Henry Clay Truston was a half brother of Dr. John Beverly Thruston/ sometimes spelled Thurston. Their father was Street Thruston who was commissioned to lay out the county seat of Morgan Co. in about 1833. He was to select the highest spot in the county, central. They always said the water from the S. of the square ran to the Osage River (Lake of the Ozarks since 1931) and the MO R. to the North.

Henry Clay Th. was 7 ft. 7 1/2 inches tall, wore a size 17 shoe. He was told to "get off his horse", "Get off the stump" and various other statements. He was given the battle flag, because everyone could see him. He later traveled with the Barnum and Bailey Circus as the World's Tallest man and came back to Versailles for the 1911 C.W. vet's reunion. I can e-mail pics of him, if you'd like. There were several of the Thurston brothers and none of them was less than 6 ft. 6 inches tall. Henry Clay Th. died in Morgan Co. TX and the funeral coach had to leave the doors open to accommodate his body. He was only wounded slightly during his war time, which seemed strange when he presented such a large target. He was about 2 ft. taller than the av. soldier.

According to local history: The doctor's older son died in front of the Elk Horn Tavern at Pea Ridge, maybe the first to fall, his name also started with a J. but at the moment, it escapes me; the younger boy went in at about 13 with his brother and other local boys, as a drummer boy and died from wounds in the hospital at Vicksburg when he was 15. The younger boy, Josiah Walton Thruston was buried by the hosp. staff and Dad went after his body. The tombstone at the Versailles Cemetery bears both names, but I don't think it would have been possible to retrieve the older brother from a mass grave in front of the Elk Horn Tavern. Some time would have passed between burial and retrieval. Josiah Walton Thruston was named after his mother's father, who owned the site, Walton's Mill at Millville, first county seat for Morgan Co. That is about 8 miles S. of Versailles.

Dr. John B. Thruston had several incidents during the war, but he took care of people from both sides and prevented some serious problems from occurring, such as Gen. Palmer and his men marching toward Versailles.

The boys from Versailles seem to have gone in groups of 6 or so buddies. There were no Confederate recruiting stations in Morgan Co., but many served on both sides, more Union than Confederate.

I have many, many accounts of incidents in the County, and many names of soldiers, some KIA, MIA, some burial places, and etc.

We have two very interesting collections at our museum in Versailles: Letters from a local Lutman to his sister. These letters cover much of the major battle areas and include a number of names of those from local areas and those he ran into during his battle days. These letters came back to us from KS. A woman purchased them, along with original envelopes at an estate sale 20 yrs. ago for $200.00. She was gracious enough to return them to us after storing them for that length of time. The writer returned to Versailles and served in various county offices during his later life.

The other documents are a C.W. diary written by Confederate William (Willie) H. Kavanaugh. He also traveled throughout the south and returned to civilian life in the local areas. He was about the only one of his enlistment group that returned unharmed. I have taken copies of both these latter documents to the state archives, along with the list, as I've compiled it, of the local soldiers. I included any man who had a connection with the county, either as a child, during the C.W. or who might have lived here in later years.