Descendants of Civil War Veterans

[grampster]

Great Grandfather (paternal) was a cavalryman in a unit from Pittsburgh,Pa. I have his honorable discharge locked up somewhere in my safe. He took a saber wound to the head and had a metal plate inserted to cover the wound, so the story goes in the family. I remember seeing tin types of him when I was a lad.

 

[Ky Larry]

I had a great,great,great grand father who fought for the south. He was wounded thru the back of both legs at Murfreesboro, Ten. He walked home from Tenn. to Morehead,Ky. In 1864, Union hooligans burned his home and hanged him. According to family legend, the Union soldiers killed all the animals on the farm and threw a dead pig in the well to make the water undrinkable. They left my great,great,great grand mother with no husband, no food, no home, and 6 children to raise. I understand why feelings still run high.

 

[Phyphor]

Yessiree Bob,

I'm a decendant of William Harvey Berryhill, 1st. Lt., Co. D, 43rd Regiment, Mississippi Volunteers.
I have the book of his letters, edited by relatives, called "The Gentle Rebel. "

Very interesting reads. His opinion of the Union's prowess wasn't exactly shining.

 

[Dadx4]

Yep, I do....after he retired, my dad and aunt started tracing geneology and found that they (thus, me too) were descendents of Gen. W.H.T. Walker who was killed at Battle of Atlanta by Union pickets when he took a wrong turn while inspecting his own lines. Damn Yankees !!!

Also, don't think it was used in the War of Northern Agression, but I do have a 10 ga. muzzle loading shotgun that belonged to another of my great grandfathers. It is just over five feet long and really heavy - would have been a real bear to carry any distance, especially in brush. Neat gun though.

 

[jaysouth]

My 3-g, Levi Sutherland was in the Choctaw Rangers in Choctaw, MS. At the onset of hostilities, his unit became B Co, 2d Regiment of Mississippi Cavalry. He was captured in TN and spent over a year in a prison in IL. It is lore in the family that the prison was just a couple of miles from where he stole a couple of horses in 1859 and rode them back to MS, selling one and keeping the other so he could join the cavalry.

I had some other relatives living in Clark County, VA. When VA was invaded and sacked by Sheridan's troops, Yankee troops looted theri their home, then burned it and the barn and all outbuildings, all of their canned and smoked food and livestock was stolen. Up to that fateful day when the yankees destroyed everything they had in their world, they had been anti-slavery and pro-union. They became rabid partisans and took the war to the Yankees rear. Family lore is that they killed their last yankee in 1900.

 

[Atticus]

All of them.....'cept those held under house arrest in Kentucky. Evidently the Feds weren't sure about their loyalties period.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Winston for an example of one area that refused to go along with secession. Of course, there were other areas in the Confederacy where the same sort of thing happened, as well as a lot of places where support for the Union was strong though not sufficient to produce secession from the secessionists. The same sort of thing was of course true in some northern states, and often the border states and territories were the bloodiest. Those were difficult and tragic times indeed, truly a civil war despite attempts to offer a more rosy view of things. Its legacy lives on with us still.

lpl/nc

 

[Yanus]

One of my ancestors was Capt. Benjamin H. Screws - Co. K 29th Alabama Inf. Regiment.

He was known as the "Boy captain of the Confederacy" as he was only 19 when he became a captain. He was wounded at the siege of Atlanta, but survived the war. He later became a U. S. Congressman. He was from Barbour County Alabama.

Yanus

 

[simon]

My dad did a family tree about 20 years ago, and found we are decended from U.S. Grant. I believe that would make him a great-great-great-great great?- uncle.

 

[KriegHund]

Yanus, did all his superiors die in the battles?

I seem to remember a seargent once came into command of an entire company or regiment or the like.... I want to say it was in the battle of the wilderness but i honestly have no clue.

 

[Yanus]

KreigHund,

I honestly don't know. I had another ancestor whose last name was Screws who was a Major in some Georgia outfit. He, too, survived the war and became a writer for the Atlanta Journal. However, he had suffered a major head injury in the war that eventually took his life.

