Arkansas, Biography.
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Burrill Bunn Battle.
Burrill Bunn Battle, of Little Rock Ark., associate justice of the supreme court of Arkansas, was born in Hinds county Miss., July 24, 1838, the son of Joseph and Nancy (Stricklin) Battle. He is a lineal descendant of Elisha Battle, who established the Battle family in America in 1743.
Judge Battle accompanied his parents to Lafayette county, Ark., in 1844, attended the common schools until 1852, and was graduated from the Arkansas college at Fayetteville, in 1856. Then he entered the law department of Cumberland University of Lebanon, Tenn., and there was graduated in 1858. He was licensed to practice law by the supreme court of Tennessee and in the fall of 1859 by Judge Len B. Green, of the Sixth judicial circuit of Arkansas. He immediately began the practice at Lewisville, the county seat of Lafayette county and prospered as an attorney to the commencement of the Civil War.
In the fall of 1861 he enlisted at Camden, Ark., in Harris' artillery company and was afterward transferred to Bankhead's Tennessee battery, later commanded by W. L. Scott, and attached to Gen. B. F. Cheatham's division of Polk's corps of the Army of Tennessee. Later he was in the division commanded by Gen. Patrick Cleburne and served as a private throughout the war, never losing a day from his gun when it was engaged and the only battle he missed in which his battery took part, was in front of Nashville, when he was absent on detached duty. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and all the fights of the Army of Tennessee until Hood was deposed. At the close of the war he resumed his law practice at Lewisville and in 1869 removed to Washington, Hempstead county.
In 1871 he was elected a Democratic representative to the general assembly of the state and in 1879 located in Little Rock, where he practiced with much success until 1885, when he was elected to fill a vacancy on the supreme bench of Arkansas.
In 1886 he was elected to succeed himself for a full term of eight years, in 1894 was again elected for a eight year term, and was re-elected in September, 1902, for a third term of eight years. At his election in 1886 he received the largest majority of any candidate in that contest and in 1894 he had no opposition.
Judge Battle is admirably fitted by natural and acquired abilities to fill the exalted office he now holds, and is correctly regarded as one of the ablest jurists of the Southwest. He is a man of high mental and physical caliber and the results of his election show in what light he is regarded by the people of Arkansas.
He is a member of the Missionary Baptist church. He was married on November 29, 1871, to Mrs. Josephine Witherspoon, daughter of John S. Cannon, a prominent citizen of Arkansas and their wedded life was an ideal one. His wife died on the 12th. of November, 1899.
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