John Jesse Bell left his home in Pike County, Alabama at the age of 25 years along with his younger brother, James E. Bell and enlisted in the Confederate Army at Charleston, South Carolina on December 28, 1861. It is said that the Bell brothers went to South Carolina not long after the first shots were fired in the Charleston Harbor in 1861. It is also said that John Jesse Bell's mother, Harriett Lee was related to Robert E. Lee & the Bells and Lees were native to South Carolina.
Pvt. John Jesse served in Company B of the 2nd Regiment of the South Carolina Artillery and the 2nd Regiment of the South Carolina Volunteers, Youngblood's Company. John Jesse and his brother James fought at James Island, Charleston, Fort Johnson and Secessionville, S.C. He was hospitalized four times between March 1863 and August 1864.
He was paroled on April 26, 1865 at Greensboro, N.C. in the terms made between General Joseph E. Johnston and W.T. Sherman.
Mary Elizabeth Bell applied for a Confederate widows pension in 1908 and filed Proof of Service letters from her husband's brother, James E. Bell of Pike County, Alabama and letters from S.B. Parrish and J. Ritchey of Cleveland County, Arkansas. She had been living at RFD # 1; Banks, Arkansas with her son, Thomas H. Bell when she died. Her Confederate Pension was $50.00 per month which she received from 1911 until her death in 1932.
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