James Wilkinson (1826 - 1864)

Born 24 Dec 1826 in North Carolina, United States

Husband of Martha Ann (Moore) Wilkinson — married [date unknown] in Union, Newton County, Miss.

Descendants

Died 14 Apr 1864 at age 37 in Cairo, Alexander County, Illinois, United States

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James Wilkinson was born in North Carolina 24 December 1826. He married Martha Ann Moore, born 10 July 1832 in North Carolina. They lived in Union, Newton County, Mississippi. They were the parents of W. Henry Wilkinson and the grandparents of Emmett Joshua Wilkinson.

James, Martha and their children were captured by the Yankees in Newton County, Mississippi and taken to the Yankee Civil War Jail in Cario, Illinois in 1863.

James died from measles while in the jail in Cario, 14 April 1864, during the Civil War. He was buried in Cario.

Martha and their children came home to Newton after the war was over in 1865.

They had 10 children. See reference for source of this information.

This is the way this event happened as passed down and told by Norris Wilkinson, one of the sons of William Henry Wilkinson I:

James Wilkinson was born in NC and traveled down into Alabama where he met and married Martha Ann Moore. They moved into the Northeast part of Mississippi, into Newton County.

They started a family which became a total of two sons and eight daughters.

During this period the civil war was taking place. At a time close to 1861, on one of his raids through Mississippi, after General Sherman had burned their home, barns, and took all their livestock and anything else he could use. General Sherman captured James and forced him to drive a freight wagon for him.

After General Sherman and his men had gone with his father and their belongings, young William "Henry" Wilkinson found a pair of horses that had run off into the woods. Henry kept them hidden in the woods and later found a wagon.

Then Henry along with his mother, his brother, and seven sisters trailed General Sherman and his men. In pursuit of James, who was a prisoner all the way to Cairo, Illinois, the length of their trip to Cairo we are not sure of.

It was long hard journey since all their personal belongings had been destroyed by General Sherman and his men. With so many to care for the family begged, borrowed, and sometimes took things just to survive the long trip to Cairo.

James was being held prisoner there in a federal prison, so the family camped and lived outside the prison walls. They survived there with the help of prison officials and by gathering up drift wood along the banks of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and selling it for fire wood.

While there James sometimes had visiting privileges to see his family, but on April 14, 1864, James died inside the prison and we don't know that happened to the body. Also, sometime around 1864 their daughter, Nancy Ellen, had died and was buried beside the road.

After losing hope of recovering James' body they left Cairo, Illinois to return to the old home place in Mississippi. On that trip they traveled down the West side of the Mississippi River, they passed through Arkansas where on the ninth day of October, 1964, Martha gave birth to a baby girl which she had conceived on one of James visits.

Martha decided since they were in the state of Arkansas that was what she would name the baby, (pronounced Ar-kan-sas) they then returned to Leake County, Mississippi.

Source note from original gedcom file: "This biographical information on James Wilkinson and his wife Martha Ann Moore was given to me by my grandmother, Sara Norma Neal Therrell Wilkinson (wife of Emmett Joshua Wilkinson). It was given to her by her cousin, Stacy Beeman (a descendent of Mary Ann Wilkinson and Lemon Grey Beeman."