Sounding 'Taps' for Stoneman's last veteran

Spanish American War veteran William Harbottle
plays taps in 1953 for Sgt. William Magee.
(Los Angeles Times photo)

Magee with his medals

  On August 19, 1952, William Magee celebrated his 106th birthday at the home of his daughter in Van Nuys, California. His family invited a reporter to interview him, because he was the last Civil War veteran living on the West Coast.
 As Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was campaigning for President, Magee was in a patriotic mood. "Our beloved United States has never been licked in war and we never shall be licked," he told the reporter. "They just can't lick her, because we have the power. We have real power—and we have real men." 
 Magee (1846-1953) was raised in a cabin near Lancaster, Ohio, the same hometown as Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891). He told the reporter that he took part in Sherman's 1864 March to the Sea, but it appears he confused Sherman with Stoneman. His unit, the 12th Ohio Cavalry, spent the last year of the war on Gen. George Stoneman's raids.

 There is a Sgt. William McGee brashley quoted in Chris Hartley's history of Stoneman's Raid. Could it be the same man?  
 Magee was 17 when he ran away from home to enlist in Company M of the 12th Ohio Cavalry as a bugler. (Musicians often served as field medics. Another William Magee, a 14-year-old drummer in the 33rd New Jersey Infantry, was awarded the Medal of Honor for capturing Confederate artillery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1864.)
 Magee made the Army his career, became a Master Sergeant, and fought in the Indian Wars and the Spanish American War. He retired in 1898 after 35 years in the Army and drew a $200 monthly pension. At some point, he served alongside Buffalo Bill Cody (1846-1917). "Buffalo Bill was the best-looking man I ever saw," he told the reporter, "and I'm in second place right behind him." (Take that, Myles Keogh!)
 The 12th Ohio Cavalry was one of Stoneman's most dependable regiments. They were involved in the liberation of the Salisbury prison, the daring capture of the Nation Ford bridge near Charlotte, and the publication of the Yankee Raider newspaper in Athens, Ga. Capt. Frank Mason (later an aide to President Garfield) wrote the regimental history as well as this perspective on Stoneman's Raid. 
 Mason's book tells us that as the war was ending, Magee's band, "dusty and battered from its long and tuneless wanderings," had the opportunity to play Dixie and serenade Southern belles at the Young Ladies Seminary in Athens.

 After he retired from the Army, Magee settled in California. He had two daughters in the Los Angeles area and another in Chicago, as well as seven grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. 
 Asked the secret of his long life, Magee said, "Haven't had a drink of liquor for the past 50 years. And when I did drink, it was pure corn whiskey that the mountaineers made. It was good for a man. Today, the young men mix their drinks. That is what shortens their lives." As for the episode with the mountaineers, the regimental history of the 15th Pennsylvania Calvary has a vivid account of a rainy night in Wilkes County, North Carolina, when Stoneman's troops succumbed to the temptations of freshly distilled moonshine. 

 Magee remained in relatively good health until the following January, when he suffered a stroke and died three weeks later. He was buried with a 21-gun salute at the Los Angeles National Cemetery. The military band played two of his favorite tunes: Tenting Tonight on the Old Campground and The Battle Hymn of the Republic.  (I'm fond of this version, featuring William Lee Golden and Jimmy Fulbright of the Oak Ridge Boys, Jimmy Fortune of the Statler Brothers, and Tim Duncan singing bass on a refrain that seems to speak for Magee: "He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat.") 

A SMALL-WORLD NOTE: My career has crossed paths with two Tim Duncans, the Wake Forest basketball player when I covered the ACC and the bass singer I met at an Operation Christmas Child event in Johannesburg, South Africa. "Stand by me!"

 Father William Lundy gave the eulogy: "He had a distinct privilege. His God permitted him to live long enough to see the ideals for which he fought fully realized. One nation, indivisible, with unity and freedom for all. His death marks the passing of a link in American history."
 The only Civil War combat veteran who outlived Magee was James Hard of Rochester, New York, an infantryman in the first Battle of Bull Run, who died at age 111 on March 12, 1953—48 days after Magee. Albert Woolson of Duluth, Minnesota, a drummer who never saw military action, lived until Aug. 2, 1956, at age 106. The last Confederate soldier, Pleasant Crump of Talladega, Alabama, died at 104 in 1951. 

