My 1st Confederate Ancestor: Levi Gross, 5th Ky Mounted Infantry

One topic I’ve discussed over the years on this page has involved the exploration of the lives and service of Civil War ancestors I discovered, and I even have created  a separate page  to list them and provide some basic information about them their places in my lineage.

Recently a cousin found another link to the war, but this one was different - this one was a Confederate soldier, the first of his kind in my family history.

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Levi Gross, my first cousin five times removed, was born in 1844 in Breathitt County, Kentucky to Thomas and Sally (McIntosh) Gross, the latter of whom was my 4 times great grandaunt (the sister of my 4x great-grandfather.)

The family remained in Breathitt County - from where many of my maternal ancestors lived - in  both 1850 and 1860.

When the Civil War started in April of 1861, Levi did mot immediately enlist, perhaps due to his age, as he was under 18 years of age. Many young men found ways around this regulation, but Levi did not.

By September of 1862, he had turned 18 and on September 11 ventured to the county seat of Jackson, where he enlisted as a private in company B of the 5th Kentucky Mounted Infantry. Breathitt County, like much of Kentucky, contained divided loyalties, a two of Levi's first cousins (my 3x great grandfather Nimrod McIntosh and his brother Richard) joined U.S. units.

Levi's regiment had originally formed in the summer of 1861 as a one-year unit, though many of its men refused to re-enlist for the rest of the war. 

His wartime experience was not always happy. In October of 1862, he deserted his company at Saylersville, Kentucky, and did not return until April of 1863, when General William Preston had him restored to duty. He forfeited all pay for the time he was gone, a fairly lenient but common punishment.

As the war progressed, the 5th Kentucky eventually became part of the famous Orphan Brigade, a collection of Kentucky regiments and men who served the Confederacy but never fought in their home state. These men fought in the September 1863 contest at Chickamauga in northern Georgia, the largest and bloodiest battle in the war's Western Theater, an overwhelming Confederate triumph.

A form dated in February of 1864 reports him as being “destitute” of a pair of pants, a pair of drawers, and a blanket. A special requisition apparently resolved that issue. Levi “made his mark” on the requisition document.

His records also show that he owed $3 in April of that year due to “damage done to gun.” Unfortunately, it does not specify the type of gun it was.

Levi and his fellow orphans  then joined in the famous Atlanta Campaign through the spring and summer of 1864, a long, hard-fought series of contests that led Levi to his unfortunate destiny. (Some might contend it did the same for the Confederacy.)

As the year  progressed, the Federal and Rebel armies were still contesting Georgia soil, and on July 22,  William Hardee’s Corps of Confederates met Federals near a waterway called Intrenchment Creek  Hardee’s men attacked, but the bluecoats defeated them. 

Among the Orphan Brigade’s casualties was Levi Gross, who was injured and left on the field, where his Yankees recovered him and moved him to the hospital of the second division of their XVI Corps.

Despite this attempted care, his wound proved to be fatal and he passed away on September 14, 1864. He is buried in the Marietta Confederate Cemetery, his name engraved on a monument with 18 fellow Confederate casualties. (Not only is he my first CSA ancestor, but is also just my second ancestor to have fought and died in the war.)

His father Thomas Gross (who had married into my family tree) also served the Confederacy, joining the 5th Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry, which formed in the summer of 1862. Like his son, he became a casualty of war, though with better fortune than Levi as Union forces led by Colonel Frank Wolford’s 1st Kentucky Cavalry captured Thomas in Richmond, Ky., around July 30 or August 1, during the small engagement mentioned toward the end of this page.)

He spent time at a military prison in Louisville, then at both McLean Barracks and Kemper Barracks in Cincinnati, followed by stays at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio and Rock Island, Illinois, where he took the Oath of Allegiance on October 24, 1864.

 He survived his confinement and the war, but not for terribly long. He died on September 24, 1864, two years after his son succumbed to his war wounds. Thomas was buried in the Combs Cemetery in Breathitt County.