Many Campbell County families watched their fathers, sons, and brothers march off to fight in the Civil War, where they risked their lives for their understanding of "the cause." Several families saw more than one member enlist, but none quite matched the patriotic spirit of one local household whose story of loyalty and service and of loss and struggle shows that the ability to persevere through hardships was important on and off the battlefield, to soldiers and civilians alike.
My look into this family's war experience turned into one of the most surprising and fascinating discoveries I have made. When I began researching and writing this, I thought it was a tale of two brothers who served in the war, were wounded in battle, and re-enlisted to fight again. That alone was tantalizing enough, but further research found an even bigger story, a multi-layered narrative of war, its consequences, and civilian life before, during, and after the conflict.
I focused this post mainly on the Civil War, of course, but those interested in women's history or family studies might appreciate those perspectives of this narrative and my friends who study German immigration or immigrants will perhaps enjoy that angle. It is quite a remarkable story, certainly among my favorites. I hope I’ve done it justice.
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On Tuesday October 30, 1838, Daniel Weber and Philippine Ritter, a young couple in the Kingdom of Bavaria, happily united in holy matrimony, beginning their journey to a new life and new challenges far beyond what they may have imagined.
They began their life together and soon started a family as the months and years marched onward. Suddenly it \was 1847, and during that summer, the Weber family, now eight members strong, traveled to the Netherlands, where they boarded the ship Endragt and spent the next few weeks crossing the Atlantic Ocean. On August 11, the vessel successfully delivered them to New York, their first look at their new home.
The 1850s arrived soon thereafter, and the Weber clan settled in Buffalo, New York, where Daniel worked as a laborer to support his family, which now included nine children. Unfortunately, he passed away on November 3, 1851, leaving his widow and her houseful of young ones to fend for themselves as storm clouds amassed over their new nation.
Philippine and her flock remained in Buffalo in 1855, with her firstborn child Frederick holding a job as an iron roller to support the crowded household.1
Within the next year, though, the family again relocated, heading southwest where they wound up in Newport, Kentucky, on the southern shore of the Ohio River. Four years later, as the turbulent 1850s morphed into the bloody 1860s, Frederick worked as a laborer at a local steel mill.
On April 12, 1861, decades of national turmoil finally exceeded the country’s ability (or willingness) to compromise further, and Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter, igniting the Civil War.
The Webers, like many of their fellow German Americans, did not hesitate to pledge their allegiance to the national flag, with three of Philippine’s sons quickly joining the Union army. Incredibly, all three would feel the sting of enemy bullets during their service. Even after their difficulties, however, Philippine’s fourth and fifth sons later volunteered to join the Union army as well, more evidence of the family’s unequivocal commitment to the United States.
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The oldest Weber child, Frederick, was born in 1839 in Bavaria. After being the man and breadwinner of the family following his father’s early death, he decided to enlist in the Union army, along with his brothers Charles and Daniel.
As Kentucky residents, joining one of that state’s regiments was a logical course for them to follow, but it was not so easy due to Kentucky’s proclamation of neutrality and promise not to raise troops for either warring faction. Both sides were still trying to respect that status at this time.
Even while not wanting to offend Kentucky and possibly trigger its secession, the U.S. government did recognize the need for Kentucky men who wished to enlist in the national army to be able to do so, so it created two regiments, the 1st and 2nd Kentucky Infantry. To show consideration for the state’s position, the army organized these units in Cincinnati, with most of their members coming from Ohio. This location was convenient enough for Kentuckians to reach it with reasonable effort yet avoided violating Kentucky’s neutrality.
On May 10, 1861, the Weber trio took a ferry across the Ohio River to visit Camp Clay in the Pendleton district of Cincinnati. Here all three enlisted as privates in company I of the 1st Kentucky.
That regiment was still a three-month unit at this time but reformed into a three-year unit a month later, on June 5. This was when the brothers officially mustered in, again at Camp Clay. It was also at this time that Kentucky officially recognized the 1st as a state regiment.
