I have this "thing" about visiting my dead relatives. I'm not sure why, maybe it just helps me feel more connected to them.
My now-husband and I stopped at the National Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia one summer on the way to Florida to visit his dad. They had an interment book, easy to read because it was typed, and alphabetized and with plot numbers. How hard could it be?
There was no listing for my ancestor.
What?
I was devastated.
I didn't know what to do, and I was overwhelmed. We finally stopped at an unknown soldier marker which I photographed so I would at least have something and headed off to Florida.
One day, many months later, I happened to be driving through Urbana, the county seat for Champaign County, Ohio where Hiram lived. His parents were early settlers and there were many pastors on both sides, so I pulled into the parking lot, thinking I might run across some biographical information on somebody in the family.
Soldiers of Champaign County, Ohio, Died for the Union. Well, this was certainly an interesting find.
But wait! (The "but" is the genealogist's nightmare, but it does lead to a bigger story, sometimes via many, many rabbit holes.)
There really was a Hiram Wilcox.
He was not in the same company as Hancock, but he was in the same regiment (Dear grandchildren: a company was made up of roughly 100 men, who were members of a regiment, which had more or less 10 companies.) Each company tended to come from their own county in general. In this case, Hancock was from Champaign County and Wilcox was from Delaware County.
There also was, once upon a time, the hand-written journal of the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic, the fraternal Union soldier organization post-war) at the county library in Urbana. A girlfriend also involved in Champaign County research at that time had mentioned it, and I remember stopping in and thumbing through it. Different soldiers wrote a page or so about their experiences (if I remember correctly, some 40-odd years later).
And would this be the original source that tells why or how Hancock is/was thought to be in Wilcox's grave?
https://civilwartalk.com/forums/ is an excellent place to ask questions about the Civil War. I have found that there are many reasons why a person might be misidentified. It is heavily moderated so the war doesn't erupt again, and many members are Civil War scholars.
1. Many (but not all) soldiers actually wrote their name on a piece of paper and put it in their pocket for identification should the unthinkable happen. This note might have been hit by a bullet, covered with blood, soaked by sweat or rain before a burial could talk place. Dog tags were not a thing until just before WWI.
2. According to the conversation I had with a park ranger, because of where Hancock was shot and what he was doing, and the horrid temps of June in Georgia, he was probably buried where he fell, and then reburied in the cemetery when it was built.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/dead-angle
On the third morning the Yankees raised a white flag, asked an armistice to bury their dead, not for any respect either army had for the dead, but to get rid of the sickening stench. I get sick now when I happen to think about it. Long and deep trenches were dug, and hooks made from bayonets crooked for the purpose, and all the dead were dragged and thrown pell mell into these trenches. Nothing was allowed to be taken off the dead, and finely dressed officers, with gold watch chains dangling over their vests, were thrown into the ditches. During the whole day both armies were hard at work, burying the Federal dead…. Personal letter/diary excerpt by Private Samuel Watkins, Confederate Army soldier.
3. After the war and the establishing of the cemetery (1866) , bodies were removed from the battlefield and reinterred. I am not shocked by the number of unmarked graves -- I am shocked by the number of soldiers who were able to be buried in a marked grave. I cannot imagine trying to identify a long-dead man whose body laid in the broiling sun and then was dragged to a trench and entangled with other bodies and covered with whatever they could place over them. For two years!
I have long wanted to change the name on this marker. In the end, it does not matter to me who is in this grave where I left the flowers from my bridal bouquet on my second trip to the cemetery. As I researched Wilcox, I realized he has no descendants, no one of his blood to visit him. His only child died just a few months before he did. His wife never remarried.
It is likely that I am the only modern visitor who knows the man in the grave, no matter whose body it belongs to.
Postcript: (1) Find-A-Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/32243396 Military grave for Hiram Wilcox: "According to the burial records, he was buried on the battlefield 30 yds South of the foot of Cheatham Hill [the Dead Angle was at the top] where there were eight pits of Unknown dead."
(2) The name of Wilcox's daughter that I used comes from the 1860 census. The name on the gravestone could have been her given name or her middle name that she went by (or the other way around), or a nickname. There was only one child but the results of the research of the family is not the focus of this blog.
Part of a larger illustration of Kennesaw Mountain from Big Shanty prior to battle. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. Attributed to Alfred R.Waud, and a part of the J. P. Morgan collection of Civil War drawings.
Photographs in this series are by the author, or otherwise noted.
Proper source for Wilcox in the military cemetery: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 10 January 2020), memorial page for Hiram Wilcox (1838–27 Jun 1864), Find A Grave Memorial no. 32243396, citing Marietta National Cemetery, Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia, USA ; Maintained by Janet (contributor 46573654) .
Proper source for Wilcox in the family cemetery: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 10 January 2020), memorial page for Hiram Willcox (1837–27 Jun 1864), Find A Grave Memorial no. 14189350, citing Union Cemetery, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, USA ; Maintained by Dave (contributor 46499754) .
Alphabetized indexed legend in the kiosk at the cemetery.
There was no listing for my ancestor.
What?
I was devastated.
