My maternal
grandfather James Kinsey told me many times in my boyhood that his two oldest
brothers Jesse and George were in the Civil War, serving in General Sherman's
army that marched through Georgia toward the end of the war. The Kinsey
family's religious background was Dunkard, or German Baptist, the antecedent of
today's Church of the Brethren and related sects, and the Dunkards historically
tended to be take a pacifist stance toward war. For example, I've read that
many Dunkards living in western Virginia attempted to remain neutral during the
Civil War, though most of their farms were bespoiled by war despite this. I
have established that the Frederick County Kinseys - from whence my grandfather's
family came to Ohio - attended the Beaver Dam church near Johnsville, Maryland,
which even today considers itself Old Order Brethren, clinging to the earliest
practices and beliefs of that church. So it is perhaps somewhat surprising that
this was distinctly not the case for the Kinseys of Dunkirk, Ohio. For whatever
reasons, the Dunkirk Kinseys were evidently always strongly pro-Union in
sentiment, like the majority of Ohioans of the Civil War period, and the
Kinseys and most of their descendants remained strongly pro-Republican
politically well into the twentieth century.
By contacting the Illinois State Historical
Library in Springfield (phone # 217/524-6358), I was able to confirm that Jesse
and George did serve in Company H, 66th Illinois Volunteer Regiment, from
February, 1864 till the end of the war, being mustered out in Louisville, Ky.
on July 7, 1865. I was sent photocopies from the Adjutant General's Report for
the State of Illinois, published in 1901. The Kinsey brothers are listed as follows:
"Jesse T. Kinsey, residence Chicago,
enlisted February 11, 1864, mustered out July 7, 1865 as Corporal."
"George M. Kinsey, residence Chicago,
enlisted February 18, 1864, mustered out July 7, 1865."
A history of Dunkirk, Ohio includes the same
information - except that it shows the Kinseys as residents of Dunkirk, which
of course they actually were. Presumably, "Chicago" was something the
Kinseys used when they volunteered to increase their chances of being accepted.
They may not have realized that the 66th Illinois was originally organized in
Missouri and already included soldiers from several Midwestern states. (I have also found that one of the
officers in the 66th, – a Major Chestnut – was from nearby Hancock
County, Ohio, and may have been influential in stretching the height limit to
include Jesse.) Jesse's obituary
(preserved in the James Kinsey family Bible) states that he was born in 1841
and volunteered for the "Squirrel Hunters" – a militia unit – when he
came of age [November, 1862], and was stationed in Cincinnati. "After he
was mustered out of that organization [presumably because Kentucky was by then fully
occupied by the Union army] he was turned down for Ohio Volunteer Infantry on
account of his height, but not to be outdone, he with others, went to Illinois,
where at the age of 22 years he was enrolled in Co. H, 66th Infantry, in which
regiment he served to the end of the war."
In the official muster roll of Company H,
Jesse's height is listed as 5 feet 5 inches, George's as 5 feet 8 inches,
though I suspect that Jesse may actually have been shorter still. His eyes are described as gray, George's
as blue. Jesse was 22 at enlistment, George was 18. Both men gave their
birthplace as Maryland, their occupation as farmers, and both are described as
having light hair and light complexion.
The muster roll verifies Jesse's shortness
and suggests that he may have been rejected by the Ohio Volunteers because he
was under 5 feet 6 inches, a plausible lower limit. Of the 25 men whose heights
are listed here from Company H, only two were under 5 feet 6 inches. A likely
reason for a height limit would have been to ensure that a man was strong
enough to march and fight with a rifle and field pack. Since Jesse was promoted
to corporal, we can assume that he was able to perform his duties well. From various other evidence, he
apparently had outstanding intelligence, which no doubt contributed to his
success as a soldier.
Data received for 39 enlisted men in Company
H shows heights ranging from 5 feet 5 inches (two men) to 6 feet 1 inch (one
man). The mean height for this group (arithmetic average) was 5 feet, 8 inches.
