MCCRACKEN, JAMES FRANKLIN (1838 ~ 1921). The following is a biography for James F. McCracken, Civil War veteran. The biography was provided by a relative.
James Franklin McCracken
Born: 1838, Giles County, Tennessee
Died: 31 March 1921, Austin, Travis County, Texas
Buried: Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Confederate Soldiers Section
Religion: Methodist
James is the oldest child and son of Duncan H. McCracken (abt. 1816, Giles Co, TN - aft. 1880 Ellis Co, TX) and Mary Adaline Neal. Grandson of Joseph McCracken (1776, Rowan Co, NC - 1848, Giles Co, TN) and Daughter Hughey.
Military service record:
CSA, Trans Mississippi, 3rd Tennessee Infantry, Company A.
Rank: Private
Service from May 1861 to May 1865.
A POW at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois.
Applied for and received a Confederate pension (no. 14269) from Texas in 1908 while living at Malone, Hill County, Texas. His younger brother, Joseph Lytle McCracken, served in the 1st Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry, Company K. Joe is buried at Archer City, Archer County, Texas.
The 3rd Tennessee Infantry Regiment was organized under a sugar maple tree at Lynnville Station in Giles County, Tennessee, on May 16, 1861. The regiment was composed of 10 companies of picked men. Private James Frank McCracken was one of these men. He first served in Company A under Captain John Calvin Brown. Company A men were from Pulaski, Giles County, TN. Captain Brown was promoted to Colonel of the Regiment and replaced by Captain Calvin J. Clack. Later in the war Company A was merged with Company G. The 3rd Tennessee Infantry was accepted into the service of the Confederate States of America on August 7, 1861 and their 1st engagement was the Battle of Fort Donelson. The Regiment surrendered and the enlisted men shipped by steamboat to the infamous Camp Douglas, a Union prison in Chicago, Illinois. Regiment suffered through the winter with insufficient clothing & food. A dozen men died. After seven months, 3rd Tennessee Infantry loaded on boats and taken down the Mississippi to be paroled and exchanged at Vicksburg. Regiment reorganized and Company A now was Company G under Captain David Rhea. Rank & file 97 men with recruits.
Engagements:
Battle of Chickasaw Bayou
Battle of Raymond. 2,500 Confederates from Texas & Tennessee met the advance of General U. S. Grant's 10,000 Union army in one of the fiercest and bloodiest engagements of the war. Private James Frank McCracken was captured by Union Forces.
Battle of Chickamauga
Battle of Missionary Ridge
Regiment participated in General Joseph E. Johnston's retreat to Atlanta and fought at Rocky Face Ridge, Sugar Creek Valley, Resaca, New Hope Church, Powder Springs Road & Jonesboro.
Following the fall of Atlanta, the 3rd Tennessee Infantry followed General John Bell Hood across northern Alabama and home to Tennessee.
The remnant of the 3rd Tennessee Infantry moved with the Army of Tennessee into North Carolina where they were merged into the 4th Consolidated Tennessee Infantry on April 9, 1865.
On April 26, 1865 General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee was surrendered. Regiment paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina, on May 1, 1865
After the war McCracken, at the age of 29, left Tennessee for Texas, settling at Ellis County, Texas in 1867. Sometime between the 1870 and 1870 census, his parents and siblings moved from Giles County, Tennessee to Ellis County, Texas.
The 1910 Census for Hill County, Precinct 5, District 166. James F. McCracken is enumerated with the Tucker family. He is listed as "uncle". Sarah D. Tucker, age 20 wife of Ollie Tucker, age 29 is likely his niece or great niece.
James was a bachelor and lived in Texas 54 years. He was admitted to the Confederate Home in Austin on March 2, 1921,died there on March 31, 1921 and was buried the next day.
James' cousin Sgt. Green Hastings McCracken of Wilson County, Texas is also buried in the Confederate Soldiers Section of the Texas State Cemetery.
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