we came in sight of the Federal forces in an open field, where we could see them plainly, and could here the shrill Minie ball whizzing to and fro. At this time we were standing upon a hill and in front of a ravine, east of us, where we could see the boys in blue and gray as they charged and advanced upon each other in “deadly battle array.” Here we halted for awhile and had the pleasure of letting the Federal artillery play upon us for some thirty minutes or more. While we were standing here waiting for the enemy, we saw a regiment of men coming helter-skelter, pell-mell, stampeding, and panic-stricken, and we thought General Grant and his entire army were making a grand charge; but our delusion was dispelled when we recognized our boys in gray, who had made a charge and been repulsed; they had as brave hearts as we, but their cowardly legs had got scared and run away with them. When we charged bayonets and stopped them, they recovered from their panic, marched back to the front, and charged the enemy with as much zeal and valor as if they had never retreated or fallen back. I would not tell of this episode, but thirty years have passed, and all of us boys in gray are beyond the conscript age. While standing on the hill, as this was our first battle, we must play brave.
While other regiments in the brigade who were christened at Fort Donelson lay down upon the ground, so the shot and shell would pass over them, we cried out that “the bloody 9th Texas” would not play the coward and show the white feather in her first battle. But as time passed on, and the shot and shell fell faster and thicker, now and then some of our boys being struck and wounded, and occasionally a bayonet bent down by a stray ball, we concluded “discretion was the better part of valor,” and we lay down quietly like the old soldiers who had seen some actual service. Soon the order was given to forward march, and in an open glade in front of us General Patton Anderson's brigade was ordered to charge the enemy and take the battery that had been playing upon us, which was handsomely done; in this charge I received a wound in my right leg from a Minie ball, which prostrated me. While lying on the ground I received a second shot, through my right foot, which caused the amputation of my leg.
While I was lying upon the battlefield, wounded, one of the boys in blue, who had been struck and knocked down by a Minie ball, which struck his Bible in his vest pocket, just over his heart - the Bible saving his life - came up to me and suggested an armistice, to which I agreed upon the condition that he would permit me to ride him off the battlefield, back to our hospital tent; and here I brought into exercise my cow-boy experience in Texas, and told him to get down on all fours like a horse and I would climb up on his back. You can imagine the picture of the Texas boy in gray riding on the back of one of the boys in blue; such a hugging as I gave that boy no pen can describe; suffice it to say, all my war fever subsided, and I have been in favor of "peace on earth and good-will to men" ever since. Now, if any person doubts this story, I can prove it.
After this brave boy in blue had deposited what was left of me in the hospital tent, he returned to his command, and I was left sick and wounded in the hospital tent on the battle field, near the Corinth road. While lying there on that beautiful Sabbath-day, thinking over the fortunes of war, and watching the captured cannons and baggage wagons passing back in the direction of Corinth, about four p.m. I saw a brigade of boys in blue marching by as prisoners, and I first thought we had captured General Grant and his entire army, but I soon learned that it was Prentiss' Brigade, and it may be that the boy in blue was one of his men, and taken a prisoner after favoring one of the boys in gray by permitting him to ride him off the battlefield. Such are the scenes and fortunes of war.
Just before I was wounded I saw many sights, some horrible, some amusing and novel. I remember seeing one of the brave boys in blue, poor fellow, who had offered up his life upon the altar of his country; he was lying on his back, with his quiet face upturned to heaven, his head upon his knapsack, and his hands folded upon his breast, a cob pipe in his mouth, as if smoking the “pipe of peace.” I never would have dreamed or believed that soldiers could have indulged in such levity on the battlefield, in the presence of death, if my own eyes had not witnessed this strange sight. As I passed on beyond and over the brave boys in blue, lying on the battle-field wounded, dead, and dying, I saw some around the tents and campfires with their pans and slap-jacks in their hands, as if to say to us: “Rebels from Texas, can't you wait until breakfast is over before you make this unceremonious call?”
As to the conduct of the 9th Texas Regiment during the battle, I can only say that Colonel Stanley in one of the charges seized the colors, and holding them high over head, called upon the regiment to follow him, and charged over the hill amid a shower of leaden hail from the enemy. The effect was electrical, and General Patton Anderson in his report says the language of eulogy could do no more than simple justice to Colonel Stanley and his valorous Texans, who were ever in the thickest of the fight, and ready to respond to any demand upon their courage and endurance.
