GINIE & REED SAYLES

Like me, Ryan Bingham is a direct descendent of JOHN HENRY MORRIS and NANCY BURGESS through their only child, THOMAS RUFFIN MORRIS Sr "Tom" (shown above) 

Tom's son, WILLIAM PENN MORRIS "Bill" had a son, GARLAND PENN MORRIS, whose daughter, CINDY MORRIS was Ryan's mother—(all shown left)

Cindy was a very pretty girl and a very sweet girl. The last time I saw her was when she lived in my hometown of Big Spring, Texas, before she moved to New Mexico where she later married. 

Cindy died a few years ago, without seeing her son's well-deserved success. Every time I hear Ryan's song, "Tell My Mother I Miss Her So" it touches me very much.

 It is an amazing thought to realize the chain of events that would not have happened if our John Henry Morris had not married Nancy Burgess and had baby Tom before fighting in the senseless Civil War that took his life. Many of us would not be here.

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America's Civil War began over 150 years ago. PBS has aired the Ken Burns masterpiece "The Civil War" and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) plays numerous Civil War movies. Many lives were impacted by the loss of a loved one in the Civil War.

My ancestor, JOHN HENRY MORRIS, was born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. When he was about 9 years old, his parents, Harrison Ruffin Morris and Martha Ann Cheatham, moved to Hempstead County, Arkansas. 

When the war broke out, John served from 1861-1863 in the Arkansas 4th Confederate Infantry Company E in McNair's Brigade. Company E dubbed itself "The Confederate Guards."  

My John Henry Morris was promoted from Private to Corporal in November 1862. Eight months later, on  July 11, 1863, he was "Killed in Action" in the Siege of Jackson during The Jackson Campaign in Jackson, Mississippi.  John had enlisted at age 21 and died when he was 24 years old.

Today the site of his death is located in the corner area of Willow & Silas streets. This information was provided by Jackson, Mississippi City Cartographers, Kirk Neill & Clifton Hackler, who looked at copies of the July 1863 war maps from the Mississippi State Archive and calculated the location.

John’s burial site is unknown but he is most likely buried in one of 100 unmarked graves with headstones in the Confederate Section of Greenwood Cemetery just 1 mile from the site where he died.  John had a grandson named after him who also died young from a bullet when he was hunting. 

John's only child, Tom, was 5 years old when his father was killed in action. At about that same age, his mother wept as she kissed him good-bye and boarded a wagon train to visit her family. Word came that the wagon train was raided by Indians and she was believed killed. 

John's son, Tom, was reared by his grandparents, Harrison Ruffin Morris and Martha Ann Cheatham Morris, John's parents, who moved to Falls County, Texas and then to Limestone County, Texas, where they are buried.

It seems the last Civil War veterans died in the 1950s. My ancestor was not so lucky. 

But I was lucky that John had at least one child—Thomas Ruffin Morris, Sr. "Tom." Otherwise, I would not be here today—and neither would my cousin, Academy Award & Golden Globe Winner, Ryan Bingham, who is also a direct descendent of our John Henry Morris.