Elnathan Keeler and the Civil War

Nathan L. Keeler was born in Walton, New York after his father, William C. Keeler, came home from the War with Britain in 1814. Nathan lived near his father for many years , and sometimes they shared property. The Minden County census of 1845 shows that they had 70 acres together with both of their wives, several children, 6 yards of wool cloth, 10 yards of linen, 3 acres of peas, 0.5 acres of buckwheat, 1.5 acres of potatoes, 25 acres of corn, 100 pounds of oats, 9 cows, 250 pounds of butter, 2 horses, 29 sheep, 50 pounds of wool, and 12 hogs. Besides farming, Nathan worked as a lock tender on the Erie canal, which was completed in 1825.

In 1850, when Nathan was 36 and his father William was 56, the very large family (Nathan and his wife Jane had 5 children, ages 1 though 14, and William and his wife Trephena had two older sons living with them) was living on a island between the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal, just north of the town of Mindenville. In 1856, some of their land was claimed for an enlargement of the canal.

The following text was taken from a book* written by one of my cousins, Helen Klass, and dedicated to my mother, Joan Keeler, about our common ancestor, Nathan L. Keeler (shown, in his uniform, above):

Nathan L. Keeler or Elnathan, Nate, or Nat as he variously called himself, was recruited into the Union Army at Mindenville, Town of Minden, Montgomery County, New York, on December 18, 1863. He and several of his friends and neighbors traveled to Schenectady where they were mustered into the 16th Regiment, Heavy Artillery, New York. From Schenectady they went to the fair grounds at Elmira where they assembled with other members of the 16th to await joining their regiment, which was serving with the Army of the James on the coast of Virginia.

Early in the war many men rushed to volunteer, anxious to aid the Union, and flushed with war fever, but by 1863 the desire to serve had lessened.

In the letters of Elnathan which follow, it is unclear what motivated him to join the army. He repeatedly writes to his wife Jane, that he is happily anticipating being rejected for service, and sent home. His Volunteer Enlistment Paper states his age at 43; he was two years under the maximum age of eligibility to be drafted or to volunteer.

Money may have played a part in his decision, although $13.00 per month was not a princely sum, the $500.00 Elnathan received as bounty was a considerable nest egg for a working man. It is possible that he was out of work or considered the army an opportunity to make more money than he was already earning.

Beginning in 1857 there had been a depression in the United States which lasted until 1863, if not longer, and it was coupled in the war years with rampant inflation, brought about by the war itself. Many considered military service desirable, permanent employment.

In March 1863 the Federal Government passed a draft law and thereafter most men felt that volunteering was the best way to serve. "To avoid the stigma of forced service plus the desire to obtain certain privileges allowed only volunteers, such as bounties and choice of unit, thousands enlisted" (Wiley, The Common Soldier in the Civil War: The Life of Billy Yank, p. 38)

Men who were drafted could pay someone to serve in their place, but it is highly unlikely that Elnathan had the wherewithal to do that. Therefore, it remains inconclusive why Elnathan volunteered.

Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in 1862, and soldiers who had rallied to the Federal cause became increasingly confounded by the direction the war was taking. One soldier wrote home, "'Lincoln's proclamation ... meets with denouncement among the men of the Army ... They do not wish to think that they are fighting for Negroes, but to put down the Rebellion."

The Abolitionists were, among themselves, not sure how to solve the Negro problem, although they were as a group opposed to slavery, the peculiar institution. And although many Northerners and a few Southerners were sympathetic to the plight of blacks, due to a heightened awareness fostered by the Abolitionists' rhetoric and such books as Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Sowe they were not ready to dispel racial prejudice from their hearts.

Elnathan wrote to Jane several times that he was fighting a "nigger war" and he was not alone in his assessment. Some fought to free the slaves, but a polling of the rank and file through their letters and diaries indicates that those whose primary object was the liberation of the Negroes comprised only a small part of the fighting forces.

Elnathan arrived in Yorktown, Virginia. February 16, 1864, to join his regiment. He began to experience the full effect of working for "Uncle Sam" as he called it.

All through the spring and summer of 1864 thousands of troops converged and fought in Eastern Virginia under the direction of General Grant and his commanders in the effort to capture the capitol of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia. Important in the taking of Richmond was the city of Petersburg, which was a supply depot, rail center, and arsenal for the Confederate Armies.

"In the Trenches before Petersburg" headed innumerable letters written during the last months of the war by Grant's soldiers. The contents told of watching the fiery trails of mortar shells on their arched flights through the air, the calling of shots, the scampering to bombproof shelters, the ever-present menace by day of the sharpshooters' bullets and the stifling heat of the trenches on summer nights.

