John McLean was born December 6, 1844, in Barbour County, Alabama, the oldest child of Alexander McLean and Sarah (Condra) McLean.

By the time that the Civil War broke out, he was living in Arkansas. According to family tradition, he ran away from home, lied about his age, and enlisted, for the duration of the war, as a Private in Company G, 2nd Regiment, Arkansas Infantry, Confederate States of America. At that time he would have been only 16 years old, so that may be why he was given an assignment as Drummer Boy, a mixed blessing because, although it gave him a title, it also placed him in the front ranks of any battle that might be fought.

According to photocopies of records received from the General Reference Branch (NNRG-P), National Archives and Records Administration, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408, the service which he performed was as follows:

Thirteen "Company Muster Rolls" have survived showing the record of service of John McLean (McLain, M'Lean, or McClean) as a Private in Company G, 2 Regiment, Arkansas Infantry, Confederate Army, from July 6, 1861, through August 31, 1864. The first one shows that he was enlisted by Lt. Col. Bocage, on July 8, 1861, at Helena, [Arkansas,] for the duration of the war. The others say that he was enlisted by Col. [Thomas] Hindman, in Memphis, Tennessee, on that same date. He was paid on the following dates:

April 30, 1862, by Col. Bradford.

June 30, 186[2], by Major Landis.

October 31, 186[2], by Capt. Haley.

February 28, 186[3], by Capt.

Haley. April 30, 1863, by Capt. Su[l]livan.

October 31, 1863, by Capt. Bridewell.

December 31, 1863, by Capt. Sullivan.

The Company Muster Roll for April 30 to June 30, 1862, shows that he was "Entitled to Bounty."

The roll for October 31 to December 31, 1862, says: "Wounded at Murfreesboro Tenn Dec 31, 1862. Was present on Dec. 31, 1862, but did not answer to his name at Muster."

The name of "J. M. Lear" [John McLean], Pvt. Co. G 2nd Ark. appears on a list dated January 16, 1863, "of killed, wounded and missing, in Cleburne's Division, Hardee's Corps, A. T., in the battle of Murfreesboro, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. Remarks: Slightly wounded in hip."

John McLean "Appears on a register of Hospital, Tunnel Hill, Ga. Injury or disease: Morbi Cutis [skin infection?]. admitted July 18, 1863. Returned to duty Aug 17, 1863."

The roll for August 31 to October 31, 1863, bears this entry: "Absent sick at Marietta, Georgia Sept 7, 1863."

The one for October 31 to December 31, 1863, says: "Absent sick at Forsyth, Ga since 24th Nov. 1863."

"John W. McLane [John McLean] Pvt. Co G 2 Regt Ark Inf Appears on a Roll of Prisoners of War exchanged by order of Major General W. T. Sherman, Comdg, Military Division of the Mississippi, at Rough and ready, Ga., Sept 19 and 22, 1864. Roll not dated. When captured Sept 1, 1864."

The name of John M'Lean "Appears on a record of Confederate Soldiers Paroled at Headquarters, Sixteenth Army Corps, Montgomery, Alabama, during the month of May, 1865. date May 9 . . . ."

This file closes with the following document, which is reproduced here in its entirety:

I, John McLane - Pvt. 'G' 2d Ark Infy Cft A PRISONER OF WAR, DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR, that I will not serve in any Army of the Confederate States of America, or perform any Garrison or Constabulary duty of said Confederate States of America, until duly and properly exchanged. This Parole is accepted of my own free will and accord, knowing that the punishment for violating the same will be to me DEATH.

Given this 9 day of May 1865.

HEADQUARTERS 16th ARMY CORPS.

John McLean Office Pro. Marshal,

Sworn to and Subscribed before me this 9

day of May 1865

at Montgomery Ala.

J. A. Gerbow [?]

Asst Pro Marshal 16. A. C.

According to a letter from my Aunt Eunice Eula McLean to me, dated February 1, 1939, John McLean's father, Alexander McLean, "was a farmer fought in Civil War and was quartermaster in Captain McMurtry's Company he lived in Arkansas, Louisiana, and died near old Tennessee Church with typhoid fever Feb 14 1865. was buried there in Union Parish La." That would have been just three months before his son, John McLean, a prisoner of war, was paroled.

