My Family in the Civil War

Civil War Canon - James A. Ramage Civil War Museum

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The Civil War or the War of the Rebellion began 150 years ago on April 11th, 1861 with the Battle at Ft. Sumter.  When it was over, there were approximately 620,000 casualties from death and disease.

I had always known that I had a gg-grandfather, Britton Wainright, who died of heat stroke when he was marching to meet John Hunt Morgan of Morgan's Raiders fame. I was able to get extensive documentation of the impact his death had on his family. You can read about him in this previous post.

What I didn't realize at the time was that I actually had four direct ancestors and two siblings of ancestors who served in the war -- all on the Union side. It also seemed to be a family affair. In the case of Britton Wainright, two brother-in-laws also served: Joseph Bickerdyke Darby and Robert Willis Darby. Britton's wife was Mary Elizabeth Darby. These three family members are from my paternal side.

On my maternal side, there were three additional soldiers: my gg-grandfather Charles C. Gross, his brother-in-law, Victor Becker, and Fred Wocher (from a separate branch). Fred Wocher and Victor Becker interest me because Fred lived in Covington, Kentucky and Victor, at one point, served in a Kentucky Cavalry unit. Despite Kentucky's official neutrality in the war, people owned slaves in northern Kentucky and the state was quite divided in its allegiance.

My plan is to post what I know about each of these ancestors over the next couple of weeks.  Their experiences range from no actual fighting to death (in the case of Britton).  Those who fought descend from ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War, newly-arrived immigrants from Germany, and one who was born in the United States of immigrants from England.  At least in two of the cases they signed up when Cincinnati was under threat.  In sharing their stories, I hope to honor these men who stepped up to the plate in a war that still impacts our country 150 years later.

Looking Ahead to 2011

Jospeh Bickerdyke Darby *

It's Christmastime and I am definitely in the mood.  So you would think that I would want to post all things Christmas.  Yet my genealogical life for the past month has been consumed, not by Christmas, but by the Civil War.  On the face of it, that makes no sense -- so let me explain.

If you ever want to challenge your genealogical/family history skills, try to submit something to a lineage group for the appropriate genealogical society.  Since I am fortunate in having many generations of my family from both maternal and paternal lines

living in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, I am a member of both the Hamilton County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society and the Ohio Genealogical Society.  Both organizations have lineage groups that encourage you to DOCUMENT your family's history in the area and submit it for review.  I've already submitted applications and had my families accepted into the First Families of Cincinnati and Settlers and Builders lineage groups for Hamilton County.  A couple of months ago, I submitted applications for both groups' Century Families. In order to qualify, I had to "prove" that my direct ancestors lived in Cincinnati, Ohio a minimum of 100 years ago.  I have many.

The Ohio Genealogical Society also has a lineage group for those who can prove that direct ancestors, and/or their siblings, served in the Civil War.  The year 2011 marks the 150 year anniversary of the start of the Civil War.  I was surprised, when I started investigating, that I have a minimum of six ancestors who qualify for this designation.  I decided to work on submitting the documentation for three who came from the same family line -- two Darby brothers and their brother-in-law, Britton Wainright.  (I've written about Britton at length -- links to posts about Britton are listed at the end of this post).

Joseph Bickerdyke Darby is pictured above.  He came from a family of musicians.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I'll write what I know about each of them individually, but I just must postpone "War Stories" until after the holiday season.

So I've finished my application for the Civil War lineage group.  It is more than 60 pages of documentation.  I made the decision to only submit three of my six ancestors this year as I'm just running out of time.  I encourage anyone who reads this post to look at what opportunities are available through your local genealogical societies.  You'll meet wonderful people whose eyes don't glaze over at the mention of family history.  They will point you in the direction of numerous resources.  In the end, your family will benefit from the attention to detail that is necessarily a part of submitting applications for consideration.

Now -- off to enjoying my living family!

Links to posts about Britton Wainright

Britton Wainright - Part I

Britton Wainright - Part II

* I want to thank Martha Darby Rutter, gg-granddaughter of Joseph Bickerdyke Darby, who graciously sent me this picture and gave permission to post it.