I'll have to do some more research on Capt. Benjamin Harrison Screws.

 

[Brrlgrrl]

Yes, both parents relatives.
Mavity famous for the curious little diary: http://www.countyhistory.com/doc.benton/004.htm
Potter famous for the Mahopac: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h59000/h59428.jpg

 

[oweno]

Here's a photo of my great-granduncle, Michel Manseau, killed in the Civil War. Union Army and, sad to say, I've been unable to find out anything about him. State, regiment, etc. Done some on-line searches but no luck.
Even the records in Quebec (where he was born) state that he was kia fighting for the North but even in his home town, nobody remembers anything.
I'd really appreciate any suggestions as to where and how to look.
regards,
Owen
Lots of luck, though, finding my Confederate ancestors - Tennessee has great records, many are on-line.

 

[entropy]

Oweno, if you know what state he enlisted in, you can start with that State's Adjutant General's Reports for the years 1860-65. I found my G-G-Granfathers unit that way. It had been erroniously passed down that he was in the Cavalry, when he had been in the Artillery. As to where The AG's Report might be, enquire at a library, they will probably know where to get it. Minnesota's are housed in the Minnesota Historical Society's History Center, and I had to go there and physically write the info down. (No cameras, and the charge for photocopies is steep there.) Also, get in touch with any CW re-enactment groups in that area, I found out a lot about my ancestor's time in the Army from them, like what campaigns he fought in, where he was at a given time, etc. HTH.

 

[fallingblock]

Yep. My ancestors fought for both sides.....

It truly was a Civil War.

Great grandpa Felix W. Graham was Colonel commanding the Fifth Indiana Volunteer Cavalry from late in 1862 to end of 1863. The Fifth was operational in Kentucky and east Tennesee. After Felix resigned to return home due to his wife's illness (three kids on the farm) half of the Fifth Indiana Cavalry was captured with Stoneman's raid around Atlanta on the 31st July 1863 and spent the remainder of the war at Andersonville prison. Stoneman wrote: "I want a regiment that I can depend upon, and if I had a dozen regiments like the 5th Indiana Cavalry I could whip all the cavalry in the Confederacy."
Several reports by Felix are contained in the "Official Record of the War of the Rebellion" (bit of a Yankee slant there - victors get to write the official histories ).

None of Felix's weaponry came my way.

Great Grandpa Thomas Jefferson Drane, Jr. from Bowling Green, Ky. enlisted in the 10th Tennessee Cavalry in 1861, bringing his own horse south to Tennessee to fight for the Confederacy. He was with John Hunt Morgan at the battle of Lebanon,TN-5May1862. Most of Morgan's men were able to fight their way out of Lebanon, but Thomas Jefferson Drane was taken prisoner by the Yankees. He spent the summer of '62 in Yankee prison and was recruited into the 4th Kentucky Mounted Rifles upon his 1SEP62 parole.
The 4th was commanded by Col. William C.P. Breckinridge and was merged with Robert Stoner's Battalion to create the 9th Kentucky Calvary in December of 1862.
T.J. helped drive the Yankees from the field at the battle of Perryville, Ky-8OCT62.

Poor ol' T.J. oughta stayed away from Lebanon, TN....in a raid behind Yankee lines to cut the Nashville railroad, he was captured a second time!

Shipped to the Federal military prison at Louisville, Drane was then transferred to Baltimore and then City Point, VA where he was "paroled for exchange" at Ft. McHenry 27APR63. His KY military records end here, and I haven't been able to find out what happened to T.J. for the remainder of the war. His old unit, the 9th Ky Cavalry remained intact and under the command of Breckinridge until March of 1865 and formed a portion of Jefferson Davis' escort as he fled south from Richmond.

As a young boy, I received the Enfield bayonet T.J. had sent home in 1862 when the 4th KY mounted rifles became 'proper' cavalry. I broke the durn thing playing army with it.