Photo of the Petersburg Siege, photographer unknown, part of the National Archives.

On September 10, 1864, before Petersburg, Elnathan knowing that death was ever present, was shot in the left arm while on a picket. (An advance outpost or guard for a large force was called a picket. Ordered to form a scattered line far in advance of the main army's encampment, but within supporting distance, a picket guard was made up of a lieutenant, 2 sergeants, 4 corporals, and 40 privates from each regiment. Picket duty constituted the most hazardous work of infantrymen in the field. Being the first to feel any major enemy movement, they were also the first liable to be killed, wounded, or captured. And he most likely targets of snipers. Picket duty, by regulation, was rotated regularly in a regiment. via) Elnathan was subsequently removed to Hampton Hospital, Fort Monroe, Virginia; his spirits were at a very low ebb, and he longed for a boat to take him North and home to his family.

Several months later he was sent to Grant's General Hospital at Willets Point, New York, for a short time; and then for the final phase of his recuperation to Ira Harris, United States Army Hospital, at Albany, New York. There he became a member of the 2nd Battalion of the Veteran Reserve Corp. He went home on furlough more than once during that period, returning to the hospital to do nursing duty as part of the V.R.C. He was not discharged until August 18, 1865, on the same day that those of his regiment still on active duty were discharged at Washington, D.C.

Elnathan and his wife, Jane, carried on a lively, familial correspondence throughout his enlistment period. Like all soldiers, he was anxious for all the "particulars" from home, and especially for photographs of his family.

Although Jane's letters were readable, she apparently felt insecure about her letter writing abilities. Many times her sister, Sylvia Real, or a neighbor, Sylvester Van Antwerp, wrote for her, adding post scripts of their own. Sylvia was anxious for news of her husband who served in the same regiment with Elnathan, and Sylvester wanted a watch that he hoped Elnathan would secure for him. Elnathan urged Jane to ask her daughter-in-law, Ruth Ballard, and a local woman, Mrs. Youron, to do letter writing duty, too.

Jane assured Elnathan that she was capable of reading his letters, which seemed to squelch his fears about writing very personal or "smutty" remarks as he called them. Elnathan and Jane frequently talked about a pine tree, giving the impression that it had been a trysting place of theirs. Jane wrote to Elnathan telling him that her mother remembered the "old pine tree" and Elnathan told Jane that she could tell her son, Jacob Ballard, about it if she so desired. (Four miles south of Fort Plain, in the town of Minden, in an area of ancient fortifications built prior to the advent of the Indians, stands a gigantic pine, six feet in diameter - perhaps the pine tree remembered by Elnathan.)

Elnathan received and sent letters to a home town woman named Miss or Mrs. Wager, and Jane objected vehemently, there are several letters back and forth regarding this triangle of sorts.

Apart from writing letters, Jane had the responsibility for supplying Elnathan with a series of boxes containing food and clothing. From all reports the Union Army was well provisioned, but Elnathan claimed that without the box he would have starved to death on several occasions. A liquor ration was coming to the soldiers, but Elnathan badgered Jane for bottles of rum in his boxes. Suspecting that the boxes which came to the hospital were opened and the rum removed, he devised a scheme whereby Jane would bury the bottles of rum in a pail of butter, to assure their safe arrival.

Perhaps because soldiers' pay was not distributed sometimes for months, Jane and Elnathan were continually short of money. She talked about going to work in the hops fields, the dried cones of the hops plant were used in the making. beer, but Elnathan was worried that it would hurt her health, and cautioned her against it. They discussed money often and passionately.

Elnathan, Jane, their daughter Valeria, and son Levi, lived on an island between the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal at the outset of the Civil War. The Federal Census of 1850 lists Elnathan's occupation as being a "lock tender", but he did not want to return to the canal site when he came home from the war, perhaps due to his wound. which left him incapacitated.

Other than war news, discussions about the people in the Mindenville area, and what was happening at home, Elnathan and Jane corresponded mainly about their children. Jane's son, Jacob Ballard, perhaps by a former marriage, was himself married at the time of the Civil War, and his wife Ruth and their children went to live with Jane and Levi while Jacob served in the army.

Their daughter, Mary Jane, was married to Moses Finehout and he seemed to have mistreated her, and did not provide for her or their children. He was ultimately drafted or volunteered to serve in the army.

Their daughter, Nancy, was married to a Mr. Reece and from the letters it would appear that Nancy, her husband, and their children were more comfortable financially than the rest of the family.

