FIRST: On Fold3, a popular military site, I found some records of family who had fought for the Confederacy. Attached are two images George Freeman Hurley's military file. My mother's great-grandfather, G. F. Hurley, of Company K, 34th North Carolina Regiment, was captured April 2, 1865 in Virginia and sent to a prison in New York Harbor. After swearing an oath of allegiance to the United States, he was released from Hart's Island on June 17, 1865. Researchers are happy to learn physical descriptions of ancestors, as shown here on the second page of my red-headed ancestor's record:
HART's ISLAND: In 1865, as the Civil War was ending, the Federal government used the Island as a prison camp for Confederate soldiers. Hart Island was a prisoner of war camp for four months in 1865. 3,413 captured Confederate soldiers were housed. 235 died. Their remains were relocated to Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn in 1941. It was the final prison established by the Union...and it quickly evolved into the city's most horrible site. Located in Long Island Sound about twenty miles north of the city and just a few miles south of David's Island, Hart Island wasn't even used until April 1865, the month the Civil War came to an end. Within three weeks of its opening, 3,413 POWs are crammed into the post's tiny enclosed area Hart does not become completely cleared of prisoners until July. Within the four months of its operation, nearly 7 percent of all the camp's POWs died, mostly from illnesses brought with them, such as chronic diarrhea and pneumonia.
Green beef shoes? 2d Lt. T. D. Lattimore wrote: "During this winter, which was so rigorous, even to those in comfort, many of the soldiers, for want of shoes for their frost-bitten feet, covered their feet with green beef hides." From The Histories Of The Several Regiments And Battalions From North Carolina, In The Great War 1861-'65, wonderfully shared online at URL: https://archive.org/details/01300611.3315.emory.edu
SECOND: My 2nd Great-Grandfather Welk Wilhelm saw many battles with and a few captures by the Union Army. This image shows Welcome "took the oath" so as to save his hide from having to spend further time in some hellish POW camp. Soldiers who signed the oath were then released, and very often rejoined their regiments to continue the fight elsewhere. I have no idea if this is his actual signature. If so, it is yet another variation of what I believe to be his legal name: William Welcome Wilhelm. Cousins might want to see the 18 images from Welk's military file that I shared back in April 2014. (Type the name Wilhelm in this blog's Search menu on the left). May I also suggest you google the Battle of Vicksburg and its siege? Nasty business, that.
THIRD: Who are these Wiser-named gents? Might we be related? This is all I found on them from one collection. Clerks often hastily spelled surnames by HOW names sounded. Weisser, Weyser? Among the many variations of my surname, I will now add WEYSER to my search. Perhaps someone reading this post from a google search might know more?
FOURTH: Richard Childers, a 29 year old farmer, who claims Native American ethnicity, fought for Arkansas in this undated and FADED document. I thought I knew all the many Dick Childers in a four-state area.
FIFTH: TOBIAS WILHELM: Another maternal ancestor, a first cousin--five times removed, born February 26, 1827, and now interred in Scottsboro, Alabama. He fought with Wade's Cavalry, and is the grandson of our earliest known Wilhelm, also named Tobias:
See his lovely tombstone: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=23386801&PIpi=51494568 (I haven't permission so I will not be posting the tombstone photo here.)
SIXTH: Meet Sam Coffee, a maternal 2nd great-uncle. His Irish grandfather fought with Daniel Boone at Fort Boonesborough and settled on Slate Creek in Montgomery County, Kentucky. By 1860 Sam's parents and nine siblings had moved to Morgan County, Missouri. After the War, Sam and Harriett moved to Sherman, Texas. His sons later settled in Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations in southern Oklahoma. I've tracked this family for a couple of generations, and hope to meet their descendants one day. Please excuse my poor attempt to brighten these faded docs contained in the gallery below:
We have many Union Army ancestors whose military papers I hope to share, but I know better than to combine vets from two opposing armies in one post. They didn't all forgive and forget as did these two old veterans who met at one of the last Gettysburg reunions held in the early 20th century. Isn't this a marvelous picture:
