CIVIL WAR - 2nd great-grand-uncle

 

William Young - 2nd great-grand-uncle

BIRTH  14 JAN 1814 • Roane County, Tennessee, USA

DEATH 14 MAR 1909 • Milwaukie, Clackamas, Oregon, USA

It was just a regular day of working on my family trees - updating and such. 

I had requested a photo of his grave on Find-A-Grave. Within hours I was notified that the photo request could not be fulfilled because there was no marker. 

Later I received an email from the pioneer cemetery in Milwaukie, Clackamas County, Oregon, stating they wanted to provide him a military marker since he was a veteran who served in the Civil War. She said they did a brief check on NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) but couldn't find "my William Young." 

Any chance to do a deep search is always invigorating, never knowing what I'll find, or if I will find anything. The search could take days or 2 years. 

I looked and looked - this was the first time I have done such a search - I joined Fold3. I looked at Tennesee Gen websites on military soldiers during the Civil War.  After a couple of days, I started getting a headache and decided I needed a couple of days of rest so that when I could come back, with fresh new eyes - which worked because within the first hour, I found him, serving in the US Army Tennessee Company B  5th Calvery. 

I have since talked with the Pioneer cemetery in Oregon and I will download the documents I have found for them. They still have to get "the official permission".

I was warned of a lot of bureaucratic red tape and that it might take a few months. She also said they will contact the Sons of the Civil War Veterans to officiate at the service, with honors and place the cement marker, honoring his service. 

I'm in Northern California - this cemetery is just 12 miles south of Portland. I told her we would drive up (a 6-hour drive) to be part of it. 

HOW COOL IS THAT????

And to think there are those, who think Genealogy is boring. HA! 

Short History of Scott County, Tennessee during the Civil War

 As I delve deeper into my ancestors who fought in the Civil War, it's not automatically given that the state of Tennessee was fully a confederate state.

The people in East Tennessee (where my dad and his family were from) were firmly against Tennessee's move to leave the Union; as were many in other parts of the Union. This was primarily due to the distribution of slavery throughout the state; Of the state's entire slave population, nearly 40% of West Tennessee and about 20% of Middle Tennessee were slaves, but in East Tennessee, slaves made up only 8% of the population. 

It was here, at Scott County’s first courthouse, built in 1851, that future U.S. President Andrew Johnson delivered a speech against secession on June 4, 1861. It was also here that Scott County Court voted later that summer to secede from Tennessee and form the Free & Independent State of Scott.

During the Civil War, Scott county was a Southern Unionist bastion, voting against secession from the Union. In 1861, the county assembly officially enacted a resolution seceding from the state of Tennessee, and thus the Confederacy, forming the "Free and Independent State of Scott," also known simply as the "State of Scott." 

Nashville never formally recognized Scott County’s decision to remove itself from Tennessee, but the act of defiance certainly got the attention of the governor. In response to the county court’s vote, Gov. Harris sent a contingent of 1,700 soldiers to Scott County to arrest and hang all members of the county court. They retreated, however, after meeting resistance in the Brimstone area, and none of the members of the court were ever captured.

NOTE: My dad grew up in this area called Brimstone and that was the name of the country road their farm was on. 

Scott County paid a price for its independence. It remained a sort of “no man’s land” throughout the war, subject to guerrilla warfare and lawlessness. Farms were raided by Confederate forces and Union forces alike. There were no major battles fought here, but there were several minor skirmishes. One of them was the Battle of Huntsville, on Aug. 13, 1862. Confederate soldiers seized control of the county seat, forcing Union forces to retreat, and spent two hours looting the town and searching for the members of the county court who had led the efforts to secede.

The county remained a pro-Union enclave throughout the war.  Many East Tennesseans engaged in guerrilla warfare against state authorities by burning bridges, cutting telegraph wires, and spying. 

Tennessee provided more Union troops than any other Confederate state; more than 51,000 soldiers in total, more than 20,000 of whom were Black. Tennessee also provided 135,000 Confederate troops, the second-highest number after Virginia.

It wasn’t until 1986 that Scott County formally voted to rejoin the Volunteer State. That summer, as part of Tennessee’s Homecoming celebration, Scott County Commission adopted a resolution that read, 

“After 125 years of independence, in this, the year of Tennessee homecoming, the Scott Commissioners and people of Scott County have declared the Free and Independent State of Scott to be dissolved.” 

