Andersonville Prison

Last week, I visited Andersonville National Historic Site, a very interesting and harrowing place. The original prison decayed to nothing long ago, but recreations of some of the walls, a gate and the "shebangs", the improvised tent structures, give a general idea of what the prison would have looked like without the throngs of people and general human misery. Attached to the site is a national cemetery, where the more than 13,000 United States prisoners who died during their incarceration were buried.

The site has particular significance to me because of the history of the regiment of my third great grandfather, Stephen Hilborn Avery. His regiment, the 22nd Michigan Infantry, suffered terrible losses at the Battle of Chickamauga. While Stephen Avery somehow managed to make it through, many others in his company and regiment were captured by Confederate soldiers and ended up in Andersonville. There are 18 soldiers from his company, Co. K., listed as prisoner, of which ten are buried in the cemetery. You can find a database of Andersonville prisoners here on the National Parks website.

Prisoners in Andersonville from 22nd Michigan Inf., Co. K:

James AckerFrancis Albro
Edward Boyce
John Cronkite
Franklin EmeryPatrick EsseltineJohn O'NealAndrew Paisley
Horace Sanborn
Horace SandburnJohn Scobell
Alonzo K. Smith
Joseph Squires
Seneca StevensJohn Utter
Stafford WilletsS. Williams
James Wilson

An exploration of my Civil War ancestry

In a series of occasional posts, I hope to discover the history of my family by exploring new records and understanding how these events shaped the lives of my ancestors. Although this blog is to some degree a personal record of my research, I would like to share what I have learned in a way that may help others with their own research.

The title of the blog is taken from the obituary of my 4th Great Grandmother, Cynthia (Stevens) Davis in Baldwin Bulletin (Baldwin, WI):

Baldwin Bulletin, May 10, 1879

We are called upon this week to chronicle the death of one of our oldest citizens, Mrs. Cynthia Stevens Davis, the esteemed wife of Willard Davis, and mother of E. N. Davis, and Mrs. D. J. Foster. She passed from earth hence away on Monday morning, being followed to her last resting place, in the Baldwin Cemetery, on Tuesday by a large concourse of relatives and friends, where the last sad rites were offered by the Rev. Mr. Bradley. She was born in Swanton, Vermont, in 1811, and married when 17 years of age, leaving her companion after a partnership of fifty-one years. She was a good woman, a kind neighbor, a loving wife and mother, and a consistent christian. She has fulfilled the Scriptural injunction, and is now reaping the reward. She was the mother of five sons and four daughters, two of her sons were offered up to her country, having met their death while fighting under the old flag, and now sleep on Southern soil. She has been ill, more or less, for the last five years. Her last sickness being painless and quiet. We deeply sympathize with the relatives and friends in this, their hour of affliction. Her age was 68 years.

The one sentence provided a brief glimpse into the great price many paid during the war. Of her five sons, three served in the United States Army, but only one survived the war. By the end of the war one of her daughters would be a widow, her husband having lost his life during the Siege of Petersburg.

Although the tragedy experienced by this family was remarkable, it was not unique. The war affected all my ancestors living in the United States at this time. Two of my direct ancestors fought in the war, one a native of Canada, whose family migrated to Michigan in 1860, another a man from Missouri, who would join the Confederate cause and before the end of the war lose his life.

In these post, I hope to tell some of the stories of these people who fought in the war or whose lives were touched in some way.