Jonathan Little was born May 26, 1836, in what is now Montgomery County, Texas. He was the son of Hiram Little and Mary Lindley and was listed as a boy of fourteen on the 1850 census of Montgomery County. According to Little descendant Carol Todd, he was probably named after his uncle, Jonathan Lindley, who fell at the Alamo the same year Jonathan Little was born.

Three of Jonathan Little's other uncles were:Elijah Lindley, John Lindley, and James Lindley.

On 22 April 1858, Jonathan married Elizabeth Smith in Montgomery County. She was born in 1839 in Alabama. They are enumerated next door to Hiram Little in 1860, with an infant son “W. H.,” probably William.

Jonathan joined the Danville Mounted Riflemen after September of 1861, and is listed on the muster roll of February 14, 1862.

On March 29, 1862, he enlisted in the Second Texas Lancers, which became Company B, 24th Regiment Texas Cavalry. He was enrolled by John E. George at Danville. It was fifty miles from his home to place of rendezvous at Camp Carter near Hempstead.

After cavalry training at Camp Carter, the regiment marched to Arkansas. There they were dismounted and forced to begin serving as infantry. They were sent to Camp Homes near Pine Bluff for infantry training. They were assigned to Garland's Brigade.

On the muster roll of August 31, 1862, Jonathan is shown as being absent on detail. Apparently, Jonathan was one of the men chosen to ride home to Montgomery County with the company's horses, after the Texans were dismounted.

But on the muster roll of October, after the men had been sent to Arkansas Post, there is a notation that he was on sick furlough. It is not known whether Jonathan returned from his detail to Arkansas and was stationed at Arkansas Post with the rest of his company, or whether he became sick while he was back in Texas.

This is the final roll on which he appears as a member of Company B, 24th Regiment.

One Jonathan Little was in Company E, Gould’s Bttn. Texas Cavalry. This Jonathan enlisted in Houston County and was thirty years of age, obviously a different person.

In the Lindley vertical file at the Montgomery County library, there is a paper which states that Jonathan Little was in a wagon train during the Civil War and that he died near Ft. Smith, Arkansas, where he is buried in an unmarked grave. There are no records to corroborate this story.

Jonathan and Elizabeth do not appear in the 1870 census of Montgomery County. Living in the household of Hiram and Mary Little is a ten-year-old boy named William Little, Jonathan’s son. Also in the family are Mary and Susan, his daughters. This would seem to indicate that both Jonathan and Elizabeth were deceased.

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