I believe this is about two inches less than for men who served in World War
II, but similar to those who served in World War I. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, adult heights in
the western world have been increasing at the rate of an inch every 30 to 50
years since 1800 due to improved nutrition. I have seen Sherman's army
described as "lean and lanky," so it's possible the midwestern boys
were somewhat taller than their eastern counterparts. Perhaps their food was better when they
were growing up, or they may
simply have been somewhat thinner from their exertions in fighting their way
through Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas by foot during the last year of
the war.
Enlistment ages are also interesting. Data are given for 31 men, ranging from
18 to 38, with an overall average of just under 23 years. As in nearly all
modern wars, most of these men were under 25 when they signed up (23 of 31).
Although there is a clustering of 14 men between ages 20 and 24, none are
listed as being 19, though nine are given as 18. This makes me suspicious that many
of the supposed 18 year olds were actually younger, since 18 was probably the
minimum accepted. In those days, birth certificates were essentially unknown.
People established their ages by baptismal records or other
"informal" means, so it may have been fairly easy to be accepted if you were big and strong for your age.
Of the 25 men whose occupations are shown, 22
were farmers and one each was "teacher," "cooper" (barrel
maker), and "operator" (factory worker?). In those days, America was
overwhelmingly a land of farmers, especially in the midwest.
Marital status is given for eleven men. Six of them, ranging from 18 to 38, are
shown as married. Five, ranging from 18 to 23, are single, and the status of 28
others was unspecified. The average age of the married men was 28.7, the
average of the single men was 20.8. It is interesting - though there are probably too few people
listed to draw a valid conclusion about the entire company - that slightly more
married men were listed than single. I believe it is safe to assume that in
that idealistic time people did not regard marriage per se as
sufficient reason to avoid what they saw as their patriotic duty. Recall that
nearly all of these men were volunteers. Only one of these 39 men was mustered
in after May 23, 1864, when the first draft took place in the North, so this
unit was largely made up of true volunteers.
The Adjutant General's Report (A.G.R.) also
gives an interesting summary of the wartime history of the 66th Illinois
Regiment. It was organized at Benton Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri, during
the months of September and October, 1861. When formed, it was under the
special patronage of Major General John C. Fremont (then the Union commander in
the West), and was designed as a regiment of "Western Sharp Shooters"
to be used as skirmishers. At that time, Missouri was badly divided over the
war, and the southern half was occupied by Confederate troops. The unit was
originally known as "Birge's Sharpshooters" (after their first
commanding officer), then the "Fourteenth Missouri Infantry", finally
(by request of the Governor of Illinois, in November, 1862) was renamed the
"66th Illinois." Eight companies were originally collected, three
from Illinois, three from Missouri, and two from other points, embracing the
states of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio. Two more companies were
added later. Company H was mostly made up of Ohioans as originally constituted,
though the recruits added in 1864 were chiefly from Illinois and Michigan.
There were three men from Dunkirk, Ohio, in the original unit, a William
Koonts, "Carson J." Leslie (called "James C." when he
reenlisted in 1863), and John Siegler. I believe a company nominally consisted
of 100 men, so this regiment at full strength would have had about 1000 men.
(According to the A.G.R., Company H originally had 101 enlisted men plus 3
officers. When reorganized in 1864, there were 40 veteran enlisted men and 41
recruits, plus 4 officers.)
The regiment was originally armed with the
"Demmick American Deer and Target Rifle," probably a single shot
rifle. In 1864 most of the men
converted to the Henry rifle (an English-made repeating rifle) at their own
expense, the guns costing $43 each, a very considerable sum at the time. After
reading this in the A.G.R., I recalled Grandpa Kinsey telling me that his
brothers had served as "sharpshooters," in agreement with this
account. Sharpshooters were the "elite infantrymen" of their time,
since they used rifles (vs. smooth bore muskets, which were much less accurate,
and had a shorter range) and were expected to be good shots from a distance.