Their motivation for enlisting is an unknown piece of their story. Did they act out of pure patriotism? Were they seeking adventure and glory, or did they simply want paying jobs to support their widowed mother? Did they consider the possible effects of sending the three oldest sons away from home at one time, perhaps for years? Did Philippine express any hesitation about their decisions, or did she even encourage their enlistments? Unfortunately, such intriguing questions are impossible to answer.
The 1st Kentucky's initial colonel was James Guthrie, a resident of Newport, but not everybody in the regiment appreciated his leadership. On July 23, Captain Thomas Cox Jr., of company I, in which the three Webers had enrolled, wrote to Brigadier General Jacob Cox, in command of the Federal forces in the Kanawha Division of West Virginia, openly expressing his concerns.
He asked to be transferred from the regiment as “I have no confidence in the ability of Col. Guthrie” to command an entire regiment because of his failure to discipline his men: “He had no system of government, the men do as they please and it is all most (sic) impossible to control them or hold them in subjection.”
When the men returned from marches, they were “permitted to go where they please before the guard is posted.”
Such lax oversight had repercussions: “They have pillaged and destroyed private property until we are and should be disgraced.” This happened in spite of Cox’ efforts. “I have denounced most emphatically such a course and have been reprimanded for it.”
Cox was secure in his views. “I feel confident that under Col. Guthrie I shall ever be dissatisfied – and have no desire to conceal my sentiments.”2
Authorities denied this request, and Cox remained with his company.
The 1st Kentucky began its service in the Kanawha Division, and on September 12, 1861, a skirmish broke out along the Coal River near the community of Peytonia.
A modern recap of this battle details what the Weber brothers experienced. The road to this meeting had begun two weeks earlier, when a detachment of the 1st Kentucky, accompanied by a squad of artillery, achieved a “resounding victory” in an engagement at Boone Court House on September 1. These men then “ravaged” parts of the area, “sacking many homesteads” as they marched. Were their actions confirmation of Cox’ earlier words of warning?
The Federals soon arrived in the Coal River Valley, where their movements and alleged depredations seized the attention of Confederate General Henry Wise, a former governor of Virginia. He ordered a cavalry force to confront the Yankees.
The horsemen rode off and soon spotted their enemy in a field near an orchard. Along with the Union men were the prisoners and spoils of war they had collected on their expedition. Suspecting these troops were unaware of their approach, the Confederates pounced. The Federals offered resistance, but it was futile as the Rebels made a “thunderous” charge that proved to be “daring, spectacular, and devastating.”
The attackers did not quickly let up, continuing to press their advantage. “The ensuing fight featured instances of hand-to-hand combat as riflemen swung their weapons as war clubs with devastating effect,” soon turning the confrontation into a rout as the Federals fled in great disorder, making this a clear and decisive Confederate triumph
Two of the 1st Kentucky’s companies, I (which included the Webers) and D, “together managed to stand up and contest the onslaught long enough at least to enable largely the remainder of the forlorn Union force to escape.”3
One Cincinnati newspaper reported on this clash, adding details from one of its survivors. On September 19, the Cincinnati Daily Press reported that Charles Weber, the second brother/soldier, had arrived in Cincinnati and provided his perspective on the fight.
He mentioned that companies I and D left camp to gather cattle as food for the regiment, traveling 22 miles. As they returned and were within 12 miles of their base, a cavalry force – 150 or 175 strong by Charles’ estimate – attacked them.
He also alleged that Captain David Johns of company D, commanding the expedition, “immediately fled, leaving the men to fight.” After battling for “some time,” the Federal troops, now without leadership, finally broke and scattered into the mountains.
The newspaper mockingly entitled this account the “Battle of Johns Run” in reference to the captain’s sudden disappearance.4
A soldier from Johns’ company D, however, disagreed with this assessment, asserting that his captain had not retreated before a body of enemy troops, of greater numbers than the Yankees, approached the Federal flank. It was not until this perilous point that he finally left the lines.5
The newspaper added: “Our men lost their cattle, but succeeded in bringing away eight horses.”6
In the overall picture of the war, this was not a large contest, going “little noticed in the North,” though, at the same time, it “caused great excitement throughout the South” as people there learned of this early success.7
Even if not well-known, its consequences were still substantial to the Weber family. During this clash, a Confederate bullet found Frederick and ended his life, making him the first Campbell County man killed in the war.
