Civil War Ancestors Many Americans have ancestors among the almost three million men who served in the American Civil War. A number of our staff here at Shiloh had Civil War Ancestors. This is the first of a series on their ancestors which will explore how to go about researching possible Civil War ancestry. Visitors frequently come to Shiloh National Military Park hoping to find a connection to possible ancestors who fought in the Civil War. Unfortunately, many do not have adequate information on their Civil War era relatives. The name of the possible soldier and the region he is from often are not enough to identify a possible connection. A first step is to identify as much information as possible about the ancestor you are looking for. You may be able to talk to older members of your family to start piecing together your family tree and trace it to a possible Civil War soldier. If you are fortunate, someone in your family may have done the genealogical work to identify a possible Civil War ancestor. The first key piece of information you will need is the complete name of the individual. The second key fact is whether your ancestor was Confederate of Union. This can sometimes be difficult to determine if your ancestor is from a border state such as Missouri or Kentucky, or even Tennessee. The third thing you will need is the state your ancestor came from and if possible the town or county. Often companies in regiments were raised from the same area so you may be able to narrow your search by identifying that location. Sometimes family members may remember information about ancestors but occasionally it may be garbled or misleading. I am Charles Spearman, Park Ranger, at Shiloh National Military Park. My great aunts remembered their grandmother, Susan Hutchison Spearman, the widow of a Civil War Soldier from South Carolina. According to family tradition, her husband William Morrison Spearman, had died during the Civil War in Confederate Service at “Showboatee,” Mississippi, and his body was never sent home. This Confederate soldier would have been my Great Great Grandfather. Once the name and area are identified you may go to a free site operated by the National Park Service, Soldiers and Sailors Database: nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm You may want to try several variations on the name in making your search since the name may be recorded by initials or with a different spelling. My first search on the site revealed no match for William Morrison Spearman, so I tried a search of all Spearmans from South Carolina. If you had a more common name you might just put the initial of the first name to make your search. This search brought up Private W. M Spearman, Company F, 24th South Carolina Infantry. The search also gives the microfilm roll in the National Archives that the information comes from, FILM NUMBER:M381 ROLL 30. When I clicked on the unit designation, 24th South Carolina, I obtained a short history of the unit including the battles they fought in. If I want to know more about what happened to my ancestor in the war, I will have to obtain a copy of his Civil War Service Record. Compiled service records in the National Archives consist of an envelope containing card abstracts taken from muster rolls, returns, pay vouchers, and other records. They will provide you with your ancestors rank, unit, date mustered in and mustered out, basic biographical information, medical information, and military information. This record may be obtained by on line request with the National Archives using Compiled Military Service File (NATF 86). There is a $30.00 fee for providing this information in a digital or paper format. Confederate records are sometimes incomplete because the rolls were lost. You may also find information about ancestors and their military records on a number of genealogical search sites that charge a subscription fee. When I went to one of these sites I checked service records-Confederate-South Carolina-24th South Carolina Infantry-last name p-s. There I found a listing for William M. Spearman and his Service Record. The records indicate that my ancestor, a 31 year old farmer, enlisted in Company F, 24th South Carolina at Anderson, South Carolina on April 14, 1862, for the war but was discharged the same day by a surgeon’s certificate. He was present with the unit according to the next records from March to June 1863. The muster roll indicates he was sick in the hospital in July and August. The next record indicated that he died in a hospital at Lauderdale Springs, Mississippi, on September 23, 1863. Another record, though, indicates that his money was reported as $18.75 from soldiers who died at Walker’s Division Hospital, Shubuta, Mississippi. The last record is dated February 8, 1864 and is a claim filed by his widow, Susan Spearman, with the Confederate States Auditor with the War Department. Susan also lost her brother John in the war. John Hutchison, who served as a private in the 10th South Carolina Infantry, died of Pneumonia in Atlanta in July 1864, and is buried there in Oakland Cemetery. The same records could also have been obtained from the National Archives. These records indicate two possible locations for William Spearman’s death, Lauderdale Springs and Shubuta, Mississippi. During the Civil War, the resort at Lauderdale Springs was converted into a hospital for the treatment of Confederate soldiers. Lauderdale Springs is the burial site of more than 1,100 soldiers who died there, while the names of some of those interred there have survived, most of the burial sites are unknown. The other possible location is Shubuta, Mississippi, which is where Private Spearman’s money was sent home. According to family tradition the Confederate Government offered to ship William’s body home for $25.00 but Susan was convinced by her brother that they could not afford the “extravagant fee”. A search of cemeteries in both locations has not located a known grave for Private Spearman and his grave is probably among thousands of unknowns, who never returned home. His death of disease, dysentery, according to the family, is also typical of Civil War deaths. Approximately two-thirds of soldiers who died in the war were from disease rather than battle.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 21:30:01 +0000