Rowland Ward

A while back I ran this article explaining my tag line to the right (Dulce Bellum Inexpertis).  Today I received a message from Charles Mills, a descendant of the man pictured in that article.

Rowland Ward was my great-great-grandfather. Born in 1818 in Lincolnshire, England, he came to America as a young man and settled in Hunts Hollow, NY. This is just south of Letchworth State Park. He raised a family there. He enlisted in the NY 4th Heavy Artillery. Some of his early training took place on the Parade Grounds that still exist in the park. Assigned to Fort Ethan Allen, he helped man the heavy guns which protected Washington, DC. Grant reassigned many of these units to combat duty in the Spring of 1864. He was at the Battle of the Wilderness. After his massive injury at Reams Station, the Confederates initially captured him but gave him back to the Union medical people. He spent a year at Lincoln General Hospital before returning home. Remarkably, he lived until 1898 in Hunts Hollow. On a government pension, he outlived his first wife and remarried. Apparently he had some celebrity status in the area. We have photos of the reconstructive process. He grew a beard to cover the injury. I believe his food intake was limited to soft and liquid foods for the rest of his life. My grandfather had fond memories of him from his youth. He was able to verbally communicate to some extent. He had a lot of heart problems after the injury. He is buried in Hunts Hollow.

Thanks for the background on Rowland Ward.  One of the really gratifying things about writing this blog is hearing from kin of the folks discussed here. It’s nice to know that Ward’s story had a not so unhappy ending.   From page 150 of Photographic Atlas of Civil War Injuries, here are some images of Ward’s surgical progress (click on the image for a larger version – click the larger image for a ginormous one):

Family Ties – Kilpatrick Part VII

I received the following this evening, from Anne Mather Fowler McCammon:

I found your article on the Family Ties-Kilpatrick Part II very interesting. You are talking about my family and I enjoyed it very much. Philip Hickey Morgan – and by the way it is Hicky - after Philip Hicky (my great, great, grandfather); his wife (my great great grandmother Anne Mather Hicky) is my namesake. My great grandfather is Henry Waller Fowler, his Bowie knife is in the Alamo. Now I’ve bragged enough. I just wanted to tell you I enjoyed the article.

Thanks ,

Anne

Thanks for the note, Anne.  I’ve corrected my misspelling of Hicky.  For the whole Kilpatrick Family Ties series, see here.

Hits From Unexpected Sources

Yesterday, my WordPress stats told me that someone visited Bull Runnings by following a link posted on this site.  As you see, it’s a blog that features Discussion of Late Triassic Paleontology and Other Assorted Topics.  “Hmmm”, said I, “what in the heck is Bull Runnings doing on this guy’s blogroll?”  So, I fired off an email, figuring at the very least it would make for a good blog post…as of yet, I have received no reply.  But I did find this post on Chinleana.   It seems that Mr. Parker’s (the host) great-great-great grandfather was a member of the 1st Connecticut Infantry at First Bull Run, and he has a number of his ancestor’s letters written prior to the battle.  I do hope I hear from Mr. Parker.  There’s a question concerning just who was in command of the regiment on the field that day, Col. Burnham or Lt. Col. Speidel – maybe these letters can shed some light.  Oh, and I have no idea if T-Rex lived in the late Triassic epoch.  I just liked the picture.

Note From the Family of Romeyn Ayres

I received this email the other day:

Hello Harry,

Thanks so much for doing a blog entry on my father’s great great grandfather, Romeyn Beck Ayres.   Today, Father’s Day, he had just shown me a photo from a magazine of Lincoln at Antietam where he inquired to the editors and they read the caption claiming Romeyn was 5th over to the left from Lincoln, the only one not wearing a hat.   But I found a caption online that says it was Col. Alexander S. Webb.  The photos on your site seem to confirm it was not him.

I am printing out the information you posted to show my father tomorrow.  This may be what wins him over re the internet.

