William Forest Sinclair

Birth Date:  August 27, 1826

Died:           February 6, 1895

Spouse:      

Biography:

William Sinclair was born in Georgia in 1826, and died in Titus County, Texas in 1895. He is buried in the Bivens Cemetery in Titus County. He came with his family to Texas about 1850, and the family settled near Logansport, Louisiana near the Texas and Louisiana State line. The family had not lived long in that area until they got in a feud with the Dobbs family, and several of the Sinclairs and Dobbs were killed. This feuding was not to the liking of William Sinclair, so be left the family and came on to Titus County. He had not been in Titus County any great length of time until he married Nancy Ann Hicklin. Nancy Ann Hicklin was born in Titus County in 1839 and died in Titus County on October 31, 1892, and is buried in the Bivens Cemetery. She was the daughter of B. Hickhn, who patented several surveys of land in Titus County, and prior to the Civil War was said to have been the largest landowner in the southwestern part of the county. Many of the Negroes now living in that area are descendants of the Hicklin slaves. The home place was on the south end of the John H. Keith Survey on lands now owned by Roy Smith. There was another Hicklin girl named Betheney, who married Tip Sanders, and the Sanders family also lived in the southwestern part of the county. Tip Sanders was killed by W.L. Gaddis as a result of an argument between the two over Sanders letting hogs run at large. William Sinclair enlisted in the Confederate Army in the Gray Rock Dragoons, and after the war continued to live in the southwestern part of the county until his death.

Regimental History:

Terrell's Cavalry Regiment [also called 34th and 37th Regiments] was organized in June, 1863, using Terrell's Texas Cavalry Battalion as its nucleus. The unit was assigned to H. Bee's and Bagby's Brigade, Trans-Mississippi Department, and fought in various locations in Louisiana. In January, 1864, it contained 25 officers and 402 men. It saw action at Mansfield, participated in the operations against the Federal Red River Campaign, and was active at Lecompte and Yellow Bayou. During May, 1865, the regiment disbanded at Hempstead, Texas. The field officers were Colonel Alexander W. Terrell, Lieutenant Colonel John C. Robertson, and Majors Hiram S. Morgan and George W. Owens.