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Submitted: 8/12/21 • Approved: 8/18/21 • Last Updated: 8/21/21 • R446571-G0-S3
July 1836- January 22, 1926
Company A 21st Texas Calvary
Carter's Brigade
Trans Mississippi Army
James William Barker was born in Huntsville, Walker County, Texas, in July of 1836 to William Nicholas Barker and Alitia Humble.
In 1858 he married Nancy Faith Wyatt in Walker County, Texas. Soon after, he joined Company A.
James Barker enlisted at the beginning of the war, although military enlistment records show he enlisted in 1862. He was a member of Company A (men from Walker County, Texas), of the 21st Texas Cavalry, Carter's Brigade, Trans-Mississippi Army.
The Twenty-first Texas Cavalry served in the Trans-Mississippi Department as part of Parsons's Brigade for much of the Civil War. In the spring of 1862 Methodist minister George Washington Carter received permission from Richmond to recruit a regiment of lancers. Highly publicized in South Central Texas, the regiment was to be the only one of lancers in Confederate service. Carter recruited enough companies to allow his lt. colonel and major to take command of separate regiments, with Carter being appointed sr. colonel.
Soon after Carter’s brigade arrived in Arkansas, the cohesiveness between the three colonels reached a boiling point. The 24th and 25th were detached, and the men dismounted. Carter quickly aligned his regiment with the cavalry brigade of Col. William Henry Parsons to prevent the men in the 21st from also being dismounted. The 21st became regular cavalry (the lances had never arrived). Carter spent much time absent from the command, partly due to other interests and partly because he felt he should be the senior colonel of Parson's Brigade.
The Twenty-first participated in Brig. Gen. John S. Marmaduke's invasion of Missouri in the spring of 1863. During this raid on Cape Girardeau between April 17 and May 2, 1863, Carter commanded the "Texas Brigade," which included all the units in Parsons's Brigade except the 12th Texas. Upon returning to Arkansas, the Twenty-first remained in the southern part of the state. The troopers did not take part in the Confederate attempt to hold Little Rock, as they had been on picket duty along the Arkansas River when the state capital fell on September 10.
The Twenty-first saw no major action until Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks's invasion of Louisiana in 1864. The regiment did not arrive in time to take part in the fighting at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill but did participate in following the Federal army on its retreat down the Red River and fought numerous minor conflicts with Union cavalry and infantry. The 21st saw its last action at the battle of Yellow Bayou on May 18, 1864. The regiment was in Texas when it disbanded in the spring of 1865.
After the war, James and Nancy continued to have children. They have 10-12 known children between them. They raised their children in Walker County, Texas until around 1900. From 1900 to around 1912 they lived in Dublin, Erath County, Texas. Nancy died on September 13, 1912. Shortly after that is when Mr. Barker relocated to Austin, Texas to live in the Confederate Home until his death.
Mr. Barker died on January 22, 1926 in Austin, Travis County, Texas around 90 years of age. He was widowed at his time of death.
Contributed on 8/12/21 by deanakh1
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Record #: 446571