A STINSON of the War Between the States

I heard an interesting bit of family history on #74, JAMES STINSON (James Bryant STINSON), page 100 of "So Obscure A Person.” Descendant RUSSELL REEDER, mentioned that JAMES was a soldier during the War Between the States. Once when home on a visit, his uniform was in such tatters that the women in the household stayed up all night spinning and sewing to get him properly clothed again. Things were indeed hard for the boys who fought on the losing side of that battle.

I had noted that when the STINSON family was counted on the 1870 Census in Abbeville, Alabama (illustrated on page 99), the family was living next door to two black STINSON families also born in Virginia: ALEX and SARAH STINSON, and SAM and MARIAH STINSON. Mr. REEDER told me that when the STINSON family travelled from Virginia to Georgia in the early 1800s, they took a number of slaves with them, and the surnames of those slaves were STINSON. He said that one slave was the same age as GEORGE STINSON who was born about 1796.