The Last Roll: J. K. P. Blackburn

Confederate Veteran
Volume 31, Number 11, Page 426
November 1923

James K. Polk Blackburn was born in Tennessee, but at the age of nineteen he went to Texas with his father’s family and was teaching school in Lavaca County, Tex., when the war came on in the sixties.  He was enrolled with Terry’s Texas Rangers, which command, with a unanimity never surpassed, enlisted “for the war.”  Young Blackburn fought bravely in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and was with General Forrest in numerous raids.  He was given a saber by General Morgan for valuable service rendered during a scout at Murfreesboro under hazardous circumstances.  At the battle of Farmington he was wounded and his horse killed.  This was his last battle, for he was a prisoner on parole during the rest of the war.  The chaplain of his regiment, in writing of the battle of Farmington, said, “And the noble Blackburn fell at the head of the column, leading a charge upon the enemy.”  After his wounds healed, he visited Brick Church, Tenn., where he met the daughter of Robert H. Laird, a wealthy planter, and a few years later they were married.  He was a model husband and a good father to the seven sons and two daughters born to this union.

Captain Blackburn took a leading part in building up his country after the war.  He represented Giles County, Tenn., with honor in both houses of the State legislature.  He was a brave soldier for his beloved South, but it was as a Christian soldier that his character shines brightest.  He was a good neighbor, ever ready to help in time of need, and his passing leaves a vacancy in his community that cannot be filled.  On July 6, 1923, he fell asleep peacefully at the ripe age of eighty-six years, and his comrades in arms laid him to rest in Lynwood Cemetery to await the resurrection of the just.

[A comrade of Harvey Walker Bivouac.]