Click here to see pictures of the memorial
for
Pvt. Samuel H Brister
18th Miss. Inf.
&
Lomax's Artillery
Brister Cemetery - sometimes called Liberty or Liberty Creek Cemetery
Near Leesville,La in Vernon Parish
Sponsored by the Anancoco Rangers, Sons of Confederate Veterans
Saturday 9 July 2005
This memorial has been scheduled for 6pm due to the heat.
This is one of Steve Jones’ wife’s Ancestors. Steve has placed a headstone at his grave and has asked Jesse M
Cooper, Emma Sansom and Spaights’ Battalion to assist. The event is sponsored by the Anacoco Rangers. Due to the
heat, the ceremony has been scheduled for 6pm.
Samuel H Brister was born in Brookhaven, Ms. in 1823, where he continued to live and work as a farmer till about 1850
when he married Mary Nolen, they moved to La and had 9 children, 4 girls and 5 boys.
Upon his father's death in 1860, they moved back to Miss. where they stayed through the war. Samuel served first in
the third Miss. Infantry assigned to Vicksburg. He served through the Vicksburg campaign and siege. He joined Lomax's
Company. Miss light Artillery after his Vicksburg parole. The company was stationed at Meridian and was sent to Mobile
when an attack from Baton Rouge was anticipated by Confederate Authorities.
The company was found to be insufficient for infantry duty owing to the fact that a large majority of the men were old and
infirm. The company was organized as an artillery unit, but was never equipped as such. The company was disbanded
on 31 October 1864.
Mary Nolen Brister filed for a Confederate Veteran Widow pension and stated that Samuel had served in the 18th
Mississippi Inf until the end of the war. He was paroled at Appomatox, Va.
Samuel, along with his wife and children, returned to La. to farm until his death on 20 May 1889. Some say that “ He
was standing in his front yard talking to a young man, when Jaw Hawkers rode up and shot the boy, killing him. Samuel
dropped dead of a heart attack.”.