Valeria, called Val or Vally, worked for George Cronk during the time Elnathan was in the army. Jane wrote to Elnathan expressing distress that Johnny DeForest of St. Johnsville had fallen in love with Val, who was married to John Keville in 1893, but he may not have been her only husband.

Levi Keeler, their only living son, was about ten years old at the time of the war, and he seems to have been "the man of the house" while his father was away. Elnathan was very concerned with Levi's schooling and his jobs, carrying the mail and working on the Erie Canal. (Image at right is Nathan, Levi and Jane in 1860, when Levi was about 6 years old, and before Nathan enlisted in the Army.)

In the late 1800's the 16th Regiment, Heavy Artillery, New York held a two day reunion at Dolgeville, Herkimer County, New York, but Elnathan did not survive to attend. He died on November 14, 1873 from the effects of his war wound and the diseases he contracted while serving his country. His burial place is unknown at this time.

*From the book, "Portrait of Elnathan Keeler, A Union Soldier" - an annotated collection of letters to and from Nathan L. Keeler, written during his service in the Civil War.

William C. Keeler

William C. Keeler is the oldest relative I can find records for, in the United States. He was probably born in Delaware County, New York in 1794, which was right around the time that the county and some of the towns were being formed. That territory was settled by pioneers from Southern Connecticut. He was a resident of the town of Walton when he was drafted in the War of 1812.

He was a Private in Captain Harmon Sawyer's Delaware County Regiment of the New York Militia, and the regiment spent most of 1812 and 1813 equipping and exercising arms. On August 29th, 1814, they were ordered to New York City to defend the harbor and the city. The British never attacked New York, but it was apparently a tough assignment for enlisted men. According to Fred Tiebohl:

"Privates of the company were often young farm boys away from home for the first time. They were poorly paid, trained and often not properly led. Military court actions show that desertions were often blamed on lack of food, no money, boredom and cheap liquor. The major activities were guard duty, look-out, parade, exercise of arms and work details. Militia men on guard duty often were not given ammunition (bullets) for their rifles due to shortages and the fear they would shoot each other."

William was paid 8 dollars per month for his military service, and he was discharged 200 miles from home (*according to Helen Klass' "Portrait of Elnathan Keeler, A Union Soldier" - a book about my great-great-great-grandfather, and a book I will be quoting from heavily in the future.)

William was discharged on December 14, 1814. His service in the war entitled him to bounty land in Montgomery County New York, and he moved there with his family. He was listed in Federal and County censuses of 1840, 1845, and 1850 as living in Minden, New York, with his wife Trephena (nee Heath) and sons Nathan L., Solomon, and John W. Keeler.

I could not find any information about William's date or place of death, or where he was buried.

(Image of cutting ice near the saw mill in Walton, from dcnyhistory.)

Sallie Wiggins Lusk

Sallie Wiggins was my Great-great grandmother. I met her, but don't remember much about her. She was about 75 years old when we lived in Texas, and in my memory, she mostly sat in a rocking chair, dipped snuff, and spit in a coffee can that was always next to her chair. She also liked to chew on twigs (cedar, I think.) She almost never spoke. My father (James Thelbert Lusk) was extremely fond of her and said she made great cornbread and was always good to him.

The family stories about Sallie are confusing and mysterious. When I was younger, I was told that she was born on the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation, but that she wasn't Indian, she was the daughter of missionaries. Given my father's prejudices, and the fact that she couldn't read or write, I was never sure how much of this story to believe. Many years later, my father told me that she was Cherokee, had been part of the Trail of Tears forced relocation, and that she met her husband in Arkansas - but that's impossible, as the relocation happened before she was born. He was getting senile at that point - was he confusing her with her mother? I don't know, but Sallie's husband, Joseph Lee Lusk, may have been the source of that story, as there has never been any information about his ancestry, or his past, beyond the fact that his parent's names were William and Frances.

According to the Texas census of 1900, and Sallie and Joseph were living in Bell County, most likely in or near Killeen. They had been married for 8 years, and they had 4 children: Bertha, Ernest, George Thomas, and Beulah. Joseph's older brother, George, was also living with them. Apparently at the time of the census, the men had been out of work for 6 months.

My father told me that she had a home "on the main drag, in the middle of Ft Hood" (town of Killeen.) He said that she originally had a small cotton farm there, which was sold off over the years as the military base grew bigger and bigger. In 1900, Killeen was primarily an isolated farming community. According to the "Handbook of Texas", Killeen included six general stores, three cotton gins, three blacksmiths, two hardware stores, and a jeweler; around this time telephone service was introduced. Some 780 people lived in Killeen by 1900, virtually all of them white Protestants, since the community openly discouraged blacks and Catholics from living there.

