The following information on the Byrne men was taken from the book "Genealogy of the Brown Family of Prince William County, VA.".  It was first published in 1898 by James Edgar Brown, Chicago, IL.  More extensively researched by Prof. Samuel Boardman Brown and published in 1930 by his brother James Edgar Brown, Shenandoah Publishing House, Strasburg, VA.  The information to compile this book was gained through letters from family members.  Ed and Vicki Corrick submitted the book’s entries on the Byrne men.  Ed is a descendent of Zachary Byrne.  Zachary being the youngest of the Byrne men, did not serve during the Civil War.  Father Samuel along with sons Harrison, John, Joseph and Lucian served for the Union.  Son Charles served for the Confederacy.
Charles Byrne, b. Feb. 8, 1831, moved to Missouri in 1852 and to California in 1853, returned to Missouri in 1856 and to Virginia in 1859.  When the Civil War broke out he enlisted in the Confederate Army at Greenbrier, Va.  He was in the battles of Manassas Junction, the seven day battle around Richmond, the Battle of the Wilderness and several others.  He remained in Virginia until 1877.  Came back to Missouri and stayed two or three years and then went to Texas and from there to Arkansas where he died Dec. 31, 1902.  He never married, although it is said he was engaged to marry a daughter of Gen. Robert E. Lee, but she died before the marriage was to be celebrated.  After the war he was engaged in the oil business near Burning Springs, West Virginia.  After he returned to Missouri he farmed until he went to Texas about 1880.
Letter from John Harrison Farnsworth dated November 16, 1915.  John H. Farnsworth was the son of Isaac P. and Harriet R. Byrne Farnsworth.  (Harriet was a sister to John P., Lucian, Harrison, and Charles Byrne).
"I remember Charlie Byrne well.  He was my favorite uncle.  He visited in Missouri, would often take me on his knee and tell me of his war adventures.  He was captured as a spy and escaped.  He raised the Southern Flag at Gettysburg, when it was shot down, when others hesitated to replace it.  You ask if he came to see my mother when he was in _______County.  He came to see her two or three times while she was living on the Kanawha River.  Said he was a scout and an officer in the Confederate Army, although never told her what commission he held.  Talked but little.  I have heard him say he was on Echols [Eckles] staff, and I think he was on Stonewall Jackson's staff for a while.  He often spoke of him and of being with him.  Stonewall Jackson was a relative of my father, Isaac P. Farnsworth.  Charlie Byrne had an oil well at Oil Town, both before and after the war. "
On December 17, 1915, John H. Farnsworth of Yountsville, Napa County, California, wrote as follows:  (John H. Farnsworth was the nephew of Charles, John P., Harrison, and Lucian Byrne.)
"Mother said that Charles Byrne, son of Samuel and Juana Hagans Byrne, wanted to go to the Mexican War, but his father objected, so after falling out with his sweetheart, who lived in Iowa, a few miles from the Missouri Line, he started for California, with an ox team.  After camping in various places in the Mountains, he went to Mariposa County, where he had some trouble over a mining claim.  A man came in his cabin one morning and stabbed him with a dirk knife.  He threw up his hand to protect himself and in so doing was cut across the wrist.  Two leaders of his fingers were cut and he never could use his fingers afterward.  He did not make a great deal of money, so came back to Missouri.  Before coming to Missouri, he lived for a time with his aunt Elizabeth, and William Haymond.  After returning from California, he went back to West Virginia on a visit.  He was in the southern part of the state, when the War broke out.  Most of the people there were Confederates, so he joined the Confederate Army.  He used to tell about the time they built the railroad through Preston County, when they made a tunnel.  All the laborers were raw Irishmen, just from the old Country; how they would get drunk as lords and fight among themselves!  It seems he was a Marshall or deputy sheriff and was often called out to stop the trouble.  One time after a big wake, when all hands were drunk, the man that was dead was put in a coffin and loaded in a wagon and everyone started to the graveyard, which was some miles away.  The man that drove the wagon with the corpse had his race horses hitched up that day. After they went about half a mile, the rigs drove up along hill and they offered to bet $50.00 that they could outrun the other team, so the bet was called and away they went, and everyone with them.  After a while they came up with another funeral crowd of citizens of the county.  When they saw the coffin in the other wagon, they looked back in their wagon and the coffin was gone, so the Irish swore that they had been robbed of their dead and forcibly took the other coffin and put it in their wagon and started on their way to the graveyard.  So the second funeral party called on the authorities for help, which went over and found the coffin where it had fallen out of the wagon, in the wild race, so the two funeral parties declared peace.  Charlie Byrne was at the Battle of Bull Run and as near as I can get it, he was at both battles of Bull Run, and all of the principal battles in that section of the country and mother does not remember the names of all the fights he was in.  He used to tell her of the Battle of Gettysburg; that he was under fire for three days with nothing to eat but a little raw beef.  They had thrown up breast works and had placed their flag on the top.  The flag was shot down.  There was a call for volunteers replace it.  As the lead was coming like rain no one would venture out, so uncle said he told them that he would go.  The officer in charge said that he was too valuable a man to lose and asked again for volunteers. No one offered to go, so he was allowed to go and replace it.  He said it seemed as if the whole Federal Army was shooting at him, after he had replaced it.  He waved his hat at those who had been shooting at him.  Then they cheered him.  There were several shots passed through his clothes, but not one touched him. "
"Another time he was captured as a rebel spy and his horse, pistols, gold watch and $200.00 in currency taken from him.  The officer in charge had been a great friend of his father, Samuel Byrne, so that night he escaped and got horse, saddle, watch, pistols and money.  He never would tell the officer's name, or how he escaped.  He said he promised never to tell, so he kept his promise."
