Alfred Mathews and my new cousins

The other day I made an interesting connection through the blog. A fellow researcher had found the grave site of Alfred Edward Mathews, a Civil War artist I've blogged about previously (here, here and here). To refresh your memory I first came across Mathews when studying the 14th Wisconsin at Shiloh. Mathews made a sketch of them capturing a battery and I used him as a source for the event and location (though location was hard to pinpoint). But there were always mysteries with his story, for one thing he shouldn't have been at Shiloh but over the course of years researching this I've come to the conclusion that Mathews was never with his regiment and believe he really was at Shiloh, getting there a few days ahead of his regiment.

Mathews continued in the Western Theater as an artist and his drawings were considered highly accurate by the people who had been there. General Ulysses S. Grant personally commended him for his battle sketches, illustrations, panoramic depictions of the War in the deep South, and topographical work. On August 9th, 1863 Grant wrote Mathews, “I have examined the lithographs of views taken by you of the ‘Siege of Vicksburg,’ and do not hesitate to pronounce them among the most accurate and true to life I have ever seen. They reflect great credit upon you as a delineator of landscape views.” When Mathews later toured the country with his lithographs he carried endorsements from Generals Thomas, Sherman, Logan, Rosecrans, Pope and McPherson, as well as Grant.

The park service has one of his drawings as a plaque in the Stones River national cemetery as he depicted the action of the battle that occurred on that ground. They also sell two of his lithographs in the park store (or at least they did when I last toured Stones River, they may sell more or none now).

I also found it interesting that after the war he toured the West (what the Civil War crowd might call the Far West, Colorado, Wyoming, etc) and did many more sketches. He lived in Colorado for most of the rest of his life until his death in 1874. What I didn't include in my other posts because it wasn't necessary for the story is that his final resting place is a bit uncertain. He was initially buried near where he had been working on a fish hatchery along the Big Thompson River. One story then had the Loveland GAR post moving his remains to a cemetery in that city around 1882, and for some reason his grave is not marked there.

Another story had his remains remaining in the Big Thompson Canyon until 1939 when a highway work crew unearthed his body. For some reason one of the workers took the skull home and returned it later but he could not find the casket so he buried it in the vicinity. One aspect of this story is the claim that his head is one one side of the highway and his body on the other side, though I would imagine the worker would have remembered what side of the highway the body was buried at and would have at least gotten the head on that side of the road.

The 1961 biography I read suggested that the Loveland GAR story was correct as the sources there were from credible men (state politicians and high ranking GAR officers). The author, Nolie Mumey, did not explain why the highway story did not make as much sense instead saying that it was a mystery and either story could be correct. And that's what I believed, that Mathews could be in either place. If thinking critically I guess I'd have to say that the highway story seems more correct to me as why wouldn't the Loveland GAR mark the grave? They were prompted to rebury him because of a story about the sad shape of his original resting place so since they knew who they were going after it would have been easy enough to mark his grave. Its not like they suddenly came upon an unidentified soldier. But I pretty much left the mystery alone.

And then the other day I got an email through the blog (you'll see it in the comments section on one of the posts) from a Susan Kniebes saying that she had found the grave. Over the next few days she sent me more info about the grave, including a picture and GPS coordinates. Susan and her husband Duane are working on with the Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies and the U.S. Geologic Survey to find, GPS pinpoint, and document all of the graves in Colorado. They are covering Larimer County burials. They have also turned this into a book project where they give more background of the individuals and other items of interest in the area. For example Mathews was buried near the old Mont Rose Inn's orchard so they included info about the Mont Rose Inn in their chapter.

After a few days of corresponding with them I asked if they might know more about the Kniebes family. My great great great grandmother was Elizabeth Kniebes. I only have info about her parents and a brother. Duane responded that two Kniebes families came from Zusch, Germany in 1840. One settled in southwest Michigan (his family) and the other went to Wisconsin (which could be mine as the time and location is right). So in a weird twist of fate two cousins separated by several generations ended up in Colorado and both connected with a Civil War soldier and artist that neither has any other connection to.

