April 25, 1864Joseph Bull Gedney
My 3 great Grandfather on my mother's side of the family.
The researching into my ancestors and quest to learn more about the Civil War has brought me to this garandfather.
Born in Dearborn County, Indiana he came with his family to Iowa in 1838.
Iowa became a state in 1846.
Joseph B. Gedney enlisted a private in the Civil War, but then was commissioned to head Company I as Captain. This was the 36Th Iowa Infantry. They mustered out in Arkansas and saw much fighting in the South.
April 25, 1864with Colonel Francis Drake lead 10 Companies to guard a train of supplies into a perceived ambush where 5 hours of difficult fighting took placed at Marks Mill, Arkansas. Two thirds of these companies killed wounded or captured. My ancestor's company saw 6 men killed and 13 wounded. Then along with 21 of his men where captured and taken to Tyler, Texas Prison. Several attempts of escape were made but stayed there for 10 months.
During this time he kept a diary which is still in family procession. I have received contact from a relative through ancestry. com She has promised to send me a copy of this diary. Hurrah!
Reconnecting with cousin Wava last week lead me to discover the above news article. Together we are trying to figure out more of our family research. Wava noted today on her FB page that she remembered this date! which brought me to post this. I had been talking about this with my family over the weekend and had been planning on posting about our find. Rebecca loves the post about our family history and told me to do more of this. Just funny that Wava also thinking on these lines this morning!
4 comments:
Wow! How cool is that! Did you know the diary existed before now?
Hi
I belong to a Questers Group in Chicago and one of the gals in our group put together a rush program for someone who cancelled out on us. It was one of the best programs ever and I still remember it to this day. Her family were from Indiana and Ohio and were farmers whose 2 sons were conscripted into the army for the Civil War. Because she is into historical preservation all the family info was given to her. She had letters home to their Mother from the 2 yong men, belt buckles, musket balls, etc. I can't really remember it all but the letters were so poignent that they made you cry for them. They really didn't want to be there but were. They even had too much to drink one night and were thrown in jail overnite and they wrote home about that. I still thrill to think I read those letters and touched their army buckles.
Hugs
FredaB
I did not know it existed! Brenda. Yes, Freda it is a thrill to feel and think what they went through during this horrendous time!
I saw Wava's FB post, neat how you both were thinking the same thing! I cant wait to see the diary!
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