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| (Click images to enlarge) |
According to information found at www.findagrave.com Memorial # 40468536, James Wilbur Michael served as a Private in Company F of the 19th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The following two photos were uploaded to that site by findagrave.com member “James Lee”. James' grave is in the Martin Cemetery in Carroll County, Georgia. The inscription on the monument is as follows:
Pvt. James W. Michael
Co. F, 19th Regiment GA. Volunteers Inf.
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| (Photo by James Lee) |
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| (Photo by James Lee) |
I have yet to find muster roll information for the 19th Georgia Infantry Regiment that includes his name. But I did find what I believe are his Civil War service records on fold3.com. His name is given as “J.W. Michael” in those records and his records include what I believe to be an incorrectly filed record for a “John McMichael” who belonged to Company F of the 10th Georgia Infantry Regiment. It appears to be on that basis that fold3.com identifies these records as belonging to a “John Michael” in the 19th Georgia. But until I can find muster roll information that includes his name, I can’t be completely sure.
As the following images make clear, James spent a lot of time in the hospital from disease and then he survived a head wound received on 13 December 1862. Records have been initially more difficult to find than they were for David Averett and John Jackson so I am not currently certain where he was wounded. However the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia was fought 11—15 December 1862. He was hospitalized at Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond shortly thereafter, which lends weight to my working hypothesis that he was wounded at Fredericksburg.
If James and the 19th Georgia were at Fredericksburg, they were there when David Averett was there with the 15th Alabama Regiment. However, they could not have been aware of each other as they would not become related by marriage until my great-grandparents, William Joseph Jackson (1881—1956) and Monnie Ethel Watts (1885—1985) married forty-six years later in Louisiana on 1 January 1908. William Joseph Jackson was a grandson of James Wilbur Michael and Monnie Ethel Watts Jackson was a granddaughter of David Averett. David Averett didn’t pass away until 1927 so it does not seem unlikely that he would have become aware of James Michael and his war service by the time of their marriage.
James enlisted in the Confederate Army for the duration of the war on 4 March 1862 in Carrollton, Georgia. He first appears in the National Archives Confederate Records Archive on 24 April 1862 and appears for the last time on 22 February 1864. The Carroll County Times newspaper reported on 10 February 1882 that “Mr. James Michael is very low.”
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| (USGenWeb Archives) |
The same newspaper reported on 17 March 1882 that “J.W. Michael, living some three miles west of Carrollton, died last Wednesday from the effects of a wound received in the head, during the war.”
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| (USGenWeb Archives) |
The civil war service records below mention a head wound sustained on 13 December 1862, which tends to confirm that the “J.W. Michael” in the fold3.com records was, in fact, James Wilbur Michael. The date 17 March 1882 fell on a Friday, which means that he died on Wednesday, 15 March 1882.
The following images show the transcribed content of his war service records at the National Archives.
Image 1 of 14
The first image is of the folder containing his service records.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 2 of 14
(Side 1 of 2)
“J.W. Michel [sic: Michael], Pvt. Co. F, 19 Regt Ga. Appears on a Register of Chimborazo Hospital No. 4, Richmond Virginia. Disease: Measles & ("Hern. ing. sing. reduc. is written on the opposite side of the card; see the image below.) Admitted Apr. 24, 1862. Remarks: Lynchburg May 22.” I do not currently know the purpose of the reference to Lynchburg, presumably the city of Lynchburg in Virginia. According to the Encyclopedia Virginia web site:
"On the eve of the American Civil War (1861–1865), Lynchburg was Virginia's sixth-largest city and a major transportation center, with access to the James River and Kanawha Canal, as well as the Virginia and Tennessee, the South Side, and the Orange and Alexandria railroads … During the war, Lynchburg women established the Ladies' Relief Hospital, and the Confederate military made the city a major hub of supplies and transport, which Union troops attempted to disrupt at the Battle of Lynchburg in June 1864."So it is possible that James was transported to Lynchburg to rejoin his regiment at the end of his convalescence.
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| (National Archives) |
According to the Civil War Richmond web site, Chimborazo Hospital “was on land bounded by the present streets of Clay on the north, 30th on the west, 34th on the east, and the bottom of the hill on the south.” And inspection of the Richmond Civil War Centennial Committee map of Richmond, appears to show that the bottom of the hill on the south approaches but does not reach the railroad line to the south.
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| (Richmond Civil War Centennial Committee) |
Based on these two sources, here is what I currently think the bounds of the Chimborazo hospital look like on a map of present-day Richmond.
