Veteran Ancestors

With Memorial Day upon us, I thought I’d list a few of my ancestors who served in the military. The following is not exhaustive as I haven’t found records for many ancestors, yet. Some may have served but I don’t have any records. I’m roughly going backward in time through service rather than generationally.

Dad: James Espy Green; Navy:

Dad joined the Navy in 1944 at age 17. He had to beg and plead to get his father to sign the paperwork to let him enlist at age 17. He did this in part because he wanted to be like his big Brother Buddy who already was in the Navy.

Dad said he knew on the first day of Boot camp that he “had done shit in his mess kit”, i.e. made a big mistake. Dad became appointed a Yeoman, i.e. a clerical person because he could read and write and helped out the base chaplain. Dad didn’t want to be a yeoman, but he had no choice. Dad served on the first naval ship to go to Bikini atoll about six months after the first post-war atomic bomb. He told a story about how the sailors went ashore and did what sailors did, they ate fish and coconuts. After several days, the captain came on the PA and said: “STOP EATING THOSE RADIOACTIVE COCONUTS”. I wonder if Dad and his fellow sailors were part of a long term experiment in that the Navy knew they would eat the local food and then they’d have a shipload of lab rats to follow through life. He was discharged in 1948 and moved in with his parents, who during his time in service had moved from Arkansas to Salinas, California. Dad briefly considered joining the Coast Guard but for reasons unclear to me did not do so. He probably didn’t want to go through the military experience again.

Grandfather: Thomas Alton Green

My Dad’s father had been drafted for World War 1. He had reported for duty and he and a group of other drafted men were on a railroad platform in Little Rock Arkansas waiting for a train to take them to boot camp when word came that the war was over, and they were told to go simply home.

Great Grandfather, John Douglas Cleveland, Union Army:

My Great Grandfather, my mother’s mother’s father, was a private in the I THIRD Minnesota regiment. He enlisted in 1864 and his unit fought in Arkansas and was discharged after the end of the war.

Great Grandfather, William Gardner Redus, Confederate Army:

William Gardner Redus served in the military in 1861 in Arkansas when he was 19 years old. Enlisted as Corporal in Company B of Thirty-sixth Arkansas Infantry. I don’t know any more about his service as of now, even if he was on the wrong side.

Great Great Grandfather Louis E. Chipman, Union Army.

Louis had a long service in the civil war. Louis E. Chipman served in the military on December 11, 1861, in Indiana when he was 15 years old. He served in many battles including the Battle of Shilo, Battle of Perryville, Battle of Chaplin Hills, Battle of Stones River aka Second Battle of Murfreesboro, Battle of Lookout Mountain, Battle of Missionary Ridge, the siege of Atlanta, Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Battle of Jonesborough, Second Battle of Franklin, and the Battle of Nashville. He is listed as a deserter on August 12, 1865, but this was a common thing at that time as the war was essentially over then and many troops were just waiting to be officially let go and he was officially discharged a month later. It did not affect his later status as a veteran. His service in the civil war must have greatly affected him as he died young at age 38.

Great Great Grandfather, Richard Baxter McCord, Union Army, Cavalary:

Enlisted in Company A, Missouri 12th Cavalry Regiment. His unit fought in Arkansas. My father used to talk about how his grandfather was a horse person, so it may have originated with his Great Grandfather here. His service may have echoed down the years to his granddaughter’s marriage to Thomas Alton Green, my grandfather, in Arkansas. I have heard his family objected to him, a fine Southern Gentleman, marrying a “damn Yankee cow”. While it had been forgotten history to my generation until I dug it up, it was likely well known that my Grandmother’s Grandfather had been a Union Soldier who fought in Arkansas when they got married.

Great Great Great Grandfather Thaddeus Norris Hitt, Union Army.

He served in the military on December 17, 1861, in Wabasha, Minnesota, when he was 46 years old. Enlisted as a Private in 1st Minnesota Infantry, Company I. He was one of the oldest of Minnesota's men, and perhaps anywhere, who volunteered. He may have been motivated to enlist at his advanced age as his father Presley Russell Hitt had been in the War of 1812 and his grandfather had been a POW in the Revolutionary War (see below). He served in many battles. He received a disability discharge from Company I, 1st Infantry Regiment Minnesota on 16 May 1863, possibly as a result of the Battle of Chancellorsville (30 APR to 6 May 1863). Although his records don't record any wounds, other injuries may have occurred. It may have been merely that at his age he was deemed unfit for continued service. His unit went on a few weeks after he left to fight at Gettysburg, so it may have been his good luck to have left when he did.

