A Few of My Military Ancestors and Relatives

As part of my Veterans Day / Remembrance Day tribute, I'd like to list some information on a few of my ancestors and relations who served in the military.

Donald R. Andrus, 5th cousin3 times removed. Born April 19, 1917 in New York. Served in the United States Army from February 21, 1950 to August 31, 1975. Served in the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. Died in Coos Bay, Coos County, Oregon on May 10, 2001. Buried at Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, California.

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Charles Gordon Dence, 3rd cousin 3 times removed. Born April 11, 1916 in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio. Served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from October 30, 1942 to March 12, 1945. Died March 29, 1991 in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio. Burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.
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Jonathan Everett, 6th great-grandfather(Jonathan Everett, Daniel Everett, Pedda Everett, Ira Austin, William Dence Austin, John Ralph Austin, Alfred Austin Sr., A.J. Austin, Jacqueline Austin). Born August 3, 1717 in Dedham, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Married Jemima Mann September 5, 1744. Fought in the American Revolution specifically at one of the very first battles of the War:

“He was a minute man from Wrentham, in Oliver Pond's Company, which marched on the Lexington alarm of April 19, 1775; and he also served in the same company from September to December of that year.” (Everett, Edward Franklin, Descendants of Richard Everett of Dedham, MA, (Boston, MA: 1902 (privately published)), p. 50.)

Jonathan Everett died in Wrentham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts on December 15, 1796.

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Edward George Henneberg, great uncle. Born August 8, 1923 in the Bronx, Bronx County, New York. Served in the United States Army, enlisted March 4, 1943 during World War II. Died February 14, 2004 in Sparta, Alleghany County, North Carolina.

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Cornelius Putman, 2nd cousin 5 times removed. Born April 25, 1841 in South Valley, Cattaraugus County, New York.

“During the War of the Rebellion, he enlisted in Company I of the 152 New York regiment (infantry), and served his country for three years as a soldier. He participated in the following engagements while in the service: Battles of the Wilderness, Bald Knob, Beans Station, Petersburg, Rocky Faced Ridge, Vicksburg and Gettysburg. After his term of enlistment expired, and having received honorable discharge from the army, returned to his home in Otsego, New York.” (Putman, George W., Genealogy of David Putman and His Descendants (Private publication, 1916), copied owned by Thomas MacEntee, Chicago, IL, p. 10-11.)

Married Nancy L. Burnette on March 13, 1866. Death date and location unknown.

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Francis Cornelius Putman, 1st cousin, 8 times removed. Born May 4, 1752 in Mohawk, Herkimer County, New York.

“ . . .a soldier of the Revolution, who was a member of a mixed company of Mohawk Indians and Dutch farmers, and who became Captain of his company by reason of having, with two companions, captured a company of British soldiers who were making a raid by night to procure cattle for beef supplies for Burgoyne's army. The three men hid in a tree at the bars of the field where the cattle were pastured." (Source unknown – based on Family Lore (of the descendants of Thomas Borne) written by Jim Burns.)

Francis was a Lieutenant in the Revolution, serving under Captains Jacob Gardinier and Harmanus Mabie, and Col. Frederick Fischer; he was in the battle of Oriskany, at the taking of Burgoyne, and in the battles of Stone Arabia and Johnstown; length of service was about three months.

Married Maria Hansen Fonda on December 28, 1777 at Caughnawaga, Montgomery County, New York. After the Revolution, he and wife Maria ran a hotel in Tribes Hill for fifty-six years. He received a pension in 1832. Died November 23, 1834 at Tribes Hill, Montgomery County, New York.

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Peter Putman, 1st cousin, 6 times removed. Born September 4, 1834 at Cayuga County, New York.

"On July 15, 1861, after the opening of the Civil War, we enlisted in the 5th IA regiment (infantry), Co. C. and went to the front. After his term of enlistment expired and having passed through all the dangers of war, he reenlisted at Larkinsburg, Ala., in 1864, and remained in the service until the last battle was fought and the Confederate army surrendered. The following are a part of the engagements in which he participated during his service in the Rebellion: The battles of Corinth, Miss, New Madrid, Miss., Hamburg, Miss., Iuka, Tenn., Yazoo Pass, Miss., Champion Hill, Siege of Vicksburg, Nashville, Tenn., Selma, Ala., Montgomery, Ga., and Macon, Ga., where they had three battles on Wilson's raid and also a battle at Franklin, Tenn." (Genealogy of David Putman and His Descendants, p. 40-41.)

