looking for research advice

I'm looking for some advice, or help finding information regarding Confederate
Col. "John G. O'Neill".

So far all I have been able to find is that he was in the 10th Tennessee Infantry and that he was a recruiting officer.

My G-Grandfather was a union soldier who in June, 1864 was captured after the Battle of Brice's Crossroads and was sent to Andersonvill prison.
The story passed down through the family was that he had escaped from Andersonville, but there were no details to the story just that he had escaped.

The on-line Andersonville prisoner look up shows that he was held to the end of the war.

I have a copy of a document that states that in January 1865 my G-Grandfather was turned over to "Col.O'Neill a rebel recruiting officer" at Andersonville, then escaped and made his way to the Union lines at Savannah Ga. in April 1865.

Here is a link to my previous thread about that document.
http://civilwartalk.com/forums/showthread.php?124213-Looking-for-a-little-help.

I have found information about a group of 7 prisoners who were turned over to Col. O'Neill at Andersonville in January 1865.
Their story is basically this,

The Confederates at Andersonville issued a call for prisoners to
volunteer to work just outside the stockade, building barracks for the
other prisoners. The seven men decided that their chances for escape were greater outside the stockade than inside and answered the call for volunteers.
For unknown reasons once Colonel O'Neill took charge of the seven
men, they were not allowed to do the work. Instead they were taken
to Macon Ga. where after a couple of days the seven were able to escape and in April 1865 made their way to the Union lines at Savannah Ga.

This is all just circumstantial evidence that My G-Grandpa was one of those 7 men.
I am trying to find anything that will confirm that he was one of them.

Would there have been reports filed regarding the transfer of prisoners? Or of the men reporting in at the Federal Lines?

Any advice, or help on where I might be able to find any reports or information regarding the Colonel, or the men involved will be appreciated.

Thanks for taking time to read this.
Jon

Check the "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion" for any reports by the Colonel. Also, check the National Archives for the Colonel's "Officers Papers".

Robert

Robert,
Thanks for the advice. I have tried searching the OR for the Colonel's name here http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/sources/records/ with no results found. I'm not sure what area of the National Archives website to search.


I have been able to find that the Colonel was taken prisoner February, 1862 at Fort Donelson and was held at Johnson's Island on Lake Erie. Ironically Johnson's Island is only about 40 miles from my G-Grandpas home.
The Colonel's regiment (10th Tenn. Inf.) was paroled at Vicksburg in September, 1862, reorganized October 2, 1862, and declared exchanged November 10, 1862.

Jon

Dougherty makes reference to an interesting incident from an Irish perspective on the 13th November 1864: All the Irish who could walk were called to the gate this afternoon by a Col. McNeill of the 10th Tennessee (rebel) regiment, to see if any of them would take the oath to join the rebel service. Not an Irishman enlisted, but two Yankees did, one from Connecticut and the other from a New York regiment; so you see the Irish are the most loyal. The following day Dougherty added: Webb called on me to-day; we had a talk over the excitement caused by the appeal to the Irish; he says McNeill is no true Irishman or he would not try to degrade Ireland and her people by making such a proposition. The 10th Tennessee had been formed of Irishmen from Nashville in 1861, and ‘Col. McNeill’ was in fact Colonel John G. O’Neill. The remnants of the unit surrendered with the Army of Tennessee in 1865 following its defeat at the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina. (6)

http://irishamericancivilwar.com/2011/03/28/medal-of-honor-private-michael-dougherty-13th-pennsylvania-cavalry/

Although there are websites that have individual soldier's index cards, I haven't seen any that have "Officer's Papers". That is the title of one microfilm in the National Archives that contains all the correspondence either by, to, or concerning the status of a particular officer. There are some libraries in the cities and state libraries that have the microfilm, so if you are close to one, that's easier than the National Archives. I know the big library downtown in Birmingham has it.

Robert

Borderruffian,
Thanks for the link.
Here is an excerpt from Private Dougherty's diary from June 14, 1864.

