Jim Berry was too young and too small to be in the army in the Civil War, but too old and too big to be outside. He could shoot a gun, was an excellent woodsman, and a threat to the desperado's who lived by stealing and by robbing the people. Little Jim Berry helped to organize the Home Guard in this section of the Ozarks. I knew him when he was an old man. He said, "We organized to fight the desperadoes and the Jayhawker's." Jim Berry killed several outlaws during the Civil War. I have his old Cap and Ball Colts Pistol that he carried through the war, and this same old gun had been on the USS Susquehanna when Admiral Perry opened Japan in 1853. By Jimmy Driftwood - was a recording artist, composed, singer, storyteller, teacher, instrumentalist, and historian.
Little Jim Berry (James Hiram Berry) was a Civil War combat hero who never actually never fought in the war. He was I my great grandfather.
Born 10 Apr 1846 in Benton Township, Conway County, Arkansas. In the 1850 Census in Benton Township, Conway County, Arkansas. Before 1860 his family moved to Union, Van Buren County, Arkansas
Jim Berry attempted to enlist in the Confederate army at age fourteen in 1860 but was rejected because of his small stature. The gun with which Jim Berry killed Bill Dark, King of the Jayhawkers, was given to him by Col. John O. Shelby, Confederate Calvary leader who made a raid and march through Van Buren County.
Small in does not small a man. Berry grew up in a hurry, joining an elite group of local men known as the Home Guard. This assembly of vigilantes, comprised of boys and older men not accepted for combat in the war, was responsible for protecting local citizens and family against a growing number of criminals known as bushwhackers or Jayhawkers.
In order to help protect their homes, families and themselves, a group of fifteen men formed what was called "The Home Guard" with an elderly man, Christopher Columbus Denton, as their commander. Most of these were boys too young to be in the army, and to old to be outside. Any male individual big enough to manage a gun was a potential threat to the Jayhawkers, hence, was in mortal danger all the time. One member of the group was 15 year old James Hiram (Jim) Berry who lived with his parents over on "Injun Creek" but kept to the woods much of the time.