It is unfathomable to think that Charles did not take advantage of his trip to Cincinnati to visit his nearby Newport home to inform his mother and siblings of Frederick’s fate. Assuming he did so, he proved emotionally strong enough to leave them again and return to his duty and the omnipresent dangers of war. How did the loved ones he left behind feel about this? Did his presence influence future decisions by his younger brothers?
Charles reported that the Union forces had killed 32 enemy men and provided a list of Union casualties, though it mistakenly put “Frank Webber” among the slain as the “brother of our informant.” According to this account, company I, including all three brothers, lost five men killed, four wounded and had eighteen members captured, including another Campbell County resident, Thomas Van Fleet.8
Given the role their company played in the forefront of this contest, the Webers were fortunate that only one of them became a casualty that day.
Frederick had purchased clothing costing $24.61 in advance of a paycheck, putting him immediately in debt to the military. The army would deduct this from his future paychecks, but at this time he had not received any pay, which was to be $13 per month. The paymasters had not yet caught up to the 1st Kentucky.
Frederick also owed $5.00 to the regimental sutler, for food or other goods he had received.
His exact final resting place is a mystery, presumably on or near the ground where he fell. Either the Confederates, in control of the battlefield, or local citizens assumed the responsibility of burying the Union dead.
Charles, the family’s second child, was born about 1841, also in Bavaria.
In 1860, he lived with his mother and siblings in Newport. One year later, he marched off to fight alongside Frederick and Daniel. At his enrollment, Charles stood 5 feet 8½ inches tall. He had a light complexion, blue eyes, and brown hair. He claimed “chain maker” as his occupation and “on-the-Rhine, Germany” as his place of birth.9
He mustered into the 1st Kentucky with his brothers on June 5.
Charles served his first year physically intact, though the loss of his older brother surely hurt emotionally. His own luck, however, changed in the following year.
In the summer of 1862, Major Frank P. Cahill deducted $5.00 from Charles’ pay for an unrecorded infraction.10
His fortunes then grew worse when he personally felt the dangers of war as 1862 roared into 1863. On December 31, during the first day of the savage Battle of Stones River near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Charles, “serving bravely with his company,” was struck in his lower left thigh by an enemy bullet, leaving him “slightly” wounded.
In the following months, he worked to regain his health, spending time in Newport to then in a regimental hospital. He eventually recovered enough that examining physicians deemed him ready to return to duty in mid or late April.
His return was brief, though, as he was again “slightly” wounded in his left leg, this time on May 4 at Murfreesboro while his regiment was strengthening the area’s defenses.
This second injury ended his days in the 1st Kentucky. One confusing card in his military file shows that a post surgeon discharged him in Newport on an unrecorded date but also claims that his dismissal came in Murfreesboro on May 18.
The army likely dismissed him in or near that Tennessee city where he was wounded. His discharge certificate shows his dismissal occurred on May 31 at Camp Cripple Creek, a nearby strip of land where the 1st Kentucky and three other regiments bivouacked. This form noted that he had been wounded in action and that “he will not recover in a reasonable leave [and] is unfit for further military duty.” The surgeon declared that he should get two-thirds disability benefits.11
After his discharge, he was out of the army and free to go wherever he wanted and do whatever he wished. He had done his duty honorably and held no further military obligations, but despite the adversity he had faced, he chose to re-enlist, this time in a newly formed unit. Was this out of patriotism, a search for more adventure, or to honor Frederick and avenge his death? Perhaps peer pressure from his brothers played a part.
For his second military stint, he enlisted as a private for one year in company E of the 53rd Kentucky Mounted Infantry. He joined it on September 29, 1864, in Covington and was sworn in on October 6. He worked at the rolling mill at the time and stood 5 feet 8 inches tall, with blue eyes, light hair, and a light complexion. He obviously passed any attempted physical exam the military may have performed. This time, he offered up Erie County, New York as his place of birth.
During his second term in the army, Charles earned a promotion to corporal on August 23, 1865, as the regiment performed garrison duty after the war’s end. He mustered out of the service in Louisville a few weeks later, on September 15, and returned home.
