Do you have an ancestor that fought in the Civil War? We are beyond excited to launch the first phase of our new Civil War Stories, an ambitious project that ultimately hopes to create a comprehensive list of every soldier that fought in the Civil War, the company and regiment he belonged to, the battles he fought in, and finally what happened to each soldier following the war.
How can we possibly do this? We have created new technology allowing us to gather data from Ancestry®, Fold3®, Newspapers.com™, Find a Grave®, and other sources. Next, we are teaming up with the American Battlefield Trust and their Civil War experts to integrate their amazing collections of stories, videos, and photographs into our new experience. Stitching all of these collections together, we have created the first of its kind searchable database of Civil War soldiers, regiments and battles. The human cost of the Civil War was astounding. The proportion of deaths to the population was greater than any other conflict in American history. Nearly 3% of the population died – roughly comparable to 6-10 million Americans today.
This was the last war where companies enlisted from home communities. Soldiers were often related to others in the company, and all shared a sense of connection. If a company endured losses in a battle, there was a dramatic impact back in their hometown. This will also help tell the story of the families left behind. We want to help you paint a picture of how the Civil War impacted your family tree!
How will this rollout? We will begin with the major Civil War battles. Starting today, you can head to our Civil War Stories page and learn details about some of the major Civil War battles, including what regiments fought in each battle.
And then starting with North Carolina Regiments, you will be able to see regiment timelines. When did they muster in? Where did they fight? Who were the officers? Eventually, we will add the ability to refine down to company. By the time this project is complete, you’ll be able to map out your soldier’s movements throughout the war.
Finally, we’ll add individual soldiers state by state beginning with North Carolina, followed by New York. We realize that you may know details about your Civil War soldier that nobody else does. Do you have family records, photographs or journals that have been passed down? We’re going to provide a way for you to contribute to this Civil War Stories collection. Maybe your journal mentions other soldiers in the same company. Now their ancestors will be able to share your data.
You can see why we’re so excited about Civil War Stories. Watch for updates throughout the year. If you would like to contribute any research/photographs/letters to be included in this project, visit https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! To learn more about this, head to our Civil War Stories page today!
This is outstanding.
Glad you think so!
It is
My great great grandfather served in Missouri unit, a Captain I have all his records, battles and a picture of him
My husband’s great great also served
From Kentucky, and both in Union army had his records and pictures also. Would love to share them
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My father’s family the Plunketts had over 160 from 9 yes NINE states who fought, suffered death, disease and displacement and amputations and we also provided provender to the troops! I had one of those ancestors Nathaniel Plunkett who “sent me a song spiritually” about one of his fellow soldiers and I put the music to it, YES ME! He was in a group called The Fiddlers with his other 2 brothers and he was a school teacher back then. They all volunteered to go to war.
Oh I forgot to add we also had a soldier who fought under Gen. Robert E. Lee in VA.
You family is steeped in American history. I’m impressed!
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
this sounds like a great project to be accomplished. it will like Ken Burns but in more detail . I think of it like the Blue/Gray magazine but much more detail to see. I wish you all the luck when it is done many will want to contribute there letters/and remembering what was told them by their family. Jim R
Am so very excited for this when it was mentioned in RootsTech 2020 Conference. Am extremely interested in the Civil War, am a Civil War Reenactor in my Civil War group in my area and have many Civil War Ancestors that participated. Most of them I already wrote stories for. I would like to contribute anyway I can to this project.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
A monunmental task. For my book, River Run Red, I reviewed the military, pension, and ration commutations records of all the Northern and many of the Southern participants in the Battle of Fort Pillow, so I have some idea of the dimensions of the challenges you face. I recommend the little-used ration commutation files at the National Archives, in which survivors had to describe their capture, incarceration, and, in many black soldiers’ cases, re-enslavement. They are therefore very rich in anecdotal material.
My g grandfather served the Union Army in the 4th Minnesota Regiment Co. K from Aug. 1864 until June 1865. He served with the troops with Sherman’s March to the Sea. I have his pictures and his pension records. My cousins have the gun he brought back from the war – it was probably a Confederate gun.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My great, great grandfather fought in a Virginia regiment. I have some letters he and his wife wrote to each other prior to the the Battle of Richmond in 1862. The last letter he wrote was 2 or 3 days prior to that battle. He died during the battle and was buried there in a mass grave, since so many people died that day.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
I have a story to share about Alfred Biddleton McCreary from Ohio whenever you are ready to accept material.
I wrote a Masters thesis at Purdue University on Lew Wallace and the 11th Indiana. They were at the battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg. They ended the war in the Shenandoah Valley with Sheridan.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
I looked at your beta page … it seems to be BATTLE oriented, NOT people from the homes they left – perhaps by State… so I had two Missouri volunteers who did 2 tours each but no record of any specific battle just a note that 1/2 the men in their companies on both tours died, many of disease… many folks died from the ordeal of war and not battle itself… are they of less interest as they don’t fit into any known battle… My Great Grandfather proudly wore a button from his Union jacket on his lapel all his life … So did I, taken from my dress greens after my ETS … I do it in memory of his and his brother’s service that made mine possible.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Right now it is battle oriented, but we will move to individual stories as the project proceeds. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My great great grandfather served under General Sherman with the 32nd Wisconsin. He told his oldest daughter what it was like and from what i understand he felt it was his duty to join in the service but it was nothing to look at as positive accept the changes it began in our county. His first desendant that recieved his Lt. commission was presented his sword.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My G G Grandfather was captured at the Battle of Chicamauga on Sep. 19 or 20th, 1863. He eventually ended up in Andersonville Georgia at the infamous prison, and died on July 3, 1864. He was in the Penn. 79th Inf. Company K. I’ve read pages of material about the battle and I cannot find anything about his regiment or company specifically. I had heard that a young Custer might have been in charge and possibly gotten a few soldiers captured in his zeal. But I’m hoping to supplant suspicions with better research and facts. Thank you for doing this great work.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My husband’s grandfather fought in the civil war in Virginia when he was about 18 years old. He lost his right arm in the battle of Melvern Hill in Virginia July 1, 1862. I have written a book about the Newby Family. We have pictures and a few records. Let me know when I can send in information to be included.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My great grandfather, Isaac Winnie, fought with Battery G, 1st New York Light Artilery, in 22 battles. After seeing and taking part in so much death, it is a wonder how he came back to live a fairly normal life here in Michigan. I would love to contribute to this project. Please keep me informed.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My great great grandfather, Peter Wright Clark, born near Richmond Kentucky joined Morgan’s Cavalry Raiders at Lexington. He was wounded at battle of Lebanon Kentucky, captured, and was a P.O.W., sent to the Indianapolis prison camp and paroled.
His brother, Thomas, also served in Confederate cavalry. After the war they both relocated west, across the state to Daviess County, in the Vanovers District, near Owensboro, and bought sizeable farms there.
Peter also served as the Daviess County coroner for a period. He and his family are buried at the Glenville Baptist Church cemetery, north of Calhoun.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
1895 Abbeville Press and Banner Newspaper editor and South Carolina Cavalry veteran wrote an article about events at the Battle of Bentonville. In it he describes witnessing a squad of 4 Yankee cavalry men chasing and capturing a Confederate cavalry picket riding to try and reach their lines . Wilson names the Confederate private as my great great grand father Tom Lipscomb 2nd SC Cav. He would spend the next 100 days as a POW at Point Lookout. He would sign an oath of allegiance on June 28th 1865 in order to be released to walk back to his family in Western South Carolina.
He started the war an infantry man in Orr’s Regiment of Rifles. Fought at Gaines Mill , Malvern Hill, 2nd Manassas, Harper’s Ferry Antietam. In Nov 1862 he transferred to the cavalry regiment , where his cousin was a captain. They were part of Wade Hampton’s brigade at Brandy Station and at Gettysburg . They were in a charge against Custer and his 1st Michigan at Rummel’s Farm , where JEB Symtuart’s division was stopped.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
Do you have to be a paying member to participate?
Fold is unable to find records of War Of 1812 solders who served in the US Army. Why not? Why should one subscribe if it is unable to access this information for free on the Church of Latter Day Saints!
My Great Great Grandpa Lt Col Douglas Hapeman is a MOH Recipient and POW He received His MOH in July of 1864
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My great grandfather paid a bounty for someone to serve in his place. Is there any way to find the name of this man? I
remember my grandmother telling of him. Just wish I knew his name.
My wife’s great x 2 grandfather Thomas Hall, born 1821 Newtown, Westmeath, was a colour sergeant with 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers and on returning from the Indian Mutiny campaign deserted from the regimental barracks in Buttevant, Cork 27 Aug 1863 and travelled to the northern states to enlist in the Union Army.
He re-joined the 87th 10 Sep 1865 at Portsmouth, England where he was courts martialled, reduced to ranks, imprisioned and had all prior service deleted for pension purposes.
He was discharged 28 Mar 1871 as a colour sergeant on full pension all deleted prior service returned.
Family legend has it he was promoted in battle and there are newspaper articles which we are certain refer to Thomas Hall, although no name is given.
I have searched over the years, even visited the archives in Washington but have not been able to find his Civil War record so maybe he enlisted in another name.
Hopefully your efforts deliver the breakthrough.
The following newspaper extract fits Thomas Hall in all details except 1861 year of desertion which I believe to be a typo
————————————————————————————
A remarkable instance of the irresistible power which conscience has over some men, who having once committed a crime, can find no rest till they have unburdened their minds by a full confession, was brought to light the other day in a court martial of a soldier at Portsmouth.
In 1861 a colour sergeant belonging to the 87th Irish Fusiliers deserted and what became of him nobody knew. He had been nineteen years in the service and up to the time of his desertion had been a steady and well conducted man, his name being quite unknown to the defaulter’s sheet. He was consequently much respected by both the officers and men of his regiment.
No motive whatever could be discovered for the step he had taken. Being pay sergeant his accounts were of course examined to see whether he was influenced by pecuniary difficulties. Not only was his cash found free from arrears, but there was even an excess of 4 pounds to his credit.
Nothing more was heard of him till about a couple of weeks ago, when he walked into the headquarters of his regiment, in the uniform of a lieutenant in the Federal Army, and gave himself up as a deserter.
During his service with Yankees he had been in 26 general engagements, besides numerous skirmishes, and had received seven wounds, some of them severe.
All this time he says he never had a day’s peace of mind. The shame of desertion haunted him continually. The fear, too, lest by any accident his cash accounts had been found wanting ever so little gave him no rest. He imagined everybody knew he was a deserter, and despised him accordingly. This torturing thought harassed him day and night, till, unable to endure it longer, he obtained his discharge from the Federal service and took ship for England, solely with the intention of giving himself up.
The finding of the court martial was that he should suffer 84 days imprisonment; but the sentence was subsequently remitted, with the exception of 28 days. The unfortunate man, of course, loses the pension which 2 years more service with his old regiment would have entitled him to.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
The Lemert family of Licking County Ohio had four sons in the War.They are the synopsis of the Civil War soldiers. One died of disease, one died of wounds, one died in Andersonville and the youngest came home. I want their story on this website. Their sister was my great grandmother. She married another Civil War soldier who died of infection from a wound that never healed. I want their stories told.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My great grandfather George Nelson Phelps served in the civil war with his father and older brother, Henry N. Phelps and ,William Phelps. They were all in the 13th Maine Volunteer Infantry, and late in the war all assigned to the 30th Maine Infantry. Henry and William served the entire war. George was very young and wasn’t allowed to join until 1863 or so.
George died of tuberculosis in 1901 contracted during his war years. Buried in Eastport, Maine. Henry died and is buried
in Gloucester, Massachusetts in Cherry Hill cemetery. William Phelps not sure what happen to him after the war.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
Will there be a way to add to our own ancestors? I have a great deal of information from my 3rd great grandfather, including his personal accounts of battles, letters, pictures, etc. I would love to be able to share them.
I am very excited about this project. I had 13 Delcamp relatives, no sure how many Taylor relatives and a Reish who was related on both sides of the family who fought from Pennsylvania. I am a civil war re-enactor. The group I belong to is the Patriot Daughters of Lancaster. The group was a ladies aid society during the war. One of the Delcamp’s was wounded outside the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg and was nursed by one of the original Patriot Daughters. The Patriot Daughters nursed at the Lutheran Church in Gettysburg and at the Lutheran Seminary.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
G’day
This is great news.
My great great uncle Russell Myers enlisted as a private in NYC NY and fought in every major battle of the war and came out a Major at the end of hostilities. He ended up being a detective in NYPD after the war. An interesting fact is Australia was the only other country involved in the war. The CSS Shenandoah sailed into the port of Melbourne for repairs. After being repaired it sailed with volunteer Aussies on board. Fortunately it did not make it back until after the end of hostiliy. The British government was sued by US government for millions of pounds.
All our best wishes and prayers to our American cousins
Russell
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photoThank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
This is a great endeavor. I will have to get information together for you about my Timberlake line. I have the book Bull Run to Bull Run which is a great read. Thank you for this effort.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
Our ancestor Benjamin Missmer fought with Pa 47th Regiment company H..my grandson is named after him..
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
Very excited about this project! Four of my great-great-grandfathers fought in the C.W.: 2 for the Union, 2 for the Confederacy.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
Charles Admire Wills-Died at Drewry Bluff, Richmond, Va., on James River in War Between the States. 17 May 1864.
Wounded at Gettysburg, Pa. Recovered at Chimorozo Hospital in Richmond, Va.
He was murdered there by yankee invaders.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
I have two known Great grandfathers that fought in the Civil War, New York Infantry. They are both buried in the Ravenna, Michigan cemetery. I also have FIVE greatttttttttttt grandfathers that fought in the American Revolutionary War, certified by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) My father was in WW1, my husband and a brother in WW11, a brother in the Korean War, the same brother and another brother in the Vietnam conflict and several nephews in later conflicts. So proud of them all.
This sounds VERY awesome!! I will be so interested to see what all comes together. My great grandfather was a Union soldier for IN. I know his company just don’t recall it at the moment. My cousins and I have not been able to find a picture of him and would LOVE one. He is also one of our hard brick walls. I have post-war information, family and death and will be happy to contribute what I can.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
Had a great great grandfather that was 6th Illinois Cavalry. According to my great grandfather he had brothers that joined with him. He is buried in the community where he homesteaded. It is still in our possession.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
I have a photograph and a memoir of my great great grandfather, Josephus Flavius Pattee, that I would love to share. What a wonderful project you have initiated.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
Will you have anything about Old Abe the eagle, he was raised by my GGG Grandfather Dan McCann
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Fascinating. Two of my gg-grandfathers were among the 100+ members of my family to fight for the Confederacy. Another 40-plus fought for the Union. In many cases cousins and brothers-in-law enlisted in opposing armies.
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My Great Grandfather Henry Jackson was in the Civil War. He was born on June 10, 1847 in Georgia, but I am trying to find out the county he was born in. He was a Union Soldier. He was a drummer. He died March 26, 1917 in Carroll County, Maryland.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My many times grandfather enlisted in Decatur, Il at age 81. He put his age as 41 on the enlistment papers. Of course, everyone knew his age. He marched to St. Louis, MO. Anecdotal stories say he kept up with his company and was in great spirits. He died in service in a St. Louis hospital of pneumonia and is buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetary. I don’t believe he saw action during this enlistment. He previously served in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk in 1832 and then again in the Civil War. His 3rd wifewas eligible for a Civil War pension. One of his great nephews from the same county receive the MOH.
