Chickamauga Ancestors

rbortega

Corporal
Joined
May 4, 2013
Does anybody know of any Civil War ancestors that were present at the Battle of Chickamauga? I recently discovered that I had five relatives who were either killed or taken prisoner in this fight.

David Greenman - 21st Wisconsin Infantry
taken Prisoner, held at Andersonville Prison, died July 13, 1864

brothers Lewis Oglevie and Oliver Oglevie - 14th Ohio Infantry
both killed in action on September 19th

John Riner - 1st Ohio Infantry
taken Prisoner, held at Andersonville Prison, released in 1865

Jasper Wilson - 78th Illinois Infantry
killed in action on September 20th
 
Does anybody know of any Civil War ancestors that were present at the Battle of Chickamauga? I recently discovered that I had five relatives who were either killed or taken prisoner in this fight.

David Greenman - 21st Wisconsin Infantry
taken Prisoner, held at Andersonville Prison, died July 13, 1864

brothers Lewis Oglevie and Oliver Oglevie - 14th Ohio Infantry
both killed in action on September 19th

John Riner - 1st Ohio Infantry
taken Prisoner, held at Andersonville Prison, released in 1865

Jasper Wilson - 78th Illinois Infantry
killed in action on September 20th

Confederate Sergeant Jacob Robin Cox & his brother, Private William Kincheloe Cox Company G 29th TN Infantry

Union : Private ( Teamster ) William Blakely & son Private James Blakely Company A 1st TN Cavalry

Confederate Private David Marion Knight Company E 39th NC Infantry ( gunshot wound )
 
Does anybody know of any Civil War ancestors that were present at the Battle of Chickamauga? I recently discovered that I had five relatives who were either killed or taken prisoner in this fight.

David Greenman - 21st Wisconsin Infantry
taken Prisoner, held at Andersonville Prison, died July 13, 1864

brothers Lewis Oglevie and Oliver Oglevie - 14th Ohio Infantry
both killed in action on September 19th

John Riner - 1st Ohio Infantry
taken Prisoner, held at Andersonville Prison, released in 1865

Jasper Wilson - 78th Illinois Infantry
killed in action on September 20th


Capt. Samuel J. Johnson, Co. K, 25th Tennessee Infantry CSA
 
My GG-Grandfather Capt. Benjamin Franklin Reed -21st Illinois Infantry, Company D.
, who was mortally wounded there.
 

Attachments

  • bf reed-2.jpg
    bf reed-2.jpg
    30.2 KB · Views: 266
2 great great uncles:
Pvt Burton Dimmett of the 42nd Indiana Infantry Co. B
Sgt Meredith Dimmett, 42nd Indiana Infantry Co. B - killed in action on Sept 20th at McDonald House

Cousins:
Pvt Benoni Dimmitt, 72nd Indiana Mtd Infantry Co. A
Pvt William Dimmitt, 72nd Indiana Mtd Infantry Co. A
Pvt Oliver Dimmitt, 10th Indiana Infantry Co. H

Alamo Dimmitt, 4th Texas Infantry Co. D
Texas Dimmitt, 8th Texas Cavalry (Terry's Rangers) Co. I
 
Last edited:
Steven T. Musselwhite, Company H, 17 Mississippi Regiment. After his regiment participated in the charge of Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade at the Peach Orchard, Gettysburg, they were sent to Chattanooga. He was wounded in battle on 20 September at Chickamauga.
 
I don’t know of a relative that was at Chickamauga, but Brigadier General Evander McNair was born a few miles from me near the small town of Laurel Hill, NC. His parent moved to Alabama when Evander was still a baby. As an adult he moved to Mississippi and then to Arkansas and when war came, led a brigade at Chickamauga from that state.
 
I am going to see if I can find the actual news story for the event at Emerson/Stegalls Station where soldiers were tossed in a ditch after the train wreck because supplies were needed in Chickamauga

http://www.mariettaga.gov/city/residents/parks/cemeteries

That year a train wreck near Emerson, Ga., not far from Allatoona Pass brought the war home for the people of this small Georgia town. The dead were buried on a hill beneath an oak tree.

As the Marietta operations began, the city prepared for inevitable dead. By then Marietta had witnessed the carnage of battle a number of times. Confederate wounded from Chickamauga were transported through the railway station at Dalton to Marietta. A number of buildings, including the Kennesaw House, served as hospitals, and the cemetery accepted its first men killed in battle.

With the launch of the Atlanta Campaign on May 4, 1864, Marietta became a major hospital town for the Confederacy, and the number of dead in the Confederate Cemetery began to rise. Burials of Confederate soldiers on the site continued until July 2, 1864, when William T. Sherman took the city
 
My avatar and gg-grand uncle, PVT Lewis Massuere of the 3rd Independent Battery, Wisconsin Volunteer Light Artillery.