The argument for the southern boundaries are buttressed by viewing the satellite image of the same area. I have outlined what I think must be the hill area to the south.
To verify this, I need to go visit the area at some point in the future. Here is a zoomed-out view, to allow the reader to orient himself or herself with respect to the rest of the present-day Richmond Area.
Finally, here are two 1865 photos of the Chimborazo Hospital taken from the Civil War Richmond web site. The first is from the Library of Congress: "Chimborazo Hospital, (Confederate) Richmond, Va. May 1865.” Print at Library of Congress (LC-B8184-10369).
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| (Library of Congress) |
The second is credited to Levy & Cohen, Philadelphia: Chimborazo Hospital, 1865.
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| (Levy & Cohen, Philadelphia, 1865) |
Image 3 of 14
(Side 2 of 2)
I do not know what "Hern. ing. sing. reduc." means.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 4 of 14
J.W. Michael appears on a Register of General Hospital, Farmville, Va. due to illness. He was admitted on 23 May 1862 and he returned to duty on 14 June 1862. The Richmond Sentinel newspaper issue of 1 Dec 1863 indicates that a “Wayside” hospital was located at Farmville, Virgina — see the map pasted below. Recall the Wayside and Receiving Hospital (General Hospital No. 9), which I discussed at length in my earlier post on “Searching for Averetts at the Receiving & Wayside Hospital in Richmond in 1864”. General Hospital No. 9 appears to have been a receiving hospital in Richmond for incoming casualties, which would evaluate and then send them on to other Richmond hospitals segregated by State. For example, Alvis Averett was subsequently sent from Wayside Hospital/General Hospital No. 9 to the General Hospital at Howard’s Grove in Richmond because that was where casualties from Alabama regiments were treated. In the present case, it appears that James Michael was kept at the Farmville General Hospital for the duration of his convalescence.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 5 of 14
J.W. Michael appeared on a register at the Farmville, Virginia hospital on 14 June 1862. The “returned” notation appears to mean that he was discharged to rejoin his regiment on that day.
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| (National Archives) |
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By 31 October 1862, however, James was back in the hospital, this time at the Winder Hospital in Richmond. It is not clear whether this was to recover from disease or to recover from wounds or when he was admitted. Parenthetically, this record is the source of my information that he enlisted in the Confederate Army on 4 March 1862 in Carrollton, Carroll County, Georgia.
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| (National Archives) |
The Civil War Richmond web site indicates that the Winder Hospital was bordered by Hampton Street, Winder Street, Allen Avenue, and Amelia Street.
Image 7 of 14
He returned to duty on 18 November 1862 from the Winder Hospital.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 8 of 14
He was back at Chimborazo Hospital, in Division 3, by 16 December 1862 due to “debilitas” (“weakness or feebleness”, according to the North Carolina in the Civil War web site). The images following this one make clear that he had received a head wound on 13 December 1862, which would account for the “debilitas” diagnosis. This record was found in the Confederate Archives, Chapter 6, File No. 69, on page 76.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 9 of 14
A second transcribed record of his admission to Division 3 of the Chimborazo Hospital on 16 December, this time appearing in File No. 105, page 73 of the Confederate Archives.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 10 of 14
He was admitted to Division 2 of the Chimborazo Hospital the next day, 17 December 1862. It seems likely that “v.s. of head” means “vulnus sclopeticum of head”, where vulnus sclopeticum means “relating to a wound caused by gunshot”. He was wounded on 13 December 1862.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 11 of 14
James had recovered sufficiently by 13 Jan 1863 to be given a 60-day furlough. He may have returned to Carrollton, Georgia to see his family at that time but I have no corroborating evidence. This is the first of two records that indicate he was given a 60-day furlough in January 1863, this one appearing in the Confederate Archives File No. 148 on page 169.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 12 of 14
The original copyist of the records (whose handwritten name I cannot decipher) appears to have mistakenly indicated that James was in the 10th Georgia Infantry Regiment. It appears to have been corrected to the “19th” regiment later. The following image is the second record indicating that he was given a 60-day furlough in January 1863 at the end of his stay in Chimborazo Hospital Division 2. This time the record was found in the Confederate Archives Files No. 155 on page 697. Thus he probably rejoined his unit by the middle of March 1863.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 13 of 14
On 22 September 1863, James was paid $105.29 (in Confederate money, greatly inflated by this point in the war) for his military service between the dates of 1 November 1862 and 31 August 1863.
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| (National Archives) |
Image 14 of 14
On 22 February 1864, James was paid $44.00 Confederate for his military service between 1 September 1863 and 31 December 1863.
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| (National Archives) |
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