1. William "Bill" Peters contributed eight letters from 1st Sergt Isaac Arthur, Co A, to his Aunt Cynthia Quinn (26 Sep 62, 19 Feb 63, 10 Mar 63, 10 May 63, 4 Aug 63, 6 Sep 63, 14 Oct 63, and 24 Nov 63 - direct links), a wartime photo of Arthur, and his 5th sergeant appointment certificate (direct link to these images). Also, Bill provided the following information on himself and Sergt Arthur:
E-mail: <peterswl@email.uc.edu>
My mother, Margaret Codding Surface, has the originals.
[Genealogical info]
Father: John T. ARTHUR (Abt. 1816 - ?)
Mother: Sarah Ann Henthorne QUINN (1816 -1844)
Father's Father: Pleasant T. ARTHUR (1785 - 1845)
Father's Mother: Agnes TIMBERLAKE (1788 - 1844)
Mother's Father: Isaac QUINN (1784 - 1843)
Mother's Mother: Cynthia WITTEN (1790 - 1867)
[Biographical info]
After their mother died in 1844, Isaac ("Ikey") Arthur and his brother Jack went to live with their maternal grandmother (Cynthia Witten Quinn) and aunts and uncles near Hillsboro, Highland Co., OH. In the summer of 1862, at the age of 19, he volunteered, and joined the 89th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The following are letters that he wrote home to his aunt Cynthia Quinn, then about 30 years old.
Isaac Arthur died July 17, 1864 (age 21) at Andersonville Prison, GA.
His aunt Cynthia A. Quinn never married, and died March 21, 1915 (age 83)
2. Charles Weidinger contributed a letter written by his great-great uncle, Corp John Hill, to his brother, Sam (21 May 64 - direct link) and the following sketch of Hill's life.
A Life Sketch of John Fletcher Hill
John F. Hill, teacher and farmer, was born in Deerfield Township, Ross County, Ohio, on 28 March 1828, the youngest child of John Benjamin Hill and Kitturiah Voadly Hill. His grandfather, Benjamin Shaugh Hill (1753-1831) came to Ohio from Frederick County, Maryland in 1807, after serving briefly as a soldier in the War of the Revolution. His father also served as a soldier in the Ohio Militia during the War of 1812.
Having received a common school education, he taught school in Ross County, Ohio, beginning at age 17. Mr. Hill was married in September 1855 to Miss Mary Kearney, also of Ross County. They had four sons, John B. Hill, M.D., born in 1856, educated at Lawrence University, Kansas, and Keokuk Medical College, Iowa, and practiced medicine at Hollowell, Kansas; Joseph Hill, born in 1857, educated at Lawrence University, and once a teacher at Labette County, Kansas; William Sherman Hill, born in 1859, educated at Fort Scott College, and once a teacher and farmer; and Robert Anderson Hill, born in 1861, educated at Fort Scott, and a farmer.
With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Mr. Hill’s feelings of patriotism and his ancestral past convinced him to join the battle. On 6 August 1862, he enlisted in the Union Army at Clarksburg, Ohio, recorded by Peter Adams. He was assigned to Company K, 89th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, led by Major John H. Jolly (Jolly’s Infantry). He was with the regiment during its campaigns in Kentucky and West Virginia up the Kanawha River.
In June 1863, the 89th was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, 3rd Brigade, 4th Division, 14th Corps. At the battle of Chickamauga, on 20 September 1863, he was captured with his regiment, and conveyed to Richmond, Virginia. In November he was transferred to the prison at Danville, Virginia. On 14 November 1863, he escaped with sixty others, evaded enemy forces for 16 nights, but was one of only three soldiers who successfully crossed Union Army lines at Fayetteville, Virginia, on 1 December 1863.
He reported to Governor Todd of Ohio, and was allowed to remain at home in Ross County for three months. He returned to his regiment on 8 March 1864. He was with General Sherman’s campaign into Georgia, and was severely wounded in the left leg on 1 September 1864 at the battle of Jonesboro. Prior to his injury, he had served duty as Company Clerk.
He was initially hospitalized in Atlanta, and in December, was moved to the 1st Division U.S. Army Hospital at Evansville, Indiana. He remained there until 21 January 1865, when he was moved to the Military Hospital at Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati. He never completely recovered from his wounds, walked with a limp aided by a cane, and was honorably discharged on 8 June 1865 with a disability pension. Pension Certificate No. W.O. 107450 is on file at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Mary Hill passed away in 1866. In 1869, he married Miss Nan Clara Roberts of Chillicothe, by whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Hill, born in 1870. Having resumed his teaching career, Mr. Hill and family moved to Illinois, and from there to Labette County, Kansas. When he arrived in Kansas, he had but little means, but by prudence and economy, he purchased a fine 500 acre farm near Oswego. He served for eight years as a Justice of the Peace, and for two years on the Board of School Examiners of Labette County. He was a correspondent of the Agriculture Department in Washington, D.C., was with the Kansas Agriculture Department, and was Commander of Post No. 150, Grand Army of the Republic.