A stereographic image of a Union band

The roster of the 12th Ohio Cavalry band, listed  with the place  and date they enlisted.

Boone honors its fallen 'Home Yankees'

New stones mark the graves of John Maricle, Henry Evans, and William Bradley in the Boone Cemetery. The haversack and canteen on Evans' grave were placed by the George Stoneman Camp #6 of the Sons of Union Veterans as part of memorial service used a century ago by the Grand Army of the Republic.

 

BOONE, N.C.

 Three blue-eyed Yankees who died in Boone during the final days of the Civil War were honored Sunday, April 8, when new military gravestones were unveiled in the cemetery where they were buried 153 years ago.
 Historian Eric Plaag said the memorial ceremony was "an occasion to do right by these three men, by whom history and local sentiment have often not done right."
 Two of the Union soldiers were from North Carolina and the third was from Kentucky. They died of sickness while serving with the 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry, a Union regiment which occupied Boone in April 1865 in the days after Stoneman's Raid.
 Many Southerners felt betrayed by such "Home Yankees" and never forgave them for the hardships their families suffered during and after the war. The three were buried in a segregated section of the Boone cemetery, and over the years their original gravestones have been vandalized and stolen.
 These veterans deserved better. They were loyal to their country, had no stake in slavery or secession, and were not involved in the raid of Boone on March 28, 1865, when Stoneman's troops killed three local men, injured six others, and captured 68.
 The three Union soldiers are buried less than 50 yards from Jacob Mast Councill, whose father Benjamin Councill owned the land that became the town cemetery. Dr. Plaag explained the significance: "In late March 1865, Mr. Councill hauled up this hill the coffin containing the body of his son, Jacob Mast Councill, who had been murdered in cold blood by Union occupiers. Two weeks later, Mr. Councill consented to his land being used for the burial of three other men, this time from the same army that had killed his son. May we all be accorded such respect."

Revisiting the death of Jacob Mast Councill

 History has given us conflicting accounts of the death of Jacob Mast Councill, the Boone civilian who was one of the first casualties of Stoneman's Raid. My co-worker Terry Harmon and local historian Eric Plaag have sorted through the details in a Facebook thread you can read here or below. 
 Councill was one of three local men killed when the Union troops invaded Boone on March 28, 1865. Some think he was part of the local Home Guard and died defending the town. Others say he was farming when the Yankees rode up and executed him as he pleaded for his life.
 The names Mast and Councill are prominent in Watauga County. Boone was originally known as Councill's Store, named for Jacob's uncle, Jordan Councill Jr. 
 Jacob's home was located in downtown Boone on the same block where the Mast Store now stands. Jacob and his infant daughter (who died previously) were the first two people buried on a hilltop that is now the Boone town cemetery. Within a month, three Union soldiers were laid to rest nearby. 
 The Stoneman Gazette is indebted to Terry for sharing his historical and genealogical research with us. He is the author of Watauga County Revisited in the Images of America series, as well as other collections of local history. Terry works with Samaritan's Purse and supports hundreds of our employees working around the world.

Memorial Day: 'Your Dear Son is Dead'

Union private Oliver Stebbins

 The Civil War was nearly over when John and Charlotte Stebbins of Three Rivers, Michigan, sent their oldest son Oliver to join the Union Army.
 He enlisted Feb. 17, 1865, in the 11th Michigan Cavalry, which was one of the eight brigades assigned to Stoneman's Raid. They rode out of Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 21, 1865—Oliver's 18th birthday.
 For the next four weeks, Stoneman's troops were beyond the reach of mail or telegraph, so we can assume that Stebbins' family heard nothing from him. They must have rejoiced to hear of the fall of Richmond April 2 and the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee April 9—certain signs that the war was ending and that their son would soon be coming home.
 Then came the following heartbreaking letters, the first two from a fellow Michigan soldier named John Schroder. [The crude spelling and wording is preserved from the original letters. I have inserted a few explanatory notes in brackets.]

Chattanooga, Tenn. April the 23 1865

Mrs. Stebbins,

I will let you know about your Oliver he is sick in the Hospital here. he was brought here with the Measles he has got over the Measles and has got Nuemonia in his side and the Bronchetis in the other side it is a hard case I have been here sick with the Measles and am just getting over them I am doing all that I can for your Dear Son he is very thirsty and wants watter every little while I watched him all last night and if he was in his right mind I assure you he will get well my bed is right beside his if he wants any thing he cals on me but I dont know whether he is in his right mind or not I see that he has something to eat every meal for I giv it to him myself I belong to the same regiment that he does. I will write you again in two or three days No more at present

John Schroder Co J 11th Michigan Inf Chattanooga, Tennessee

Vet's dilemma: Which side would he fight for?

