1. State your full name and present post office address:
Answer: William Penn Dawson, Bells, Crockett county, Tenn.
2. State your age now:
Answer: 89 years old
3. In what State and county were you born?
Answer: Stewart county, Tenn.
4. Were you a Confederate or Federal soldier?
Answer: Confederate
5. Name of your Company?
Answer: Co. H, 50th Tenn.
6. What was the occupation of your father?
Answer: Farmer
7. Give full name of your father: Daniel Dawson; born at: not sure but think in Stewart Co.; in the County of ______; State of: Tenn.; He lived at: lived near Dover, Tenn.
Give also any particulars concerning him, as official position, war services, etc.; books written by him, etc.:
Answer: was a private citizen
8. Maiden name in full of your mother: Mary Randle; she was the daughter of: (full name) Rev. Randle and his wife: (full name) don’t know; who lived at: Indian Mound, Stewart co. fell dead while preaching..
9. Remarks on ancestry. Give here any and all facts possible in reference to your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc., not included in the foregoing as where they lived, offices held, Revolutionary or other war service; what country they came from to America; first settled-county and State; always giving full names (if possible), and never referring to an ancestor simply as such without giving the name. It is desirable to include every fact possible, and to that end the full and exact record from old Bibles should be appended on separate sheets of this size, thus preserving the facts from loss.
Answer: Grand-father Solomon? Dawson came from England. First settled in Maryland; afterwards moved to Tennessee.
10. If you owned land or other property at the opening of the war, state what kind of property you owned, and state the value of your property as near as you can:
Answer: Three negro women, all having children. Did now own any land.
11. Did you or your parents own slaves? If so, how many?
Answer: My mother’s people owned slaves
12. If your parents owned land, state about how many acres:
Answer: owend land – don’t know how much
13. State as near as you can the value of all the property owned by your parents, including land, when the war opened:
Answer: land was cheap can’t estimate the value
14. What kind of house did your parents occupy? State whether it was a log house or frame house or built of other material, and state the number of rooms it had:
Answer: Log houses
15. As a boy and young man, state what kind of work you did. If you worked on a farm, state to what extent you plowed, worked with a hoe and did other kinds of similar work. (Certain historians claim that white men would not do work of this sort before the war.)
Answer: The most of my young life was spent in class room. Did not work regularly.
16. State clearly what kind of work your father did, and what the duties of your mother were. State all the kinds of work done in the house as well as you can remember – that is, cooking, spinning, weaving, etc.:
Answer: Father a farmer. Mother owned negroes who did the most of mother’s work
17. Did your parents keep any servants? If so, how many?
Answer: Yes, do no remember the number
18. How was honest toil – as plowing, hauling, and other sorts of honest work of this class – regarded in your community? Was such work considered respectable and honorable?
Answer: Yes, the man who failed to work was considered dishonest.
19. Did the white men in your community generally engage in such work?
Answer: Yes
20. To what extent were there white men in your community leading lives of idleness and having others do their work for them?
Answer: Small percent
21. Did the men who owned slaves mingle freely with those who did not own slaves, or did slaveholders in any way show by their actions that they felt themselves better than respectable, honorable men who did now own slaves?
Answer: All men were on a equality if morally sound
22. At the churches, at the school, at public gatherings in general, did slaveholders and non-slaveholders mingle on a footing of equality?
Answer: Yes
23. Was there a friendly feeling between slaveholders and non-slaveholders in your community, or were they antagonistic to each other?
Answer: There was
24. In a political contest, in which one candidate owned slaves and the other did not, did the fact that one candidate owned slaves help him any in winning the contest?
Answer: No
25. Were the opportunities good in your community for a poor young man, honest and industrious, to save up enough to buy a small farm or go in business for himself?
Answer: Yes
26. Were poor, honest, industrious young men, who were ambitious to make something of themselves, encouraged or discouraged by slaveholders?
Answer: Encouraged
27. What kind of school or schools did you attend?
Answer: In early life the public community school – Sulphur Mill(?) Academy in Henry Co.
28. About how long did you go to school altogether?
Answer: most of the time until 18 years of age
29. How far was it to the nearest school?
Answer: neighborhood school 3 miles the later school boarded
30. What school or schools were in operation in your neighborhood?
Answer: ____________
31. Was the school in your community private or public?
Answer: mostly private
32. About how many months in the year did it run?
Answer: about 3 months
33. Did the boys and girls in your community attend school pretty regularly?
Answer: fairly so
34. Was the teacher of the school you attended a man or woman?
Answer: man, never to a woman
35. In what year and month and at what place did you enlist in the service of the Confederacy or of the Federal Government?
Answer: Enlisted in 1861 just before the close of the summer.
36. After enlistment, where was your Company sent first?
Answer: To Ft. Donaldson
37. How long after enlistment before your Company engaged in battle?
Answer: Some three or four months I think – not real accurate
38. What was the first battle you engaged in?
Answer: Ft. Donaldson, Stewart Co.
39. State in your own way your experience in the War from this time on to its close. State where you went after the first battle – what you did and what other battles you engaged in, how long they lasted, what the results were; state how you lived in camp, how you were clothed, how you slept, what you had to eat, how you were exposed to cold, hunger and disease. If you were in the hospital or prison, state your experience there:
Answer: Captured in battle, sent to prison to Lake shore, near Chicago, stayed 7 months, was exchanged and sent to Cairo, Ill. by rail and then by boat to Vicksburg. Regiment sent to Jackson, Miss. and reorganized then I was elected Lieutenant without solicitation. Served one year and resigned. Resignation accepted, and then joined Forrest’s command and was a scout until Hood went to Nashvill. Not long until surrender of Lee. Being a scout was not with the Army at time of surrender consequently had no discharge.
40. When and where were you discharged?
Answer: _________
41. Tell something of your trip home:
Answer: Did not go directly home soon accepted a position in dry goods store at Clarksville, Tenn.
42. Give a sketch of your life since the close of the Civil War, stating what kind of business you have engaged in, where you have lived, your church relations, etc. If you have held any office or offices, state what it was. You may state here any other facts connected with your life and experience which has not been brought out by the questions:
Answer: Dry goods as stated above
43. What kind of work did you take up when you came back home?
Answer: Married in Henry county in 1866 moved to Clarksville. Spent four years then moved to Bells, then Haywood, now Crockett county. Was in dry goods 27 years reared a family of seven children. Have held positions on and have Board and City Municipal Boards.
44. On a separate sheet, give the names of some of the great men who you have known or met in your time, and tell some of the circumstances of the meeting or incidents in their lives. Also add any further personal reminiscences. (Use all the space you want.)
Answer: Isaac G. Harris, knew Hon. John F. House well, Knew William B. Bate, and many others. No special incident of interest.