Here's a vignette I wrote up about his experience at Chickamauga and posted elsewhere on the forum:

Unexpected Courage and Fortitude
“Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death.”
--General Omar Bradley

Lewis Massuere enlisted on New Year's Day, 1862, at age 19 in the 3rd Wisconsin Battery and became a driver for one of the battery's six guns. A farmer from the small town of Arcadia in southwestern Wisconsin, he was a quiet, rather unassuming lad who, according to family lore, probably preferred to be with the horses rather than with his rough & tumble battery mates. (In recognition of his good rapport with the animals, Private Massuere was put in charge of the battery’s horses after Chickamauga when the surviving animals were sent to Stevenson, Alabama to prevent their starvation during the "siege of Chattanooga".) As explained in the following excerpt from the biography of a 3rd Wisconsin Battery gunner, however, Massuere showed himself capable of unsuspected bravery and compassion toward his fellow soldier:

"During the battle of Chickamauga, owing to the giving way of a part of the Union line, the battery was flanked, horses and gunners being slaughtered like sheep. An Enfield rifle ball struck the joint of [Private Ira] Smith's right shoulder, passed through the chest and came out under the left collar bone. Unable longer to hold their position, two comrades seized him and ran with him until the blood so choked him that he lost all strength, and then left him. Another comrade, L. D. Masseure [sic], coming along, caught Mr. Smith by the heels, threw him across his shoulder and ran as fast as he could. Just then a loose horse dashed by; Masseure seized it by the bridle, putting our subject across its back like a sack of meal and hurried away for some two miles. This thorough shaking relieved his lungs and was probably the means of saving his life. He was placed in a hospital where he remained thirteen weeks...
"Mr. Smith says that he owes his life to Mr. Masseure and the friendship which feels for him amounts almost to brotherly love. Masseure showed a magnaminity [sic] which his comrades thought him incapable of, and not a half hour before the ranks gave way Mr. Smith refused him when he offered his services to supply a vacancy at the gun, because, like others, he believed that Masseure did not possess the courage and fortitude for the place."(1)​

Note:
(1) Portrait and Biographical Album of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, Acme Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890. Pages 407 – 409​
 
My ancestor's regiment was in camp near Talledega, Alabama, awaiting exchange (they were surrendered at Vicksburg and placed under Parole). Later they arrived in the Chattanooga area in enough time for a couple of companies to participate in the battle for Lookout Mountain, under the personal assurances of Jefferson Davis that they had been exchanged but the paperwork was just catching up with them. Grant knew they hadn't yet been exchanged, and was quite upset to find out that units he had captured and paroled at Vicksburg were fighting against him at Chattanooga - one of the reaons he later gave for ending the exchange system.
 
Union:

James Arwine (1799- ) Enlisted 30 August 1862 as a Sergeant, Co. H, 82nd Indiana Infantry. Discharged as Sergeant, 12 November 1864. Had previously served as a Sergeant in Co. B, the “Brown County Blues,” 3rd Indiana Volunteers in the Mexican War.
3rd Great Grand Uncle

James Nicholas Arwine (1842-1921) Enlisted 30 August 1862 as a Corporal in Co. H, 82nd Indiana Infantry. Mustered out 9 June 1865. (James’ son)
1st Cousin 4x removed

Jesse Arwine (1838-1915) Enlisted 30 August 1862 in Co. H, 82nd Indiana Infantry. Mustered out 9 June 1865. (James’ son)
1st Cousin 4x removed

Thomas Eli Shellbark Fleetwood (1847-1931) Enlisted 30 August 1862 in Co. H, 82nd Indiana Infantry. Mustered out 9 June 1865.
2nd Great Grand Uncle


Confederate:

Clinton McKamy Winkler (1821-1882) Captain, Co. I "The Navarro Rifles," 4th Texas Infantry, Hood's Texas Brigade, Longstreet's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. At the Battle he was serving as a Major, having been breveted on July 21, 1863 in the 4th Texas.
 
My relatives went in these regiments that were in the opening action at Reed's Bridge. At this time I have been unable to verify if they were all there, captured or had died. Cavalry records seem hard to come by.