FLAG POND, Tenn.

 One cold winter night in 1947, Anderson Moore was on his way to bed when he stumbled and fell. For the next five weeks he tolerated a painful crick in his neck, until he finally sought care at the Oteen Veterans Hospital near Asheville, N.C.

Anderson Moore (1847-1949)

 Doctors diagnosed a fractured vertebra and admitted Moore into a ward with a dozen young veterans of World War II. That must have made for some interesting war stories—because Moore was 100 years old and fought for the Union in the Civil War.
 Hospital administrators tipped The Asheville Citizen, which published Moore's story and asked him the obvious question: Why would a Southerner enlist with the Yankees?
 "To keep out of the rebel army," he declared.
 By the middle of the 20th century, it was easy for the public to forget that not all southerners were rebels. In fact, back in 1861 following the election of Abraham Lincoln, the majority of North Carolinians voted against secession. Pro-Union sentiment was strongest in the mountains, where few families owned slaves and most saw no reason to fight against the country that their fathers and grandfathers had fought for.
 Yet as soon as they turned 17, young men like Moore were required to join the Confederate army. If they dodged the draft, the local Home Guard would hunt them down.
 "I didn't have any better sense than to fight," Moore said.
 Actually, he had no choice but to fight. His only choice was: Which side would he fight for?
 When Moore turned 17 in 1864, he walked 50 miles to Strawberry Plains, Tenn., to enlist with the Union Army in the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry. Unfortunately, there were not enough horses for all the soldiers. "We weren't mounted," he joked. "We were webfeet."
 He said he fought in a number of skirmishes and minor battles, including Stoneman's Raid. The 3rd N.C. Mounted Infantry was part of Stoneman's rear guard and occupied Boone and Asheville in the closing weeks of the war.
 Moore was born Jan. 10, 1847, in Flag Pond, Tenn., a mountain community just across Sams Gap from North Carolina. His longevity was no surprise, since his father lived to be 108. After the war, Moore became a farmer, was married twice, and had five children, five step-children, and 35 grandchildren. Some of them shared his pro-Union sympathies, because one of his grandsons was named Meade, after the Union general who defeated Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg. 
 Moore lived two more years and was 102 when he died June 3, 1949, at home in Madison County, N.C. As far as I have found, he was the next-to-last surviving veteran from Stoneman's Raid.
 

The nurse quoted in this clipping, Mercina "Jimmie" Pananes McSwain (1922-2013), was the daughter of Greek immigrants and a graduate of Johns Hopkins who met her husband Ray McSwain during the year she worked at the Oteen Veterans Hospital. She became known as the godmother of tennis in the Swannanoa Valley, and the town courts in Black Mountain are named for her.

NEXT➤ 75 years later: Roadside fame, household name

The ghost of Della Barnes

Della Barnes' truncated statue

PADUCAH, Ky.

 Della Barnes was a heartbreaker. One man gave her an expensive engagement ring, but she chose to marry another. The jilted man was so enraged that he cut off Della's ring finger, and she bled to death. 
 Or so the legend goes.
 The true story of Della's demise, as reported in the Paducah Daily Sun, is just as haunting. One summer night in 1897, Della told a friend that she didn't feel well and was going to take a dose of calomel, a mercury compound that is now known to be toxic but back then was used to treat various ailments. By accident, she swallowed morphine instead. Della went to bed and never woke up.
 The heartbroken man in this real-life tragedy was her father, Major George Barnes. A Tennessee native who remained loyal to the Union throughout the Civil War, he rode with the 12th Kentucky Cavalry in Stoneman's Raid and was mentioned in the New York Times for his leadership in the invasion of Boone, N.C. He was also entrusted with the destruction of the Confederate armory at Salisbury.
 After the war, Maj. Barnes married 17-year-old Anna Robinson and became a successful coal merchant and city councilman in Paducah, a city on the lower Ohio River across from Illinois.

