Families at war (Article 126)

During World War II, the United States Military, for the first time, faced public pressure to not put several brothers together in harm’s way. When the five Sullivan brothers all perished in 1942 while serving on the U.S.S. Juneau, which was sunk by Japanese submarines, Generals and Admirals were forced to amend their policies. Actually the Navy had an advisory policy to inform enlistees that multiple family members should consider not serving on the same ship, but the Sulivan brothers wanted to serve with each other. For many Naval officers until then, if there was any thought given to brothers (or fathers and sons) serving together, it was believed to be good for morale or that they could watch out for each other. But no concern was given to the mothers and wives who would suffer multiple tragedies from which they might not ever recover. A side note to this tragedy was that the brothers decided to enlist because the husband of their sister had died on the U.S.S. Arizona during the attack at Pearl Harbor. The grief from the loss of these five men combined with the husband’s death earlier must have been unimaginable for their mother and sister.

During the Civil War (and probably most earlier and later conflicts) it was common for multiple family members to serve in either the Union and Confederate militaries, and for some to even serve in the same units. Since entire regiments in the two armies were raised in local communities and counties, often the recruited soldiers were connected by family (fathers, sons, cousins) or they at least knew each other.

Many of the new soldiers realized that they should not serve in the same units as their fathers or brothers, however, they still wanted to serve. So numerous families had multiple members serving at the same time, many at great risk, but just on different fronts. But while the death of even one family member in battle is deeply tragic for any family, the loss of multiple members must lead to compounded despair for those remaining, and those family were subject to that greater risk.

In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was told that a mother in Massachusetts had lost five sons in battle for the Union. Although, it would be learned later that two had actually been killed in action, while three were unaccounted for at the time but survived, neither President Lincoln, nor the mother, knew there would later be some better news. Here is the letter, he felt compelled to write:

To Mrs. Lydia Bixby

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln.

(That letter was highlighted in the movie “Saving Private Ryan” which told the fictional story of the search to find and return home a young soldier whose three brothers had been killed in action.)

But there were many, many families during the Civil War, from both sides, who watched large contingents of their fathers, sons and brothers march off to war, and who learned later that some of them would not be coming home.

These are only a few such stories of real families who faced this hardship.

Five brothers of the Shaver family served the Confederacy in Tennessee units, and two were killed in action and another spent two years in a Union Prison camp. These were rural farmers, who did not own slaves to work their fields, so the women and younger boys were left to handle the hard work without them. Actually, that was a story of numerous families throughout the South. Many of those farms failed because there wasn’t sufficient help to plant, maintain, and harvest crops or because the women and children could not defend against marauding soldiers from both armies who would steal crops and animals.

Eleven members of the Hershey Family from Keytesville, Missouri, served in the Confederate Army (several served as sharpshooters, snipers in today’s parlance) and everyone of them survived the war. With a casualty rate of over 15% for both sides, having all eleven come home was nothing short of a miracle.

Then there were the “Fighting McCooks” of Carrollton, Ohio. Two brothers, both in their sixties at the time, Dan and John Cook, and their fifteen sons joined the Union Army, although only three sets of younger brothers served together in the same unit. Six members of the family became Generals, and all but two became officers. Five of the men were killed in action or died while in service. Some historians credit the McCook family with having the largest number from any one family to serve in that war, but this writer is not so certain and suspects that some families, especially in the rural south, may have had more members in service to the Confederacy. While neither army kept the type of meticulous records we are familiar with today, clearly, the Confederate Army was the worse of the two, making it impossible to use enlistment records to compile a list of all family members who may have served. As alternatives, old letters, newspaper stories, and family lore, contributed to the knowledge available today.

On a personal note, in the Dorris family, my great grandfather (Josiah M. Dorris), two of his brothers, and five of his cousins, all joined the Union Army, in the same Illinois regiment, in Williamson County. All came home!

And, although not as common as multiple members of the same family serving in the same Army, there were also those family tragedies where there were divided loyalties between the Union and Confederate causes. In these cases, we find fathers against sons and brothers against brothers, perhaps the saddest family situation when Civil War erupts. Another future article will describe some of these families’ turmoil.

A short essay such as this cannot list all families who suffered the absence, and sometimes loss, of multiple family members in the war between the states. So, these are only a few examples.

If any readers have other similar stories from their Civil War ancestors, especially if they had divided loyalties and served separate causes, please let me know.