Saturday, June 29, 2013

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Create A Gravestone

Randy Seaver, of GeneaMusings, presented the following challenge for today's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:
Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to: 
1)  Create your own gravestone at http://www.tombstonebuilder.com/.  And/or create one for a relative who doesn't have one, or one for an event or significant issue. 
2)  Share your creation with the genea-sphere in your own blog post, on Facebook or on Google+.  Be sure to drop a link in a comment to this post.
There are several other Gravestone generators online - see: 

  • John Chandler's Tombstone Generator (http://www.jjchandler.com/tombstone/) 
  • Gravestone Caption Generator (http://www.getgreatcodes.com/generators/grave-generator.php/) 
  • Gravestone Generator (http://www.satisfaction.com/gravestone/)

I chose to use the third Gravestone Generator because it seemed to have the most design options.

Since lately I have had difficulty being focused in my genealogy research, I thought the following gravestone might be appropriate!



Gravestone Generator


© 2013 Denise Spurlock

Monday, June 24, 2013

Military Monday - Never Paid, Bounty Due

Last week I wrote about Henry Sloas, the husband of my 3rd great-grandaunt Mary Burton, who was judged to be a “disloyal citizen” by a military commission in Kentucky during the Civil War. Mary (Burton) Sloas saw not only her husband arrested and sent to a Union prison camp, but her eldest son, Franklin, as well!

As shown on the record card below, Franklin enlisted in Captain Field’s Partisan Rangers in Carter County, Kentucky, on 5 January 1863. On the muster roll from which this card was prepared, he was marked absent, captured by the enemy on 9 May 1863, having never been paid and with an enlistment bounty due.



This second card records that he appeared on a list of prisoners of war, having been arrested at Louisa, Kentucky, on 8 May 1863, and received at Camp Chase on 16 May 1863. He is described as being 17 years old, 5 feet 7 inches tall, with grey eyes, light hair and a fair complexion. He died at Camp Chase on 3 July 1863.



[Source: Compiled service record, Franklin Sloas; Civil War; NARA Publication M319, Compiled Military Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Kentucky; digital images, Fold3 (www.fold3.com : accessed 23 Jun 2013).]

© 2013 Denise Spurlock

Monday, June 17, 2013

Military Monday – Henry Sloas, a Disloyal Citizen

While conducting research on the siblings of my 2nd great-grandfather James H. Burton (1822-1905), I found FindAGrave Memorial #5714647 for Henry Sloas, the husband of Mary Burton, my 2nd great-grandaunt. According to the memorial, Henry died of typhoid fever on 28 October 1863 while imprisoned at Camp Chase in Ohio and is buried in an unmarked grave at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio.

The memorial gave some information about an incident during the Civil War in which Henry was believed to have been involved. Click here to read the account.

Based on what I could find about the Henry Sloas who served in the 48th Virginia Infantry, I believe that was a different man. However, after some digging around in the Confederate records on Fold3, I found the following document on a hearing before a military commission in Louisa, Kentucky, which resulted in Henry Sloas being sent to Camp Chase just a few short months before his death.

"Louisa Ky
Proceedings of Military

Commission held at
Louisa Easter[n] Ky.
in the case of
Henry Sloas a
Disloyal citizen
  

Recd. C. C. May 16th 1843."

"Case of Henry Sloas.

John C. Porter, on oath states that he arrested Sloas, because I considered him a disloyal citizen and because I believe he had his large gun out and buskwhacked [sic] Gen. G W. Morgan cvl.[?] last fall. I know him to be a very strong rebel. He frequently harbored the rebels, and was reported to be in the habit of carrying information to them. I heard him say at a log rolling, that the first Union men that came about his house, he be damned if he wouldn't make one less of them. When I asked him, the other day, for his gun, he said he had not had it for a month, but when I raised my gun and cocked it he showed me wher [sic] it was. It was further reported that he was one of the men who dug the hole to put Huff and others who had were murdered last winter.

(In answer to prisoner) I have heard you this this [sic] was a war for negro equality, and that if any party was right it was the Jeff. Davis party.

The commission Recommend him to be sent to Camp Chase.

Capt. John Dalzell                 A Brown Jr Let. Col. and
Judge Advc Mil Com            Protem Pres.

The prisoner denies every assertion of the witness and affirms that he prove by the miners' own mother[?] that he has lied_"


Case of Henry Sloas; Unfiled Papers and Slips Belonging in Confederate Compiled Service Records;
National Archives Records Administration, Publication M347;
digital images, Fold3.com (www.fold3.com : accessed 16 Jun 2013).


© 2013 Denise Spurlock