Memory of Uncle James Alexander Bell, who walked home to Mississippi from Rock Island Prison

 Grandpa said he run away from home at 16 years of age & went to War. He said he was so young they made him feed the Horses 2 years. He was gone 5 years when he got back his daddy was chopping wood out in front of the house & he asked if he could spend the night and he said you will have to see my wife & she knew him. He didn't have a beard. When he got back his face was covered with beard.

[He also would not leave the house in his wagon or on a horse without dried fruit or something else to munch on: he had been starved in prison.]