Betty's Box - Part II

As mentioned in the previous post, my second cousin Betty and I have yet to meet in person.  Last May Betty started scanning in pictures from her mother's box.  One of the first priceless pictures she sent was this one of her family.  From left to right are pictured Don, Edith Jones Hodges (sister of my grandfather Fred Jones), Wyvetta ("Betty"), Mary Lee and Betty.  Betty told me that she is the only one in the picture who is still living.  She also has a younger brother, John Patrick, known as "Pat" who was not yet born when the picture was taken.  It is the elder Betty who was responsible for holding onto all of the documents and pictures in "The Box."

There were several "priceless" pictures in Betty's Box.  One pictured my grandfather, Fred Jones (Pop) with his two siblings:  Edith and Leo.  I had never seen a picture of him as a young boy.

 

Edith, Leo, and Fred 

Britton Wainright and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Darby had two daughters and a son who lived to be adults.  There are numerous posts on this blog about Britton (you can use the search function to read about him) who died of heatstroke while traveling with a unit of Home Guards to confront John Morgan of Morgan's Raiders.  He left a widow and three children.  One of his daughters, Rachel, is the great-grandmother of both Betty Arnett and the descendants of Fred Jones.  I was such an admirer of Rachel and never thought I would see a picture of her.

Because Ruth was the older of the two girls, we believe that from left to right are pictured Rachel, Thomas, Ruth, and their mother, Mary Elizabeth Darby Wainright.  Rachel was "Pop's" mother.

Through the wonders of Ancestry, I've also been in contact over the years with another cousin, Rhonda.  She descends from Ruth's side and was able to help with the identification of the grandchildren of Mary Elizabeth from the Hutcheson/Hutchinson side of the family.  Ruth Wainright married a Hutchinson.  One of her sons was a photographer and took this picture.  The Hutchesons lived in Evansville, IN.  Through a "cousin collaboration", we were able to identify all six of Mary Elizabeth's grandchildren.  Moving in a clockwise direction from the bottom are:  Mary Olive Hutchinson, Charles "Fred" Jones, Mary "Edith" Jones, Leslie T. Hutchinson, Thomas Harvey Hutchinson, and Leo Wainright Jones.

As I don't want to lose the picture record, I think we'll just have to have one more post from "Betty's Box".

First Families of Cincinnati, Ohio

The Hamilton County Genealogical Society encourages amateur genealogists to research their families and try to trace their history in Cincinnati.  Two years ago, I was able to get an award for documenting that our family was in Cincinnati before 1860.  The recognition everyone wants to get is one for "First Families" -- those who can prove their family was here before December 31, 1820.  During this past year, I was able to prove to the satisfaction of the reviewers that William Wainright, his wife Ruth Wright, and their son, Britton, were here in 1819.  They are even listed in the City Directory.  Britton was born here. 

Today I was honored at a luncheon held at the Hilton Netherland Plaza downtown.  It was really a nice honor.  I received the medal with the blue and white ribbon pictured above.  Two years ago I received the medal on the right.



On the left is a copy of the narrative in the program.
One of the reasons I'm so interested in submitting our family history to the Genealogical Society is that they will eventually digitize the entire record and donate it to the Historical Society.  This would mean that even if all of my records were lost, they would be available for our ancestors should one of our descendants want to research our family.

Not all of the recipients were present to be recognized.  One lived as far as California and another in Florida. Pictured above are the Settlers and Builders and First Families recipients who were able to attend.

Bill attended with me and photographed most of the pictures.  He was able to capture this one as they gave me a framed certificate and a medal. 

They've started a new recognition for families that were in Cincinnati more than a century ago.  This will enable me to submit the Ryans and Vonderheides in the next couple of years.  I hope I represented all the Joneses and Wainrights well.

Britton Wainright - Part II

Genealogy is an interesting hobby. You always have loose ends. One of my loose ends was what exactly happened to Britton to cause his death. I knew from the pension file that he died of heatstroke. I imagined him building barricades in New Albany to protect the town from Morgan.

As I do periodically, I "googled" his unusual name and found it referenced in a journal published by the staff of the National Archives. Here is the link: http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/spring/genea-accompany.html

The author of the article, John Deeben, is a genealogy archives specialist in the Research Support Branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. His article was written to encourage genealogists to consider the records they may have that could help provide information they are seeking. In the article was the following quote:

Personal and family records appear most prevalently in the pension-related claims because of the need for a widow and dependents to document their relationship to a deceased soldier. The claim of Mary E. Wainwright, whose husband Britton died while serving with Kunkle's Company, Seventh Indiana Legion (Home Guards) during the Civil War, included a notarized copy of their marriage record from the probate court of Hamilton County, Ohio. The record identified their wedding date (May 1, 1847), Mary's maiden name (Darby), and the name of the presiding minister (Rev. James H. Perkins).

