Although born in New Jersey, Parsons grew up in Montgomery, Alabama. He attended Emory College in Oxford, Georgia, but he left college to fight in Mexico under Zachary Taylor. Parsons later worked in the newspaper business in Texas. When the Civil War began, he received a commission as a colonel from Governor Edward Clark. His 4th Texas Dragoons became the 12th Texas Cavalry Regiment when the unit was mustered into the Confederate States Army on October 28, 1861. Parsons helped defend Little Rock, Arkansas against a Union army led by Brigadier General Samuel Curtis and Louisiana from Major General Nathaniel Banks. He was recommended for the rank of brigadier general several times.
After the war, he left Texas to investigate the possibility of establishing a Confederate colony in British Honduras. He returned to be elected to the Texas State Senate. In 1871, President Grant appointed him a centennial commissioner, and he moved to New York.
In 1907, he died at the home of his son in Chicago and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.[1]