Married Alice S. Teague on February 17, 1866 at Fairbank, Buchanan County, Iowa. Death date and location unknown.

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Kenneth Von Ronn, cousin 1 time removed. Born September 29, 1984 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Served as a Sergeant in the Army, Company D, 101 St. Cavalry, Newburgh, New York, assigned to the 69th Infantry Regiment of the Army National Guard in Manhattan, known as the Fighting 69th. Died on January 6, 2005 in Baghdad, Iraq. Burial at Sullivan County Veterans Cemetery, Liberty, New York.

© 2010, copyright Thomas MacEntee

Who Are The 67 Bodies of Fort Craig?

Late last evening, I came across an interesting story(1) on the AP newswire concerning the exhumation of 67 bodies which was done in secret by federal archaelogists near Fort Craig, New Mexico.

It appears that some graves had already been looted over the course of several years, mainly for the Civil War artifacts they contained. The archaeologists, working for the Bureau of Land Reclamation, came upon scores of empty graves, 20 of which had been looted.

At first I thought it odd that there would be Civil War artifacts buried at Fort Craig which is in Socorro County, New Mexico, but upon further research it makes sense. Many of the bodies buried at Fort Craig undoubtedly either fought at the Battle of Valverde (February 20-21, 1862) or had served in other locations back East. After the Civil War, many of the men who chose to remain in the military were stationed "Out West" at various outposts in what is now Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. This was part of the "Indian Campaigns" in various territories with purpose of containing Indian raids on new settlements.

No doubt the identification process for the 67 bodies will take years, and information such as census data for Fort Craig may be used. In my preliminary search of the censuses for the period 1860 - 1880 (Fort Craig was abandoned by the military in 1885), I found that the makeup of the residents changed quite a bit during that 20 year period.

In the 1860 census, there are 199 residents and the overwhelming majority of them are of Spanish or Mexican descent judging from the surnames listed. For this census, it appears that both Valverde and Fort Craig are used as towns to list the residents of Fort Craig.(2)

In the 1870 census, there are 239 people listed in Valverde with no Fort Craig listed at all in the data. In addition, almost all the names are of Hispanic descent which leads me to believe that while the military still had a presence at Fort Craig until 1885, the data for the military families must be listed either at one of the other forts (Bascom maybe?) or by the precinct number.(3)

In the 1880 census, there are many more surnames matching Roberts, Gardner, and Williams with many of the residents having been born in New York, Vermont and Illinois. Some of those born in the New Mexico Territory do not have Hispanic surnames leading me to believe that they were born there in the Valverde/Fort Craig area. The 1880 census lists a total of 141 residents of just Fort Craig.(4)

Notes:

(1) 67 bodies secretly exhumed from NM grave, Melanie Dabovich, Associate Press article, retrieved on April 9, 2008.

(2) 1860 United States Census, (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed April 9, 2008, citing Census Place: Fort Craig, Socorro, New Mexico Territory; Roll: M653_714.

(3) 1870 United States Census, (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed April 9, 2008, citing Census Place: Census Place: Socorro, Socorro, New Mexico Territory; Roll: M593_896.

(4) 1880 United States Census, (http://www.ancestry.com), accessed April 9, 2008, citing Census Place: Fort Craig, Socorro, New Mexico; Roll: T9_804; Family History Film: 1254804.

John McEntee and Charlie Wright

[This post was written for the 3rd edition of the "Where Were You?" Carnival]

The efforts of the newly-formed Bureau of Military Intelligence (BMI) ensured the Union Army its victory at Gettysburg during the Civil War. But much of the credit goes to a young African-American boy named Charlie Wright who was able to convey highly detailed information as to Confederate troop activities to my ancestor, Lt. Col. John McEntee who is my 1st cousin 4 times removed. (John McEntee is pictured on the far right in the photo above taken April, 1863 near Brandy Station, Virginia)