And here ends my actual service and bird's-eye view of the battle; the balance I only learned from the legends of the soldiers and the war reports our government is publishing.
James M. Long received a Texas Confederate Pension #13408 in Lamar County for his service in the Confederate Army. An abstract of the pension shows: applied 14 Feb 1908, approved 2 Mar 1908. He was 64 years of age at time of application and lived in Lamar Co., TX for 57 years. He was currently living at 420 N. Main St. He served in Co. A, 9th Texas Infantry from Aug 1861 to 6 Apr 1862. War Dept. reply shows he enlisted on 26 Sep 1861. P. M. and S. S. Speairs, 14 Feb 1908, Lamar Co., deposed they knew him and that his leg was shot off at the Battle of Shiloh. His right leg was amputated, very high up near the hip. Mortuary Warrant in file shows he died of dysentery on 29 Jul 1924 in Paris, Lamar Co., TX at the home of his son Robert J. Long on 199 Graham St. in Paris. Fred A. Manton was the Undertaker.
It is believed that he appears in a group picture of United Confederate Veterans in THE PARIS NEWS, Sunday, May 13, 1956, Section II, page 8.
Article from Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, 1861-1865, by Mary Yeary, Dayton, Ohio: Morningside, 1986, p. 449:
“J. M. Long, Paris -- Texas, Born Sept. 12, 1843, at Troy, TN. Enlisted in the Confederate Army at Camp Rusk, [then in Lamar County] Texas, as private in Company A., Ninth Texas Infantry, Ector's Brigade, Gen. Rugle's Division, Army of Tennessee. My first Captain was E. J. Shelton, and first Colonel, Sam Bell Maxey.
Was wounded at the battle of Shiloh. Both in right leg and foot, April 6, 1862. Had leg amputated at Corinth, Miss., on the 26th day of April, 1862.
The Confederate Congress passed resolutions complimenting the old Ninth Texas in 1863 for gallant deeds at the battle of Shiloh.”
James M. Long died 29 Jul 1924 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Block 11-07-03 in Paris, Lamar Co., Texas.
The Paris Semi-weekly News, Friday, August 1, 1924: “James M. Long, an old resident of Paris, died suddenly at his home on Graham street at 2:45 o'clock Tuesday afternoon. He had been confined to his home the last five weeks, but was not thought to be seriously ill. He sat up Tuesday morning. He was weakened by his long illness and had a sudden collapse of the heart while he was in the bathroom. He had never been sick before, having enjoyed remarkable health all of his life. The death of a number of his old acquaintances during the past year is said to have made a deep impression on him and to have affected his spirits, making him feel depressed.
Mr. Long was in the 81st year of his age, he having been born in Obion county, Tenn., in 1843. He came to Paris in 1850 with his father, Henry Long, and at the time of his death there were few persons who had lived here longer than he had.
At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted in the 9th Texas Infantry and was in the hardest of the fighting until he lost a leg at the battle of Shiloh in 1862, which put him out of service.
Returning home he attended the McKenzie College in Red River county, the most noted school in this section of the State at that time. Hon. H. D. McDonald and brother, W. J. McDonald and other well known citizens attended this school. After leaving McKenzie College, Mr. Long taught school here a short while and went to Sherman and taught about a year, after which he returned to Paris and abandoned teaching and devoted his attention altogether to the practice of law.
In reconstruction days he was elected district clerk, but was not permitted under the reconstruction act to assume the duties of the office. He was justice of the peace for a while. In 1888 he was elected county attorney and served two years. A few years later he was again elected to the office and served one term.
In 1868 he married Mary E. Caldwell, who was living in Honey Grove at the time of their marriage. She died in 1897. He was not only one of the oldest citizens of Paris in point of residence when he died but was the oldest member of the Paris bar, although he had not been engaged in active practice the last few years.
He is survived by a son, R. J. Long, of Paris and by a daughter, Mrs. Harry Sandham of Los Angeles, Ca. He is also survived by a brother, S. J. Long of Paris. The funeral service will be held at 2:30 o'clock this afternoon at his late residence on Graham street, and Albert Sidney Johnston Camp of which he was a member will have charge of the services at the grave. Interment will be at Evergreen cemetery.”
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