John Thomas Gooch volunteered in the Army of the Confederate States of America (C.S.A) on September 27, 1862, at Jackson, Mississippi. He served for two years with Company A, 42nd Regiment, Tennessee Infantry. Confederate Army records indicate he was admitted to Ross Hospital at Mobile, Alabama from October 26 until November 11, 1863, for intestinal fever. He was admitted again to Ross Hospital and Okmulgee Hospital at Mason, Georgia in February, June, and August of 1864. He received a shoulder wound during the two-year period, just before the Shiloh Battle, eight miles from Savannah, Tennessee on April 16, 1862, but apparently was not hospitalized.
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In 1880, John Thomas Gooch, along with his brothers William, James and their families (a total of 18 people) left Tennessee by Ox driven covered wagons for Arkansas. Sarah Ann Rutherford, John's wife, was pregnant with Coriner, so John Thomas decided to sell his wagon and travel from the Mississippi River to Little Rock via train. There they waited two weeks for the rest of the family to catch up. From there they all travel by train to Russellville, where they again outfitted themselves with three Covered Wagons and Ox and then proceed to Marion County in northern Arkansas. The three brothers homesteaded in the vicinity of Harrison, Arkansas with John Thomas and his family staying at Jasper, Arkansas. Where they lived for several years. Then they moved again, this time to Yell County, and establish another homestead known as "Gooch Hill" during this time he was ordained a Baptist Minister, in addition to being a fine farmer. He last moved to Saline, County, Arkansas where he bought a nice farm in the Haskell community.
Additional information provided by Dr. John A. Watson