Great Great Great Grandfather Joel Strother Redus, U.S. Army:

I don’t know much about his service except that he fought in the Mexican War and was possibly part of the “trail of tears” campaign. He received a land grant in Arkansas as a result of his Mexican War Service. Not all military service is noble or glorious.

Great Great Great Grandfather Joel William Smith, Confederate Army:

He enlisted in the Eighth Infantry as a private. Inscription on Tombstone-Co. B, Capt. Critz Ark. Infantry CSA.

4th Great Grandfather Presley Russell Hitt, Ohio militia, War of 1812

He served in MCCONNEL'S REGIMENT, OHIO MILITIA, in the war of 1812. Ohio was on front lines of that war, so it’s likely he saw action.

6th Great Grandfather, Mathews Flournoy, Revolutionary War

I have a note that he was in the Revolutionary War, but so far I don’t know what unit or where he served.

Post-revolution, in 1794, he enlisted in Kentucky, Conn's Battalion, Mounted Volunteers, Quartermaster Sargent. According to a record I found, this is how he died:

“By the Kentucky tradition, the locality of his death is stated as the Cumberland Gap. The Virginia tradition gives the location as Crab Orchard. Cumberland Gap is along the route he traveled to Kentucky, making it the likely choice. John Flournoy Henry Esq. of Louisville, Kentucky and Mathew's great-grandson, gave this account: "Mathews Flournoy, returning from Virginia, was killed by the Indians near Cumberland Gap. He was with Whitney, a celebrated Indian Fighter, and others. Being attacked they sought the protection of the forest trees. Soon Whitney called to Mathew Flournoy, 'Why do you remain behind one tree? Change from one to another or they will kill you.' Flournoy replied, 'I cannot move, they have shot me through the knee.' Just then Whitney saw a stalwart Indian with his arrow drawn upon Flournoy. He raised his rifle, hoping to kill the Indian before he had slain his friend, but the Indian was too quick. His arrow pierced the heart of Flournoy almost the same instant that Whitney's rifle ball entered the vitals of the Indian. Whitney and his companions were driven from the forest, but returned to carry off the body of their companion, Flournoy, and found it so eaten by wolves that they burned it on the spot where he was killed."

4th Great Grandfather James Redus, Revolutionary Army

James Redus served in the military in 1776 in London Grove, Pennsylvania, when he was 32 years old. James Redus served in the 4th Company of the 7th Battalion Chester County, Pennsylvania Militia during the Revolutionary War

4th Great Grandfather, Samuel Clark, Continental Army, Brigadier General

I don’t know any more about his service than that he was Brigadier General.

5th Great Grandfather Ambrose Hodges, Continental Army

He enlisted as a private in the Revolutionary army. No further information is known at this time.

5th Great Grandfather, Peter H. Hitt, Continental Army, POW.

He fought at Camden, South Carolina under Baron de Kalb and in August 1780, during the battle of Camden, he was captured and imprisoned. He was wounded in a cavalry charge which resulted in both arms and his side being slashed by a sword. He had taken shelter under a “bending tree” and thus only got wounded rather than killed. He was imprisoned on a British prison ship under horrible conditions. He was not given any treatment for his wounds and his fellow prisoners kept him alive. One task the prisoners were put to was to take old ropes, and pull them apart so that the fibers so could be recycled into new rope. It was a tedious and finger bleeding job. His military service and imprisonment must have taken a lot out of him as he died young at age 47.

6th Great Grandfather, Bezaleel Barton, Continental Army, KIA.

Killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War. Nothing else is known about his service at this time. As this was very early in the war, it may have been his one and only action.

6th Great Grandfather, John Cobb, Continental Army.

He was a Colonel. I know nothing else at this time about where or how he served.

6th Great Grandfather John Gordan, Continental Army

Private, 6th Pennsylvania Regiment, according to his headstone.

8th Great Grandfather, Andries Pieterse Van Leuven, Dutch militia.

My immigrant ancestor joined the Dutch army after arriving in New Amsterdam. He was part of at least one battle against the Natives. He served until the British took over and New Amsterdam became New York in 1664.

7th Great Grandfather, Thomas Campe, Virginia Militia:

I have information that he was part of the Virginia militia about 1690, but I have no information about what he did.

I am sure there are more of my ancestors who served, but whom I haven’t found records of their service yet, or perhaps haven’t found THEM yet. This is an ongoing project.