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I wrote a brief article for the NC Civil War Center about my 2xgreat grandfather PV Toney Boyd, Co K, 37th Regiment, U. S. Colored Infantry.
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my GR GR grandfather Warren Boyd of Pickens SC. enlisted at the age of 32 a corporal in Orrs Rifles, on August 30, 1862, following 2nd Manassas he received a battlefield promotion to 1st Lt. and became part of the second regiment of rifles SC. CO. K. There is a great book published that follows this regiment from induction to the long walk home after Appomattox. He left two young sons and his wife to fight in the war and returned to a bankrupt community and was elected coroner for Pickens County in 1867.
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Your statement “This was the last war where companies enlisted from home communities. ” is very misleading and I find to grossly inaccurate.
The Spanish-American War was fought with companies of Volunteers enlisted at the community level. When the USA mobilized for World War I,some the the initial elements sent to France were National Guard Cavalry units composed of companies organized in communities. The major portion of the Fighting units deployed to France were Division composed of Federalized State regiments composed of companies from a single or several nearby communities.
You need to get your facts straight.
I have never found any correspondence from or about my G .Grand father one Harrison G. Smith who enlisted in Georgia. Dawson County.. He served with the Chesatee Light Artillery under a Capstan Bomar He was captured in Middletown , Va and sent to the new Union camp in Elmira, New York.
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Seven of my eight great-great-grandfathers fought (one was too old). All fought for the Union. All were from a Confederate state. Fold3 inferred (correctly) from initials on Confederate service records the identity of one and created in his name a memorial to “honor” his conscripted Confederate service, but ignored his voluntary Union service. He was used by the Confederates as cannon fodder at Chickamauga, where seriously injured, but upon recovery risked a 100-mile walk to enlist for Union Service, after which he made real the “brother versus brother” narrative of the war, by facing his older brother in battle. He later was taken prisoner by the Confederates and spent the remainder of the war in a Confederate prison. Fortunately the Confederates failed to draw the same inference Fold3 did. My inability to alter or remove the indignity of Fold3’s “honor” led to me canceling my Fold3 subscription.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
I had 2 Great Grandfathers that were at Gettysburg. One was a Corporal in the 114th Pa. Volunteers. This was know as Collis’s Zouaves from Philadelphia. Also from my Mother’ side a PVT. from 2nd New Jersey.
My wife’s GG Grandfather was a Col. from 147th PA Volunteers and he was also at Gettysburg.
I often wondered how close these three men might have come to each other during the battle.
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I’m in !! With great grandfathers and their many brothers in the Army of Northern Virginia from Virginia and North Carolina I have been collecting information on them for years. Even been to the Mormon records in Utah but have hit a wall or two and hope to move forward with you. Plenty of Abernathys, Hazelwoods, Sledges and Harrises to earn more about beyond the spotty oral histories I started with so many years ago. Let me know what to do next please
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I hope you will include members of the Regular Army who enlisted prior to Fort Sumter. Many Regulars were sent back East but some remained to fight in the battles in New Mexico alongside Hispanics volunteers.
You much will you charge us to see the free information we are about give you?
I do not have a relative but i have been researching a Confederate soldier for a friend. He asked me to do this as he purchased some medals belonging to the man and did not have a computer.
I have quite a bit of information about him.
Can I add the soldier to your database please?
I have an Ancestry account but not Fold.
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This sounds very cool! I had 5 gg uncles fight for SC. I also had some g uncles fighting for NC. There are probably more. I can’t wait to check out more stories.
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I had one GGGRANDFATHER who emigrated to America in 1846 as a boy from the Irish famine married at age 20 opened a bakery raised 5 children and then enlist to fight with the 47th New York City Irish Regiment and then fought in The Battle of Olustee, Florida with Massachusetts 54th, my gggrandfather was wounded in battle return to Brooklyn, NY had five more children moved to Connecticut and opened another bakery.
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My grandfather was born in 1860. His half-brother, Hiram Robinett, was born in 1843 in Waterloo Twp, Athens County, Ohio. Hiram served in the First WVA Cavalry, lost an arm at Gettysburg, re-enlisted in the 22nd VRC until the end of the war. Went to work at the Freedmen’s Bureau and died of consumption in March 1868.
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My great grandfather lost his right arm. After the war, a national writing contest was conducted for right arm amputees, encouraging them to learn to write with their left hands. He entered the contest in two different years, didn’t win, but he told the story of his time enrolled, including how he received his three wounds. I’ll find it and post it later. Does anyone else have info about this contest?
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My great-great grandfather was a physician. We are lucky enough to have his commission papers
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My immigrant ggrandfather was a POW in Andersonville Prison, S.C., then Florence Prison. He survived, not without lifelong health problems.
Anderson is a city in SC.
Andersonville prison (Fort Sumter) was in Georgia.
Your gggrandfather’s story sounds very close to that of mine. David Molony was the son of Irish immigrants and a corporal from the Wisconsin Regiment. He was imprisoned at Andersonville and never recovered his health afterwards.
FYI, Andersonville is in Southwest Georgia. You can visit the historical site there.
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My Great-Grandfather, a 16 year-old PVT, fought under Grant in 1864-5. His Unit was the 4th NY Volunteer Infantry, in he in the Campaign thru Virginia, including Petersburg, after which he was captured in the Second Battle of Reams Station.
Interestingly, while starving in the POW camp at Salisbury , now 17, he took the offer from the CSA to join them as a PVT, in exchange for his getting out of the prison where starvation would kill him. This was in the CSA’s desperate period near the end of the war.
He was promptly captured in his first battle, while “defending” the town of Salisbury.
The war ended a short time later, and he was freed from the Union POW prison along with most other POWs, by signing an allegiance to the U.S.A.
Lived a full life, married, children, one of which was the grandfather that I knew in my childhood..
Captured, freed, captured, freed!
in the desperation
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My great great great grandfather served in the 91st Pennsylvania F company. Fought in Gettsburg on little round top to Appomattox. Join in 1861 and honorably discharged as a veteran in 1865. Pvt. Peter McCullough. If anyone has a picture of the 91st Penna. F co. I would love to see it!
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My great grandfather and his brother joined the Staunton Hill Light Artillary Company, Charlotte, Virginia 1861-1865. Was commanded by their cousin,
Capt. Andrew Bailey Paris. Guarded the entrance to Charleston S.C. barber.
Anyone have a copy of their company.
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William O. Lane, German immigrant from Illinois joined the 10th Missouri Infantry(The Bloody Tenth) Regiment. (North), Fought at Iuka, Corinth, Jackson, Champion’s Hill, Vicksburg, Chattanooga. Participated in the Yazoo River campaign. Promoted to 2nd Lt. Discharged when his enlistment period ended in 1864. Re-enlisted in the 42nd Illinois. Wounded in the battle of Nashville.
My great grandfather. I have visited every battlefield where he fought except Iuka (The exact location of which is unknown) and stood where he stood.
Keep the history alive!!
Patricia, I live in Vicksburg where I had a great uncle and others in the Vicksburg Champaign and siege. I know of something that you may be interested in from a collectible sense. If interested contact me at klholman(at)bellsouth(dot)com. Larry Holman
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I am interested
I’m interested
I have been compiling a military history of both sides of my families. I have found Fold3.com to be a great asset as well as Ancestry.com. I have found relatives who fought in the Revolutionary War, War of 18121, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea. There is paperwork: Discharge/Enlistment papers, disability papers. Unit histories can be found thru google. E-Bay has Stars and Stripes for WWI/WWII/Korea/Vietnam. If a person is willing to put in time and effort, a wealth of information can be found. Family photographs are a big help. Letters in their particular time frame. If anyone is interested, contact me: [email protected].
I am very interested in finding anything out about my great great Grandfather Captain Jacky Moore. I know he fought from the inception of the war and was shot and mortally wounded in 1862 but I don’t know where.
Greatgreatgrandfather Dr. James Odiorne served as surgeon at Ft. Mason, Texas during the Civil War. I have copy of his discharge papers Texas cousin sent me. There is a note added that he bought his rifle and price.
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Since mid-2005, I’ve tore My Family Tree apart to learn the truth by getting into the Civil War documents of my ancestors and kin. Long Story short: It re-wrote My Family History because historians failed to pass the truth forward! * Without your records, and after purchasing two Civil War Pension Files I would not have known my “real ancestors”. I’ve re-written their documentation to reveal a more conservative closer to the truth per the Number of men in the 8th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, USA better than past records show! Mainly due to Spelling and Handwriting by many different clerks! But, I Could Have Missed a few. {Not a perfect human.} Each Man and Company has been documented better than I found it. It was a Jig-Saw Puzzle and it took TIME to put together. I haven’t had the time to put the Regiment together for a “writing” due to leaning towards a Book with Corrections due to * DNA! – I would LOVE to extend a hand in this undertaking!
Ralph…. .Was this the 8th Missouri Cavalry, the 8th MSM Cavalry or the 8th EMM Cavalry. I know that Missouri Union troops were divided up into a variety. I have some information on the 8th MSM and the 8th Missouri Cavalry if you are interested. Be happy to help.
Ralph,
An amazing coincidence. I am a fifth generation Missourian and my great-great grandfather was a pioneer settler of Greene County, Missouri, around 1830. Two of his sons, my great grandfather, James M. Murrell, and my great-great uncle (James’ older brother), William L. Murrell, both fought in Company B, 8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, USA (not the 8th MSM Cavalry or the 8th EMM Cavalry). William enlisted in Marshfield, Missouri, at age 19 in 1862, and James in Hartville, Missouri, at age 18 in 1864. They were both discharged in August 1865 in Arkansas.
The regiment was first organized August through September 1862 in Springfield, Missouri, and took part in the Battles of Prairie Grove and of Bayou Fourche (also known as the Battle of Little Rock), Arkansas. The regiment would take part in numerous expeditions in and around Missouri and Arkansas, and in the capture of Little Rock in September 1863. They remained in Little Rock until March 1864, when they were sent to Duvall’s Bluff, Arkansas. They spent the remainder of the war securing Arkansas, during which time they engaged Confederate forces and guerrilla bands in several minor skirmishes, but with no major actions.
Unfortunately, and sadly, I do not have any personal items of either my great grandfather or my great-great uncle. No photographs, no letters, no equipment, or weapons, nothing. I don’t know why, other than the items may have passed to other family members long ago. So, I would certainly be interest in any information concerning the 8th Regiment that you might be able to share with me.
I have only found two books concerning the 8th Regiment: “The Civil War Letters of Albert Demuth and Roster Eighth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry” (Demuth was the Captain of D Company) and “Arkansas Late in the Civil War, The 8th Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, April 1864-July 1865.” These may be of interest to you.
Also, I am doing research on the Ninth Regiment Cavalry, Missouri State Militia (Union). I have the personal Civil War Carte de Visite Photograph Album of Colonel Odon Guitar, commander of the regiment. Of the 33 CVDs, 17 appear to be officers (15 identified by name and 2 unidentified) and 1 of two enlisted soldiers (unidentified) of the Ninth Regiment Cavalry, MSM. There are also 6 general officers CVDs (identified – some Union generals and some Missouri generals) and 1 captain CVD (Identified), not of the regiment. I am working on determining the identities of and writing some information on the military assignments of each officer in the regiment, and perhaps a short history of the regiment. Again, I would certainly be interested in any information concerning the Ninth Regiment Cavalry, MSM, that you might come across in your studies and be able to share with me.
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My Great Grand Father Joseph W. Collins of Abington ,Massachusetts the Army August 24 1861 for three years. In was placed with Co.I 7 th Regiment . Served in the following locations : Yorktown,Va. 4/5/to 5/4 1862, Williamsburg 5/05/1862 Fair Oaks 5/05/1862 ,Savage Station 06/1862 , Glendale 6/27/1862 , Harrison Landing 7/02 1862 , Antitam 09/17/18/1862 ,Fredricksburg , Va. 12/11/1862 , Mary Heights 5/03/1863 , Gettysburg 7/ 02,03 /1863 From there he was sent to Camp Crescent Alexander, Virginia – Discharged August 23 1864
My gt gt grandfathers brother Noah Harris was a Sargeant in Company D, 17th Illinois infantry regiment, Enlisted 25 May 1861 Mustered out 4 June 1864 at Springfield Illinois. He was born in Morwenstow, Cornwall England and moved to America as a teenager i think
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Even though I knew some of my Ancestors were in the Civil war, I have only recently started to research that part of my family. Looking forward to seeing who was doing what and when. Thank you in advance for your efforts.
My great-great- grandfather Browning fought with Lee and Jackson in Virginia in the early part of the war. He was involved at Bull Run and other battles in the Northern Virginia area. He contracted pneumonia and died in a hospital and was buried near the grounds as far as I can tell. His son, my great-grandfather was only 2 years old at the time of his death. I often think what if he had not been conceived(?) I would not exist, nor would my grandfather and mother.
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My great grandfather, William Alexander McLaughlin, joined the Confederate Army as the son of a Tennessee plantation owner who lost his life in the Battle of Perryville. At Vicksburg he surrendered and a few days later joined the Union Army and changed his name from McLaughlin to Lauthern. I have always wondered why the name change.
The name change was most likely a protective measure done by your ancestor due to the fact that “changing sides” was considered treasonous. One was released on parole by giving their promise to not return to combat so by changing his name he could also change his allegiance.
He was lucky not to have been recognized and turned in.
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My great, great grandfather, John L. Burgoyne, who was an Irish immigrant from Co. Down fought for BOTH the Confederate & Union Armies. He enlisted into the Confederate Army on March 1, 1861 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana – Co. A, 1st Louisiana Infantry ( Strawbridge).Apparently he went AWOL in 1862, came up to Cincinnati and enlisted into the Union Army at Camp Dennison, Ohio on July 23, 1863 with Co. E, 11th Volunteer Cavalry Regiment ( Ohio Volunteer Cavalry) and was sent out to Fort Laramie, Indian Territory. He was quite a scoundrel !!
Barry Fangman, perhaps he was captured. Many Confederate soldiers who were in the calvary or had experience driving teams and were captured were given the opportunity to enlist in the Union army to go West and fight in the Indian Wars.
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My great uncle Nathan Alonzo Buttrick was with Co. H of the 3rd Wisconsin Calvary
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WILLIAM WALLACE HARPER – My 2XGreat Grandfather:
Served as a Pvt. in Company K of the 126th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Taken prisoner at The Battle of Monocacy (Frederick, MD), “The Battle That Saved Washington,”
9 Jul 1864.
Served remainder of Civil War as a Prisoner of War at Danville Prison, Danville, VA and then was transferred and survived Andersonville Prison, GA.
**************************************************************
ELISHA HARPER (18th US Infantry) – Brother of William Wallace Harper:
Killed on 31 December 1862 during the Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro), Tenn.
Age 20 years, 9 months, 4 days.
As one historian has noted: “That night (December 30th), the soldiers could see the enemy’s campfires and hear the tunes played by their military bands. The Confederate musicians played “Dixie,” and their Union counterparts responded with “Yankee Doodle.” The Confederates’ “Bonnie Blue Flag” was followed by the Union’s “Hail Columbia.” Finally , the bands played “Home Sweet Home,” and the men of the two armies sang along, recalling home and loved ones and forgetting, at least for the moment, the dangers they would face on the morrow.”
