Enlisting in 58th NC was trouble from the start!

PART II:

The rosters for the 58th NC, into which our Ancestral Grandfather enlisted, include William's cousins and brother, and several of our other ancestral kin as well, particularly from the Silver family.  But almost immediately after the unit moved into Eastern Tennessee for training, the soldiers were exposed to diseases that were rampant in the ranks of many units.  Men coming together from all over were bringing the illnesses from their neck of the woods, to which others had not already been exposed.  The result was men were sick from more than 5 kinds of fatal diseases.  For two weeks, Williams unit suffered through the sicknesses they had encountered while attempting to train for battle. William's records say that he too was sick, he hadn't escaped the onslaught. 

But something else the record indicates, is that he was considered a deserter at one point, almost immediately after being ill. It took a little time to sort it out, but it is amazing to me how many times this man faced the real possibility of death before he finally succumbed to it!  We will start his military story with the list from the roster of Anglin men:


ANGLIN, JAMES G.: Co. C, Enl. on 5/29/62 in Yancey Co., then age 18, 5'7«", na- tive of Yancey Co. Pres. thru 8/31/64.

ANGLIN, RABURN: 2nd Sgt., Co. C, Enl. on 7/11/62 in Yancey Co., then age 29, farmer, 5'5", native of Yancey Co. Reduced to pvt. by 4/30/64 muster. Pres. on 8/31/64. Paroled at Greensboro, NC on 5/1/65. Res. Yancey Co.

ANGLIN, WILLIAM: 4th Sgt., Co. C, Enl. on 5/29/62 in Yancey Co. Pres. thru 8/31/64. Died on 9/19/64 at Macon, Ga., had been MWIA on 8/31/64 at Jonesboro, Ga. Res. Yancey Co.

ANGLIN, WILLIAM: Co. D, Enl. on 6/27/62 at Boone, NC, then NFR in CSR.

ANGLIN, WILLIAM: Co. G, Enl. on 7/15/62 in Yancey Co., age 34, 5'10", farmer, native of Yancey Co. Sick on 2/28/63 muster. Deserted at Clinton, Tenn. on 5/26/63, returned to duty, MWIA at Chickamauga, Ga. on 9/20/63, died of effects on 10/5/63.

The one above in red is our Ancestral Grandfather.  (The grandson of Issac Anglin and Nancy, whom we have discussed before as being the first of our Anglin ancestors to come into what became Yancey Co., NC in 1833.)  Less than 30 years after the county became Yancey, the young men were being called to choose to defend their county, their state, as a part of a new Confederate state.  A lot of them weren't especially ready to be separated from their more northern families in a war.  But times and circumstances were forcing them to choose. 

James G. Anglin and the 4th Sgt. William Anglin were our William's cousins. Raburn was his younger brother. He was Raburn Breckinridge Anglin, known as Rabe. This roster shows them enlisting on different days, but another, has them enlisting on the same day.  William was about 6 years older and 5 inches taller than his brother.  Notice that his cousins James and William are in the same company as Raburn, but by the 15th of July, our William is not. If one record that shows he enlisted when they did is correct, he is now in Company G.  Separated from his family within days. However, the truth actually seems to be, that the unit was organized on the 11th when Raburn and his cousins joined, and 4 days later, William joined, being placed into a separate unit. I am sure he was dissappointed not to be with them.

( My curiosity leads my mind to wonder, did they have opportunity to go home and talk him into joining? Did he find out they had all joined and feel an obligation to go as well. Did he think they would be able to better defend his own county. Did he hope to be there for his brother and cousins as a comrade?)

Almost immediately they were moved out of North Carolina. They went through drills in the NE counties of Tennessee.  Which is interesting to me, because some of those areas were strong union advocates.  Consider this a forshadowing of my next discussion. But for now, notice that they spent the winter training. But by February, he is listed as sick.  Without spending much time on that subject, suffice it to say that a great many men died from the illnesses contracted that winter.  There is an entire cemetery where many of these men were buried. Most of the men spent the entire winter being very sick, and sorely in need of supplies.  William's record includes him among them.  Though we don't know exactly which of the several diseases he contracted, it was written that the men were weak and longing to return home for "R&R." 

