Ed H. Hemphill
January 2003
Alexander Hemphill
Company A, 8th Regiment, General Mosby Parson's Division, District of Arkansas and Trans-Mississippi Department, Missouri Confederate Infantry
Myra Hemphill, wife of Alex Hemphill
This is a story about my Great Grandfather, Alexander Hemphill and his brother, Austin. They were born in Guliford County, North Carolina in the late 1830s. They were the two oldest in a family of eight. It was a farming family, that would migrate West, and in 1860, Alex had established a farm in Leciede County, Missouri. Alex married Myra Phillips in Lebanon, Mo., Dec. 1860.
On August 7, 1862, Alex and Austin were mustered into Company A, 8th Regiment, Missouri Confederate Infantry. They served together in this Company the entire war. Alex served as Private and Austin was promoted to First Corporeal by the end of the War. Their Units were assigned to Brigadier General Mosby Parson's Division, District of Arkansas and Trans-Mississippi Department. Most of 1863, their Unit was in the Southern Counties of Missouri and the Northern Counties of Arkansas. Alex and Austin had not seen combat, or seen the "Elephant" as the saying went, but this was about to change.
In March, 1864 it was suspected that the Union was organizing an expedition with Shreveport as their objective point. This belief soon became a certainty. General Parson's Division was ordered from Camp Bragg in Arkansas to Shreveport to reinforce General Dick Taylor's little Army Headquartered at Shreveport.
Alex and Austin fought in the Red River Campaign, Pleasant Hill, La., Camden Arkansas and Jenkins Ferry, Arkansas. Alex and Austin appear on a roll of prisoners of War. After their Unit was surrendered at New Orleans, Louisiana by Kirby Smith, May 26, 1865, they were paroled and released from Prisoner of War Camp at Alexandria, La. on June 6, 1865 and started on their long journey home to Missouri, some 500 miles.
Alexander saw his three year old son for the first time. Myra was able to keep the farm with the help of Alex's younger brother. He and Myra lived on this farm eight more years, and had four more boys, one of these boys was my Grandfather, whom I have very fond memories of.
In 1873, they moved about 120 miles South, just across the Missouri line, to Salem, Arkansas. There, Alex died in 1879, and is burried in the little cemetery just off the town square. Austin came home from the war, and married Amanda Sewell, who was a sister to a man that served in the war with him. They married in Wright County, Mo., in 1867, and that same year they left Missouri and moved to Denton County, Texas. I have been unsuccessful in finding Austin's grave. Austin died in 1876.
Information was gathered through research at the Dallas Library, and a book I obtained from the museum in Mansfield, La., "Red River Campaign," written by Ludwell H. Johnson. This book is also available from Barnes and Noble for $16.00. It is well worth the price.
