Thomas Pleasant DOCKERY
(1833-1898)

Thomas Pleasant Dockery was born in North Carolina, probably in Montgomery County, on December 18, 1833. His father, Colonel John Dockery, soon moved to Tennessee, and subsequently to Arkansas, where he established a large plantation in Columbia County, and where he was instrumental in constructing the first railroad in the state. The younger Dockery went into the Confederate Army as colonel of the 5th Arkansas State Troops, which he commanded at the battle of Wilson's Creek, and later becoming colonel of the 19th Arkansas Infantry. He participated in the battle of Corinth, and recrossing the Mississippi River with General Sterling Price, was for a time in command of a subdistrict in Arkansas. He commanded the 2nd brigade of General John S. Bowen's division at Vicksburg, where he was captured and paroled; and was commissioned brigadier general on August 10, 1863. In 1864, directing a brigade of Arkansas regiments, he took part in the battles of Jenkins' Ferry and Marks' Mills, during the campaign which arrested the advance of the Federal General William Steele. General Dockery signed the instrument of surrender for the remaining Confederate troops in Arkansas in May, 1865.

His property swept away by the war, General Dockery afterwards took up the profession of civil engineering, and lived for some years in Houston, Texas. His death occurred in New York City on February 27, 1898. His body was taken to Natchez, MS, the residence of his two daughters, for burial.