Shelby County

Miscellaneous Shelby county Civil War Items Winfried Scott Pottle, 54th OVI Co, G | Joseph P. Watkins, 193rd OVI Co. D | Virgil C. Lenox, 50th OVI | David Baker, Squirrel Hunter's Militia | John James Greer, 48th O.V.V.I.
Misc. deaths reported in The Sidney Weekly Journal

Winfield Scott Pottle and George Pottle Submitted by: feagin@home.com "I am a direct descendant of both Winfield Scott Pottle and George Pottle mentioned below. Ves was a younger brother of Winfield and Wallace was a cousin." One of the horrendous aspects of the Civil War was the deprivation of prisoners in both th e northern and southern prisoners of war camps.Prisoners on both sides suffered inconceivable misery. one of the worst camps was Andersonville Prison in Georgia. It was overcrowded with only one source of water, a dank stream running through the center of the compound. A wall composed of logs cut from the nearby forest surrounded the prison grounds. A deadline surrounded the interior of the prison. If a prisoner crossed the deadline the Rebel guards were under orders to shoot.

Prisoners died by the hundreds of disease, malnutrition, and thirst. On a hot August the 13th day in 1864, a sudden storm appeared and by some accounts, a lightning bolt came from the dark clouds and struck the earth. A spring of water came gushing from the ground. The thirsty men rushed to what became known as the "Providential Spring."Some men were pushed over the deadline and shot. Winfield Scott Pottle was one of them. His blood ran in the spring for hours before his fellow prisoners were allowed to retrieve him.
After the war was over, some of the northern prisoners were sent home via steamship. One of these steamers was the aging Sultana. The Sultana was extremely overcrowded with over 2000 prisoners on board. Just above Memphis Tennessee, the Sultana's boilers suddenly exploded, creating an inferno of steam and fire. Many prisoners died instantly. Some of the prisoners were sent flying into the Mississippi River where they drowned. The loss of life was well over a thousand and is thought to have been greaterthan the lives lost during the sinking of the Titanic.

A reporter who was sent to the National Military Home interviewed one individual that experienced these tragedies and lived to tell about it.

The young reporter from the Dayton Daily News stood in the midst of the venerable old warriors at the Soldiers home and gazed around, looking for a likely individual to interview. Some thing drew his attention to the old man sitting in the corner. The man with the long gray hair flecked with occasional strands of black. The old man appeared to be in a contemplative mood as he often did. He, like others, remembering thepast that haunted them on a daily basis . The reporter could not help but notice the ugly white scar that ran from the top of the old mans forehead all the way past his left eyebrow and down to his cheek. An old war wound the reporter surmised. The reporter had picked his candidate.What follows is the story of Private Winfield Scott Pottle, Company G, Ohio 54th Volunteer Infantry. It is a story of an American tragedy, and it is a story of one American's triumph over monumental odds.

The following interview is in The Dayton Daily News dated Tuesday, September 9, 1906:
"All of us didn't go out at the same time," said Scott Pottle. "Mybrother Wallace and I enlisted in 1861 in the 54th Ohio Infantry, which was called Platt's Zouaves. Wallace was 20 yea rs old and I 16. My mother died before the war. My youngest brother, Ves, only a kid 13 years old, was crazy to get to the war and my father knew he would run away, so he decided to enlist himself and take Ves with him. They joined the 94th Ohio in 1862. Ves went along as a drummer boy, but he carried a gun in Sherman's march to the sea. He got along all right too, and was the only one of us not wounded. My father was wounded at the Battle of Stone River, and invalided home."

"The company Wallace and I belonged to was made up almost entirely on Xenia boys. We had a pretty warm time of it at the battle of Shiloh. You can read all about that in the histories . Wallace was shot in the right breast and left hand in that fight, and they sent him to the hospital and then discharged him for disability. Consumption set in a few years later and he died 10 years after the war.

"Somehow or other my name was published in the reports of the battle asbeing one of the dead. A committee was appointed in Xenia to go southand look after the boys of our company, which had been pretty well shotup. My father was one of the committee, and he brought along a coffin totake my body home in. We were in camp at Shewall, Tenn., when the committee came along. I can't recollect just what he said when he saw how live I was, but it's natural to suppose that he was somewhat surprised."

"When Sherman started out to reinforce Rosecrans, I was one of the detail men. A party of Forrest's Cavalry attacked us along the road, trying to take Sherman. We put out a line to protect the wagon train and give Sherman a chance to get back. Forest charged and some Johnny Reb socked me on the head and arm with a saber. See this scar on my arm, and this dent in my he ad? That's where they came from. They took 206 of us prisoners that time. The Rebs had me penned up for 18 months. First I was put at Belle Island with a big batch of corralled Yankees. Then all but 100 men were sent away. General Ben Butler had threatened to kill 100 Rebels and Iwas one of the 100 Yankees kept back to be slaughtered if Butler carried out his plan. Ticklish business that! Luckily for us Butler changed his mind and we were sent on to Libby. Then we didn't know whether we were lucky or not. That was a fierce note. It was so crowded a man couldn't straighten out. They kept me in Libby only three weeks, and Andersonville was our next hotel. The only improvement was that it was not so crowded . Our food was rank, the water warm and horrible.