In 1942, the Second World War led to a boom in the military base, leading to a loss of over three hundred farms, and increasing the population of Killeen by thousands. Joseph died in the mid-1940s, and there was a local recession around that time, due to post-war military cutbacks. At some point in the last ten years of her life, she came to live with her son, George Thomas Lusk (known as "Tom") in Llano, about 80 miles from Killeen.

Sallie died in 1957, while we were in Hawaii.

The photo at the beginning of this story was taken in in 1955, while we lived in Llano with Sallie, George and Vera Lusk. During that year:

- Dwight Eisenhower was president
- Jonas Salk developed the Polio vaccine
- Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery bus boycott
- The first McDonalds fast food restaurant opened
- The US started sending aid to Vietnam
- Germany became a member of NATO and the Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact (the cold War officially began.)
- Rock and Roll came to public attention with Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock"
- Bugs Bunny debuted in "Roman-Legion Hare"

Sailing to Hawaii

After driving from Llano, Texas to San Francisco (2 adults, 3 kids, and a dog in a 1950 Ford Sedan - sleeping and eating in the car) we spent a few weeks in San Francisco (February and March 1957) before boarding the USNS General Daniel I. Sultan bound for the Territory of Hawaii. We stayed in a hotel near the Embarcadero. Each day, we'd walk down to the big piers, watch the ships unloading, feed the seagulls, and once in a while Mom would let me get a comic book from one of the news stands. The thing that most impressed me: the giant wheels of cheese they took off some boat - to my kid's eye, they looked as big as a car. We also watched the Chinese New Year's parade from our hotel window. I remember riding in the car with Dad, up Fillmore street from the wharf, and being afraid the car was going to tip over backwards.

I don't remember much about the ship we took to Hawaii. But Mom wrote a letter to her parents while onboard (scan of letter below, typed version here):

Dear Mom and Dad,

Hi. Well. Here we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This morning we had breakfast, visited with friends for awhile and then I took the kids to the movies - 8 cartoons. It was bedlam but they enjoyed it. After the movie there was a birthday party in the Dining Saloon in honor of all the children whoose birthdays fall during the voyage. They had paper hats, whistles, balloons, cake, ice cream - the works.

This is really a nice ship. It's run by civilians. The food is good and served at table instead of regular Navy style. There are movies, playrooms, card tournaments, dances every night.

The first day and a half I felt pretty woozy but not really sick. Since then I've felt fine and really enjoyed it. Thel says I've got my sea legs.

There was a band playing and relatives waving, etc. when we pulled out of Frisco - a Royal sendoff. Some people have been awfully seasick. Vern got sick at breakfast Sunday morning but other than that we've all felt good.

We are getting into warmer waters now. The nights are so pretty. The kids love to go out on deck and see the water. They never seem to tire of it. We are due to arrive in Hawaii thursday - not sure exactly what time.

Everyone is so friendly. The kids have had a grand time playing with all the other kids. You should see the main lounge - Pinochle games, cribbage, checkers, kids playing London Bridges or Ring around the Rosy, some people just visiting and others sleeping or trying to get over sea sickness. There are Navy, Army, Marine, Air Force and coast Guard personnel aboard with their families. Some women alone with their kids. Well, guess that's all for now - love to all,
Thel, Joan and kids.

Living in Hawaii, before it was a state.

My brothers and me at a beach on Oahu. We lived there from March 1957 to July 1958 (Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959.) Some of our belongings were lost in transit when we returned to the states, so there are only three photos from our time on the island, and this is the only one (below) of our home.


This was the view from the back door of our quonset hut. Roy and Vern are playing on the picnic table. Roy writes, "I just remember the quonset hut(s) and the fence; Vern used to hit the fence post to make the giant bees come out." My father, James T. Lusk, was in the Navy then (he later switched to the Air Force) and he was stationed at the Naval Weapons Depot in Lualualei. I don't remember going to the beach very often . . . I think we lived higher up in the valley - a very rural area, with dirt roads. I remember this mountain well - I think it was Puu Kaua. When it rained, we could see waterfalls coming off the mountain. When the sun shined, you could see a tiny glint coming off something up there. When my Uncle Lee visited, he hiked up there and found an old crashed plane from a Jan. 21, 1954 navy plane accident.

