Can someone confirm or debunk? Lincoln bodyguard.

Allie

Captain
Joined
Dec 17, 2014
This guy is a direct ancestor of my husband. Family tradition says he was one of Lincoln's bodyguards. I found a booklet passed around in the family and traced the information in it back to this published 1909 history of Sullivan County, Indiana.

The information here looks too specific to be made up, but I'm not having any luck confirming it. There is no Stephen, Steven, or S (middle initial should be A) Hyatt or Hiatt (was spelled both ways) in the unit specified, although there are two Stephen A Hiatts who served in Indiana. In addition, I can't find Stephen b. 1836 (his father's name was Christopher or Christian) in 1850, 1860, or 1880 censuses. The Stephen born 1827 is a different person with an entirely different family. I can find the right Stephen with wife America in 1900, but not earlier.

This biography is wrong on at least one detail - Stephen A Hiatt was not a native of Sullivan county, he was born in Holmes county, Ohio. So I tried looking in Ohio for a service record and didn't find a likely one there either.

Can anyone find anything to corroborate any of this?

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Edit: just noticed the published source unlike the booklet I've been working from says Illinois infantry! That might explain a lot, checking now.
 
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Well, there's a Stephen "Hiat" or "Hiett" in co. H of the 91st Illinois, but not one in the right company.

I think the company in the 1909 book may be in error - here's the muster roll of co. H as per Archives.org, and the dates match. But this doesn't get us any forwarder as far as confirming the Lincoln story, and I can' t find this guy in Greene county Illinois (that's where this record says he is from) either.

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So far, everything I can check out is just slightly wrong.
 
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