The Battle of Parker's Crossroads

The Battle of Parker's Crossroads. Tour Stop 4. As the battle moved from Hicks Field through the crossroads, Forrest's troops began to move east, roughly along the Wildersville Road. Here, near Jones Cemetery, Confederate soldiers watered their horses and filled their canteens at an old dug well, located in front of this marker., In Jones Cemetery are the graves of the Reverend John A. Parker and his wife Rebecca. Their graves lie north and south, while all others lie east and west. According to the family history of Tom Parker, great great grandson of John Parker, and noted in the Official Records, the Reverend was angered when Union cannon were emplaced in his yard, thus inviting Confederate counter-battery fire. He had been a Unionist, but became further incensed at the Union battery commander's refusal to move, and so swung his allegiance to the Confederacy. When Parker died in 1864, his death-bed wish was "to be buried with my feet to the north - my head to the south, so that when the angel Gabriel sounded his trumpet, I can rise and kick the Yankees back North!"