"Another time he was traveling through the country and fell in with a detachment of the Union Army.  He rode with the officers and got all the information he wanted.  They were headed for a town where he was well known and everyone knew he belonged to the Confederate Army.  As good luck would have it his saddle girth broke.  He came to a creek where there was timber and excused himself by saying his girth was broken and as his horse was rather scary, he had rather fix it, so he dismounted and mended the girth.  Just then he saw a dispatch carrier coming.  He rode hard trying to overtake the column.  He did not know but that it might be an order for his arrest, so he called to the carrier and said, "Can you tell me how far our men are ahead?"  The dispatch carrier said they had just passed on the hill one and one half or two miles ahead.  He said "Thank you, I must hurry up and mend my girth and overtake them before I get lost."  Just as soon as the messenger was gone, he put spurs the other way and escaped."
"Another time he was trying to get through the Federal lines; when he was ordered to halt by a soldier on picket duty, so the only way to escape was to run a bluff.  So he called that soldier down good and plenty; told him that he was a Union officer, that he would have him court-Martial and sent to the guard house for insulting an officer, so the sentry begged him not to report him and he never did."
"One time he carried a message to Stonewall Jackson and Jackson told him to wait for a reply and seated himself on a log and proceeded to write the answer.  A cannon ball struck the rail fence nearby, threw rails and splinters all around.  Jackson never as much as looked up but wrote away until the message was completed, handed it to him, with the remark  "Why did you jump?"  My uncle said he did not have the steady nerve of Stonewall Jackson."
"Charles Byrne was a man who did a great deal more than he ever talked about.  I was only a small boy when he visited us the last time in Missouri.  After the war he put down some oil wells in Oil Town, and if I mistake not, he bought and fattened beef cattle for several years before he died.  He died near Hot Springs, Arkansas.  He had a forty acre farm, but I do not know what ever became of the place."
In another letter dated December 27, 1915, John H. Farnsworth wrote as follows:  "John P. Byrne, son of Samuel Byrne, was named after his uncle, John Peyton Byrne.  He is living with an adopted son near Millville, Shasta County, California.  His name is John Bruce Byrne.  The boy was found in a basket on the train near Redding, Shasta County, California, when a baby a couple of weeks old and as John and his wife had no children, they adopted the baby.  Now John Byrne could give you a good war history, if he would only do so, for I have often heard him tell many interesting war tales.  He was in the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing, at Shiloh and had the little finger of his left hand shot off at the knuckle while on a steamboat on the Mississippi River.  Then he was in several engagements in Missouri.  Mother says Harrison was a Lieutenant in the Missouri Regiment in the Civil War, but I cannot find his name in the list of officers.  I have heard him say that his Company was down in the swamps of Arkansas, and that he had charge of the company and that they got ambushed in the swamps.  He was wounded, shot across the back.  He moved once to Texas and was there for some years raising cattle in Texas.  Then he came back to Missouri.  He moved to Buffalo Gap, South Dakota, was there several years and then back to Memphis, Missouri.  He had a contract for grading the railroad through the Indian Territory in 1884 and 1885.  He was a great man to make money, but would spend it readily.  He kept store at various times and places."
"John P. Byrne, b. Sept. 29, 1839 went to Missouri in 1852 and at the beginning of the Civil War enlisted in Nov,1861 in Company "I", 2lst Missouri Volunteer Infantry.  Participated in the Battles of Lancaster Missouri, Shiloh Tennessee, Corinth Mississippi and others. He was wounded in both hands at Carson's Landing.  Was sent to Benton Barracks, St. Louis, where he remained on detached duty until the expiration of his service in Dec., 1864 when he was discharged and returned home, followed farming until 1877.  Moved to Millville, Shasta County, CA.  Red hair, hazel eyes, and fair complexion.  Residence Memphis, Scotland Co. Missouri about 1861."
"John Byrne was enrolled at Athens Missouri, on or about the 18th day of June, 1861 as private in Company "I" of the 21st Regiment, Missouri Volunteers in the service of the Untied States, in the Civil War, and was Honorably Discharged at Nashville, Tennessee, on the 5th of December 1864.  Suffered from Piles contracted while in the U.S. service and partial paralysis of left leg and also lame back.  Lived in Memphis Missouri until 1876, then Shasta and Siskiyou Counties in California.  Died in Sacramento CA."
In a letter written from Dudley, Idaho, September 2, 1916. Joseph Squire Byrne makes the following statements:  (Joseph S. Byrne was a brother to John P., Charles, Lucian, and Harrison)
"I am the oldest of the three youngest boys of the family, and was seventeen at the beginning of the Civil War. Father owned 760 acres of land and we were living on a 320 acres farm in Scotland County, Missouri.  The older brothers all went into the Army.  Brother Harrison served three years 2nd Missouri State Militia, and was 2nd Lieutenant in Company A.  Brother John served three years in the 21st Missouri Company I.  Brother Charles was in Virginia at the time and went with the South, volunteered in the 27th Virginia as a private and in the first battle of Bull Run, after seven color bearers had been shot down, he picked up the Company flag and carried it during the remainder of the battle.  Was promoted for bravery and become a staff officer. He carried dispatches in nearly all of the important battles of Virginia.  Knew most all the Southern Generals and was trusted with their important dispatches."
"At the close of the war he had the best record of any man in the Southern Confederacy as a spy; was captured twice but made his escape both times.  The last time they marched him between bayonets for two days. he lived with me for most of a year after the war and told me the daring things he did. I think he was the best judge of human nature I ever saw."
Note:  John P. Byrne’s pension records state that he was discharged at Memphis, TN., not Nashville, TN.
For more information and updates on the Funeral and Burial of Corp. John Peyton Byrne please check out the web site http://www.duvcw.org