Have hit some brick walls in attempting to document the sons of John D. Horton, planter of Pleasant Ridge, Greene County, who captured Maj Fidler of the 6th Kentucky Cav, USA, on April 6, 1865, after the skirmish at that place.

John D. Horton and Miss Mary Coleman were wed in Greene County in 1835. In 1838 Mary bore a son, listed as Alonza in the 1850 Census of Greene County. In 1860 he is listed only by his initial "A." Eliza Jane was born in 1839. In December of 1840 Mary bore another son, Hollis Tresvant Horton. In 1860 Hollis is overseer of his father's plantation. In 1842 Mary's fourth child was another son, Leonidas A. Horton. The next year Mary died a month after giving birth to Jesse Habbord Horton, who himself died ten months later.

Leonidas' service in Co D, 8th Confederate Cavalry, is well-documented, including an apparent contemporary obituary from a Greene County newspaper. He is buried in Shelbyville, TN, having died of typhoid pneumonia after surviving the battle of Murphreesburo, wherein his captain, B. B. McCaa, was mortally wounded.

Hollis' service was even more varied. Evidently he was in New Orleans when hostilities commenced, enlisting in May 1861 in Co H, 3rd Louisiana Infantry. Paroled at Vicksburg, he was wounded at Corinth, then applied for a transfer to Co D, 42nd Alabama Infantry, in which the Buntin brothers were serving, they being close friends of the Horton family; two Buntins married sisters of Hollis after the war. Hollis was finally paroled in May 1865 from a hospital in NC. Hollis died in Tuscaloosa County in 1902.

Alonza is a mystery. The 1866 Census indicates that one of John D. Horton's sons died of disease (Leonidas), and another was killed, either KIA or died of wounds. My suspecion is that this latter statistic represents Alonza's fate.

I have yet to locate in which unit Alonza served; requests to NARA for records indicate no such individual in Co D, 8th Confederate Cavalry. An A.W. Horton was an officer in Co D, 7th Alabama Cavalry, but he was surrendered and paroled at Gaineville with Forrest's command; Co B of that regiment was officered by Archibalds from Pleasant Ridge. An A.M. Horton was in the 24th Alabama Infantry from Pickens County; Alfred was the son of John Elvin Horton, a distant cousin of John D.'s family who lived in the Raliegh area of Pickens County.

Another twist to all this is the assertion held by some descendents of Hollis that there was a fourth son, Coleman, who served with Hollis and died during the Atlanta campaign. No such individual is found in John D. Horton's household in the Census of 1850 or 1860. A W.C. Horton did enlist and served in Co H, 3rd LA Inf, and was granted a transfer to Co D, 42nd Alabama Inf on the same date Hollis made the same move. But no record of a W. C. or Coleman Horton can be found by NARA in the 42nd Alabama. The only published account of this individual being a son of John D. Horton is found in the Memorial Record of Alabama, in the biography of John A. Horton, younger half-brother of the older sons. In this is stated that at the time (1894) three sons were deceased, "Alonza, Coleman, and Jesse." This testimony is suspect, in my opinion, because it evidently was given by the widow of John A. Horton, who himself died some ten years before, or an even more distant relative, who had no direct knowledge or memory of Coleman, only hearsay.

So my question is, in what unit did Alonza serve? Could be from north Greene or south Pickens counties. And, is there ANY evidence for this W.C. (William Coleman?) Horton beyond the 3rd La Inf? I need to see if he actually was a cousin living in Louisiana.