Civilian life brought him joy when he married Margaret Boden in Newport on April 7, 1867. The marriage record listed both as native Germans.
Three years later, Charles worked as an iron worker and owned property worth $200. He shared his Newport home with Maggie.
Another decade passed, and in 1880, he resided on Chestnut Street in Newport with Maggie, two sons and a daughter. He worked as a mill-hand. This year’s census also listed him as German-born.
On April 2, 1885, he entered the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio. His physical description was still the same, except his eyes were now gray. The home reported Erie County, New York for his nativity. He lived in the facility until he chose to leave on March 2, 1888.
He returned to the home seven months later on October 17, but paretic dementia took his life after only a few more weeks, on December 22.
This affliction, also known as “general paresis of the insane,” “general paralysis of the insane,” or “paralytic dementia,” is “a problem with mental function due to damage to the brain from untreated syphilis.”12
Syphilis progresses through a series of phases and can eventually reach a tertiary stage that damages the brain and other bodily systems. “Late or tertiary syphilis develops in untreated individuals years or decades after the initial infection,” meaning he may have originally contracted the disease during the war.13
After his death, his corpse was temporarily buried near the Soldiers Home, likely in the Dayton National Cemetery. It was quickly disinterred and sent to his family in Newport, where it was laid to rest in the Union soldiers' plot in Evergreen Cemetery, much closer to his home, on December 28.
A cemetery record mentioned Germany as his native land, but the soldiers’ home listed it as Erie County, New York, continuing that inconsistent reporting.14
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| From findagrave memorial id 22199377 |
The third Weber brother, Daniel, was born in Bavaria on May 19, 1842.
In 1860, he lived with Frederick, Charles, their mother and other siblings in Newport, with the census agreeing that Bavaria was his birthplace.
Like his older siblings, Daniel enlisted in company I of the 1st Kentucky Infantry. He was 5 feet 7½ inches tall. His complexion was light, his eyes were blue, and his hair was also of a light hue.
Keeping with a recent and unfortunate family tradition, Daniel became a war statistic. On April 7, 1862, during day one of the Battle of Shiloh in southern Tennessee, he became one of 8,408 Union men injured during this fight, each among the 275,174 Federals wounded during the entire war.15
His wound was mild enough to allow him to remain with the regiment until December 26 when he entered a hospital in Nashville where he was designated as “sick,” a generic term that included injuries.
He then passed 1863 in hospitals in Nashville, Louisville, and Cincinnati, but mostly at Camp Dennison near Cincinnati.
He may have deserted that latter hospital on September 22, but only one page makes that claim, and no follow-up exists. One plausible scenario is that officials briefly could not find him, reported the desertion, and then located him, but left the first report in his file. Or perhaps he tried to desert but changed his mind or was arrested. Whatever the real story was, Daniel remained in that hospital until doctors discharged him from the army on December 19.
His discharge paperwork mentions a gunshot wound of his left tibia he suffered at Shiloh and claimed that he had “been unfit for duty – 12 months.” The surgeon diagnosed him with a mitral valvular disease of the heart and pronounced him unfit for duty in the Invalid Corps, a unit later renamed the Veterans’ Reserve Corps, in which soldiers unhealthy enough for active duty in the field could perform lighter tasks.16
This same form tabbed Newport as his birthplace, the only suggestion of that town as the origin for any Weber. This is obviously an error but continues the unpredictability of how his birthplace appeared on records.
After his departure from the 1st Kentucky, Daniel, like Charles, still wished to fight for his country. On September 29, 1864, he traveled with Charles to nearby Covington, where they enrolled as privates in company E of the 53rd Kentucky, both for one year. They mustered in on October 6. Daniel now listed Erie County, New York as his birthplace.
He stood 5 feet 9 inches tall at this time, slightly different than previously. Whether he grew or one of the measurements was incorrect is a minor question.
He earned a quick promotion to third sergeant, but on December 1 a charge of disobedience of orders resulted in his reduction in the ranks back down to private at Bean Station, Tennessee. No specific details of his offense still exist.
In May and June of 1865, he was sick in another hospital, this one in Mount Sterling, Kentucky.
