John & Charles Brouse Father and Son in the 100th Indiana Infantry

[virginiayankee]

For the last year or so I have been researching Charles W. Brouse of the 100th Indiana Infantry who received the Medal of Honor for his actions at the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863. As part of my research I discovered that his father, John Brouse, was serving as chaplain of the regiment at the same time. I was wondering if anyone else had encountered cases of a father and son serving together in the same unit during the Civil War?

[hoosier]

I can't name any specific cases offhand, but I'm sure there must have been some.

Accounts of the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam) tell of an incident where Gen. Robert E. Lee encountered his own son, serving as an artilleryman at the battle. The younger Lee was so begrimed from his duties that the General failed to recognize him at first, until his son said something like, "Why, Father, don't you know me?"

It's also likely that there were cases where a father served on one side and a son on the other. There's a song called "Shiloh Hill" (a contemporary song with a Civil War theme), in which the singer is supposed to be a Union soldier at the battle of Shiloh. The song builds to a climax when the young soldier shoots and kills a Confederate officer and then says, "I saw the face of my dear father, dressed in bloody gray."

Though the song does not specifically identify the soldier or his father, I would suspect that, tragically, similar incidents did happen during the Civil War.

[johan_steele]

I have read recently of an example where a father and son were killed in the same battle. The son was a drummer boy and the father an NCO, father was killed and son mortally wounded while going to his fallen father. I believe the battle was Chickamauga.

Another case was a Drummer boy wounded and cheering on his comrades in their attack. His father or older brother went looking for him the next morning and found him dieing... both of his legs had been shot away. But there were tournquits on the wounds and he had a second canteen next to him. When he was asked who had given him the second canteen he pointed to his "sleeping friend." A CS soldier who had been disembowled... he had crawled fifty feet or so to tourniquit the boys legs and gave him his water. There were angels out there.

There are several cases where you will find family members in the same comapny or Regiment. One Company of the 1st MN that was mauled at Gettysburg cost a small town in Minnesota all but three of it's young men... the town did not survive the war.

[johan_steele]

A Union soldier was berated by his Captain for not taking down a Confederate Officer that was in his sights... "I couldn't kill my Copain." The two had served together in the Crimea. Copain is a term equivelant to battle buddy.

Men knew each other... friends and family.

[jenna]

http://www.hal-pc.org/~jsb/page11.html

This link is to a Wisconsin family's letters home during the war. There were two brothers and a cousin who all served for a time together in one unit. It is a fascinating site, with allot of reading. And I do mean allot. The family was fortunate enough that the relatives saved all the letters and were willing to put them out there for everyone.