At the end of the article, the following footnote appears: "Notarized copy of Wainwright marriage license, Jan. 10, 1866; Mary E. Wainwright File; Accompanying Papers [43A-D1]; Legislative Proceedings; 43rd Cong.; RG 233; NAB."

I contacted the author of the article and he pulled the file from the archives. He told me by phone that the file contained eye-witness testimony of commanding officers who were with Britton when he died. It also contained the appeal on behalf of Mary Elizabeth for a pension that she had previously been denied because Britton wasn't officially "mustered in" at the time of his death.

I ordered a copy. There are several affidavits from witnesses to Britton's death on a "forced march" from New Albany to Edwardsville, IN to head off Morgan's Raiders.

Sample quotes:
1) From James McCurdy - I was the Colonel and in the command of the 7th
Regiment of the Indiana Legion. That on said day in obedience to my orders as commander aforesaid, said regiment made a forced march from the city of New Albany to Edwardsville, Indiana to meet the rebels under John Morgan. That on said day and on said march, I saw Britton Wainright, who was a private in Capt. Thos. S. Kunkle's company of said regiment stricken down with a sun stroke while in the performances of his duties as a soldier. That I saw said Britton Wainright die in less than one hour after he was stricken down and from the effects of said sun stroke received while in the ranks of said company and while making said march.

2) John Stacy - First Lieutenant - . . . "That on said march I saw Britton Wainright, who was then a private on duty in my said company, stricken down while in the ranks of said company and in the performance of his duty as a private of said company , with a stroke of the sun and I saw him die in less than thirty minutes afterward, from the effects of said sun stroke."

3) Charles Bowman - physician and surgeon - I saw Britton Wainright . . . die from the effects of coup de soleil (sunstroke) received while on duty . . .

4) Captain Kunkle - Captain and commander of a company in the 7th Regiment of the Indiana Legion - "That Britton Wainright was a private in said co. That he was a healthy able-bodied man at the time he entered said service. That while he was engaged in the line of his duty in said service . . . to meet the rebels under John Morgan, he became overheated and fell in the ranks, and he died from said overheating about half an hour after he fell in the ranks on said day while in the line of his duty in said service. That he was a good man made a good soldier and did his duty well and cheerfully, and had nothing the matter with his health previous to said marching."

I finally knew how he died. It wasn't in battle, it wasn't building fortifications, it was on a march in very hot July weather as part of a group of home guards preparing to defend their town from Morgan's advances.

His death notice appeared in the New Albany Daily Ledger, July 10, 1863 on p.2.

There is an error in the notice as Britton left a wife and three children. So how was a widow with three children going to support herself? I'll answer that question in the next post.

Britton Wainright - Part I

One of the things I really enjoy doing is riding my bike on the Little Miami Bike Trail. I was riding along one day and they had placed a historical marker, about a mile up the trail from Miamiville. It spoke of what had happened on the railroad when Morgan's Raiders came through. I remembered that Britton had died in defense of his town in Indiana and I wanted to know more.

Britton was, and came from, a family of blacksmiths. He was born in Cincinnati in 1819. Several Cincinnati City Directories reference his father and later, Britton and his brother, as blacksmiths.

Cist Cincinnati Directory 1843

Wainright J. & B. wagon makers and blacksmiths, cor Front and
Washington
Wainright John, (J. & B. W.) Front bet Washington & Collord
Wainright Britton, (J. & B. W.) boards Wm Wainright
Wainright William, blacksmith. Front bet Washington & Collord

Britton married in 1847. In 1850 he was listed with Mary Elizabeth and their daughter Ruth Catherine still living in Cincinnati. Somewhere shortly thereafter, the family relocated to New Albany, Indiana where Britton continued to work as a blacksmith.

My first surprise was finding out that Britton was actually listed on the Civil War Pension Index. That enabled me to literally order a copy of the file from the national archives. It contained a wealth of information including a copy of the Marriage License for he and Mary Elizabeth Darby. It also listed the names and ages of his three surviving children at the time of his death and stated that he died of heatstroke in defense of New Albany from Morgan's Raiders.

