Hugh Ferguson and 2nd wife, Rachel Strayhorn

Hugh F. Bell, b. 1 March 1845  Dickson County, TN

Married 1st: 12 April 1876 Obion County TN, to S. Martha Caldwell, b. 1854 in Ky

Married 2nd: 1 Jan 1884, White County AR to Rachel Emma Strayhorn
b. 29 Sept 1872 White Co. AR,
d. 17 Dec 17, 1948 White Co., AR

Served  Co C., 2nd Woodward’s Kentucky Calvary [also known as the 15th Kentucky Calvary] from 1862 to 1865 and was wounded.

Hugh Ferguson Bell was a brother of John Montgomery Bell and also served as a Confederate Soldier. He was born in Dickson County, Tennessee on March 1, 1845 and was named after his grandfather Col. Hugh Ferguson Bell of Montgomery County, Tennessee. After the death of Hugh’s father in 1840, his family moved to Obion County where he lived with the family of his sister, Catherine E. Holloway, until his enlistment. Hugh joined Company C, Woodward’s 2nd Kentucky Calvary at Union City, Tennessee the same day General Nathan Bedford Forrest captured that town on December 24, 1862. At this time Woodward’s Calvary was made up of only two companies and was part of Forrest’s old brigade. Hugh participated in the last half of Forrest’s West Tennessee Raid and served under Forrest for several months before his regiment was transferred to Wheeler’s Calvary Corps. There he remained for the rest of the war serving throughout all the battles and campaigns in which his regiment was engaged up to and including the last battle at Bentonville, N.C. After this, his regiment served as President Jefferson Davis’s escort until the surrender. Hugh received a letter of gratitude from President Davis for his services as a bodyguard which is still in the possession of the family.

Hugh was wounded in the thigh at Gillisonville, S.C. during one of the numerous smaller skirmishes he took part in, and was blinded in one eye at some point during the war. His regiment surrendered at Washington, Georgia on May 10, 1865 at which time Hugh returned to Obion County. At Chattanooga he was dismounted, and his horse and equipment taken from him together with his pistols by the Federal forces there. He returned to Obion County on foot in company with his brother and several others. There he married Martha Caldwell, daughter of J. V. and Maria Caldwell, formerly of Kentucky. They had one son, Sam, before moving to White County, Arkansas where Martha died at a young age.

Hugh married again in 1888 to Rachel Emma Strayhorn, daughter of William H. Strayhorn and Mary Jane Burket. Their children were: James Hadie Bell, Maggie L. Bell Benton, Willie M. Bell Arnold and Hugh Barney Bell.

Hugh acquired 80 acres of land near Floyd in White County, Arkansas where he and Emma farmed for many years. He drew a Confederate pension from the state of Arkansas and died on November 18, 1932. Hugh and Emma are buried in the Mt. Olive Cemetery near Floyd.

Sources:
Phillip R, Priest, 4320 Prospect Road, Jonesboro, Arkansas 7240l
Coy R. Benton & Merl Hugh Benton., Searcy, Arkansas
1840 Tennessee Census., Arkansas Confederate Pension Records,1850 Tennessee
Census Records-Dickson County