War Between the States
I was shocked to learn that my ancestor Thomas Neal had at least two sons, Jesse and John, who served during the War Between the States. One in blue, one in gray.
John, my great great grandfather, did serve with in the Confederate Army, with the 3rd Forrest’s Tennessee Cavalry. I had the records to prove it.
Grandpa Kenneth Neal knew that his grandfather had been in the Civil War, but was stunned to learn that he’d fought with the rebels. John Neal’s military records did reveal that he’d deserted.
Grandpa insisted that his grandmother Rhoda received a pension after John died, as a Union veteran. I sent an application for records of John Neal, this time with “Union” on it. He had indeed joined the 9th Regiment of the Indiana Cavalry.
John and Rhoda Neal are buried, with his parents, in the Dexter Cemetery. His brother Jesse is buried in the remote Roberts Cemetery in Adair County, Iowa. He served in Co. C 1st Tennessee Cavalry. I’ve never found a picture of Jesse Neal.
Rhoda (Marshall) Neal’s 1920 obituary said that she was “part of the most perplexing periods in the history of this country.” A very perplexing period indeed.
Your story is yet another evidence of just how divided the nation was during that time, dividing even family members as intimate as brothers. I have a similar situation in my own ancestry, although not of brothers. The ancestor in my direct line, Joshua, was in the Confederate army, but the records are conflicting. One says he was captured and then escaped. Another says he deserted. The Appalachian region of East Tennessee-Western North Carolina was a haven for deserters, draft dodgers, and generally a criminal element, all of them preying on residents, if not for political animosity then for simple subsistence (i.e., theft and plunder)!
These Neals were from Jefferson County, around New Market, TN. I wish I knew more about how John ended up in Indiana and marrying Rhoda Marshall there. More from the early Neals: https://joynealkidney.com/2018/02/24/a-poignant-will-and-testament/
What an interesting piece of family history to discover! Another mystery to unravel . . .
The more you discover, the more mystery reveals itself.
This is definitely the case for family history, as I’ve come to learn.
You keep coming up with the most interesting information – and it’s part of your own family!! Fantastic!
These notes go back BVN (before Vietnam)! The Millers let me exchange my original copy of Soldiers’ Stories Volume II for a second edition. They’d missed my stories on my dad and uncle, and three more men, so added those to their second edition. I like it that Smitty is also in the same volume.
I’m glad they did that for you.
For my cousins too!
Terrific!
Civil war tears families asunder – and not always because of differing beliefs. Who one ends up fighting with can also be laid at the door of circumstance. It is not for us to condemn actions from the past but to see them within the context of the time. Families here were torn asunder during the Anglo-Boer War (now called the South African War) and these rifts are still not fully healed decades later. Meanwhile many an English soldier married a Dutch girl. South African families (including my own) are often a mix of cultures and languages now.
Amen, Anne.
A fun history twist. Here’s hoping you’ll eventually find a photo of Jesse 🙂
An all-too-common scenario, I’m afraid. How sad that things can get to that point.