My Connection to the Battle of New Orleans: William T. Slater (About 1794 - 1847)

Today marks the 203rd anniversary of the famous battle won by American forces under the command of Andrew Jackson. That didn't affect the outcome of the War of 1812 because a peace treaty had already been signed although the news hadn't reached either army in the field. The victory made Jackson wildly popular and led to his eventual election as our seventh President in 1828.

[The battle of New Orleans for the piano forte; Composer P. Ricksecker. Published and sold at G. Willig's Music Store, 1816.

Source: Library of Congress]

According to Slater family stories shared by my cousin Sue, William T. Slater, our maternal third great grandfather, was part of the British invasion forces. It's been assumed that he was a sailor because the legend is that he deserted by going over the side of the ship. We know he was from Yorkshire, but Slater is a very common name and I haven't been able to find any convincing records of him in British archives.

He's the most recent of my foreign born ancestors--all the others seem to have gotten here well before the American Revolution.

[Ancestry.com]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: Willet Orlando "Richard" or "Dick" Worden (1843 - 1912), Soldier, U.S. - Part 8

This week marks the 153rd anniversary of my great great grandfather Willet O. "Dick" Worden's enlistment in the Iowa Twenty-Fourth Infantry - Company G, the same company from which he had received a disability discharge the previous August at Carrollton, Louisiana after taking part in the Vicksburg Campaign. He had just turned 21.*

[Report of the Adjutant General and Acting Quartermaster General of the State of Iowa. Ancestry.com. U.S., Adjutant General Military Records, 1631-1976 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Various. Sacramento, California: California State Library.]

His 17-year-old brother John Henry Worden (whose name is just below his) had enlisted in the same company the previous month.

Since Dick Worden was a veteran he wouldn't have needed training so was probably sent directly to rejoin his comrade of Company G in Louisiana where it was preparing to take part in General Banks' joint Army/Navy Red River Campaign. Here's what a regimental history says about that period:

The first of the year 1864 found the regiment encamped at Algiers, weather very wet, the mud and water rendering the camp almost impassable to man or beast. Recollections of Helena came forcibly to the men’s minds, but the 14th of January, quarters were obtained in warehouses. The 21st, the command moved, and the next day encamped near the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, By Madisonville. This was the most pleasant camp the regiment ever had, after leaving Camp Strong, near Muscatine. It was evacuated on the evening of February 26. The regiment was reviewed by General McClernand at Algiers on the 3d of March, and received the special commendations of that officer.

From Algiers the Twenty-fourth moved by rail to Berwick Bay, and Thence on the 13th joined the Red River Expedition under General Banks.

[Detail showing Algiers, Louisiana from LLoyd's new map of the Mississippi River from Cairo to its mouth; New York H. H. Lloyd & Co. (1863?). Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.]

Next month we'll pick up the story of the Red River Campaign which was later characterized by General Sherman as "one damn blunder from beginning to end."



*He was born on February 4, 1843.

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers? Sailors? Marines? William T. Slater (About 1794 - 1847)

This morning the Library of Congress* reminded me that today is the 202nd anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. Family history gives this date (or sometime near it)** as the moment when one of my maternal third great grandfathers Yorkshireman William T. Slater*** decided he didn't want to be English any more.

[Battle of New Orleans…the 8th of January 1815. William Edward West, artist; Philadelphia: Published and sold by J. Yeager, engraver, [1817]. Popular Graphic Arts. Prints & Photographs Division]

Three years later he was applying for citizenship in Jefferson County, Indiana.

*Through their Digital Collections' Today in History which is my home page.
**You can find an excellent overview of the War of 1812 leading up to the two-month long campaign now known as the Battle of New Orleans here. I had never considered the terrain my great great great grandfather faced upon leaving his post, but this National Park Service photo of a Louisiana bayou included by the author makes it clear that it must have been daunting--even without taking into account the wildlife that's found there.

