I found a beautiful document on Ancestry.com/'s database: U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865. Beautiful in that it is crystal clear. A nice scan of a 150+ year old record. I do not know when it was prepared, or from how many transcriptions it was gathered. But I am happy to see a clear military record of two of my second great-grand uncles. Meet Sam Coffee and Jesse Coffee, on lines 9 and 10 of these two pages:
Jesse Coffee served with the 2nd Regiment, Missouri Infantry, Confederate States Army. Also called Burbridge's Infantry Regiment. He discharged as a sergeant. I'm glad to learn he made it out alive, and could return to his property in Morgan County, Missouri: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~momorgan/patents/42-17/26.html
Jesse Coffee served with the 2nd Regiment, Missouri Infantry, Confederate States Army. Also called Burbridge's Infantry Regiment. He discharged as a sergeant. I'm glad to learn he made it out alive, and could return to his property in Morgan County, Missouri: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~momorgan/patents/42-17/26.html
Samuel Coffee enlisted January 21, 1862 at Camp Price, saw battle at Elk Horn, Arkansas. Left sick at Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas. Months ago I posted many images from his war record, as he too fought with the 2nd Missouri Infantry. See the sixth person in my earlier post: http://treepig.posthaven.com/a-few-csa-records
Sam Coffee also saw battle at:
Sam Coffee also saw battle at:
Oct. 4, 1862 at Corinth, Mississippi; http://www.corinthcivilwar.com/history.htm
Oct. 8, 1862 at Perryville, Kentucky; http://www.perryvillebattlefield.org/
June 18, 1864 (no place listed), and
Nov. 30, 1864 at Franklin, Tennessee. http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/franklin/maps/franklin-animated-map/
While his record doesn't mention the location of the June 1864 skirmish, there are several from which to choose in this list of Civil War battles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_battles
On a side note, my husband's cousin, Chuck Eades, a former Williamson County Commissioner living near Nashville, was one of several who championed the preservation of the Tennessee battlefield where Sam once fought in 1864. A local newspaper's headline in 2001 reads: "Battle rages over library's relocation." Mr. Eades is quoted: "We don't need any new construction on any battlefield. There has been too much blood shed there." The dispute continued for months. Several articles collected at this site are prefaced by: "Find out where the real Second Battle of Franklin will soon be fought." http://americancivilwar.50megs.com/CWPres03.html
While his record doesn't mention the location of the June 1864 skirmish, there are several from which to choose in this list of Civil War battles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_battles
On a side note, my husband's cousin, Chuck Eades, a former Williamson County Commissioner living near Nashville, was one of several who championed the preservation of the Tennessee battlefield where Sam once fought in 1864. A local newspaper's headline in 2001 reads: "Battle rages over library's relocation." Mr. Eades is quoted: "We don't need any new construction on any battlefield. There has been too much blood shed there." The dispute continued for months. Several articles collected at this site are prefaced by: "Find out where the real Second Battle of Franklin will soon be fought." http://americancivilwar.50megs.com/CWPres03.html
Do you have family from Missouri who fought in the Civil War? https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1932374 Or from another state? https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Civil_War,_1861_to_1865
Jesse and Samuel were the eldest sons of Rolly and Alea Coffee from Montgomery County, Kentucky. Some time after 1854 the Coffees and their ten children moved to Morgan County, Missouri. While Jesse appears to have married and stayed in the area, Sam and wife, Harriet, moved to Texas after 1870. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad (known as the "Katy") soon made travel easier between Missouri and northern Texas, as several of their "kin" also moved south. For example, my great-granddad John Coffee was born in Sherman, Texas in 1875, but raised in Missouri. He later returned to the Texas/Oklahoma border. Cousins went south, and then returned to Missouri to live "a spell." The railroad was a certainly a boon to migration.
Jesse's tombstone indicates he died in 1899 at age 65. He's buried in Versailles, Missouri. I have yet to locate Samuel's burial place or a death date, His widow Harriet remarried shortly before the 1880 Federal Census shows her living with Mr. George Small in Grayson County, Texas with several of her seven children fathered by Sam: James R. Coffee, Joseph M. Coffee, Thomas Jefferson Coffee, Matilda Ann Coffee, Mary Coffee, Nettie Jane Coffee, and Samuel P. Coffee. Some of these children later moved over the border into Indian Territory, and made their homes.
I know a fair bit about these Coffees from the many records left in Marshall and Bryan counties of southern Oklahoma. I hope their descendants see this blog and contact me. Perhaps a distant cousin who is also a family history buff and has shared DNA with one of the top three genetic-genealogy services? Hope so. Our Coffees immigrated from Ireland in the mid-1700s. Would love to know from which county, and hope to find a distant cousin who knows more about these Coffees.
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SOURCE: Ancestry.com. U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registrations, 1863-1865. NM-65, entry 172, 620 volumes. NAI: 4213514. Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau (Civil War), Record Group 110. National Archives at Washington D.C.