My Family in the Civil War, Part Eleven: "I died like a soldier, all quiet and bold."

This is the 11th in a series on my Civil War ancestors

Gravestone of Bartlett Moore, image from findagrave

"I was but a boy

But sixteen years old

Yet I died like a soldier

All quiet and bold."

Deposition of William D. Moore, nephew and neighbor of Susannah and Edward Moore

Q: "Please state your military service."
A: "I enlisted in August 1861 as Corpl [?] "I" 38th Ind. and was commissioned Capt of said company in September 1864 and was mustered out July 1865."

Q: "Was Bartlett Moore in your company?"
A: "Yes sir. He came to us February 12, 1864."

Q: "Did he contract any disability in the service?"
A: "Well sometime after he came to us he was taken sick, to the best of my recollection, with diarrhea and was with the surgeon. I detailed him there and not long after he was sent to Chattanooga Tenn and afterwards died, as I believe of diarrhea."

Captain William Davis Moore was the son of Edward's older brother John. When war broke out, he was 27 years old, with a wife and three small children. His wife died the following year, possibly in childbirth.

A newspaper clipping shares a letter William wrote home to his parents. The "Uncle Neddy" he mentions is our Edward Moore. It was a popular nickname for him. As with all images on this blog, click on the clipping to enlarge it.

Unidentified newspaper clipping,
letter from William D. Moore to his parents

The "Josie" in the letter is William's younger brother Joseph. Joseph H. Moore died 12 days later and lies in rest at Moores Ridge Cemetery. He was 22 years old.

My Family in the Civil War, Part Ten: Entry into War

This is the tenth in a series on my Civil War ancestors

The 1850s passed fairly quietly for Edward and Susannah Moore. After the death of their son William Bryant in 1851, they also lost their 10 year old son Joseph Danner Moore in 1854. I do not know the cause of his death.

Daughter Martha married Richard Spaulding  in 1852.  Their now oldest son Edward married Richard's little sister Clorinda Spaulding in 1856.  Several grandchildren were being born.  By 1860, the family at home was getting smaller.

1860 Federal Census Orange County, Indiana

The parents were now approaching 60. Their daughter Clarissa was married the next year. Christopher got married later in 1860. By this time, the Moores had grown their farm to about 300 acres, 80 of which was cleared.

On April 12, 1861, the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Answering the call for volunteers, the oldest Moore boys enlisted together on November 2 of that year. Edward and Christopher both joined Company G of the Indiana 49th Infantry.  At the same time, two of their sisters' husbands joined the same unit. They were all married with children by this time. The following summer, David signed up with the Indiana 16th Infantry.

This left the farm to be run by Edward and Susannah, both aged about 60, the twin girls Elizabeth and Mary, aged 15, and the youngest boy Bartlett, who was only 13.

The first blow to the immediate family came on July 19, 1863. Edward died of wounds he received in battle at Jackson, Mississippi eight days before.  Edward's first lieutenant, Thomas Buskirk, testified that he saw Edward receive his wound, and was with him when he died.

Testimony of Thomas Buskirk regarding death of Edward Moore

I found a very detailed post about the battles of Jackson on the Mississippians in the Confederate Army blog, and recommend it if you want to know more.

Reports came in to Orange County of their many boys that died of wounds and disease during this awful time. Recruitment continued for volunteers, and a draft was also initiated. As the war dragged on, more men were needed to replace those lost. 

Soldiers were supposed to be 18 to serve.  This rule was bent over time, particularly for musicians.  Musicians were needed to run camp. They sounded times to rise, eat, go to bed, and everything in between. Though musician was considered a non-combat position, they were absolutely necessary on the field as they were the only sounds that could be heard over the musket and cannon fire. Generals used them to direct the men as to what they should be doing. 

On February 16, 1864, Bartlett Cofin Moore, youngest child of Edward and Susannah, enlisted as a bugler in Company I of the 38th Indiana Infantry. He had seen brothers, brothers-in-law, uncles, cousins, and neighbors go off to fight. The urge to do his part was probably great. He was 15 years and five months old. 

