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John H. Witt was born in Virginia on September 11, 1823, and died at the residence of his son, B. B. C. Witt, near Benton, Tenn., on April 7, 1916, aged ninety-two years. He was baptized as an infant into the Methodist Church. About 1828 he was taken by his parents into the Cherokee country, on Greasy Creek, south of the Hiwassee River, and as a child learned the Cherokee language.

In August, 1861, he and his father, the latter then sixty-one years old, volunteered in Captain Hancock's company, the fourth company to be raised on Polk County for service in the Confederate army. This company was afterwards organized into the 29th Tennessee Infantry and became Company B. Later on the son, on account of rheumatism was transferred to Company E, 5th Tennessee Cavalry, went on the Scott raid into Kentucky, was captured and taken to Camp Chase and afterwards to Fort Delaware, where he remained until just before the surrender of General Lee, when, with a few others he was paroled. He was ever true to the principles for which he fought. The Confederate cause was always sacred to him. He was as true to his friends as he was to the principles for which he fought. His father, though a gray-haired old man at the beginning of the war, served his term of enlistment and was honorably discharged.

In his last declining years he was tenderly cared for by his son. With sincere appreciation of the friendship that existed between us, it is with sadness that I place this humble tribute to his memory.

[Tribute by A. J. Williams.]