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June 27,
2009
Randolph
County History |
Randolph County and the War Between the States
Part 4: Some Family Connections
by
Jerry Hilgenberg |
This is the final
installment concerning some of our classmates’ connections to
the Civil War, along with some background information related to
these connections. |
David Triezenberg: A Letter Home |
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I have a photocopy of a letter written by William S Nesbit to
his sister, who was my 3g-grandmother. It is written without
punctuation or capitalization and is not very interesting; he
mostly complains about sore feet. The letter is dated "Oct the
28th" but no year is given. He mentions having been at "lebnon"
and his regiment (101st Indiana Infantry) was at Lebanon TN in
April 1863, so the year is likely 1863.
More interesting is the stationery, which was probably provided
by the War Department. It is imprinted with a picture of the
legions marching behind a mounted officer with a raised sword,
and has a patriotic poem (“We are coming, Father Abraham, Six
hundred thousand more,...”).
There are Grants in my family tree, and supposedly the General
figures in somehow.
My wife's connections are more colorful. Her great-grandfather
(yes, 1g), David Crockett Dome, was an Assistant Surgeon for the
17th Indiana Infantry Regiment. We believe that he had no formal
medical education. He was captured by the troops of General
Nathan Bedford Forrest and held overnight. Had breakfast with
Forrest himself. Forrest was famous during the war as "The
Wizard of the Saddle", and infamous afterward as a founder of
the KKK.
David's brother Elijah (81st Indiana Infantry) was killed at
Kennesaw Mountain. The family legend is that his head was taken
off by a cannonball, and that his father drove a wagon from
southern Indiana to Georgia to recover the body. |
600,000 More: We Are Coming, Father
Abraham |

The poem and song “600,000 More. We are Coming, Father
Abraham” was a patriotic composition that surfaced as a
result of President Lincoln’s call for additional troops in the
summer of 1862.
There were actually two calls for 300,000 new volunteers each.
Each state was assigned a quota, and recruiting, training and
equipping the soldiers was the responsibility of the state and
local governments.
At this early point of the war, the military “draft” had not be
instituted in the north; however, states that fell short of
their quotas would have to use a conscription process that was
defined by each state’s militia laws.
The cover art shown here attributes words and music to “A
Volunteer”, however, there are several conflicting claims to
authorship on the Internet. According to the Library of
Congress, the most likely lyricist was Robert Morris and the
composer was D. A. Warden. |
You’ll also find this song on the internet with an alternate
title: “300,000 More” which is how it is performed in the
YouTube link below.
You can hear this song performed by the 97th New York
Regimental String Band, a group of re-enactors using period
instruments at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5PAcDnBemQ
Here are the lyrics:
We are coming, Father Abraham, 600,000 more,
From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore.
We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,
With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear.
We dare not look behind us but steadfastly before.
We are coming, Father Abraham, 600,000 more!
CHORUS: We are coming; we are coming our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 600,000 more!
If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky,
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;
And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour,
We are coming, father Abr'am, six hundred thousand more!
CHORUS
If you look up all our valleys where the growing harvests
shine,
You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;
And children from their mother's knees are pulling at the weeds,
And learning how to reap and sow against their country's needs;
And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door,
We are coming, Father Abr'am, six hundred thousand more!
CHORUS
You have called us, and we're coming by Richmond's bloody tide,
To lay us down for freedom's sake, our brothers' bones beside;
Or from foul treason's savage group, to wrench the murderous
blade;
And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade.
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 600,000 more!
CHORUS |
Ted Martin: Descendent of
Stonewall? |
I am related to Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, although it is
distant. My Gr. Gr. Grandmother on my Mother’s side was Lydia
Jackson. Her Father was a Brother to Stonewall's Father. In
other words, they were 1st cousins. Reaching pretty far, isn't
it? …but it is true. Also, Lydia's daughter was Eva Wright who
was a sister to Wilbur and Orville. Eva is my Great
Grandmother. |
Stonewall Jackson - Lee’s “Right Arm” |
After Robert E. Lee, Thomas J.”Stonewall” Jackson is probably
the best known of the Confederate Generals. A West Point
graduate, he served with distinction in the Mexican War, where
he met Robert E. Lee.
Background.
When the Civil War broke out,
Jackson
had been Instructor of Artillery at Virginia Military Institute
(VMI) in Lexington since 1851. He understood and taught the
importance of discipline, deception, efficiency and mobility in
military operations, and as a teacher he was a strict, didactic
thinker who was not at all popular with his students. He was
quick to scorn and treated any perceived insubordination
harshly.
When the war began, Jackson volunteered as a drill instructor,
but quickly received command of a brigade at Harper’s Ferry, at
the mouth of the Shenandoah Valley. By June, Jackson was a
Brigadier General in the Confederate Army, with a reputation as
a hard disciplinarian who drilled his troops endlessly. They
quickly became as “hard” as he was, and this unquestioning
discipline served him and his soldiers well many times over.
“Stonewall”.