Skirmishers and sharpshooters often ranged ahead of the main body of an army
during advances, seeking the enemy. During pitched battles, they were used as
marksmen, often concentrating on mounted enemy officers. Most midwestern men
were probably quite familiar with guns, having grown up as hunters. Men
accepted fo this unit may have been required to be expert marksmen. Possibly
this is one reason why Jesse was accepted, because he was an excellent rifle
shot.
The Fourteenth Missouri was engaged in
fighting in southern Missouri during 1861 and early 1862, then transferred to
the Kentucky-Tennessee area in time to take a significant part in the capture
of Fort Donelson in February, 1862. They were congratulated as a unit by
General C. F. Smith for gallantry in that battle, which was one of General U.
S. Grant's first victories. Later they were involved in a series of battles in
Tennessee and nearby areas, including both days of "the terrible battle of
Shiloh" in April, 1862. After participating in a number of engagements in
that theatre, they were relieved in November, 1863 and returned to Pulaski,
Tennessee, where they began a process of reorganization. Presumably the unit
had originally enlisted for three years like many other units, since the
account states that men who did not re-enlist were mustered out in August,
1864. 470 members of the 66th Regiment re-enlisted as veterans. Those who did
so received four months' pay and a $100 veteran bounty in early 1864, and were
sent home for a 30 day furlough. The 30 days began on January 28, 1864, about
two weeks before Jesse enlisted. George enlisted one week later, probably after
hearing that his brother had been accepted. Presumably the Kinseys heard about
this unit then from veterans visiting their families in Dunkirk.
Of the enlisted men originally in Company H,
it is possible to determine from the A.G.R. roster that nearly half had been
killed, wounded or otherwise lost by the time the unit was reorganized, about
two years later. In the records received, one man was captured, 13 were killed
or "died" (presumably of wounds or illnesses), 13 were
"discharged for disability" (i.e., due to wounds?), 3 were
"discharged" (for unsuitable conduct?) during 1862, and 12 men
deserted - also only during 1862. [It was in 1862 that the war turned truly
bloody. Shiloh alone accounted for more deaths than all of the wars Americans
had been involved in previously. Most people on both sides entered the war
thinking it would be over within a few months. But after this battle, General
Grant said he knew it was going to be a long war. Out of 100,000 men involved
on both sides at Shiloh, 3744 were killed outright, more Americans than had
died in all our previous wars combined. Several times more were wounded, a
great many of whom died later, as was the case throughout the war due to poor
sanitary conditions and primitive hospitals. The altered character of the war
may partly account for the number of desertions in 1862. There were apparently
no desertions after that year from Company H.] In addition to the losses listed
above, three men of Company H were transferred to other units and two are
unaccounted for, leaving only 54 of the original enlisted men, slightly over
half of the 101 who started in 1861. Since two of them were promoted to officer
during this period, only 52 enlisted men remained who were eligible to re-
enlist. I believe it is a measure of the fierce patriotism of the times that 39
of these men re-enlisted, exactly 75 percent of those who were eligible. Since
anyone mustered out would have been exempt from further service, the men who
re-enlisted must have been true volunteers who stayed in because they wanted to
see the war through to its end.
One of the furloughed Dunkirk veterans of
Company H was James C. Leslie, who served the entire war from October, 1861 to
July, 1865. Grandpa's older sister Susan's married name was "Leslie",
and it seems likely that James Leslie was or later became Susan's husband.
[Note: After this was written I confirmed, from pension records, that James
Leslie became Susan's husband immediately after the war. Susan and James'
oldest child (born 1866) was my mother's cousin (actually her niece) Lilly
Wooley, of Enid, Oklahoma, who visited our family in Idaho at least twice, most
recently in 1941 when I was twelve.]
