Though I am very interested in and wrote an internet article about the Thomas Legion many years ago, I do not have any white or Cherokee ancestors in this unit. I have twenty-two(22) mixed-blood grandfathers and uncles who were members of the 1st (Watie's) and 2nd (Adair's) Cherokee Mounted Volunteers and Roswell Lee's Battery from the Indian Territory.

My Union ancestry was a gg-grandfather, Cpl. William Henry Jones, and an uncle, Capt. Monroe Masterson, in the 5th Tennessee Infantry, Co. C (US). From the same family I had an uncle, Monroe Willoughby, 17th Tennessee Infantry, Co. I (CS) and a ggg-grandfather, Volney Willoughby, who according to family testimony was killed at Chickamauga, but I have been unable to verify his service.

I also have a lot of Eastern Kentucky ancestry, centered around Blaze, Morgan County. These families were also split between Union and Confederate allegiances and a couple of them changed allegiances during the war.

My Martin surname comes from a family that moved from Campbell County, Tennessee in the late 1830's to southern Indiana. My grandfathers and uncles from this area were members of the 22nd, 31st, 43rd, 82nd and 93rd Indiana Infantry. As I've stated earlier, I'm approximately 50/50 by blood of Union and Confederate descent. My parents are both from Eastern Oklahoma, both have Cherokee ancestry. My dad was career military and I grew up in Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Mississippi and Tennessee are my "home" states and I consider Memphis, Tennessee, or its environs as my hometown.

I try to equally honor the memory of my Union and Confederate ancestors, but I am a Southern man in heart and mind.

Jim