John Fletcher Hill died on 22 February 1899, and was transported for a final time to the Mount Union Federal Cemetery, near Chillicothe, Ohio, where he lies in repose.
Note: The original version of this life sketch was sent to the
contributor by Mrs. Rosalie Hartinger. Updating additions and
corrections were made by the contributor, Colonel Charles L.
Weidinger, USAF (Retired) of Columbus, Ohio, a paternal great
grand nephew of the subject.
After considerable research, the contributor cannot explain the
difference in death date and location contained in the records
of the 89th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and the family
genealogy records of the contributor. John Fletcher Hill’s grave
marker at the Mount Union Cemetery simply says:
J. F. HILL
1828-1899
3. Chris Sumner contributed a wartime photograph of Captain David Mitchell Barrett (his great-great grandfather), Co I commander, and of Sergeant Richard Cyrus Barrett (Capt Barrett's brother), also of Co I.
4. Greg Cassidy contributed several photographs of Sergt James Wolfe's, Co H, housewife (small folding pouch designed to hold personal items).
5. Greg Ikins contributed a diary of Sergt Jesse McClave, Co G. The diary covers the war-time periods of Oct and Nov 1862, Feb through Dec 1863 (daily entries Feb through Sep), Jan and Feb 1864, and Jun 1865. McClave was wounded in the shoulder at Chickamauga and did not return to active service until Feb 64. He did not begin his diary again until Jun 65. Click these links to go to Oct 62 to Jul 63 and Aug 63 to Jun 65.
Jesse Taylor McClave was born in 6/30/1842 and died in 12/14/1931 in Buckley, IL. He married Ida Mae McClave (a cousin) in 1881 and their three children all died before the age of 5.
Jack Wright, a cousin who met Jesse, transcribed the diary from the original in 1984. I made minor edits to the transcription such as deleting shorthand notations that McClave used to describe the weather and list letters he wrote and received. I also deleted dates that only had weather and letter notations.
6. Allen and Jeanie Evans contributed a wartime photograph of Private Julius C. Vangundy (her great grandfather), Co K.
7. Bill Hedges of Dallas, TX, saw the gravestone of Private James C. Scott, Co A, in Dallas and sent me the soldier's birth and death dates.
8. Greg Chance sent the obituary notice of his great-great uncle, Private Robert Walker, Co C. This notice published in the Cincinnati Enquirer on 7 Jan 1940 led me to correct birth and death dates and stated that Private Walker had been the oldest surviving Civil War soldier living in Brown County, Ohio.
Mt. Orab, Ohio, January 7 - Military funeral services for Robert Walker, Brown County's oldest Civil War veteran, who died in his home at Bardwell, were conducted Sunday at Thompson Funeral Home, Mount Orab, by Georgetown Post, American Legion. He was 95 years old. Blind for several years. "Uncle Bob" with the aid of his niece, Mrs. Jack Calvin, had been an inveterate outdoor man until recently, when confined by illness. His niece had cared for him since the death of his wife. "Uncle Bob" had fought without serious injury in 31 battles of the Civil War after his enlistment, when 17, in the Eighty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After the war, he returned to Bardwell, where he remained. Only two other Civil War veterans still are living in Brown County, William Pittenger, Decatur, and J. K. Groninger, Aberdeen. He also is survived by a brother, Thomas Walker, former Blanchester Marshall, and a nephew, Blanchester druggist. Burial will be in Mount Orab Cemetery.
9. Gary Baker sent an account of Private Isaac N. Dyer's life. Private Dyer was in Company K and was Gary's great-great-grandfather's brother.
CONNECTION TO THE GREAT CIVIL WAR
The Story of Pfc. Isaac N. Dyer
By Gary O. Baker Sr.
Isaac Newton Dyer, born March 6, 1844 to William and Vylator
Dyer, one of 13 children born into this family. They were raised on a 100-acre
farm
in Deerfield
Township, Ross County, Ohio. A trip through this area greets the traveler
with gentle rolling hills and a most picturesque view , however we must
see things
through an entirely different set of eyes to get the true flavor of the area,
when 18 year old Isaac enlisted in the 89th OVI. Ohio became a state in 1805,
so there was still much unsettled, virgin land in this region. Farming, which
was the livelihood of the Dyer family, required that each member of the family
pull their share of the load, yet Isaac was hearing a call that would take
him away from all of this.
Captain Wesley R. Adams of the United States Army arrived in Clarksburg,
Ross County, Ohio in August of 1862, with the sole purpose of recruiting
volunteers
for his Company “K” of the 89th Regiment of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Isaac Newton Dyer was one of many who answered this call, as Co. “K” was
formed of mostly Ross Co. young men. Pfc. Dyer stood 5’9” tall,
light complexion, gray eyes and light hair, according to his military records.