One day after a thunderstorm, a spring of clear water broke out between the stockade and the dead line. There was a great rush for the water, and I was among the bunch pushed over the line. The Rebel guards opened fire and I got a bullet in my side . And there we lay, our comrades couldn't help us, they dared not cross the dead line. We lay about an hour when the Captain of the Guard ordered us removed. For awhile there was more of our blood in that spring than water."

"Finally the time came for us to go north. Twenty-two hundred of usYanks were put on the steamer Sultana. I slept under the same blanket with George White, in the back part of the boat . Just above Memphis about 3 o'clock in the morning, there was a terrific explosion. I was in the water before I knew what was going on. I grabbed onto a plank and by queer coincidence, George White, my blanket mate, got hold of the same plank. We got out of the crowd of struggling men and hollered for help. A fisherman came along and took us ashore. Fifteen hundred poor devils lost their lives in that disaster."

"While I was in the hospital In Memphis, I saw my name in the newspaper as one of the drowned. I guess I'm the only survivor of that affair in this county now." Thus ended the interview .

In his application for a pension, Winfield Scott Pottle gives an even more graphic description of his experiences in prison and undoubtedly that of thousands of other prisoners when he writes:
... "In my dreams I go through all of the horrors of starving to death and awaiting to be shot and awake with parched tongue, that awful pain in my head - bloodshot eyes and my heart nearly Jumping out of me - that I don't believe In Doctors and therefore don't go to them often . I hope and pray that you will take Into consideration that I have went through all the horrors of the Rebel Prisons from October llth 1863 until March 1865, also the horrors of being drowned being a survivor of tha tterrible disaster the blowing up of that ill fated steamer Sultana. Hoping and praying that you will consider all of this will be with what great lots of evidence I now have in will be sufficient to give me a proper rerating or a proper allowance of my pension. Often times I see with my eyes open and see myself so weak from hunger, crawling around crying for water and something to eat - God forgive them, I can't."

Winfield Scott Pottle received his pension of $17. 00 per month for the last time on March 4 , 1908. He fought his last battle and departed this life for a better one on April 18, 1908.

In June of 1999, our family visited the cemetery at 3rd and Gettysburg Streets on the Westside of Dayton, Ohio. Winfield Scott Pottle has a plain white headstone located in Section P , Number 30. It is behind and to the right of his father's stone when facing the large monument. I would estimate it to be about 100 feet distant. The stone is simply marked "W.S. Pottle" with his unit on it. We placed some coins under the headstone (inscription side) to mark our visit.

Joseph P. Watkins Submitted by: Mary Renner "Here is some information on Joseph P. Watkins who served in Company D, 193rd Regiment, OVI. This is gleaned from his Civil War pension file which I obtained from the National Archives."

Joseph P. Watkins was born October 5, 1830 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. He enrolled on the 13th day of February, 1865 in Company D, 193rd OVI. He was discharged at Winchester, Virginia, on the 4th day of August, 1865. He filed a declaration for invalid pension which stated he was partially unable to earn support by manual labor by reason of injury to his right ankle, disease of air passages, soft tumor over stomach and disease of rectum resulting from flux. According to affidavits in his pension file his ankle was injured in a fall during his service in the army while he was at Camp Chase, Ohio, in August, 1865 while awaiting muster out.

He married Caroline Howell near New Knoxville, Ohio, on February 12, 1861. He died February 8,
1903 near Pt. Jefferson, Ohio. They were the parents of 10 children.

Wish I had a photo of him to send but I do not!

Virgil C. Lenox Submitted by: Barb Lenox Garet Virgil C. Lenox, the 12th child and youngest son of James and Sally (Wilson) Lenox was a sergeant major with the 50th Regiment OVI. His name is included among Field and Staff, as having enlisted Aug. 1, 1862, at age 18, promoted from private Co. B. on April 22, 1865; and mustered out with his regiment on
June 26, 1865.

According to the History of Shelby Co., published by R. Sutton & Co., 1883, three additional Lenox sons served in the Civil War. One brother died from the effects of a wound; one from disease while in the service and another after the war from disease contracted in the service.

Also according to Sutton's History, Napoleon B. Lenox died November 28, 1862; William F. died October 17, 1865; and Abraham died March 12, 1863. However, I did not find these three names listed among the soliders in the Civil War Research Database at www.Ancestry.com.

David Baker Submitted By: P. Fazzini Baker, David (b.Jan 27,1827 Greene Co Ohio-d.Sept 16, 1894 Shelby Co Ohio) Served as a member of "Squirrel Hunter's discharge" September 1862 (see 1883 "History of Shelby County Ohio" by Sutton. His second wife was Sarah Swander (b.Oct 30/31, 1832-d.July 27, 1916) D. Baker & wife buried Glen Cemetery, Port Jefferson, Shelby County, Ohio.

John James Greer Submitted by: Martin Stewart Found on the 48th O.V.V.I. Site

Deaths of 1863 & 1864
as Recorded in The Sidney Weekly Journal
Shelbyana October 2000, No. 85

John Allen, of Co. E. 4th Reg O.V.I.
John W. Denman of Co. A 134 Reg. O.N.G.
Ranson C. Griggs of Co. K 12th O.V.C.
William C. Penrod (unit unknown)