COME UP FROM THE FIELDS, FATHER
Walt Whitman
Come up from the fields, father, here’s a letter from our Pete,
And come to the front door, mother, here’s
a letter from thy dear son.
Lo, ’tis autumn,
Lo, where the trees, deeper green, yellower and redder,
Cool and sweeten Ohio’s villages with leaves
fluttering in the moderate wind,
Where apples ripe in the orchards hang and
grapes on the trellis’d vines,
(Smell you the smell of the grapes on the vines?
Smell you the buckwheat where the bees were lately buzzing?)
Above all, lo, the sky so calm, so transparent
after the rain, and with wondrous clouds,
Below too, all calm, all vital and beautiful,
and the farm prospers well.
Down in the fields all prospers well,
But now from the fields come, father, come
at the daughter’s call,
And come to the entry, mother, to the front door come right away.
Fast as she can she hurries, something ominous,
her steps trembling,
She does not tarry to smooth her hair nor
adjust her cap.
Open the envelope quickly,
0 this is not our son’s writing, yet his name
is sign’d,
0 a strange hand writes for our dear son,
0 stricken mother’s soul! All swims before her eyes, flashes with black,
she catches the main words only,
Sentences broken, gunshot wound in the breast,
cavalry skirmish, taken to hospital,
At present low, but will soon be better.
Ah, now the single figure to me,
Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio with all
its cities and farms,
Sickly white in the face and dull in the head,
very faint,
By the jamb of a door leans.
Grieve not so, dear mother (the just-grown
daughter speaks through her sobs,
The little sisters huddle around speechless and
dismay’d),
See, dearest mother, the letter says Pete will
soon be better.
Alas, poor boy, he will never be better (nor maybe
needs to be better, that brave and simple soul),
While they stand at home at the door he is
dead already,
The only son is dead.
But the mother needs to be better,
She with thin form presently drest in black,
By day her meals untouch’d, then at night
fitfully sleeping, often waking,
In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with
one deep longing,
0 that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent
from life escape and withdraw,
To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead
son.
Ron Holley
my GGF Sterling Carroll Harper of Williamson Co & of Nashville, TN joined at 16 in 1864…Union, 12th Cav Co F with his cousin Henry Harper. he was homesick and went AWOL to be home for Christmas… he was arrested and almost hanged for it, but the war ended in April 1865… he had to pay for the horse and saddle… we have an Ohio connection somewhere.
Thank you for your post.
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My two great grandfathers William Paul Owens of Georgia (My fathers side) and Nicholas Weiland of Wisconsin (My mothers side) fought against each other at the Battle of Bentonville. Neither was a winner. William Paul Owens was “captured” as General Johnston surrendered to General Sherman. Nicholas Weiland lost his right arm by a gunshot wound, which necessitated amputation, which was performed on the field. (21 Mar 1865) Effectively, the last day of fighting at Bentonville.
During the night of March 21 until the following dawn, Gen. Johnston withdrew his army across Mill Creek and burned the bridge behind him, leaving behind a cavalry detachment as a rearguard. The Union army failed to detect the Confederate retreat until it was over. Sherman did not pursue the Confederates, but continued his march to Goldsboro, where he joined the Union forces under Terry and Schofield. After resting and refitting his combined forces, Sherman planned to continue onward to Petersburg, Virginia.
William Paul Owens: Enlisted in Company D, Georgia 11th Infantry Battalion on 04 Mar 1862. Mustered out on 12 May 1862.Transferred to Company D, Georgia 47th Infantry Regiment on 12 May 1862. Mustered out on 26 Apr 1865 at Greensboro, NC. Fought under General Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A.
Nicholas Weiland: Enlisted as a Private in Captain A.H. Whittemore’s I Company, 32nd Wisconsin Infantry at Appleton for a three year term on Oct. 25th, 1862. They were part of General William Tecumseh Sherman’s now famous army of 100,000 men on his famous “March to the Sea” (Nov 16 to Dec 22, 1864) The regiment left the state about the last of October and went direct to Memphis, Tenn. where it was assigned to Sherman’s command and proceeded in the southward movement to aid in the prosecution of the plans of Grant on Vicksburg. Sherman’s army, after capturing Savannah, then struck northward through the Carolinas. Mr. Weiland was on the Oxford march when the disaster at Holly Springs occurred, and the regiment was the first to take possession of the place. His health continued unbroken, notwithstanding the hardship and exposure and unaccustomed duties of which he was assigned and he was a participant in the battles of Moscow, in the Meridian expedition, patrolled at Jackson, engaged in the destruction of the Mobile & Ohio railroad, fought a detachment of cavalry there, and afterwards performed an incredible amount of marching. Near Cortland he was in another fight and when the 32nd started for the sea under the command of General Sherman, re-participated in all the fights and skirmishes, including Atlanta and Jonesboro, and finally went into action at Bentonville, March 19 to 21, 1865, in one of the last battles of the civil war, to lose his right arm by a gunshot wound, which necessitated amputation, which was performed on the field. (21 Mar 1865) He lay on the bodies of two dead soldiers thru the night after receiving his wound and was discovered at three in the morning. (From a letter from Margarete Weiland (His wife) – He lying all night in an open cold field with the arm dangling, he managed to turn and stick the stub in some bloody mud to stop the bleeding. He was placed on a mule and take to Goldsborough, N.C., after the operation and thence to Newbern, N.C. He was in a hospital well supplied with wounded rebels and was the single Union soldier in his ward, his cot being placed between those of a sergeant of a Virginia regiment and a lieutenant colonel of the 5th South Carolina Infantry. The latter was visited by his sweetheart who waited on him and brought him choice food which he divided with Mr. Weiland. Another rebel in the same ward belonging to a North Carolina command, was hit by a volley of seven balls. His right arm and right leg were taken off and his left hand, all but the thumb. When Mr. Weiland left the hospital he was alive and with every prospect of recovery. Mr. Weiland went thence to Morehead, N.C., where the Union wounded took the steamer “Northern light” for New York, and went to Willard’s Point Hospital in the North river near Schuyler fort. On the steamer there were 1200 men who arrived in New York harbor on the 15th of April following the assassination of the President (Lincoln), and they heard the news as they entered the river from the pilot boat. The commotion among the soldiers was an awful sight, the exasperated men expressing their grief and rage by every possible demonstration some threatening, other swearing and some utterly prostrated. In June following the wounded Wisconsin soldiers left New York on cattle cars for Prairie du Chien. ( He was picked up, hospitalized and when half well was shipped to Prairie du Chien in a boxcar. There were so many in the car they could not sit, they had to stand. He said it was simply awful, especially for sanitary reasons.) The cause of this atrocity has never been cleared up and the suffering men, who had left beds of long painful illness, underwent their most bitter experience at the hands of their own friends after suffering from wounds of the severest character. At Harvard Junction a comrade from an Illinois regiment standing on the platform recognized Mr. Weiland as from his brigade and obtained for him a square meal. (Food had been placed in their car, but it had become spoiled). This was the only food he received on the route fit for a human being to eat. He was transferred to Company C, 16th Wisconsin Infantry June 4, 1865. Mr. Weiland went to the Jesuit College hospital at Old Fort Crawford, remaining until November, 1865, when he proceeded to Madison and acted as commissary Sergeant for Dr. Greenleaf in charge of the hospital, and was there discharged on January 22, 1866, and returned to Appleton. He received a 3/4% degree of disability discharge at Camp Randall, Wisconsin and received a 55 dollar a month disability pension on January 22, 1866 and continued to receive it until his death on June 10, 1917. He stated in his request for pension that, “While in said service in the line of duty at Bentonville, N. C. on the 21st day of March, 1865 he received a gun shot wound to the top half of his right arm in said battle at Bentonville, N. C.”
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This is such exciting news for all of us! I have several civil war relatives, as I’m sure thousands of genealogy hobbyists do. To be able to access one location for all the information you’ll have available is going to be a game changer for many of us! Over the years of working on my family’s genealogy, I’ve kept a spreadsheet of all the relatives I’ve encountered who served in any war – regardless of what war or what location. Now I’m so happy I’ve done this because I’ll know exactly who to look for and what to look for! You have done us a great service.
Thank you so much.
My great-great grandfather, Reese Griffith born in 1826 in Short Creek, Ohio was a private in the Union Army with the Ohio 174th Infantry Regiment, He and his unit were present at Bennett’s Place near Durham Station, North Carolina on
April 26, 1865 when General Joseph E. Johnston and his Confederate Army surrendered to United States Army commander, Major-General W.T. Sherman.
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My Greatx2 Uncle Johann Heinrich Mink served in the Illinois 43rd Infantry ( a German Regiment) Company E. He was 21 years old When he enlisted. He was acting Chaplain for his Company. He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh when he was 23 years old. GSW of left hip. He was admitted to Washington Park Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. He didn’t survive, and died at the age of 25. He is buried at the Spring Grove Cemetery in Hamilton, Ohio, May his Soul and the Souls of the Faithful departed, thru the Mercy of God, Rest In Peace! You are not forgotten.
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My great grandfather Andrew Roy, wrote a book about his Civil War experiences, that started with him being wounded and left on the battlefield for dead.
It was originally titled “Recollections of a Prisoner of War”, but later reprinted and retitled “Fallen Soldier “.
It apparently had great interest for physicians interested in how wounds were treated then. He was a Union soldier held in a prison camp in Annapolis, MD.
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My GG Grandfather Peter B. Johnson fought for thr 4th Arkansas Co. K. the Calhoun Escopets. He was 2nd Lt. I do know he fought at Pea Ridge Ar and Prairie Grove Ar. I do have a photo of him. He was a School Teacher before the War and Musterd into Service in Ft Smith Arkansas.
On my Mothers Side my GG Grandfather Ben Wheeler was a Sharlshooter for thr Confederacy out of East Texas, the Town of Ben Wheeler is named after him as he was the first Post Master in that area. I am VERY PROUD OF BOTH my Ancestors and their Service in the Civil War.
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I have a large number of original letters written by my great,great grand father. Charles Berry and his bother Thomas enlisted in the 110th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His letters often describe battles and troop movements. I’m eager to share these.
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My great grandfather came from Germany to NYC in 1864 and soon became a substitute for a rich Westchester man for $300. He joined the De Kalb 41st Regiment, Co. G and fought at the battle of Cedar Creek where he was captured by the Confederates on Oct.19, 1864. He was sent to Libby Prison, Richmond, Va. and was paroled out on Feb. 5, 1865. (The prisoner exchange had restarted and paroled prisoners were required to swear and sign an oath not to re-join in the fighting.) He was furloughed Feb. 17, 1865 for 30 days convalescence leave. The war ended, so he never went back to be properly mustered out, so he was listed as a deserter! Years later when veterans were allow compensation, he applied and was denied because he wasn’t discharged properly. After much legal haggling and having to serve for a time in a peace time army reserve regiment he finally cleared up the mess.
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My great great grandfather, Lucas Toumine fought in the 36th Ohio Regiment which participated in Antietam. He went home early in 1864 and than re-enlisted. He lost his life in a skirmish in July19, 1864 near Kabletown, West Virginia just a few miles south of Harpers Ferry.
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My Great Grandfather, L.C. Hummer, b 1845, served twice in the Civil war and has two discharges. The first he served for himself. The second time he served for his minister.
After the Civil War he married the widow of Wilson Dean McDaniel, b 1841, who was killed in the Civil War.
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I found seven different individuals in my family tree who were in the civil war.Lewis Cunnigan,47th reg.Ky.mounted infantry,Samuel Roach,1st Tenn.Cav.,WR Pennington 13th Reg. Ky.vol.infantry, and Franklin Delaney 19th Reg.Ky.Vol.Infantry.They were on Union side.My direct ancestors were confederates in the 4th Reg.Virginia Infantry. Pvt,Benjamin Franklin Sexton KIA 2nd Battle of Manassas,Sgt.Solomon Mcdonald Sexton KIA Gettysburg ,and my great , great, grandfather Pvt.John M. Sexton .All were brothers.I found members of my family who were veterans of every war .up to Iraq.
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I am very interested. I know I have ancestors on my mother’s side that fought on both sides of the war and have very little details. I am looking forward to being able to find out more.
Very interested since I had many ancestors who fought for the CSA from the northwestern part of Va. GG Grandfather was in the 19th Va Infantry, Co G Nelson Grays.
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My great-grandfather Patrick Fay, who was an immigrant from Galway, Ireland, fought from 1862-65 with the 5th New York Heavy Artillery. I have his mustering out papers as a 1st Lt. I would like to get any information about the 5th N.Y. Heavy Artillery during the war.
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My Great Grandfather John L. Weaver joined the Southern Army in 1861. He had taken some of his father’s horses when he enlisted hoping to be put in the cavalry however he was entered into the 16th North Carolina Infantry Regiment, and served under generals W.D. Pender and A.P. Hill in Robert E. Lee’s army.
But he was a courier so he did get to ride rather than march. His regiment fought in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg but being a courier, he was held back behind the lines to carry messages and didn’t go forward in the attack.
Late in 1864, when the South was running short of cavalrymen and horses, Granddad finally got his wish, was transferred to the 1st North Carolina Cavalry and rode with them until the end.
Three of his future wife Virginia Blount’s brothers, George (55th NC), William (12th NC) and Benjamin J.(55th NC) also served in Lee’s Army. Benjamin was captured at Gettysburg and later died at the infamous Johnson Island POW camp.
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The Rockford Illinois Public Library Genealogy Section has a complete collection of reports to the Illinois Adjutant on the movements of every company from Illinois in the Civil War. They also have an index of soldiers and that was how I found my ancestor, his company and regiment, and what battles they were in. Then I ordered his pension files which told me the places he was injured what US Army hospitals he was in, discharge records and further information. His wounds never healed and as a result he dies after discharge.
Thank you Lowell!
My great grand father fought in WWII and survived, returned home to his family. Later passed.
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I do not know who all served in the war but a lot of my family from Patrick Virginia did.
My Greatx3 Uncle was Gustav Schnitger who was born 1823 in Bundle, Germany and immigrated in 1850’s. He served in the Iowa 2nd Calvery as a Major During the CW. He was a genuine “Hero”, and praised by General Sheridan as a true Leader. He enlisted at Camp McCullen in Scott Co., Iowa. As of friend of Teddy Roosevelt, he was assigned after the War a USMarshall In Wyoming. He is buried at the Oakdale Cemetery, Davenport, Iowa. He died in 1902. Proud to call him a relative who was dedicated and inspirational to his descendants. Rest In Peace
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I am super excited about this! I have been trying to figure out if my ancestors who were in the Civil War ever fought in the same battle(s) as my husband’s ancestors. Maybe now I will finally be able answer that question for both of our families!
We who are hunting for our history, good or bad, appreciate this extra effort!
Thanks so much!!
a little clarification on the previous message…Since I am a Yankee and my ancestors served in the War from Ohio and my husband’s ancestors served from Alabama and the southern states, I have always wondered, since I started this journey, if they were in any battle(s) at the same time against each other. So that is the question I will be trying to answer with this information.
