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#1. Kersey Fw: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville - from Marv Miller
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From: <BHP32743@aol.com> To: <millerm@halcyon.com> Sent: Thursday, April 01, 1999 7:36 PM Subject: Re: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville Ancestry.com has a listing of prisoners of war held at the infamous Andersonville Prison Camp. There are some Kerseys listed there among the 45,000 that were held at this camp. There is quite a bit of information on the soldiers. If you think you have an ancestor who was a prisoner there you might like to check this site. It is free for about 9 more days. Go to: www.ancestry.com/ancestry/search/3708.htm Barbara
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#2. Re: Kersey Fw: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville - from Graylwolfe@aol.com
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Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 09:12:04 EST From: Graylwolfe@aol.com Subject: Re: Kersey Fw: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville Hi, I have visited the Andersonville prison site. If you should lose the ancestry site, there is a registry of all those interred there at the site. I am sure that you could write to the park headquarters at Andersonville, GA. It is a very small town and they will get it. I think that I am correct that it is a National Park. There are no buildings at the present time except for the headquarters. It is located in middle GA. It is a very overwhelming place to go. The prisoners were treated the best that they could be under the circumstances. 13,000 men died there, however. Mary Wolfe
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#3. Kersey Re: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville - from Marv Miller
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Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 18:16:56 -0800 From: "Marv Miller" <millerm@halcyon.com> Subject: Kersey Re: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville Hi Barbara-- Thanks so much for the tip. The two Kerseys in the Andersonville database are mine (and Mariah's). Benjamin Vierling Kersey and Thomas Clarkson Kersey were half-brothers, sons on my gggrandfather, Asher Kersey. The database correlates exactly with the information I had from my ggrandfather. Here is a chapter from Laurence T. Kersey's book on the Kersey family telling of the civil war experiences of these two men: Concerning the Army Experience of Benjamin Verling and Thomas Clarkson Kersey by Laurence T. Kersey Benjamin V. Kersey enlisted September 12, 1861, at Muscatine, Iowa, for service in the Civil War, being enrolled in Company B, 11th Iowa Infantry Volunteers - first enlisting for a term of three years, but later for the duration of the war, being enrolled as a Veteran Volunteer. He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, early in April 1862. While at home on furlough he served as a recruiting officer. My uncle, William T. Kersey, wrote: "My mother told me she made the 'butternut brown' suit Ben wore at his wedding to Amanda Benbow; also that when he came home on furlough (I was about two years old) he carried me over to the old Half Acre school as soon as he got home, for Amanda, where she was teaching, and making her home with us on the old farm." When Ben returned to the army, his brother, Thomas Clarkson, went with him, enlisting September 5, 1862, at Muscatine, Iowa, being enrolled in Company B, 11th Iowa Infantry Volunteers. Ben and Clark were with Crocker's Iowa Brigade, composed of the Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Regiments in the following battles: Shiloh (in which Ben was engaged), Iuka, Corinth, Big Shanty, the Siege of Vicksburg, and Atlanta (the Battle of the 22nd of July, 1864) at which Ben, Clark, and their comrades, James Fitzgerald, James Armstrong and others were captured. They, with about two thousand other captives, were taken to Andersonville and placed in prison July 28, there being twenty-eight thousand prisoners confined there at that time. On their way to prison, feelings of pity were expressed for them by their guards who had seen what Andersonville was and whose sympathy extended even to their captives in battle. The warnings of the guards were not exaggerated, as the captive soon discovered, and as history now reveals. After about two months in Andersonville, orders came to send out a number of the prisoners in groups of one hundred each, the supposition being they were to be exchanged. As a group was counted out, father's comrade, Jim Armstrong, observed he would be the last in that group, leaving father behind. Quickly stepping aside he allowed father, much weaker than he, to take his place in line and pass out. Later developments turned to Jim's advantage, he being exchanged while father's group was sent to Florence Prison where about thirty-six thousand men were confined, under conditions worse, if possible, than in Andersonville. But Jim's intended sacrifice has never been forgotten. In Florence, Ben, having been transferred from Andersonville, and being a Mason, was granted a few favors by the guards, permission for instance to help carry wood into the prison from the forest outside, for which he received an extra ration of food which he shared with his brother. One evening Ben failed to return to their accustomed little patch of ground. A second and a third day