Gov. Lamar Alexander signed the resolution, officially readmitting Scott County to Tennessee. The happening caught the attention of the New York Times.

Today, a plaque near the entrance to the Huntsville Mall reads, 

“United States Senator Andrew Johnson delivered a speech at the Courthouse at Huntsville on June 4, 1861, against separation. At the election four days later Scott County voted against separation by the largest percentage margin of any county in Tennessee. Later that year in defiance of the state’s act of secession, the county court by resolution seceded from the state and formed the Free and Independent State of Scott.”

 

CIVIL WAR - John G Thrasher (repost)

 

John G Thrasher

The American Civil War has always fascinated me. I believe as a child, I started wanting to know more about those times, after watching Gone with the Wind, when I was about 10-11 years old. It troubled me that one brother would come against another brother and cousins were divided. Since my dad was from Tennessee, I would ask, if anyone from our family fought in the Civil War. Back then, we only heard stories - didn't have much proof.

It was the same, I am sure in every family. I was looking through my husband's family tree when I came across, John G Thrasher - born July 18, 1844, in Annsville, New York, and died Dec. 11, 1863, in Shell Mound, Tennessee. He was my husband's 2nd great uncle.

Not much is known about the young man, who served his country. (The Union) He was born to Allen and Eloisa Matilda (Savery) Their only son - in the middle of 4 daughters. He did not die in battle - he died from the disease.

The seven most common diseases in army camps were typhoid fever, smallpox, measles, diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, and tuberculosis. Dysentery was the  #1 single killer among all factors in the Civil War on both the Confederacy and Union. Half of all disease-related deaths were because of dysentery. According to Union records, 1,739,135 cases; 57,265 deaths were recorded on Yankee soldiers while just 44,238 men died in battle. Twice as many Civil War soldiers died from disease as from battle wounds, the result of poor sanitation in an era that created mass armies and did not yet understand the transmission of infectious diseases.

The chance of surviving a wound in Civil War days was 7 to 1; in the Korean War, 50 to 1. About 15 percent of the wounded died in the Civil War; about 8 percent in World War I; about 4 percent in World War II; about 2 percent in the Korean War.

It hurts me to imagine - if he were my 19-year-old son - far away from home, dying from disease and I was unable to help him.

Rest in peace, young soldier.

During the war, Lincoln overheard someone remark that he hoped "the Lord was on the Union's side." Lincoln responded with this sharp rebuke:

I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side.

A Civil War Soldier

John G Thrasher

The American Civil War has always fascinated me. I believe as a child, I started wanting to know more about those times, after watching Gone with the Wind, when I was about 10-11 years old. It troubled me that one brother would come against another brother and cousins were divided. Since my dad was from Tennessee, I would ask, if anyone from our family fought in the Civil War. Back then, we only heard stories - didn't have much proof.

It was the same, I am sure in every family. I was looking through my husband's family tree when I came across, John G Thrasher - born July 18, 1844, in Annsville, New York, and died Dec. 11, 1863, in Shell Mound, Tennessee. He was my husband's 2nd great uncle.

Not much is known about the young man, who served his country. (The Union) He was born to Allen and Eloisa Matilda (Savery) Their only son - in the middle of 4 daughters. He did not die in battle - he died from the disease.

The seven most common diseases in army camps were typhoid fever, smallpox, measles, diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, and tuberculosis. Dysentery was the  #1 single killer among all factors in the Civil War on both the Confederacy and Union. Half of all disease-related deaths were because of dysentery. According to Union records, 1,739,135 cases; 57,265 deaths were recorded on Yankee soldiers while just 44,238 men died in battle. Twice as many Civil War soldiers died from disease as from battle wounds, the result of poor sanitation in an era that created mass armies and did not yet understand the transmission of infectious diseases.

The chance of surviving a wound in Civil War days was 7 to 1; in the Korean War, 50 to 1. About 15 percent of the wounded died in the Civil War; about 8 percent in World War I; about 4 percent in World War II; about 2 percent in the Korean War.

It hurts me to imagine - if he were my 19-year-old son - far away from home, dying from disease and I was unable to help him.

Rest in peace, young soldier.

During the war, Lincoln overheard someone remark that he hoped "the Lord was on the Union's side." Lincoln responded with this sharp rebuke:

I am not at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side.














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