Unidentified Union Bugler, image found at Library of Congress

My Family in the Civil War, Part Nine: "He died very suddenly."

This is the ninth in a series on my Civil War ancestors

By 1838, the Moore family had 40 acres of land and six children ages 14 to one. A year after purchasing their land, Edward and Susannah had another son, Christopher Columbus. This family is found in the 1840 census, with both parents and all seven children.

1840 Federal Census Orange County, Indiana

Each person is represented by a tick mark in a column showing their age and sex. There are three small boys, Edward, four girls, and Susannah.

The 1840s were eventful for the family. I only have record of births, deaths, and marriages from this decade. Their son David Bryant Moore was born in 1841. Just two years later, their oldest daughter Sarah got married. Son Joseph Danner Moore was born in 1844. 

Edward's mother Pheriba (wouldn't I like to know her maiden name!) passed away in 1845, aged 76. His father followed her in 1848; he was 78. They both died in Parke County, Indiana, and are presumed to be buried in the old section of the Mt. Moriah Cemetery there. I visited this cemetery many years ago and there were stones stacked against trees and lying on the ground, many of them broken.

In the years between losing his parents, Edward and Susannah had twin girls in 1846 named Mary Catherine and Elizabeth Jane. The girls were apparently healthy as they both lived to adulthood. I'd like to point out that Susannah was just short of her 42nd birthday when she delivered twins!  Later that year daughter Barbara married.  The decade was rounded out by the birth of their final son, Bartlett Coffin Moore in 1848. He was named after a local man, possibly a teacher at the time, who went on to become a respected minister.  Shortly after Bartlett's birth, oldest son William Bryant Moore married Mary Ellen Carroll.

So by the 1850 census, here's how the family looked:

1850 Federal Census Orange County, Indiana

Both parents were approaching 50, basically subsistence farming. They had buried one son and married off their three oldest children, but still had plenty of help to make the farm work. The tick marks on the right indicate that four of their children attended school within the last year.  Later documents indicate Edward was educated, but that Susannah could not read or write. 

Though it has little to do with the Civil War, I'd like to share what I know about my ancestor William Bryant Moore. He was the oldest surviving son of Edward and Susannah.  He was born on July 5th, 1830, in Orange County, Indiana. At age 18, he married Mary Ellen Carroll, a girl of 15. By 1850, they were living in the town of Paoli with my great-great grandfather, William Braddock Moore:

1850 Federal Census Orange County, Indiana

William's occupation is given as "house joiner." From Wikipedia, "A joiner usually produces items such as interior and exterior doors, windows, stairs, tables, bookshelves, cabinets, furniture, etc."  

This census was written October 24th, 1850. In less than three months, William Bryant Moore was dead at the age of 20.  For several years I wondered what had happened to him.  I visited my great-uncle Ed Moore in 1993, a fellow family historian entering the early stages of Alzheimers.  I asked him if he knew what had happened. He told me that his mother had related to him that William was painting in the upper floor of the newly constructed Orange County courthouse, and was found dead. Later, I was told of a clipping from the newspaper at that time, and recently was able to make of copy of that:

American Eagle of Paoli newspaper, January 1851

To finish out this chapter of the story, William's wife Mary Ellen, a widow at 17, went on to remarry Henry Pierce Breeden. They had five children together, and Mary died in 1862 at 29. Henry, who had enlisted in the Civil War, died less than two months later of pneumonia in an Indianapolis hospital. This tragic family left six small orphans behind. 

If you find a cause of death for an ancestor and aren't sure what it means, I highly recommend a visit to Rudy's List of Archaic Medical Terms. 

As far as I know, William Bryant Moore was my shortest-lived ancestor. I think about how, if this one small link had broken, I wouldn't be here. 

