Doug Garnett, Paris, Texas is working on identification of these 4 graves for a lady he met at an event recently. The Rose Hill Cemetery is in Pittsburg ( no H ), Texas just 12 mi. south of Mount Pleasant in Camp County. I visited them today, and they appear to be the oldest marked in the cemetery, 3 dated 1863 and one 1865, though I did see another later stone with 1865 and another 1866. As you can see, they're sandstone slabs, rough-cut and with crude but readable names and dates. They occupy one corner of a fairly large family plot, the adult occupants of which died ca. the turn-of-the-century up to just after WWI. I counted at least 7 other more recent Confederate graves in the cemetery, one sunk so far in the ground so as to be unreadable.

The mystery is just who these 4 who died so close together in time and are buried together really are. She believed they were possibly Confederate soldiers, and Doug has confirmed it for at least one and possibly another: Doct. J.S. Deane. was the surgeon for a unit known as Stirman's 1st Ark. Cav. Battalion ( dismounted ) and later was a company-grade officer in the unit. There was also a member of the unit named Dixon, which may well be this "J. Dickson"; he has yet to locate any Bells though. Stirman's was part of the Brigade of Martin Green in John Bowen's Division at the battles of Port Gibson and Champion's Hill and the Vicksburg siege where Green was killed by a rifle ball through his head. The theory is that after the surrender and parole at least Deane and probably "Dickson" ( and very likely the Bells too ) came to Texas, likely to recover from malnutrition and/or disease incurred during the siege.

James Neel
March 7, 2013

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(March 7, 2013) Enlarge The oldest marked graves in the cemetery are in this plot

(March 7, 2013) Enlarge

(March 7, 2013) Enlarge J. Dickson (d 1865)

(March 7, 2013) Enlarge S.N. Bell (d 1863)