Della's original monument

 Della was born in 1874, when her father was 38. He had three other daughters (two grew up to marry and one died at age five), but Della was his darling, and after she died on June 27, 1897, he never got over it. To mark her grave, he commissioned an Italian sculptor to carve a life-sized statue of Della holding a rose over her heart.
 Over the next year, he was engulfed by grief, his business failed, and his debts mounted.
 On November 3, 1898, Barnes bought 30 grains of morphine—the same drug that had killed Della. That's enough to kill 10 men. To get so much, he had to go to two apothecaries, and he told one of them he needed it for a sick horse. Instead, he swallowed it all with a bottle of whiskey. Hours later when his family found him, they called the same doctor who had tried to revive Della, but it was too late.
 Barnes, 62, left a note written on paper that had wrapped the morphine, explaining that he had no domestic trouble, but that he took his life because of financial embarrassment and his grief over Della's death. He asked God to have mercy on his soul and take care of his little grandson.
 According to his obituary:

The deceased was a good, conscientious man, and highly esteemed by all who knew him. His friends were numbered by the hundred, and among them are not only his old comrades at arms in the Union army, but the men who fought on the other side as well, and for whom he always showed the highest regard and friendship.

 Major Barnes was buried in an unmarked grave next to Della in Paducah's Oak Grove cemetery.
 Today, Della's grave is barely recognizable. Her monument has disappeared, piece by piece. After vandals broke off her ring finger, people swore they saw the statue bleeding or crying. Then her head and torso disappeared. Now, all that remains is the marble foundation, decorated by flowers.
 But some people say ... if you dare to visit the cemetery at night on the anniversary of her death, you just might see Della's pale ghost walking the darkened paths through the old oak grove, clutching a blood-red rose over her heart.

NEXT➤ Vet's dilemma: Which side would he fight for?

Paducah Daily Sun, June 28, 1897

Paducah Daily Sun, Nov. 5, 1898

Greenville: 'Prepare to Meet Your God'

A noble Yankee from Tennessee:
Union Capt. Isaac Taylor

 

GREENVILLE, S.C.

 The Stoneman Gazette has unearthed more information about the skirmish in Greenville, S.C., in May, 1865, that I believe was the last Civil War clash east of the Mississippi.

National Tribune, Sept. 5, 1889

 This clipping was published July 18, 1889, in the National Tribune, a weekly newspaper catering to Union veterans. I found it reprinted Sept. 5, 1889, in the Anderson Intelligencer.

 It is a letter written by Isaac Taylor, a Union captain from Tennessee who was ordered to execute four Confederates accused of mistreating and robbing some of Stoneman's sick and wounded soldiers as they were being evacuated to Knoxville.
 Convinced that the rebels were innocent, Capt. Taylor defied his orders and made a noble last-minute decision to spare their lives.
 I believe that Taylor is describing the same incident that was documented in 2002 by Greenville historian John McLeod, though there are some discrepancies in their stories, and it is possible there were two similar incidents.
 Taylor gives the date as May 24 (rather than May 22 or 23) and the location as 25 miles from Greenville at the foot of the Blue Ridge (not Crescent Ridge near downtown Greenville). He says there were four Confederates (rather than three) facing the firing squad. The 1903 history of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry says it was Lt. T.C. White (rather than Capt. Taylor) who was ordered to carry out the executions.
 Capt. Taylor vividly described the scene as the rebels awaited their fate:

They were informed of the order and given 10 minutes in which to prepare to meet their God. I had passed through many battles and trials, but this was the most trying ordeal of my life. The utter despair depicted on their countenances, while great rivers of perspiration ran down their pallid faces, makes me shudder yet when I think of how near four innocent men were to being murdered by the command "fire" given from my lips.

 Then the surgeon (Dr. James Cameron) recognized a gesture from one of the rebels as the Masons' "Grand-Hailing Sign of Distress." Dr. Cameron was a Mason, and so was Col. Miller, the brigade commander who had ordered the executions.  This made Miller reconsider the charges, and he set the captives free.
 The Civil War is full of stories like this where lives were spared after enemies discovered they were brothers in the secret society of the Masons. In fact, there is a Masonic Memorial at Gettysburg called "Friend to Friend" (pictured below) that honors these traditions. Several similar accounts are found in the annals of Stoneman's Raid. No doubt some are apocryphal, but I think this one is credible, since it is reported by both sides. 