I didn't know what to do, and I was overwhelmed. We finally stopped at an unknown soldier marker which I photographed so I would at least have something and headed off to Florida.
One day, many months later, I happened to be driving through Urbana, the county seat for Champaign County, Ohio where Hiram lived. His parents were early settlers and there were many pastors on both sides, so I pulled into the parking lot, thinking I might run across some biographical information on somebody in the family.
Oh my goodness!
Page 26, Hiram Hancock, Co. K, 113th O.V.I., killed at Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, June 27, 1864. Buried in Marietta National Cemetery; grave marked "Hiram Wilcox'.
There have been times during my research when I have run across something so emotional I tear up.
This was one of those times.
This was one of those times.
But wait! (The "but" is the genealogist's nightmare, but it does lead to a bigger story, sometimes via many, many rabbit holes.)
There really was a Hiram Wilcox.
Widow's Pension for Louisa Rhodes Wilcox. From Fold3.com, a pay-for website attempting to digitize every military record ever for the U.S. Louisa and Hiram were married 1 Jan 1857 and they had a little girl, Louretta in 1859 according to the 1860 census. He enlisted in 1862, and sadly, by the time Louisa filed for a pension in 1866, she listed "no children".
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14189350 Family Grave. It was not unusual to list a soldier who was buried near where he were killed, to also be listed on the family tombstone. Sending the body home was cost-prohibitive for most families although we do have a paper trail for one ancestor who died in a military hospital, and whose family had his remains sent home on the train.
Hiram Willcox. Killed in battle of [sp]Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia
June 27, 1864 Aged 28 Yr's.
Louisa O. Willcox.
Died Nov. 1, 1892 Aged 57 Y.9 M.11D.
Flora Willcox
Died
Mar. 18, 1864,
Aged
5Y. 3M. 3D.
There also was, once upon a time, the hand-written journal of the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic, the fraternal Union soldier organization post-war) at the county library in Urbana. A girlfriend also involved in Champaign County research at that time had mentioned it, and I remember stopping in and thumbing through it. Different soldiers wrote a page or so about their experiences (if I remember correctly, some 40-odd years later).
And would this be the original source that tells why or how Hancock is/was thought to be in Wilcox's grave?
https://civilwartalk.com/forums/ is an excellent place to ask questions about the Civil War. I have found that there are many reasons why a person might be misidentified. It is heavily moderated so the war doesn't erupt again, and many members are Civil War scholars.
1. Many (but not all) soldiers actually wrote their name on a piece of paper and put it in their pocket for identification should the unthinkable happen. This note might have been hit by a bullet, covered with blood, soaked by sweat or rain before a burial could talk place. Dog tags were not a thing until just before WWI.
2. According to the conversation I had with a park ranger, because of where Hancock was shot and what he was doing, and the horrid temps of June in Georgia, he was probably buried where he fell, and then reburied in the cemetery when it was built.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/dead-angle
On the third morning the Yankees raised a white flag, asked an armistice to bury their dead, not for any respect either army had for the dead, but to get rid of the sickening stench. I get sick now when I happen to think about it. Long and deep trenches were dug, and hooks made from bayonets crooked for the purpose, and all the dead were dragged and thrown pell mell into these trenches. Nothing was allowed to be taken off the dead, and finely dressed officers, with gold watch chains dangling over their vests, were thrown into the ditches. During the whole day both armies were hard at work, burying the Federal dead…. Personal letter/diary excerpt by Private Samuel Watkins, Confederate Army soldier.
3. After the war and the establishing of the cemetery (1866) , bodies were removed from the battlefield and reinterred. I am not shocked by the number of unmarked graves -- I am shocked by the number of soldiers who were able to be buried in a marked grave. I cannot imagine trying to identify a long-dead man whose body laid in the broiling sun and then was dragged to a trench and entangled with other bodies and covered with whatever they could place over them. For two years!
I have long wanted to change the name on this marker. In the end, it does not matter to me who is in this grave where I left the flowers from my bridal bouquet on my second trip to the cemetery. As I researched Wilcox, I realized he has no descendants, no one of his blood to visit him. His only child died just a few months before he did. His wife never remarried.
It is likely that I am the only modern visitor who knows the man in the grave, no matter whose body it belongs to.
Both men served, and died, with honor.
Neither are forgotten.
______________________________________________
(2) The name of Wilcox's daughter that I used comes from the 1860 census. The name on the gravestone could have been her given name or her middle name that she went by (or the other way around), or a nickname. There was only one child but the results of the research of the family is not the focus of this blog.
______________________________________________
Proper source for Wilcox in the military cemetery: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 10 January 2020), memorial page for Hiram Wilcox (1838–27 Jun 1864), Find A Grave Memorial no. 32243396, citing Marietta National Cemetery, Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia, USA ; Maintained by Janet (contributor 46573654) .
Proper source for Wilcox in the family cemetery: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 10 January 2020), memorial page for Hiram Willcox (1837–27 Jun 1864), Find A Grave Memorial no. 14189350, citing Union Cemetery, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, USA ; Maintained by Dave (contributor 46499754) .
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