DOB:  June 30, 1840 DOD:  March 24, 1901 Age at Enlistment: 21 Date of Enlistment:  July 18, 1861 Place of Enlistment:  Haynesville, TN Rank at Enlistment:  Private Rank at Discharge:  Private Casualty:  Wounded in the right hip at Perryville on October 8, 1862 and captured two days later at Harrodsburg, KY.  Ribs were broken on the right side on September 22, 1863 in the skirmishing to retake Missionary Ridge.  Gunshot wound in the left arm at Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863.  Comments:  John was born at his family’s farm called Wildwood, which still stands on what is now Crockett Road in Brentwood, TN.  He and his brother Lewis both were attending school in Brentwood in 1861 when the war broke out and discussed joining.  Lewis joined immediately in May 1861 and John enlisted two months later in July.  John’s cousin Thomas P. Holt also was a member of the company.  John had a rough career in the military.  He is listed as being sick in Bath Springs, VA in September and October of 1861.  A year later he was wounded at the Battle of Perryville and captured in a hospital two days later.  While in captivity he contacted an eye infection that eventually made him go blind.  John was exchanged in December of 1862 at Vicksburg and returned to the regiment.  Following the Battle of Chickamauga, Bragg pursued the Federal army back to Chattanooga.  The 1st Tennessee fought in a skirmish at Missionary Ridge against Wilder’s Federal Brigade.  According to George Nichols, John and his brother were both shot by the same Yankee mounted on a Gray Horse: “The First Tennessee was formed in the line of battle and Company D and Company K was thrown out as skirmishers.  Capt. Atkeison commanded Company D and Capt. Flourney commanded Company K.  The regiment advanced as the skirmish line advanced.  Col. Feilds was with the skirmish line and there was one yankee we took particular notice of. He was on a gray horse behind a tree. He had shot two of our company, John and Teat [Lewis] Holt.  He then turned to run Col. Feilds and Hogan Moody and the writer of these lines were ahead of him and Col. Feilds ordered us to shoot him.  We both fired but do not know whether we hit him or not for we had no time to look after wounded or dead Yankees.” According to John’s pension record, the wound at this battle broke some of his ribs.  John returned to the regiment but his brother was incapacitated for the rest of the war.  At the larger Battle of Missionary Ridge in November, John was shot in the left arm.  He was able to keep his arm but lost the use of it.  On May 8, 1864, he was declared unfit for service and he moved to the invalid corps.  He surrendered at Shreveport, LA on May 26, 1865 and paroled on July 18, 1865.  Following the war John spent a few years in Tensas Parish, LA.  He married Helena Louisa Reeves on December 24, 1874 and the couple had three children.  John and his family returned to Tennessee.  The infection in his eyes had blinded him and he was living with his brother Lewis’ family back at Wildwood.  He filed for a pension in 1894 and stated his only source of income was from family members.  John died in 1901 and is buried on the Holt Family Cemetery next to Wildwood.  The Wildwood home has fallen into disrepair.  The Wildwood property was sold to a developer in 2014.  So far the developer has promised to restore the house.  

Left:  Wildwood Plantation, John’s boyhood home Right:  John’s tombstone in the Holt Family Cemetery