William Joseph Anderson (Part 2)

    As the Civil War broke out the two youngest sons of the late Chesley Anderson joined the Confederate Army in May of 1861, only a few days after Virginia seceded from the Union. John Burleigh Anderson, 22 years old enlisted as a Private in the Virginia Manchester Light Artillery Battalion. I have not found detailed action reports from this unit, but he was a prisoner as of 27 July 1864 at Petersburg, VA, was sent to a POW camp at Elmira, New York and was released on 13 May 1865 on taking the oath of allegiance to the Union. He was described as 6 ft tall, fair hair and blue eyes. He returned to the Richmond area, settled down, married and had a family. He worked as a nailer (nails were iron and were made by hand) and made a comfortable living until he died in 1894. 

   William Joseph Anderson, 24 years old, enlisted as a Corporal in the Virginia 6th Volunteer Infantry which was re-organized in October 1861 as Company I, 16th Virginia Infantry. He was described as 5 ft 11 inches tall, fair hair and blue eyes. Company I was assigned to the defense of Norfolk. A good deal of information from their action reports is available, and Corporal Anderson cannot have known how near he was to one of the most significant events of the Civil War.

   During the 1850s the U. S. Navy had been developing a new type of battleship, which would be steam powered and have layers of iron to protect the ship from heavy gunfire. The Navy was close to building a prototype for testing, but the Civil War disrupted their plans. And some officers who had worked on the development had stayed with the Union and others went with the Confederacy. As soon as possible the U.S. Navy rushed to start construction of the USS Monitor at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the Confederate Navy also started construction, but in a very different way. On 20 April 1861 (3 days after Virginia seceded) the Union Commander of the Norfolk Navy Yard determined that he could not hold off the Confederate forces so he ordered his men to burn the entire yard and retreat. They left behind the frigate USS Merrimack on fire, which burned entirely down to the waterline. Once the Confederate forces took over the Norfolk Navy Yard they were faced with an enormous effort to make the Yard usable, and for months to come Company I, 16th Virginia Infantry not only guarded against Union attacks they worked to rebuild the Yard, and installed barriers in the James River and the Elizabeth River to prevent Union ships from entering, and then removing barriers so that Confederate ships could pass. It’s unlikely that Corporal William Joseph Anderson actually worked on the Merrimack, but he must have seen the unusual ship in drydock. The Confederate Navy rebuilt the USS Merrimack from the waterline up with 4 inch thick sheets of iron, and by early in 1862 the Merrimack was renamed the CSS Virginia (but most sailors continued to call it the Merrimack).

   Early in 1862 Union war ships began patrolling in the Hampton Roads (off the coast near Norfolk, where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean) and the Confederate officers anticipated a Union invasion either at Norfolk or Yorktown, about 30 miles north. Their spies probably knew that the USS Monitor had been launched on 30 January and had left the Brooklyn Navy Yard and headed south - but they probably did not know how non-seaworthy this heavy gunship was, and how slowly she moved. In any case the Confederate Navy sent the CSS Virginia out to sea on 8 March to fight the Union ships, and she sank the USS Cumberland and the USS Congress, and the USS Minnesota ran aground trying to escape the ironclad, which seemed to be invincible. But just like a movie plot, on the next day the USS Monitor arrived from Brooklyn, and the two ironclads fired on each other for hours with hardly any effect. At the end of the day, the Virginia returned to port and the Monitor stayed out in Hampton Roads. The fight itself was a draw but the Union finished with the advantage since their wooden ships were no longer attacked by the Virginia. But this was the beginning of modern naval warfare, and since the two prototype ironclads were so hastily built and hardly seaworthy they never fought again. In two months the Union forces invaded Norfolk, and the crew scuttled the Virginia, and in December 1862 the Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

   Meanwhile ashore during April 1862 Company I and other confederate soldiers were preparing for the Union invasion until they were forced to retreat on 3 May. Their conditions were terrible. A report by Brigadier General Magruder said: “...it rained almost incessantly; the trenches were filled with water; the weather was exceedingly cold; no fires could be allowed;.....(there was) neither coffee, sugar, nor hard bread, but subsisted on flour and salt meat, and that in reduced quantities…I speak of this in honor of these brave men, whose patriotism made them indifferent to suffering , disease, danger and death”.

   Towards the end of April William Joseph Anderson became ill with pneumonia and was hospitalized probably until he was able to walk. His enlistment was for one year and his term was up so he was discharged from the army. It is not known when he was able to work, but I think it is likely that he was working as a civilian as early as the summer of 1862, hauling salt and other supplies for the Confederate army. By October of 1862 Union forces controlled nearly all of Kentucky, so that he must have delivered confederate cargo to Ashland, KY before October 1862. Otherwise I have found no record of his activities until 1866 when he married Mary Houston Berry on 5 July 1866 in Ashland. He may have met her in 1862, or not until 1865 with the end of the war. 