Emporia (Kan.) News, Jan. 24, 1884

 Capt. Taylor (1843-1892) grew up in eastern Tennessee, which was predominantly pro-Union and opposed to secession. When the war began, he enlisted with an Illinois regiment. In 1863 he joined the Union's 13th Tennessee Cavalry, commanding Company B and serving as Acting Assistant Adjutant General under Col. John Miller. The 13th Tennessee was one of eight Yankee regiments that marched with Stoneman's Raid in the spring of 1865. They fought at Wytheville and the Yadkin River bridge and were involved in the pursuit of Jefferson Davis.
 According to this 1884 newspaper tribute, he was the first man in Carter County, Tennessee, to make a stand for Negro suffrage, and he was among the first Republicans elected to the Tennessee legislature. 
 Republicans fell out of favor at the end of Reconstruction, so Capt. Taylor moved to Hartford, Kan., where he built a mill, became president of the local bank, and served as an Indian agent.
 He wrote to the National Tribune in 1889 hoping to make contact with his forgiven enemies:

I disobeyed orders, turned them over to the brigade commander at noon with a full statement of what had occurred, and he discharged them. They were happy, but I cannot believe that they were more so than I was. A Masonic sign saved their lives, and no doubt, saved me from great remorse. If those four ex-Confederates, or any of them, are living, I would be very happy indeed to hear from them.

 Earlier in 1889, Taylor had written to the National Tribune in another attempt to reconcile with the enemy. He said he was seeking to find the rightful owner of a Virginia regimental banner "he captured from the rebels in South Carolina in the spring of 1865." The 13th Tennessee passed through the northwest corner of South Carolina twice during Stoneman's Raid, but I am not aware of any fights they had there with Virginians.

 Taylor died three years later at age 49, and I don't know if he ever heard from any of those rebels. Although he was not familiar with Masonic rites during the war, he evidently apprenticed later, because his obituary says his funeral was conducted by the Knights Templar with Masonic honors.
 According to a biographical sketch in the History of the 13th Regiment, Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry: 

Captain Taylor was an officer of the highest courage, never evading any duty or danger, but was always among the first to reach the danger line when there was fighting to be done. He possessed fine social qualities and a high sense of honor that endeared him to all who knew him.

The Masonic Memorial at Gettysburg portrays Union Capt. Henry Bingham
comforting Confederate Gen. Lewis Armistead, who was
 mortally wounded during Pickett's Charge.

 

 

The fallen Gen. Armistead is portrayed in this Gettysburg scene, painted by James Walker and displayed in the Johnson Collection at the Spartanburg County Library in S.C. 

New York Times, Feb. 20, 1870

NEXT➤ The ghost of Della Barnes

Memorial Day: Stoneman's toll

Lt. Thomas Kenyon was among five
Michigan soldiers killed April 8, 1865,
in a skirmish near Martinsville, Va.

     The Stoneman Gazette marks Memorial Day with the following list of Union soldiers who died during Stoneman's Raid.

     We published the corresponding list of Southern fatalities on Confederate Memorial Day, this past May 10. 
     I've identified 37 Union soldiers (plus several unknown) who died during the 54-day raid. Ten of them were killed in the Battle of Salisbury and five near Martinsville, Va. Another five died of disease in Watauga County, N.C. If you have any further information on these men or others who should be included, please leave a comment. I will update this post as additional information becomes available.

     Winners write history, and the victorious Union raiders did a much better job than the vanquished Confederates in terms of preserving names of their dead. Much of this information comes from histories written by five of the eight Union regiments who participated in Stoneman's Raid.
      I've arranged the names in order of the counties and cities that were raided.

  

BOONE & WATAUGA COUNTY, N.C., March 28-April 22

     There may have been one or two Union soldiers killed in the raid on Boone March 28. Stoneman reported that the 12th Kentucky Cavalry under Maj. George Barnes lost a few men wounded. Folks in Boone maintain that a teenager named Steel Frazier killed one or two Yankees. It's possible that one of them may have been Isaac Smith of the 8th Tennessee (see footnote below).

     Five more "Home Yankees" died of disease during the occupation of Boone by Kirk's Raiders in the days following Stoneman's Raid. All of them were enlisted in the 2nd N.C. Mounted Infantry, which was composed of men who remained loyal to the Union even after their home states seceded. Four of the five Union soldiers who died in Watauga County were from western North Carolina.