He earned his nickname at the Battle of Bull Run (“First
Manassas”). Jackson’s Brigade reinforced the Confederate lines
at a crucial point in the battle, and stood their ground while
others around them were failing. At this point, Brig. General
Barnard Bee told his troops, “There is Jackson standing like a
stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will
conquer!” Seconds later, Bee himself was killed. Jackson’s
brigade saved the day at First Manassas. After the battle,
Jackson was promoted to Major General and placed in command of
the Shenandoah Valley district.
The Valley Campaign. In the early spring of 1862, Jackson set his Army of the
Shenandoah against Union General Banks in the valley. Jackson
had 17,000 under his command, facing a Federal force of 60,000.
In 48 days, with 650 miles of marching and fighting, Stonewall’s
army won five significant battle victories, and in June the
Federal army withdrew from the Shenandoah Valley.
By the end of 1862, Jackson and his army had gone on to
participate in major battles at Pennisula, Second Manassas,
Sharpsburg (Antietam) and Fredericksburg. Jackson himself was
promoted to Lieutenant General, and his army was designated the
Second Corps.
Greatest Victory.
The first major battle of 1863 was the Battle of
Chancellorsville, where Stonewall won his greatest victory.
Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was losing badly, when Lee
decided to send Jackson’s army on a flanking march to the rear
of the Federal lines. Emerging from the woods behind the
Federal 11th Army Corps, Jackson and his soldiers
faced only two cannons. They also found the Union supplies and
soldiers camped in the middle of a large field playing cards.
Jackson’s men charged and the rout was on. Thousands of Union
soldiers were caught completely by surprise and captured without
resistance. Jackson’s men pushed on until full dark, and by the
end of the day the Union lines contracted and facing retreat
back over the Rappahannock River. |
Victim of Friendly Fire.
After fighting stopped for the day, Stonewall decided to
reconnoiter the Federal lines to prepare for the following days’
fighting. A secretive man who would not reveal his intentions
even to his closest subordinates, Jackson took a small party out
on a scouting mission. On return, the scouting party was
mistaken for a Federal cavalry unit and was fired-upon by some
boys from North Carolina.
In the confusion, Jackson was shot twice in the left arm, and
once on the right
hand. Due to the severity of the wounds, battlefield doctors
removed his left arm. He was taken to a plantation office
(photo on right) some 20 miles from the battlefield to
recuperate, and a full recovery was expected.
When Lee learned of his injury, Lee said, “General Jackson has
lost his left arm, but I have lost my right.”
Stonewall developed pneumonia, and died on Sunday, May 10,
1863…eight days after his triumph at Chancellorsville. His loss
was a very serious blow to the South’s hopes for military
victory, as those who replaced him lacked the audacity and
aggressiveness of Jackson.
Jackson was a very pious man, and never lost his faith. On the
day he died, he said, “It
is the Lord's Day; my wish is fulfilled. I have always desired
to die on Sunday.” His last words, “Let us cross over the
river, and rest in the shade of the trees”, have been
immortalized in poetry and song. |
Jill Hinty Keener: My Great Great
Grandfather - Oliver P. Jones |
Throughout all wars, military conflicts and police actions, the
term "friendly fire" brings an extra measure of sadness. My
great great-grandfather, Oliver P. Jones was not only a victim
of friendly fire, but he had only been in the Indiana Legion for
4 days!
Oliver P. Jones, from Centerville, Indiana, was mustered into
the 105th Indiana Minutemen on the 10th of July 1863. The
document that served as his affidavit of service after his death
states, "The 105th was Indiana Legion and was never mustered
into U. S. Service". Many of the local militia were hastily
organized and poorly trained in response to Brig. General John
Hunt Morgan's raid across the Ohio River into Indiana and Ohio
in June of 1863. |
Morgan's Raid
was a highly publicized incursion by
Confederate cavalry into the Northern states of Indiana and
Ohio during the American Civil War. The raid took place from
June 11 - July 26, 1863,
and is named for the commander of the Confederates,
Brig. Gen.
John Hunt Morgan.
General Morgan and his 2,460 handpicked Confederate cavalrymen,
along with 4 artillery pieces, departed from Sparta,
Tennessee on June 11, 1863
intending to divert the attention of the Union Army of
the Ohio from Southern forces in the state. Gen.
Braxton Bragg, the regional Confederate commander, had
intended for Morgan's cavalrymen to provide a distraction by
entering Kentucky. Morgan, however, confided to some of his
officers that he had long desired to invade Indiana and Ohio to
bring the terror of war to the North. Bragg had given him
carte blanche to ride throughout Tennessee and Kentucky, but
under no circumstances was he to cross the Ohio River.
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His service was short and unremarkable; he was one of thousands
that answered the call for volunteers to defend the state from
the first Southern incursion into Indiana. During a night drive
through a wooded area on July 14, 1863, his flank moved ahead of
the opposite one and they were mistaken for the enemy. The
soldiers opened fire and he was hit in the head and died
instantly. The place of death was listed as Lawrenceburg, IN.
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To show that government red tape is not a recent phenomenon,
the story I will tell is of the struggle of my
great-great-grandmother, Martha A. Cheesman Jones, to obtain her
widow's pension.
