Civil War Family History

There is a story that my maternal Aunt tells about one of my Grandfathers being a doctor during the Civil War. So, since I have been working on my Ancestry for a few years now, I thought I would try to find this Grandfather. No luck! What I did find was my Great Great Great Step-grandfather John Hysell and my Great Great Grandfather Eli Russell.

Eli was born in 1834 to Robert and Nancy Russell. My Great Great Great Grandfather Robert died in 1845 at the age of 43, leaving behind a wife and 8 kids. The oldest boy, and their 4th child, was Eli at 9 years old. The next time I found Eli in the National Census was in 1850 when he was 16 and living with his Mom, Nancy, and Stepfather John Hysell, a man about 8 years her junior. Go, Great Great Great Grandma Nancy!

My Great Great Great Step-grandfather, John Hysell, enlisted into the 75th Regiment, H company, of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry on November 7, 1861 to fight in the Union Army, and was to serve 3 years. He was 40 years old at the time. At this time, and until the Enrollment Act or Civil War Military Draft Act was enacted on March 3, 1863, the Union Army was an all volunteer army.

On May 8 1862 John fought in the Battle of McDowell, which was also know as the Battle at Sitlington's Hill. This battle was a loss for the two Union Army brigades of Major General Fremont's, lead by Brig General Schnek and General Milroy. John was under the command of Milroy during this battle.

This is a map from the Civil War Preservation Trust showing the location of the battle and the troop. John Hysell was in one of the two groups I have circled in red.

In the battle of McDowell/ Sitlington's Hill the Union soldiers pressed forward towards Confederate troops lead by Stonewall Jackson, who had twice as many men, and controlled the higher ground. Milroy drove his troops up the hill to engage the Confederates and after four hours, from about 4:30 in the afternoon until about 8:30 PM, of intense fighting the Union troops retreated back to the town of McDowell.

Current picture of the battle location.

Across the road in the pasture was where the Union forces had their camp in plain view of the Confederate forces on the hill in the back of the picture. The Union troops moved to safer ground.

John was in one of the companies that went up the hill first and he died from wounds he received during that battle. He was only a Union soldier for 6 months. I was unable to find his final resting place, so I am assuming that he was buried in a marked mass grave on the battlefield.

This may be the only headstone marking my Great Great Great Step Grandfather's final resting place.

My Great Great Great Grandmother Nancy Russell Hysell was widowed once again.

My Great Great Grandfather Eli married Mary Hesslop in 1854, and had 5 kids, when he enlisted into the 91st Regiment, H company of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry on Aug 8, 1862. I can only imagine how hard it was for Mary being left behind with babies of ages ranging from infant to seven years old. Not to mention that Nancy, his mother, must have been beside herself with worry seeing a son go off to war just a few months after losing her husband to that same war.

In May of 1864 my Grandfather Eli, well into his second year of service, was one of 6100 soldiers serving under General George Crook.  Among the soldiers from Ohio in this group were two future presidents, Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes and Major William McKinley. My Grandfather Eli served with these two men.

This plaque was originally dedicated in 1939 and attached to a boulder that was later moved when the road where it was located was widened. Then the plaque was missing for over 40 years. Someone saw it for sale on the Internet in 2014 after a new plaque was already made,  purchased and attached to a boulder at the battlefield location in time for the 150 anniversary of the Civil War. The original plaque will be displayed in Pulaski County Courthouse.

The union army was working their way through western Virginia destroying salt mines, lead mines and railroads. They also were trying to draw the Confederates away from western Virginia. There were a few Confederate units left in the area led by Confederate Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins who set up a defensive position in Pulaski County at Cloyd's Mountain.

An Original drawing of the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain  from the Virginia Historical Society.

This is a picture taken in the 1970s of the same location in the drawing above.

On May 9, 1864 at about 9 AM some small skirmishes started at Cloyd's Mountain, and Crook recognized that the Rebel position was too strong for a frontal assault. Crook decided to instead strike from the right flank of the Rebels position.