The 66th reassembled at Joliet, Illinois, on
March 3, 1864 and arrived at Pulaski, Tennessee on the 8th of March. It was
engaged in skirmishing and foraging for a few weeks, then arrived in
Chattanooga in time to move forward with "the Grand Army" (under
General William Sherman) in the Atlanta campaign on May 6. The Sixty-sixth had
the honor of opening the campaign by driving Wheeler's cavalry and a brigade of
rebel infantry through Snake Creek Gap, and holding until night the high hills
of Resaca, Georgia. It was engaged in "all the noted battles between
Chattanooga and Atlanta" before reaching the Atlanta area in mid-July. On
this campaign "the Sixty-sixth was under fire for 120 days and lost 225
men in killed and wounded" - roughly a quarter of those who started. The
Sixty-sixth was "hotly engaged on July 22" (the day General James
McPherson was killed), "its colors showing 65 bullet holes through
it." "The Regiment lost many of its best officers in this campaign,
but it never wavered or lost heart." [It seems very likely that the
Sixty-sixth was in McPherson's command (the Army of the Tennessee) on this day
of especially heavy fighting - later termed the Battle of Atlanta - since it
was his army which was principally engaged that day. McPherson, the youngest
Civil War general and a native of Sandusky County, Ohio, was an ancestor of Dan
Ruble, my Wyoming cousin Janet Crider Ruble's husband. So now we can be sure
that some of Janet's ancestors also fought in this battle.] The fighting on the
22d was the first of three aggressive attacks by Confederate General Hood in
his attempts to defeat Sherman's army in open battle, before retiring behind
the city's defenses for a siege which lasted until September 2, when Atlanta
was occupied.
After the fall of Atlanta, the regiment left
East Point, Georgia (now an Atlanta suburb) for Rome, Ga., about 60 miles
northwest. After engaging in some fighting in that area and in nearby Alabama,
where Hood had taken his army, the Sixty-sixth returned to Rome. On November
10, they destroyed two local forts and burned the city, returning to Atlanta
for the start of the March to the Sea. There they assisted in destroying
Atlanta on November 15. "On the great march the Sixty-sixth had its full
share of battles and skirmishes with the enemy." They were involved in
battles with rebel cavalry on November 27 - 28, and on the 29th drove Cobb's
Legions through Wrightsboro, Ga. They destroyed a railroad bridge over the
Ogeechee River on the Macon and Savannah Railroad (in southeastern Georgia) on
December 5, and at Eden Cross Roads "unaided and alone" defeated 980
Georgia militia who fought behind breastworks. On December 21, they marched
into Savannah, and "General Sherman conferred the honor on the Sixty-sixth
of assigning it to Ogelthorpe Barracks."
[From the time it left Atlanta till it
emerged at the coast at Savannah, about six weeks later, Sherman's army was cut
off from Union supplies and communications, and subsisted off the land. From
all accounts, the army ate very well - since it was just after harvest - and
they destroyed or spoiled what couldn't be eaten. Sherman's army, and its
associated stragglers - or "bummers" - cut a path of devastation some
fifty miles wide through the heart of Georgia and the Confederacy, destroying
railroads and bridges, burning towns, houses and anything else they thought
might be of use to the Confederates. The Civil War is now considered to have
been the first truly "modem" war, and Sherman, a very intelligent
man, was among the first to realize that in a war of attrition, such as that
war had become, civilian resources are the ultimate source of the enemy's
strength. But what he did to the South left bitter memories which lasted for
generations.]
On January 28, 1865, the Sixty-sixth
"left Savannah on Sherman's picnic through South Carolina." [I have
read that the men of the Union army felt that South Carolina, which started the
war at Fort Sumter, should feel the full weight of war. The destruction in
South Carolina apparently was even worse than that in Georgia.] On February 5,
they camped at Bald Ridge, "where everything combustible was on
fire." On the 7th, they joined the command of General John A. Logan at
Hickory Hill, where they received their first mail since leaving Savannah. [Not
mentioned in the A.G.R. is that upon entering South Carolina, Sherman's army
was forced to cross extensive swamps and flooded areas which the Confederates
thought would stop them till spring. These western woodsman were not deterred,
however, cutting enough trees to create twelve miles of corduroy roadway each
day. A Confederate general later wrote that "There has not been such an
army since the days of Julius Caesar."] The Sixty-sixth then participated
in battles at Columbia, Camden and Cheraw, South Carolina. They advanced into
North Carolina in the last two months of the war, were at Bentonville, N.C. on
March 20, at Goldsboro on March 23 and assisted in the capture of Raleigh April
13. [Sherman accepted the surrender of General Joseph Johnston's troops in
North Carolina on April 26, seventeen days after Lee surrendered to Grant at
Appomattox. With the exception of a few rear guard actions in Texas and
elsewhere, this effectively ended the American Civil War.]