According to family tradition, John McLean's widowed mother was married a second time, to a man named Poole, but, when John got home after the War, he and a younger brother, Duncan Calhoun McLean, could not get along with their stepfather, so they left home and came to Texas. John McLean stopped in East Texas, to live with relatives in the Jacksonville area, while his brother, Duncan Calhoun McLean, went on to Bell County.

John McLean became an itinerant salesman, peddling eyeglasses in the rural areas of East Texas. the system of fitting eyeglasses was different in those days: he just carried a suitcase with a large number of spectacles of different magnifications, and the prospective customer would just try on one pair after another until he found the one that suited him best. (I later placed 16 pairs of those eyeglasses in the Bell County Museum.)

At night he spent a great deal of time writing his reminiscences of the Civil War, "until he had a whole trunk full," according to what one of those relatives later told me, but she did not know whatever became of those manuscripts.

The following information was taken from photocopies of documents sent to me by Sergio Velasco, Texas State Library and Archives, P. O. Box 12927, Austin, TX 78711-2927, in a letter of June 13, 1996:

John McLean, on July 8, 1922, applied to the State of Texas for a pension, stating that he had served in the military service of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, always in the same unit (Co. G, 2nd Ark. Inf. Volunteers), until he surrendered at Goldsboro, North Carolina, on April 6, 1865. He was then (at the time of this application) 77 years of age, had resided in Texas for 35 years, and had been living in Bell County for 6 months, on Route 1, Rogers, Texas, [at the home of his brother, Duncan Calhoun McLean].

He said that he had previously applied for a pension under the Confederate pension law, in Upshur County, [Texas,] in 1921, but his application had been rejected. He said that he was not engaged in any occupation, that he was feeble, that the assessed value of his home was $250.00, and that he had no other property. The application was approved on July 29, 1992, retroactive to June 1, 1922. The documents do not reveal ow much he was paid on the pension, and the same thing is true of the muster rolls showing when he was paid during the Civil War.

Records of the Confederate Home, Austin, Texas, now in the Texas State Archives, show that John McLean, born in Alabama, 1844, farmer, served in Company G, 2nd Ark. Inf. regiment, Goven Brigade, Cleburn Division, Tennessee Army, a bachelor, came to Texas in 1872, and was residing at Rogers, Texas, when he was admitted to the Confederate Home on July 14, 1926, on a disability because of old age, and that he was a Methodist.

He died on February 15, 1931, in the Confederate Home, Austin, Texas, and was buried in the Texas State Cemetery.

I did not get to know my Great-Uncle John McLean until the 1920s, when he came to live with my Grandpa and Grandma McLean in Bell County. By then he was well advanced in years. I distinctly remember him as a slender, erect figure, wearing a broad-brimmed, round-crowned very clack hat, heavy khaki-colored, woolen clothing, with "galluses" (suspenders), and coarse brown leather shoes, heavily treated with neat's-foot oil. Since he was cold-natured, he wore a moustache and a full beard, and he let his jet- black hair grow all the way down to his shoulders, where it turned upward in a slight curl. He always wore that woolen clothing, and a coat, even on the hottest days of summer.

At mealtime he showed a particular fondness for black-eyed peas, which he called "goober peas." He would rake them up into a pile with the edge of his knife, in the middle of his plate. then he would run the blade of the knife under the pile and come up with it completely loaded with peas, and, while I watched apprehensively as those peas wobbled on his knife, held in his palsied hand, he would pull his moustache and beard aside, with his other hand, insert the blade between his lips, and come out with an empty blade, not losing a single pea. I later figured out that it was what he called the "potlikker" that kept the peas on his knife.

Toward the end of the meal, while in the midst of taking another helping, he would glance at Grandma, with a twinkle in his eye, and ask: "Is there sumpin up the crik?" (meaning: "Is there anytning special for dessert?")

Since I was barely a teenager at that time, he would frequently pass along to me little gems of advice, whenever they occurred to him, without any preamble or explanation whatever. I particularly remember one instance when I encountered him on the back porch, just as he started to take a drink from the water bucket. He suddenly stopped, with the dipper half way to his lips, waved his trembling finger in front of my face, and intoned, in his quavering voice: "If you ever want anything done right, my boy, do hit yoreseff!"