Requesting help with ancestor please......

[Sheltowee]

So you found a great great grand uncle who was a confederate veteran- that's a good day's work! Well done sir.

Kentucky was rife with a lot of irregulars- marauders, guerillas, etc. Quite possible Eli was aligned in that capacity. But likely no regular documents were maintained- so probably no paper trail.

After 160 years, we can do little more than speculate.

 

[Story]

It is a family rumor that my grandfather's grandfather was in the civil war. He was from Carter County Kentucky. His name is Eli/Elijah Williams born 1822, died 1908. A cousin said that he joined a confederate cavalry unit. Another cousin said that he went to Ohio and joined the union army. I have found the name Elijah Williams on two confederate cavalry rosters. But the date of birth is not given. Could anyone given some assistance in this matter.

Thank you very much,

Lonnie R. Clemens

Proper way to request help, Lonnie. Others could learn from your template.

 

[Story]

Don't mean to sound crass, but I really am beginning to wonder if Doswell really served. I'll leave it there…… just kind of bizarre.

Just a general reminder, but as the Confederate Army unraveled in 1865 many units deliberately disposed of their records so as to avoid the unpleasantness of having to sign Loyalty Oaths with the Federals.

Many of the Confederate Regiment rosters found in FOLD3 were reconstructed by former unit officers a couple of decades after the war by memory, relying on writing campaigns along the lines of "can you remember who was in your Company?".

So some Kentucky windage as far as accurate names is to be expected.

 

[Story]

According to the application, your ancestor died on the 14th of May 1863 (having been discharged a day earlier). I'm not up on Mississippi military (or any military to be honest): what was the 8th doing on that day? If it were in battle, there may be information available there).

Fairfield makes a point here.

Think about this - particularly every time a relic hunter gloats about finding bones and not reporting them.
Approximately one in four soldiers that went to war never returned home. At the outset of the war, neither army had mechanisms in place to handle the amount of death that the nation was about to experience. There were no national cemeteries, no burial details, and no messengers of loss.

Civil War Casualties

Roughly 2% of the population, an estimated 620,000 men, lost their lives in the line of duty during the Civil War. Taken as a percentage of today's population, the toll would have risen as high as 6 million souls.

www.battlefields.org

So what does that mean?

Just another anonymous corpse in a mass grave?

Just another shattered psyche that could not return to the life he had before the war - change name, drift with the wind?

After the Civil War, there were thousands of men missing. Clara Barton took it upon herself to spearhead the search for missing Union soldiers. She received over 63,000 requests for help and ultimately located over 22,000 missing men, dead and alive.

Rolls of Missing Men - Clara Barton Barton Missing Soldiers Office

Thousands of desperate families came to the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office looking for loved ones who went missing during the Civil War.

www.civilwarmed.org

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I would like thank everyone for their assistance with research on Grandpa Eli/Elijah Williams.

You're quite welcome !

We love trying to help solve mysteries.
Moreover, this site has so many experts in various fields of expertise, it's actually unusual if members can't provide new information.

My favorite mystery was a question about a unique CW era uniform button/ cap insignia.
After some quick collaborative research, it was proven said artifact was from a 1860's Venezuela Navy uniform .



True story !