The first date listed on documents we have regarding pension
application was on Captain Jonathan Jarrett's affidavit of death
- 25th day of January 1864. Four and a half years later, the
Department of the Interior, Adjutant General's office sent a
request for her to provide official evidence of the enrollment,
muster, service, duty and cause of death of Oliver. Additional
documents provided, also in 1869, were a Widow's Affidavit that
she had not abandoned the support of any of her three children,
Amelia Alice Jones, my great grandmother, Clara Frances Jones
(Beck), and John Oliver Jones, nor had she permitted them to be
adopted. She was also required to submit a Doctor's affidavit
of birth for the children and an affidavit that she had "not in
any manner been engaged in nor aided or abetted the rebellion in
the United States"
No additional correspondence was found until 13 years
later when the United States Congress passed a special
act.
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AN ACT for the relief of Martha A. Jones
“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United State of America in Congress assembled, that the
Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby authorized and
directed to place on the pension roll, the name of Martha A.
Jones, widow of the late Oliver P. Jones, who was killed on the
"Morgan's raid" during the late war, and pay her a pension at
the rate of eight dollars a month.”
Approved August 5, 1882.
The pension began reasonably soon after, but it was not
retroactive. For the next 33 years, she continued to receive
checks, with an increase to $12.00 per month at some time during
this period. Great-Great-Grandmother Martha A Jones passed away
on March 24, 1916.

True to form, it appears that the government kept sending checks because the last correspondence that was found was a note to the
Chief, Finance Division with the return of $36.00 on May 11,
1916 She was
eventually dropped from the pension roll on May 17, 1916. |
Andersonville Prison |
Andersonville Prison was the main Confederate Prison housing
captured Federal soldiers during the Civil War. Officially
called Camp Sumpter, the prison camp was opened in 1864 and is
located in southwestern Georgia. Initially hailed as a “model
prison camp”, Andersonville was 16 acres surrounded by a 15-foot
high stockade fence. In mid-1864 the size of the camp was
nearly doubled, to 26.5 acres. |
Over
the course of the war, 45,000 Union soldiers were sent to
Andersonville. Nearly 13,000 died there – from dysentery,
scurvy, diarrhea, malnutrition, and disease.
The prison water supply came from Stockade Creek, which entered
the prison from the north and exited from the south. Inadequate
for the number of men housed in the camp, the creek became
polluted as men were forced to wash in the creek, and after a
particularly heavy storm in 1864, the creek was further polluted
by latrine runoff. |
During the summer of 1864, about 1/3
of the Union prisoners housed at
Andersonville died from dysentery and were buried in mass
graves. The prisoners continually suffered from inadequate
supplies of food and cruelties from the guards.
There was also a group of prisoners, called the “Andersonville
Raiders,” who attacked other prisoners to steal their clothing,
jewelry and food. Ultimately, another group of prisoners, known
as the “Regulators,” rose up and caught the “Raiders.” A trial
was held and the Raiders were subjected to various punishments
at the hands of the other prisoners. Six were hanged.
Dorence Atwater, a Union prisoner from New York, secretly kept
track of the names and numbers of prisoners who died at
Andersonville. After the war, this list was published in the
New York Times when the Federal government refused to recognize
Atwater’s list. The publication of this list, stories of
returning soldiers, and the revelations of conditions at
Andersonville, contributed greatly to the public opinion in the
North regarding the South once the war ended. The soldier shown
on the right survived Andersonville.
After the war, the commander of the prison, Henry Wirz, was
tried and convicted as a war criminal. Wirz was found guilty
and sentenced to hang. He was executed in November, 1865 – the
only Confederate official to be hanged for war crimes after the
war. |
Bill Daly: W.A.W. Daly |
 |
U.G. Daly was my
grandfather; his full name was Ulysses Grant Daly. His
nickname was
"Liss Daly". He later became chief of police and was elected
county sheriff.
His father was Capt. William Alexander Washington (W.A.W.) Daly.
W.A.W. named him after Ulysses Grant because W.A.W. fought in
the civil war and was a prisoner at Andersonville Prison and
greatly admired Ulysses Grant. After the war, W.A.W. became
county sheriff."
William A. Daly’s Prison Record (from the National Park Service
website) |
Citations:
Civil War Poetry, “Songs of the Union”,
http://www.civilwarpoetry.org/union/songs/coming.html(Accessed
May 11, 2009)
Johns Hopkins University Special Collections, “600,000 More. We
Are Coming Father Abraham! Song and Chorus”,
https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/15398
(Accessed May 11, 2009)
National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System,
“Andersonville Prison Records”,
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/prisoners.htm (accessed May 12,
2009)
Wikipedia contributors, “Andersonville National Historic Site,”
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site
(accessed May 12, 2009).
Wikipedia contributors, “Stonewall Jackson,” Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_Jackson (accessed
May 12, 2009).
YouTube contributors, “I Want Candy,” YouTube – Broadcast
Yourself,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5PAcDnBemQ (accessed May
10, 2009) |
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