The Last Roll - Harrison Tankersley

Confederate Veteran
Volume 16, Number 8, Page 414
August 1908

Harrison Tankersley, who died at his home, the Tankersley Plantation, near Sandy Point, Tex., on June 1. Was of an old and prominent Alabama family. He was born at Livingston, Ala" in 1841, the youngest of thirteen children born to George G. and Sarah Tankersley. During the war of 1812 one grandfather was in command at Savannah, Ga., and another at the same time in command at Charleston, S.C. His father was one of the largest planters and slave holders in Alabama, and finding it difficult and costly to procure enough land in Alabama for his numerous children and slaves, he purchased in Texas what is now known as the "Tankersley Prairie Plantation," to which he brought his son Harrison in 1860. When the war broke out, the latter joined Company H, 8th Texas Cavalry, Terry's Texas Rangers, and served the entire war, never having a furlough nor being absent from his command but once, and that from sickness. He was in all the battles of his regiment from Bowling Green, Ky., to Johnston's surrender in North Carolina, following the fortunes of Bragg, Hood, and Johnston in the Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia campaigns, participating in such battles as Shiloh, Chickamauga, around Atlanta, Franklin, Nashville, and other engagements in which his regiment took part. He had several horses killed under him, but escaped any serious wounds.

After the war Comrade Tankersley returned to his home, in Texas, and resumed the life of a planter, and for many years served as County Commissioner, one of the most responsible positions in the county and which had not been sought. This he filled with credit to himself and decided benefit to the county. He was of the old type of Southern manhood, brave and honest and true to every trust. He left no family, but a devoted niece ministered to him in his declining years. He lost two brothers during the war. 415 Confederate Veteran August 1908. {Body}