From oral history we know that he was born in Tennessee. He was a Confederate Army Veteran. A widower with four living children, daughters Elmede & Melverda and sons Charles L. and James B. At this time we know nothing else about him before he married Lucinda, except his military service record in the Civil War and it includes no family data. He was a Private in Company A, 1st Arkansas Cavalry, Confederate States Army. He enlisted February 18, 1863 at Camden, Arkansas. He was taken prisoner at Longview, Arkansas on March 29, 1864.
Most of his eleven-month period as a prisoner of war was spent at Rock Island, Illinois Prison it was situated on a swampy Island in the Mississippi River between Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois. The western most Union Prisoner of War Camp consisted of 84 barracks (put up the cheapest way, mere shanties) the water supply and drainage were deficient, creating sanitation problems. 5,000 prisoners were delivered in December 1863. The temperature was 32 degrees below zero. The prisoners immediately caught smallpox that sickened thousands and killed more than 600 prisoners within three months. It is thought that by the time he was there that things had improved. He was exchanged at Red River Landing, La. on March 4, 1865. this information by Mr. Griffith

He was living with his son, Columbus Houston McKnight, in Grayson County, Texas when he died on January 7, 1906.


Wm. B. McKnight
Pvt. A, 1 Reg't Arkansas Cavalry

Information found on a record of PRISONERS OF WAR at Little Rock, Ark.:

• When Captured: March 29, 1864
• Where Captured: Long View, Ashley Co. Ark
• When Confined: April 4, 1864
• When Released: June 23, 1864
• Remarks: Forward to Rock Island, Ill.

Little Rock, Ark., Register No.1; page 116

William B. McKnight, age 41, married Lucinda Cranford Denny on May 17, 1884 in Montgomery County, Arkansas. They were married
at Williams home in Southfork Township of that county . . . After returning from the war and being held as a POW, he was in bad health. He wrote relatives in Collinsville, Texas and let them know that he was sending his sons there while he went to an "Old Soldiers Home" to get well. Lucinda Cranford, his wife, had taken their daughter, Dora, and gone into Hot Springs. Sons, William W., the oldest son age 15, Columbus 8 and Isaac 6, walked from near Hot Springs to Collinsville Texas.
They would find places where they could trade work for food along the way. One of the places they camped on their way was in Oklahoma near Hugo and it was at the base of a Cyprus tree, located on the Texas trail, the base of this tree was so large that a lariat rope would not reach around it.

At Honey Grove they stayed at the Garner farm for several weeks and helped get the crops finished for the season. When they started to leave Mr. Garner talked William into letting his younger brother, Columbus, stay with him and his family, promising he would be sent to school and taken good care of. Columbus was left with the Garners and he was treated well and grew up and married their daughter. William and Isaac traveled on to the Collinsville area where they stayed with relatives and worked and saved money and when their father was well enough to travel, they sent him the money to travel by train to join them in Texas. 

From oral history we know he was William Bartlett McKnight, born in Tennessee; a Confederate Army Veteran; a Widower with four living children - Daughters Elmeda and Melverda, and sons Charles L and James B.

William B. McKnight's first marriage was to Mary Tackett McKnight (would love more information on Mary, may have been known as "Polly"). They had four children before she died.
The information that I have found so far gives the names of their children as:

1. Rev. Charles McKnight (B:1864-D:1944) FAG#62609921 and is buried in Oklahoma.

2. James B. (may be Bartlett)

3. Elmeda

4. Melverda