Civil War Recruitment

  

Library of Congress

//hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b39731

Both the Union and Confederate armies used creative ways in which to entice volunteers to join their ranks.  Some recruits were offered bounties, and shortened time.  Others were offered free school and land.  They often used funny or enticing slogans in poster form.  Take a look at some of the creative posters from many branches of service involved in the Civil War....

Civil War Recruitment Posters

Benedict Mosier (1833 - 1908) - Soldier and Farmer

PCA Archives

Benedict F. Mosier was born 8 Dec 1833 in Alsace Loraine, France, possibly in is father’s hometown of Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin.  He was the second son of Christian Mosier and Ann Wenger.  

Shortly after Benedict’s birth, the Mosiers sailed from France, arriving in New York City on June 7th, 1834.  From there, they traveled to Holmes County, Ohio, where several more children were born.  According to family lore, they may have been Mennonites; Strasbourg was a center for Protestant sects not particularly welcome in Roman Catholic France. 

The Mosiers were in Iowa by 1858, when Benedict wed Mary Ann List. Soon thereafter, the young couple moved to Tyler Township, Hickory County, Missouri.  There, they had ten children born between 1860 and 1875, six of whom survived to adulthood. The Mosiers were farmers and, apparently, successful ones. 

In the summer of 1861, Mosier enlisted in Company C, 8th Missouri State Militia Cavalry,vii serving in Captain William C. Human’s company.  The mission of the regiment was to prevent Confederate forces from establishing a foothold in southwestern Missouri.  The soldiers went on numerous scouting patrols and engaged in a few skirmishes.  Since Mosier’s duties kept him fairly close to home, he was able to make periodic visits to his family. 

As the Mosier sons grew up, they began to migrate west.  Benedict and Mary Ann accompanied them to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1884.  Their son Sydney died on 30 May 1886 and was buried in City Loosley Cemetery.

Late in life, Mary Ann developed heart problems.  While driving home on December 14, 1897, she apparently suffered a stroke.  A neighbor moving cattle noticed that the horse and buggy had stopped in the road and came to her aid, but attempts to revive Mary Ann failed.  She too was buried in City Loosley Cemetery. 

Benedict Mosier joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and, in 1904, applied for a pension based on his Civil War service.  After his wife’s death, he went to live with one of his children in Mendocino, California.  Plagued with eczema in his final years, he ultimately sold his property in Mendocino and returned to Phoenix, where he died on 4 October 1908.  He was buried in the family plot in City Loosley.  - by Donna Carr

  

John Porter (1873 - 1898) - Lieutenant

 Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930

John Singleton Porter was born 23 January 1873 in Blount County, Tennessee to Robert and Maggie Porter.  He had at least two brothers, Samuel and Robert S. Porter, and a sister Jennie. 

On 25 September 1888, he was appointed to the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, at the age of 15, the minimum age allowed.  He graduated in 1892, after which he embarked on the last requirement, a two-year cruise.  He served aboard the USS Baltimore and the USS San Francisco.  He returned to Annapolis in April of 1894 to take his final exams.  Following a two-month leave, he was commissioned an ensign on 1 July 1894 and was appointed assistant engineer. 

He was assigned to take additional instruction in marine engineering in Paris, France, on 3 October 1894.  While there, he contracted a respiratory ailment, probably tuberculosis.  Upon his return to the United States in June 1896, he took sick leave and travelled first to Denver in the hope that a warmer climate would aid his recovery.  

 Porter went back east for the funerals of his parents in 1896-1897, which only aggravated his condition. He was in the last stages of consumption when he came to Phoenix in December 1897.  After seeking care from army surgeon Dr. Alex S. Porter, his health improved marginally, but he suffered a relapse and died suddenly on 11 February 1898 at Sisters Hospital. - Donna Carr

The Contents of Lincoln's Pockets after his Assassination

Contents of Lincoln's Pockets

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division 

https://www.loc.gov/item/2011646850/

                                                                                          

The Library of Congress has a wonderful resource page of pictures and articles from the Civil War.  

Click the link below to see.

One of them includes an article of the contents of Lincoln's pockets when he was assassinated.  The contents are both typical and mysterious.......

 Civil War Resources

James Braswell (1832 - 1898) - Civil War Soldier

Confederate Prisoners

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Washington, D.C., USA   //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.15835

James Belton Braswell is believed to have been born 7 September 1835 in South Carolina. He received training as a brickmason and later worked as a building contractor.

During the Civil War, James enlisted initially as a private in Company B, 26th Alabama Infantry (O’Neal’s Regiment), but in August 1862, he and his brother W. D. deserted. They were captured by the Union Army at Camp Davies, Mississippi, on 28 December 1863. Five months later, on 31 May 1864, they took a loyalty oath and enlisted in the U. S. Army. Braswell’s own account was much more colorful.

After a year or two of soldiering, he and a comrade named R. A. Crowley were fighting in Georgia when they deserted for the first time. They were soon captured by their Confederate fellows. The South, being by then desperate for soldiers, did not execute the pair, but confined them to the guardhouse. Braswell and Crowley escaped a second time by knocking a guard down. Recaptured and confined yet again, they made a third attempt to escape, but were foiled. Despairing of keeping the slippery pair in uniform, the commanding officer ordered them to be shot the next morning at sunrise.

As the condemned men sat in the guardhouse that night, Braswell persuaded Crowley to make one last break for it, saying “Let us try one more run. The chances are that we won’t make it wand will most likely get killed, but what of that? We’ll only shorten our years by five hours.”

The pair surprised and killed a guard, fleeing into the night. Before morning they reached a dense swamp and made their way to Sherman’s lines, where they surrendered.

James Braswell married his first wife, Mary Jane DuBose in Indiana in 1863. After the war, Braswell’s skills as a brickmason were undoubtedly in demand as new settlements sprang up out West. By 1870, the Braswells were living in Elk City, Kansas, and were the parents of three children, Sophronia Belle, George Belton, and James Elliot.

Around 1884, the Braswells moved to Arizona, accompanied by James’s old friend Crowley. Their last five children: Claude, John Wesley, Maude Pauline, Audrey and Joseph Franklin, were born in Phoenix. Although Braswell claimed to have been the father of 24 children, only 14 have been documented.

Although Braswell had been an industrious and skillful workman for most of his life, he took up drinking during his last years. When he expired on 13 January 1898, bottles of laudanum and paregoric were found in his pockets. Thinking that he might have committed suicide, Justice Johnstone ordered an inquest. The cause of death was cleared up when Mrs. Braswell testified that he habitually carried them to relieve a persistent ear ache.

James Braswell is buried in Porter Cemetery.  Come visit us, and learn more about this soldier at the PMMP! - adapted by a story from Sue Wilcox

The Young Volunteer - Life as a Soldier in the Civil War, 1865

Click to See and Read the Document from the Library of Congress

Read about the experience of a soldier during 

the hard times of the Civil War.........