passed and he did not return. Someone reported to father that Ben was in the prison hospital and wanted to see him. Reaching the crudely constructed hospital, into which visitors were positively not admitted, father awaited his opportunity and when the outer guard was a little negligent, slipped through the large door on screeching hinges. On entering he saw a hand beckoning him down the aisle. It was Ben, on a rustic bed, sick from fever, almost too weak to speak. Only a few minutes whispered conversation had they held when a guard discovered father and practically 'threw him out.' Ben's last words to his brother were, "Good bye Clark, keep a stiff upper lip!" It was the last father ever saw or heard of Ben. He probably died shortly after - about February 6, 1865 - and was no doubt buried in an unmarked trench grave in the wilderness near the prison stockade. On February 18th orders came to send out from Florence a number of prisoners, again the hope being it was for an exchange. Instead they were sent to Goldsboro, North Carolina, where they were held under guard in a forest. Father and his comrade, James Fitzgerald, were among the number transferred. After a few days orders came to move these prisoners. They were to be sent by train somewhere - all the prisoners knew as to their destiny or destination. "Would it be an exchange, or back to Andersonville or Florence?" On the way to the train father, weakened by hunger and exposure from his seven months' prison life -- at times as many as 36,000 prisoners occupying a thirteen acre open stockade, no sewerage facilities, sleeping on the ground, eating raw corn meal, drinking water from a sluggish little swamp creek running through an insect and vermin infested stockade -- was staggering along when he said to his comrade, James Fitzgerald, "Jim, I can't make it!" To which Jim replied, "Here Clark, grab hold of my coat tail!" Arriving at the siding where a freight train awaited them, father was helped onto a flat-car by his comrade, but for whose assistance he often said his remains would probably be moldering in that forest near Goldsboro. The prisoners were taken north to the Union lines at North East River and given up. There was no "Triumphal Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue." Those ragged, half-starved men, father holding onto Jim Fitzgerald's coat tail, would have made a pathetic sight, one calling for tears, not cheers. Father was paroled March 20, 1865, came to Marshalltown, Iowa by train, paid a liveryman ten dollars, all he had, to take him as far on his way home as the ten would take him. Those at home did not know when father was coming - if ever. Mother, or some other member of the Benbow or Kersey family went regularly for mail, riding horseback the long miles, hoping, hoping - dreading! If a letter, what message would it bring? If no letter, what might that mean? The liveryman designated Bangor as the destination to which he would take that sick, half-starved soldier - and left him there! (Less human sympathy, father thought, than was shown him by the rebel guards taking him to Andersonville). Jess Stanley volunteered to take him on to the home of his father, Asher Kersey, in Providence Township. Father, a tragic picture of the ravages of Southern prison life, having left his brother in an unmarked trench grave in the wilderness at Florence, and his unannounced appearance at home was one of life's 'dramas without words' best left to the imagination. In going to war, father had violated one of the cardinal principles of the Quaker church. He was visited by a committee and offered the option of coming before the meeting with an apology, and asking forgiveness, or being disowned -- he was disowned. I have never been quite able to reconcile the facts that Quakers prayed so fervently that the slaves be freed, and then disowned men who helped do it. But, time is a magic healer -- healing not only the bitterness between the North and the South, but that also of neighbor toward neighbor. I am sure father died with no bitterness or malice in his heart, and I am equally sure he was honored and admired for his loyalty and courage to act according to the dictates of his conscience. Mother's heart was too full of love and forbearance to hold bitterness toward anyone. My aunt, Lauretta Kersey Creson, recently wrote me: "Although I was a child of only three years when your father returned from the war, I remember so well how the family cried, what for I didn't know, but of course I cried too. I can see Clark lying on a cot before the fireplace. The connecting links in all that followed are not clear, tho I do remember sitting in my little rocker and falling into the fire and how Clark jumped off the cot and picked me up. I have a scar on my wrist from that burn. How we ever survived that reconstruction period I can't yet understand. There were so few comforts - a bleak prairie, a one room house, green wood and a fireplace. The long years of anxiety and the endless waiting for the boys' return; the awful tragedy of Ben's death, your father's home-coming, a wreck physically, but still with the spirit of fight - your imagination can't picture those years. That scene was so indelibly printed on my childish mind it has never been erased." In an address by General Wm. W. Belknap at a re-union of Crocker's Iowa Brigade, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, September, 1883, he said: "Those who come after, will, as the years go on, search the rolls of these