He in
fact did enlist with this unit on the 20th day of August 1862, and by October
1st of this same year was in Point Pleasant, Western Virginia, by the account
of his military file.
Isaac quickly experienced the effects of life in the military during these
sparse times of little food, bad water and generally poor provisions as he
contracted
Typhoid Fever and was sent to a U.S. General Hospital in Gallipolis, Ohio.
Here he remained as an invalid for about one year. In the spring of 1863
he was sent
to Tennessee as his outfit was encamped near Carthage. It is not clear whether
he actually met up with Co. “K” , at this location , his medical
records indicate that he was again hospitalized in Nashville, then Gallatin,
Tennessee. By this time, his left leg had been hypertrophied by the effects
of the Typhoid Fever, which left him severely crippled, as well as the additional
problem of severe dysentery.
This may be a good opportunity to add some comments from other soldiers of
the 89th OVI , that I found online @ www.89thohio.com:
From James Patterson – “We crossed the Cumberland River, it was
after night and we had to lay on the banks of the river all night. The river
had been
out of banks and the ground was very wet. When we left Carthage for Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, we crossed the Cumberland at night again and was up all night.”
From Edward Cook – “ I rejoined the company at Carthage, Tennessee,
on the Cumberland River about March 1863 as near as I can come to it. I went
right on duty guarding the food at Carthage on the Cumberland River. I gained
strength and my health was fairly good until June or July 1863, when on the
march from Carthage to Murfreesboro, Tenn. When I took chronic diarrhea for
which pensioned.
I had a touch of diarrhea before that occasioned by drinking poisoned milk,
which we got on forage. Stokes cavalry went immediately and burnt the house
down where
we got this milk.”
From Isaac Cook - …during months of April and May 1863… he ( Isaac
Cook ) contracted diarrhea from exposure, bad water and unwholesome food. This
disease was aggravated by further exposure on the march from Carthage to Chattanooga,
he being for about 14 days on said march exposed to cold rains without tents.
These first hand accounts from the soldiers who were there, give us
a clear picture of daily life for these our ancestors. We should all
have a new appreciation for the sacrifice made by our military over the
decades to secure the freedom that we enjoy today. That’s enough
editorializing; I’ll get back to Isaac.
From Tennessee, he was returned to the U.S. Hospital at Washington Park in
Cincinnati , Ohio. Later was transferred to Camp Dennison also near Cincinnati.
The only reason that I can see for this continued movement from hospital to
hospital was to try to comfort the extreme pain and suffering that he was enduring
due to the distorted leg, and continued intestinal problems. On June 7, 1865
at a camp near Washington D.C. the order was signed, honorably discharging
Isaac N. Dyer, private of Captain Wesley R. Adams, Co. “K”, 89th
Regiment of the Ohio Volunteers from the service of the United States. On June
8th, 1865, he began receiving a pension at the rate of $4.00 per month.
This may seem like a very short story about his service in the Civil War, yet
this is but a few pages of his medical file. The major portion of his file
is the annual trip to a VA facility to be examined by VA doctors, to justify
the continuation of this meager pension that the government was paying him
for all of the suffering that he had endured. This yearly event always included
at least one affidavit from two family members or friends, occasionally from
Isaac’s family doctor. The same thing is testified to on each occasion,
that he could no longer perform manual labor required to keep his farm operating.
He was still plowing ground by a team of horses, shocking corn, pitching hay
by a fork, and milking cows by hand. Oftentimes he would request an increase
in his pension, only to be denied because he had not provided enough proof
to justify this action. On one report the Adjutant of the War Department, responded
to the request for an increase, by saying that the “X” Isaac used
as his mark, caused them to question if he really understood what was going
on since the request was not actually in his own handwriting. You don’t
have to be a rocket scientist to see that they were playing the ole cat and
mouse game with him, but the sad part is that he volunteered when called, stayed
the course when disabled, and only asked for that which he so rightly deserved.
The years passed, Isaac’s height slipped to 5’8”, a true
representation of the burden that he carried all of his life. His weight decreased,
the doctors declared him undernourished and suffering from nervous prostration.
Then at 11:00 PM on the night of July 11, 1925, God so graciously took the “Ole
Soldier” to his final reward. Isaac died in the presence of his daughter
Bertha Ann and her husband Claude White, with whom he had been living, while
they cared for him, in Austin, Ross Co., Ohio. He died at 81 years old, not
far from where he had been born, yet a world removed from the time when he
enlisted in the service of his country. His beloved Drusilla who he had been
married to for 47 years preceded him in death on February 21, 1921. They both
are buried in the Brown’s Chapel Cemetery, near Clarksburg, Ohio. Other
family members are buried there including Isaac’s parents, two brothers
and their wives, two sisters and their husbands, a son with his wife, and an
unmarried son. I include this record of Isaac’s military service in the
genealogy files being left for our descendents. May they not forget the service
and sacrifices of those who have gone before them.
Respectfully,
Gary O. Baker Sr.
So. Charleston, Ohio
July 17, 2006