My great great grandfather was from Illinois and was a Union soldier during the Civil War. I've seen some of his discharge documents online, he was mustered out and reupped several times during the war as units were reorganized. I have his final discharge papers and his Union belt and buckle. Used to have a holster also but lost it.

His unit was attached to Sherman and he was captured and a POW in Andersonville, I've seen Andersonville records of him being moved to another camp, supposedly moved to prevent liberation as Union forces neared Andersonville. I have read that the north didn't really care about liberation of POWs, since they had numbers and would rather POWs be a burden on the Confederates. I have a pair of hand forged pliers that family lore says he traded moldy bacon for. Why the pliers are significant to his imprisonment, I don't have any idea. I have a letter to my grandfather about the pliers from his aunt, saying assuredly they wouldn't make it past his generation.

Apparently POWs were discharged immediately after liberation, the location of his discharge being in Mississippi for some reason. Family lore says he walked to Kansas City following discharge, which makes little sense. Probably walked part of it. Don't know why he went to Kansas City instead of returning to Illinois, maybe he was exploring business opportunities. He became successful as a builder, mainly train stations at least as far as Salt Lake City, and a large department store in Kansas City. By census records, he had a nice house in a prominent area of Kansas City.

A disrupting event occurred when his teenage daughter through her church began tutoring Asian immigrants, and fell in love. She eloped and her father was quite distraught. The family was divided for a few years, but there was eventual harmony and her husband became well liked.

In a Kansas City history group on FB, I posted that my great great grandfather was the builder of the landmark department store building. Soon after, I get a message from the moderator of the history group asking if there was family strife due to marrying an Asian man. This moderator was apparently very expert in research and found two newspaper articles from around 1900 about this situation.

The article was amazing in several regards, one being the effort and professionalism of the journalists who wrote the articles. It was likely a juicy story, a prominent local citizen's daughter marrying out of her race. Also amazing was the description of non whites and how they seemed to treated as barely humans. Reporters went to Chinese businesses and asked about the man who my ancestor married. The replies were reported in stereotype choppy language. He was then in the laundry business, he eventually became a successful businessman.

Possibly my great great grandfather suffered from PTSD, and his daughters situation pushed him over the edge. He sought remedy by travelling by train to a visit a friend in St Louis. I'd guess he had a nervous breakdown. About two years later, there was a follow up newspaper article, where family harmony was restored. It was incredible to have somewhat lived this family situation and heard the story and been aware of communicating with them, then to read period newspaper articles of what was then a large scandal. I don't remember ever meeting them, but I could tell that my mom thought they were great when she spoke of them.

Would this article be available on-line?

It is interesting when a relative is involved!!

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Originally posted by billpocz:
Would this article be available on-line?

It is interesting when a relative is involved!!

I wish I was accomplished at searching Kansas City Star newspaper archives to find these articles. It may be if I went to particular libraries in Kansas City, someone could assist me and I could print them. The guy who sent me the articles sent me screen shots of them, but I don't have them.

quote:

Apparently POWs were discharged immediately after liberation, the location of his discharge being in Mississippi for some reason.

My great, great, great grandpa was captured at Athens, AL and spent over a year in Cahaba Prison in Alabama. At the end of the war he was taken along with the other POWs to Vicksburg, MS. It must have been a major mustering area for POWs if your ancestor was sent there as well. My grandpa got shipped back to Ohio for his actual mustering out, though. Unfortunately, the "shipping" was on the Sultana, which blew up and sank enroute. He survived, but was never quite right after the whole experience.

My dad has a bunch of his military records and my brother and I went through them when we were home for Christmas this past year. Of particular interest was his application for a disability pension due to his weakened state from his time as a POW and injuries from the Sultana. It was interesting to read because there was a lot of detail, and he had multiple references from other guys in his unit and his commanding officer. He ultimately was awarded a 50% disability pension, but it was clearly quite an endeavor on his part to procure it. From the sound of things, conditions in the prison camp were pretty bad, he was very sick, lost a lot of body mass, and struggled with debilitating health issues for the rest of his life as a result. He didn't sustain any catastrophic injuries in the Sultana explosion, but he was lucky to make it out alive due to the fact that he couldn't swim and was already in extremely depleted physical shape when it happened.

That's an interesting story. A great example of the famous American "melting pot".

I had four relatives who served in the Union Army during the Civil War. My paternal great great grandfather served in the 52nd OVI and survived the war, but contracted TB, came home and gave it to his wife, and they both died from it--my grandfather in 1875 and my grandmother in 1881. Their three sons were raised in the Soldiers and Sailor's Orphanage in Xenia, Ohio (but curiously, not their daughter, who I suspect was left in the care of an aunt)

My grandmother's grandfather and her two granduncles all served in the Army as well, with one being captured at Chickamauga and sent to Andersonville, where he died. His grave is at Andersonville. The other died of disease in the huge army hospital in Indianapolis. His grave is unknown. My GGrandfather was discharged due to disability, but at least he came home and had children.

One mystery to me is my Great-great grandmother is noted as being a member of my great great grandfather's household as a young woman during the 1860 census, and he was married to another woman. By 1870 she's married to him. There's a story there somewhere.

Pretty cool. It is amazing the tactics of war at that time with prisoners-sadly, as well as, people marrying between races and it being such a big deal.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Not many Union soldiers made it out of Andersonville alive.

I have newspaper archives for MQT from about 1860 onward. I enjoy the writing style.
Couple of examples:
A reporter was chased by an aggressive dog and he said when he finished his column, he was going back and shoot it.
Local prostitutes are called "soiled doves" and their deaths (usually violent) rate only a couple of lines.
Accident reports are full of gore.
And if the editor thinks you are a crook, he says so and tells the cops to run you out of town.
I love reading the paper.

I am curious as to the line of descendants- if he was your great great grandfather, the teenage daughter could have been your great grandmother. If so your grandmother or grandfather would be half Chinese. Or perhaps a great aunt or great uncle.

Of course it doesn’t matter. I’m just curious if this is well known in your family or something you found upon researching your great great grandfather. I dated a girl in college (1979ish) whose mother was half Chinese, and she basically denied it. America is indeed a great melting pot, but melting hasn’t always been easy.

It was a great great aunt. I’m Irish German, blonde with blue eyes. I knew the story and I think my mom got together with them on the east coast during my lifetime.

My great grandfather was the first son of my great great grandfather and he was named after his father. I have an uncle with the same first and middle names as them, and also a first cousin so named. So four generations have his first and middle names. Me and my son have his last name as a middle name. So five generations are named after him.

My son is having his first son in April, I hope he gives him our middle name. If he did he’d be honoring his son’s great great great great great grandfather,

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pbslinger,

quote:

Originally posted by pbslinger:

quote:

Originally posted by billpocz:
Would this article be available on-line?

It is interesting when a relative is involved!!

I wish I was accomplished at searching Kansas City Star newspaper archives to find these articles. It may be if I went to particular libraries in Kansas City, someone could assist me and I could print them. The guy who sent me the articles sent me screen shots of them, but I don't have them.

You may be able to go to your local library and they can obtain microfilm of those newspapers from which you can then print the articles. Your librarian can help.

Wow, he survived Andersonville - that was a bad place like other POW camps.