A Memorial to a Confederate Cavalry Trooper, who served in Poe´s Battalion

There is no other legend quite like the Confederate fighting man. He reached the end of his haunted road long ago. He fought for a star-crossed cause and in the end he was beaten, but as he carried his slashed red battle flag into the dusky twilight of the Lost Cause, he marched straight into a legend that will live as long as people care to remember anything about the past.

This is not an actual picture of Joel Henry, press photo for story.

Joel Henry Brazeal was killed in Sept. 1864, while going home on leave from a confederate camp near Princeton, Arkansas. He was captured and hanged, near the present day town of Sheridan, Arkansas, by a gang of dirty, gray-backed, low-down, thieving, murdering, gall-darn Yankees and the worst of that lot was their leader, the rotten, turn coat, Captain Patterson Dodd. It is rumored that on July 17, 2001, someone urinated on Patterson's grave.That's not true, but they, probable, would have if they could have found it. It, also, was told by Dodd's family, that after the war, Pat Dodd lived the rest of his life near the Providence Community, Grant County, Arkansas, with paranoia, he believed just because you are paranoid don't mean there is not someone out there trying to getcha. He dug a tunnel from under his bed to a wooded area in back of his house and when he heard someone approaching, he would sneak into the woods and hide. Now here is the real pisser, Pat Dodd was Great-Grandfather to Frances Isabelle Walters Breazeal . Isabelle's husband, William Henry Breazeal, was the Grandson of Joel Henry Brazeal, and her mother, Deliah Winchester Walters, was Patterson Dodd's Granddaughter.

Joel Henry Brazeal lies in the grave under this marker, but the name on the stone is his grandson's, William Henry Breazeal. It is likely that both men were called Henry, so when the stone was installed, between 1935-38, it was said by someone, in the past, that they had the same name. Hence, Wm. H. Breazeal was placed on the marker. Now, it has come to light that another man, William (Wild Bill) M. Brazil joined Company B, 11th Arkansas Infantry in Benton, Arkansas, July, 1861 and this is the information that was placed on this marker. This story is told!

Some where between Joel Henry and William Henry, the Breazeal family gained the first 'e' in our name. Further proof is the April 1860 Jury List , for Saline County, Arkansas, had Joel Henry's name as Brazil, but as a Juror, he was listed as Brazeal. It can be assumed that he had corrected the court in the spelling of his name.

This is the signature of Joel Henry Brazeal, taken from a document dated Nov 8th, 1861 and so ends the quest to find how he spelled his name. Joel Henry died without a will and the Probate Court procedure wasn't completed until 1871. This is another part of the story that needs more research."

Joel Henry Brazeal was an Alabama born son of the south and a product of the times. The believes of that era should not be seen as flaws of character, as long as they were truly believed. Hate is a ugly word that we don't like to use, but it's there and, if admitted, in you and in me. (I talked to God about this and He thought I would be all right, but He, also, thought you were screwed!) Anyway, you should remember this, the Confederate Battle Flag is the only flag to fly for Joel Henry on any occasion. Here it is for this one!

We still love our old battle flag with the Southern Cross upon its fiery folds! We have wrapped it round our hearts! We have enshrined it in the sacred ark of our love; and we will honor it and cherish it evermore, not now as a political symbol, but as the consecrated emblem of a heroic epoch, as the sacred memento of a day that is dead, as the embodiment of memories that will be tender and holy as long as life shall last.

Most of the Confederate Soldiers were interested in protecting their families and property, or some other noble cause, so they joined up. Joel Henry had the 'Breazeal's Streak of Mean' in him and they let him kill Yankees! So he joined up.

This POW Memorial Awarded to:

Pvt. Joel Henry Brazeal

of 11th Arkansas Infantry,
Confederate Sates of America

taken a Prisoner of War
at Island No. 10 near Tiptonville, TN,
on the Mississippi River,

on April 8, 1862, imprisoned at

Camp Douglas, Illinois