The Sixty-sixth participated in the
"Grand Review" of the Union Army in Washington, D.C. on May 23, 1865,
departing for Louisville on June 3. According to the muster roll in the A.G.R.,
some of the men were mustered out in Washington on June 2, but most returned
west before leaving the service. The regiment was officially mustered out on
July 7 by Captain W.B. Guthrie at Camp Logan, Kentucky. It then "proceeded
by cars" (i.e., took the train) to Camp Butler, Illinois, where the men
were paid off and discharged, "and the men bade each other adieu never to
meet again as the Sixty-sixth Regiment of Illinois Infantry."
The A.G.R. records show that all four
officers of Company H at the end of the war were men who had been promoted from
the ranks of that unit. The most successful was Thomas O. Chestnut of
Arlington, Ohio. He enlisted as a private on September 18, 1861, re-enlisted in
1864, was promoted to First Sergeant, then First Lieutenant on December 17,
1864, to Captain on December 22, 1864 and to Major on February 2, 1865. Since
he is not shown as having been mustered out, he probably stayed in the regular
army. Other "home grown" officers were Captain Nelson S. Westcott of
Arlington, Ohio; First Lieutenant Thomas Watt of Hancock County, Ohio; and
Second Lieutenant Scott Hughes of Hancock County, Ohio. Three officers carried
over from the earlier company (Captain Thomas D. Mitchell, First Lieutenant
Joseph W. Lidick and Second Lieutenant Nicholas R. Park) all were gone by
December 19, 1864. Lidick resigned September 9, 1864, Park resigned September
17. They may have only signed up for three years' service. Mitchell was
mustered out December 19, 1864, three days before Chestnut's promotion to
Captain, and only two days after Savannah was occupied. It would be interesting
to know the circumstances behind these changes, i.e., how the Company's leadership
gradually evolved from within so that "the cream rose to the top." [A
similar process occurred at the highest levels of command. Grant was working in
his father's harness shop before the war, though he was a West Point graduate
and a veteran of the Mexican War. It took three years of war for him and
Sherman to advance to top command positions.] Two enlisted men from Company H
(a veteran, James B. Haldeman of Magnolia, Ohio, and a recruit, Smith T.
Minturn of Paris, Illinois) are shown as having been promoted to "Q.M.
Sergeant" (Quartermaster Sergeant?) and were not mustered out. Also,
Thomas H. Robinson of New York City is shown as having been promoted to
Sergeant Major and was not mustered out. Presumably these four men stayed in
the army to participate in the Indian Wars which soon followed, as the Far West
was settled and Indians were forcibly driven onto reservations.
Of the 81 enlisted men in Company H after its
reorganization in early 1864, four were promoted to officer, one was captured
and later mustered out, 11 were killed outright or died from wounds or other
causes, 62 were mustered out in June-July of 1865 and three stayed in the army
as sergeants. [Only 3 of the 40 "veterans" were killed or died in the
last period of the war, vs. 8 of the 41 "recruits." I believe this is
not unusual. I have read elsewhere that the casualty rate for replacements in
any war is always significantly higher than for veterans, who have developed
"survival skills."] Five of the enlisted men who were mustered out in
mid-1865 are noted as "wounded", so that total casualties in Company
H were at least 16 out of 81, or twenty percent of the unit, over the last year
or so of the war. According to my grandfather, one of his brothers had a close
call when he was struck by a "spent bullet", i.e., one which had lost
its velocity, but as far as I know neither was seriously wounded.
