Looking for records of a Union Sergeant W.C. Carson

OldSarge79

Sergeant
Joined
Jul 12, 2017
Location
Pisgah Forest, North Carolina
Research on one of my Confederate ancestors revealed a newspaper article in August 1861, which identified the Union scout who captured him at Charleston, Missouri, as "Sgt. W.C. Carson of Chicago, an orderly on General Prentiss' staff."
Despite my best efforts, I cannot find anything further on this Union sergeant. There are too many possibilities named Carson. Frankly, I don't know where to begin in trying to identify General Prentiss' staff in that time period.

Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
General Prentiss in 1861 was with the 10th Ill. I have a roster of all the men in the 10th, but there is no record of a WC Carson. I also scanned the database for any W C Carson but also no records.
 
General Prentiss in 1861 was with the 10th Ill. I have a roster of all the men in the 10th, but there is no record of a WC Carson. I also scanned the database for any W C Carson but also no records.
Thanks. I can't find him in the Official Record either, but it would be probable that, being from Chicago, he would be in an Illinois regiment. I'm intrigued by the word "staff," although it could have been stretched by a civilian reporter to simply mean serving under.
There is an article about the incident from a second newspaper, which reports Carson as being "of General Prentiss' Brigade, from Chicago, often employed by the general on account of his well known bravery......with two other scouts detailed from Col. Lawler's regiment, at Bird's Point."
I can't find him in census records before or after the war. It would appear that someone got his name or initials wrong.
Do we know what regiments were under Prentiss in mid-August, 1861?
 
Last edited:
Here are the two newspaper articles. As you can see, many words in the second article were not readable.
Scan0130.jpg
Scan0131.jpg
 
I tried to do some looking on the NPS Database, but there really are just too many Carsons and I couldn't find anyone with those initials from Illinois in the Union army. :frown:
 
I tried to do some looking on the NPS Database, but there really are just too many Carsons and I couldn't find anyone with those initials from Illinois in the Union army. :frown:
Thanks for covering that area of research. I was trying to figure out a way to do that.
Even though one of the newspapers got my ancestor's name spelled wrong, both newspapers had exactly the same name and initials for Carson, so if his name was actually spelled differently, I suppose it could be that the "press release" may have been sloppily written, and perhaps the name looked like W.C. Carson. Maybe it was actually M.C. Cason or some other variation. Unfortunately there is no hint of the identity of the other two men who went with him.
 
Back
Top