John McEntee was born on June 23, 1835 in Rondout, New York, the son of Charles McEntee and Christina Tremper(1). At the age of 26, he enlisted at Kingston, New York as a Quartermaster Sergeant on September 24, 1861 and was part of Company S, 80th Infantry Regiment New York. On February 18, 1862 we was promoted to Full 2nd Lieutenant with Company K. On September 22, 1862 he was promoted to Full 1st Lieutenant. On October 5, 1862 he was promoted to Full Captain with Company A.(2)

In the days prior to June 12, 1863, the Union’s Army of the Potomac was trying to determine whether Gen. Robert E. Lee’s troops were on the move north from Culpeper or planning an attack either to the east or northeast. At midday, Gen. Joseph Hooker sent a summary to Gen. John Dix that Lee’s army was stationed along the banks of the Rappahannock near Culpeper and below Fredericksburg, and that Lee’s forces, along with those of Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell, Gen. James Longstreet and Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, had been there for several days.(3)

But Hooker was unable to determine what Lee’s next move would be: stay put, move northward or move eastward. And Lee’s actions to the north or east could have been as a general advance with all his troops, or split into several groups heading out to different routes. On June 12th, John McEntee “. . .found two Negroes who had witnessed the march – one of them a boy, but old enough to carry the organization of the Army of Northern Virginia in his head.”(4)

The boy with the intimate knowledge of Lee’s troops would turn out to be Charlie Wright. It was not until John McEntee had a chance to question Wright in the mid-afternoon of June 12th, that he was able to gather vital information from the boy who had been living in Culpeper for some time: "[he] saw Ewells (Jacksons) corps pass through that place destined for the Valley & Maryland. That Ewells corps had passed the day previous to the fight & that Longstreet was then coming up.”(5)

Now it could be seen that Lee’s forces were actually on the move northward and not stalled at Culpeper or planning an attack to the immediate east.

As was common with these types of interrogations, Wright and another young man were turned over to a different intelligence officer to see if the story could be corroborated. In this second session, not only was the information confirmed, but Wright gave exacting details such as how many days’ rations were cooked, what days the troops marched, etc. In fact, Wright’s knowledge has so good and committed to memory, that some have called him a “walking ‘order of battle’ chart.”(6)

With this information, Hooker determined that Lee’s forces were either going to turn east up through Manassas Gap and threaten Washington or go further north to Philadelphia. In any case, on June 13, Hooker’s forces were on the march in a parallel route to that of Lee who was looking to have his troops shielded by the Blue Ridge Mountains so that he could proceed on course uninterrupted.

Without this valuable information based on Wright’s knowledge, “. . . the pursuit of Lee probably would have been delayed until the force that captured Winchester [in the Second Battle of Winchester] was firmly identified as a major element of Lee’s Army. That could scarcely have been done before the 17th and a pursuit that began that late might not have been able to prevent the enemy from coming through the gaps leaning to Manassas and Washington . . . departure from the Rappahannock was in time to save the army from being off balance for the rest of the campaign and that Lee therefore had a much less free hand than he was striving for.”(7)

Through McEntee’s efforts, and his ability to recognize the value of Wright’s information, the battle at Gettysburg was not just an “accidental collision” of both sides. The Union Army could protect Washington from Lee’s forces and force the Confederates to group at or near Gettysburg.

On December 19, 1864 John McEntee was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was discharged from Company S on April 16, 1866.(8) He died in Kingston on December 19, 1903(9) at the age of seventy-eight. He is buried in Montrepose Cemetery, Kingston, New York next to his wife, Ann Eliza Dibblee.(10)


Photo taken March 10, 2008 at Montrepose Cemetery, Kingston, New York by Thomas MacEntee.

Notes:

(1) 1850 US Census, <http://www.ancestry.com>, accessed March 1, 2008, citing Census Place: Kingston, Ulster, New York; Roll: M432_607; Page: 40; Image: 82.

(2) Fishel, Edwin C., The Secret War for the Union – The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996, p. 293.

(3) Id., p. 437.

(4) Id., p. 535.

(5) Id., p. 438.

(6) Id., p. 444.

(7) Id., p. 535.

(8) Id., p. 293.

(9) "The New York Times," New York, New York, Obituaries, December 21, 1903.

(10) Personal inventory of New Paltz Rural Cemetery on March 10, 2008.