regiments, the 11th, 13th, 15th and 16th Iowa and point with pride to the names of men which they feel honored in bearing ... Years ago, on fields far away, on the march, by campfires where tired limbs were resting, from the captivity of prisons, and in the night air, with but a blanket between them and the sky, the men of those regiments have tried to see the future, and have wondered whether, in years after, their works would be forgotten, or whether, when the march and war were over, and another generation had grown up, they would be recalled, and honored by the glad approval of those at home." Note: After Thomas Clarkson "Clark" Kersey got back from the war he married Amanda Benbow, widow of his half-brother Ben. Marv millerm@halcyon.com http://www.halcyon.com/millerm ----- Original Message ----- From: <BHP32743@aol.com> To: <millerm@halcyon.com> Sent: Thursday, April 01, 1999 7:36 PM Subject: Re: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville www.ancestry.com/ancestry/search/3708.htm > >Barbara
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#4. Kersey Fw: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville - from Marv Miller
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From: Pege Kersey Winkel <pwinkel@csb.swnebr.net> To: Kersey List <millerm@halcyon.com> Sent: Friday, April 02, 1999 9:01 PM Subject: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville >Laurence Kersey....I really enjoyed your story of your two Kerseys in >the Andersonville prison.... >How fortunate you are to have these stories....I don't have any >stories...which were preserved anyway!!!! > >Pege >
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#5. Re: Kersey Re: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville - from BHP32743@aol.com
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Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 01:02:00 EST From: BHP32743@aol.com Subject: Re: Kersey Re: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville I, too, enjoyed your story of your ancestors, Marv. I had ancestors fighting on the Confederate side in some of the battles that yours were in - Corinth, Vicksburg and Atlanta. We had the opportunity to visit the state park at Vicksburg. It was there that I began to get the true picture of how horrible the Civil War was. Several states had men in both armies at Vicksburg. These men knew each other from back home and some were related. The two armies were so close together during the siege of Vicksburg that they were able to talk to each other at night when the battle lulled, exchanges news from friends and family back home. Then when morning came they went back to fighting each other. At one point (in June, I think) so many men were killed that it became necessary to call the battle off for three days so that the dead could be buried. During these three days the two armies mingled and shared food and supplies (the Confederates were cut off from receiving supplies and food was running short). Can you imagine having to go back to war after those three days. My Jesse Kersey had a son-in-law, Alston Lott, that died at Vicksburg (before the siege). Alston and three of his brothers were in the same company of the 23rd Alabama. Only one survived to come home. Alston's brother Anson (my ancestor) was also a son-in-law of Jesse Kersey's. Anson died in Knoxville, TN of measles. Barbara
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#6. Kersey Fw: Andersonville Prison - from Marv Miller
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From: <Ke86tnt@aol.com> To: Kersey List <millerm@halcyon.com> Sent: Saturday, April 03, 1999 12:38 AM Subject: Re: Andersonville Prison Laurence, I agree wholeheartedly with Pege. History, such as you have been so kind as to share with us, is what makes this process of searching for our past so worthwhile. There is the old addage that a 'person who does not know from whince he came knows not where he is going', and I feel it applies to families as well. Unfortunately, the majority of the descendants of this countries founders have no knowledge of who we, the country as a whole, are, with no concept of the pain, suffering and death endured by those who made this country what it is. I personally do not have any events, such as you relayed, in my linage to hold on to, (and even my tour of Vietnam was a 'country club' in relation to Andersonville and other such places) .... whatever happened is most likely lost for ever, so to hear that story gives me a sense of pride in a very humble way. So Laurence, thank you so very much for that and please, if you have more, share them with us also. Thanks again, Tom
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#7. Kersey 1900 Florida Soundex - from Marv Miller
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Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 12:12:52 -0800 From: "Marv Miller" <millerm@halcyon.com> Subject: Kersey 1900 Florida Soundex Hi folks-- I would like to add my thanks to Doris for a wonderful job on the 1900 Florida Soundex. Are you sure we can't talk you into posting more? ;-) Some notes: (1) KERSEY WILLIAM white, born Nov 1860, age 39, born Florida " Emma E. wife born Mar 1868, age 32 " " " Jesse W. son born Jan 1886 age 14, " " " Agnus C. dau. born April 1891 age 9 " " " Cairo dau. born April 1895 age 5 " " This looks like William M. Kersey and Emma Lightsey previously posted by Doris and Sara. FLORIDA EARLY MARRAIGES W.M. KERSEY EMMA LIGHTSEY 3 FEB 1884 JEFFERSON CO Jefferson County Fla. Elizabeth Cemetery: Emma Lightsey Kersey March 10, 1868 - Oct. 7, 1942 Mother William Kersey Nov. 1,1860 - Aug. 21, 1946 Father (2) Regarding Cairo/Cario/Caris Kersey above, there is a Caristine C. Kersey buried in South Prong Cemetery, Baker Co., Florida. No dates. (3) Vol 9, E.D. 69 Sheet 1, Line 57 Pct 8 Aucilla, Fl. KERSEY JACK E. white, born 1843, age 56, born Florida " Ada wife born June 1869, age 30, born Florida " Cecilia dau. born Oct 1896 age 3, born Florida " Joe Manley son born April 1899, age 1, " This looks like Rose's Edward Jackson Kersey and Ada Horton and their sons Charles, Berton, and Chandler. Thanks again Doris, Marv millerm@halcyon.com http://www.halcyon.com/millerm