   After William Joseph married Mary Houston, 1868 was a difficult year for them, as Mary’s mother died and then their first-born died in infancy. They moved to western Kentucky, along with Mary’s now widowed father Thomas Berry, to Morganfield, Union County. The family had connections there, since Thomas's brother David was already established at Morganfield. William started a grocery store there and in 1870 the household included William and Mary, their two sons Joseph (1 1/2) and George (newborn), and Thomas J. Berry whose occupation was now listed as lawyer (!). In addition to the immediate family there were several other people in the household: Eliza Blue (70) and Rachel A. Blue (33 and perhaps Eliza's daughter), William Mann (16, and occupation listed as druggist; probably an assistant to William), Louisa Vontress (15, black, occupation domestic servant), Richmond and Betty Lyons and their son James (55, 48, and 5, black, servants). It must have been an interesting house! Rachel Blue is listed as owning $13,000 in real estate, while William Anderson owns none. Perhaps William was renting the store from Ms. Blue. As to Ms. Vontress and the Lyons family, I don't know whether my great-grandparents were taking advantage of hiring recently freed slaves as cheap labor, or perhaps were providing shelter and employment as a kindness. This is worth further research. Thomas Berry died not long after the census in 1870. The grocery store was evidently not a great success, and the Andersons moved to Texas in 1876, with their two sons and daughter Caroline Jane Anderson (my Grandmother, b. 18 Dec 1871). Tradition is that they were on the first train to Fort Worth (19 July, 1876). In any case, they lived at Lancaster, Dallas Co. for a few years and then moved to Tolar, Hood Co. where they spent the rest of their lives. William became a farmer in Texas, and by 1900 owned his farm (with a mortgage) outside of Tolar at "Anderson Heights". He died in 1904.

William Joseph Anderson (Part 1)

   Continuing the biographical sketches of my ancestors who served in or were greatly affected by the American Civil War, this story is about William Joseph Anderson who was the father of Caroline Jane Anderson, my maternal grandmother. In the late 1700s and early 1800s all my known ancestors were born in the southern colonies (later states) and those which were adjacent to the Ohio River; none were from New England or the "Deep South". Almost all of my ancestors were supporters of the Union, but Wm. J. Anderson, a Virginian, fought for the Confederacy.

   The records in the 1600s are not perfect, but it is likely that Lawrence Anderson left Scotland in about 1671 at the age of 20 and landed in Maryland, as a servant to Captain William Bomman. Lawrence was probably indentured to pay for his transportation, and by 1702 he is on the tax list. It is probable that by 1680 he was married (wife Mary) and they had at least one child, Lawrence Anderson II. This Lawrence Anderson II married and had at least one child - Lawrence Anderson III who was born about 1700 and moved to Virginia by 1738. From here on the records are more complete: Lawrence Anderson III married May Kirkpatrick and they had 8 children some of whom stayed in Virginia and one moved to South Carolina and some to Kentucky. Their oldest son James Anderson was born in 1726 in Virginia and lived there all his life. He became a successful farmer and married Margaret Fogg; they had 15 children which was a large family even in those days. Some of his land holdings included 400 acres on either side of Soke Arse Creek (now called Bonbrook Creek). One of James and Margaret's sons was George Anderson who also lived his entire life (1750 - 1816) in Virginia. George was a successful farmer and also owned a tavern. In 1778 he was cited for serving liquor without a license and was called before a grand jury and was then dismissed. No reason was cited but it is likely that some of the jurors were his customers. In 1783 to increase his land holdings he bought 100 acres more along Soke Arse Creek. He married Jenny Bradley and they had 7 children. One of their children was Chesley Anderson who became the father of William Joseph Anderson.

   Chesley Anderson was the youngest son of George and Jenny, born about 1790. His older brothers were off on their own and Chesley stayed at home, and when his father died in 1816 he became the manager of the family plantation. In 1820 he married Nancy Dowdy and tragically she died in 1823 in the birth of their first child (Mary Anne Virginia Anderson). In 1825 Chesley's mother died and in 1826 he married Jane Wyatt Jenkins. He and Jane had 7 children, and their 2 youngest were their sons William Joseph Anderson (born in 1837) and John Burleigh Anderson (1839). 

   In about 1840 Chesley moved his family from the plantation in Cumberland County, where he had lived since his birth, to Manchester in Chesterfield County, Virginia. Manchester is now within the city limits of Richmond. There were probably good reasons for moving to the more urban location; by selling the plantation he could afford to retire at age 50, and still support his family, and his health was probably failing because he died in 1844. The census data from 1850 and 1860 is revealing. In 1850 in Manchester there are 2 dwellings side by side; in dwelling 242 are James Donnelly (head of household, no occupation listed but real estate worth $700), Jane age 40, James age 4, and Mary age 2 months. In dwelling 243 are George Anderson age 16, Lewis Anderson age 14, Joseph Anderson age 12, and Burley Anderson age 11. In the 1860 census the two dwellings have been merged. James Donnelly age 50 (head of household, trader, illiterate, real estate worth $5000 and personal estate $500), J.W. (female age 50), W.J. (male age 22, gentleman), Burley (male age 21, gentleman), J.K. Donnelly (male age 14), and M. (female age 10).

   It is clear that Chesley Anderson died in 1844, and his widow Jane Wyatt Anderson married James Donnelly in 1845, and had a son James born in 1846 and a daughter born in 1850. James Donnelly is an interesting character, probably born in Ireland and made a living as a trader and although he was illiterate he evidently bought and sold profitably. Did he marry a wealthy widow for the money? In the 1850 census he is not wealthy, but by 1860 his wealth has increased greatly. He took care of Jane's younger children, and by 1860 William Joseph and John Burleigh are young adults. He is supporting them as they are listed as "gentlemen" meaning they are not employed, and the Civil War is about to break out. (End of part 1).