Photo taken by Vonda Heverly in 1992 at Moore's Ridge Cemetery

My Family in the Civil War, Part Eight: Edward and Susannah Moore and Plotting Land Records

This is the eighth in a series on my Civil War ancestors

Edward Windsor and Susannah Bryant Moore

I will share a few search tips today, along with the family info.

Edward and Susannah were married in Orange County, Indiana September 4, 1823 by John Moore, a Justice of the Peace. This was probably Edward's older brother, who also settled in Orange County.

Orange County, Indiana Marriage Records

I don't know their exact whereabouts before 1838. They were in Orange County up until then except for a brief visit to Illinois where other family had gone. It appears they liked Orange County better and came back.

On September 1, 1838, Edward Windsor Moore (and this is the only time I can recall him spelling out the Windsor) purchased 40 acres of land. 

Edward Moore Land Patent 1838

I found this document on Ancestry, but you can search land records free on the Bureau of Land Management's site, General Land Office Records. I typed in Moore, Edward, Indiana, and Orange County. It gave me a list of properties fitting these criteria. By clicking on the icon next to mine, I could view this exact same document at no charge.

Handwritten into the form is the property description. Happily, Indiana uses the Township and Range system.  It looks like a lot of mumbo jumbo, but if you parse it out, you can go look at this property as it appears today on Google Earth. Want to see it, or some property your ancestors owned?

First, have your property description handy. Then go to this site, Earth Point. This is another free site. Down the menu bar on the left, in the section called Township & Range, click on Search by Description. Fill in all the drop-down menu choices there, then click Fly To On Google Earth. (By the way, Google Earth is also free, and can be lots of fun to mess around with.) I'll show you what I got for Edward's land description. First, a general overview showing his 40 acres in purple. The town of French Lick is nearby to get your bearings.

Edward Moore's 40 acres  at T1N R2W Section 14

Now to zoom in a little.

Edward Moore's 40 acres zoomed in

And finally, I wanted to see where this property was in relation to Moore's Ridge Church and Cemetery. I typed "Moores Ridge Cemetery" into Google Earth and got this picture.

Edward Moore's 40 acres relative to Moore's Ridge Cemetery

The property is outlined in purple. The church is the little yellow symbol near the bottom right. You might see the church, and the cemetery stretches out to the east of it. I am related in some way to nearly every person there. Susannah's grandmother is believed to the first person buried there.

Grave of Sarah Barbara Thrush Alspaugh Crout at Moore's Ridge Cemetery

And how did I get these pictures? When you are satisfied with what you have on the screen in Google Earth, go to the File menu, down to Save, then select Save Image. It will put a little .jpg on your computer for you. Tada!

I've spent a lot of time with using the land records here, so let me briefly describe the Moore family when they got this land. Edward was nearly 36, Susannah 34. They had six children living with them on their farm, including Sarah age 14, Barbara age 10, William Bryant age 8 (my ancestor), Martha age 6, Edward age 4, and Clarissa age 1.  They had already buried their firstborn son, John. He had died in 1832 at age 6. I learned from the pension file that they pretty much lived on what the farm produced with little extra to sell, like many families at that time.

More on the family before the war next time.

My Family in the Civil War, Part Seven: Edward and Susannah Moore, Beginnings

This is the seventh in a series on my Civil War ancestors.

Edward Windsor and Susannah Bryant Moore

On my recent genealogy road trip, I was primarily researching family on my father's side. However, I had recently discovered the existence of the Civil War pension file of Susannah Moore. She applied for a mother's pension, the first I'd ever heard of. I put this one at the top of my list to secure at the National Archives.

Index to Civil War Pension Files for Bartlett C. Moore, see source 1 below

What I learned from this file, along with my other research, is a story I have to tell before I can even begin to work on my father's material.

This is the story of Edward and Susannah Bryant Moore, my great great great great grandparents. It concerns mostly the last half of their lives, but I'll outline what I know about their earlier years today.

Edward Windsor Moore was born October 17th 1802 in Guilford County, North Carolina to Edward W. and Pheriba Moore, the sixth of nine known children.  At this time, the Indiana Territory had recently been carved out of the Northwest Territory. 

