Johannes (John) Weinel, 15th Kentucky Infantry

The Cincinnati region is known for its German heritage including the Over-the-Rhine district in the city, a tradition of beer brewing, a large and popular Oktoberfest celebration, and many residents claiming German family roots. Many Germans from the area fought in various Union regiments during the Civil War. 

The Cincinnati area includes Campbell County, Kentucky, across the Ohio River on the southeastern side of that city. This county has its own history of German settlement, including in Newport, the county's largest city.

German immigration into the region had begun “well before the American Revolution,” and Germans were instrumental in the early days of Newport. “They helped build the first roads and streets and other structures.” They also were among the earliest businesspeople in the city. “Heinrich Pickele received a concession in 1795 to open the town’s first tavern, and Johann Bartel established the first brewery in 1798.”

In the early 1800s, the Napoleonic Wars dominated much of Europe, so immigration, including German movement to the Cincinnati. and Northern Kentucky region, greatly decreased compared to the decades of the late 1700s, though it “slowly increased after 1815” following Napoleon’s ultimate defeat at Waterloo.

 In the ensuing years and decades, “social, economic, and political discontent in the German states” grew and spread, creating strife that led to revolutions in 1832 and 1848. After these troubles, German immigration to the United States picked up again, and “many sought the Ohio River Valley” area because of positive reviews they had read about it.¹

Another area of Campbell County, now known as Camp Springs, also claims such an ethnic heritage. Described as an “old German settlement,” because it was settled largely by Germans and German descendants in the 1800s, it has a “rich architectural history,” including numerous stone houses and buildings built with rocks from the local creek.²

They had settled in this area because of its “close proximity to Cincinnati and the Ohio river immigration route.”³  

When these 48ers and others began moving to the United States, this “rising tide of German immigration” and the spreading of foreign residents of all backgrounds throughout the nation “was followed by the emergence of the Know-Nothing Movement.”⁴

This movement, a nativist ideology using the names of the Know-Nothing Party or American Party, strongly opposed immigration and Catholicism. Its popularity lasted through the first half of the 1850s, but increasing tension over slavery helped lead to its demise by 1857.⁵

As this party was fading away, another one was growing in size and influence - the Republicans, who won the Presidential election of 1860 with their candidate Abraham Lincoln and a platform of stopping the spread of slavery.   

A few months later, the Civil War came.

As the war started, men from the many states soon joined military units north and south. Among these new warriors, especially in the north, were European immigrants, including Germans.

Johannes (John) Weinel was one such immigrant-soldier.

John had been born on May 25, 1843, in Germany, and in 1850 lived in Newport with his family, including his parents Peter and Catherine, and three siblings. 

Ten years later, the family had moved south to Alexandria, just a few miles up the road from Camp Springs, and John now had two younger sisters and two younger brothers living with him and their parents.

Once the Civil War started, John did not immediately join the war effort, but a few months later decided to do so. He traveled to Camp Webster in Jamestown, Campbell County, (now part of the town of Dayton) where other men from the area also joined. The recruits from this camp soon mustered into companies H, I, and K of the 15th Kentucky Infantry, with John in company I.

John signed up on October 29, 1861, as a private for a three-year term. At the time, he was 18 years old, stood 5 feet 6¾ inches tall, and had a light complexion. His eyes were gray, and his hair was light. He worked as a farmer and paperwork listed Alexandria as his place of residence.

 He officially mustered in on December 14, 1861, at Camp Pope in New Haven, Kentucky.

From findagrave memorial 149804062

On May 2, 1862, as the 15th Kentucky was on duty in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee, Confederates captured John at Pulaski, Tennessee, and paroled him the same day. He was not a prisoner but had given his word of honor not to fight again until he was officially exchanged for a soldier of similar rank. 

His forms provide conflicting dates and information for where he was (and when) in the following months, but he apparently was initially sent to Louisville, followed by a stint at Camp Parole, Maryland, after which he went to and remained in a hospital in Murfreesboro, Tennessee for several weeks, though no mention of any specific injury or illness exists. 

After recovering, he was sent to Camp Chase, Ohio, joining other Union soldiers awaiting their official exchange. He was a member of company A of the 1st Regiment Paroled Prisoners, U.S. Army. This unit of soldiers awaiting their official exchange was created "for duty compatible with their parole" according to a pre-printed form in his file. They may have included tasks like working in a hospital or guarding Confederate and/or political prisoners. Soldiers in this group returned to their units as their exchanges took place. 

John's exchange eventually went through, and John was finally back with the 15th Kentucky in July of 1863. He then was detailed for duty with Battery G of the 1^st Ohio Artillery on September 22, 1863, immediately after the Battle of Chickamauga, the bloodiest fight in the war's western theater.

After that assignment, he again rejoined the 15th and served on picket duty in July of 1864. A few months later, he mustered out with the regiment on January 14, 1865, in Louisville.

He had been through some tough experiences and a variety of military camps and bases but had managed to survive the conflict.

During the war, he had used the alias “John Weindell.” No reason is known, though it is not unusual. Other soldiers used assumed names to hide from their parents if they were underage, while some were bounty jumpers who used different monikers while trying to collect bounty money from multiple regiments or states. Some German natives also changed their foreign-sounding names because of the lingering remnants of the Know-Nothing party. That was likely the main factor in John’s decision, especially since he used “John” instead of “Johannes.”

He did manage to return to his life in Campbell County, though unfortunately not for a terribly long time. On July 31, 1867, he married Mary Smith in Alexandria and by 1870 the couple lived in that same town, now with a pair of daughters.

John supported his young family by farming. In July of 1870, a taxation report showed that he owned 49 acres of land - 23 improved (with structures like his house and perhaps a barn or other outbuildings), and 26 of woodland. The farm was valued at $1,800, and John also had $100 of farm tools and equipment.

His livestock included two milk cows, one other cow, two horses, and eight pigs, for a total value of $200. His farm had also yielded a fertile supply of crops as well, producing 20 bushels of wheat, 10 bushels of rye, 35 bushels of corn, and 40 bushels of barley.

Life on the farm with his family may have been happy but sadly did not last even a decade past the war, as John passed away in Claryville on June 30, 1872, just 29 years old. He was buried in the Weinel Family Cemetery, an immigrant-turned-Campbell County citizen and patriot to his new homeland.

¹https://nkytribune.com/2020/08/our-rich-history-germans-in-newport-a-rich-cultural-heritage-reaching-back-to-18th-century/, Accessed September 27, 2023
²https://www.usgenwebsites.org/KYCampbell/campspringshistory.htm, Accessed September 27, 2023
³Knable, Margaret; Reis, James; Reis, Kenneth; Elsener, Glen; and Jensen, Shirlene (authors), Ciafardini Casebolt, Pamela; Elsener, Glen; and Elsener, Cathy (editors). Camp Springs, Ky.: History, Stone Houses and Genealogy. The Campbell County Historical and Genealogical Society. 2018.
⁴https://nkytribune.com/2020/08/our-rich-history-germans-in-newport-a-rich-cultural-heritage-reaching-back-to-18th-century/, Accessed September 27, 2023
⁵https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/know-nothing-party-0, Accessed September 30, 2023

 

 

Police Chief John Wesley Ratliff, 3rd Kentucky Cavalry

Civil War soldiers who served their country during the Civil War, survived those years of carnage, and returned home to provide more public service - locally, statewide, or nationally - were not unusual in the years and decades following the conflict. Presidents like Ulysses. S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and more are the most well-known of such public figures, but many others gained smaller, yet still influential, positions in the postwar years.

John Wesley Ratliff was one such soldier-turned-public servant.

Wesley, as he was known, was born in Campbell County, Kentucky, in January of 1844, to parents Jessie and Ann Ratliff, though his father died in 1850 when Wesley was just six years old. In that year the family lived in the southern end of the county, where Jessie had supported his family by farming. John had six siblings, including three who were between the ages of 17 and 23, so the family likely continued to work the land in order to survive.

Eleven years later, in April of 1861, decades of political tension throughout the nation finally reached their breaking point, and civil war exploded upon the nation.

Just more than six months after this unwanted arrival, Wesley, though not quite 18 years old yet, enlisted as a private in Captain Lewis Wolfley’s Company on October 21, 1861.Wolfley had recruited men for this unit in Newport, and this group soon became company H of the 3^rd Kentucky Cavalry, with other recruits helping complete its roster. Wesley joined in Newport, perhaps at Wolfley's recruiting office, for a three-year term, then mustered in on December 13, 1861, in Calhoun, McLean County, Kentucky, in the western part of the Commonwealth.   

Cincinnati Daily Press, Sep. 20, 1861. Despite plans to join the 1st Ky Cav. this company joined the 3rd.

The 3^rd Kentucky Cavalry remained in the western theater of the war during its service including the bloody fight at Shiloh, one of the first major battles of the war. These men then joined in the pursuit of Braxton Bragg’s Confederates in the late summer and early fall of 1862 and were near Perryville when that battle, the largest of the war in the unit's home state, took place.

It was present at the bloodbath known as the Battle of Stones River as 1862 turned into 1863 and then, later in that new year, chased John Morgan and his Confederates throughout most of July in what became known as Morgan’s “Great Raid.” They continued the pursuit until the Battle of Buffington Island in southeastern Ohio on July 19, when many of Morgan's men were captured by Union forces, though Morgan and some of his men temporarily escaped before being captured a week later.

The regiment spent the rest of 1863 and early 1864 in Tennessee and northern Mississippi before being part of the Atlanta Campaign and the March to the Sea. Wesley had been promoted to corporal on December 10, 1862, during the campaign that ended at Stones River. He survived the war and mustered out in Savannah, Georgia on December 26, 1864, as his three-year term had expired, (though he may have accepted it as a nice Christmas present right as General William T. Sherman presented Savannah to President Lincoln as such a gift), but the regiment, with many of its men (unlike Wesley) choosing to re-enlist for another term, remained on duty until July of 1865.

In his post-Civil War life, he married Susan Dickson on May 3, 1865. Their marriage bond had been completed a day earlier, “issued on the written consent of the girl’s mother” since Susan was only around 15 to 17 years old at the time. He lived in Covington at that time, but by 1870 had relocated to Bellevue, back in Campbell County, working as a carpenter and living with Susan and their daughter Ida.

The following years saw him return to public service, as he worked as Police Chief of Bellevue from 1893 until 1905, though he still listed “house carpenter” as his main job in 1900. He lived in Bellevue for more than three decades by the time of his 1905 death and at one time held the title of City Marshal, probably the same position later called Police Chief. He also was a member of City Council, Chairman of the School Board, and a member of the fraternal organization called the Knights of Honor.

Wesley Ratliff, from ancestry.com

During his years as head of the police, his name frequently appeared in the newspapers as they reported on some of his on-the-job actions such as making arrests, meeting officials from other local cities, ordering new electric lamps, confiscating equipment used to make counterfeit money, and even, by orders of the mayor, telling owners of slot machines to keep them out of sight. (He found 44 such devices.) The Kentucky Post even reported when this public figure felt ill.

Wesley suffered heart failure near the end of September of 1905 and passed away at his home on Bellevue’s Berry Street on September 30.

One of his obituaries, in the Kentucky Post of September 30, reported that he “was a Civil War veteran and carried a bayonet wound in his right leg, sustained at Vicksburg in 1863,” but his existing military records make no mention of any injuries, and his unit was not in Vicksburg during the war. It is possible that he suffered such a wound, but that his surviving family misremembered where it occurred, especially four decades after the war. Vicksburg was a famous battle and may have been the first one to come to mind at the time of his death.

His death was a painful loss to the local citizenry. City offices were closed and draped in mourning cloth for his funeral, and the Granville Moody Post of the Grand Army of the Republic attended the service.

His son Douglas was out of town on a rafting trip but was able to return in time for the services, conducted by Reverend J.N. Erwin of the Presbyterian Church and Reverend W.H. Smith of the Dayton and Bellevue Christian Church. Among his pallbearers were Civil War veterans Theodore Beyland and James W. Ellis, a former Bellevue Mayor.

Wesley was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in nearby Southgate, where hundreds of other veterans from the Civil War lie at rest.

His successor as Bellevue Police Chief was another local former Union soldier, George Seither, one of four brothers who fought in the war, three for the Union, one for the Confederacy. George had lost his right arm during the war.

From Findagrave memorial id 209482740

Book Review: Hell by the Acre by Dan Masters

Hell by the Acre: A Narrative of the Stones River Campaign, November 1862 - January 1863

Daniel A. Masters
Savas Beatie
copyright 2025

Hell by the Acre is simply a terrific book.

And when I say book, I mean book. It is over 600 pages, hardcover, with a wonderful dust jacket. It is thick and heavy. It reminds me of the scene in Crocodile Dundee, when Mick Dundee says "That is not a knife. This is a knife" and whips out a large, intimidating blade. I'm just waiting for someone to show me the book they just read, so I can say "that is not a book, this is a book" and drop it down with a loud thud on the table. That may make little sense from a true perspective of a review, but it was the first impression I got and maintained. It's just a different tactile sensation than I get from most books I read. No e-book can match it.

Despite its size, this book should not be intimidating to prospective readers. Not at all. The narrative is so well-written and flows so well, that this book is not a difficult read. It actually moves fairly quickly, though the sheer number of pages on which this writing lands does, of course, require some time to finish, so I won’t go so far as to label it a quick read - just an enjoyable, informative one.  

From another perhaps selfish angle, this book let me see just how little I knew of this battle, and how bloody, tough, and downright nasty this contest was. I'm still no expert on it, but this volume gave me a much better appreciation of this fight. I expect to retain at least a more basic understanding than I had previously. In other words - it taught me something. Entertainment is good, but I suspect that most or all Civil War students read such works to gain knowledge and understanding, and this work hits a home run in that regard.

Additionally, the title reveals another important component of this work - it's not just about the actual battle from December 31 through January 2, but of the entire campaign. It starts with a terrific overview of the two army leaders, William Rosecrans, nearly arrived in what became the Army of the Cumberland, and Braxton Bragg of what he would redesignate the Army of Tennessee and how both arrived in their positions.

Masters then describes the campaign in the weeks before the actual fighting, setting the scene for the carnage that followed. The way each leader tried to improve their armies' discipline and the various skirmishes, marches, and weather-related challenges they faced before the actual all help address questions like "why at Murfreesboro" and "why at the end of December" This beginning is a logical, yet beautiful way to approach the battle and the bigger picture of the war in this region of the country in late 1862. It truly sets the scene for the end of December and beginning of January.

In a book focused on a battle, the description of the actual combat is an important, perhaps THE key part of the work, and Masters' ability to weave a sensible understanding out of the chaos of this engagement may be the strong point of this book. His writing makes it abundantly clear how tough, deadly, and fast-moving the fighting was all over the battlefield was, especially on December 31 when the Confederate attack began. 

At some points, I did find myself wondering where Rosecrans was and what was he doing. Was he panicking as his right side was broken into shambles? What was Bragg thinking? I then recalled that the introduction indicated that the reason the author wrote this was to “ensure that the men who did the actual fighting get their just due in the history of the Stones River campaign.” (p. xi) With that back in my mind, I found that this book achieved that goal. Masters used a vast number of sources, from both sides, that do show what this whirlwind of chaos looked and felt like from the perspectives of the men around the battleground as time passed.  Rosecrans and Bragg took a backseat during the book’s description of most of the fighting as they did during the actual battle. This was about the fighting men, and their strength, courage, and resiliency - as well as their humanity in recognizing when situations become hopeless, and retreat is necessary, even if in a panic - shine through on these pages. It's barely possible to imagine the conditions during the fight and even at night when the fighting napped, but the frigid air and the sounds of wounded and dying men in the darkness surrounded the survivors. For those able to drift off that night, what must their dreams have been like, still on the scene of such carnage?

Rosecrans and Bragg do show up again later in this narrative, at an appropriate time and place in both the battle's timeline and the book. This shows how well the book's organization was thought-out in meeting the dual plans of telling the story of the battle and of focusing on the combatants.

One cliche is that all stories have three sides. For Civil War studies, those might be the "Union side," the "Confederate side," and some mysterious "truth." The sources that Masters found and used tell the views of the Union and Confederate soldiers, and the author's analysis of the fighting, including decisions made, strategy and tactics employed, and overall performance of both leaders and the soldiers, try to determine that elusive truth, at least as much as it can be found 160+ years later. It is an important part of any study of a battle to discuss not only what happened, but why and how these events and decisions mattered or influenced other movements during it after the engagement. That comes through strongly in this volume.  

I enjoyed the maps and photographs in this book. At times, I found myself looking back a few pages to look again at the most recent map to help me visualize the ongoing action I was reading about. These maps were very clear to read and helped my comprehension of the fight and where the combatants were in relation to each other. 

The occasional photographs of battle participants spread throughout the text are also a nice addition. I think I like the pictures as placed in this book, where they fit in with the timeline of the narrative, sometimes near a quote from that soldier or where the text mentions his actions or even death, more than other works which often just include a "photographs" section in thru r middle sections, though maybe one or two photographs of parts of the remaining battlefield may have worked, especially in the last chapter with its focus on preservation.

One other nit to pick occurred in the latter part of the work, when both sides had units from Kentucky fighting on the same day, I sometimes had to stop and double check a bit to determine if it was a Union or Confederate Kentucky unit being mentioned. I wonder if that could have been made a bit clearer or if that was just my problem. (For instance, both sides had a 6th Kentucky Infantry present and fighting.)

As this story nears its end, a brief discussion of whether this was an actual Federal victory or not grabs the reader's attention. This section, including the comparison of the bloodshed at this battle to other large battles of the war, was a great addition, once again providing valuable context. Masters shows how the Union's viewpoint of this fight as a victory was a morale booster following recent bad defeats in Viriginia and Mississippi in the same month. Abraham Lincoln certainly appreciated the outcome of this fight as his final Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.

This book also explores the unsurprising disagreements between Bragg and his subordinates after the commander had made the decision to retreat and then asked them for their thoughts on him as commander. This analysis was just what a book such as this needs, and, again, meets the desires of people wanting to read such a book.

I also appreciate the use of footnotes instead of endnotes and that the index includes mentions of the regiments involved under their state names. That makes it easier to look up a specific unit, although I can barely fathom how much extra work and effort that took. The order of battle was very helpful as well. Using it and the various maps made the action easier for me to follow, at least in understanding the units involved and their placement on the landscape.

I certainly recommend this book highly to anyone wanting a good Civil War work to read. It is a must add to Civil War bookshelves. 

Jonathan Williams, African American Patriot of the Civil War

Jonathan Williams was born in Campbell County, Kentucky, located at the northern edge of that slave state, nestled along the southern shore of the Ohio River, directly south of Cincinnati and southern Ohio, on the border of slavery and freedom. As with many people in the nineteenth century, however, some of his background - in this case, his exact year of birth - remains elusive, as various ages and dates appear on different records.

Post-Civil War paperwork for the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, for instance, alleges that he was 80 years old when he entered the facility in 1893, and a form in his pension file shows he was “over eighty” years old on the days of an April 1890 examination, reasonably close to that first document.

Two other forms in that pension file, however, show different ages, one recording him as 37 years old in 1864, and the other listing him as 39 in that same year, though those two are fairly similar to each other, showing that the 1825-1827 period was when he was born.

 

Yet a different document claimed he was 36 years old in 1862, and an 1897 newspaper story reported him to be 89, again switching between 1826 or 1808 as his approximate birth year, both reasonably close to what other sources claimed.

 In 1850, he had moved from Kentucky just across the Ohio River to the free state of Ohio, where he lived in Monroe in Clermont County, with his mother Hannah. He was a laborer, and the census recorded him as 24 years old, again suggesting a birth date of around 1826.

He held the same job title in 1860, when he lived in New Richmond, still in Clermont County. He still lived with Hannah and was supposedly just 30 years old at this time, although his mother had aged a full 10 years, from 60 to 70, in that decade.

Overall, it seems likely that he was born sometime around 1826 but that is far from definite. 

It is, however, certain, that he was a free man as the Civil War arrived, although it remains possible that he had been born into slavery in Kentucky and had somehow gained his liberty, allowing him to move to Ohio. 

Once the war came, he was determined to aid the Federal government. He first served in the navy, initially on the USS Indianola, which was constructed in Cincinnati and served as Jonathan's receiving ship for a few days while shipbuilders rushed to ready it for full service. He then moved to the USS Linden for a one-year term from about December 27, 1862, to December 20, 1863, as a second-class fireman, helping care for the fires that created the steam power that ran the ship.

A naval rendezvous record from his enlistment in late 1862 lists him as 36 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with cooper for his profession.

The Linden was a 177-ton wooden side wheel steamboat constructed in Pennsylvania in 1860 as a peacetime commercial vessel[1] before the U.S. Navy purchased it in Cincinnati in 1862.

During its service in the long attempt to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Linden was “ordered to cooperate with General (Ulysses S.) Grant in cutting a canal between the Red and Black Rivers through Tensas Bayou.”[2]

That attempt failed and the ship “continued to support operations” against Vicksburg, though it was not among the ships that ran past the city in April, a bold move which allowed Grant to place his army in position for the final fighting against that Confederate stronghold.  

  USS Linden, from https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/uss-linden-19229/

                                                   

In May, the Linden “silenced a masked battery at Island No. 82; then covered troops who landed and destroyed buildings in the area.”

 

Vicksburg finally fell to the Union on July 4, and the Linden later “performed valuable but unspectacular service on reconnaissance and convoy missions on the Mississippi and its tributaries” before Jonathan’s term expired in December of 1863.[3]

 

After his year in the navy, Jonathan still wished to fight for the nation that had for so long shown so little interest in helping people like him.

 

On August 8, 1864, he enlisted in company K of the 27th United States Colored Infantry (USCI) regiment at Camp Delaware, Ohio, where the regiment organized. One document in his compiled military records claim he was 37 years old, stood 5 feet 10.75 inches tall, and had brown eyes. His hair was black, as was his complexion. He still listed his job as a cooper. Remaining consistent with the variance of the information in his story, another form listed him as 39 years old.

His records credited his enlistment to Clermont County, Ohio, helping that area meet its quota of men needed for the war, and adding evidence that he was the Jonathan Williams listed in that county on the census records of 1850 and 1860.

The 27th USCI was the second African American regiment formed in Ohio, as the state “was slow to organize black regiments,”[4] even after laws had changed to allow these men to serve in the Union military.

In August of that year, “hundreds of newly recruited men were sent to the 27th from Ohio.”[5] Jonathan was among them, and in September he worked as his company’s cook, a vital role in any army, even if it was not what men dreamt of when enlisting. 

The unit did its assigned duty through early fall, then fought in the Battle of Boydton Plank Road, also known as the First Battle of Hatcher's Run, on October 27 and 28, during the Federal siege of Petersburg, Virginia.

 

Its next assignment was in the Union’s campaign against Fort Fisher and Wilmington, North Carolina, from December of 1864 through February of 1865. The Federal forces captured the fort on January 15, another nail in the Confederacy’s coffin, as the fort “guarded the last remaining open port for the Confederacy at Wilmington.”[6]

The town fell on February 21, and “the 27th was among the regiments that marched into the city the next day.” These soldiers were incredibly happy and “sang John Brown’s Body as now-liberated slaves greeted them with food and tobacco.”[7] Such a moment must have been quite a remarkable, even unforgettable, experience for both the liberated and liberators. 

 

A few days later, these men came to the aid of more fellow Union soldiers by assisting “newly freed Union prisoners. The entire regiment turned out to prepare food for the former POWs who were in shockingly emaciated conditions.” This was another duty that created sights and feelings very difficult for readers today to comprehend fully.

“Now part of (General William T.) Sherman’s forces,” the 27th experienced another challenge similar troops faced – not all Union army officers were enthused with the enlistment of African Americans. “Sherman saw black troops under his command more as laborers than as combatants.”

After Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant, Sherman’s forces, including the 27th, pursued Joseph Johnston’s Confederates, a chase that ended successfully when Johnston surrendered at Bennett’s House, North Carolina on April 26.

This surrender brought the unit’s fighting days to an end, but these men remained in the region, among the Union troops occupying North Carolina.

Despite the news of Johnston’s surrender, not everything was as desired. In June, the unit’s Lieutenant Colonel noted that “many of his men had not been paid since August 1864.”

Additionally, these soldiers were unhappy “that while much of the army was being demobilized, they were still serving.” Some white regiments, including the 23rd Kentucky Infantry, which included many Campbell Countians from the same area where Jonathan was born, faced the same disappointment. The 23rd did not muster out until December 27, 1865, in Texas.

In March or April of 1865, the army deducted money from Jonathan's paycheck for a canteen that he had lost or could no longer use. This happened to many soldiers when pieces of their gear were lost or destroyed as sometimes happened in camps or campaigns. Such was the nature of war.

In July, Jonathan found himself doing a task that no soldier likely envisioned before the war - he was part of the regiment’s cattle guard. The unit’s cooks held important roles in preparing meals but guarding the food supply so that the cooks had food to cook was also necessary. 

Jonathan mustered out of the army on September 7, 1865, at New Bern, North Carolina. He had received $33 1/3 of his $100 bounty and was still owed $66 2/3, as military paperwork listed it. He also owed the army $30.42 for clothing he had drawn since December 31, 1864, so his final net payment would have been just over $36.00.

 

After the entire regiment mustered out on September 21, the soldiers finally headed to their families and homes.  This could have been a time of complete happiness with a job well done, but not everything was so perfect.

 “When the men returned to Ohio, they initially went to Camp Chase where they were paid off” and attended a ceremony at the state house, where “a preacher spoke warning the men that many whites wanted to expel the black population from Ohio. He told them they might have to use their rifles later to defend their communities.”

 

Thus, as this regiment reached the end of its existence, this was the type of thanks these warriors received.

 

After returning home to Cincinnati, where he had moved at some point, (it was not far from his previous home in Clermont County), Jonathan received a military pension due to rheumatism and senility, though he also complained of other physical maladies from his time in the service. He had been away from duty with the 27th from April 25 to May 6, 1865, as the unit was in Virginia, due to diarrhea caused by exposure while in the line of duty, but he recovered his health and then returned to duty, with no other recurrence of the disease.

In the navy, had contracted malaria while his ship was in the White River in Arkansas. He also suffered from conditions with his kidneys and eyes, as well as dropsy, the buildup of fluids in the body, resulting in swelling in his body, probably but not necessarily in his legs.

His postwar movements are harder to track, but he did enter the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio, on July 29, 1893. He now was described as 80 years old, single, with laborer as his occupation. He was a tall man, standing exactly 6 feet tall, (somehow supposedly a bit taller than when he enlisted in the navy three decades earlier) and had a dark complexion, dark eyes, and, to no surprise, gray hair. He was a Protestant in his religious views and could not read or write.

 

Jonathan died at the home on June 10, 1897, due to pneumonia and senility, and was buried nearby in Dayton National Cemetery. His obituary in the next day’s Dayton Herald referred to him as a “well-known naval veteran” and claimed he was 89 years old. He was receiving a pension of $12 per month at the time.

 

Jonathan Williams was a patriot who had fought for freedom in two branches of the military, defending a government that had allowed the enslavement of millions of people of his race. He risked his life and freedom against a ruthless foe who was more than willing to continue that peculiar institution and that would have been happy to return him to it. His story should assume its well-earned place in his nation’s memory and history, a true freedom fighter for so many fellow countrymen. 

Photo  from findagrave memorial 1327887

                                                                                                      

Note on Sources: The blog post at https://thereconstructionera.com/27th-usct-a-black-regiment-from-ohio/ provided much, maybe most, of the information on the 27th USCI that I quoted and used in this post, but that page includes many more details than fit in this profile. It also recommends the book For Their Own Cause: The 27th United States Colored Troops for a more in-depth exploration of this unit. 

 

1http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86093.htm

2https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/l/linden-i.html

3Ibid

4https://thereconstructionera.com/27th-usct-a-black-regiment-from-ohio/

5Ibid

6https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/fort-fisher,

7https://thereconstructionera.com/27th-usct-a-black-regiment-from-ohio/ All quotes and details on the 27th USCI from this paragraph to the end of the story are from this same source.