Reading through the various diaries and reports of William's commanders, we find that just after the men recovered from being ill they were finally given leave to visit families.  A young officer, it was written, allowed his soldiers to return home and found out after many had left for Yancey and Marion Counties, that the leave had been canceled. That notice did not get communicated to many who had aready left for home.  They were oblivious that for 2 weeks they were considered AWOL.

It was determined that some of the men had decided to use the leave time to escape to Union units, or simply go home to defend families against approaching Union troops. There was a lot of worry among the men, because letters from home indicated that their homes were being pillaged, and their families were at risk.  So officers feared many would not return. Therefore, the leave was canceled. A series of events then led to almost all of these men being accused of desertion. Rumors and fact were confused, and it appears that at least a few of the unit fled or actually deserted.

Many stories circulated about deaths in Yancey County as bounty hunters of sorts, hunted men who were not already conscripted into service and either forced them to become soldiers or shot them. The stories of some very real violence, back home, caused a lot of fear among these men, for their families.  Raiders stole food, hunted down any unenlisted young men, and caused whole families to go into hiding in caves.  Stories abound of how the women survived.  Men who came home on leave didn't want to go back, because things were dire for their loved ones.  But some who found that just traveling home was extremely risky business, got caught hiding, and were assumed to have deserted. 

From all I have read, only a few truely did. Those, about whom it was determined that they had all intentions of going home and returning, but had run into difficulties getting back, were exhonerated, but their records were not cleared of the accusation of desertion. A number of the men were captured and hanged, an it left a mark on the name of the 58th NC. Our William was indeed one of the lucky, or under heavenly protection, because it wasn't yet his time to die.  Instead, like several others who missed the call back, when leave was cancelled, he lost his rank, and went through the horrible process of being accused of deserting. How discouraging it must have been.

At least one of the Silver Cousins was hanged in this process.  On the online magazine, Silver Threads, several years ago, his final letter to his wife was reprinted.  He wanted her to know he was innocent and that he knew God believed him.  I am sure they hoped against all odds that he might be exhonorated as William was.  How many nights did William and his family suffer through this fear of not knowing how to prove his innocence?

On the bright side, while on leave, William was able to see his baby daughter Mary, perhaps for the first and last time. He had little time to rest, although, the ride home was probably by train.  Their camp was near the line that ran from near Clinton dirctly into Burnsville.  But we don't know how much control Union Soldiers had at the time over the rails along the way. They had certainly advanced by now into surrounding areas.  Exactly how much difficulty William had getting home and back from his leave we can't know for sure, but we do know by the accounts in letters by some of those who made the trek, it was extremely risky. For some in Marion county, it may actually have led to their deaths.  One record lists 4 men I think it was, who were never found??

Was it worth it? I beleive it was the thing which kept William going for the next few months. That gave him courage to go on.

By the way. William was a Phifer when he enlisted in the war.  He was among those who led the ranks in the Phife and Drum Corp.  It was their duty to direct the maneuvers of the soldiers, by signaling musically the orders given by the officers to the rank and file.  Officers called orders, Phifers, played a series of notes that indicated what the officers commanded.  Whole units marched, turned, advanced, retreated, and fired on notice from the sound of this flutelike repeat of an officer's orders. More on this when we get to the post on the battle.

You have now been introduced to William the Civil War Soldier.  I hope your interest is peaked, because there is soooo much more to come.

150 Years Ago at THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA

Part One: William Anglin 

This year is the 150^th Anniversary of many of the battles of the Civil War. This is definitely true of the Battle of Chickamauga which was fought on September 20, 1863.  This date is significant to our family, because we had family members who fought at that battle, and one in particular was wounded, only to die by October 5, about 3 weeks later.  He was our Anglin ancestor, my Great-Great Grandfather, William Anglin, whose ancestors had come into Yancey County, only a generation before, and settled the very land where the family now still lives. A tombstone, in the Anglin/Ball Cemetery on Will Anglin Road designates that William M. Anglin is buried in the Confederate Cemetery, in Marietta, Ga.  I have visited both, places and when my curiosity was peaked to know more, I found a remarkable story. It is very appropriate that it be told this month, exactly 150 years after his fall on the Chickamauga Battlefield, near Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.

