Please, Not In My Back

Site of  Magnolia Church¹

     In the spring of 1863 the Union army, under the command of Major-General Ulysses S. Grant, was moving across the Mississippi near Port Gibson.  Early on the morning of May 1st, as Company E of the 29th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment neared the Old Magnolia Church, James B. Ireland was seriously wounded.

   Years later as James was applying for a pension a surgeon wrote, 
" . . . [James] received a musket ball in his back on the right side below the ribs which lodged against the spine from which position it was extracted. A permanent lameness of the back is the result."²
   As a result of the wound, James Ireland spent some time in Mary Ann Hospital in Grand Gulf, Mississippi.^{3
    The nature and location of the wound makes one think about the circumstances of the battle. Was the wound a result of friendly fire?   Was he shot from the front as he twisted and turned around tress and rocks?   Did the Union troops pass by some Confederate soldiers who shot James from the back?   Was James' unit retreating at the time?}   
     The Military History of Wisconsin (Quiner 1866) says "After changing direction to the left, in an open ravine, and before the left wing was yet upon the new direction, the regiment was assailed by a heavy fire from the enemy on the top of a ridge, across the ravine, and also from woods on the right. They were forced to halt in this position. The ground on the left did not permit the left wing to form in line to repel the attack. The right wing was faced by the rear and opened fire."⁵  This account of the battle sounds like many other battles where there is action from all directions. In this account, James B. Ireland is listed as one of the wounded. 
     James B. Ireland recovered from his wound received at Port Gibson and returned to his unit, only to be wounded a year later at the Battle of Sabine Crossroads.²

Daily Ohio Statesman⁴

1.  "Battle of Port Gibson - National Park Service." 2006. 17 Dec. 2013 <http://www.nps.gov/vick/historyculture/battleportgibson.htm>

2.   Record for Rhoda  Ireland; Civil War Widow Pension Data File, ; National Archives at College Park, College Park,MD

3.   List of Wisconsin Soldiers at Mary AnnHospital, Weekly Wisconsin Patriot, Madison, Wisconsin, 27 June 1863

4.  Daily Ohio statesman. (Columbus, Ohio), 10 May 1863. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccnsn84028645/1863-05-10/ed-1/seq-3/>

5.  E.B. Quiner, Military History of Wisconsin, (Chicago, Illinois: Clarke & Co., 1866)http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/quiner/id/16651 (accessed December 26, 2013), chap. 37.

One Thing Leads to Another

     In the process of writing a blog entry on John Buryl Ireland, who was the father of Sarah Nina Ireland Prinslow, I made a chance discovery.  I had been trying to find out more information about a Civil War battle where he had been wounded.  For some reason I googled his full name, not really expecting to find much.  I noticed one search result that mention the Prinslow name, which wasn't by itself surprising since John B. Ireland's daughter married Charles Prinslow.  What was interesting was that this search result sent me to a blog about Prinslow genealogy.   Naturally I had to contact the blogger and ended up on a Facebook page about John Ireland and Rhoda Hartson Ireland.   It turns out that the blogger's grandfather is a cousin of our Pop, John Prenslow Boyd.  The blogger even had a picture of John B. Ireland that we had not seen before. Yesterday was a good day.
   But one thing lead to another. Things got better because our 'new' relative, Sarah Prinslow Frempong also was researching the surname Neely.  Neely is a surname that is is my family tree.  Back around 1805, Elizabeth Neely, my 3rd great-grandmother married George Berlin.  I visited George and Elizabeth's son, Jeremiah Berlin's gravestone last summer.  Rick Platt and I hiked around Allegheny Cemetery looking for the grave of George's father and another son, Jesse.  Back in August I wrote several blog entries about this part of the family.  See Nicholas Berlin and Anna Marie I hadn't found much about the Neely family but part of the problem is the spelling of Neely.  So today while goggling  'John Paul Neely' I spotted an entry that lead me to a Findagrave Memorial for Him.  Now I know why I hadn't found it before.  First the picture has not been online all that long and I had not researched the Neely name in the last year.  The other reason was the spelling.  I had been aware that Neely was sometime spelled Neleigh.  Now I have several new spelling to look for.  Neely had morphed into Naly 

NEELY; NELEIGH; NELIGH; NELICH: NALY; and who knows what else will open the door.

Courtesy of LAB on Findagrave.com

Paul Neely on Findagrave      Veronica Shupe Neely

Courtesy of KRL on Findagrave.com

Charles Prinslow & James B. Ireland

     My favorite genealogical website is familyseach.  I make a point of checking a few times each week to see what records have updated by checking the column heading "Last Updated".  At least once records, which had not shown up on microfilm, have showed up as digital records online.  Last night, ten different record collections were updated.  One collection caught my eye.
     Charles Prinslow had settled in the Lincoln County, South Dakota at least by 1884 and James B. Ireland had arrived in Turner County by at least 1887. When 'South Dakota, School Records, 1879-1970' showed as being last updated on Dec. 13, 2013, I had to go do some more research. Schools in Lincoln County are not yet in the data base but Turner County Records are included.  
     The school records are not indexed but with some effort we should be able to locate some useful records.  While trying to decipher the school district number that might be useful, I ended up in Centerville, SD and noticed a link for some records and photos for Riverview Cemetery.  This site had some photos and a map that Findagrave does not have on their site.   (By the way, I will get back to that school research.)
     By combining information on that site with a Google Map we can see approximately where family members are buried.  If you click on the markers you should be able to see pictures of the graves.



     In this second map you can see the land that Charles Prinslow was able to purchase (outlined in yellow).  He owned around 960 acres.  This land was in Lincoln County.   James B. Ireland owned 160 acres (outlined in a peach color).     His land was in Turner County.  James had difficulty farming his land because of injuries suffered in the Civil War so he eventually moved into Centerville. The blue line is the border between Turner County to the west and Lincoln County to the east.  The orange dot (a rectangle if you zoom in), north of Centerville is the location of Riverview Cemetery.  




     The picture below is of the Prinslow home in Brooklyn Township, Lincoln County, South Dakota.   When Minnie Prinslow Boyd, daughter of Charles, passed she offered her son, John Boyd, a chance to farm 160 acres in Lincoln County.  John, a native Californian, decided to stay in Orange County. 

Prinslow Homestead in South Dakota