Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/65

 Autobiography of (l7

secession, and being ;i Union man went north at the beginning of the

war and remained there until its close. Among the duties imposed upon him by the President was that of convening a constitutional convention, the proclamation reciting that the delegates were "to be chosen by that portion of the people of said State who art loyal to the United States, and no other." He reached Texas in July, 1865, .ind assumed the duties of his office on the 25th of that month. Then really began the period never to be forgotten by those who passed through it known as " Reconstruction of the State of Texas.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEN. PATTON ANDERSON,

C. S. A.

[Transcribed by Mrs. Anderson and kindly furnished by her for publication, through Rev. H. A. Brown, Saxe, Va. ED.]

I was born in Winchester, Franklin county, Tennessee, on the i6th day of February, 1822. My father, William Preston Anderson, was a native of Botetourt county. Virginia, and was born about the year 1775. During the second term of General Washington's adminis- tration he received from the President a commission of lieutenant in the United States army. About this time, or soon after, he removed to Tennessee, and at one time was United States district attorney for

the judicial district, and was subsequently surveyor-general of

the district of Tennessee. In the year of 1812 he was colonel in the 24th United States infantry and was accidentally with Colonel Crogan in his defense of Fort Harrison. During this war he married my mother (Margaret L. Adair). who was the fifth daughter of Major-General John Adair, of Mercer county, Kentucky. He had previously been married to Miss Nancy Bell, by whom he had three children Musadora, Rufus King and Caroline. In the second mar- riage there were born Nancy Bell, Catharine Adair, John Adair. (who died in infancy,) James Patton, John Adair, (who died in 185*, > Thomas Scott and Butler Preston. When I was an infant my father removed from the town of Winchester to his farm, "Craggy Hope,"