ffp06 Joseph Pate Civil War Death

Tru here with Memorial Day thoughts; Hornet’s Nest, Battle of Shiloh.

My great-great-great-grandfather, Joseph Pate, was born 1817 in Lawrenceburgh, Indiana. He was 20yo in Iowa during the Panic of 1837 depression, when Banks shuttered their doors and unemployment skyrocketed.

Joseph Pate was 5′-9″, with dark hair and gray eyes. At 26yo, he married 16yo Catharine Ann Bentley on 30 Jun 1843. Will, their only son, was born in 1845.

They then had several other children including my great-great grandmother Caroline’s birth in 1854. But Catharine (Joseph’s wife , & mother to Caroline) died at 30yo, when my great-great grandmother Caroline was only 3yo, 1857. (Suspect death was due to childbirth complications.)

By three years later, in 1860 Joseph had a VERY full house for census results; there was himself, his new wife, their baby boy, the children that he had with Catharine, the children his new wife had with her first husband before he died, … and also children that her first husband had with his prior wife before she died. Total of nine children on census.

Civil War broke out in April 1861. Joseph’s 16yo son William enlisted out of Farley Iowa, Company F, 12th infantry Iowa — on Sep 28, 1861. By three days later, Joseph also joined out of Farley, Iowa, Company F, 12th infantry Iowa. There were very few uniforms or blankets. That winter was recorded as being a very difficult one for Iowa recruits of Dubuque County — bitter cold. Son William died March 1862.

Joseph was a private and served under General W.H. Wallace in the battle of Shiloh. Wallace’s troops were first to arrive at location, and were outnumbered approximately two confederates for each one union soldier. Joseph was wounded at what is now called “the Hornet’s Nest” on 6 Apr 1862. (It was the month after his son Will died.) He was taken to a hospital in St. Louis where he died more than two months later, June 24, 1862. He is buried in Union City National Cemetery near Kansas City.

So young Caroline first lost mother, then her only brother, & then her father. Step-mother remarried quickly and moved, so 8yo Caroline was raised by foster family Josiah & Lydia Rock. Caroline Pate’s photo hung in log cabin that belonged to my grandparents, which my mother now lives in.

Other than my ancestors who i have personally spent time with, Joseph Pate was the first ancestor who somehow hit my emotions. Even now, thinking about loss of never meeting him in the flesh brings tears to my eyes. Somehow this ancestor is primary to me. There was once an e-bay auction for civil war trunk of a military man named Joseph Pate. Starting bid was $300 and they would not open it to really find out which Joseph Pate it was, so i did not bid. That was probably 15yrs ago, and i have always wondered if it was his.

My dna results prove that Joseph’s great-grandfather was Jeremiah-Anthony Pate, whose 7th great-grandfather (according to Sir John Bernard Burke, “Burke’s American Families with British Ancestry”) is said to be Edward Pate of Eye Kettleby ~1500-1593, Master of the Mint to Henry VIII. Tomb at Melton Mowbray, Melton Borough, Leicestershire, England with wife Katherine. That ancestry may or may not be reliable information, but shows a bit of context.

Index for other Family History pages >> https://truthfulkindness.com/about/life-other/family-history-index/

C-Span documentary Video about “Hornet’s Nest” >> https://youtu.be/_QxeUjS0Duo

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