My Genealogy Hound

GEN. JOSEPH B. PALMER, a well-known and prominent member of the Rutherford County bar, was born in this county November 1, 1825. He is a son of William H. and Mildred C. (Johns) Palmer, who were natives, respectively, of Halifax County, Va., and Rutherford County, Tenn. William H. Palmer secured a liberal education in his early days, attending not only literary but medical institutions of learning in his native State. About the year 1820, having attained his majority, he immigrated to this county, where he married soon after, and locating on a farm followed agricultural pursuits until 1830, when his wife died and he removed to Illinois and followed the practice of medicine until his death in that State, when Joseph B. was still quite young. After his mother’s death and his father’s departure for Illinois, our subject, Joseph B., was taken to raise by his maternal grandparents, Joseph B. and Elizabeth Johns. He received a good collegiate education early in life, attending the old Union University of Murfreesboro. After completing his literary education he followed school teaching in the county one year, in order to secure means enough to enable him to begin the study of law. Later he entered the office of Hardy M. Burton, of this city, with whom he read law until March, 1848, when he had so far mastered his profession as to be admitted to the Rutherford County bar, and opening an office in this city he engaged in the practice, gradually increasing his reputation as a lawyer until the breaking out of the late war, when he renounced a large and lucrative practice, and in May, 1861, organized a company of infantry from here, of which he was elected captain, but immediately proceeded to organize the Eighteenth Regiment of Tennessee Infantry, and was elected colonel of the same. He served with this renowned and gallant regiment in the capacity of colonel, and later in command of a brigade until July, 1864, when he was commissioned a brigadier-general. The history of this well-known regiment will give evidence of the gallant and soldierly bearing of our subject during its many and repeated engagements throughout the entire war. As an instance of the same we might mention the capture of the General with nearly his entire regiment and Floyd’s entire command at the battle of Fort Donelson. He was imprisoned by the Federals at Fort Warren eight months, when he was exchanged and soon after returned to his command. In the engagement at Stone River the General was three times wounded while leading his regiment in the famous and fatal Breckinridge charge, but, notwithstanding his wounds were severe, he did not leave the field until the close of the battle, when he lay disabled from his wounds until April, 1863. He then resumed his command at Tullahoma, and was again seriously wounded at Chickamauga while leading a charge, it being thought at the time that his wound was mortal; but he so far recovered as to participate in the Dalton-Atlanta campaign; then returned with Hood’s campaign to Tennessee, and in company with other brigades covered Hood’s retreat from Nashville to across the Tennessee River. The General was a participant in the closing battle of the war, at Bentonville, N. C., having his horse shot from under him and himself receiving a slight flesh wound. As is well known, shortly before the close of the war Gen. Palmer was placed in charge of all the Confederate Tennessee soldiers, and he surrendered and disbanded them, as brave a body of men and officers as ever raised a weapon in defense of their property, wives and families. At the close of the war the General returned home and resumed his legal practice, in which he has remained continuously to the present time, meeting with more than ordinary and well-deserved success, the law firm of Palmer & Palmer, of which he is the senior member, ranking among the first at the Rutherford County bar. In February, 1854, the General was united in matrimony to Miss Ophelia M. Burrus, who died July 8, 1856, leaving one son, Horace E. June 10, 1869, he married his present wife, who was Mrs. Margaret J. Mason, of Pulaski, Tenn. There are no children of this union. The General was originally an old line Whig, and was the acknowledged leader of the party in this county a number of years prior to the war. He represented this District in the State Legislature in the session of 1849-50, also 1851-52. Gen. Palmer was a firm supporter of the Union before and up to the firing upon Fort Sumter, being decidedly averse to secession of the Southern States. But when the unfortunate crisis was attained and the Union was virtually broken and out of existence, he took up the cause of his people, solely from a strict sense of duty and his conscientious convictions of honor and right, and so conducted his course through the entire war as to emphasize and verify this fact beyond a doubt. Since the war he has been an uncompromising Democrat in his political views. The General is a Mason of high standing, having attained the Knight Templar and Scottish Rite degrees, and is Past Grand Commander, also Knight Templar of Tennessee. He is a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, of this city. His entire military, official and legal career has been such as to command the love and esteem of his friends and the respect of his enemies, if any there be of the latter, and he is justly recognized as an enterprising and reliable business man, an able and experienced jurist and practitioner and a consistent Christian citizen, to whom the citizens of “old Rutherford” may refer with pride and esteem.