But let me begin with what led up to the day he joined the Confederate service.  William M. Anglin, Jr. was born in Yancey Co, NC in 1826, the son of William Anglin, Sr. of Greenbriar Co., West Virginia, who was our first Anglin ancestor to move into Yancey Co., NC. (It was Burke Co at the time. Yancey was formed in 1833 when Will Jr. was about 7.) William, Jr. married Sarah (Sally) Caroline McIntosh, with whom he had 5 children.  James who was born in 1849 was a full ten years older than the son they named Robert, who became our Great Grandfather. The 1850 Census for Yancey Co. shows William 21 and Sarah 23 with new baby James who is 1.   After James, two children were born who I lost track of after the census record of 1860. A female, Jona at age 10, and a male named Silas, age 4.  By the next Census, Silas could have been apprenticed to someone at age 14, but they were not listed at home.  There are unmarked graves in the Anglin/Ball cemetery, and I have wondered if the graves might have belonged to them.

Our Great-grandfather, Robert (Bob) John Anglin was born 7 September, 1859. Their 4^th child. His father would be wounded in action only 13 days after Bob’s 4^th birthday.  The fifth child, was Mary C. Anglin, born in the same year her father enlisted.  I would bet her middle name was Caroline, and I know she was a love child of a couple who were about to be separated by war.

William was enlisted in Co. G, 58th. North Carolina Infantry Regiment.  The unit was formed on July 11, 1862.  Four days later, William enlisted on July 15, 1862. Records state he was 34 years old, and 5' 10" in height. His unit was mustered into service of the C.S.A. on July 24, 1862. " Co. G. was sent to Johnson City, TN for drill instruction and received limited dry run training in the nearby local Tennessee mountains. The company received their first battle orders on or about Aug 26, 1862."

  The records I was able to find, have him born in 1826. 1862 minus 1826 would have made him age 36 at some point that year.  I found it interesting that he said he was 34.  At age 35, he would not have been required to serve. It was the cut off year for conscription, even though neither the North nor the South seemed to check your birth certificate. If you looked the right age, you better be a soldier on one side or the other.  Or be killed.  Simple as that. No one was allowed to stay home with family, and claim he was not of the age to fight. I haven’t checked the rosters lately, but it occurs to me that his 14 year old son, Silas could have lied to enlist and would have been accepted if he looked the part. Within only months, the conscription age limit was dropped, and some men were being taken to war up to age 45.

I always wondered why William enlisted.  But for all the reasons above, and at least one more, he had little choice.  If you look at the list of men enlisting the same couple of days as him, it is clear that most of his neighbors and cousins enlisted that day as well.  It was well known that the Union soldiers were moving ever closer to their towns and properties and homes.  Many did not want to choose between the North and the South.  They knew it would mean that they stood against their own kin further North if they joined the South. So some fled North to fight with them.  But many held hope that the war would be over before they had to choose, and fleeing at this late hour put them in harm’s way.  Some held firmly to a belief that their homes and farms didn’t belong to a Federal decision making process. Some held slaves.  Some who held slaves had released slaves, years earlier.  Some just wanted to stand with the choice North Carolina made.  But, for whatever reason, William chose to join the 58^th North Carolina in July.

 http://mountainmemorials-cemeteries.blogspot.com/p/anglin.html

I will not be able to tell the whole of William’s story in a week’s worth of blogs.  So I am wondering if I should introduce him here, and actually make a page or website devoted to him and the rest of the story.  I have many pictures to share, and a step by step outline of exactly what those last fateful days of his life were like.  I know where he was, almost day by day from August 1862 on.

