Per findagrave: Merida Jackson "Buck" Mitchell was the son of Andrew Mitchell. He was born in 1833 in Smith Co, Mississippi. He had one brother, Byrd, and one sister, Eliza Berville. The family moved to Southwest Louisiana by 1850. Buck settled in what is now Cameron Parish (formed in 1870). It included southern Calcasieu Parish and western Vermilion Parish. He married Lavinia Patch about 1853. Buck and Lavinia had two children. A hurricane developed in the Gulf of Mexico and came ashore southwest of New Orleans. Buck held both babies above his head while Lavinia clung to him. As the violent rushing waters rose higher and higher, his wife and both babies were all swept from him and lost. Although unconfirmed, the most likely hurricane was the seventh deadliest in United States history. It occurred on August 10-12, 1856 and was a Category 4 storm. It leveled every house in Abbeville, Vermilion Parish. At least 400 people died by the time the storm ended.
Buck and his brother Byrd subsequently joined the Confederate Army and fought in the Battle at Sabine Pass, Texas and were discharged from the army there. Buck later married Melissa Jane Slaughter of Taylor, Wiliamson Co, Texas, born in 1844. They settled in the Bayou D'Inde area, near Lake Charles, and had three children: Arminta, Margaret, and John Robert. They later moved to Newlin, near Singer, in Beauregard Parish. Buck died in 1917 and Melissa died in 1928. They are both buried in the Magnolia Cemetery, Ragley, Beauregard Parish.
NEED HELP OBTAINING HIS CIVIL WAR RECORDS PER THIS FIND A GRAVE BIO HE WAS IN THE CIVIL WAR?
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