Duane also informed me that the grave was located in such a spot, and unmarked, that if the land owner decided to build there the grave would be easily destroyed through no fault of the landowner. He would think he was building his garage in a nice spot and never know he had built it over a grave. Which got us started on trying to properly mark Mathews grave.

Of course this raises the issue of where is he really buried. My new cousins are already running with the ball and have contacted the Loveland cemeteries to see if they have records from 1882 indicating Mathews reburial there and have also contacted a historical society that has the GAR posts' records in hopes that maybe something there reveals the truth. Also I'm sure there will be a search of Loveland newspapers from 1882 as it seems like something they would have reported on. If he's already in Loveland then its as simple as getting a headstone from the VA.

If it appears that Mathews is still in Big Thompson Canyon then we can get a headstone for the spot he is now. The landowner has been contacted and apparently is fine with having a Civil War grave on their property. So as long as we can determine Mathews is still there then we can get the VA to provide a headstone.

As far as I know there is little at the canyon site to confirm its Mathews. We know the casket found in 1939 was oak and should be missing a head. But I do not recall reading if Mathews was buried in an oak casket. The 1939 story didn't mention any clothing and we do know generally what Mathews was buried in so that might solve it. But all that involves a lot of digging which might not actually have anything in the hole. And if we find the casket we might only be able to confirm that the head is missing.

One potential source for solving the mystery is that in 1884 the Loveland GAR post ordered one of its members to correspond with Charles Mathews, Alfred's brother in Ohio who was editor of the Ohio Democrat. Perhaps the correspondence is in the GAR post's file or maybe its in a collection in Ohio (private or public). I'm hoping that the GAR files have the info we need. Even if they admit that they could not find him in 1882 it would point to the canyon site as the right spot. Of course if they say they found him but were short of funds for a proper headstone then they probably would indicate where they had buried him.

I imagine this is going to be a lengthy process, chiefly because we first need to confirm where he is really buried but I'll update the progress here from time to time.

Veterans Day

I would like to thank all of our veterans who have protected us through our great history. As a Civil War buff and blogger I deal with soldiers every day. Whether that's reading about what they did in their own words or by others, or looking at the battlefields that they fought on, and many other ways.

I had a few relatives who fought in the Civil War.

Jacob Goll, 24th Wisconsin, Co. C. Enlisted 1 August 1862. Murdered 25 October 1864 at Marietta, GA.

Friedrich Goehring, 9th Wisconsin, Co. A. Enlisted 17 September 1861. Mustered out 3 December 1864.

Frederick Illian, 37th Wisconsin, Co. G. Drafted 21 October 1864. Mustered out 27 July 1865.

Henry Kneibes, 6th Wisconsin, Co. I. Drafted 21 October 1864. Mustered out 14 July 1865.

Peter Reis, 107th Ohio, Co. F. Enlisted 22 August 1862. Died 10 July 1863 of wounds received at Gettysburg on July 2nd.

My connection to Peter Reis is not direct. My dad's mother was Luella Goll, her mother was Caroline Illian, and her father was Lewis Illian. Lewis' father was Friederich Illian, the same Illian listed above in the 37th Wisconsin. At that same time his brother-in-law, Heinrich Kniebes was also drafted and served in the 6th Wisconsin. Both men were 44 years old and lived on the same farm (owned by Friederich Illian). Friederich's mother and father in law also lived on the farm and when he was drafted were probably a big help to Friederich's wife, who had seven children aged 15 years to 14 months old to take care of. One of Friederich's daughters, Catherine, married Wilhelm Reinheimer. Wilhelm's aunt Elisabeth was married to Peter Reis. Like I said the relation is not direct at all but a line can still be traced.

Additionally, Robert Meisinger (my grandfather) served on the USS Hope and USS Thistle during WW2. His father Louis served in the 150th Machinegun Battalion (Rainbow Division) in WW1. My GG Uncle Alexander Kurtz was in the Coastal Artillery in WW1 headed to Europe when a submarine sunk his troop transport ship and he was killed. A few years my uncle gave me Alexander's hunting shotgun and one of Alexanders' brothers engraved the stock with the particulars of his death.