To me it is significant that it has been exactly 150 years now, and whether we agree with his service with the Confederacy or not, matters not to me.  He was one of the men to whom we owe our existence, who was forced to leave his family and die for the cause.  He was as it turns out, one of the men who drove back the Union forces at Chickamauga. He suffered from his wound as he was moved from place to place, as the hospital units attempted to move wounded men ever further south by train, ahead of advancing union soldiers.  He was not a man sick and lying in a bed waiting to die. He was moved numerous times, often did without food, lay in the mud, on itchy beds of straw, and suffered through the constant movement of  trains on rugged tracks which transported him at least twice for miles. The last time he was moved, the trip to a town above Atlanta, was all his body could take.  He died within days of arriving to one of the “hospitals” in the area.  All who arrived alive were recorded as being buried in the “Hospital Section” of what later became the Confederate Cemetery in Marietta, Ga. 

In the next 4 weeks, I want to celebrate his life, share his courageous attempt to live, and help you find a place to visit him, acknowledge him, cry for him, and be thankful for him.  And most of all, I want us all not to Forget him!!

The Covered Bridge at Phillipi, an ancestral homeplace remembered

 

In my last post I disussed the Roland heritage, beginning with the earliest person I can prove is in our ancestry.  But in this report, I want to look at the Anglin's early ancestors, about whom is a great deal of information back to the early 1700's.  Grandmother left with Shirley a list, that tells the names of our Grandfather's who resided in what became Yancey County. The earliest, like Charles Roland, was a pioneer, one of the early people in American History, of non native descent, to claim and build upon land granted to him for his service in the American Revolution.  We will discover, one by one, that each of our ancestral grandfathers was in service to the Revolution and was granted lands.  It used to be thought that only significant people could be considered sons and daughters of the Revolution, but if you have grandparents, who have grandparents in Yancey Co, NC, you probably have an ancestor who fought in the Revolution. And if like our family, your earliest roots go back on both sides, you find that once people got to Yancey, they tended to stay in Yancey.  So we have not two but many ancestors who fought in the American Revolution.

  The story about them is generally the same from about 1790  to about 1825 at least. The reason for this is that they were all members of a military company when their wagons first rolled into the mountains of Western NC.  Many had fought in Virginia Militia Units, against the crown of England, even though their fathers had been granted land through the Crown while still living in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other points north.  Just as the earliest pioneers further north had spread westward, and Virginia had split intoVirginia and West Virginia, North Carolina was on the verge of becoming North Carolina and Tennessee. And as we discussed before, the names of counties changed rapidly, to conform to the habitations of settlers pressing ever west and south.

Before liberation from the Crown, men sought for land, and bought it from the "real-estate" brokers of the day, and the documentation on our ancestor Adrian Anglin's land purchase can be found on the sidebar link. He recieved a grant of land, which became his, only, when he met certain critera for keeping it. Adrian is thought to be the son of a man named William Anglin, who entered America by a ship from Europe. There were several men of similar names who lived in the developing Virginia Colony, and before Adrian, some of the documentation is fuzzy as to what belongs to whom. But much as I did, researchers have placed the timelines of documents found on maps and followed the movements by seeing who lived near where at what time, and were able to determine by ages and locations, some of what is absolute. It is absolute that Adrian had a son named William, who eventually moved to Barbour Co. in what became West Virginia. Much evidence of Adrian's life is beginning to accumulate. That evidence is given on several good websites. (See the side bar for links.)  As Adrian became old, his family moved west. I just read on one of the websites, that records show indications of Adrian's wife for years after William's father's death, as she remained in Virginia, at William's childhood home.

There are documents for Adrian's indenture, and how the court released him from that once he had worked enough years. There are documents for his purchase of land. It is written in more than one book that he owned a Mill, probably a grist mill. But some beleive he also had a lumber mill. The document that tells of his land purchase gives him full rights to mineral rights, to hawk, hunt, mine, build, farm, or what ever he chose, as long as he made improvements to the land. For every 50 he bought, he must make improvements to at least 3 acres according to a list of things considered improvements  whithin 3 years. Building barns, Inns, Forts, roads and homes, as well as clearing land, planting crops, and establishing trapping lines, were some of the things allowed. Adrian's mills, his home and crops allowed him to keep the lands, and his "rents and tithes" were paid on a Saint's celebration day.  Go to the links to the right and read the valuable information. Actual documents can be viewed from these links. ( http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kmparker/gen/Surname%20Reports/ang.htm , for example.)