• Pvt. William Bradley died April 10 of typhoid. He enlisted at age 16 in 1863 and was from Buncombe County, N.C.
• Pvt. James Paine died April 11 of typhoid. He and Bradley enlisted on the same day in Greeneville, Tenn. He was 33 and was from Buncombe County, N.C.
• Pvt. John E. Maricle (also spelled Miracle) died April 15 of measles. He was from Harlan, Ky., enlisted at age 28, and had served barely six months when he died. He left a widow and four children.
• Pvt. Henry Evans died April 16 of typhoid. He was from Buncombe County and enlisted in 1863 at age 30.
• Pvt. Robert Foster died April 22 of disease. He was just 16 years old when he enlisted in 1864. He was also from Buncombe.

WILKESBORO & WILKES COUNTY, N.C., March 29-31

     Several Union soldiers drowned March 30 trying to cross the flooded Yadkin River. "Some never reached the other side. One out of our regiment, and I do not know how many others, drowned. It was a fearful sight," according to Howard Buzby of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry.

SILOAM & SURRY COUNTY, N.C., April 2

     An unknown Union soldier was shot April 2 while trying to steal the horse of Confederate Col. William Luffman of the 11th Georgia Infantry, according to an 1897 newspaper story by Milton Cundiff, a noted Surry County educator who may have been an eyewitness to the event.

WYTHEVILLE & WYTHE COUNTY, Va., April 5-7
      Gen. Gillem's report said 35 Union men were killed, wounded, or captured in the April 5 raid on Wytheville. I researched the rosters of the two regiments involved in this raid, the Eighth and Thirteenth Tennessee Cavalry and have not been able to identify them, with the exception of:

• Pvt. John C. Connor of the 8th Tennessee drowned April 7 while crossing the New River during the retreat from Wytheville.
• Pvt. David Wilson, 20 years old, of the 13th Tennessee was reported missing in action after this raid. Some relatives believe he was killed at Wytheville, but this has not been verified. Wytheville was not far from his home, and it is possible that he deserted.

      There were seven members of the 13th Tennessee and at least four members of the 8th Tennessee who died in Knoxville and elsewhere in the three weeks following the Wytheville raid. (See the footnote below.) Some of them may have been mortally wounded at Wytheville, but it is also possible that they were wounded or sick prior to the raid and were left behind in Knoxville when their regiments marched.

JACKSONVILLE & FLOYD COUNTY, Va., April 4-8

• Pvt. John Houston of the 1st Tennessee Artillery was killed April 8 at Floyd's Church. Stoneman's artillery was passing through Floyd County at that time.

LYNCHBURG & BEDFORD COUNTY, Va., April 8

• Pvt. Jacob King of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry was shot by friendly fire near Lynchburg. He was the only Union fatality during Wagner's Raid, which was dispatched by Stoneman and praised by Gen. Ulysses Grant for cutting off Robert E. Lee's last line of escape.

MARTINSVILLE & HENRY COUNTY, Va., April 8
      Five soldiers from the 10th Michigan Cavalry were killed April 8 in a skirmish near Martinsville, Va. This was the deadliest engagement of the war for the 10th Michigan, which previously had only eight of its 1,886 men killed in action.
      Just three days earlier, these troops had learned that Robert E. Lee had abandoned the Confederate capital at Richmond, telling them the war was all but over. They were on their way to liberate the prison at Salisbury and weren't looking for a fight when they crossed paths with Capt. James Wheeler's rebels at a creek in Henry County. In the ensuing fight, the Confederates had as many as 27 killed.
      The Union victims were buried at the Episcopal church in Martinsville, and the bodies were later relocated to the National Cemetery in Danville.

• Lt. Thomas C. Kenyon was described as "a gallant young officer" in Volume 40 of Michigan in the Civil War. He enlisted with the 10th Michigan at age 25 in 1863 and was promoted to second lieutenant in 1864. He previously served with another regiment and spent six months as a prisoner of war following the 1862 Battle of Shiloh. 
• Sgt. John Benton was from Wayne County, Michigan. He enlisted in 1863 at age 27. 
• Pvt. George Wood was from Antrim County. He enlisted at age 31 in 1864 and had served only five months before he was killed. 
• Pvt. Joseph Cune (also spelled Kune or Kunne) was from Grand Traverse County. He enlisted at age 36 in 1864 and served less than six months before he was killed. 
• Pvt. Ira E. Harvey enlisted in Grand Rapids at age 22 in 1864 and served eight months before he was killed.

