John R. Shows was the oldest brother (born 1819) of ten children. These Shows brothers were all descendents of John Adams Shows, their grandfather, a Revoluntary War veteran from Pennslyvania. The Show's or Schauss' came to America from the Duchy of Lorrain in the 1730's as part of a group of missionaries from the Moravian Church, a German religous group. They first settled in Pennsylvania, and later a large number migrated to Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. The Moravians were very skilled and industrial people, building factories and mills, etc. John Admas Shows moved his family from Georgia in the year Mississippi became a State and settled in Jones County. He built the first over water mill in the county. Moselle, Mississippi was named by the Show's family after the region in "Lorrain or Alsace-Lorraine" in old Germany from which they came.

John R. Shows' oldest son, Martin V. Shows, was a private in Company K, 8th Mississippi, noted in the O.R. for being one of many who fled the battlefield at the Battle of Stones when their regiment was placed without cover in front of Union artillery and took heavy casualties. He some how he later deserted and ended up in the 1st New Orleans Inf. (Union) and lived the rest of his life in Louisiana.

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From the O.R...

"It becomes my duty to report the following officer and enlisted men who left the field without permission while their regiment was engaged, and who failed to return to duty when ordered by their commanding officer: The Eighth Mississippi Regiment-Company A, Privates S. G. Grissom, W. T. Meeks, S. J. Copeland; Company G, Private Josiah Walker; Company H, Private W. W. Ritchie; Company D, Corpl. A. T. Perryman; Company E, Private J. M. Tullos; Company K, (2nd) Lieutenant H. (Harim) Matthis, Privates W. J. McGee, M. V. Shows.

JOHN K. JACKSON,

Brigadier-General.

Major T. B. ROY,

Assistant Adjutant-General"

The Officer in charge of the Regiment after the regiments Colonel was wounded wrote this.

The conduct of those who are reported as deserving censure is thought generally to merit unmeasured disapprobation. An explanation is forwarded in the case of Private J. Walker, of Company G. As he is very young, his conduct is thought to be somewhat excusable. He returned and served with the regiment during the balance of the time, while the others returned, most of them, to the camp at town, and refused to come back, although repeatedly ordered to do so.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

A. McNEILL,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Comdg. Eighth Mississippi Regiment.

{W. J. McGee is my ggg grandfather William James McGee, who would be captured at Missionary Ridge and die at Rock Island, Ill. POW camp}
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Justice of the Peace, Daniel Monroe Shows, also served as a sergeant in Co. D, 9th Mississippi Cavalry and Company F, 17th Battalion Mississippi Cavalry.

His brothers also served.

Warren Wade Shows, Co. B, 36th Mississippi, Inf.
James J. Shows, enlisted in Company F, 37th Mississippi Inf., on March 28, 1862, in Desoto, Mississippi but was rejected for a disability in May of 1862.
John Bradford Shows, 7th MS Inf. Batt. and 8th Miss. Inf.
Issac Brandon Shows, 7th MS Inf. Batt.
William Irivn Shows, 8th MS Inf.
Henry Benton Shows, 7th MS Inf. Batt.

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David Upton