PA Joseph Winters

[David Ireland]

This may not be interesting to most, nor is it extraordinary, but I want to post this both to honor him and to help relatives find it. This is my great great grandfather's grave in Shoemaker Cemetery in Dalton, PA, taken on Veteran's Day 2018.

He was in the 56th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and saw action from November 1864 through the surrender at Appomattox and the Grand Review of the Armies.

We don't know if the stories are true, but family hearsay has it that he lied about his age to get into the army and was at Gettysburg driving a wagon train when the Confederate artillery barrage started landing near him, which scared him. We also have the story told that he was at Wilderness and said that it was worse than Gettysburg, joking (?) that, "I invented running that day, except back then they called it desertion." There is no way to confirm this that I am aware of, short of buying his service record, but I have been told it is unlikely he fought prior to his being drafted in September 1864. I have not been able to find out anything further about his life or relatives, but family story has it that he had a brother named either William or Edward, who also fought to save the Union, and that Joseph settled in Tunkhannock after the war. His son, George, who had a job as a lineman for ATT Bell during WWI in Binghamton, NY, qualifying him for a draft exemption and allowing him to support the neighborhood during the Great Depression, bought him a pocket watch, and is one of my most prized possessions. I have posted a picture of it elsewhere here.

Any suggestions on how to get to the bottom of this are appreciated.

Also, does anyone have a picture of the 56th or know where one may be found?

 

[lelliott19]

[North Branch Democrat. (Tunkhannock, Pa.), October 05, 1864, page 2.]

The roster of Company B, 56th Pennsylvania says that many men who served in that Company were recruited in Indiana County, PA. If I've got the right Winters family, according to the 1860 US census, Joseph was living in Exeter, Wyoming County; and according to the newspaper article, in 1864, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA. His father Robert was born in New York; his mother Abbie was born in PA. Brother George, age 19, was married within the year - apparently to Mary age 17. Joseph and Lucy were attending school. Emily age 4, was not yet attending school.

 

[David Ireland]

View attachment 348770
[North Branch Democrat. (Tunkhannock, Pa.), October 05, 1864, page 2.]

The roster of Company B, 56th Pennsylvania says that many men who served in that Company were recruited in Indiana County, PA. If I've got the right Winters family, according to the 1860 US census, Joseph was living in Exeter, Wyoming County; and according to the newspaper article, in 1864, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA. His father Robert was born in New York; his mother Abbie was born in PA. Brother George, age 19, was married within the year - apparently to Mary age 17. Joseph and Lucy were attending school. Emily age 4, was not yet attending school.
View attachment 348773

Thank you so much!! Now I finally know his family's names. Any idea whether George also served?

 

[David Ireland]

View attachment 348770
[North Branch Democrat. (Tunkhannock, Pa.), October 05, 1864, page 2.]

The roster of Company B, 56th Pennsylvania says that many men who served in that Company were recruited in Indiana County, PA. If I've got the right Winters family, according to the 1860 US census, Joseph was living in Exeter, Wyoming County; and according to the newspaper article, in 1864, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA. His father Robert was born in New York; his mother Abbie was born in PA. Brother George, age 19, was married within the year - apparently to Mary age 17. Joseph and Lucy were attending school. Emily age 4, was not yet attending school.
View attachment 348773

This is incredibly helpful. Family legend has it that his brother was also in the war and that afterward he went out west and was never heard from again. Does anyone know how I could verify that?

 

[David Ireland]

UPDATE! It seems like we have another clue for his brother William Winters (not mentioned on the census report above). I wonder if any of the fine detectives on this thread would be interested in another mystery.

William Winters | Questions? Ask Here! No Stone Left Unturned!

I’ve posted here before about my great great grandfather, Joseph Winters, of the 56th PA. We had always heard that he had a brother named William who also was in the war, and who went out West and became a degenerate gambler after the war, but couldn’t verify this. My cousin recently found this...

civilwartalk.com

 

[David Ireland]

View attachment 348770
[North Branch Democrat. (Tunkhannock, Pa.), October 05, 1864, page 2.]

The roster of Company B, 56th Pennsylvania says that many men who served in that Company were recruited in Indiana County, PA. If I've got the right Winters family, according to the 1860 US census, Joseph was living in Exeter, Wyoming County; and according to the newspaper article, in 1864, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA. His father Robert was born in New York; his mother Abbie was born in PA. Brother George, age 19, was married within the year - apparently to Mary age 17. Joseph and Lucy were attending school. Emily age 4, was not yet attending school.
View attachment 348773

Any idea whether George or Robert also served? Why would they have recruited Joseph from Indiana County when he lived so far away from there? Did they frequently have new recruits transferred to regiments that were not originally from the area the new recruits came from?