Riley & Jesse Hammons Tenth Tennessee Cavalry (GGUncle & Cousin).
Joseph Hammons First Georgia Cavalry (GGUncle)
Isaac Jeffers Sixteenth Batallion Tennessee Cavalry (GGgrandpa)
 
Pvt Goulder Fields Hopper - Company C, 28th Alabama Infantry - GGG Grandfather
Polk's Corps, Hindman's Division, Manigault's Brigade

Pvt Joel Green Yates - Company L, Avery's 4th Georgia Cavalry - GGG Grandfather
Wheeler's Corps, Wharton's Division, 1st Brigade under Col Charles C. Crews

Cpl Samuel D. Drinkard - Company E, 1st Alabama Cavalry (Hundley's old 12th Battalion) - GGG Grandfather
Pvt Thompson R. Drinkard - Company E, 1st Alabama Cavalry (Hundley's old 12th Battalion) - GGG Grand-uncle
Pvt John T. Drinkard - Company E, 1st Alabama Cavalry (Hundley's old 12th Battalion) - GGG Grand-uncle
Pvt Hezekiah Frost - Company E, 1st Alabama Cavalry (Hundley's old 12th Battalion) - GGG Grandfather
Wheeler's Cavalry Corps, Martin's Division, 1st Brigade under Col John T. Morgan

While I can't say for certain that they were actually in battle, I can tell you that their regiments were there. And during the time period, they were shown as present for roll call.

The following ancestors moved with Longstreet to Georgia but were not engaged at Chickamauga

Pvt David Daly Ford, Company K, 18th Georgia Infantry - GGG Grandfather (wounded and captured @ Cold Harbor)
Pvt John G. Ford, Company K, 18th Georgia Infantry - GGG Grand-uncle (captured @ Knoxville)

Actually, this is the extent of my known confederate ancestors. The only other Civil War ancestors I have are two GGG Grandfathers who fought for the Union. But neither of them were at Chickamauga and therefore off topic for this discussion.

This is my first post and hope that my presence here is pleasant for all of you as well as myself.

Tim Newman
 
2 great great uncles:
Pvt Burton Dimmett of the 42nd Indiana Infantry Co. B
Sgt Meredith Dimmett, 42nd Indiana Infantry Co. B - killed in action on Sept 20th at McDonald House

Cousins:
Pvt Benoni Dimmitt, 72nd Indiana Mtd Infantry Co. A
Pvt William Dimmitt, 72nd Indiana Mtd Infantry Co. A
Pvt Oliver Dimmitt, 10th Indiana Infantry Co. H

Alamo Dimmitt, 4th Texas Infantry Co. D
Texas Dimmitt, 8th Texas Cavalry (Terry's Rangers) Co. I

Alamo and Texas Dimmitt. You just gotta love it!
 
Steven T. Musselwhite, Company H, 17 Mississippi Regiment. After his regiment participated in the charge of Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade at the Peach Orchard, Gettysburg, they were sent to Chattanooga. He was wounded in battle on 20 September at Chickamauga.
My g-grandfather Billy P., also in the 17th Mississippi. Was crippled a few months later at Knoxville and out for the war.
 
I had two GGG Uncles that fought at Chickamauga - Captain William A. Harper, Company D, 6th Mississippi Infantry, and Private William C. Godwin, Company D, 13th Mississippi Infantry. Both men survived the battle and the war, although Godwin was captured at Fort Sanders in November 1863 and spent the rest of the war in a prison camp.
 
Pvt Goulder Fields Hopper - Company C, 28th Alabama Infantry - GGG Grandfather
Polk's Corps, Hindman's Division, Manigault's Brigade

Pvt Joel Green Yates - Company L, Avery's 4th Georgia Cavalry - GGG Grandfather
Wheeler's Corps, Wharton's Division, 1st Brigade under Col Charles C. Crews

Cpl Samuel D. Drinkard - Company E, 1st Alabama Cavalry (Hundley's old 12th Battalion) - GGG Grandfather
Pvt Thompson R. Drinkard - Company E, 1st Alabama Cavalry (Hundley's old 12th Battalion) - GGG Grand-uncle
Pvt John T. Drinkard - Company E, 1st Alabama Cavalry (Hundley's old 12th Battalion) - GGG Grand-uncle
Pvt Hezekiah Frost - Company E, 1st Alabama Cavalry (Hundley's old 12th Battalion) - GGG Grandfather
Wheeler's Cavalry Corps, Martin's Division, 1st Brigade under Col John T. Morgan

While I can't say for certain that they were actually in battle, I can tell you that their regiments were there. And during the time period, they were shown as present for roll call.

The following ancestors moved with Longstreet to Georgia but were not engaged at Chickamauga

Pvt David Daly Ford, Company K, 18th Georgia Infantry - GGG Grandfather (wounded and captured @ Cold Harbor)
Pvt John G. Ford, Company K, 18th Georgia Infantry - GGG Grand-uncle (captured @ Knoxville)

Actually, this is the extent of my known confederate ancestors. The only other Civil War ancestors I have are two GGG Grandfathers who fought for the Union. But neither of them were at Chickamauga and therefore off topic for this discussion.

This is my first post and hope that my presence here is pleasant for all of you as well as myself.

Tim Newman

Welcome and Thanks for your contribution.
 
Back
Top