January 11, 2022
Pages 2672-2673
Whole Number 127
A TEXAS PENSION FOR SERVICE IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY
Soldiers who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War were never permitted by the Congress to receive pensions based on that service from the federal government. A number of Southern states, however, provided funding for this purpose.
On June 10, 1930, Sarah Sparks, born August 7, 1848, and a resident of Weaver, Texas, applied for a Confederate pension from the state of Texas. In her application, she stated that she had been married to John Napoleon Sparks on March 15, 1866, in Titus County, Texas. He had died on February 10, 1916, in Hopkins County, Texas. He had served in Company I, 9th Regiment Texas Cavalry, C.S.A., for four years. He had never drawn a pension for his service. John M. Biggerstaff, R. Teer, Clarence Wood, B. M. Camp, and J. A. Butler witnessed the application which was sworn to before J. J. Murray, Judge of Hopkins County.
The War Department confirmed the military service of John N. Sparks on July 9, 1930 He had been 25 years old when he enlisted on October 14, 1861, in Grayson County, Texas, as a private in Capt. L. D King's Company, Simms Regiment Texas Volunteers, an organization which subsequently became Company G, 9th Regiment Texas Cavalry, Confederate States Army. He was transferred to Company I, same regiment, on December 31, 1861. He was promoted to 2nd Corporal on June 20, 1862, and later to 2nd Sergeant. He was captured on June 10, 1864, at Garvin's Ferry on Sunflower River, Mississippi, and exchanged near Vicksburg, Mississippi, on May 13, 1865.
Sarah Sparks was placed upon the Texas Pension Roll, effective August 1, 1930. She died on April 23, 1935.
(Editor's Note: For further information regarding John Napoleon Bonaparte Sparks see the present issue of the Quarterly, page 2655.)