But today, I am putting up a picture of a bridge. That bridge was built long after the Anglin families owned the land it was built on.  But it is, in my mind a landmark, for where the ford in the Tygart River once was. That ford was owned and operated by our ancestor, William Anglin, son of Adrian Anglin. The photo I used was posted on one of the many websites that give the history of the area now known as Phillippi, West Virginia - the county seat, all of which was built on lands once owned by William Anglin. And across the river, one of his sons, Samuel owned land and ran the business of crossing the river by ford on the opposite side from his father. So the bridge is said to span the river, about where the two ends of the Anglin Ford operated.

That business was not Williams initial plan. Instead, he operated an Inn, which by several accounts was a part of a fort William built in the earlist years as land owner. His fort was part of the improvements he made in order to keep his land, who like his father had to maintain it by making improvements to it.  In those early years, it was incredibly difficult.  At least one reliable story, historically tells of a family near by whose family was raided by Indians, and their daughter was taken hostage. As a result they kept attack dogs who would not allow persons to come near without a local to announce their coming. It was a wild and hostile world. It took rugged men to remain there. There is so much more to William's story that I intend to tell in time. But for now we introduce him as son of Adrian, and once the original settler of a place called Phillippi, West Virginia, where this bridge now stands. 

William had a large family, most of whom can be documented in a multitude of documents. He had two wives, the second after his first wife, who was our ancestral grandmother, had died. The recently expanding technology of DNA has been able to link us to this man named William through his son, named Issac. Let's go back and remember that Grandmother Nora Roland had left a list of her Anglin ancestors for Yancey Co., NC.  Well, I had followed the records back to Isaac's son William, named for his father.  I as yet didn't know Isaac's name, until I found the DNA records, nor did I know about Grandmother's list. The DNA Project gave the names of Adrian's grandsons, Sons of William Anglin of Anglin's Ford, Va. One of them was listed as having a land grant in, what became, Yancey, NC.  The only Anglin to come to Yancey NC. All of Williams other sons were attributed to other areas.  But I couldn't find Isaac in the records, but 1800 or 1810 was the earliest one I had.

Then I found a Nancy Anglin, and upon further research, discovered that she was the wife of an Isaac Anglin.  Once I found Isaac's birth and death dates, I realized why I couldn't find him.  He had passed away at a young age, leaving Nancy to be our Pioneer Matron. I looked back on more set of records and found him, listed in 1790, the earliest US Census, as a member of the companies who came to the mountains to claim the land, and protect it's borders, like so many others, as one who served in the Revolutionary War.  He had arrived by wagon just as other soldiers did, and began his family on the frontier.  Only heads of households are listed on these early Census Records, and had Isaac been alive, we might not have known Nancy's name.

Since Isaac died early, his son, also named William to honor his grandfather, established his home near Prices Creek, in what would become, Yancey Co. NC by 1833. When I heard of Grandmother's list, that went back to Isaac, and I knew the DNA record came down through Adrian to William to Isaac, to William, the connection was clear. This was our Isaac. Our William, Our Adrian, and possibly his father William as well. And one of their claims to fame is that the family once owned all the land upon which Phillippi was originally built, where the bridge now spans the River Tygart, at what was once Anglin's Ford, VA.  If you are keeping up with this, note the list so when I talk to you about a William at another date - you can understand which one.
William Anglin - from Europe
    Adrian Anglin  - Early 1700's in Virginia
         William Anglin - mid to late 1700's in Virginia and W. Virginia
             Isaac Anglin - Born in W. Virginia - established our line in NC, late 1700's
                   William Anglin - Early 1800's Buncombe and Burke Co's, NC, Mid-century as Yancey
                           William Anglin - Mid century to the Civil War, died from wounds received at Chicka mauga, GA in the battle of Chickamauga, buried at the Confederate Cemetery, Marietta
                                   Robert Anglin - Late 1800's to early 1900's, still keepers of the land Great Grandfather William aquired when it was still Burke/Buncombe Co. NC.
                                         Nora Anglin Roland - Born and raised on that same land, Early 1900's, she lived almost a century.

Well, that's your introduction to the Anglin family.  I will try to put up links to Phillipi and more about the bridge and the History of Barbour Co., W.Va. on the side bar. The above picture was listed as available to "Everyone." But I don't have the original person to attribute it to. Much thanks to that person for its public use.

