Intro
Because of a letter written by a soldier’s sister, I was able to collect six new nuggets of information. I discovered these new facts almost by accident. This is what makes research fun!
John G. Hall Letters
I’ve been busy organizing the many letters I have collected. Last week, I was going through the John G. Hall letters. I photographed the letters at the NC State Archives more than two years ago. Among the images was a letter written by Hall’s oldest sister, Lydia Sophia King [she signed her letter as Sophia]. I’m normally only interested in letters written by soldiers, but I suppose I photographed Sophia King’s letter for the sake of completeness. It’s an OCD thing.
Nugget 1
I skimmed over Sophia’s letter and decided that it contained some interesting, but not especially useful, information. I transcribed the letter. During the transcription, my attention was drawn to Sophia’s misspelling of the word “exchange.” The misspelling wasn’t what piqued my interest, though.
John Hall transferred to Company G, 51st North Carolina from Company C, 35th North Carolina. In Sophia’s letter, she mentions that the man who John replaced in Company G had already left the company: “Mars [Marsden King] sayed they had sent the Man to echang for him [John Hall] & they ware looking for him [John Hall] everyday.” By 1864, no unit was willing to give up a man unless it got a replacement for the soldier transferring out, but John Hall’s service record does not indicate that he traded places with another soldier.
Hmm. I started going through the 35th North Carolina, Company C records in Volume IX of North Carolina Troops. I was looking for any soldiers who joined the company in 1864. I was almost at the end of the roster, and there it was! B. P. Stricklin showed up on the company rolls in mid-1864. Now back to Company G, 51st North Carolina, and lo and behold, Bethel P. Strickland disappeared from the company rolls in February 1864. John Hall must have traded places with Bethel Strickland.
Nugget 2
After completing the transcription, I went to Family Search to look for information that would identify the people mentioned in the letter. I started with Sophia’s husband, Marsden King, who served as a sergeant in Company G of the Fifty-First. I found a genealogical record for Marsden and noticed that he resided in Georgia after the war. I wondered if Marsden filed for a pension in Georgia. Off to the Georgia State Archives website. He did file for a pension, and Lydia filed for a widow’s pension after Marsden died!
Nuggets 3 & 4
Marsden’s pension application included his date of birth. Sophia’s pension application listed Marsden’s date of death. My research had yielded two new data points about one of the Fifty-First’s soldiers. Yay!
Nugget 5
But that’s not all. While I was reviewing Marsden King’s pension record, I came across the name J. B. Brinkley. Brinkley had provided an affidavit attesting to King’s service in Company G. Below Brinkley’s statement was a hand-written note that Brinkley had served in Company G under the name Ellis. What?
Back to the service records for Company G. Brinkley is one of my “mystery” soldiers. He is included in North Carolina Troops, but only as having applied for a pension for service in Company G, 51st North Carolina. There’s no evidence that he actually served with the regiment. His pension application states he was a drummer for Company G and was wounded during the war. Hmm, again.
A review of Company G’s service records revealed that the company’s drummer was James ELLIS. The age matched Brinkley’s, and Ellis was wounded at Petersburg. So now I’ve solved the J. B. Brinkley mystery. I couldn’t find information that would reveal if Brinkley used a different name to enlist or if he changed names after the war.
Nugget 6
I wasn’t quite finished discovering the history hidden in Sophia’s letter. She mentions that “Jeramier Colins was shot on black river a few days ago by some soldirs.” I searched Wilmington newspapers and found an article in the May 11, 1864, Wilmington Journal. The article provides a detailed account of Jeremiah Collins’ death. He was a deserter (unit unknown) and bandit operating in the Black River Swamp area of New Hanover County. He was killed in a shootout with soldiers of the 40th North Carolina.
Wrap Up
I almost deleted a letter that I deemed as irrelevant to my research. But when I decided to transcribe the letter, I found it contained much useful information. Lesson learned!
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