Thank you very much! Even though it will take time to gather the data needed for a project of this size I am looking forward to the results. Your choice of states to begin with hits home to me, I had six 2X and 3X grandfathers who fought with North Carolina units during the Civil War.
Martin R. Thorne – 2nd NC Infantry
A. David Honeycutt – 24th NC Infantry
Wiley W. Russell – 34th NC Infantry
Thomas R. Lamm – 43rd NC Infantry
Nathaniel Jean – 47th NC Infantry
William T. Howell – 8th NC Senior Reserves
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I started my own roster of ancestors who participated in the US Civil War. Knowing that families and communities, particularly in the South, went to war together. As of 12 Apr 2020, my roster contains 2382 folks. Most every state in the Confederacy is represented. Union states mostly where families migrated to before the War. It has been a challenge, but a blessing. Research by others, however attempting to be correct have mistakes, many who do not want to be corrected by research and documents. I am pleased to see this research done, and hope to learn from it.
My maternal GG grandfather, Jesse Hughes, served with four of his brothers in the Confederate army from Alabama. One of the brothers wrote an account of the battles in which he fought.
My fraternal G grandfather, Thomas Allen Channell, served in the 40th Ala Infantry. His CO kept a diary of daily activities of his unit throughout the war. It was one of my greatest finds while researching my family history.
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My 2x great-grandfather, Walton Houston Hulsey, fought with the CSA Arkansas 4th Infantry. He was wounded at the Battle of Belle Fourche near Little Rock, taken prisoner and sent to Cincinnati prison camp for the rest of the war. He told my 14 year old grandfather stories about Pea Ridge and in turn my gpa told my 14 year old son his grandfather’s stories. They both lived to be 92.
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Glad you are starting with NC. I had 4 grandfathers (or great) who served in NC units. And in northern pow camps.
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Dou you want a copy of my GgGrandfathers diary? William W Whitney,Company G, 9th Indiana Infantry.
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This is a great project. I followed John E. Downs through the Civil War from Wrightsville, Pa where he returns after the war and is listed on the 1890 Veteran schedule. He was a member of the Co. E 43 regiment U.S.C.T. Unknown heroes. His grave stone has regiment noted. However, I can’t find any children.
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how do we contribute stories and photos?
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My gggrandfather, Johnson Hamner, was a Confederate Cavalry Corporal in the Civil War. He was taken prisoner in Tennessee and moved to the POW camp (Camp Morton) in Indianapolis, Indiana where he died of pneumonia. We know very little else about him(which battles he was in, who he served under, etc). I would love to acquire any documents pertinent to his enlistment or his death. I hope to glean more information about him through this project.
I forgot to mention that Corporal Johnson Hamner enlisted in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
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My great Uncle, Page Tallman was in the 14th New York Heavy Artillery, He lied about his age and enlisted in 1863 at age 15. He was mortally wounded March 25, 1865 in Robert E. Lee’s 6:00AM attack at the Battle of Ft. Stedman at Petersburg, VA in the last major battle of the Civil War. According to his muster roll abstract, he died March 26, 1865 “in the hands of the enemy” at the Confederate General Hospital, Petersburg. Every year I place a wreath from Wreaths Across America on an unknown soldier’s grave at Poplar Grove Cemetery on the Petersburg Battlefield where so many from his unit died in the attack and are buried.
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My great great grandfather Briscoe Hedges and his brother both lived in Kentucky. Briscoe fought for the North and his brother fought for the south in the civil war.
One of my ancestors James H. Wright aka Doc traveled to western Kentucky from Alabama the beginning and fought for the confederates. The seventeen year old was afraid he would miss the war.There were only two battalions that were officially in the confederate army. My ancestor, Doc fought in one of them. I wonder if the brother was in one of these battalions.
Doug
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My great, great grandfather, David Story 3rd, enlisted in K Company, 5th Infantry, VT. He was wounded at Savage Station, taken prisoner, exchanged and sent to Episcopal Hospital Philadelphia where he died. His body was shipped back to VT for burial. His brother Isaac also served in the war. I have a picture of him in uniform. He wrote letters back home to his family which the family had saved. So that they may be properly preserved, I donated them to the New England Historic and Genealogical Society in Boston.
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Both GR-GR Grandfathers fought for the 14th KY Inf. (Union).
One brother fought for the south. They were in two battles fighting
against each other!
My gr-gr grandfather was in Co. B of Ky 14th Inf. His name was Thomas Prince, Jr. from Lawrence County, Ky. My dad was orphaned as a child, so that part of our history doesn’t have much oral tradition. Suppose our relatives knew each other?
My gg grandfather was also in the 14KY Inf. . (Union) in Co. G. There used to be a web site on the 14rth Ky., but it appears to have changed into a fb page. My ancestor was wounded by an artillery shell at the Battle of Atlanta and did not continue on with Sherman on the March to the sea John David Preston has written a book (2008), “The Civil War in the Big Sandy Valley of Kentucky” and there are several references to the 14th Ky. in Earl J. Hess’s Kennesaw Mt. (2013). The 14th K. was united with an Ohio Regiment under General [later Pres.] James Garfield’s command early in the war.
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My great great half uncle George Cubbage was with the 149th Bucktails from Allegheny county Pennsylvania fought and died in St Peterburg, Va. He is buried at Poplar Grove. His step brother was with the same 149th Bucktails John Banks Holland. I have a picture of John and several other vets standing in front of Little Round at Gettysburg, Pa. It was take some time around a annniversary reunion for the Bucktails.
149th PA Bucktails company B Captain Zarah Corsica McCullough and company E pvt James Lawrence McCullough survived Gettysburg. Fought McPherson’s Ridge & Farm. My maternal Grandmother’s father and uncle. Clearfield county. Names on battlefield memorial.
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I have many Civil War weapons I have collected over the years.
Some are listed on gunbroker.
Greg, we’d love to have photographs of your weapon collection. We could add it to Fold3. Please reach out to me at [email protected] if you are interested in sharing those photos.
My Great Grandfather served in the 42nd Mississippi Infantry, Company A. He was wounded twice, once thru the mouth, second in the stomach. He survived both. We have his hand written account of the first incident. He said he was so close to the guy who shot him, he could see his eye color. He was left for dead on the battlefield.
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My French Canadian ancestors emigrated from Canada to various parts of the U.S. Cousins and uncles fought for several different units including Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania AND Louisiana !!
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My paternal ggf, John B Galloway, enlisted in CO. B 32nd MS in 1861 as an 18 year old, with his friends and neighbors. Ultimately, He was captured in North GA and was sent to the Rock Island, IL POW camp. He then enlisted as a “Galvanized “ Yankee and was sent west to protect the stage route in Northern Colorado. He completed that service and returned to north MS where he married my Ggm Mary T.”Mollie” McGee whose brother had been mortally wounded at Gettysburg. Unfortunately, John B. died in 1883.
I think this new database is a great idea.
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Four of my eight great-great grandfathers fought in the Civil War. All four from Virginia. One died while a POW at Fort Delaware.
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My GG Grandfather, Verenus Hiram Ryder was a molder in a foundry when he volunteered and enlisted 17 August 1864. He served in Defense of Washington with Company K, Massachusetts 4th Heavy Artillery Regiment. He mustered out 17 June 1865. Returning to his home unscathed, he resumed his work as a molder in the Wakefield, Massachusetts foundry.
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My Paternal Great Grandfather, George Rush Plasket (one t) served in the 30th Iowa Battery. He was at Vicksburg. I have in my possession a letter and detailed map of the Mississippi situation on March 21, 1863. He was wounded in battle on May 22, 1863. He was promoted to Full 5th Sergeant on 20 Jan. 1965.
The effects of the wound to his right arm continued for the rest of his life.
The letter and drawing are my most prized possessions. We are a small family. We wish to donate the documents to the proper institution, as they would be destroyed after my death. I am 82.
Sharon, I am George’s 7TH COUSIN FOUR TIMES REMOVED. If you could send me a copy that letter and drawing, will see that it gets preserved with him on familysearch.org. George is already there but that information is not.
Gilbert Abbe
[email protected]
601-831-3091
Take a copy and donate to a war museum………………
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My gg grandfather, Nathaniel Levi Jones, was KIA on 20 Feb 1854 during the battle of Olustee/Ocean Pond FL. He was from Pike County GA and enlisted in the GA 64th.
Correction, 1864
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Three of my four great-grandfathers were in the Civil War; the fourth, who lived in northwestern Georgia, was too young. All were from small-farm families.
Of the three who served, one lived in eastern Tennessee, one in northwestern Georgia, and one in central Alabama.
–The Tennessean enlisted as a Private from Greene County in the Union Army in 1862, joining 1st TN Cavalry Regiment, Co. “L” and served for the duration of the War. He fought in many skirmishes and in battles in Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta and lastly Franklin. After the war, he lived in Chattanooga TN, and later was employed as a “guardian” at the nearby Chickamauga Battlefield after it opened.
–The Georgian enlisted as a 3rd Lt from Chattooga County in the Confederate Army in 1861, joining the 9th GA Inf Reg, Co. “B” and served in several key battles until severely wounded at Gettysburg on 2 July 1863. He was transported to Richmond’s to Chimborazo Hospital where he eventually recovered. “Unable to endure the rigors of forced march” (his letter), he served out the war on Home Guard duty at the Macon GA Armory. He soon moved to Cartersville GA to return to teaching, opening a small rural school there.
–The Alabamian was conscripted at age 17 as a Pvt from Macon County in 1864, joining the 63rd AL Inf Reg, Co “A” (the “Boy Regiment”) and served out the War until captured at Spanish Fort/Blakeley. He was confined on Ship Island MS until the war ended, then transported to Natchez MS and released, then by rail to near Montgomery AL, from where he walked home. He later became a teacher, a Populist representative in 1890 to the State Legislature, and lastly a 1900 Census Enumerator.
Oops. Forgot to add names:
–Tennessean was William Henderson Jones
–Georgian was Lewis Beman Millican.
–Alabamian was James Rufus Simmons.
–(Georgian who was too young was William Hannah Rickett)
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My 4x Great Grandfather
John Lewis Burgess served under Jeb Stuart in the light horse artillery regiment. He told my great great grandmother (whom lived until 1994) a story about Gettysburg. He said that during action at Spangler Springs he was getting water from the spring for wounded along side Union Soldiers doing the same, an unspoken pact between both sides. He was later captured during the Wilderness campaign and held prisoner at Point Lookout, Maryland.
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My great great grandfather died at Fredericksburg on May 3, 1863 according to records found. He was in the 141st Infantry Company E Pennsylvania. I would like more info on how to find where he was buried, the circumstances of his death, etc. His name was Charles H Packard.
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This is great. I have a copy of my 2nd great uncle’s journal regarding his service in the 35th NYVI. I donated the original to the NY Military Museam, but have transcripts that I can add.
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My great grandfather left a book of poems about the battles he witnessed…
He specially admired General Hooker.. Yes, he was a Yankee…
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My ggg grandfather Asbury Mapes , 55th Illinois regiment, fought at the battle of Shiloh . He was severely wounded in the spine April 6th, 1862 and sent down the river to Camp Dennison , Ohio where he died April 26th,1862. He is buried in the Civil War section of Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.We visited Shiloh and stood where he would of fought. It was a sobering and emotional moment, knowing the loss of life on both sides.
Many of my relatives had farms near the Shiloh battlefield at that time. Some of them even regularly attended church services at the Shiloh church. My G Grandmother grew up on a farm on the Corinth – Pittsburg Landing road, about 8 miles southwest of the Shiloh church. she remembered the (probably Confederate) soldiers marching by their house.
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My gg grandfather on my dad’s side was captured by Grant at the battle of Ft. Henry. He was sent to the Union prison in Alton, IL. My gg grandfather on my mother’s side was a prison guard there. Their grandchildren met in CA in 1932. They were my parents.
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My Grandfather and his brother both fought in the Civil War. I have other family members who served but have gotten all their information yet. Thank you for honoring them.
My Great-grandfather was in the 5th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, Company B, Union Army. He served from July 4th, 1861-Sept. 1864. His name was spelled a couple of different ways—-George Conselman, Canselman, Counselman. We always spelled it Councilman. From ancestry I found his newspaper obit in 1903 and the spelling was Kunzelman. I would like to learn everything I can.
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I have a portion of the diary of my 2nd Great Grandfather who was mustered in New York, discharged and mustered in again. It talks about prototype guns, meeting Lincoln and day to day struggles. It put many pieces of my ancestry questions together. At the end as he musters out he runs into his brother-in-law in Georgia. It’s an amazing read!
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My Maternal Great Grandfather, Private Robert M. Crawford enlisted March 21, 1864. He served in Company D, Wisconsin 37th Infantry Regiment and served until the time of his discharge, by reason of disability. He was taken Prisoner July 30, 1864 at Petersburg, Virginia; absent at M.O. of Regt. His obituary states he spent three months in Libby prison. Since my research I have learned Robert was sent to Danville Prison and was soon paroled and discharged at Parole Camp. My Mom remembers being told her Grandpa weighed eighty some pounds when he was released. I am proud to say I have Robert’s 1847 Springfield Musket that he used in the Civil War and the musket will be passed down to my nephew who is very interested in the Civil War. I would love to find any information about Robert, a picture in uniform, a letter and especially any details of him being in Danville Prison. Robert’s obituary states he was loyal and true to his country. Thank You Great Grandfather for serving our Country in the Civil War.
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Hi, my 2nd great grandfather, Peter Adams Hanger, who lived in Shannon County MO was medically discharged from the Confederate Army in 1863. And the 7th Kansas in February of 1865 took him and another man into the woods and shot and killed them. Peter was 50 years old at this time. There is an article that was written in 2011…. Death of Peter Hanger – Line Bred Rebel. I found this while doing research, needless to say, I find this story extremely sad. Peter and his wife had a lot of children, some still young at this time. It seemed a senseless act that was done by the 7th Kansas. I feel my 2nd great grandfather’s story should be told and his voice heard since it was snuffed out in such a horrible manner with no regard for his or the other man’s life. Thank you for your time, Karen
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My great great grandfather Michael Philip Usina was also known as the man with the dog. He was out of Savannah and the youngest blockade runner in history. He was Company B , 8th Georgia Infantry. He was a loyal man and well known in the shipping circles. He later founded the Usina & Jones Dry docks on Hutchinson Island in Savannah,GA.
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I’ll be happy to participate. Nearly every male in my family between the age of 15 to 50 was in the Confederate Army.
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1, The National Guard still recruits largely locally manned units. See the 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division, which suffered heavily on D-Day.
Today,company level units are mostly local, Battalion HQ are mostly local at the enlisted level, with some officers serving a long distance from home depending on where the open slots are. Brigade and higher HQ have a lot of senior NCOs also coming from outside the area.
2.
BG Maxcy Gregg served under Jackson, killed at Fredericksburg. My great great grandmother was his niece so we are his closest living relatives.
Captain Robert George Chisolm served in several different SC militia units until called up to serve at Petersburg. He received a leg injury, but not sure it was combat related. He got the best care, though. His cousin Julian Chisolm was a senior sugeon in the Confederate army and wrote the manual on field medicine.
Melchior Hay Horn Jr. was a junior member of Gov Andrew Gregg Curtin’s staff involved in raising volunteer units for the army. Was mobilized as a militia major during the Antietam Campaign. and again as a Colonel during the Gettysburg Campaign. Saw no action.
