| James Louis Tippit 1844 / 1909 |
| James Louis Tippit, son of William J. Tippit and Martha Davis, was born 8 December 1844 in Alabama and died 10 April 1909 at the age of 65. (His tombstone shows his birth was 1840; however, census records for every year indicate his birth was 1844, as well as his military records. James Louis was living in Jasper County, Mississippi, when the Civil War broke out. Although he was only 16 years old, he went with his father to Ellisville (Jones County), Mississippi, on 5 October 1861 and signed up. The two Tippits served under Captain McLemore until William J. Tippit was discharged in 1862. James Louis was a Private in Company K, 8th Mississippi Infantry, but was later transferred to the "Jasper Blues" at Marian Station on 4 October 1862. He was captured by the Union forces at the Battle of Chicamunga in Georgia and became a prisoner of war. The prisoners were shipped to Camp Douglas, Illinois, on 19 September 1863. On the way to Illinois, they were detained at Louisville, Kentucky for a short period of time. It was probably here, while he was a prisoner, that James Louis remembered lying on a cot beside so many sick men. They all had yellow fever, and were dying. He was so afraid that he was going to catch yellow fever and die, that he drank all the brandy he could get his hands on. He believed that the brandy would keep him from getting sick, and there must have been some truth to it. Most of those men died, but James Louis Tippit lived to tell this story to his children many times. He was released from prison on 3 April 1865 and returned home to Mississippi. One of his favorite war stories that he loved to tell his children was when he fooled the Yankee solders into believing that he was dead. His daughter, Maud, says that her father told her he fought in one of the bloodiest battles in the Civil War, and after it was all over the field was full of bodies. James Louis had been wounded and as he lay there admist those bodies, he saw some Yankees approaching. He knew his only chance of survival was to pretend he was dead. When they reached him, one of the Yankee soldiers kicked him, and pointed his gun at James Louis's head. One Yankee replied, "Don't go wasting a bullet on the old yellar bellie, he's already dead." James Louis lay there, not daring to breathe, even though he was in terrible pain. He always laughed about this story and believed that his life was spared that day because he was able to fool the old "blue bellies." Copyright 1986 by Jane Parker McManus, CPS |