I also have veterans who did not see war service. John Kurtz, my great grandfather and Alexander's brother, served in the Wisconsin National Guard during WW1. My father, Gary Kurtz, served in the Colorado National Guard (originally enlisting in the Wisconsin National Guard) for over 20 years. Part of his unit was sent to the Persian Gulf the first time around but luckily he was not.

More on the 107th Ohio

Last night I got some time to do some reading on the 107th Ohio at Gettysburg, specifically on July 2nd. As I suspected they were in the Cemetery Hill area. In fact they were at the very northern tip of the line, Ames brigade formed a salient. They were attacked by Hays Brigade in the evening assault and were pushed back to a stone wall near Wiedrich's Battery (Battery I of the 1st New York Artillery).

Ames brigade had been positioned poorly, or maybe they just didn't have the men to form the position properly. At any rate when they were attacked their initial line crumpled. There was a bit of a gap in the brigade line which the Confederates were able to exploit. After falling back from this initial position they held their position at the stone wall and while it was a close affair they were not routed any further. During this fighting the 107th Ohio captured the 8th Louisiana's flag. This was the end of the main fighting for the 107th Ohio. They did some small skirmishing with Confederates in town on July 3rd but this was minor. Over the three days of battle they lost 23 killed, 111 wounded and 77 missing. A captain was the senior officer remaining and his report is a model of brevity. Basically he says they were engaged each day for a certain number of hours and that the fighting was severe. He gives very few details as to where they were or who was on their flanks.

Finally some clarification on how I'm related to Peter Reis. My dad's mother was Luella Goll, her mother was Caroline Illian, and her father was Lewis Illian. Lewis' father was Friederich Illian. Friederich was drafted in 1864 to serve in the 37th Wisconsin. At that same time his brother-in-law, Heinrich Kniebes was also drafted and served in the 6th Wisconsin. Both men were 44 years old and lived on the same farm. Friederich's mother and father in law also lived on the farm and when he was drafted were probably a big help to Friederich's wife, who had seven children aged 15 years to 14 months old to take care of. One of Friederich's daughters, Catherine married Wilhelm Reinheimer. Wilhelm's aunt Elisabeth was married to Peter Reis. Like I said yesterday, the relation is not direct at all but a line can still be traced.

Incidentally Wilhelm's uncles Jacob and Wilhelm were members of the Sandusky Schutzenverein (Rifle Club) founded in 1861. I don't know if the Sandusky Schutzenverein became a company in a regiment but these men did not serve in the army as both were in their 40s when the war began.

Here is a picture of Catherine Illian (my great-something aunt) and William Reinheimer with their three living children, William F., Cora, and Elmer (I believe that is the order from left to right). A fourth child, Elenor died at the age of 4 months.

107th Ohio

I recently found out I had a relative in the 107th Ohio. He was Peter Reis (Reiss) and served in company F of the 107th Ohio. The relation is not direct. His wife was the sister of the man who married one of my great(something) aunts. But relation is relation, I find it fascinating. Interestingly too his first wife (my connection) died in October 1854 and he remarried in December 1854 and his second wife was Martha Elisabeth Brazel. One of my friend's last names is Brazell, wonder if there is a connection there, that would be spooky.

Peter Reis enlisted on August 22, 1862 for 3 years. He was 39 years old. Their first combat was at Chancellorsville as part of the 11th Corps. At Gettysburg, on July 2nd, Peter was wounded. He would die eight days later from those wounds. What the wounds were I'm not sure. Since I found out about him I haven't even looked thru the OR to see where they were on the 2nd. Their monument is on Barlow Knoll and I'd guess that on the 2nd they were in the Cemetery Hill vicinity. I looked thru the Roll of Honor and if he was buried in the national cemetery he is in an unknown grave. I found a regimental history, reprinted in 2000, and have requested that from my local library. I thought this was interesting too because all my family is from Wisconsin. I have relatives in the 6th, 9th, 24th and 37th Wisconsin; and now I can add the 107th Ohio to the list.