Photograph taken in 1860 of Zianna Locke, who married Thomas Abel on May 4, 1865, in Decatur, Illinois. Zianna also went by the name of Dana. The photograph has Locke’s name and date written on the bottom. Thomas Abel was a captain of Companies B and I, 56th U. S. Colored Infantry. Mrs. ...
William Elisha Arnold, a native of Shady Grove, Franklin County, Virginia, entered the Virginia Military Academy in July 1849 at the age of nineteen; he graduated on July 4, 1853, and married Susan Meriwether Taliaferro sixteen days later. In 1860, William Arnold was working as a school teacher in Lexington, Lafayette County, Missouri. When the ...
Undated photograph of John Becker and his wife; John Becker mustered into Federal service as assistant surgeon of the 13th Kansas Volunteer Infantry on September 20, 1862, at Atchison, Kansas. The regiment fought in the 1862 battles of Newtonia and Prairie Grove, and in numerous skirmishes. Becker resigned his commission on February 27, ...
Henry Ward Beecher was born on June 24, 1813, in Litchfield, Connecticut; his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote the famous novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In 1847, he became the first minister of the new Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York. Beecher was an advocate of women’s suffrage, temperance, and Darwin’s theory of evolution, and ...
Born on March 14, 1782, at Harts Mill, North Carolina, Thomas Hart Benton studied law at the University of North Carolina, but as a young man was attracted by opportunities in the West. He moved his family to a 40,000 acre holding near Nashville, Tennessee. There he established a plantation with schools, churches and mills. ...
Photograph of Walton Finch and his wife; Finch joined Company F, 11th Missouri Infantry as a private on August 6, 1861 in Xenia, Illinois. He rose steadily through the ranks, attaining the rank of first lieutenant before he resigned on September 7, 1865. The 11th Missouri participated in the fighting at Fredericktown, New Madrid, Iuka, Corinth, ...
Mary Fisher was the wife of Lieutenant John A. Fisher, Company D, 23rd Missouri Infantry. Lieutenant Fisher was captured at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862, and held as a prisoner of war for six months. He was paroled and released in October 1862, discharged for medical reasons in January 1863, ...
Lidie Houston was the wife of Major George M. Houston, 2nd Missouri Cavalry. Carte-de-Visite by Gill’s City Gallery, Lancaster, Pa. Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 11758
Christine (Hager) Lusk, the wife of Union Major William H. Lusk, who served with the 10th Missouri Cavalry and commanded the regiment at the Battle of Mine Creek. Carte-de-Visite by Bailey & North, Jefferson City, Mo. Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31827
Jennie St. John Mitchell, born in 1833, was the wife of General Robert B. Mitchell and the daughter of Henry St. John, a member of Congress from Ohio. Married in January 1855, the Mitchells moved from Ohio to Paris, Linn County, Kansas, in October 1856 and moved into a log house. Interestingly, the ...
Stephen Kearney (Kearny) Parsons (named for Mexican War General Stephen Watts Kearney), born in August 1851, was the son of Confederate General Mosby M. Parsons, commander of the 6th Division, Missouri State Guard and later a brigade and division commander in the Confederate army. General Parsons fought in numerous battles, including Carthage, Wilson’s Creek, Pea ...
Born in Virginia on May 2, 1810, Martha Head married Sterling Price in Randolph County, Missouri, on May 14, 1833; they had seven children, of which five lived to adulthood. During the war she left Missouri and settled in Washington, Texas. In the spring of 1866, Martha joined her husband in Mexico, and ...
Post-Civil War photograph of Olivia Ray, daughter of John and Roxanna Ray; Olivia was born on May 22, 1855, and was six years old when the Battle of Wilson’s Creek was fought on her family’s farm on August 10, 1861. Olivia and her siblings took refuge in the cellar of their house during the ...
Rhoda Ray was born a slave about 1837; she and her children were owned by John Ray. She was referred to as “Aunt Rhoda” by the Ray family, and she and the children worked on the Ray farm. During the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, on August 10, 1861, Rhoda and her children initially sought shelter ...
