A few years ago I finally learned that some of my direct ancestors did serve in the Civil War. Here is a link to a brief post I wrote about Nimrod McIntosh and Henderson Turner. That entry, however, has some errors that I apparently never went back to correct, so I will update it here for Nimrod and in a separate entry for Henderson.
Nimrod, my 3-times great grandfather, joined Company D of the 7th Kentucky Infantry in November 1862 at Booneville, Ky., for a 3 year term, according to records at fold3.com. Records show that he may have been only 17 years old at the time, so he may have lied about his age in order to enroll. (Most census records show he was likely born in 1845, though another one indicates 1843 may have been his birth year, while I have also seen 1840 listed.) He became ill early in 1863 while the unit was at Young's Point, Louisiana and apparently spent some time at a convalescent camp in Carrollton, Louisiana which was then a Union-controlled suburb of New Orleans. Nimrod was listed "absent sick on a hospital steamer" on March 14, 1863 and shown in St. Louis by April 1. At this city, he was in a hospital at Jefferson Barracks. The illness somehow spread to his back according to his pension records, and he transferred to Company F of the 5th Regiment of the Veterans Reserve Corps (formerly called the Invalid Corps) in Indianapolis in August of 1863, remaining in that unit for the duration of the war. By joining so late in the year and becoming ill so early the next year, he missed out on the 7th Kentucky's campaigns and fighting. Nimrod collected a pension for the rest of his life due to this injury and his widow collected it after his death in 1898. I have copies of his pension file and need to read through it again and will perhaps post about it here in the future.
A few non-lineal ancestors, distant uncles or cousins, were also involved in the Civil War. This group includes Nimrod's brother Richard "Crippled Dick" McIntosh. He was also a private in Company K of the 14th Kentucky Cavalry, (see also this link) which was a common unit for my ancestors. He was injured in action in Breathitt County, Ky., suffering a broken thigh, survived the war and eventually died in 1928 at the Soldier's Home in Dayton, Ohio. According to military paperwork on fold3.com, he stood 5 feet, 5 inches tall, with black hair and eyes and dark complexion. He was a farmer who enlisted in Breathitt County on December 3, 1862 for a term of one year. The company was mustered in at Camp Nelson, though one page indicates Richard's mustering in may have been delayed due to his injury.
The 14th Kentucky Cavalry remained mostly in Eastern Kentucky guarding against Confederate guerrillas and possible raiders in the mountainous area.
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