"14th. About a thousand prisoners came in to-day from the
Mississippi, stripped of blankets, coats, shoes, money, watches,
rings, and in fact, everything was taken from them ; they said after
their capture they were treated in a most barbarous manner."

I'm thinking My G-Grandpa may have been in this group of prisoners.
He was captured at Guntown Mississippi June 12th 1864.

Jon

Robert,
I live about 12 miles from the R.B.Hayes Presidential Center and Library, I'll have to see if they have the microfilm.
Thanks,

Jon

Lt. Col. John G. O'Neill was one of two officers of the 10th TN Infantry sent to Camp Lawton in Millen, GA, and Andersonville to recruit enlisted Union prisoners for the 10th TN. That effort was the only instance I have found where Union prisoners were recruited on a large scale for an existing Confederate unit, but prisoners were also recruited at Florence, Salisbury, and the Richmond prisons for three new units that were raised and put into the field. O'Neill recruited 264 men for the 10th Tennessee, including 9 recruited at Andersonville. That unit was sent first to Mobile because the location of the 1oth Tennessee was not known when the time came to deploy the recruited prisoners. That unit was sent from Mobile to Egypt Station, Mississippi, where they were captured following a battle. The "Galvanized Yankees" (the term coined by a Union prisoner to describe Union prisoners who joined the Confederate army) were sent to Alton prison in Illinois, where they were given the choice of being prosecuted as traitors or joining the 5th US Infantry, which was being raised from Alton and from Confederate prisoners to be sent to the western frontier. Most joined the 5th, and were shipped west.

O'Neill may not have accompanied the men he recruited or at least was not captured at Egypt Station. He made a second attempt to recruit prisoners, presumably for the 10th TN at Andersonville during two visits in late January, 1865 and one in late February, 1865. He recruited 317 men. They apparently went first to Macon and then to Augusta. It is not known what happened to them, but O'Neill was one of four members of the 10th Tennessee that surrendered with Johnston's army after Bentonville on April 26, 1865. Nothing is currently known about O'Neill's life after the war.

archeopat, thank you for the information.
Would you mind sharing your sources? I have been hitting a brick wall trying to find information regarding his recruiting efforts at, and those he recruited at Andersonville.
Thanks again,

Jon

Yankee turncoats

I suppose that by 1865 the Confederates were pretty desperate and they had to ask Union prisoners if they wanted to turn their coats inside out. But what could motivate a Union soldier to volunteer at that late date after so many Confederate reverses. To get out of Andersonville would be the only reasonable explanation. Why would the Confederates trust men who made such a choice? The 317 men recruited at Andersonville would have to about double the remaining size of the 10th Tennessee. What commander would care to lead a unit so composed?

Sources

The information about the 317 men raised at Andersonville comes from a list of prisoners maintained of those who died or otherwise left Andersonville prison. I found it at footnote.com. The information about the movements of those men after they left Andersonville came from pension appeals after the war that I found through google books. The roster of the 10th Tennessee is on line at Footnote.com. There are numerous published records and records from the Records of the War of the Rebellion that chronicle that unit. The service records for the 5th US are on line at Footnote.com. I am working on a book that will chronicle those and other units.

The units raoised from Union prisoners was not trusted very far. I am sure there were many motives for joining such units, but the one I see expressed most often is to simply get out of prisons where men were dying all around them.

Hi. Would like to correct a small impression given here. O'Neill was not a recruiting officer. He was the colonel commanding the 10th Tennessee, the fourth and last of a distinguished group. Those preceding him all died in service, two in combat: Randal McGavock at the Battle of Raymond and "Battling Billy" Grace at the Battle of Jonesborough in the Atlanta campaign, after which O'Neill was appointed colonel. O'Neill, born in Ireland, was a charter member of the 10th Tenn "Sons of Erin", elected captain of Company A, commanded it in heavy action, and as major of the 10th, commanded the regiment in battle during the spring of 1864 in the absence of Grace. He was wounded three times during the Battle of Resaca and was still convalescing when made colonel of the 10th. The how and why he was assigned to galvanize Yankee prisoners into his ranks is obscure, but other efforts were made at the same time (Oct 64) resulting in Brooks Battalion and Tucker's Regiment, both part of the CSA "Regulars." It is said Pat Cleburne desired to recruit Irish immigrants from the prisoner of war camps but I've found nothing to confirm this.