Interestingly, PACivilWar shows that the 57th PA WAS recruited from Wyoming County. Indulge me: I wonder if that has to do with the story that he is said to have told (double hearsay) that he was at Wilderness. This is a far fetched theory and one which is unprovable, but he allegedly lied to get into the army, which is weird a weird story to have been passed down given that we know he was drafted in 1864. The simplest explanation is that that story got lost in translation.

A fantastical plot twist is that he could have lied about his name and then deserted like he allegedly said he did at Wilderness, made it back, and then gotten drafted into the 56th. Am I making too much out of the place of recruitment? It just seems odd to me that he was recruited so far away from his home and that the very next PA regiment was recruited from the east bum f$&@ area he was from. I can't imagine how they could have one regiment from that backwater area, let alone several regiments and then still have enough men left on the farms to fill other regiments from different counties.

Another question: why would the census reflect that he had a brother named George, but not that he had one named William (see above)? He did name his son George, which would make sense, but why not tell the recruiter about another brother? Was it common for census workers to not write down the names of other military aged men in the new recruits' families? How accurate were the censuses usually?

These are probably details all lost to time, but I do enjoy trying to make sense of the stories that have come down. I'm the family historian, and I want to discover as much as possible and preserve it for future generations.

 

[David Ireland]

View attachment 348770
[North Branch Democrat. (Tunkhannock, Pa.), October 05, 1864, page 2.]

The roster of Company B, 56th Pennsylvania says that many men who served in that Company were recruited in Indiana County, PA. If I've got the right Winters family, according to the 1860 US census, Joseph was living in Exeter, Wyoming County; and according to the newspaper article, in 1864, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA. His father Robert was born in New York; his mother Abbie was born in PA. Brother George, age 19, was married within the year - apparently to Mary age 17. Joseph and Lucy were attending school. Emily age 4, was not yet attending school.
View attachment 348773

How would I find out more about Robert and Abby?

 

[David Ireland]

View attachment 348770
[North Branch Democrat. (Tunkhannock, Pa.), October 05, 1864, page 2.]

The roster of Company B, 56th Pennsylvania says that many men who served in that Company were recruited in Indiana County, PA. If I've got the right Winters family, according to the 1860 US census, Joseph was living in Exeter, Wyoming County; and according to the newspaper article, in 1864, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA. His father Robert was born in New York; his mother Abbie was born in PA. Brother George, age 19, was married within the year - apparently to Mary age 17. Joseph and Lucy were attending school. Emily age 4, was not yet attending school.
View attachment 348773

View attachment 348770
[North Branch Democrat. (Tunkhannock, Pa.), October 05, 1864, page 2.]

The roster of Company B, 56th Pennsylvania says that many men who served in that Company were recruited in Indiana County, PA. If I've got the right Winters family, according to the 1860 US census, Joseph was living in Exeter, Wyoming County; and according to the newspaper article, in 1864, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA. His father Robert was born in New York; his mother Abbie was born in PA. Brother George, age 19, was married within the year - apparently to Mary age 17. Joseph and Lucy were attending school. Emily age 4, was not yet attending school.
View attachment 348773

This person found two Georges, but I don't know how to tell if they are the same George you mentioned.
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/more-research-on-union-soldiers.165012/post-2158189

 

[David Ireland]

View attachment 348770
[North Branch Democrat. (Tunkhannock, Pa.), October 05, 1864, page 2.]

The roster of Company B, 56th Pennsylvania says that many men who served in that Company were recruited in Indiana County, PA. If I've got the right Winters family, according to the 1860 US census, Joseph was living in Exeter, Wyoming County; and according to the newspaper article, in 1864, in Tunkhannock, Wyoming County, PA. His father Robert was born in New York; his mother Abbie was born in PA. Brother George, age 19, was married within the year - apparently to Mary age 17. Joseph and Lucy were attending school. Emily age 4, was not yet attending school.
View attachment 348773

Here's another piece of mysterious records. This person found him on the 1850 census, but his father's name is John, and he does have a brother named George. None named William though.

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/more-research-on-union-soldiers.165012/post-2158175