I got a copy of the book The Longest Raid of the Civil War by Lester Horwitz, a Cincinnati author who became interested in Morgan after buying a home near Loveland that had been raided by Morgan and his men during the Civil War. On July 9, 1863, Morgan and his band of 2200 men confronted approximately 450 home guards at the Battle of Corydon in Indiana. Being badly outnumbered, the town was quickly surrendered. The locals lost nine men and the Confederates lost eleven. The weather was extremely hot that day and two women who were carrying water to the soldiers died from the effects of the heat. No mention was made of Britton, despite my knowledge that he, too, had died on that day.

I spoke with the author and he suggested that I review the correspondence between the Union and Confederate generals. Unknown to me our library had a complete set of this correspondence. I quickly discovered that Gen. Burnside predicted that Morgan and his raiders were going to attack New Albany. In fact the newspaper in Indianapolis for July 9th reported:

It is supposed the rebels are marching on New Albany and Jeffersonville, where large quantities of supplies are stored. Troops are being organized throughout the State and sent forward as rapidly as possible.

The generals got it wrong. Instead of heading east to New Albany, the raiders headed north to Palmyra and Salem before turning east. Therefore, Britton was not listed as one of the casualties of war. Yet there was the issue of the pension. How did Mary Elizabeth get a pension which clearly stated that Britton had died in defense of his country against Morgan's Raiders? This puzzled me for more than seven years -- and only this year did I find the definitive answer. I'll discuss it in Part II.

Cemetery Surprises

When I started doing research I had some underlying assumptions. For instance, if a grave marker said someone was buried there, I assumed that meant they were buried there. How naive! As stated earlier, Rachel Wainright Jones (Pop's Mom) is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Southgate, Kentucky. Interestingly there are grave markers on the plot for her father Britton, mother Mary Elizabeth, her brother Thomas, and her grandparents, Ruth and William Wainright. The people that run the cemetery office tried to help me out. They keep pretty good records. They told me that they had no record for the burial of William. They even had a sketch of the plot showing who was buried where -- still no record of William.



By the time I found Rachel, I had substantial information about her father, Britton. He had an interesting history I'll discuss in another posting. I knew he died "in defense of his country against the rebel John Morgan" of Morgan's Raiders fame. I knew he died of heatstroke near New Albany, Indiana in 1863. I had a copy of his Civil War Pension Index. I knew his widow, Mary Elizabeth, brought the family back to Cincinnati. I wondered how someone's body from the Civil War who died in Indiana made its way back to Cincinnati. The plot sketch says that Britton was buried in Evergreen in April, 1864 (a year after his death). I've read of families spending quite a bit of money to recover the bodies of their Civil War dead, but I wondered if Mary Elizabeth actually brought his body to Cincinnati when the family returned. The Cemetery Office could not locate a card for Britton in their file. But there was the grave marker -- spelling out all of the details about Britton's life.

Then there was William -- Rachel's grandfather. They had a record for the burial of Ruth, but not William. Again, William had a grave marker. Ruth was living with her daughter, Rachel Lusk, in Newport at the time of her death. Apparently, William and possibly Ruth had been living with another daughter in Athens, OH when William died. It wasn't until October 2008 that I was able to find William buried in the South Canaan Cemetery outside of Athens on the family plot owned by his daughter, Ann Eliza Broadwell. There was a wonderful verse engraved on his marker, yet his wife was not buried next to him when she died a few years later. Lesson number one: Sometimes it's not a grave marker, it's a memorial to a loved one they would have liked to be buried near.

Then there is the mystery of Charles Jones monument in the Walnut Hills Cemetery. I was fascinated from the first time I saw it. There was a symbol on the monument that referred to the "Golden Lodge" and "70". I've scanned in a copy so you can see the crossed swords, ivy, etc. I could not seem to identify a Golden Lodge.













A couple of years ago I found the Death Notice for Charles Henry. There was my answer! Again I found it interesting that the notice would acknowledge that he was a "Member of Golden Lodge, K. of P." but not mention that he was the father of Fred, Leo, and Edith. I guess Alwilda placed the Death Notice.

Further research allowed me to find out what the "K of P" was. It stands for the Knights of Phythias, a fraternal organization established by an Act of Congress in 1864. You can read more about the organization by following this link http://www.pythias.org/about/about.html The organization was devoted to international peace. If only their goals had been achieved. It gives me one more clue as to who Charles Henry was. He obviously valued friendship and service. Wish I could learn more.