Before that, he had somehow found time to return home to marry Adeline Jolly on February 22 in Newport. How he was able to leave his regiment is not clear. Perhaps his illness in May and June had started weeks earlier and he went home then under the guise of regaining his health.
He recovered soon enough and returned to his company, where he served as its cook in July before mustering out of the service on September 15 in Louisville.
The war had ended, so he went back to civilian life. In 1870, he lived in Newport with Adeline and their pair of children. He found employment as a laborer and that year’s census listed his birthplace as Bavaria.
The couple still made their home in the same town a decade later but now had six children. Germany was his reported birthplace on this record.
Not much had changed when the 1890 Veterans Schedule came out, showing him still in Newport, but by the dawn of the twentieth century, the family had moved to Detroit, Michigan, with two adult sons in the house. He worked as a brass finisher, and Germany was again reported as his birthplace.
By 1910, Daniel, Adeline, a son, and a granddaughter shared a home in Michigan. He still worked as a brass finisher. This year’s census claimed New York for his birth.
On September 13, 1923, Daniel passed away at age 81 in Newport due to a “gastric hemorrhage from a probable ulcer,” according to his death certificate, which listed Buffalo as his birthplace.
His obituary noted that he was born in Buffalo and had spent years in Detroit, working as a brass finisher before returning to Newport 18 months previously. In Newport, he lived with a daughter on East Fourth Street. Three daughters and two sons survived him.17
Like Charles, he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
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| From findagrave memorial id 242095099 |
Despite the struggles of these three soldier brothers, the Weber family still supported the national government.
Philippine’s fifth son, Adolph, was the next to prove this, enlisting as a private for three years in company H of the 50th Ohio Infantry on August 14, 1862. He mustered in thirteen days later.
The 50th Ohio had formed at Camp Dennison, a few miles east of Cincinnati, mustering into the U.S. service on August 27. In its early days, it moved to Covington, Kentucky, to defend the area as Confederate forces approached, an episode known as the “Siege of Cincinnati.”
The regiment next joined in the Union’s efforts to stop Braxton Bragg’s Confederate invasion of Kentucky. This campaign ended at the hard-fought Battle of Perryville, in which the 50th saw action.
This unit then served assignments in western Kentucky and Tennessee, including time in Nashville and Knoxville.
This was the last duty Adolph saw in this regiment, as he transferred to the second battalion of the Veterans Reserve Corps on November 1, 1863. His move to that particular battalion indicates he had suffered a severe wound, as men with less debilitating injuries were in the first battalion, doing more physically taxing work, and “Soldiers with more serious disabilities served as cooks, orderlies, and nurses, usually in hospitals, in the Second Battalion.”18
Unfortunately, no specifics of his injury exist. The 1890 Veterans Schedule shows that he suffered no disability in the war, showing that he recovered from what ailed him during the war.
Adolph had been born on June 27, 1845, in the same country as his brothers. He was just 17 years old when he joined the army, but told officials he was 18, the army’s minimum age, and they believed him, not an uncommon occurrence.
After the war, he married Christina Smith on December 29, 1870, in Newport. Granville Moody, a preacher known as the “Fighting Parson” during the Civil War, signed the marriage license as a Methodist Episcopal minister.19
By 1880, Adolph had moved to Detroit, as his brother Daniel also had done. Since they both found employment as brass finishers in that city, work may have motivated their decisions to move there. At the time, Detroit’s manufacturing industries built their factories near the Detroit River, usually next to residential areas where employees could live. Addresses on census records show that both Daniel and Adolph lived close to that river, Adolph with his wife and three children.20
Adolph, his wife, and an adult daughter still lived in Detroit as the twentieth century dawned. He had changed careers to that of a traveling salesman.
Asthma claimed his life on October 9, 1909, though general debility and exhaustion contributed to his demise. He was buried in Detroit’s Woodmere Cemetery.
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| From findagrave memorial id 131662098 |
The fifth and final Weber brother who sought wartime adventure was August, the family’s fourth child. He had been born in Germany in 1844. Living with his family in 1860, he had not yet found work, and when the war started, he was too young to enlist alongside his brothers.
