Lebanon News
Obituary of Haskew Ball

May 1, 1942 Russell Buries Her Last Hero Of 1861-65 The Last Of Russell's 1,450 Warriors Passes Seventy eight years ago we find Haskew Ball a young man enlisting from Russell in the Confederate army along with his boyhood friends and chums, 1,450 of them, and 82 years later, on April 25, 1942, he, the last of that hero band passed on, thus the last chapter of a great story closes that those boys wrote in blood as they followed Lee, Jackson, old Jeb Stuart and countless others - the last one of those lads who suffered much but knew no fear. Though nearly all the people living then have likewise been swept across the bar the war of 1861-1865 will live on in the memory of the present generation and genrations yet unborn. No braver boys ever went to battle or heard the cannons roar or the clanking of sabers than the youth of that long past period, and those who were lucky enough to live through it and return to their devastated homes, made lawabiding citizens. Russell's immortals and that doesn't tell the story. Mr. Ball, who taught in the public schools of Buchanan and Russell county and then left the schoolroom to fight under Lee and Jackson, was widely known in this section. His stories of the War Between the States were told and retold to scores of listeners during his lifetime, and his memories of three and a half years of this historic conflict were of the courage and bravery of the Southern soldiers through periods of privation and soul-testing battles. Many times he slept in the snow with his comrades, marched for long miles without proper shoes, and fought in parched territory where little water could be found and thirst was almost unbearable. Returning from the war, Mr. Ball became a well-known cabinet maker in Russell county, turning out spinning wheels, beds, tables and other household furniture. Mr. Ball is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Carrie Mutter, three sons, A. C. and A. R. Ball, Honaker, and E. W. Ball, of Gardner, and 24 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren, and 4 great-great-grandchildren. He is also survived by four brothers, Frank, John A., and C. B. Ball, of Honaker, Cummings Ball, Davenport, Va., and three sisters, Miss Alta Ball, Clinchfield, Va., Mrs. Leona Stidwell, of Chilhowie, and Mrs. Myrtle Thompson of Honaker. Funeral services were held at the Gardner Methodist church at 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, in charge of the Rev. H. E. Mauch and the Rev. W. L. Vernon. Interment followed in the family cemetery.