Need help finding 2 ancestors

[RFMCab]

Hey everyone! I have 2 ancestors that I want a little more info about from the war. Both of them are my great-great-great grandfathers, both on mom's side. The first is the one I am most sure about. His name was Robert E. Wilson, and he was in the 44th Alabama Regiment, Company C. For him I just want to know why he was discharged (Entered the war in '61, but had a kid in '64) and if there are any available records of engagements he participated in. The second one is James A. Massey. My research on him is more or less shady. There WAS a James A. Massey in the 38th Alabama, which recruited men from his county, but I am not so sure it is him as I am Robert. Also, there is no marker at his grave for any service unlike Robert. Really any info on James will help. A little extra info:

Robert E. Wilson: Born 26 September 1826, Spartanburg, Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Died 25 December 1890, Odenville, St. Clair County, Alabama

James A. Massey: Born 25 March 1819, Wake County, North Carolina. Died 29 January 1904, Franklin County, Alabama

 

[Nathan Stuart]

His name was Robert E. Wilson, and he was in the 44th Alabama Regiment, Company C. For him I just want to know why he was discharged (Entered the war in '61, but had a kid in '64)

A little extra information re Pvte. Robert E. Wilson, Co. C, 44th AL Infantry.

The 44th AL was organized in Selma on May 16, '62, and surrendered on Apr. 9, '65 at Appomattox Court House.

The CW service history of the 44th AL is summarized at the link below:-

44th Alabama Infantry Regiment

History of the 44th Alabama Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War

civilwarintheeast.com

(His son, James R. Wilson, was born on Apr. 4, '64).

Looks like Pvte. Wilson saw out the war, as a soldier of the AoNV who was paroled at Appomattox Court House. (See
https://civilwarintheeast.com/confederate-regiments/alabama/44th-alabama-infantry/#google_vignette ).

 

[Stryker65]

To confirm what @Nathan Stuart said, the following are listed under the roster of Company C, 44th Alabama soldiers paroled at Appomattox:

 

[lupaglupa]

Robert Wilson has a large number of cards at Fold3 (these are also available at the National Archives if you do not have access to Fold3). He was in the hospital in Virginia quite a bit early in the war. He was sent home on a sick furlough in June of 1863 (which explains the 1864 child). Robert evidently stayed home longer than he was supposed to but did return. In February of 1864 he was detailed to work as a shoemaker - is that something he did before the war?

It's rare to find any notations of which battles a soldier took part in, unless they were wounded there. Robert appears to have been sick during a lot of his service, which was not unusual. You could figure out when he was with his company and see which engagements they fought in during that time, but there's no guarantee Robert actually fought, especially if he were ill. He may have been sent to do shoemaking because he had not fully recovered from his ailments.

The surrenders at Appomattox were done by officers handing in lists of men, not by individuals giving their own names. We know that not all of the men on those lists were present (they can be found elsewhere). So while Robert is listed as being there you can't be certain of it.

Have you looked at for a pension application filed by him or his wife? Those often have additional information.

 

[lupaglupa]

Unfortunately none of the information I see on the James Massey who served in the 38th give his age or birthplace. Since he lived until 1904 he should have gotten a pension - have you looked for that?

 

[RFMCab]

Robert Wilson has a large number of cards at Fold3 (these are also available at the National Archives if you do not have access to Fold3). He was in the hospital in Virginia quite a bit early in the war. He was sent home on a sick furlough in June of 1863 (which explains the 1864 child). Robert evidently stayed home longer than he was supposed to but did return. In February of 1864 he was detailed to work as a shoemaker - is that something he did before the war?

It's rare to find any notations of which battles a soldier took part in, unless they were wounded there. Robert appears to have been sick during a lot of his service, which was not unusual. You could figure out when he was with his company and see which engagements they fought in during that time, but there's no guarantee Robert actually fought, especially if he were ill. He may have been sent to do shoemaking because he had not fully recovered from his ailments.

The surrenders at Appomattox were done by officers handing in lists of men, not by individuals giving their own names. We know that not all of the men on those lists were present (they can be found elsewhere). So while Robert is listed as being there you can't be certain of it.

Have you looked at for a pension application filed by him or his wife? Those often have additional information.

I have tried to look for a pension, but cannot find one. Do you have any idea of a place to look?

 

[Tom Elmore]

Apart from periodic hospitalization in Richmond hospitals and at Palmyra hospital near Charlottesville, Robert Wilson was detailed as a shoemaker from 1 January to 31 May 1864, most likely at the shoemaking facility in Richmond. His recorded ailments during the war included: chronic nephritis, chronic bronchitis, chronic rheumatism and diarrhea (from his service records, Fold3).

Skilled tradesmen were needed to make shoes, and so with the coming of war, centers of manufacturing were established to meet the huge demand of footware in the standing armies. For soldiers in the South, two such centers were located in Richmond, Virginia, and Columbus, Georgia.

Company C, 44th Alabama, the "Cedar Creek Guards," was composed of men from Dallas, Butler and Wilcox counties, and was organized at Snow Hill, Alabama in March 1862. Robert Wilson's name appears on the original muster roll. (Deep South Genealogical Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 4, published 1995 by the Mobile Genealogical Society, Mobile, Alabama)

 

[lupaglupa]

I would recommend you read this post on finding Confederate pension records -it's very helpful:

Confederate Pensions, Confederate Pension Files - GopherRecords.com

Many Confederate veterans did receive pensions and those pension files are very useful for family researchers.

gopherrecords.com

Specific information on Alabama can be found here:

Online Confederate Records, Confederate Service and Pension Records - GopherRecords.com

Records about Confederate soldiers are certainly less prevalent than those for their Union counterparts. But many more Confederate records exist than are widely known and many of those records are online.

gopherrecords.com

Ancestry has a database of Alabama Civil War pensions. I checked there and did not find a record for Robert in St. Clair County. Did he lives there continuously after the war? I didn't find any records for James Massey.