By 1862, however, he was 18 years old and on August 25, just 11 days following Adolph’s enlistment, he joined company I of the 124th Ohio Infantry for a three-year term. His company was from the Cincinnati area, while most others in the regiment were from northern Ohio.
He officially mustered into the army on December 30.
The 124th was active in the Western Theater of the war, including in the Tullahoma Campaign, the Battle of Chickamauga, the “Miracle on Missionary Ridge,” and the Atlanta Campaign.
August mustered out with his company on July 9, 1865, in Nashville. Records of his service are scarce, but unlike his brothers, he seems to have survived the marches, campaigns, and battles unscathed.
He returned home and in 1880 lived with his wife Mary and their daughter Emma in Newport. He found work as a laborer.
August died at the Newport house of his niece on April 14, 1903. He had been working as a stove molder and suffered “a long illness of stomach trouble.” A reverend from a local Methodist Episcopal Church officiated his funeral at the house. He was then buried in Evergreen Cemetery.21
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| Author's photo |
With her husband gone for a decade and her eldest son a casualty of war, Philippine faced major uncertainty. Perhaps her other children helped her, but as they were starting their own families, could they afford to do so?
One avenue for her to find relief was to apply for a mother’s pension. She initiated this process by completing a “Claim for Mother’s Pension” for her loss in what the form termed the “War of 1861.”
Her pension file details the difficulties she faced in the postwar years.22
On September 26, 1862, the 46-year-old Philippine testified before a judge in Hamilton County, Ohio that she was the widow of Daniel and the mother of Frederick. She confirmed that her son, upon whom she relied for support, was never married and left neither a wife nor a minor child.
Furthermore, she vowed that “she has not in any way been engaged in or aided or abetted this rebellion in the United States.”
More information followed.
From about 1856 forward, Frederick had held a job in a local rolling mill, earning from $3.00 - $9.00 weekly. As he worked, he handed his earnings over to his mother to pay for household necessities such as food and clothing for their large family. He continued doing so until he joined the army in 1861.
Some of her acquaintances testified about her situation. Shortly following his death, Philippine was “living in very destitute circumstances.” She had been “at great extent depending on a living on the support” Frederick had provided. Her “property does not exceed six hundred dollars.”
After she had submitted evidence of her identity, Frederick’s demise in battle, and the financial struggles she would face without him, the pension bureau granted her a payment of $8.00 per month, effective September 13, 1861, one day after Frederick’s death.
That office still wanted more information. A statement from Charles Biltz in March of 1866 confirmed that Frederick had “never been paid” in the army and thus “could send no remittances to her from there.”
An April 21 affidavit then presented statements by Henry Wendt and the same Charles Biltz divulging that Philippine owned a “small cottage” worth $600 - $700, but that she still owed $200 on it. Her home furnishings were “not worth one hundred dollars,” and she held “no other source of income nor any other property either real or personal.”
The approval of her application did not mean that her battle was over, however, as her pension suddenly and unexpectedly stopped without explanation the following year. This inconvenience required her to request its reinstatement.
Philippine herself signed a document attesting: “I was dependent on him (i.e. Frederick) for support and was drawing a pension from the government and by some means unknown to me my pension was cutoff or suspended May 30, 1867.”
She continued: “I can’t support myself and am dependent upon my pension. I am a widow and am too old to work,” explaining that “My son Frederick supported me…and I have been living upon my pension with what little I do myself since his death.”
Her wishes were clear: “I would ask that my pension be reinstated.” She also complained that the agent who had helped her apply for her pension in the first place, was upset about his fee while she felt that he “wanted to charge too much,” though she did not detail his demands.
Once she had made her request, she continued to provide updates, such as statements from locals familiar with her circumstances. In November of 1867, Margaret Biltz, who had known Philippine for a decade, testified that Philippine’s house had been sold at a sheriff’s sale in 1861, and declared that her friend was “justly entitled to pension from the government account of the death of her son in the army,” adding "She now has no means of support and is entirely dependent on her pension.”
An acquaintance of a dozen years agreed that she “now has nothing to live on and is growing old.”
In 1868, Philippine compiled an inventory of her property. She acknowledged ownership of three old bedsteads and beds, along with an old bureau, and a wardrobe also described as old. Her other “old” household furnishings included six wooden chairs, six cane chairs, and a cook stove. She also had a carpet she valued at $25.
