John WILTSHIRE

                   On March 8, 1862, at Bankston, Thomas signed up for a three year enlistment
with Company I, 31st Regiment, Mississippi Volunteers.  He served with that
organization until December 15, 1864, when he was captured at Nashville,
Tennessee.  After a brief detainment at the Military Prision in Louisville,
Kentucky, he was sent to Camp Douglas, Illinois, where in February 1865, he
applied for the oath of allegiance to the United States and on April 18, 1865
was recruited in Company K, 5th Regiment, United States Volunteers.  He was
apparently motivated to take the oath of allegiance and join the Union forces
only because it would afford him opportunity to escape and return to the South,
on July 4, 1865 he deserted his command while on guard at Elm Creek, Kansas.
The command was enroute to Running Turkey from Council Grove, Kansas.  This
information was gleaned from military records on file at the National Archives
in Washington.  A physical description was also available in the records: he
was 5'3" tall with blue eyes, light hair and a fair complexion.  One entry also
said that he was wounded severely during the engagement at Peach Tree Creek,
Georgia, July 20 1864. He was still with the Mississippi Volunteers at that
time.    By 1870 Thomas and Lucinda had moved to Yazoo Co., Miss. where Thomas
was still engaged in farming.  (Information from "Fifty Families:  A History"
compiled by Nancy Chambers Underwood.