Family fact sheets for Charles Henry "Halley" Roland

 

Pictured below is a clip of the family group sheet as generated in my Family Tree Maker file, for Charles Henry "Halley" Roland and his wife Sarah Robinson

and their children. Halley being his nickname.

Not included on this list of children were the many children they were foster parents, or guardians for: Including Samantha Laure Roland, who was the daughter of James and Sarah Gardner Roland, Raburn who was on a later court document among the children of William and Jane Rowland,others of William and Jane's children and Silas, a grand son, but I am not sure at this moment who were his actual parents. There were at least one other set of children for whom Sarah and Henry were given guardianship, from neighbors who died and possibly several slave children. Include a couple of young men who were apprenticed before Silas, Raburn and George, and that is a housefull of children!!!

I updated and edited the Roland page to make certain things clearer. There is truly lots more to know about our family. Read the facts from the Roland tab at the top of the page!

The Roland Family Part I - The History of Charles Henry Rolen/Roland and son, Charles Henry Rolen/Roland 1750 - 1875

I am finally comfortable enough with my evidence and the chain on the timeline of information to post the stories of our Roland Ancestors from Yancey Co., NC. Beginning with Charles Henry Roland of who was born in Hillsboro, NC and following it with his son Charles Henry Rolland, also known as Henry "Halle" Roland, who are our direct line ancestors, I will give the evidence I have that makes the jigsaw peices all come together. I found that Charles was a soldier on the Continental Line in the Revolutionary War, who fought under Captain Henry Hensley.  I also found that he was a sargent, who like most soldiers was awarded land for his 7 years of military service. He, along with a great many others who established homesteads in Western NC were the pioneers who fought for our freedom.  Their history is lively and rich, and records indicate that Charles son Henry was a lover of the process of the early courts to establish ownership, and security for the lands he possessed and inherited. They bought and sold lands, and they built a rich heritage with families that experienced great ups and downs and finally were caught up in the devastating fall of this rich heritage, known as the Civil War. These two men spanned history from about 1750 when Charles was born, to about 1875 when Henry died. Over a century of history in their stories, and I have only just begun to find the meat of it. For someone who hates "history" I am certainly loving finding the story of our family! Check out the long, long read on Charles Henry Roland/Rolen and his son, Charles Henry "Halle" Roland/Rollen/Rowland. Although it might confuse you, the sequence is as follows:
Charles Henry Rolen/Roland was by his own account born in Hillsborough, NC. Although Hillsboro as it is now called was not a city until several years after he was born, there is a great deal of evidence that his father was a person named George Rolen, who is documented as working as a surveyor in the area of Haw Creek, NC, less than 50 miles from Hillsboro. We cannot find Charles until his service record, and after that a long hunt for him between being a soldier and living in Burke/Buncombe Counties, an area which later became Yancey Co., NC, finally reveals that he was on the 1790 Census and tax rolls in Rutherford Co, part of which became Burke/Buncombe.  We discover his unit commander during the war and his brothers are long time aquaintances, even into the years that the settlements were just getting started. And court records reveal that, when Charles is appointed the task of maintaining the road to his property from Burke Co, by the court, it is the brother of his Revolutionary War commander, who is presiding as judge that day. We also find that he is an owner of more than one parcel of land, and records show his home where he settled was on Crabtree Creek, just north of Pensacola, east of Burnsville. We then follow the history into the study of his son Henry's aquisitions of land and how that history is established in his old age. We find that the place where he is buried along with his wife and other family members, and the graves of many of his former slaves was bulldozed away in a pitiful act of disrespect for and ancient but abandoned graveyard. I don't even discuss much the part Henry and Sarah played in preserving their family, when tragedy struck the lives of thier children, and they went to court to keep the orpaned children as their own. We find that Henry Halley was in court on numerous occasions, spelling out life as they knew it at the time.  And we find a great deal of love, as well as a great deal of stubborness for preserving his heritage.  This is just the beginning of telling the Roland story, But I am pleased to present part I. Visit the Roland tab and read the facts so far.