David Middlecoff was a private in the war of 1812 and saw action with a PA milita unit from the Gettysburg area in the trenches north of Baltimore after the Battle Middlecoff’s Troop as a Captain during the Antietam Campaign, saw no action that I know of. Does not appear to have been active during Gettysburg (he would have been pushing 70) He was known as General Middlecoff in some family letters, but I have no idea when he held that position.
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My GG-Father was Steven Acker. He enlisted in the 67th Inf.(1st Long Island) and went missing May 31st 1862 at the Battle of Fair Oaks. The story that was passed down to me from my Uncle was that he wrote a letter home the night before the battle and said he was being sent on a secret mission. He was never heard from again.
I do not have THAT letter, but I do have several others from him sent home to my GG Grandmother where he describes life in camp in DC and troops being reviewed by President Lincoln.
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My second great grandfather James A Taylor (a.k.a.) Watterson (service form September 17, 1862 – 7 August, 1862) was wounded in the Battle of Antietam, Maryland. While fighting for the union, James was wounded loosing the use of his left arm. While he was cooperating in the hospital, he was visited by President Abraham Lincoln. I have a photograph of James with his metal.
B 186′ & E 186′ New York Infantry I 10 M 10 & K 10 NY H Arty
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We are pursing a project to find the graves of Civil War Veterans in the United Kingdom. So so far know of some 1,300 Union and 130 Confederate veterans likely to be buried here (and know the locations of about 25% of their graves).
We (the London Camp of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War) would be very grateful for any information about such and casters and burials from Ancestry users.
I’m related to Richard Rowland Kirkland “Angel of Marye’s Heights”.
You want a comment. The site is very disappointing
I disagree with your project. It was a dirty filthy war that has been glamorized and romanticized beyond reason. Union volunteers of 1861 and 1862 lived like junk yard dogs. They began to waiver by 1863 and found themselves forsaken as the North turned its back on the war. Politicians and the Officer Corps betrayed the Union army at Appomattox and left the black race to swing at the end of a rope for 100 years. Finally, the G.A.R. came to believe that the South was right, after all. So, what is there to celebrate here? Why should these men be remembered?
At FindaGrave.com you can find a virtual cemetery for the 37th Alabama Infantry. Currently over 300 listings and growing daily.
Thank you Larry! We’ll check it out!
When you get to Mississippi, I will have some stories for you, and names
with different families and neighbors serving. My great Grandfather, Jefferson Kasey Murley, served in the 32nd Miss. under Mark Perrin Lowery and Patrick Cleburne, under the Hardee Flag. My great Grandfather Sgt. James K. Bartlett, served in the 34th Miss. He was captured by Hookers Men on Nov.24th, 1863, at Lookout Mountain. I wrote a book in 2015 detailing the marches and battles and men of the
Army of Tennessee from 1862-1865. It is called, “After Bloody Shiloh”
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My maternal great-grandfather, William Henry “PegLeg” Isbell, served in a Regiment of the CSA Army of Northern Virginia. He was wounded at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863 and left on the field for dead. Union troops found him and took him to their field hospital where they amputated one of his legs.
“PegLeg Isbell was held captive until the war was nearly over. Upon release, he moved to Hanover County, VA and became a cobbler. He was known locally as a jokester who hung out near the Hanover County Courthouse kidding passerby.
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Col. James Keith Marshall, grandson of Chief Justice John Marshall, is my 2nd Cousin, 3 times removed. He graduated from VMI in 1860.
Birth: Apr. 17, 1839 Fauquier County Virginia, USA Death: Jul. 3, 1863 Gettysburg Adams County Pennsylvania.
Col. James K. Marshall assumed command of Brig. Gen. James J. Pettigrew’s Brigade when Gen. Pettigrewtook command of Heth’s Division on July 3, 1863 at Gettysburg.
Marshall led the brigade into Pickett’s Charge and fell dead within 50 yards of the Uion lines near the Bryan Barn on Cemetery Ridge. Col. Marshall’s remains probably lie in the Gettysburg Dead Section at Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Va.
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Several on both sides. Just some are great-great-great grandfather, Silas Thomas Baker, from Illinois survived the war and married three times. Great-great-great grandfather, Francis Marion Trucks, from Bibb County, Alabama served in the CSA. Mortally wounded in the head at Sharpsburg and died in the custody of Union soldiers. Probably buried in a mass grave in an unknown location maybe in southern PA. Great-great grandfather, John Wesley Young, served in the Alabama First Cavalry — a Union unit. Died of disease at Decatur, Morgan Co, AL. His widow, my great-great grandmother, Betsy P. Jones Young many years later applied for his pension. Entire file (about 60 pages) at Fold3. Great-great grandfather, James Silas Jernigan, was a boy in Guntersville, Alabama. Says Union soldiers attacked their home killing his parents. He swam across the Tennessee to safety. Possibly a Parrott shell hit their house from a Union gunboat is more likely, but, some Union soldiers did come ashore different times during the war. Who knows what really happened in Guntersville.
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My gg grandfather on my Dads side, lived in Dekalb Co. Tn. He fought for the
Union. My GG grandfather on my on my Moms side ,lived in Boulton Bend, Tn. He and seventeen members of his family enlisted in the Confederate army on the same day. Joel Martin was the Union and Edward B.H. Boulton was the confederate. E.B .H . Boulton was injured with shrapnel in his face and hip when they fought at Lookout mountain. Joel Martin was also injured but I haven’t found out where. Both lived to come home even if Grandpa Joel died in 1891.
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Would like to see a search of names so one could see if family names were involved.
I have a family member’s journal from the Civil War, in addition to some other items from other family members. How should we specifically engage?
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My Great grandparents were 1st cousins; their Grandads were brothers and were Privates in Co D, 1st Texas Cavalry, Texas State Troops (aka “Magnolia Rangers). The company mustered in at Galveston, TX on 17JAN1861 before Texas even seceded from the Union. Richard Addison & Needham Anderson Coward were two of 16 family members who were in the unit. The fathers tended to be privates; the boys non-com’s and officers. The drove the Yankees off Galveston Island and out of Ft Brown at Brownsville TX before their unit dissolved after enlistments expired. The younger members tended to join units destined for Texas’ Arizona Brigade headed out west. Others went home to their farms. [I like to say that our family was the largest contingent of Cowards to ever go to war together…LOL!]
In another story, Needham’s daughter helped sew their unit flag (the largest known based on the First National) and presented it to the Ensign who would care for it…they fell in love at that event but waited until he returned to wed. He was lost in combat and thought to be KIA but was a POW in Camp Douglas. He wouldn’t sign the allegiance papers so he ended up walking home. She got married and a few years later widowed. After months of mourning, her sisters and cousins convinced her to go with them to a big gala in Galveston from their home some 30 miles away (a large distance back in that day). The Ensign, John Henry Kipp, was the host of the party. When he got home from the war, he had lost track of Lucretia and married another lady who subsequently died. The two immediately rekindled their love and married. They founded the city of Kemah, TX where they are buried side by side.
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Not directly a soldier story. As a child I was told by an elderly relative that his mother, my great, great grandmother – Johana Cronin Dowd – rocked her first baby in her farm house in Cabin John, Maryland listening to cannon fire. That would have been in 1864. Two of her Irish immigrant brothers were in Union service and her father-in-law (Daniel Dowd), who owned the farm, sold milk to the Union troops in Washington D.C.
My G-G Grandfather, Timothy B Robinson and his younger brother Henry were from Bristol, Ct. They joined in August 1862, serving with the 16th Conn Volunteer Regiment, Company K. The regiment was badly mauled at the battle of Antietam a month later but Tim’s most interesting war story is his escape.
In April 1864 the entire regiment, then serving garrison duty in Plymouth, NC was besieged, surrounded and captured. Henry was seriously wounded in that fight and was sent to Andersonville prison where he died in August 1864 from wounds and malnutrition. He’s buried in the National Cemetery there.
Tim was sent to a different prison camp and he escaped by jumping off a boxcar but he was recaptured and sent to Camp Sorghum prison camp in Columbia SC. In November 1864 after 7 months of captivity he escaped a second time with 2 fellow officers.
The plan was to follow the Congaree and Santee Rivers to the coast, a serpentine distance of about 200 miles. Along the way they discovered and joined up with 5 other POW escapees on the river who had made contact with sympathetic slaves who provided them with 2 small boats and some food. In fact, the group would be helped along the way by other friendly slaves who provided critical information on the whereabouts of Confederates on the rivers.
As the rivers were guarded at key points they only traveled at night, drifting with the current, sleeping in the swamps by day. Their greatest fear was being seen by white faces. They made it to the mouth of the Santee River in 9 days. They could see the spars of a union gunboat on station about 7 or 8 miles offshore but they were unable to attract its attention. After repeated failed attempts to get the crowded leaky boats thru the surf, one boat succeeded in paddling out to the USS Canadaigua and the entire group was rescued.
Tim was involved in veteran’s affairs for the rest of his life. He was the last president of the 16th Regiment Veterans Association. When he died in 1918 there was no one else able to serve.
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My Great-Grandfather, Richard Collier Price was from Virginia. He was from a large family, including three brothers who fought for the Confederacy. My great-grandfather enlisted in Company C. in 1863,
January, 28 as a Private and by 1864 he was promoted to Corporal. In 1863 he was wounded in Gettysburg and was taken prisoner. Before he enlisted he was only given a few months to live because he was diagnosed as having Tuberculosis, however, being out in the fresh air must have healed him. After the war he went back to his farm. He then married and raised a family of two sons and twin daughters. He became a widower and raised these children with the help of one of his brothers and his wife. As a single parent living in those difficult times he was able to send the girls and one of his sons to college. My grandfather was the son who did not attend college but stayed on the family farm. I am very proud of my great grandfather who not only went off to war but also had to provide for his family by himself. He died in 1924 and is buried in the church cemetery. I am happy to say that my family still owns the property and I live in the home he was born in.
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Stanley Norman Mitchell – B:3 Jan 1843 in Montrose, PA. – D:26 Dec 1908 in Binghamton, NY. Fought in Company B, 162nd Regiment, 17th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry (1862-1864, Civil War). Promoted to Sergeant Major, August 1, 1864.
George Wilkins Kendall – B:6 Dec 1845 in Mobile, Alabama – D: 7 Oct 1905 in Binghamton, NY. Enlisted 1864. 1st Lieut., Company K, 8th Alabama Infantry Regiment
Several of my great grandfather’s fought in the War. I would like to know about them and can contribute photos of each. This is a wonderful service.
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Anthony Horace (A.H.) Windsor is an ancestor of mine, who was Chaplain, 91st Infantry Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This unit served in what is now West Virginia, and then mostly in the Shenandoah Valley from 1862 to the end of the war. I have a copy of his History of the Ninety-First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry published in 1865, and have requested a copy of Col. Coates’ History of his Company. I have a copy of Blazer’s Scouts, but I am looking for more materials about this Regiment, the towns and counties where they were raised, the Battles in which they fought, and some personal reflections by members or family members. He was buried in Athens, Ohio.
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My Great-Grandfather Samuel Spangler of Clark County MO was a captain in the Union Army. I am fortunate to have a collection of letters that he wrote in 1862 to his wife, my Great-Grandmother Mary Ann Spangler, who stayed at their farmhouse in Clark County. One letter refers to the President calling up 600,000 more men. Samuel of course was referring to Lincoln.
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You have taken on a monumental task. Nevertheless, it is one of the best that you could possibly do, Thank you so much for this undertaking. I have been weeding through these records for many yeas in my attempts to put a story together about my Civil War ancestors. No doubt, I have missed some or many. Heaven forbid that I have gotten some of them wrong:)
I look forward to your accomplishments
Souglas M. Wright
I have several ancestors who were in the Civil War. One, Phillip Beamer Williams, a 30 year old native of VA served with the Union forces and left 20 letters to his wife in northern MO. He literally walked from there too Vicksburg, to a rice field in GA, to NC, to he Grand Review in Washington, DC. I would be glad to share those letters which show the couples 3 year separation. They were both American heroes in my book.
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My great grandfather, Charles Taylor Howell, enlisted in Co C, 39th Mississippi, along with his 3 brothers-Issac E,, Thomas Jefferson, and William. William died at Corinth, and the remaining 3 were all severely wounded-loss of hands, legs, etc. at Corinth, Pine Mountain, Jackson, Resaca, Port Hudson, etc. After the war my ggrandfather came to Texas in 1868, became a tenant farmer (share cropper)and died in 1917. TJ was on crutches the rest of his life and died a pauper in Mississippi about 1912. Issac E, lived in Jackson Ms as a share cropper after the war but moved to Texas in early 1900s (to live with son) and died in Kaufman County, Texas in 1911. All of them, prior to Civil War, were farming next to each other and scratching out a living in Scott County, Mississippi. They, like 95% of Confederates, owned no slaves. They lost everything and were penniless when they died. In my own case, my grandfather was a share cropper. 2 points to be made-the more accurate 300,000 killed in Confederacy was at least 30% of enlistments. Add in at least another 300,000 wounded and you get 60-70% of total enlisted. The total number of whites in South was no more than 5 million. There was no family not touched by a death or dismemberment—-a staggering number. Second point-it took at least 2, perhaps 3 generations for those in the South to gain some level of prosperity. The Civil War was the single most destructive event in American history. It took more than 100 years before the South ever began to recover.
I completely agree with your information, Gary. My family was not wealthy but held land and held their own up to the American Civil War. They had no slaves and the father of the house left behind nine children, the youngest of which was my great-grandfather. It took three generations for the Barnard family on my side to own land again and that land was bought with money that my dad sent home while he was serving in World War II. The Civil War was in truth the single most destructive even in American history as you say. I’ve seen it in my own family. I hope if anyone thinks that we should have another one at some time (as divided as our country is now), they learn the history of what happened in the wake of that first one. Thanks for your valuable information.
Reply to Mr. Gary Howell post. My Great Grandfather, Richard Albert Barry Craig, served in the 22nd Mississippi Infantry, and participated in many of the Civil War battles which you listed. He was captured by Union forces at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee in 1864 and transported to the infamous Union prison of Camp Douglas in Chicago, and there survived the Winter of 1864-65 despite the implementation of the “starvation diet” mandated by President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton meant to insure that any Southern prisoners “exchanged” for Union counterparts would be rendered physically “unfit” for combat. Post-Appomattox, the prisoners were transported to Cairo, Il. and sent South via steamboat down the Mississippi. He was able to find enough work at ports en route that on arrival in Memphis he was able to travel back to Mississippi by Railway. On his return home, he found that most of the family property had been “appropriated” by the “victors”, and with a Cousin embarked for Texas in hopes of joining Gen. Jo Shelby and other Confederate “ex-pats” in a “volunteer”
group intended to support Emperor Maximillian in Mexico. On arrival in San Antonio, they discovered that they had missed that “opportunity”, and decided to join separate Cattle Drives en route to Kansas. After two years with the Cattle Drives, he purchased land in Hunt County, Texas ( very near Kaufmann County ), and began his own modest Cattle operation, which was continued by my Grandfather, in addition to his other business interests. I am in possession of a letter which my Great Grandfather sent “from our works before Atlanta”, describing the Battle of Resaca and listing the fates of family, friends and neighbors from the home County in Mississippi in that battle. I also have three letters written to my then “pre-teen” father, describing his military experiences and conditions in the Camp Douglas Prison Camp, as well as letters written home “wintering over” in Kansas during the Cattle Drives from Texas.
