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* THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN *
VOL. XX, No. 4 AUSTIN, TEXAS JANUARY, 1960
GENERAL JAMES J. BYRNE
A YANKEE IN ORBIT
by GARY UNDERWOOD
McCamey High School
AMES J. BYRNE lived on the edge
of danger; sometimes that edge was
sharp, sometimes dull and blunt, but
most of the time it was in the wide
open spaces. He found himself on the
sharp edge when he came south of the
Mason-Dixon Line and joined up with
General Nathaniel P. Banks west of the
Mississippi River in the Red River Cam-
paign. For his skillful engineering on
March 13, 1865, at the battles of Pleasant
Hill and Campti, Colonel J. J. Byrne was
commissioned brigadier general, "the
youngest of this rank in the Union
Army." Then for meritorious conduct
during the retreat of the mighty Army of
the Gulf, on May 5 and 6, 1865, he was
commissioned major general. General
Byrne was honorably mustered out of the
Union Army on May 13, 1866. Presi-
dent Andrew Johnson appointed him to
serve as marshal for the Eastern District
of Texas and, in this capacity, he became
associated with Governor James W.
Throckmorton (in 1866 and 1867). Gen-
eral Byrne was removed from office by
President U. S. Grant.
The former marshal had visited East
Texas and particularly Marshall, Texas,
where there was considerable railroad de-
velopment. His respect and friendship for
Governor Throckmorton was evidenced
when the Governor was being connected
with money subsidies granted by the
Twelfth Legislature. Byrne denounced
Throckmorton's attacker, a Colonel El-
liott, as a "lying scoundrel of the street."
A member of the Thirteenth Legisla-
ture (1872-1873), Major K. M. Van
Zandt of Fort Worth stated that Byrne
was right-of-way and land agent for the
Texas and Pacific Railway and spent
some time in Austin during the session in
behalf of the railroad.
By a special act on March 3, 1871, the
United States Congress granted a charter
for a transcontinental railroad to be
known as the Texas and Pacific Railroad
Company. A year later the name was
changed to the Texas and Pacific Rail-
way Company. A previous unsuccessful
attempt had been made to establish a
railroad along the thirty-second parallel
to the Pacific.
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J. J. Byrne was buried in Fort Worth on November
22, 1880