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#8. Re: Kersey Re: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville - from Graylwolfe@aol.com
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Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 13:28:00 EST From: Graylwolfe@aol.com Subject: Re: Kersey Re: Union Prisoners of War at Andersonville Hi, my ggrandfather on my father's side had 2 brothers to die at Vicksburg. Another remembrance of Andersonville. There were 7 Union prisoners who were hung by their fellow Union prisoners. They were given a trial and hung. They were accused of treason. Andersonville was simply a large field. Fences were are around it. I can't image getting 40,000 men there. No wonder so many were sick and died. Andersonville is a National Cemetery. There are veterans from WW 1, WW2, Vietnam also buried there but across the road. I am not sure if any buildings have been built there. I was there in 1983 or 1984. I lived about 45 miles from the Cemetery. There was a plan to restore it, but I do not know if that happened or not. I live about 150 miles from it now. It was the most eerie place that I have ever been. It was as if there were souls calling to you. By the way, my Kersey ggrandfather died in a Union prison in Maryland. Sobering thoughts on war. Mary Wolfe
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#9. Fw: Kersey: Re: Union prisoners at Andersonville Prison - from Marv Miller
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From: <pathenry@micron.net> To: <millerm@halcyon.com> Sent: Saturday, April 03, 1999 12:31 PM Subject: Kersey: Re: Union prisoners at Andersonville Prison I hope you all don't mind another story about the Civil War and Andersonville Prison. This is about my G Grandfather George Washington Morgan and about his experience in the prison and a miraculous survival, as he described it to his son, James Perry Morgan. He looked into the eyes of the men in the firing squad. He heard the guns crack and remembered seeing the smoke of their rifles because he was one of the lucky prisoners who survived. He spent nine months in the dreaded Andersonville prison and stockade known as the "Slaughter Pen". The Civil War soldier was captured in TN during a raid on a farm house where he and his brother-in-law, Bill Blundell, were resting. The two men rushed into a room and closed the door. But the door caught the tip of Blundell's blue uniform coat and the searching soldiers spotted it. They were taken to Andersonville where they existed for nine months despite the disease, the shooting of prisoners, and the meager rations. He told how a spring ran near the edge of the stockade and often when prisoners went to drink they were shot dead. Many of the prisoners were sick and when they lost their meal, others would "wash the beans" and recook them to eat. He described how those prisoners who had no money to buy extra rations suffered from starvation, disease, and mistreatment. He had a little money he used to keep alive. For some reason, he did not understand, he was lined up three deep with a number of other prisoners and a firing squad marched up, took aim and shot at them. He was hurt in the right arm, but the bullet went on to lodge in the third man behind him. In time the prison authorities freed those who appeared to be dying. He told a prison friend he would be leaving the next day and gave what little money he had left and his clothes away. The next morning he walked to the prison entrance and was given a shove and told to get out of here "you damned Yankee". My G Grandfather carried on so much about his wounded arm, that they figured he wouldn't survive anyway and let him go. He made his way back to Mtn. View MO where he died in 1930 at the age of 91. Pat Henry
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#10. Re: Kersey 1900 Florida Soundex - from TOMNROSEJ@aol.com
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Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 17:30:06 EST From: TOMNROSEJ@aol.com Subject: Re: Kersey 1900 Florida Soundex Thanks so much for posting my Jackson Edward Kersey information. Doris is been so great in doing all of this work for the list. I would like to say thank you very much Doris. Rose
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#11. Kersey Fw: LDS search site - from Marv Miller
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From: Lawrence Gee & VI <levigee@freewwweb.com> To: <millerm@halcyon.com> Sent: Saturday, April 03, 1999 7:27 AM Subject: LDS search site >The LDS search site is now back on-line for testing. It is on- it was >off for corrections-- >The latest address ( Sat Apr 3) is: >http://32.96.111.13/default.asp >It may take some getting used to. It is like a strange town. Take time >and explore. Vi >