Very sad! Unfortunately the politically powerful in the South made a terrible decision to secede, and lead their people to ruin.
Mr. Howell , you are correct in stating most Confederate soldiers had no slaves. Most fought not to save slavery but against what they viewed as meddling Northern politicians. Much of today’s youth (my 50-something sons included) compare the Confederate flag with the swastika. To me, Hitler sold the German population a bill of goods simply because he could. In some ways we in the South were not far different than the citizens of the countries Hitler over ran. Is it shameful to defend your homeland from interlopers and carpetbaggers?
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I too, like many people know of ancestors who fought in the civil war. I am in possession of letters written home by my ancestors. They are quite interesting. As with many wars, the men wrote that they were cold, hungry, and not being paid on time, among other subjects.
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I donated an entire packet of Civil War letters from a Civil War soldier to his family in Massachusetts. He died of his wounds but the letters described battles. They are in the possession of the Concord Mass Library Archives.
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I am thrilled about this exciting feature and know a couple of people who will be as well. I think my only concern – and it’s a big one – is the use of Find a Grave. Most of us know it as an unreliable source so I hope the information obtained from there is vetted and cited appropriately. Thank you!
I completely agree concerning Findagrave info. I know firsthand of misinformation included there, and also hope strongly that the info will be vetted to the nth degree, if it’s to be included.
Corrections can be made on findagrave. You just need to take the effort to do it and you can add source information. This will go far to make this a reliable source.
I found my grandfather through find a grave. I found out he did not have a head ‘stone. I was able to not only find the cemetery but also the grave. The only marker was a small cement foot (stone) . I was able, with the cemeterit’s help order a headstone and paid $100 to have it set in place. My son, daughter in law and I were able watch this in person. I have also found other deceased family using find a grave.
Antique Roadshow has so many Civil War stories, pictures, letters, diaries, and artifacts. It would be a great source for you of human interest stories from the descendants.
Will you also be collecting information on soldiers who served elsewhere during the War? My ggrandfather & his brother enlisted in a Kansas unit and served for most of 3 years escorting military supply trains along the Santa Fe Trail from Ft Leavenworth to various forts in New Mexico.
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My grandfather was a USAFE veteran as they told us but unfortunately he got no pension from USA.
I heard from my family that someone processed it but failed because of the birthcertificate
US record has different spelling to his middle name
My grandfather’s name
BONIFACIO YAP PALANCA
My other cousins spelled (Plangca /planca)
I have here his big spoon with a hole in the handle he told me this is from USA
He got this antique box / Truhe / Cavan
He once told me this was also from USA when he fought against the Japanese war here in the Philippines
I still have them on my house because I love antiques
My grandfather last residence was in escalante negros Occidental
He was tall big built
I hope someone from this organization could help us locate his name on the list so that our descendants
may also avail the benefits that my grandfather supposed to avail
He died at age 68 of heart attacked in Manila medical center
I can secure birthcertificate of my grandfather
I have here with me the death and birthcertificate of her younger sister
I can send you picture of the old big spoon with the hole on the handle and this antique Truhe / box
The last letter from USA my brother had seen it he told me just now was
A letter that USA has been asking of onother document that can prove of my grandfathers name because there was a mistake on the middle name instead of Y ( yap )
The USA office wrote it Z
but after that no correspondence anymore coz the one who follow up or process these documents died as I heard it I really don’t know what had happened but since I am connected with you and so I took this opportunity to ask and write to you hoping I can get an answer
My grandparents had 13 children and only 2 are left now
The family name of my grandfather
Planca or palanca im using palanca
My cousins use Plangca wrongly misspelled
My email address
[email protected]
Contact number 0063-34-4315226
Cell # 0063 -9397200011
I’m cynthia Palanca Sy
Thank you for reading my story
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
Ephrain Smith, my 3rd Great Grandfather, was a member of Iowa 37th Infantry Co. K known as the “Greybeards”. It was a Union regiment of older men ranging from 45 to 80 years old. Ephrain joined when he was 62 years old. The idea being younger men seeing the old soldiers marching to war would be filled with shame and scurry off to the recruiter. Members did not engage in combat but guarded arsenals, military trains and prisons. Four of his sons, George, Rufus, Merrit and Leonard also served. After two years of service an injury caused him t leave the unit. While sleeping in a lower bunk the bed above came crashing down on him breaking his leg. He used a cane the rest of his life.
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My Gr-gr-grandfather Richard W. Cole had 2 sons and 2 son-in-laws enlist in Mississippi regiments. He finally enlisted in summer of ‘63 in the 5th Mississippi Cavalry. This unit fought under Gen. Chalmers and Gen. Forrest. He was killed in action at the infamous Battle of Fort Pillow, 12 April 1864.
I have researched and collected records of 100 Confederate casualties(KIA & WIA) and 580 Union & civilians who were casualties or PWs. Despite the “stories”, the Union suffered 34% casualties. The 5th Miss Cavalry Regiment had the highest number of casualties, including their commander who was mortally wounded.
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Two of my great-grandfathers fought together in the same infantry and company. William Funk is my maternal great-grandfather. He was from Butler township, Adams County, Pennsylvania. Abraham Herring is my paternal great-grandfather. He was from Liberty or Freedom Township, Adams County. They both fought in the 184th Infantry, Co. K. They were inducted in Sept., 1864, supposedly for 1 year. They were in Petersburg, Hatcher’s Run, Fort Haskell and Steadman, ending up at Appomattox Court House when the Rebel Army surrendered. William was mustered out June 2, 1865. Abraham in Aug., 1865.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
I’m writing a book about all the veterans of Yadkin County, N.C. (Using ancestry and fold3 to verify). At this time I have over 1300 confederate and over 100 union. The tools Fold3 have helped quite a bit and I love that they continue to add more all the time.
I have several relatives that lived in Yadkin Co and am very interested in your book progress.
Thank you Edward. Since you are writing a book you may not want to share your research. If you would like to however, we’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link or email me at [email protected] to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My Great grandfather Archie H. Aisquith !845-1894 enlisted at the age of 17 and who loss his right arm in the battle of Chancellorsville, VA. He was in Co. G 2nd VA infantry, Stonewell Brigade. He was rendered unfit for service, but not withstanding his maimed condition, unwilling to quit the service and give up the struggle, he became a volunteer in Co. B 12th VA cavalry, and was with that company in many of its engagements in the campaign of 1864-1865. After the war, he and his brother opened a drug store business in Charles Town.. He later retried and died on his farm in Montgomery county MD, where he had and raised 10 children, His wife Mary Rutherford Aisquith died in Washington, DC in 1939.
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I am proud to say that I had one Great Grandfather, Gabriel Holder and his three brothers, third Great Uncles, Jesse, John and William. They were all in the following Tennessee Union units: Gabriel – 3rd Reg. Inf. Co. H, Jesse – 4th Cal. Reg. Co. E, John – 1st Reg. Inf. Co. G, William – 3rd Reg. Inf. Co. H. All survived the war and lived long ang healty lives.
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My Barnard ancestors served in the Kentucky 9th Confederacy also known as the Orphan Brigade, because they fought for the confederacy even though Kentucky was neutral. Father and Son joined up. Father, who was named William Logan Barnard II, died at Shiloh on April 6th, 1862. The family always said he drowned but however he died it was in battle. He was named after William Logan Barnard who fought in the revolution of America from Britain so one member fought to free America and another to tear America in two. The son of William Logan II went on to fight throughout the Civil War and went to Texas at the end to live out his life. He had signed the oath to America but always thought of himself as Confederate. His name is Ignatius Barnard, also called Nace. I wrote a book about all this, available on Amazon.
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My Deatrick ancestors fought for the north in the civil war. I have several letters written home and back to battle during the war and have reproduced them in my book: “Mein Name Ist Peter Dietrich”. The Deatricks had people fighting on either side.
After reading your comment I found your book on Amazon, and read the forward and a few pages… I shall certainly read the rest. It appears to be well written and concise. And who knew I would find an interesting book and author on Fold3!
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
My 2nd great-grandfather was Levi Snapp. He enlisted in the 5th VA Volunteers (infantry) Co K and his father, Bennett Snapp and brother James Snapp both enlisted in the 33rd VA Infantry, Co D.
I have found some information about Levi’s company including a photo and know that he was injured and captured at the Battle of Falling Waters but little else. And sadly, there is no family history.
Does anyone know of them or their companies?
Hopefully Fold 3 will be able to provide more information’
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What will you be able to do about soldiers who fought under assumed names? Soldiers in the border states sometimes used assumed names so that their families were not subject to reprisals by their neighbors.
My ancestor was born in (what would become) WV, and was a southern sympathizer. He could not openly declare so in a town that mostly supported the north. We know he fought for the south, but believe him to have used an assumed name to protect his family back in WV.
Do you know any way to make a link between his real WV name and his assumed name during the war years? Using only his real name, I have not been able to establish a link.
I applaud your goal, and believe those men deserve the effort it will take to make it happen. I hope one day we could extend your concept to include every person who ever fought for our country throughout our history.
Carson O. Hudson, Jr., in his “Hidden History of Civil War Williamsburgs”, relates the story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, born in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1841. In escaping an arranged marriage, she found herself in Michigan when the war broke out. She cut her hair, assumed the name Franklin Thompson, and enlisted in the Flint Union Greys, which became Company F of the Second Michigan Infantry. Apparently, military physicals weren’t what they are today. During her time in the Union Army she posed as a male nurse and spy (in both male and female garb). In 1897, she was even accepted into the Union veteran’s organization, the Grand Army of the Republic
That’s a good question! I would think we could add both the assumed name and the real name. I’ll pass that along to our development team to assess.
Without doing an exhaustive search I have identified 19 men in my family tree who fought in the Civil War, including a 3GGrandfather, two 2GGrandfathers, and two Great Grandfathers. My maternal grandparents’ fathers, Jasper Newton Thompson from Virginia and Stephen Adams from Kentucky, fought on opposite sides; and my 3GGrandfather, William Bruce Lykins, enlisted in October 1861 along with his three oldest sons, including my 2GGrandfather, David Jesse Lykins. A fourth son enlisted in January 1862, and the two youngest sons enlisted in October 1862. All seven served in the 5th Kentucky Infantry (CSA). William Bruce and three of his sons mustered out in October 1862. David Jesse was captured in December 1862; sent to prison in Alton, Illinois; and paroled in January 1863. The last two sons were both wounded at Jonesborough, Georgia, in September 1864 but recovered and survived the war.
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
I have four Civil War great great grandfathers- two of whom died in battle. I have much info from my aunt, who collected info for a book about Terry’s Texas Rangers- the 8th Texas Cavalry- of which two of my gr great grandfathers were members The other Confederate gr great grandfather fought at Galveston and came home to his family and his farm..
I also have family info on the one Union soldier – my gr great grandfather from Pennsylvania, who died at Chancellorsville.
Would be interested in information about your GG Grand father from Pennsylvania.
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My Great Great Uncle, Pvt. James Cookman, born in Quebec, left home at age 26 and enlisted in Charleston, Vermont in Co D, 3rd Vermont Volunteer Infantry and was mustered in in June 1861. He was involved in fighting during the Peninsula Campaign under Gen. William F. “Baldy” Smith’s command and was killed in action at the Battle of Dam Number 1 (aka Lee’s Mills) on 16 April 1862. He was identified and is buried in the Yorktown National Cemetery in Plot 596. Many have called this battle “A Dam Failure”.
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My Great Grandfather fought in the Civil War. He was with the 91si Pennsylvania Infantry. He fought in the Wilderness Campaign. He was discharged in the field at Appomattox. He had a small pension from the government after. Many years ago I sent proof of relationship to Washington and got some of his papers. It was really interesting and I was so happy I did that because It became more real, not just family talk. I even got his papers from his enlistment. His name was Edwin Hoffman Dyke.
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My great grandfather, Hiram E. Benedict enlisted in the Navy August 26, 1864, at Buffalo, N.Y. as a landsman and served on the Michigan, North Carolina, and Belle. The Belle was employed in the North Carolina Sounds area and took part in the capture of Plymouth, N.C. on 31 October 1864.
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To date, I have found 43 of my relatives who fought in the Civil War (all for the Confederacy) 10 of which died during the war of wounds or disease. There are two of these that have really haunted me as to what happened to them. One, Lindsay Bernease Hall (21, with the 3rd Texas Cavalry) was wounded at the Battle of Iuka, Mississippi, left with the other wounded and captured by the Federals. He was never heard from again – what happened to him? Another was John Franklin Allday (46th Mississippi Infantry). He was captured at Vicksburg in 1863, paroled, rejoined his unit later, records show he was issued clothing in March of 1864, but died in 1864 in Alexandria, Louisiana – when, how? I don’t think his unit was ever in Louisiana.
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My great great grandfather, Van Ranzler Morgan, fought for the confederacy in 2nd Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry (Duke’s), Company B. He enlisted in Shepardsville, KY in 1862. He was a prisoner of war several times, captured by the Cumberland River. He deserted in June of 1864. He made his way back home to his wife, Mary Ann Hart, and children in Anderson County, KY. They had 3 more children for a total of 6. In 1870, he was counted in the census in Eureka, NV as a freighter along with his father Daniel Morgan. He is said to have deserted his wife and children as an attorney was named guardian for his minor children in the 1870s. We have no information on where or when he died or where he is buried. I visited Eureka, NV a year ago to see what they might have on him and was not able to find any info and he’s not in any of their cemeteries. As a freighter, he could have fallen off his horse and died along the trail, for all we know. As you may know, there is no pension information for deserters!
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My Great Grand Father William H. Williams was at Pea Ridge,AR. I went there and asked for them to look him up. They had 3 men listed with the same names..same H. initial. My Great Grand Father was William Humphrey Williams, His wife was Rebecca E. Wardlaw Williams. In 1880 and 1882 he had a boy and a girl. The girl was my Grandmother I have a picture of his retired unit. But I have no information about what unit is was except I think Infantry. There was a man by the last name of Thomason in that picture, he is also one of my Relatives. Would anyone else be looking for information about this group?
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What are you going to do with the existing Ancestry sponsored Civil War Websites, specifically the roots-web pages. I spent days imputing into these databases complete with biographies, pictures, stories and letters from the combatants. I see no reason to do it again.
I know of about 12, including all four great-grandfathers, who fought for the Confederate States of America. At least two were killed, At least four were taken prisoner. At least seven were wounded. Moist were privates, at least to start with. There were two Lieutenants, one Captain, and one Colonel at the end. I have biographies of all but two or three, ranging from a paragraph to several pages, plus one of 101 pages, all of which I wrote. All were in Tennessee units, except two in Arkansas units.
Do you want me to send them to you?
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I like where you are headed with this project. The Civil War really was a family story and impacted many lives in this country. I had a wonderful professor at Virginia Tech that taught his Civil War class from the perspective of the soldier and his family through letters that were sent during this time. Dr. Robertson, unfortunately, died last year, but he left a wonderful legacy through the impact that he made on students and the American community. Good luck with this project and I look forward to seeing how we family historians can contribute before all of our family lore is lost.
