A collection of historical and genalogical records
Captain James Postel Douglas CSA
James Postel Douglas, Confederate artillery officer, the oldest son of Alexander Douglas and Margaret Tirzah (Cowsar) Douglas, was born near Lancaster, South Carolina, on January 7, 1836. He moved with his family to Talladega, Alabama, in 1838 and to Texas in 1847.
With the outbreak of war 1861, J. P. Douglas was commissioned by Col. Elkanah Greer to raise a company of fifty men from Smith Co., Texas to man an artillery battery. What famously came to be known as Douglas's Texas Battery was the only unit of Texas artillery to serve east of the Mississippi River. His Confederate unit was the first to volunteer for the duration of the Civil War. He first saw action at the battle of Elkhorn Tavern in Arkansas 1862. The Douglas Battery also saw action at Corinth, Mississippi, all of the major battles of the Army of Tennessee-Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, the battles for Atlanta, and John Bell Hood's Tennessee campaign of 1864.
He would later be elected Senator in the Texas Legislature, 1870 and was the first president of the Cotton Belt Railroad.
He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Tyler, Texas.
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Comment by James Harrison Douglas on April 10, 2010 at 1:19
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William,
Most everything that I have on Rev. Alexander Douglas b.1807-d.1853, and his father, Alexander Douglas b.1754-d.1827, I owe to my cousin Mary Lee Barnes (nee Anderson) who sadly passed away Dec. 2009. She & I met online in 1995 for the first time. However, the next paragraph I found some time ago in a mini-biography about James Postel Douglas. It reads;
"Alexander Douglas, of Lanarkshire, Scotland, came to Boston to join the army of Washington. He stayed at Valley Forge, where his feet were frozen, making him a cripple for life. After 1778 he went south to the Carolinas and rejoined the army to fight in the battle of Cowpens."
Alexander first married Jane Elliot in 1788. He was on the 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820 census in Lancaster Co. and lived on Camp Creek. Their children were;
Samuel B. born Apr.1790 in Chester Co., South Carolina.
James born May 1792 Chester Co., So Carolina.
Eli Ebeneezer born Apr. 1794 died May 1839 in Indiana.
In 1796 he married his second wife, Mary Stapleton 1773-1814, my 4th great-grandmother. Their children;
Robert E. 1797-1868.
Joseph 1799-1862 died in a Union prison at Alton, Illinois.
John 1801-1882 died at Durango, Colorado.
Rev. Alexander 1807-1853 died at Tyler, Texas.
Agnes H. 1809-1889 died at Little Rock, Arkansas.
Elizabeth birth-death unknown.
(Rev.) ALEXANDER DOUGLAS AND FAMILY from; "Some Biographies of Old Settlers." Historical, Personal and Reminiscent. Volume I By Sid S. Johnson, 1900: Sid S. Johnson, Publisher, Tyler, Texas
Chapter XXVI - Pages 140-142.
The Douglas family sprang from the old Scotch family of that name. Alexander Douglas came to America in 1775. He was a soldier in Washington's army and after the Revolutionary War settled in the Waxward district in South Carolina.
Margaret Cowsar, the mother of the Tyler family, was of an old South Carolinian family. Her mother was a Nelson and they were descended from the Hood's. The name Cowsar, was originally pronounced Casant - and more remotely in France it was Cousant. This branch of the family were from the French Huguenots, who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Natz, which drove the French Presbyterians to Scotland and Ireland, who afterwards removed to Pennsylvania and later on, to the upper part of South Carolina and to North Carolina.
The Douglas family is noted for their good citizenship, and ranks among the best people in Smith County. Honest, intelligent and leaders in business, society and the church. The family is noted for liberal views - but staunch defenders of what they conceive to be right."
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Comment by William Douglas on April 6, 2010 at 18:19
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Thank you, James, for this contribution.
As I understand it, Alexander was a Deacon, son Alexander, a Revolutionary soldier who fought in Georgia with the minute men and also in the the Battle of Long Can. Do you know any more about the ancestry of this family?
William
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