Sometime before 1812 (when the father Edward appears on a militia list in Harrison County, Indiana Territory) the Moore family moved, along with several other North Carolina families, to the area that would later be called Orange County, Indiana.  They lived for some time at Moore Fort, which was a log block house surrounded by a deep ditch. Just inside the ditch was a row of posts set into the ground pointing out over the ditch.  There were still some Indians in the area, and sometimes early settlers would have to shelter at this and other forts nearby. 

Edward W. Moore, the father, received a land grant in 1816 for 80 acres. He and Pheriba lived there until they sold the property in 1833. They moved to Illinois for a time where some of their other children had gone, then on to Parke County, Indiana, where they lived out the remainder of their lives. Their story is for another day though.

Edward Windsor Moore married Susannah Bryant on September 24th, 1823. He was almost 21, and she was 19. She was born July 25th, 1804, the daughter of William Bryant and Barbara Alspaugh. The Bryants came to Orange County from Lincoln County, Kentucky. 

Like any diligent genealogist, I'd found all the census records for the Moores. I recorded the names and birthdates for all their 13 children from a family Bible transcript. I knew Edward was a Methodist minister in Orleans, Indiana. I also knew that he and Susannah had lost some sons in the Civil War. I thought I had a pretty good picture of them in my mind's eye. A nice old preacher and his wife, probably fairly well off living out their days in town in Orleans after farming in their early years.

What I found in the pension file painted a far different picture.

Next post I will discuss Edward and Susanna's life before the Civil War.

____________________________________________________________
Sources:
1. National Archives and Records Administration. U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Original data: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. T288, 546 rolls.
2. "History of Lawrence, Orange and Washington Counties Indiana"

Back in the Saddle Again, Via My Genealogy Road Trip

It's been over a year since I blogged about genealogy. At least, that's how it looks. I've been actively researching all this past year and have written at least 50 posts...in my mind.

Last fall, I attended a family reunion and connected with a cousin who shares my love of our family's history. I showed her what photos I had of the family on Google drive. She inherited her grandmother's (my uncle's wife) collection of photos, which she promised to share with me in the future.

A few months ago, I decided to take a trip over spring break to do some research, something I hadn't done in over a decade.  On a whim, I invited my cousin to join me, and was delighted when she said she could.

Now, this trip created enough material for a year or two of posts, which I will get to eventually. We traveled six days, over 1200 miles, through seven states. We visited cemeteries, courthouses, libraries and geocaches. We photographed and photocopied hundreds of documents which will take months to go through.

But the most amazing find of all? It was only 30 minutes from my house the whole time. I'd even seen it before but didn't know what I was looking at.

Vaughn Hilyard age 4

This is my grandfather and namesake, Vaughn Hilyard. He's four years old. I've got dozens of wonderful pictures of him. This one is nice because it's probably one of him at his youngest. He's the little boy in the banner picture for this blog.

But look on the wall behind him. Wonder who that could be? Let's flip the picture over.

Vaughn Hilyard age 4 reverse

I know it's hard to see. Let me help you. The bottom reads "Vaughn Hilyard 4 years old." Now what's that at the top? Tilt it a little...there it is: "Grandpa Hilyards picture."

Friends and family, I want to introduce you to Vaughn's grandfather, and my great-great grandfather, Thomas Hilyard. I wrote about his time in the Civil War,  He died in 1882 from tuberculosis he contracted while serving in the war. I had abandoned all hope of ever seeing a picture of him, but there it is, the size of a postage stamp and clearly labeled by my wonderful great grandmother. Here's a better look:

Thomas Hilyard  1840+1882
Grandfather of Vaughn Hilyard

My cousin had this picture in her box of photos she inherited from her grandmother. I'd even seen it on her Ancestry page. But on the last night of our journey, at a hotel in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the county where Thomas's great-grandfather settled, I realized what I was looking at. It might have been the best find of all.

I hope to share more from our trip soon.