A good source is http://www.tngenweb.org/civilwar/csainf/csa10.html, which is from the website of the Tennesseans in the Civil War Project and is an extract from a history of the same name commissioned in 1964. Curiously, the history at that time acknowledged it but stumbled by discounting the story of O'Neill's recruiting efforts. The reason the 253 (those reporting themselves as ex-Union POWs following capture at Egypt Station) are not found in Confederate Records appears to be poor record-keeping more than anything else. They never joined the regiment proper (and therefore were never part of any official report of "effectives") because they were under guard in Mobile while the 10th Tenn advanced to its doom at Franklin. After the Confederate disaster at Nashville, Grierson raided the M&ORR and the erstwhile Yankees of the 10th Tenn, known as "Burke's Battalion" (Burke was app. a former lieutenant in O'Neill's Company A court-martialed out of the regiment in 1863 but used by O'Neill to organize and command the Yankees--poss. without official sanction), were part of an ad hoc force sent to oppose it. They surrendered en masse to the 2nd NJ Cavalry and eventually became part of the 5th and 6th U.S. Volunteers ("Galvanized Yankees" in the traditional sense of the term) in Colorado following the end of the war. Unlike other former prisoners brought into the Confederate ranks, those of the 253 were not recent immigrants from Germany or Ireland. In fact, anecdotes have O'Neill being turned down by Irish Northerners he tried to induce to join his Irish Southerners.

Hope this is of help.

Reedmalloy,
Welcome and thank you for the information.
I meant no disrespect, I only referred to him as a recruiting officer because that is what document that I have refers to him as.
From what I have read about him I believe he was a very dedicated man.
I have read that he was wounded in both lungs, recovered and returned to duty.
I am still searching for more information about his visit to Andersonville in January of 1865, and what occurred after he left with the seven prisoners.

Jon

Very interesting that your ancestor, John Simon Welsch, was born in France.

Littlestown,
It is actual kind of confusing because some of the info I have says he was born in Harve, France and his reenlistment papers, and some census records state he was born in Germany.
Jon

LeHarve is the largest city in the Upper Normandy region of France, and, from the mid-1820s to 1850s, LeHarve became an important port for Germans emigrating from Württemberg, Baden, Alsace and Switzerland. I have ancestors from the Alsace region of France, and, many of their records, state, as you say, 'born in Germany', others, 'born in France'. Centuries of war in these lands, where 'ownership' switched back and forth.

I see that John Simon Welsch's brother-in-law, Franklin X. Deer (Diehr), was a private with the 25th Ohio, Co. E, wounded April 15, 1865, at Red Hill, SC. And, Franklin married one of John's sisters.

Col. John G. O'Neill...
From the diary of Private Michael Dougherty, 13th PA Cavalry http://irishamericancivilwar.com/20...-michael-dougherty-13th-pennsylvania-cavalry/
"Dougherty makes reference to an interesting incident from an Irish perspective on the 13th November 1864: All the Irish who could walk were called to the gate this afternoon by a Col. McNeill of the 10th Tennessee (rebel) regiment, to see if any of them would take the oath to join the rebel service. Not an Irishman enlisted, but two Yankees did, one from Connecticut and the other from a New York regiment; so you see the Irish are the most loyal. The following day Dougherty added: Webb called on me to-day; we had a talk over the excitement caused by the appeal to the Irish; he says McNeill is no true Irishman or he would not try to degrade Ireland and her people by making such a proposition. The 10th Tennessee had been formed of Irishmen from Nashville in 1861, and ‘Col. McNeill’ was in fact Colonel John G. O’Neill. The remnants of the unit surrendered with the Army of Tennessee in 1865 following its defeat at the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina."