James L. Ashcraft was born in 1828 in Chester County, South Carolina, and moved with his family to establish new farms in Arkansas around 1855, settling near present-day Rison in Cleveland County.

James enlisted in Captain Halliday's Company D of the 26th Arkansas Infantry at Centerville, in Bradley County on May 12, 1862 and was inducted with the company into Confederate service at Pine Bluff. Shortly thereafter, the company was renamed, becoming Company I of C.D. Morgan's Battalion, 26th Arkansas Infantry. Records are sketchy, since the company was not issued and did not maintain a record book because of a shortage of paper and stationery in the rebel army. The records reconstructed by the unit's officers indicate that the 26th Arkansas trained at Camp Pike (present-day Camp Robinson) near Little Rock, and was then sent to join the garrison of Fort Hindman, at Arkansas Post. The unit moved to Bayou Miles in July, 1862, thence to Camp Crystal Hill the following month, and in April, 1863 moved to Camp Anderson in present-day Lincoln County, where James died in camp from disease on October 31, 1863.

James' wife, the former Sarah Jane Byrd, made the journey from the family's farm near Rison to recover his body; although she was still pregnant with the couple's last child. Upon arrival at Camp Anderson Sarah found that James had already been buried near the camp, and she sadly returned home to raise their four children alone. Sarah survived until August, 1907, and is buried at Prosperity Cemetery, near Pansy in Cleveland County, where a memorial marker had been placed for James.

Three of James' cousins also served in the 26th Arkansas Infantry. 2nd Lieutenant William L. and Sergeant Thomas K. Ashcraft served in Company K and Private Jonathan A. Ashcraft served with James in Company D. The 26th Arkansas continued to serve in southern Arkansas throughout the war, and participated in the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864 as a component of Colonel Lucien Gause's brigade in General Thomas J. Churchill's Arkansas Division at the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry on April 30, 1864.

Jonathan was taken prisoner at Long Tree in Ashley County on March 29, 1864. Initially confined at Little Rock, he was transferred to a federal prison camp at Rock Island, Illinois, and was then forwarded to New Orleans. He was paroled at Red River Landing, Louisiana at the end of the war.

All three cousins survived the War and returned home to Cleveland County.

James' older brother William T. Ashcraft was not as lucky, however, but was killed at the Battle of Pine Bluff on October 25, 1863.

Research done by Tom Ezell and his great-uncle Bill Ashcraft. Tom, the great-great grandson of James L. Ashcraft, is a former Army officer and currently a waste programs manager for the Arkansas Dept. of Pollution Control & Ecology. His e-mail address is tomezell@aristotle.net.