Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ancestors In The Civil War?

The American civil war, 1860 to 1865. My great, great, grandfather was in the Union army. The family story is, he had an arm broken by a southern woman that slammed a barn door shut on his arm while he was leading a horse out. He died of typhoid fever, and never returned home. We have a Seith Thomas clock his wife bought with money he sent to her.

Any "Fire" members have ancestors that served on either side?

Two great great grandfathers enlisted for three years in the Union army. One became a sergeant. He took a bullet in the lung and had intermittent problems with it until he died in 1908. Their regiment was in every Confederate state but one, including occupation duty. However their enlistment was up in 1864 and they did not reinlist.

I've often wondered what would motivate Northern farm boys to enlist. Hey, if you didn't like Southerners, and the Southerners wanted to leave your country forever, what's there to complain about?

I'm named after a great or great great Uncle who fought in the Civil War. He was in a Pennsylvania unit from right on the Ohio-Pa border. I have his sidearm, an 1851 Colt Navy. By far my prized possession.

The Southern boys will be along directly to discuss the War of Northern Aggression, I'm sure.






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NW Missouri one member was with Quantrill, another was with Bill Anderson and yet another was with Union regulars out of Iowa...

My great, great grandfather was in the CSA.

He has a CSA headstone in our family plot.

I have not been able to learn much about my ancestor, even with a different name spelling. The family histories have conflicting information on where he is buried even.

Great G G grandfather took the youngest children west months before the war started due to the robbery and aggression from Kansans that started well before the war began and yet the family was split by the one older son that married a girl from Iowa. The aggression was real and easily documented. It's just the way it was...

I think it was just a BIG misunderstanding.
Not hate.

Being both sides of the family were from MS.i think it is a good bet i had folks in the war.

Either side? Nope. BOTH sides...... My great, great grampa has honorable discharges from the confederate navy AND the union army..

My great, great grandpappy was on the Union side with a Nebraska detachment (I think) and was with Sherman march through Georgia. I know that he sustained some sort of injury that provided a pension after the war. THat's all I know.

I had some forbears in the 93rd Pennsylvania .

on both sides.
however i chuckle about this
one of my guys was with sherman when he burned atlanta. One of my wives people was in atlanta when he burned it.
my guy took a bullet and some weeks later died.
he is buried in a federal cemetary near where mr clinton grew up.
when i found that out i wondered out i could have him exhumed and moved to a better spot.

One ancestor fought in the 1st Minnesota Infantry from beginning to end, he was wounded at Gettysburg but survived. We have three letters home that were written for him as he was illiterate.

Another joined the Union army right off the boat. He spent about a year in service before losing a leg. We don't know what unit he served in nor where. He received a pension of $15/month allegedly for being wounded but have not been able to verify if true or not. It seems kind of high for the times and I do not think the practice was very common. Maybe it was payoff for taking the place of a rich person and not a government pension as famity lore believes.

Another was a civilian volunteer during the Sioux Uprising. He was involved in the defense of New Ulm and a couple of other excursions. He was released prior to the end of hostilities.

now there is a book in the details Huntsman!

had a great granddad with the union. lost a leg and an arm. lived until 1914 when he committed suicide. mom was a little girl then and it was her first funeral.
g gdad's 2 brother's were in Andersonville . One came out.
on my Dads granddad side had a second cousin that was the president of the Confederate states of America.
my dads granddad was in Camp Douglas.
seems my ancestors got the best accommodations .
one of the most humbling experiences of my life was a self guided tour of Gettysburg. i wept.

My wifes side. I don't have all the info at hand but a father and son from Indiana were rumored to have been imprisoned at Andersonville and survived.
Another story is a Missouri Hillgenburg was nursed by a Indiana Hillgenburg as a POW and survived the war. The north south split is because ol Daniel had something like 9 kids and over a couple generations they migrated to Indiana and Missouri. At some point the "g" was dropped mostly on the Missouri side and the family was known as Hillenburg.
Like a lot of family folklore it can be difficult to verify all that history.

Numerous ancestors fought on both sides of the Civil War and also many who fought in the American Revolution.

This Civil War portrait of my 3rd great grandfather on my mother's side, Pollard Jackson Brown, 3rd Indiana Cavalry Company F, hangs in our living room. It was passed down to me by my mother who inherited it from my grandfather. He was wounded at Gettysburg and also participated in many other notable battles. The horse "Old Bob" was given a military burial in Howard County, Indiana when he passed many years after the war. Most of my dad's family fought for the CSA but he had one great-grandfather who was in the 14th Battery Indiana Light Artillery, his daughter was my great grandmother and I remember her so I actually knew the daughter of a Civil War vet which is cool.

There's really no need to re-fight the war at this time, is there?

Several ancestors on my maternal Grandmother's side from New England, or who had roots in New England, served the Union. Most note worthy were Salmon P. Chase and Grenville M. Dodge. Chase was a successful politician, having represented Ohio as both Governor and U.S. Senator before serving as Lincoln's first Secretary of the Treasury and later as the 6th Chief Justice of the SCOTUS. Dodge had a successful military career, rising to the rank of Major General, and later represented Iowa as a U.S. Congressman and served as the first chief engineer for the transcontinental railroad. Another Union soldier, Phineas Sanborn met a Confederate soldier, Milburne Oglethorpe, during the Atlanta Campaign and after the war they become brothers-in-law, as Sanborn married Oglethorpe's sister and Oglethorpe married Sanborn's sister. Both women shared the same first name, Dorothea, which I'm sure was a little bit confusing.

I had a couple several-greats uncles on the Union side. One was killed at 16, buried in some unknown place, and little other than his name is known. The other came home but would never tell anyone what he'd seen or done. His war history is a complete black box. He was just known as Uncle Robbie.

This is Robbie's enlistment pic. Today they take photos of all new recruits in uniform. Back then, traveling artists carried hundreds of these pre-printed bodies and they'd draw in the heads of the recruits like an assembly line. The quality of the bodies is terrible. Look at the distorted hands and other details. Also, his head is too small for the body.