[Alligator crossing the road, Jean Lafitte National Park

Both photos courtesy of the National Park Service]

And he wouldn't have had the benefit of the safety information currently distributed by the Park Service--an example:

Think like an alligator. Alligators are surprisingly fast: on land they can move quickly over short distances and in the water they're unstoppable. Remember to keep your distance and stand tall. Alligators judge their prey by its size, and if you are kneeling down to take a picture, you're a much more tempting target than if you're standing up.

***Allegedly part of the British invasion forces, you can read more about William T. Slater in my original post and see what more Christine was able to find out about him here.

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: Willet Orlando "Richard" or "Dick" Worden (1843 - 1912), Soldier, U.S. - Part 7

After the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, Dick Worden and his comrades of the 24th Iowa Infantry in General Hovey's Division formed part of General Sherman's forces at the Siege of Jackson* which took place from August 9th until the morning of the 17th when it was discovered that Confederate troops had abandoned the city.

[Map of the Siege of Jackson, Miss. Source: Library of Congress]

[From Personal memoirs of U. S. Grant by Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885. Source: Internet Archive]

After Jackson's second fall, according to its regimental history the 24th Iowa

"was transferred to the Department of the Gulf, and put in much of the fall and early winter in marches in various directions, without apparent aim or result."

The transfer entailed being transported downriver to New Orleans where on August 23, 1863, Dick Worden received a disability discharge from the Army and returned home to Iowa.**

For the moment at least, his war was over.



*Jeff T. Giambrone's blog Mississippians in the Confederate Army has an excellent detailed description of the two battles for Jackson here.
**To date I haven't been able to discover what disability my great great grandfather suffered that led to his discharge.




© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Gone for Soldiers: Willet Orlando "Richard" or "Dick" Worden (1843 - 1912), Soldier, U.S. - Part 2

On this day in 1863 General Grant's Union Army of the Tennessee had been concentrated at Hard Times Landing (in Louisiana) making final preparations to cross the Mississippi south of Vicksburg to attack the city from the rear. My maternal great great grandfather Dick Worden was there as a private in the 24th Iowa Regiment, now part of the Thirteenth Corps under General McClernand, Hovey’s Division.

[Map of the country between Millikens Bend, La. and Jackson, Miss. shewing the routes followed by the Army of the Tennessee under the command of Maj. Genl. U.S. Grant, U.S. Vols. in its march from Millikens Bend to the rear of Vicksburg in April and May 1863.

Source: Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.]

[Detail of above map highlighting Hard Times; Port Gibson in shown toward the lower right hand side.]

Here's a disparaging comment about Hard Times from a regimental history of the 24th Iowa:*

Here the army...proceeded on its way down the river to a point about four miles above Grand Gulf, and which is well named Hard Times, it having the appearance of being able to maintain a very poor family in a very poor way during a favorable season. 

I found the following description of the 24th Iowa's movements leading up to April 28, 1863, in a 1910 historical sketch:

Upon the return of the regiment to Helena, in the early spring, the troops with which it was associated were transferred to the Thirteenth Army Corps and ordered to join General Grant's army, in its operations against Vicksburg, and were conveyed on transports to Milliken's Bend, where they disembarked and marched, over difficult and sometimes almost impassable roads, to Perkens' Landing. Here, on the 28th of April, they again embarked on transports and barges and moved down the river to a point about four miles above Grand Gulf, where, without disembarking, they witnessed the tremendous artillery combat between the gunboats and the rebel batteries at Grand Gulf, which lasted for several hours. The troops had, in the meantime, been awaiting orders to land and co-operate with the gunboats in their attack upon the enemy's works, but, after prolonged bombardment, without apparent effect, the gunboats withdrew, and the attack by land was also abandoned. The troops disembarked and marched down the levee to a point three miles below Grand Gulf, where they bivouacked until morning. 

Very soon Dick Worden would face his first enemy fire during the attack on Port Gibson on the east side of the Mississippi River.


*Iowa and the Rebellion: A History of the Troops Furnished by the State of Iowa to the Volunteer Armies of the Union, which Conquered the Great Southern Rebellion of 1861-5. Lurton Dunham Ingersoll, J.B. Lippincott and Company, 1866 - Iowa - page 504. Available as a free e-book here.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.