Henry A. Morgan in Civil War (or / and not?)
Henry's Civil War service is a good mystery for any of you Morgan researchers to try and solve. Here is what I have learned and speculated.
Mom said the old family story was that Henry and his brother fought on different sides in the Civil War. She did not know which side Henry was on. Also don't know what brother that might have been. Since George came to Arkansas with Henry (maybe before or after) that story may have referred to George. We have no clue right now what George may have done during the Civil War.
I sent off to the Federal war records for Henry's service records (Confederate) and got back several pages which all listed Henry as "Absent Without Leave - At Home". He was apparently drafted into Company G of the 47th Alabama Infantry in May of 1862 at Loachapoka, Alabama. Looking up the history of the 47th Alabama on the Internet, I found that a Captain J. V. McKee formed up Company G in mid-May of 1862 from several counties including Randolph County (Wedowee) where Henry and Mary were living. Based on his letters, some were volunteers and some were conscripts. He reported in with 64 men.
Isaac, Henry's brother, shows up on the muster rolls of the same G Company as Henry. Susan Gatlin got Isaac's service records and they show the same thing "Absent without leave - at home". However, she has other documentation that Isaac was captured at Gettysburg and was released after Appomattox so you can't put too much faith in the records kept by the military during those times.
Note that Henry and Mary had two girls, Eliza and Paralee, born in 1861 and 1862 but that William was not born until 1866 with others following rather quickly. To me, that says that Henry was not home for the duration of the War. Then Henrietta was born in 1869 in Tennessee. It is possible that Henry went to Tennessee to stay out of the war or that he deserted the South and joined the Union army. Then, after the war was over, he went back to Wedowee, picked up his family, and moved back to Tennessee. The mystery is then "where was Henry during the Civil War?" His father-in-law, Jacob Overton, was too old for the regular army but he joined a Randolph County militia group and was taken captive and jailed for a short time. Seems likely that he would have frowned on Henry either deserting or joining up with the North. The stories go that lots of families were split up after the war for such reasons.
If you are interested in Civil War history there are some interesting letters from Capt. McKee posted to the Internet at:
Note: this link is no longer valid and I can't find the McKee letters anywhere on the web currently
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/9202/
Just look down the links to the personal correspondence for McKee's letters. In one dated August 16, 1862 he mentions a battle where two of their company were killed and several wounded in Virginia. He mentions Henry in that letter and Isaac in two others. Also talks about a Colonel D. M. Morgan and a Wash Morgan. Both could have been kin to Isaac and George. Susan says that Isaac, Henry, and this D. M. Morgan all filed for land on the same day.
Here is what McKee wrote about Henry:
"I do not know whether Henry Morgan deserted or not. He was left of (perhaps "at" g.e.m.) Richmond and cut off three of his fingers and went off from there without my consent which was contrary to the law. He might have gotten a furlough from the hospital surgeon but it was not worth a fig to him without my consent."
As a sidelight, you can find that Capt. McKee died of pneumonia in 1863.
This lends credence to the probability that Henry did indeed desert the Confederate army. Whether he fled to Tennessee and simply "hid out" or whether he joined up with the North is speculation at this time. In many cases, those who did this would join up with the Union under a different name. We may never know. Don't believe that he or Mary ever filed for a pension from either the South or North.
Susan Gatlin has researched Isaac and found that he had two brother-in-laws, a Thomas and a Joseph Hughey or Huey (also spelled Hughley in the 47th rosters on the named web site). They lived next door to Henry's father-in-law, Jacob Overton in the 1860 census so they knew each other (Henry and Mary were on the other side of Jacob in the census). Joseph Huey went into the the same Company G, of the 47th Alabama with his brother Thomas, and Henry and Isaac Morgan. However, after a couple of months, Joseph deserted and joined up with the 1st Alabama Calvary, a Union regiment formed from Union sympathizers in Northeastern Alabama. This was hill country, not plantation land with lots of slaves, and there was not a lot of sympathy with the South on the slave issue. It is possible that Henry may have gone with Joseph when he left the 47th Alabama.
When Henry and Mary moved to Tennessee, they landed in Troy, TN which is near the Arkansas line in Northwest Tennessee. There is room for some research in the census of 1870, where they show up, to see if any other Morgan's were there or if the Huey's were there. Seems likely he joined up with someone and we are sure that George W. Morgan moved West ending up in Conway County, Arkansas by the 1880 census. Henry moved to the Ozarks (Boston Mountains in those days) in Searcy County, near Witts Springs, AR sometime before 1872. His daughter, Paralee, was killed there in a horse accident and is buried in the Witts Springs Cemetery. Sometime around 1900, Henry and Mary moved to Sebastian County, AR, east of Greenwood in the Lone Star Valley. Henry and Mary are buried in Lone Star Cemetery.
There is also an old family story that Henry and George had a big falling out over Henry's deaf son, William. (sidelight: Susan says that Isaac also had at least one deaf child). Supposedly, George wanted Henry to send William to a deaf school in Little Rock and Henry refused. Finally, George took William to Little Rock without Henry's permission resulting in the big family breakup. We think that George moved to Louisiana before he died. Susan found that a George W. Morgan filed for land with the BLM in Natchitoches Parish, LA with an application dated 1/23/1901.
Plenty of material here for some of you to pick up and run with. Please e-mail if you find anything pertinent in any way. Our new e-mail address is gemeeks@cox.net