Thanks again,

Tim Ayres

p.s.  I have my own wordpress blog, where I produce and rotate host a long running poetry show on our local college station.   Small world. 

madriveranthology.wordpress.com

Here’s a cropped version of the photo to which I think Tim is referring – click the thumbnail for a larger image:

The bareheaded fellow bears more of a resemblance to Webb than to Ayres.  That’s George Custer on the far right, by the way.

I’m not done with Ayres, commander of Sherman’s Battery (E, 3rd US) at Bull Run.  There’s a pretty cool story regarding his plot in Arlington National Cemetery and another of Tim’s ancestors. 

Family Ties – Kilpatrick Part VI

I received a couple of notes today from a reader who is a living Kirkpatrick family tie.  She’s also descended from a Bull Run participant, among others (reader SusanSweet take note).  I’ve received a few other notes from descendants of participants, and I’m going to see if I can get permission to post them here.  The following is stitched from a couple of notes.

Hello,

I just found your bull runnings website, and really enjoyed reading the history, some of which I was already aware, in connection with Philip Hicky Morgan, and his descendants (Harry Hays, Consuelo, Thelma and Gloria, etc.).

I dabble in genealogy.  I am a descendant of Philips’ father, Judge Thomas Gibbes Morgan of Baton Rouge, which is why I enjoyed your web site.  Judge Morgan had 8 more children after he married his second wife, Sarah Fowler Morgan.  Their first born child was Lavinia Marie Morgan, born 1832.  Lavinia was my great-great grandmother.  Lavinia is not as well known as her youngest sister, Sarah, the civil war diarist, or her youngest brother, James Morris Morgan.  But Lavinia’s influence may have been one of the reasons why she and her husband, General Richard Coulter Drum, spent the civil war years at the Presidio in San Francisco, keeping the peace in California, since the state had strong Confederate sympathizers.  A cousin of mine told me that Lavinia reportedly told her husband’s superiors, “I don’t want mah husband killin’ my relatives.”

Sincerely,

Robyn L. Hunt

Desert Hot Springs, California

(originally from Washington, D.C. – Bethesda, Maryland)

P.S.:  Another great-great grandfather of mine was General Henry Jackson Hunt, Chief of Artillery, Army of the Potomac

———–

Unfortunately, my family does not have any letters or papers of Lavinia’s or Gen. Drum’s.  Most of their belongings and possessions were destroyed when their home in Chevy Chase, Maryland burned in February 1901.  All I have are a few photos of Lavinia and Gen. Drum with their two grandsons, circa 1886), and one of their only daughter, Henrietta Drum, who everyone referred to as “Blossom.”  I also have one piece of furniture that belonged to Blossom.  It is a small mahogany table that opens up to store silverware.  Even though I don’t know for sure, I believe that this table may have been a wedding gift from President Chester Arthur to Blossom when she married Henry J. Hunt, Jr. in Washington in 1882.  (President Arthur was a personal friend of General Drum.)  I know for a fact that Pres. Arthur attended the wedding.  The table was made by Louis Comfort Tiffany.  Also in 1881 or 1882, Pres. Arthur did not like the existing antiques in the White House, so he got rid of much of the old furniture and commissioned Louis Tiffany to redecorate the public rooms of the White House.  Louis Tiffany’s company designed and made furniture several years before he became famous for his beautiful stained glass work.

I know some of the folks at the Drum Barracks museum also – Kathy Ralston and Susan Ogle, the Director.  Its location is only about a 2 hour drive from my home. 

Thank goodness for the people who wanted to preserve it and not let it be torn down in the 1960s, and also thank goodness for the City of Los Angeles for maintaining it.

Robyn

It’s All Relative

 

I received this comment to my biographical sketch of Daniel Tyler:

Thank you for doing the research and all that you do. I am a descendant of Annie Scott-Tyler [the one that Anniston Ala. was named after] I know that Daniel was her father-in-law. He seems to have been a very smart and interesting man.  I am always doing what I can to find new information on her and her husband and family, etc….this is very neat.

This is the first contact of this site by any descendant of a Bull Run participant (though I’m not positive that the author, Patti, is a descendant of Tyler, only that she is descended from his daughter-in-law).  Hopefully this is but the first of many.