Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/372

 366 Southern Historical Society Papers.

portance that I ever formed was to make a fortune, I neglected the cultivation of my mind in early youth. In my fifteenth year my mother removed to Farmington, a little village in Tishomingo county, Mississippi, four miles from where Corinth is now situated.

In my eighteenth year I volunteered in a company that was being raised for the Mexican war, but the call on our State was filled before the company was fully organized, and we were not received.

Then, in my nineteenth year, when recruits were called for to fill up the ranks of the Second Mississippi regiment, I volunteered, went to Mexico, remained in the service until the close of the war, and was mustered out of service with the balance of my regiment at Vicks- burg, Mississippi, in July, 1848, having been a soldier nine months and five days. I was a private in Captain Alex. Jackson's company, of the Second Mississippi regiment. This regiment was first com- manded by Colonel Reuben Davis, but when I was with it, it was commanded by Colonel Charles Black, who was in the late war a while as brigadier-general in the Confederate army, and afterwards Governor of Mississippi. I was not in any battle in the Mexican war, as our regiment was never engaged. The regiment was well drilled, and was kept under good discipline ; and here I formed a taste for military discipline and tactics. At twenty-one years of age I was married to Miss Sarah Holmes, of Tishomingo county, who was a daughter of Isham Holmes, a thrifty farmer, who lived near Rienzi.

I had professed the Christian religion in my seventeenth year, and became a member of the Baptist church. After a long struggle with my almost unconquerable resolution to become rich a struggle be- tween worldly interest and Christian duty in my twenty-fourth year I yielded to the call of my church, began the work of the gospel min- istry and devoted my whole time to the pursuit of knowledge and to the other duties of my profession. From the very beginning of this arduous undertaking I received great encouragement, both from the church and from the world. I was favored with large and attentive congregations, and my first labors were crowned with encouraging success. I was soon called to positions that opened the way to use- fulness gave me a support for my family opportunities to improve my education, and to give myself wholly to my profession. As I had gained a victory over my ambition to gain wealth, this was all I asked, and I never indulged a moment's thought of turning from the holy calling to make money, or for any civil or military position.

At the beginning of the late war I lived at Kossuth, a little village