Madison
County Genealogical Society
Minutes of the Meeting - August 13, 2009
The August 13, 2009, meeting of the
Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library
in Edwardsville, Illinois.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the
meeting to order.
Reports:
Librarian Elsie Wasser reported that we had received several new
items for the library:
New pages (Fort Russell Township) have
been added to the Index
of the 1900 Census for Madison County. Barbara Hitch is doing the
indexing.
The History of
the Heron Family by Henry Eugene Heron, 1979, 130 page, unindexed. MCGS
member, Kay Kulfinski, graciously loaned her copy of this book to the Society
to allow us to reproduce it.
Old Families of
Louisiana by Stanley Clisby Arthur, Huchet de Kernion, and George
Campbell was donated anonymously. This work consists of 432 pages in two
volumes and has a combined index.
August
Meeting
On August 13, 2009, Tom Pearson of the
Special Collections Department of St. Louis Public Library, presented a program
titled Dirty Rebels and
Damn Yankees: Researching Civil War Soldier Ancestors. Mr. Pearson
started his presentation by defining a few technical terms:
A civil war soldier enlisted in a regiment, which consisted of roughly 1,000
men.
A regiment was made up of 10 companies, each of which consisted of roughly 100
men.
A regiment was normally commanded by a colonel, while each company was
commanded by a captain.
The ten companies of a regiment were lettered from A to K, omitting J. The
letter J was not used because a handwritten I and J look too much alike and can
be easily confused. A cavalry troop of 12 companies would add companies L and
M.
A regiment was part of a larger group called a brigade, which usually consisted
of 3-5 regiments.
The commander of a brigade was normally a brigadier general.
Union Civil War armies were mainly named for the major river in the area in
which they operated, i.e., Army of the Potomac or Army of the Cumberland.
Confederate armies were normally named for the geographic areas in which they
operated, i.e., Army of Northern Virginia or Army of Tennessee.
Tom stated that finding information about a Civil War soldier involves
discovering six key pieces of information:
1. Which Side Was He On?
2. What State Did He Serve With?
3. Was He a Regular, a Volunteer, or Militia?
4. What Was His Arm of Service?
5. What Was His Regiment and Company?
6. Did he survive the war?
Mr. Pearson had a handout that
contained a lengthy list of Websites, essential reference books, and basic
reference books for Civil War soldier and Regiment research. This list, with
the website links can be found at Researching U.S.
Civil War Soldier Ancestors
If you should have questions, or would like help with a particularly vexing
Civil War question, Mr. Pearson can be contacted at: tpearson@slpl.org
This presentation was well received and
prompted several questions.