William Alexander Painter

information submitted by Alfred Ellis

 William Alexander PAINTER was born July 16, 1839 in Dekalb County, Alabama.  He died Jan 22, 1892 of pneumonia in Montague County, Texas. He is buried in the Mayfield Cemetery, Montague County, Texas, USA

Photo shown was taken just prior to the Civil War.
 
Alexander testified on behalf of his father, James Painter, Sr. when he filed a claim against the U.S. government for damages incurred in Sep. 1863 when Major General Alexander McCook's troops were camped near by. He claimed to be a farmer and to live near Valley Head. He witnessed Yankee soldiers taking corn, fodder, bacon, pork, hogs, and sweet potatoes from his father's farm. These were loaded into wagons. He also said "When the property was taken Gen. McCook's Corps and Gen. Johnson's Division was encamped in short three miles of our farm. When they first commensed taken the property, they had been there three or four days. They stayed there some weeks."

Alexander was a brother to Andrew Jackson Painter and the son of James Painter, Sr. and Susannah Howell Painter. Alexander, along with his brother Andrew Jackson, joined the Confederate Army(Malone’s Cavalry).  Alexander stated in the above deposition that he and his brother felt compelled to join the Confederacy.  They served for nine months.  In September 1863 they joined Captain Alfred Long’s Company C  Alabama-Tennessee Vidette Cavalry and stayed there until it was disbanded in June, 1864.

 

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