Dr. Robertson wrote a great biography on Stonewall Jackson. He also appeared in the Civil War Journal Series.
I have information on William Coleman Franklin, who enlisted in Arkansas.
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We have transcripts of over 125 letters written home by my gr-grandfather, his 4 brothers & other family members. His name is spelled oddly on his service record and an uncle is said to have died in a battle 2 years before the boy’s letter home telling about being with him at his death. Correcting such errors, adding their stories & pictures in uniform of 2 of the brothers will be a blessing.
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I have been attempting to find where my cousin was buried when he died on September 18, 1864 in a battle with the 14th and 15th Pennsylvania Calvary.
His name was Oscar Cheesman Smith. He was born in Manhassett, New York in 1838. His mother was a sister to my Great Great Grandfather, who also was born in 1838, in New York. They grew up together and were great friends. Sheridan and “OC” went to school together and were separated only when Sheridan’s family moved to to be closer to New York, and eventually ended up living in Brooklyn, NY.
OC sometime later moved to Wetimonga, Alabama, to strike out on his own. I believe he must have read in a newspaper that Samuel House was hiring young men to work with a hardware distribution company located in Weimunga, Alabama, and in 1858 somehow, found his way there and in the employment of Samuel House. In the 1860 US Census, he was living with four other young men in a house owned by Samuel House and working as “clerks” for the hardware distributor.
The last word the family heard of OC Smith must have been in the form of a letter in which he passed on that everything was great in Alabama and he was in love with a lady which he intended to Marry soon. That letter was received in 1860 in New York.
My Information of a letter from OC is taken from a written history of the Poole family which was hired by one of Sheridan Poole’s sons, Harold Sheridan Poole, in 1945. Nobody ever learned what had happened to OC until I started to dig into his life in Alabama at the time of the start of the Civil War.
It was easy to find records that in March of 1860, an Oscar Cheesman Smith enlisted into the 3rd Alabama Infintry, as a Supply Sargent and sent off to learn how to be a confederate solder. In December of 1860 the 3rd Alabama turned up guarding the Naval station captured by the South in Norfolk, VA. The duty there was easy being in Virginia and not having to repel any Northern attack on the Port.
After that winter the 3rd Alabama was sent up to Richmond to help reinforce the defenders in the area. They were not at the first big land battle of the Civil War which was Bull Run (North’s name of the battle) or Mannass (South’s name of the battle).
The 3rd Alabama made a name for itself in Summer of 1862 in the defence of Richmond. After that they were sent to the Stonewall Brigade where they fought at Chanclersburg, Antitum, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, where OC was wounded, (grapeshot) Wilderness, (he was back in the action), he fought into the night on the fight where they found themselves five miles from the White House and were ordered to stop, to find themselves strongly opposed in the morning, they retreated.
Lt. O. C. Smith was killed on September 18, 1864 in a battle with Sheridan’s first Calvary, where he was shot in the neck and officially dead. The name given to the battle was Stonebridge (by the North).
The reason for OC to fight for the South became evident when I learned that the girl he loved gave birth to a boy in March of 1861. (In the US Census of 1870, his girlfriend was found in Montgomery, no child was listed. In the 1880 US Census she listed a 19 year old boy as her son.)
I am still attempting to find where his body was buried, but the controversy of where he was killed still lingers. There is still a lot to be learned why Gen. Sheridan moved swiftly to attack the South in the Third Battle of Winchester and push the Confederates out of the Valley and back to Tennessee so decisively. I believe The Battle of Stonebridge is part of that story.
I also believe Lt. O.C. Smith is part of that story, and his grave is possibly in the Martinsburg, Municipal Cemetary, two miles where I believe the battle was fought. There is a mass Confederate gravesite with 28 unknown Confederates lie buried.
“Love has no bounds”
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Private William Jasper REED and younger brother Andrew (Andy) Jackson Reed served entire war. Jasper Reed was wounded in one thigh, leaving him crippled for life. He and his brother Andy Reed
survived Gettysburg, PA. Jasper Reed, my ancestor, came from Tennessee into Georgia. His and Andy Reed’s father was Joseph Reed, their mother was Elvira Perkins, daughter of John Perkins of TN and GA. Jasper became a lumberman, the business continued by Reed descendants until 2017 when the last Reed lumber mill owner died of lung cancer. Jimmy Reed, the last lumberman, lived Murray County, Georgia.
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I am definitely interested in contributing our family’s CW stories.
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My ggg grandfather and 3 of his brothers were part of the 64th Virginia mounted infantry that were captured at Cumberland Gap in September of 1863. The 3 brothers spent the duration of the war at Camp Douglas in Chicago. Somehow , my ggg grandfather escaped after being captured. I’m always searching for more information.
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I am very interested in UNION REGIMENTS from Delaware, also from Virginia
Isaac J LORT, CAPTAIN 1818 1862//Joseph LORT, CAPTAIN 1784-1850
BURBEGE BROCK ,MR//1798-1885
A mistake above is Andrew Jackson Reed was the elder brother of William Jasper Reed. I apologize for the mistake. Andy Reed left Georgia with his family sometime after the War. One daughter, called “Shug” (pronounced like sug ar) remained, married to a Long gentleman. They lived in Whitfield County, created 1833 from Murray Co., created 1832. Later members of the Long family lived in Murray Co. The census will prove helpful. I’ve worked on a straight line to William JASPER (also called “Jap”) REED, whose daughter, Johnnie Olivia Reed married Jasper PARKER Anderson in Murray Co; Parker was the first child and son of James (Jim) Hollinshead Anderson and Margaret Logan. (The Joseph Reed family was found 1850 on the Polk Co TN census. A neighbor there was Benjamin Curd, who moved to Murray County apparently when Joseph moved there and lived adjacent. Curd was killed in the Confederate Army. His descendants sued the estate of Joseph Reed. The reason for the court suit hasn’t been resolved by the writer. A Curd descendant, Charles Chaney, has published, probably online, Reed family genealogy. I’ve failed to obtain a copy of the Chaney material. Mr. Chaney’s genealogy may include any Curd family connection to Joseph Reed and Elvira Perkins. It appears on the census Curd children resided with Joseph Reed and Elvira Perkins after the death of their Curd father. The writer does not have data regarding Benjamin Curd’s wife’s name or family.)
Had people on both sides of the war not sure of all the names. I know that my Horn’s fought on Both sides and the Northern side changed their name to Horne after the war. My Murrays did the same thing they dropped the
a their name.
I have in my collection all but 2 (loan and never returned)
of the Time Life series of the Civil War 20+ volumns. Cival War in Virginia by Chester G Hern and Staff Officers in Gray by Robert E. L. Krick. It is a Biographical Register of the Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia. Unfortunately it doesn”t have their pictures in the book.
SHARON ANN DEAN
Heny C.Dean….William Acker……John E. Roberts
My great grandfather, Henry C. Dean, enlisted from New York. He was wounded and received a pension. My step great grandfather, William Acker, enlisted from N.Y. also, and he was wounded at the Battle of Ashby’ s Gap, Va. and survived . He joined up from the Lima/Conesus area of N.Y.
My most interesting story is that of Cpl/Sgt John E. Roberts whose diary l was privileged to inherit. He joined the Wadsworth Guards, 104th infantry from Geneseo, N.Y. l am currently transcribing this beautiful young man’s tale. John was injured on the the second day at Gettysburg and died two weeks later. Among his stories is one about how he and his men were captured by the Rebels but cleverly outfoxed them and escaped. Please contact me if you have information to share about any of these men an l will do [email protected]
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I have a few civil war ancestors, one was Durrett Morris who was a tailor and made uniforms for the confederate army, he fought with Conrad’s in Virginia
Thank you for sharing your powerful story! We’d love to capture the details you’ve researched and invite you to visit this link to add your story/photos/documentation to be included when we roll out the phase that includes individual soldiers. Together, we will make this a powerful research tool! https://www.ancestry.com/civil-war-stories/add-photo
I have already done this for the 44th Missouri Voluntary Infantry. Please refer to one of my family trees on Ancestry.com to access my research (over 30 years worth). The tree is called “44th MO Vol Infantry.” My research first started with simply attempting to locate the graves of all of the soldiers of this regiment, of which I did with the exception of about 100 men. I built the family tree so that ancestors of these men could discover what their relatives did during the Civil War.
Thank you Martha! We will check out your tree!
I am Canadian but my 3rd gr. grandfather Thomas Hardesty of the Penn. volunteers enlisted in 1861as a private then a lieutenent then a colonel and was discharged in 1865.
My 3 gr aunt Mary Entler known as Rebel Mary was a confederate spy from West Virginia and there were a number of Entlers who fought for the south.
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A diary (friendship tablet) was left on a table in a house where both North and South planned battles associated with the Chattanooga Campaign and the Atlanta campaign. I wrote a book, The Friendship Tablet I recently published on Amazon. You can get it for a very nominal price. It is both a biography of A I Leet, a Methodist preacher who impacted the lives of many, many families in North Georgia in the 19th century, centered on the Civil War period, and a commentary of common life during that time.
Found your book on Amazon… look forward to reading it. Thank you
I am presently compiling 40+ yrs of research into one of my family lines: COMPTONS. I am including information I found in Footnotes and in Fold3.
My gt grandfather’s brother, Stephen R. Compton served from MS in the Civil War. I inherited a letter he wrote Aug.6th,1861 after the 1st battle of Mannasas. It is several pages long and a heart-rending epistle. If you are interested I can send you the transcription and a copy of the original letter.
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I had several Great Grandfathers in the Civil War. One of them was Wallace Webb. He lied about his age so he could enlist, and he fought the last year of the War. He was shot through his right knee and lost 2.5” when it healed. He was at Appomattox when the surrender was given by General Lee.
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My Great-Grandfather, John Henry Weeks, not only fought in the Civil War, but as a corporal in the Union Army was awarded a Congressional Medal, which I possess, during the Wilderness Campaign at Spottsylvania and was wounded at Petersburg. He joined the Union Army with volunteers from the Cooperstown, New York area after losing several relatives in the Civil War , one of whom died in a Confederate Prison.
My grandfather , Patrick Ryan, also fought in Spottslvania. He was in Appomattox at the end of the war and discharged in Richmond. He was very young 15 or 16. I am fortunate to have this information from his pension papers. Mary
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A great program. I would be pleased to contribute the story of Capt. Sheldon James Grant, of East Windsor, Connecticut, Company Commander of Company C, 99th Colored Infantry. He took a miniball to the head, in one of the last battles of the war, Natural Bridge, Florida. Loaded on the “dead wagon”, he awakened, slid off the wagon, declaring “Did we win the day ?”.
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My great grandmother was Mary Luella Sandoe. Her father was John Sandoe. Her Uncle was George Washington Sandoe purported to be the first union soldier killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. We have visited the monument which is erected at the site of his death just below the Visitors Center.
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Frederick George Niems (Niams), born in Germany, alias George F. Niems, Private Co. G 7th Regt. Conn Vol. Inf. Sept 7 1861, musician, mustered out July 1865 in Wallingford, Connecticut. Wounded during conflict, and survived.
Frederick George Niems, alias in Mississippi, Frank G. Henderson, Married the daughter of Confederate Soldier, William Culpepper Hurst, Lavinia Hurst on 11 Oct 1877 • Liberty, Amite County, Mississippi.
Frederick was a jeweler and they moved following the mining industry.
They had 7 children born in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Nebraska, and New Mexico. The 6th child was my grandfather, William Joseph Niems.
I have Frederick’s discharge papers, VA Records, and picture of him.
Frederick is buried at the National Veteran’s Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
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My Grandmother, Alice West Savage (1863 – 1955) had 2 half brothers in the Civil War. Ambrose West (1834 – 1884) served in Company D, Mich.8th Cavalry Regiment. H was a blacksmith.
Jerome C. West (1827 – 1872) registered in New York. Kirkwood, New York.
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This Civil War story is still being researched.
My second great grandfather was Augustus Thompson who was a Second Lieutenant in the 8th Regiment North Carolina Militia. There is documentation that Augustus would participate in raids on farms looking for Union soldiers or draft dodgers. In the book “Divided Allegiances” by Gerald W Thomas it was documented that Augustus participated in raids on “the Reddick place”. Note that Augustus was married to Nancy Williams.
Augustus had a brother named Reddick that joined the Union Company E 2nd North Carolina Infantry in Plymouth, NC. Reddick was married to Martha Williams, Nancy Williams sister, and they had a young daughter named Sallie. All three were in the 1860 census. In 1870 Sallie was living with her grandfather Bennet Thompson but there was no trace of her father and mother, Reddick and Martha.
A lady contacted me seeking help in identifying a Richard Thompson from Bertie County that served in the Civil War. I did not know of one and could not find one in records. She had an interesting document. Her husband’s ancestor, William Palmer, served in Company K 69th Regiment New York Volunteers. In documenting his service he wrote that an important event was accompanying his mother, Sophorina Thompson Palmer, to the Libby Hill Prison looking for the grave of her brother Richard Thompson who had been tortured and starved to death for refusing to join the Confederate Army. Still, I did not know of a Richard Thompson and at the time I had no record of Sophorina.
Continuing to research, we found an application for a pension as an orphan of the Civil War as filed by Sallie Thompson. She documented her mother Martha Thompson and her father James R Thompson of Company E 2nd North Carolina Infantry. We had found both Riddick and Richard Thompson; they were one in the same.
Augustus Thompson and his brother Riddick fought against each other in the Battle of Plymouth. Riddick was captured and sent to the Castle Thunder Prison where records document that he died of pneumonia.
But Sallie’s documentation provided more information and a little bit of a mystery. Recall that Augustus Thompson was known to raid farms looking for Union solders and one documented farm was “the Reddick place”. It is suspected that the Reddick place was actually the farm of his brother Riddick Thompson. And there was more. Sallie documented that her mother Martha died on December 21, 1864. Two days later on December 23, her father Reddick died in prison.
One has to wonder if Augustus Thompson had a role in the deaths of his sister-in-law Martha and/or his brother Reddick.
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What a powerful narrative of the division the Civil War created. And how fortunate that you and the lady who contacted you were able to work out that Riddick/Richard were the same person.
My great grandfather Dudley Beasley was a Union soldier. He was captured and spent time in the Andersonville Prison camp.
My great great grandmothers brother Samuel S Wales 2nd Indiana Cav. also captured and survived Andersonville.
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My great great grandfather. William Riley, fighting with the Confederate States Army from North Carolina, was killed in action at Gettysburg.
May your great great grandfather, William Riley, rest in peace.
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My great grandfather Ransom Warren, of Halifax County, enlisted on 17 March 1862 in the Company E (Brooklyn Browns), 23rd Regiment , Virginia Infantry for a period of 3 years. He was wounded and captured on 17 September during the battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam). On 15 October he is admitted to US Army Hospital #2 in Fredrick, Maryland for Vulnus Sclopeticum (Latin for infection because of bullet wound) his right arm was amputated there. A few days latter he shows up on a roll of Confederate prisoners in Fort McHenry in Baltimore. He was then shipped to Fort Monroe, near Norfolk Virginia and then paroled. A few days late he shows up in Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Va. One of the best hospitals of the war both north and south. A few weeks later he was discharged from the Army and given $128.30 mustering out pay. How he got back to southern Virginia is a mystery. He was exempted from further service. My Dad’s family bible had contained the Surgeon’s Exemption Certificate dated January 1863 citing the loss of right arm as the reasoning. All the rest of the information comes from the National Archives in Atlanta
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My 2nd great uncle Samuel Ranier was killed on July 3, 1963 in the battle of Gettysburg.