Adding results of the two periods (i.e.,
before and after the 1864 reorganization), Company H sustained the following
casualties:
Killed 42
Discharged for disability 13
"Wounded" when discharged 5
Also, there were 12 desertions and two
discharges in 1862, plus two men unaccounted for by the records. This is from a
total population of 152 enlisted men and two officers. Total casualties (dead
and wounded) were 39 percent, but the fact that over 27 percent of the regiment
was killed is probably the most telling statistic. These numbers are actually
quite representative of what happened to both armies during the Civil War, the
bloodiest war in our history.
My Great Uncles Jesse and George returned to
Dunkirk after the war and, according to Jesse's obituary, engaged in the making
of railroad ties, logging and farming. They both spent the rest of their lives
in Hardin County, Ohio. Jesse married in 1872 and had a daughter and two sons.
His son Bertram served in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Jesse was Clerk of
the Village of Dunkirk for 20 years, and was Superintendent of the Dunkirk
Cemetery for the last 33 years of his life, living until 1921. His obituary
speaks of his "respect for the truth", his "untiring
effort", "wonderful memory", how he "gave his time
cheerfully," "was a true loving father and husband" and that
people felt "true respect and honor" for him. (These are all
characteristics which I strongly associate with my grandfather James, so they
are perhaps descriptive of the entire Kinsey family.) George Kinsey worked in
Dunkirk for a number of years, later moved to Kenton, the county seat, and
operated a grocery there with his younger brother Edward after his parents died
(early 1890s). Neither George nor Edward ever married, living in Dunkirk with
their parents, Margaret Jane and George M. Kinsey, Sr., as grown men. (I
believe they eventually operated a grocery store in Kenton, Ohio, the nearby county
seat of Hardin County.) My Aunt
Florence Crider remembered that George once asked my mother, Esther, to play
"Marching Through Georgia" when they visited Dunkirk.
The next younger brother after Edward was
James, my grandfather, born in 1854, who as noted elsewhere clerked in a
hardware store in Dunkirk for many years. He married a local girl, Florence
Tanner, in 1881 and and they soon had two baby daughters. However, both
children were born with defective hearts (so-called "blue babies")
and both died as infants by 1884. The next year their young mother (age 27),
who had herself never enjoyed robust health, followed them in death. Presumably they shared a genetic
problem. My grandfather soon left
Dunkirk to start his life over in the county seat, Kenton, where he worked in
another hardware store, eventually becoming its co-owner. He soon met a young
lady in that town named Minnie Reed, who later became my grandmother. James and
Minnie were married in 1888 in the Methodist Church and had five children, the
second of whom (Esther, born 1891) was my mother. The Kinseys moved to Idaho in
1911, where my grandfather bought a fruit ranch and worked on two major
irrigation dams. Esther met my father, Otto Hendricks, in Mountain Home, Idaho
after going there to play piano in the motion picture theatre. They were
married in 1921 and had two sons, James Franklin (1922) and Robert William
(1929).
My grandfather told me that he had very
distinct memories of the Civil War period. He was six when Lincoln was elected
the first time, and eleven when the war ended. He remembered when some
Confederate cavalry units ("Morgan's raiders") crossed the Ohio River
during the war and the militia was called out, causing great excitement across
the state. I'm sure the Civil War had at least as great an effect on people
living then as World War II had on my generation. Shelby Foote, who was
featured in the recent PBS TV special, has said that the Civil War was a
watershed event in our country's history. When referring to the country before
the war people said, "The United States are ...," referring to a
collection of independent states, but after the war they said, "The United
States is ...," referring to a single, unified nation. The war made us an
"is."
rwh - 12/27/91 (with minor updates in
September, 2000 and July, 2006)
To return to the top of this page, click here.
To return to my family history section, click here.
To return to my home page, click here.
(Last rev. 9/22/00)