STOKES COUNTY, N.C., April 10-11

• Robert Watson of the 10th Michigan was killed April 10 in Germantown, N.C.
• Pvt. Joseph Hale of the 8th Tennessee died April 11 in Danbury, N.C.

SALEM & FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C., April 10-11

• Pvt. Dennis Shea of the 12th Ohio died April 22 in Salem. It seems likely that Shea was the unidentified soldier shot by Confederate Sgt. Greenbury Harding in Huntsville, 20 miles west of Salem. Harding was a Yadkin County native who had been wounded four times in battles and was discharged from the 28th North Carolina Regiment in 1864. According to a Civil War trails marker in Huntsville, Harding killed one of the two Yankees who were trying to loot his house. If Shea was mortally wounded, it would have made sense for the Union to leave him in the care of the pro-Union Moravians in Salem. A 1917 history of Champaign County, Ohio, says Shea was left sick at Salem.

SALISBURY & ROWAN COUNTY, N.C.

• Capt. John Edwards of the 11th Michigan Cavalry was shot leading the charge into Salisbury April 12 and died four days later in Way Hospital No. 3. He was leading Company D in an attack on the Confederate Battery F when he was shot by a rebel from Maryland named Lt. Stokes. According to historian Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Edwards was pursuing Stokes, who had already shot one of Edwards' men. As Edwards closed in, brandishing his saber, Stokes suddenly wheeled around and shot Edwards as he passed by. Edwards was hit in the leg and right lung. A native of Ireland and a resident of Hudson, Mich., he was buried with Masonic rites at the Lutheran church in Salisbury and was later reburied in the National Cemetery. He was a member of Gen. Stoneman's personal staff.

     Capt. Edwards was profiled in a 1996 book, "Last Full Measure of Devotion," by his great-great nephew, Joe Edwards, writing under the name J. Doby. This book lists five other men from Hudson, Michigan, who gave their lives in Salisbury. Three of them actually died in Chattanooga, where presumably they were being treated for wounds. One of them was probably the first victim of Lt. Stokes.

• Cpl. Orlando Richardson died May 1, 1865, in Chattanooga, just two months after he enlisted.
• Norman F. Henry died May 1, 1865, in Chattanooga. His tombstone in the Chattanooga National Cemetery says he served in the 11th Michigan Mounted Infantry, which disbanded in 1864. Several of those soldiers enlisted in the 11th Cavalry.
• James Berch [or Bercham]
• John S. Worden
• Oliver Stebbins [or Stibbens] died April 27, 1865, in Chattanooga. Letters to his family indicate he died of measles and do not mention wounds.

     Salisbury editor J.J. Bruner, who was known to exaggerate, wrote in 1890 that 16 Union soldiers were killed or mortally wounded in the unsuccessful siege of the Yadkin River bridge, six miles northeast of Salisbury. However, the Tennessee brigade that attacked the bridge reported only four deaths at Salisbury:

• Saddler Leander Russell, 23, of the 13th Tennessee was killed April 12 in Salisbury. 
• Pvt. Godfrey Jenkins, 21, of the 13th Tennessee Cavalry was killed April 12 in Salisbury.
• Pvt. John Renshaw of the 8th Tennessee Cavalry was killed April 12 in Salisbury. Renshaw, just 18 years old, had enlisted March 21--the same day Stoneman's Raid left Knoxville. 
• Pvt. James Ledso, 20, of the 13th Tennessee, died April 18 at Salisbury from wounds suffered April 12 or 13.

STATESVILLE & IREDELL COUNTY, N.C., April 13-16

• Pvt. Orlow J. Brackett of the 10th Michigan was killed by bushwhackers April 16 in Statesville. He was from Bay County.
• Pvt. George Hysinger of the 8th Tennessee was executed April 15 "under a pretense of insubordination" by Capt. Landon Carter of the 13th Tennessee.

      At the 1895 reunion of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, a letter was read from Confederate Capt. J.R. Johnston, who served with Echols' cavalry in Virginia and the Carolinas. "Near Statesville, we came in contact with your General Palmer's command, and killed the Lieutenant who killed Morgan in Tennessee," he claimed. He was referring to the notorious Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan, who was hunted down by the 13th Tennessee in Greeneville, Tenn., in 1864. However, the soldier credited with killing Morgan, Andrew Campbell, lived in Indiana for decades after the war. Johnston's unit may have killed a different Union soldier, possibly Brackett.