“The above-named property is not by any means sufficient for my support,” she asserted. With Frederick gone, “I have no other means of support.” Her paperwork includes several such remarks noting Frederick’s aid, but with no mention at all of any help from her other children. Maybe the family’s culture or belief system made this the duty of only the oldest son.
The 1860s had been a period of drastic change for Philippine. The Civil War had come and gone, stealing her oldest son and sole financial support. She adjusted from having nine children at home in 1860 to just one – her youngest daughter Louisa - by 1870. The two Weber women did still live in Newport, the one slice of continuity they could still enjoy.
More change, however, was on its way.
In 1874, the pension bureau transferred her records from its Louisville branch to its office in Detroit, as she had moved to that city where she lived with Louisa. Had Daniel and/or Adolph encouraged her to move there?
Philippine spent her remaining years in Michigan, passing away on January 12, 1892, at 75 years of age. This widow, the sole head of a large family, had finally escaped her earthly struggles and was buried in Woodmere Cemetery, where her headstone included an appropriate tribute, the first two lines of the hymn Asleep in Jesus:
Asleep in Jesus Blessed Sleep
From Which None Ever Wakes to Weep.23
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| From findagrave memorial id 233742842 |
After living a life of challenges and changes, including 40 years as a widow, Philippine Weber had truly earned her eternal rest. She had raised nine children, mostly alone, and sent five sons to fight in a bloody and deadly war. She endured the losses of her husband and firstborn son as well as financial difficulties. She persevered through these hardships to lead a long, full life, helping her family author a remarkable legacy, one certainly unique in Campbell County history.
Notes
1The spelling of her unusual name naturally appears differently on various sources, including “Phillippine” on her headstone. Her signature appears to show either “Philippine” or possibly “Philippene.” I have decided to trust her signature over other records and believe the “Philippine” version is likely more accurate, so I have chosen to use it for the sake of consistency.
2Cox, Jr., Thomas to Brig. Gen. Cox. July 23, 1861, Accessed as pages 24 and 25 at https://www.fold3.com/file/226508824
3Graham, Michael B. The Coal River Valley in the Civil War. Charleston SC: The History Press, 2014. Ebook. Pp. 85-107
4Cincinnati Daily Press, September 19, 1861
5Graham
6Cincinnati Daily Press, September 19, 1861
7Graham
8Cincinnati Daily Press, September 19, 1861
9For his time in the 1st Kentucky, fold3.com lists Charles’ last name as “Webber,” but uses “Weber” on his file for the 53rd.
10As a private, his pay was $13.00 per month, so this deduction was almost 40% of one month’s wages.
11https://www.campcripplecreektn.com/, Accessed January 23, 2026
12https://ufhealth.org/conditions-and-treatments/general-paresis Accessed February 18, 2026
13https://www.osmosis.org/answers/tertiary-syphilis Accessed February 18, 2026
14https://www.usgenwebsites.org/KYCampbell/evergreen1887.htm, Accessed February 10, 2026
15https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/shiloh, Accessed August 4, 2025, and https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/facts.htm, Accessed February 10, 2026
16 “Mitral valve disease refers to a group of conditions affecting the mitral valve in your heart… But severe damage to your mitral valve can harm your heart over time and lead to serious problems like heart failure.” https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/23235-mitral-valve-disease, Accessed January 23, 2026
17Kentucky Post, September 13, 1923
18https://www.emergingamerica.org/exhibits/how-civil-war-veterans-transformed-disability/cast-characters/invalid-corps-corps-honor, Accessed February 7, 2026
19The postwar Grand Army of the Republic had a post in Bellevue. It was named the Granville Moody Post.
20https://detroit1701.org/Detroit%20Copper.htm, Accessed February 15, 2026
21Kentucky Post, April 15 and 16, 1903
22Philippine’s pension file is located at https://www.fold3.com/file/286641735. It can be found on fold3.com under searches for Phillippina Weber or her son’s name Frederick Weber.
23https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/233742842 and https://hymnary.org/text/asleep_in_jesus_blessed_sleep
Accessed February 10, 2026
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