Looking for a Confederate Soldier, 55th Georgia, First Name Unknown

Check out the wife's obit - seems 17 year old Lemuel rose through the ranks fast! :rofl:

LemuelParkWidowObit.png
 
I'm not as good with Confederate records as I am with Union ones. Is there a way to tell if he was drafted? I suspect he was.
He shows up on a document from Meriwether County, Georgia (where the family lived in Greenville). It was a list of men eligiuble for the reorganization of the GA Militia. He's listed as:

Park, M. Lem. 17 yrs 1 mo. Farmer born Georgia

That would have made him subject to conscription, though the CSA card doesn't say one way or the other.
 
First wife would have been the woman cited in the 1878 passport application in NYC. Second wife he married in Georgia in 1894. I'm sure his being a colonel was his UCV rank - but the obit does say he was a Confederate officer which I'm sure is not true.

He had a son, Arthur, who was big into genealogy - lots of SAR records and Colonial families etc. That may be part of what is in the records at Emory.
 
I don't know if this will be of any use to you in your research, but the newspaper VARDAMAN'S WEEKLY (Jackson, Mississippi) September 11, 1913, has an interview with Confederate Chaplain A. Gordon Bakewell concerning the inspection tour he made of Andersonville in 1864 to see if any of the soldiers stationed there who claimed to be sick were malingering and could be sent to the front. This paper has been digitized and is available through Newspapers.com.
 
I don't know if this will be of any use to you in your research, but the newspaper VARDAMAN'S WEEKLY (Jackson, Mississippi) September 11, 1913, has an interview with Confederate Chaplain A. Gordon Bakewell concerning the inspection tour he made of Andersonville in 1864 to see if any of the soldiers stationed there who claimed to be sick were malingering and could be sent to the front. This paper has been digitized and is available through Newspapers.com.
Wow, thank you for the tip! It seems very strange that they'd give that duty to a chaplain, but I guess you were much more likely to be honest with him than with your CO...
 
Theres also some articles in GA newspapers from Lem Park. I didnt suggest him in post #13 with the others because he seemed so biased. Figured you wanted a more neutral ex-guard. Ill find them again and post the links.
 
I didn't suggest him in post #13 with the others because he seemed so biased. Figured you wanted a more neutral ex-guard. Ill find them again and post the links.
All of them say things that I question, but the point of the book is to tell stories that don't generally get told, and that's the case with any of the guards. Park is absolutely biased, as one would expect. He also is uncommonly vocal in his opinions, and on a variety of topics - provisions, water quality, the dead line, Wirz, lack of shelter, Providence Spring, bloodhounds. If you're wondering how the guards rationalized their prison experiences, I don't think anyone rationalized it in print more than Park. He may not be neutral, but he is, I think, authentic.

That said, I also think he is lying, and I seriously doubt that he'd go into the stockade to drink the water like he says he did in the Caucasian article, and he seems to misrepresent his age by a couple of years, but I'll point these things out in the chapter.

I'm still open to finding another guard to focus on, but at least for now, I know that I'll have enough material for the guard chapter when I get to it - one way or another.
 
I'm really intrigued by Park's time in NYC - an unlikely place for a Georgia boy to end up just after the Civil War. The rest of his life all fits the usual patterns. I wish I could find him in NY records.
 
You might try researching in the counties that the 55th Georgia drew its men from. One of my ancestors was in the 55th, and involved in a scandal, leaving the army when his one-year enlistment was over, before they were assigned as guards at Andersonville. I have a biography on him you could have used if he had remained in the 55th long enough to have been at Andersonville.

Most of the regiment was captured at Cumberland Gap, I think in 1862, before the remnants and those exchanged were sent to Andersonville. My ancestor and many others in the 55th were from Randolph County. It would be easy enough to find out what other counties they were from.

ALSO, I was in contact with a descendant of my ancestor's captain, (Turner Ball), also of Randolph County. He used to be on CWT at "GaConfederate", but inactive since 2012. His ancestor may have been at Andersonville. I'll see if I can find his contact info. It should be around here somewhere.
I have an ancestor who was in the 55th GA. Inf. William Hugh Daniel. Many in that Regiment were related by blood or marriage.
Captured at Cumberland Gap in 1863. Paroled after the war in 1865. I found on line a list of the members and their outcomes with dates of parole or deaths. It seems those captured were not paroled and there were some who refused surrender and those are the guards at Camp Sumpter and camps in South Carolina. I think.
There is an illustration of a 55th GA private. He wears the Confederate Sack Coat and is barefoot. Rough sketch made at Cumberland Gap if I remember correctly.
William moved to Texas after the war and died of Tuberculosis leaving my G Grandfather an orphan at 6.
 
A large portion of the 55th Regt Ga Infy was captured at Cumberland Gap, Tenn. That portion of the Regt on detached service & detailed to hospitals, having been ordered by the Sec of War as Guards to prisons, was organized with three Co’s as follows. Co B. was composed of remnants of Co’s F, G, & I under command of Lt Thornton, assisted by Lt. Etheridge & Jr. 2nd Lt. J. N. Jackson by order of A. W. Parsons, Col Cdg Post. (Ref. Making of America)
 
A large portion of the 55th Regt Ga Infy was captured at Cumberland Gap, Tenn. That portion of the Regt on detached service & detailed to hospitals, having been ordered by the Sec of War as Guards to prisons, was organized with three Co’s as follows. Co B. was composed of remnants of Co’s F, G, & I under command of Lt Thornton, assisted by Lt. Etheridge & Jr. 2nd Lt. J. N. Jackson by order of A. W. Parsons, Col Cdg Post. (Ref. Making of America)
Thanks for the info. Great job!
 
I'm glad this thread rose to the surface, as I missed it when it was first brewed.

Awesome crowd-sourcing research by all involved!
The funny thing is, after all of this time, I STILL haven't come up with a guard that I feel like I can use for the book. Lemuel Park left a lot of detailed information, but he also gets defensive and says things like "There was nothing wrong with the water inside the stockade, it was crystal clear and I could go in and drink from in any time I wanted." When he says stuff like that, he blows his credibility for pretty much everything else that he says.

Oh well, I'm off to Andersonville again this weekend. Maybe I'll find one while I'm at the POW Museum. I'm leading a raiders-themed tour of the prison site for the National Park Service Sunday at 10 - the 157th anniversary of the hanging. If anyone is in the area, feel free to stop in and introduce yourself!

https://www.walb.com/2021/07/04/and...ic-site-host-special-tour-former-camp-sumter/
 
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