The Civil War was a unique conflict, in that the assets that were considered contraband often included human beings. After the issuance of Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862, many slaves sought self-emancipation by rushing to safety behind Union lines. This drawing captures members of the Corinth Contraband Camp building fortifications at Corinth, ...
Dr. Florence Cornyn was born in August 1829 in Belmont County, Ohio. After graduating from New York University, Cornyn traveled to Sacramento, California, and practiced medicine until 1852; moving to Missouri, he settled in St. Louis. He began the Civil War as a surgeon with the 1st Missouri Infantry (later the 1st Missouri ...
Richard Corwine was born in Mason County, Kentucky, on April 12, 1812. He was admitted to the bar in 1834, and formed a law firm with future president Rutherford B. Hays and Caleb B. Smith, the future Secretary of the Interior under President Lincoln. He was very active in politics and had a ...
Matthew Cowley mustered into Company I, 9th Kansas Cavalry, as a first lieutenant on March 2, 1862, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The 9th Kansas Cavalry was organized on March 27, 1862, at Fort Leavenworth; the regiment fought at the 1862 battles of Newtonia and Prairie Grove, and performed scout and garrison duties. Cowley died of disease on ...
John H. Cox, a Virginia native and Methodist Episcopal minister, enlisted in the 1st Northeast Missouri Home Guard Regiment at Athens, Missouri in June 1861. He apparently served as the regiment’s chaplain until February 1862, when the regiment was redesignated the 21st Missouri Infantry. Cox served briefly as captain of Company H before ...
William D. Cox was born in Fulton County, Illinois, on May 4, 1843. He enlisted in Company H, 28th Illinois Infantry as a private on January 8, 1862, and re-enlisted on February 3, 1864. The 28th Illinois fought at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and at the siege of Vicksburg, among other battles. Cox ...
Lewis Creitz enlisted on April 18, 1861, in Company A, 1st Iowa Infantry, and was mustered in at Keokuk, Iowa, on May 14 as a private. The 1st Iowa enlisted for ninety days under President Lincoln’s first call for volunteers; the Iowans fought at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861, then ...
William Creitz of Holton, Kansas, was mustered into Company A, 5th Kansas Cavalry, on July 16, 1861, as a first lieutenant; he was promoted to captain and company commander on September 11, 1861. The 5th Kansas Cavalry was organized on July 12, 1861, at Leavenworth, Kansas, and fought in the 1863 battles of Helena and Pine ...
Michael Croker enlisted as a private in Company C, 2nd Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, “Merrill’s Horse,” on January 8, 1864. Croker and the regiment were involved in General Frederick Steele’s Camden Expedition and the 1864 battles of Little Blue River, Big Blue River, Westport, and Mine Creek during General Sterling Price’s raid through Missouri. Croker was ...
Henry Zarah Curtis was born in Mansfield, Ohio, in October 1836, the son of future Union General Samuel R. Curtis. He migrated to the Nebraska Territory in late 1860 and started the Daily Telegraph, the first daily newspaper in Omaha, which he continued to operate until the summer of 1861. He then sold ...
Samuel Ryan Curtis was born on February 3, 1805, near Champlain, New York, but grew up in central Ohio and attended the U. S. Military Academy, graduating twenty-seventh in a class of thirty-three in 1831. After a year of service, he resigned his commission and returned to Ohio to begin a successful engineering career. During the ...
Carte-de-Visite by A.C. Nichols, Leavenworth, Kan. Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31443
Carte-de-Visite by E. & H.T. Anthony, New York, N.Y. Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 31507
Photograph of Major General Samuel Curtis and eight members of his staff; Curtis is in the center. The photograph was likely taken in 1862 in St. Louis, Missouri, when General Curtis was commander of the Department of the Missouri. Carte-de-Visite by J.A. Scholten, St. Louis, Mo. Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30785-F
