Rev. James P. McMullen
First Pastor of the
Pleasant Ridge Church

Pleasant Ridge Topics

First Settlers

Plantations and Landmarks

Snedecor's Directory

Civil War Fatalities

Voter Precincts

Overview

1. Havana

2. New Prospect

3. Five Mile

4. Greensboro

5. Newbern

6. Hollow Square

7. German Creek

8. Forkland

9. Garret's Shop

10. Eutaw

11. Springfield

12. Knoxville

13. Union

14. Pleasant Ridge

15. Mount Hebron

16. Clinton

17. Boligee

Mantua

Pleasant Ridge

James William Horton was the son of William Horton, a substantial planter in Pleasant Ridge.  The Hortons were members of the Baptist church, but on September 20, 1860, James was received into membership in the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian church on examination of his religious experience.  Nine months later, June 11, 1861, James enlisted in Company C, 11th Alabama Infantry for the duration of the war.  He arrived with the regiment in Manassas, Virginia shortly after the battle there in July.  On July 24 he was admitted to the General Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was discharged July 31. In August he was present with the regiment in camp at Bristoe and Centreville near Manassas.  In September 1861 James contracted typhoid fever and died in camp on September 20, 1861, one year to the day after he had joined with the Pleasant Ridge church.

Leonidas A. Horton enlisted in Company B, 4th Battalion Mississippi Cavalry, on November 14, 1861 in Columbus, Mississippi, by Captain Yancey, for the period of one year. That same day he was appointed Sergeant.  He appears on a muster roll of Company D, 8th Reg't Confederate Cavalry on September 1, 1862.  This roll covered the period from January 1 to September 1, 1862.  He was last paid by Captain Hamilton on January 1, 1862. On August 8, 1862 he was reduced to the ranks, though there is no indication of the reason of this reduction in grade.

This company was formerly Company B, 4th Battalion Mississippi Cavalry, and Company B, 2nd (Brewer's) Battalion Mississippi and Alabama Cavalry.  The 8th (Wade's) Regiment Confederate Cavalry (also known as the 2nd Regiment Mississippi and Alabama Cavalry) was formed in May, 1862, by the addition of three companies, which had formerly served in the 1st (Beall's) Battalion Alabama Cavalry, to the 2nd (Brewer's) Battalion Mississippi and Alabama Cavalry.

According to his messmate, J.A.G., Leonidas A. Horton "died of typhoid pneumonia near Shelbyville, Tennessee, February 9, 1863, son of John D. Horton of Greene County, Alabama, in the 21st year of his age.

"He was suddenly and violently attacked (by the typhoid pneumonia) and survived but the short period of ten days (i.e., he contracted typhoid on January 31, 1863).  The deceased was a member of the McCaa Rangers, Company D, 8th Confederate Regiment of Cavalry.  He entered service on his country for the war in the fall of 1861, under the gallant Captain McCaa.  He was a faithful soldier performing all the duties required of him with cheerfulness.  He shirked no duty when able to perform it.  He was in most of the skirmishes that his command was engaged in and acquitted himself with honor.( Wheeler's cavalry slept on the field of battle the night of the 31st. Next day it operated in the rear of the enemy, on the pikes leading toward Nashville, repeating the destruction of trains. These trains were loaded with officers and men wounded, and bound for the hospitals of Nashville. Captain B. B. McCaa of Co. "D", 8th Confederate, was mortally wounded Jany. 1st in one of these attacks on the trains. The officer was lifted from his saddle by Sergeants Alfred Atwater and A. C. Oxford, and taken to a farmhouse nearby where he died that night. The detail of four men that had been sent to bear him to the house were employed the next morning in making a box for the body and digging a grave. A company of the enemy came up and arrested them. Sergeant Oxford gave the Royal Arch Mason's society "obligation" to the Captain, whereupon the prisoners were released. Pickens County, Ala. contributed no nobler man or more gallant soldier to the Confederacy than Captain B. B. McCaa). 

"He (L.A. Horton) was engaged in all the cavalry movements in the enemy's rear during the great fight at Murfreesboro and was near his beloved Captain when he fell, gallantly leading the charge against the Abolitionist legions near Levergne on the evening of January 1, 1863.  In his company he was highly esteemed by his officers and fellow soldiers-- none knew him but respect him.  As a soldier, he was gallant, patriotic, and generous; as a friend, he was true and obliging.

"Often has his sprightly wit caused the merry laugh to ring around the glowing camp-fire.  Alas: we shall see his noble form and listen to his wit and merry laugh no more, for the brave soldier has left this land of war and trouble.  Though far from parents and sisters yet he was affectionately cared for and I hope they will strive to meet their son and brother in the better world where war, death, and trouble will never enter."

