Civil War research

In 1862, H.H. Johnston, my wife’s great-great-great-grandfather, walked from Fort Worth, Texas, to Little Rock. That is 321 miles straight-line, 353 miles by today’s highway.

Johnston was a soldier in a Texas infantry regiment. Somewhere in the house office is a transcript of a letter Johnston wrote to his wife and children in late 1862. In the letter, Johnston tells his wife where to send mail.

Yesterday I intended to research Johnston’s regiment. I could not find the letter, nor have I found it so far today.

I decided to search for information on the other side of my wife’s maternal family, beginning with Zebulon Raley, born in South Carolina in 1808. Zebulon married Arney (or Anney or Anery or Irene) Buckelew around 1840. Arney was born in 1820 in Alabama.

Zebulon and Arney had eight children, born between 1841 and 1862. Beloved Raley was their second child and first son. He was born in 1843 in Alabama.

On 23 September 1861, Beloved Raley, in Tyddersdale, Ark., enlisted in an Arkansas company of the Confederate army. His enlistment is not unusual; tens of thousands of young and not-so-young men joined the Confederate army that year, just as more tens of thousands of men joined Union volunteer companies.

Two other Raleys – James and Williamson -- joined the same company the same day. That company, along with three other Arkansas companies and companies from Tennessee and Mississippi, became part of the 40th Tennessee Regiment. All companies of the regiment moved from Memphis to Camp Johnson, Tennessee, for training.

And at Camp Johnson, Pvt. Beloved Johnston died, 9 November 1861, from measles and pneumonia. Forty-seven days military service.

No one knows how many soldiers died during the Civil War. Estimates range from 620,000 to 750,000. More than half were from disease.

Beloved Raley was not the only member of his family to die during the war.

Williamson Raley, age 41, died at Island #10 on 10 Mar 1862.

James T. Raley, age 22, died on 6 Jun 1862 near Des Arc, Ark.

Williamson was uncle to the two younger Raleys.