May your 2nd great uncle Samuel Ranier rest in peace.
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My ancestor, William M. Pangburn. a Union soldier enlisted in New Albany, Indiana fought in numerous battles including marching through Georgia. I have a letter that he wrote while at Chickamagua. He died only two years after the war ended. He is buried in Franklin, Indiana. He was in the 38th Indiana, Co. F volunteer infantry, Scribner’s division.
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My great great grandmothers brother Samuel S Wales 2nd Indiana Cav. also captured and survived Andersonville.
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Divided family
My great grandparents married 1891 in St. Louis but with no approval from grandma’s side cause he was a Yankee.
Jennie Alston of Dyersburg, Tn. Was courted by Orville Bartlow of St. Louis.
According to family story a soldiers life was spared by a bullet which imbedded in a Bible kept in soldiers breast pocket.
Jennie told this story so it is assumed it was her father Charles Henry Alston 47th Tennessee and engagement at Shiloh where he was present. Alston left for sick in Alabama and awol thereafter.
Jennies mothers brother TCS Leach was kia March 4 1864 20th Tenn. Cav. under Bedford Forrest at Yazoo City, Mississippi.
Wm. H. Bartlow, Orvilles father 6th Minnesota Reg. Co. B fought on 1862 Minnesota Indian wars and Southern campaigns.
Orvilles mothers family Wales were involved in the UGRR back in Ohio.
The story of a bullet stopped by a Bible thereby saving a soldier’s life has cropped up repeatedly in various war stories for various wars over the past some couple of centuries …I have heard of this story for World War II as well as the Civil War, etc.
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My great grandfather (paternal) was James A Slaven. He grew up in Oneida, Tn and had a number of brothers and sisters. He went to Camp Hoskins, Pulaski, Ky to join the Union army on Jan 30, 1962. He was 21. He was a PVT in Co I, 12th Regiment, Kentucky Infantry. On May 14, 1864, he was in a battle at Resaca, GA, north of Atlanta, on Sherman’s push to the sea. The wound he received was noted as a flesh wood to the right shoulder. He was sent to rhe rear and to a hospital in Indiana. He later returned to his unit.
After the war he went to Kansas, where he homesteaded a place just west of Glen Elder, and over time had 12 children, 10 who survived and one who was my paternal Grandfather. At one time James A Slaven accumulated quite a lot of wealth for a farmer in Kansas, though he had arrived there with nothing (1871-1923). His homestead is now under the Glen Elder lake.
His wife, Emily Williams, lived to be 98 yrs of age in Glen Elder, and was receiving his Civil War pension.
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My second great-grandfather was James Brown Rounsaville. He fought for the Confederacy serving for Texas. I have copies of the letters he sent home during the war. The originals are in the US War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He enlisted at age 24 and served in the Thirteenth Cavalry (Burnett’s Regiment, Thirteenth Mounted Volunteers).
His brother, Thomas Joel Rounsaville also served in the Thirteenth Calvary with his brother. Thomas Joel became sick and died at age 24.
Buried May 1864 in the Confederate Memorial Cemetery• Keatchie, De Soto Parish, Louisiana.
2nd Lt Co C 13th TX Cavalry C.S.A. Proud Confederate Soldier Burnett’s Regt, 13rd TX Volunteers; Enrolled May 24, 1862, Houston County, by Capt George English, age 20, value of horse $150, equipment $20;
Reading the letters of both men, the feeling comes through what it was like for them to be away from their family and for James Brown Rounsaville when he lost his brother.
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My second great grandfather was Horace Otis Matthews who enlisted in the Massachusetts Volunteer 30th Infantry Regiment. He was from Abington, MA. He died on board the Str. Iberville of a fever and was buried on the Mississippi River on July 13, 1862
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I had 2 great uncles, brother who fought on opposite sides. Bingham Cushman from Louisiana was captured at the battle at Missionary Ridge. His younger brother, Francis, was with Vermont. Francis’s regiment fought in Louisiana. From newspaper articles I learned that Francis marched past his home.
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My great grandmother’s oldest brother, David Judson Goodsell, Jr. served in the Civil War. He would have been living in Cleveland, Ohio at the time, but was born in NYC. He died the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Until locating his pension filed for by his father many years later, I didn’t know!
He was the 4th child of 11 children. The first 3 were girls, an older daughter and then twin girls. 2 sons died as toddlers, the youngest child was a girl, Amelia Frances who died at 10 years old. Her mother died of dysentery a few weeks after her daughter at the age of 45. Sad story!
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My great grandfather Juan Domingo Montoya fought at the battle of Valverde (Fort Craig) NM February 21 1862. He joined the Union side with Hubbell’s 4th Mounted Infantry , then was mustered into the New Mexico 5th Mounted Infantry. Hubbells regiment was one of the first units to reach Ft Craig to fight the “texans” confederate army under Sibley. Historian and author Jerry D. Thompson has him in a few places in his book, “A Civil War History of the New Mexico Volunteers & Milita”.Under Capt. Hubbells exploits, Hubbell reports that he sent his men in all directions to spy on and find the confederates (Texans). Because of the spanish speaking spys the rebels had , Hubbell said his five men squads were sent on “secret Service” missions. They were the best of horsemen and best horses. Doing research on Fold 3 I found his name and discovered his service to our country. In 2018 we discovered his grave on his circa1868 homestead in a canyon he named MOSQUERO. On July 14 2019 the Albuquerque Journal picked my story about finding the grave and ordering a grave marker from the US Govt. on August 3 2019 The family gave him a Christian funeral, the US Army gave him an Honor Guard , 21 gun salute, and flag presentation. They flew in from Fort Bliss Army Base in a Blackhawk helicopter to present this honor.
This is a great story. I love reading about the history of this great country
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I have 2 great-grandfathers who served on the Union side, one from Vermont and one from Massachusetts. They were both stationed at Camp Alexandria, outside of Washington D.C. one was a fifer so undoubtedly served in the medical field. Both were in infantry units. Calvin Henry Good was the first and Lyman O. Gunn was the 2nd. I have the Library of Congress records for Grandpa Gunn and plan on ordering the ones for Grandpa Hood this year. Grandpa Gunn kept a diary for 1964 and 1965 that unfortunately slipped out of family hands and was scooped by a dealer in Canada. I have excerpts from it. I could not pay outright, over $400 for the two and the dealer would not deal with me…he said everybody says they are direct family and would not negotiate. Although serving in several actions, he carried malaria the rest of his life and eventually could not keep up his farm. This was a direct result of Camp Alexandria. His story is close to my heart.
How can I look up records from the Library of Congress on my Civil War ancestors?
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I belong to Fold 3 with Ancestry but have never used it Yet. I also belong to the Daughters of the Civil War in Manitowoc, WI. The CW soldier that I would like more information on is David Bemjamin Stillman. 3 Jun 1824 in New York. He died in 10 Mar 1910 at the age of 85, in Bovina, Outagamie, WI. He elistment 30 Aug 1864 as a private from Wi. Compant E Infantry. Mustered out 20 Jun 1865.
He also was a member of the GAR of Appleton, WI.
This is all I know. but I would like to learn about him.
Sincerely Thanking you.
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My great-great Uncle, George Brewster Caswell, was a member of the 20th Maine Infantry. He fought in 19 engagements over his time with the regiment, including being on Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg. He was in Company E. He married after the war but never had children. In a letter to his niece, he noted that he did not want his children to go through what he had. He lived until 1914.
Greg Caswell – My 4x Great Uncle, Atherton Clark, would have been your great-great Uncle’s Captain and may even have recruited him!
Here is a bit of info about him: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7000627/atherton-wheelock-clark
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My great grandfather, Richard Holmes Gaulden, was a soldier in the 21st Mississippi regiment CSA. He was killed at the Battle of Wilderness on May 6, 1864 leaving his wife and 12 yr. old son. I know this regiment belonged to Humphrey’s brigade, Longstreet’s corps at time of his death so I’m assuming he was killed in fighting around the widow Tapp farm near Orange Plank Road – Brock Road intersection when Longstreet came up from Gordonsville. Any more info appreciated. Thank you for everything you are doing!
He was in Company E,Hurricane Rifles from Wilkerson County
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My great great grandfather Isaac Ayers but for the confederacy he was from outside Bristol Virginia his twin Adam Ayers fought for the union although I have never found any records for him just many family stories Isaac‘s service was dotted with bouts of dysentery and he eventually returned home prior to the close of the warBecause of the dysentery
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My Grandfather, Edward Archbald, joined the 13th Massachussetts Infantry as a private and served under Captain Jackson. He was 25 Years old when the war broke out and was working in New Orleans. He immediately headed home to Boston and enlisted. He was wounded at Antietam and was sent home to recover. He reenlisted and fought at Gettysburg. When He was discharged he was still a private. After returning to Hopkinton, MA he decided to Join his uncles’s firm in Montreal. Frothingham and Workman. He rose to be President of the firm and died in Montreal at age 86 in 1924. He applied for a disability pension and maintained his American citizen ship
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An amazing idea but I have an issue with the graphics.
Everyone knows the North is blue and the South is gray.
But here the South is red and the rest of the pie is gray.
Pick white or pale yellow or something else neutral for the background and stick to blue and gray for the main characters please!
My g-g-grandfather, Elihu Pinckney Jones served in the SC James Battalion under Longstreet. I have his original letters written home as well as his diary, both from 1862 thru 1864 when he was wounded in the right elbow at 2nd Deep Bottom. The miniball was left in the bone and eventually became septic, causing his death in 1893. He was a newlywed when he enlisted in Charleston, SC and his letters are descriptive, poignant and quite loving, all addressed to his wife, “My Beloved.” My mother had a small gold ladies pocket watch (which I still have) with amethyst and diamond forget-ne-nots on the outside and inscribed inside to “My Beloved.” We had no idea where it came from until we found the letters and diary in an attic in 2011! Such treasures!
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Jenny, I am writing one of my monthly columns (‘The Source’), which will appear in the June 2020 edition of “Civil War News.” A question, when selecting, for example, the 28th NC Infantry during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, on the right of the screen, beneath the outline map of NC, two lines exist. When hovering over the lines, a pop-up appears amCharts. Do users need to download software to utilize this feature, or is this a work in progress? Thanks for your assistance!
P.S. Is the ‘Gallery’ feature still in progress?
Thank you!!
Hi Michael, We are in the very first phase of the Civil War Stories project and these features are still in progress. Please feel free to reach out to Anne Mitchell, one of our Civil War experts, if we can be of further help. Thanks. [email protected]
very interesting information. this is a history that cannot be forgotten.
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My great maternal grandfathers Josiah Covington, and William H Ray great paternal grandfather served in the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War. Josiah Covington enlisted in Company A 42nd Virginia Infantry in January 1863. William H. Rea joined Company H 24th Virginia Infantry in March 1862.
During Josiah’s service, he could have participated in the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 1863, Battle of Gettysburg, July 1863; Battle of Cold Harbor May/June 1864; and Siege of Petersburg/Richmond, June 15, 1864 – April 2, 1865. As he was present for duty during this period, I can and do assume he participated in these various battles.
He was wounded in the Cold Harbor Battle and hospitalized and furloughed for 15 days. He returned to duty and participated in the Siege of Petersburg – Richmond June 15, 1864, to April 2, 1865. He was again wounded and captured in April 1865, and become a POW at Pt. Lookout prison camp. When the south surrendered, he was admitted to USA Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, and released from the hospital to return home. Josiah died from complications of his wounds in August 1894.
William H. Rea would enlist in the Company H 24th Virginia Infantry in March 1862. In May 1864, William was captured and sent to Pt. Lookout prison camp.
Death, illness, and starvation were always present in the prison camps during the Civil War. William spent about six months as a POW at Point Lookout Virginia before volunteering for the 4th USV infantry who were called Galvanized Yankees.
In October 1864, William was released from Point Lookout and transferred to Norfolk, Virginia, serving in the Quarter Master department after volunteering and joining the 4th USV Infantry Regiment and were assigned to the western frontier.
Traveling to St. Louis by train, they then boarded the riverboat Mars and moved to Sioux City, Dakota Territory. They went up the Missouri River in the riverboat Belle Peoria to Fort Rice, North Dakota. A sizable Indian force attacked the fort five days after they arrived. The attack was repulsed but left one soldier dead and four wounded by arrows. The soldiers of the 4th realized that the duty on the western frontier would be dangerous.
The companies of the regiment moved to Fort Berthold, North Dakota, Fort Sully, South Dakota, and Fort Randall South Dakota. Theses forts were in horrible condition. Death and injury from Indian attacks were not common, but disease, especially dysentery, and smallpox were common. After a year on the frontier, the companies of the 4th United States Volunteers were called to Fort Leavenworth in June and July 1866 and mustered out.
William H. Rae, Corporal in Co B 4th USV infantry, was mustered out at Fort Leavenworth in June 1866. He returned to Henry County, Virginia, married, and fathered two sons and four daughters. His wife, Mary Ann Newman, died in June 1885. Wiliam never remarried and raised his children alone. William died in 1912.
Andrea Solarz Yes. Atherton Clark was my GG Uncle’s commanding officer. I don’t know if he recruited Brewster or not. the story goes that Brewster went to enlist in a New Hampshire regiment but they were full. So he went to Maine thinking that since the regiment was the 20th from Maine he might not get into too much fighting. Boy was he wrong.
My great grandfather was from Alabama and served in the 12th Alabama Infantry nearly the entire war. His name was Christopher Columbus Davis and was called C.C. by close friends. Captured just days before the surrender at Appomattox, he later was released and walked home to Alabama.
I would be grateful for any information you may have uncovered!
My third great uncle was a confederate . He served the south bravely died in Champ Chase Prison. Company E, 16th Regiment Virginia Cavalry. Private Hezekiah Adkins III. Wayne, West Virginia.
I have 4 g-grandfathers that fought in the CW.
First is g-grandfather Andrew Dixon Bryce.
He joined NY !st Vol. Calvary, Co. H on
July 27, 1863.in Deposit, NY. he was
mustered out as Sergt. on July 20, 1865.
He fought in 40 of the fieriest battles of the war.
After the war, he returned to McClure, NY,
Married Eunice Rosencrants and they had 9 children.
He was a lumberman and farmer. He also was a
Broome County Supervisor, becoming Chairman.
He died in 1915.
My grandfather, Lewis (Olson) Nelson born in Christiana, Norway and came to the US with his parents in 1856. He enlisted in Dec 12, 1861, He left home without his fathers consent. He was only 15 so his uncle John Olson signed thus the name Olson. He was a Drummer Boy first in Co C US 13th Inf later in Co H. He reenlisted Feb 1864 He was at Vicksburg where he became sick and suffered the rest of his life. He was referred to as the White Haired Norweigen Drummer Boy. He was discharged at Fort Benton Montana Feb 1867. While at Vicksburg a soldier by the name of James Kephart in his Company earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, the soldier is buried in the cemetery of my home town.
Great project and looking forward to see it. Thank you for taking it on as consolidating all those records will be a challenge.
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