The
two younger brothers of William J. Bryant, 21st
Mississippi, appear
to have also served the Confederacy in the 38th Mississippi Infantry
Regiment. The youngest brother, David H. Bryant, was definitely in the 38th, and became
Assistant Surgeon in the Regiment. The
middle brother, John Wesley Bryant, Jr., was thought to have been in the 38th as
well because regimental rosters list a John Bryant from Wilkinson County;
however, recent additional research in the Mississippi Archives determined this John Bryant to
not be John Wesley
Bryant, Jr., although it is likely that this John Bryant is related to David H.
and John Wesley, Jr.
David
H. Bryant, born April 10, 1837, in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, was about to
turn 25 when he enlisted in the Wilkinson Guards on April 1, 1862.
This unit was organized into Company D of the 38th Mississippi Infantry
Regt. on May 12, 1862.
David
Bryant apparently had some training in medicine and was promoted to Assistant
(Regimental) Surgeon as which he served for the rest of the war.
The 38th primarily served in Mississippi and was one of the regiments
surrendered and paroled at Vicksburg. Upon
the regiment’s reassembly at Enterprise, MS, it was converted to mounted
infantry at which time the 14th Miss. Infantry and 3rd Miss. Cavalry were
consolidated with the 38th. The
regiment’s last action took them into Alabama where they remained until
surrender.
David
Bryant returned home and began a medical practice.
He moved to Liberty in Amite
County and, on January 7, 1872, he married Louisa F. Bates. Death
came on January 15, 1883, and, for reasons unknown, he was buried beside the
Liberty Methodist Church in a lone grave covered by a raised brick crypt with a
metal cover into which is cast a poem which reads:
Take
earth to thy bosom so tender
Take
nourish this body! How fair
How
noble in death! We surrender
These
relics of man to thy care.
Speed
on, perfect year to the morning,
God's
fullness shall dawn on the just;
And
thou open grave! shall restore us,
The
glorified form from the dust.
Sources: Military History of Mississippi, 1803 - 1898 by Dunbar Rowland
Beneath Torn and Tattered Flags (A History of the38th Mississippi Infantry) by Jeff Giambrone
Personal research in Mississippi Archives and elsewhere
