My Genealogy Hound

James W. Munnerlyn is a respected citizen of Lonoke County, Ark., and lives one mile west of the original town of Brownsville, on the old Military Road, and on the Lent Bolton place, which he now owns. He is a native of North Carolina, and was born in Anson County in 1842, the son of John R. and Patsey (nee West) Munnerlyn, natives of North Carolina. He remained with his parents until the commencement of the “War between the States” in 1861, in which year he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in Company A, Twenty-third North Carolina Regiment, and participated in the battle of Williamsburg, and marched the succeeding three days on three ears of parched corn. He was also in the battles of Seven Pines, the seven days’ fight around Richmond, and was shot through the arm at Malvern Hill and was furloughed for forty days, the furlough being extended ten days, at the expiration of which he returned, and was at the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. He was also in the campaign against Grant in the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House and Gaines’ Mill, or Cold Harbor. He was then detached with Early, went to Lynchburg, repelled the advance of Hunter, crossed the mountains and captured Harper’s Ferry, then went up and crossed the Potomac River near Shepherdstown, and was in the fight near Fredericks City, at the block house and the railroad bridge on the Monoxey River, at which he was struck with a piece of bombshell; this tore off the left leg of his pants, just below the knee, bruised the shin and turned him a complete somersault, he being stunned for a few minutes, though he found afterward that he had counter marched twenty or thirty paces. Starting the next morning, he marched two days and one night without sleeping, and stacked one of the four guns of his regiment on the evening of the second day near Georgetown, the army being almost worn out by exhaustion. He was captured near Winchester on September 19, 1864, was transported to Point Lookout, and was retained a prisoner for six months, where he underwent very great privations, all of which his manly spirit was able to endure, being sustained by a consciousness of the rectitude of the principle and justice of the cause for which he had so ardently contended. After the war Mr. Munnerlyn returned to his home, and the same year was married to Miss Martha A. Martin, a native of North Carolina, and from one of the oldest families. To this union were born eight children, of whom two sons and five daughters are now living. In 1869 the family removed to Mississippi and located in the northern part of the State. In 1871 Mr. Munnerlyn again moved, this time going to Texas, where, after a residence of nine years, he came to Arkansas. Here, in 1880, he lost his wife and one child (a little boy). In 1881 he went to Mississippi, and was there again married, this time to Miss Hettie Elizabeth Parker. To this union have been born four children (all girls) two of whom are living. He returned the same year to Arkansas, bringing his father and mother. The father died in 1888, aged eighty-eight years, from old age; his mother is living, aged sixty-eight, and enjoying real good health. Mr. Munnerlyn is of old Scotch blood, and in politics is a Jeffersonian Democrat. His ecclesiastical faith is that all of mankind will ultimately be restored to holiness and happiness. His wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.