There were occasional plane crashes during my father's 30-plus years in the military. It was just something you learned to live with. My parents were fatalists and always said, "When your time's up, it's up." On two occasions, the planes were from my father's squadron, but he happened to not be aboard those particular flights. But we were friends with the men who were aboard. First there were the funerals, then the widow & children (usually our age, and in our classes) moved away. There was no telephone service between Hawaii and the states at that time, so Mom sent a telegram to her parents, to let her know that Dad wasn't on the plane that crashed:

Mom learned to drive while we were there, and I remember her talking about the dreaded Kolekole Road, which she had to travel whenever she went anywhere. I had a very long bus ride to Barber's Point to go to school. There was an old abandoned air strip out behind the house (by the quonset hut you see in the background.) It was out in the country - a banana tree grew to the right of the back door. A big pasture was one side, with a few horses. The road out front was dirt, and bumpy. In spite of that, I learned to ride a 2-wheel bike there. We only had one neighbor within walking distance - a big family of Hawaiians, with all boys, much older than us.

The quonset hut was very basic. No real windows, just canvas rollups over the few openings, to keep out the rain. The wood plank flooring didn't extend into the closet in my room, and weeds used to grow up in there. I got nervous when they grew tall enough to touch the bottom of my dresses and then Mom would pull them out, but they always grew back. My room was a tiny thing, in back of the house, off the kitchen - I think was originally a pantry. A center room, divided in two with a low wall (didn't go all the way to the ceiling) was used by Mom and Dad on one side, Vern and Roy on the other. In front of the building was a screened-in porch, which served as the living room.

I remember being very happy there, and spent most of my time outdoors, barefoot, exploring the flora & fauna withing shouting distance of our little quonset hut.

Also happening that year:

- Ansel Adams traveled to Hawaii, commissioned by the Bishop National Bank of Hawaii to photograph the islands and its people for publication in The Islands of Hawaii (1958), a special commemorative centennial photo-documentary book featuring his work with commentary by Edward Joesting.

- Nov. 11th, Elvis Presley gave a concert for military personnel, at Conroy Bowl in Barber's Point. Admission was $1 (which would be about $7.50 today.)

- They started laying the telephone cable from Point Arena (San Francisco) and after laying 1900 miles met in mid-ocean with a second ship, which put down the remaining 665 miles of cable into Hanauma Bay on Oahu. The ships then laid the eastbound cable.

About This Project

This blog was launched in December 2007, but the project began in the summer of 1974, when my mother gave me a huge scrapbook & photo album, made especially for me, that told the story of where I came from. She made three of these, one for each of her children, because she knew she was going to die soon and that someday we'd have questions - and she wouldn't be there to answer. I kept adding to the book, and collecting stories from other relatives. A few years ago, I began digitizing this unruly pile of yellowing papers and fading photos. That's when something fascinating, and unexpected happened.

We tend to sort our our stories according to relationships or emotional events, which helps us keep track of our immediate relatives, but doesn't do much to help us see our other connections - to people and events that shape us just as forcefully as our family lines. Computers tend to organize things numerically or alphabetically. As I digitized each photo, document, and audio/video tape, I labeled each file by date and dumped them all into a common folder, with links to subfolders which were organized by name. After a certain critical mass was reached, I noticed new stories emerging in the common folder. I saw connections between people who would never meet each other (although their descendants would come together.) I saw what had seemed like personal tragedies as part of a bigger picture that involved many people.

Part of what makes this project work is the inclusion of stories from people who are not only related to me by blood, or marriage, but also by the bonds of friendship, which can sometimes be stronger than any other. Americans tend to change location and reinvent themselves, and friends are part of that process. Sometimes your best friend's grandmother can affect your life as forcefully as your own grandmother.

So - here's the plan. I'm including stories of people who have a personal connection to me, and/or a connection to someone who is connected to me. This means immediate family, cousins, in-laws, ex-spouses, best friends, and the ancestors and best friends of all of them. Let's see where it goes - it could get really big. I have a huge backlog of this stuff on my computer. I'm still digitizing an even bigger pile of stuff. And I have many questions - if I get even a fraction of them answered, there will be even more stuff.

What should I do with all these stories? I'm still working on that . . . I've considered various art projects, visual arts, a book, a film . . . don't know yet, I'm still in the information-gathering phase. But for now, I'm plugging it into this blog format. Last night it dawned on me that blogging software, which is essentially a database platform, would be the perfect program for organizing this stuff. It allows me to combine photos, text, and audio-video. Each entry can be keyed by date, family name, national events, etc. The information can be entered in any order and then later called up by date, family name, national events, etc. And, I can use the comments feature to get my follow-up questions answered.

Got some info you think I should include? How about posting it in the comment section of the appropriate entry? Is it something completely new? Shoot me an email - be sure to put "American Family Anecdotes" in the subject line, so that I can pick it out of the junk mail. Thanks!