LINCOLNTON & LINCOLN COUNTY, N.C., April 17-23

• Corp. George J. French of the 15th Pennsylvania was ambushed and shot April 18 near Lincolnton and is buried there at St. Luke's Episcopal Church. For his story, click here.
  

DALLAS & GASTON COUNTY, N.C.

• Pvt. John W. Knowles of the 12th Ohio died April 30 in Dallas. His unit was based April 17-23 in nearby Lincolnton, and it is not clear if he died of sickness or a wound. He was from Salem, Ohio.

MORGANTON & BURKE COUNTY, N.C., April 17-18
      North Carolina historian Cornelia Phillips Spencer said the Union had 25 killed and wounded in a gunfight at Rocky Ford and even reported eight Union bodies floating in the Catawba River. However, the military reports say there were no Union fatalities in this incident, which is known as the last artillery exchange of the Civil War.

ASHEVILLE & BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C., April 23-May 8

• Walter A. Sigler of the 11th Michigan died of disease at Asheville April 23. An 1865 report by the Michigan adjutant general says that Sigler was the only fatality from the 11th Michigan during Stoneman's Raid.

Four members of the 1st U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery (part of Stoneman's rear guard under Gen. Davis Tillson) were executed by firing squad May 6 after being accused of rape. (Click the image to enlarge.)

• Pvt. Alfred Catlett from Virginia
• Pvt. Alexander Cowell
• Pvt. Charles Turner
• Pvt. Jackson Washington

PENDLETON & ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C., May 5

• Alanson Wesley Chapman of Hillsdale, Michigan, accidentally shot himself while looting the Boscobel plantation south of Pendleton. According to Rev. John Bailey Adger's memoirs, "Chapman had stolen a fine young mare, and in mounting her, his short carbine swung around. The hammer hit the pommel of his saddle as the muzzle jabbed him under the chin and he fell dead in the yard. Most of the jewelry, including the handsome old-fashioned watch we now wear was recovered." Chapman and his brother Adelbert (who visited Rev. Adger a few days later) were enlisted in the 11th Michigan Cavalry, which was in Georgia by May 5, so it seems likely they were deserters. That would also explain why Chapman's death was unknown or ignored by the Michigan adjutant general mentioned above.
  

PICKENS COUNTY, S.C., May 9

• David H. "Harry" Morrison of Michigan was killed May 9 between Greenville and Easley in retaliation for the May 1 murder of civilian Matthew Ellison. Morrison, 18, was buried on Turner Hill near what is now the intersection of U.S. 123 and S.C. 153 His father reclaimed the body six months later.

Other possible Union casualties on Stoneman's Raid

     The 13th Tennessee and 12th Ohio reported a number of deaths during the days of Stoneman's Raid but do not say if they were killed in action. The Tennesseeans were involved in the raid on Wytheville, and it is possible that some of them may have fallen there. On the other hand, it's likely that some of these men died of disease or wounds suffered prior to Stoneman's Raid, or were on duty elsewhere. Similarly, there were also four members of the 12th Ohio who died of unspecified circumstances back at headquarters during the weeks of the raid. Their names:

13th TENNESSEE

• Pvt. Marion Wilson, age 19, died April 9 in Knoxville.
• Pvt. William Roten, age 18, died April 11 in Knoxville.
• Pvt. William H. Payne, died April 12 in Knoxville.
• Pvt. James N. Duggar, age 18, died April 14 in Knoxville.
• Pvt. William Mallory, age 44, died in April in Knoxville.
• Pvt. David Price, age 44, died April 28 in Knoxville.
• Pvt. Michael Sanders, age 42, died April 29 in Knoxville.
• Pvt. David Cole, age 26, died June 10 in Danville rebel hospital

12th OHIO

• Pvt. Levi Ebert from Lancaster, Ohio, died April 9 in Knoxville.
• Pvt. Lorenzo F. Hiddleston from Alliance, Ohio, died April 21 in a Nashville hospital.
• Pvt. Leonard H. Springer from New Lisbon, Ohio, died April 23 in a Knoxville hospital.
• Pvt. Benjamin McCullough from Columbus, Ohio, died April 30 in Knoxville.

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