JOHN A. GUYNN

John A. Guynn was born in Alabama on May 22, 1843. He was the son of Isom Guynn and Mary Wicker. After Isom's death, Mary married Albert V. Worthy in Montgomery County, Alabama on January 23, 1847. He was living in the Worthy household in Montgomery County in 1850, along with a brother and sister.

John came to Texas with the Worthy family in about 1857, and by 1860 he was enumerated as a student living in the household of Joseph M. Westmoreland at Danville, Montgomery County, Texas.

John's sister was Nancy Guynn, wife of Joseph’s brother, John Thompson Westmoreland.

John Guynn joined the Montgomery County militia, the Danville Mounted Riflemen, in the spring or summer of 1861 and was listed on the muster rolls of September 1861 and February 1862.

On April 28, 1862, John enlisted at Danville in Captain Wooldridge's company of the Second Texas Lancers which became Company B, 24th Texas Cavalry. This was the same day that James William Guynn enlisted and was a month later than most of the men enlisted. He gave his age as nineteen. His home was fifty miles from the place of rendezvous, Camp Carter at Hempstead. He gave no value for his horse and equipment.

John trained at Camp Carter, then in May he rode to Arkansas with the Second Lancer regiment. He was dismounted at El Dorado, along with the others. After training as an infantryman at a camp near Pine Bluff, he was sent to Ft. Hindman at Arkansas Post, where he spent the fall building winter cabins. He fought in the Battle of Arkansas Post on 11 January 1863 and was captured and sent to the Union prison at Camp Butler, Illinois.

He was paroled in April 1863 and was exchanged at City Point, Virginia. Upon being paroled, he was admitted to the hospital at Petersburg, Virginia. A notation on the hospital roll states that he was suffering from “catarrhous,” which was a nose and throat discharge.

Confederate Hospital

Many of the prisoners who were exchanged in Virginia were admitted to hospitals upon their arrival, having made the long trip from Illinois knowing that they were almost too sick to travel.

John was discharged and returned to duty on May 9th. He received back pay in June, and in August he received compensation for the fifty miles he rode to rendezvous from his home the previous year.

There is a note on John’s muster roll of January and February of 1864 that he was absent on furlough, but he was counted present on the roll of March and April, 1864.

After that time, no rolls survive for any of the men in Company B. He was not on the parole list for the surrender at Greensboro, North Carolina. He apparently went back to Texas on his furlough and was assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department.

His original “Parole of Honor” (click on link for transcription) is in his file at the National Archives. It was signed by him and by the Provost Martial at Columbus, Texas, on 14 July 1865. It shows that he was in the Army of the Trans Mississippi Department and was surrendered by General E. Kirby Smith.

Following the end of the war, John apparently took up residence in Houston, Texas. The Tri-Weekly Houston Union published the hotel arrivals in September 1870, and shows that he checked into the Hutchins House Hotel, and that he was a resident of Houston.
At some time after this, John settled in Colorado County, as did James William Guynn, John T. and Nancy Westmoreland, and Albert and Mary Worthy.

On July 10, 1876, John married Ella A. Harris, the daughter of Ira A. Harris and Dilue W. Rose. Ella’s mother, Dilue, was well known for writing about her childhood experiences in the infamous “Runaway Scrape,” in which the women and children of Texas fled Santa Ana’s armies. In fact, one of my cousins is a descendant of Ira and Dilue Harris, and I have known of Mrs. Harris’s articles since I was a child.

John and Ella were enumerated in the town of Eagle Lake, Colorado County, in the census of 1880. John was a clerk in a store and was age 36. They had one son, Milby.

John A. Guynn died on 8 June 1894, and Ella died on 12 March 1913. They are both buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Columbus.

The above information was compiled from county records, from the Westmoreland file at the Montgomery County library, from the Compiled Service Records which are on file at the National Archives, and from the website of the Nesbitt Memorial Library at Columbus, Texas. Please e-mail me if you have a photo or additional information.

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