My Swiss great grandparents arrived in NYC in 1864 and Vincent Guentesberger was quickly drafted into Mr. Lincoln's service. I know he served in the Federal Army, but my recollection of his wartime letters written in German (they were lost when my father died) doesn't extend to his unit designation.

I have this recurring vision of both my parents' grandparents chasing around Kentucky and Tennessee shooting at each other.

 

[Texian Pistolero]

Civil War?

Through my mother's line I have THREE ancestors at the Battle of San Jacinto!

Now THAT is true ROYALTY!!!!!!!!!!!!

WORSHIP ME!!!!!!!!

Inferior DUDES!!!!!!!!!!

 

[campergeek]

My G-G-Grandfather, Thomas Schrunk served in the 15th Reg. Iowa Infantry and marched with Sherman to the sea. After he returned home he built quite a fortune in land across Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Kansas until he was killed by a runaway team in 1913. If any firearms or other artifacts remain, I don't have them.

 

[Moonclip]

I have a great-great grandfather who I assume fought for the Confederacy as he was born in Beaumont Texas. I don't know too much about him, you know how families like to embellish storys but I was always under the impression he was an officer of sorts.

I always found it odd we had a civil war vet in the family as we are mostly of Mexican descent but this particular relative was from the Irish part of the family. There was a book that detail Mexican involvement in the civil war called Vaqueros in Blue and Grey but it is out of print and I have not got around to getting a copy yet. As my great grandfather spoke some Spanish and lived in Mexico for a while for work purposes I was hoping this book might clear some things up.

 

[entropy]

Well, Texian Pistolero, this thread is about the Civil War. Some of us had ancestors in the Revolutionary War, also. I have two I know of, one on each my mother's and father's sides....

 

[CZF]

My father's family came here(USA) in 1852. By the Civil War they were firmly
entrenched with other Germans in Ohio.

My mother's family was a different breed. Texas and Kentucky.
A G-G-Grandfather that was a WagonMaster with the 9th Kentucky
Calvary I believe..
After the War he moved west to Oregon and became an Indian Trader.

No doubt along with a bunch of German Yankees, as the majority of Oregonians
are of German descent.

I guess wagons were his thang!

 

[P-35/53]

I know of two in my fanily line both were privates but served on fifferent sides. John Boley was from West Virginia but joined an Ohio regiment that invaded Georgia. Charles Sayre was a Private in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. There might be others but these two I know of.

 

[threefeathers]

Three of my great uncles served with the 85th Indiana Infantry Coburns Brigade during the war. John Wesley Southard, my grandfathers favorite older brother was wounded at Nashville during the last week of the war and died on the way home.

 

[pbeau55]

pbeau

I was the last direct decendent of General Beauregard, but my little boy is. The family has some pictures and articles of his. I will be sure to post them for all to see.

 

[WildcatRegi]

Good to see so many are aware of CW ancestors!

Yup, my gggrandfather and gggranduncle were in the 105th Pennsylvania 'Wildcats' regiment - hense my name.

My gggrandfather was shot 3 times at Malvern Hill and lost the use of his right arm

My ggranduncle lost his jaw at Gettysburg but lived another 20 years before he died of stomach problems because he couldn't chew his food.

I have his wedding picture with a full beard that hid his chin but he looked quite respectable.

His name appears on the Pennsylvania monument at Gettysburg which I try to visit as often as I can.


I'm glad to see so many people are aware of their ancestry - the Civil War defined America, if you don't understand the CW, you don't understand America.

Before the CW we were Pennsylvanians, Kentuckians, or Virginians. After the CW we were Americans.

Before the CW we would say the United States 'are' going to do something, after the CW we say the United States 'is' going to do something.

Sons of Union Veterans:
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.com/~gjacobs/home.htm

you like to shoot cannons, mortars, muskets, ....
http://www.n-ssa.net/phpbb/

 

[chefman]

Me too, my 3-great grandfather was in the New York 1st Infantry guarding the Baltimore railyards. My wifes 3-great grandfather was at Chattanooga and then at Chickamauga as a back-up regiment according to pay records. He was with the Georgia 24th. We still have a good marriage,tho.