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The following will be of interest to Confederate veterans and old friends of William Edward Pittman, who passed away at his birthplace, the old Pittman homestead, near Prairie Grove, Ark., on May 19, 1920, lacking ony two days of being eighty years old. He was educated in the Prairie Grove and Cane Hill schools. His parents were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and that was the Church of his choice, which he supported liberally. He was married to Margaret C. Ellis, of Wilson County, Tenn., on October 5, 1870, and to them were born seven children, of whom two sons and three daughters survive.

Comrade Pittman was a man of sterling worth, who gained and held the respect of all. He was among the foremost to contribute to educational and religious enterprises.

On July 4, 1861, he left Prairie Grove and was in State service for two months, afterwards entering the Confederate army, serving as lieutenant in Company G, 16th Arkansas, afterwards being with Company K, 5th Arkansas Regiment, of which he was lieutenant commander for nine months. He spent the winter of 1861 at Elm Springs. On February 16 the command left camp to meet General Price, from Missouri, at Sugar Creek. There they fell back to Cross Hollows and from there to Boston Mountain, south of Strickler, where they reamined a few days, then going north to attack the Federal forces, which were in camp at Elk Horn, or Pea Ridge, March 5 and 6. Retreating from that place by way of Van Winkle Mill, they went on to Van Buren for a few days, then marched across the State to De Sava, Ark., and went by boat down White River to Mississippi and to Memphis, Tenn., where they remained until the 27th of May, then falling back to Tupelo, Miss., The next march took them back to Saltillo, Baldwin, and Iuka, Iuka was captured by the Confederates, and they then went back to Baldwin and on to Corinth, where a fight lasted two days. In retreating they went near Holly Springs and on to Fort Gibson, La., where they stayed until July 9, 1863.

During the war Comrade Pittman was captured and suffered the hardships of Northern prisons, first on Johnson's Island, Ohio, where he spent the greater part of two years. He was then at Point Lookout, Md., and later was confined at Fort McHenry, Baltimore. While there General Lee surrendered. He was last in prison at Fort Delaware, where he remained until June 13, 1865, when he was released and went home.