From a copy of what appeared to have been a newspaper publication of the obituary. -- Scott Owens

 

On Sabbath morning, May 15, 1864, he preached to the entire Baker's Brigade while standing in line of battle.  This was on the eve of the terrible battle of Resaca, preaching solemnly and impressively.  Very soon after, the battle began and raged with great fury.  Urged by a patriotism long cherished in his quiet home, but now rendered intense by the magnitude of the pending crisis, sublime in the forgetfulness of self, and sustained by a courage that thought not of danger, he rushed into the battle, cheering on the men in a most perilous and even desperate charge upon a strong battery of the enemy; and after seeing his eldest son slain before his face, he fell, himself pierced by a fatal bullet.@   According to the after action report of the 42nd Alabama, the particular action in which Mr. McMullen was killed occurred later in the day after the assault on the battery, when the brigade emerged from a wood and faced a Union force across an open field.  Col Thomas Lanier, commanding Baker's Brigade, said afterward that Mr. McMullen rushed ahead of the command waving his hat and cheering the regiment and was soon shot and instantly killed.@  Col Lanier, a ruling elder at the Bethesda Church, further stated that if Mr. McMullen had been officially identified with the Army (I) would have placed him under arrest and sent him to the rear. 

That this is the instance in which Mr. McMullen was killed is corroborated by Col E. A. Cannon, commanding the 13th New Jersey Infantry regiment, with which the 42nd Alabama was engaged in the action in question.  Col Cannon states that they (the 42nd Alabama) came on in good shape (order) until they emerged from a thicket on my right, and came under a heavy fire, which, for a moment, staggered them; they soon rallied and again came on, not, however, in good line.  They had now come within a few paces of our line, and it seemed as though they could not be stopped.  It was just at this time that I saw in front of the right of my regiment an aged man, calling on the troops to follow him, urging them on, etc.  I could not, in the din of musketry, hear his words, but I could see his motions, etc.  Just at this time my attention was called in another direction, and about the same moment the Confederates gave way, and the fight was over.  (It was about five o'clock on Sabbath evening.) . . . He was a brave man. Several of my men assured me that when they saw him, with hat off, urging the men forward, they did not have the heart to harm his gray head (he had a heavy head of long white hair).  From a prisoner or wounded man of the regiment to which he belonged, we learned of the death of his son.  They lay about twenty feet apart, and the father was about fifteen or twenty paces from our lines.

James P. McMullen was one of the few chaplains killed in action during the War Between the States.  He and his son are buried with the unknown Confederate dead on the battlefield of Resaca, Georgia.  Recently, monuments to each have been placed at the gravesite.

Robert Hinds Miller, the son of William Miller of Pleasant Ridge,  was received on examination of the Session of the Pleasant Ridge church on September 18, 1860.  Over a year later he enlisted in Company E, 20th Alabama Infantry on October 31, 1861.  He was appointed Fourth Corporal of the company on July 7, 1862, and on December 17, 1862 was promoted to Third Corporal.  On May 16, 1863 he was wounded in the Battle of Baker's Creek, Mississippi, and he died of these wounds in Vicksburg soon after on May 25, 1863.

Abner Elmore Steele, son of William Steele, founding elder, was received into membership of the church on September 20, 1860, on examination by the Session.  He enlisted in Company C, 11th Alabama Infantry on June 11, 1861 at Clinton for the duration of the war.  He was present with the regiment from June to October 1861, though October 24, 1861 he was sent to Richmond on order of the regimental surgeon. Though there is no hospital record of his admission, he did receive a furlough December 7, 1861, apparently when he was released from the hospital. Abner Elmore Steele was wounded in action on June 30, 1862 in the Battle of Malvern Hill, but there is no record of admission to a hospital for these wounds. He was admitted to the General Hospital, Staunton, Virginia, on October 13, 1862 for convalescence from a fever, after the retreat from Maryland following the battle of Sharpsburg.  He was admitted to the Chimborazo Hospital No. 4, Richmond, Virginia, on November 9, 1862, for typhoid fever.  Elmore was transferred to Petersburg, Virginia on November 14.  He received another furlough March 23, 1863 after his release from the hospital.  He apparently was present with the regiment the first half of 1864, but a company muster roll of October 1864 lists him as absent, missing since August 16 and assumed to be a prisoner.  Federal prisoner of war records indicate he was captured at Deep Bottom, Virginia, August 17, 1864, at the camp hospital.  He was transferred from City Point, Virginia to Point Lookout, Maryland August 22.  Elmore was paroled at Point Lookout on February 10, 1865, and transferred for exchange.   He was among 2051 paroled Confederate prisoners of war exchanged and received by Confederate officers on February 14/15, 1865 at Coxes Landing, James River, Virginia.  He was admitted to the Receiving and Wayside Hospital/ General Hospital No. 9, Howard's Grove, Richmond, Virginia, February 15, 1865.   Abner Elmore Steele died March 12, 1865 at the General Hospital, Howard's Grove, Richmond, Virginia.  During the war he had suffered numerous attacks of typhoid fever and had been wounded in action.

Thomas Hall Steele, son of William Steele, founding elder, was received on examination into the membership on September 23, 1853.  He enlisted in Co B, 36th Alabama Infantry. On September 21, 1863, ten years later, he was killed in action at the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia.