Immigrant Civil War soldiers in Campbell County has become one of the unexpected stories that my research has uncovered. I readily admit that surprise may be my own fault, and my original expectations should have been more accurate. Immigration to the U.S. was a common occurrence in the nineteenth century and my previous Civil War reading has often discussed immigrant soldiers, frequently of German heritage, but it took my digging into this project for me to connect that national trend with the local situation. In hindsight, I should have known that soldiers born outside of the United States would constitute a significant part of my research. Oh well. Live and learn.
I mention the idea of immigration because this story is about another local soldier with an European past. Edward Riley was born in Ireland about 1830 or 1831.
After arriving in the United States, Edward had found a home in Newport, Kentucky by 1860, when he worked as a pattern maker. He lived with his wife Mary and their pair of offspring as of that year’s census, and was listed as 29 years old.
The Civil War broke out in April of 1861, but Edward waited some time before joining. Perhaps he thought the war would not last long, or his family did not want him to enlist, but he eventually overcame any hesitation and decided to join in the fight.
He enlisted in John Arthur’s cavalry company on August 14, 1862, in Newport. Arthur had been part of a three-month Ohio regiment, then had led a local home guard unit, before finally recruiting his own company. Edward joined this new company for a term of one year and paperwork showed him as 30 years old. He mustered in on September 13 in Henderson, Kentucky. He signed up as a private and served as the company’s farrier, ensuring that the unit’s horses had hooves and shoes that were in good enough shape to perform their duty.
The men arrived safely at Louisville and settled into camp near there but soon learned they would now be joining the 1st Battalion of Colonel James Shackelford’s 8th Kentucky Cavalry.3
This regiment, officially organized at Russellville, Kentucky, mustered in on an August 13, a few weeks before Edward was officially added to the roster.
In mid-September, a Cincinnati newspaper reported that one man, whom it described as a soldier in the company, though his names does not appear on the roster, had returned to Newport and reported that these men were in “excellent health and spirits” in Henderson and that they had received their bounty money after mustering in, certainly good news for them. The boys were now “eager for the fray” like new and innocent soldiers often were.4,5
The 8th Kentucky spent most of its year in the service throughout western Kentucky, helping to chase irregular Confederate soldiers, often labeled “guerrillas” by Union leaders, then in July of 1863 joined in the chase for General John H. Morgan’s Confederate troops as they raided Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio on what became known as that general’s “Great Raid,” which resulted in many of the southerners being captured at the Battle of Buffington Island, Ohio.6
Shackelford, a “prominent” guerrilla hunter in the Western Kentucky region, had been promoted to Brigadier General of U.S. Volunteers and to end this raid commanded a group of men who captured Morgan at the Battle of Salineville, Ohio near the end of July.
Edward mustered out of the service on September 23, 1863, in Russellville, and resumed daily life back in Campbell County, where, in 1880 he lived in Newport with Mary and seven children. He was 49 years old and made a living as a stove finisher.
Sadly, life did not always go as he wished and in mid-1888, the former foreman at the Favorite Stove Works company in Newport had “been out of work at his trade, which was that of a machinist, and has been compelled to work on the streets of Newport.” This must have been a tough situation for a proud man to accept.
About 11:00 on the night of June 8 of that year, Edward’s son Jim walked into the dining room of the family home on Jefferson Street (now called Sixth Street) and “discovered his father hanging by the neck from the wall.” He immediately “raised the alarm,” and his mother and siblings helped cut down the body, which a doctor soon confirmed was lifeless.
His trouble finding regular work had “greatly discouraged him, and his rash act is due to despondency.”7
Edward’s funeral took place on June 10, and “was quite largely attended.” He was buried in St. Stephen Cemetery in Fort Thomas.8
The newspaper reported him being fifty years old, which differs by a few years from other records. His wife and seven children survived him and somehow pressed on with their lives despite such a terrible shock Edward’s death, especially the way it happened, gave them.9
2Cincinnati Daily Commercial, August 19, 1862
3Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, August 22, 1862
4Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, September 20, 1862
5Cincinnati Daily Commercial, September 20, 1862
6https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units-detail.htm?battleUnitCode=UKY0008RC, Accessed April 10, 2023
7Cincinnati Enquirer, June 9, 1888
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