Early Years
Joseph Sayers was born September 23, 1841 in Grenada, Mississippi to Dr. David Sayer and his wife Mary Thomas {Peete}. His mother died in 1851, and soon after he moved to Texas with his father and younger brother, William. The family settled in Bastrop, where Sayers and his brother attended the Bastrop Military Institute.
When the Civil War broke out, Sayers joined the Confederate States Army's 5th Texas Regiment, a cavalry unit led by General Tom Green. He participated in the Battle of Valverde in New Mexico in February 1862, and was recommended for promotion for his bravery in capturing an artillery battery. Later that year he returned to Texas with his regiment before being sent to Louisiana, where he was wounded in the battle of Camp Bisland in April 1863. His actions during that conflict led to his promotion to major, and he became Green's chief–of–staff. Sayers was wounded again in April 1864 at the Battle of Mansfield. After Green died at the Battle of Blair's Landing, Sayers became the assistant adjutant to General Richard Taylor.
After the war ended, Sayers returned to Texas. He opened a school and simultaneously studied law. He was admitted to the bar and then formed a partnership with G. "Wash" Jones.
Read more about this topic: Joseph D. Sayers
Famous quotes containing the words early years, early and/or years:
“Even today . . . experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years. . . . Children don’t need parents’ full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“We have good reason to believe that memories of early childhood do not persist in consciousness because of the absence or fragmentary character of language covering this period. Words serve as fixatives for mental images. . . . Even at the end of the second year of life when word tags exist for a number of objects in the child’s life, these words are discrete and do not yet bind together the parts of an experience or organize them in a way that can produce a coherent memory.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“The years like great black oxen tread the world,
And God the herdsman treads them on behind,
And I am broken by their passing feet.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)