Map of the troop locations from the book "The Battle of Cloyds Mountain, The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad Raid" by Howard Rollins McManus. Eli was in the group of 91st Ohio soldiers in the far right side of the map.

 The battled started at about 11 AM and lasted only one hour. This battle was exceptionally violent because most of the fighting was hand to hand combat. Some soldiers stated that it was not the greatest, or most important battle of the war, but for fierce and deadly intensity Cloyd's Mountain exceeded them all. If the fighting was not violent enough, gunfire ignited dry leaves on the battlefield starting a fire that burned everything and everyone in its path. Many active and wounded soldiers were burned to death in this fire. Among the wounded that escaped the fire was the Confederate leader Jenkins. He died later of complications from having his arm amputated.  Some stories say that the bandages came loose, or were knocked off by a medical assistant, from his arm and he bled to death. I am not sure if that story is true, but it certainly was possible.

Historical marker at Cloyd's Mountain.

 The Union was victorious at Cloyd's Mountain, but casualties for both sides were extremely high for the small size of the troops involved. Eli was wounded in this battle. He must have been treated and eventually returned to duty, because he was not mustered out of service until June of 1865.

It was a miracle that he survived the war to begin with, but especially after being wounded.  Of the estimated 620,000 men that died in the Civil War, most were not from battle wounds. About 413,000 died from diseases, of which the number one killer was dysentery.  If trying to survive the enemy was not enough soldiers had to worry about Typhoid, Ague (swamp fever), Yellow Fever, Malaria, Scurvy, Pneumonia, Tuberculosis, Smallpox, Chicken Pox, Scarlet Fever, Measles, Mumps and Whooping Cough. The soldiers had to contend with many issues that contributed to the spread of disease like, poor hygiene, garbage in the camps, contaminated water supplies, overcrowding, exposure, spoiled food, bugs, and lack of medical personnel. I had a Great Great Grandfather named Adam Swinehart that was in the Ohio 176 Infantry for about 10 months at the end of the war. His unit was stationed as a sort of guard unit in Nashville. Adam's company saw no action yet they lost 102 men, all to disease.

House used as a Field Hospital for the battle of McDowell.

Eli was lucky to not have contracted a disease, but even more lucky that the treatment of his wounds in battle did not kill him. Eli was also lucky that he was wounded closer to the end of the war because the medical staff of the Union army was increased and improved over the years of the war. In late 1862 there was finally a type of ambulance system put in place. Men were treated close to the fighting, the wounds were packed with lint (scraped from linen fabric), bandaged as best they could, given morphine for pain, maybe given some whiskey for shock and then taken by "ambulance" to a field hospital. This would have been in a nearby tent, barn or house. If you made it that far you then were treated by someone who may, or may not have had any medical training, or someone who just "considered" themselves a physician. Many doctors worked with a copy of a military surgery manual to use for directions as they treated soldiers.

House used at Cloyd's Farm as a Field Hospital.

Many Civil War doctors did not understand germs, or how they were spread. Many thought pus was a positive sign and were not very careful to not spread the infection from one wounded man to another. Instruments were not sterilized and surgeons did not wash up between patients. Most of the soldiers wounds were to the arms or legs, and the surgeons believed that the best chance of the soldiers survival was to amputate.

I am not sure of the exact wound my Great Great Grandfather Eli sustained, but from pictures of him after the war where he is holding a cane, I am guessing he was wounded in the leg. Eli was that lucky one in four that survived the war, and even luckier to have survived his wound. Above all he returned home to his family that grew to 12 kids, and to his mother Nancy who had already suffered so much loss.

Great Great Grandfather Eli B. Russell

I may not have found the elusive Grandfather that was a doctor in the Civil War, but I did find a Great Great Great Step-Grandfather and Great Great Grandfather that in my eyes were Civil War Heroes! Both volunteered to serve in this countries deadliest war to fight for a cause they believed in. One gave his life for that cause, and the other was wounded in one of the most brutal battles of the war. Both of these Grandfather's stories make me proud to be their Granddaughter.