(SCOFIELD) Sitting Out the Civil War

Jesse Arthur Bynum Reid came from a

Jesse Arthur Bynum Reid

family of small landholders and tenant farmers in North Carolina. Not surprisingly, they harvested cotton and tobacco. At the beginning of the Civil War, Jesse headed a family of seven. His wife had several more children during and after the war.

Whether for duty, honor, lucre, or some other motivator, Jesse enlisted in the Confederate army in March 1862, joining Company K of the 12th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. Digital records shed little light on Jesse's military participation that year. Documents from 1863 are more revealing.

On May 2, 1863, Jesse was admitted to General Hospital #9 in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy, and also the South's largest hospital center. Because of its proximity to the railroad depot, #9 was a receiving hospital. Patients were admitted, assessed, and typically sent elsewhere.

Jesse was processed in good time: on the same day he was transferred to Chimborazo Hospital, also in Richmond.

Chimborazo was a convalescent hospital: its patients were typically sick, not wounded. It was the largest Richmond hospital. Jesse was one of 3,550 men admitted to Chimborazo in May 1863; 75,000 patients were admitted during the 3 1/2 years of the hospital's existence.

 Chimborazo Hospital, the "hospital on the hill."
from http://www.nps.gov/rich/learn/historyculture/chimborazo.htm

Chimborazo had five divisions, organized by State. Jesse was assigned to Chimborazo 3, with other men from North Carolina. The idea was apparently to throw together men from the same troops, who were then cared for by attendants from their own states. The State divisions also simplified mail delivery.

Jesse did not remain in Chimborazo 3 for long. A few days after his admittance, Jesse was transferred again. On May 7, he was sent to Lynchburg.

Lynchburg was the second largest hospital center in the Confederacy. At the busiest times, Lynchburg was home to more hospital patients than city residents! At any given time, 32 local hospitals cared for 3,000-4,000 soldiers. Eighteen of the hospitals were converted tobacco warehouses. When emptied, these large warehouses made great hospital wards. Statistically, chances are good that Jesse resided in a tobacco warehouse hospital.

Lynchburg tobacco warehouse
http://www.lynchburgonline.com/tobwrhse.jpg

Muster rolls state that Jesse was absent, sick at the hospital, throughout the summer of 1863. He might have remained at Lynchburg, or he might have been transferred somewhere else.

Civil War hospital
http://civilwarbaptists.com/thisdayinhistory/1861-december-05/attachment/hospitalinterior/ 

By October, he was apparently at Camp Winder (also called Winder Hospital) back in Richmond. Winder Hospital seems to have been well regulated. The hospital had 98 buildings, from necessities, such as employee barracks, cook-houses, and bathhouses, to basic amenities, like a large library and recreation facilities, that made hospital life more pleasant. Winder Hospital also provided regular transportation service to the downtown area and had its own river and canal boats. In this environment, less comfortable than home but superior to the field, Jesse spent his second year of enlistment.

On December 21, 1863, Jesse's war service, as it was, came to an end. After apparently 8 months of convalescing in hospitals, he was discharged for disability.

Discharge and final payment information 

Were it not for his disability, Jesse would have seen action in two spectacular battles. While he was being admitted to the hospital on May 2, the rest of his regiment was 65 miles away fighting the battle of Chancellorsville, which is considered Robert E. Lee's greatest victory of the entire war. While Jesse continued on at the hospital in July, his company engaged in the most famous Civil War battle: Gettysburg.

How Jesse might have felt about sitting out most of the Civil War I don't know. His feelings about the Confederate commander, however, seem to be pretty clear. Five years after the war ended Jesse had another son: Robert Lee Reid.


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Line of descent: 
Jesse Arthur Bynum Reid (1829-1875)
John Parry Reid (1853-1936)
Claudia Helen Reid (1889-1961)
Guy Wixon Scofield (1913-1984)

(MUNTZ - Honorary post) War & Taxes

Louis Debaillon was born in 1810 in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. He married Aimee Toledano in 1838 and they made their home in St. Landry. Louis was a doctor and a farmer.¹ Although during “much of the nineteenth century, pretty much anyone had the right to call oneself a physician,”² Louis actually earned the title. “He was for five years a student of Emmetsburg College, Maryland, and subsequently pursued a course of medicine in the Medical College of Paris, from which institution he received his degree [an M. D.]. … [He] prospered financially, and own[ed] considerable property in St. Landry parish.”³ 

It is likely that Louis maintained his prosperity despite, not because of, the Civil War.


From their point of view, affluent Southerners had little reason to appreciate Abraham Lincoln. First he got himself elected. Then he objected to Dixie’s secession. His insistence on preserving the Union wreaked havoc on the safety and finances of Confederate citizens. Not to mention he freed the slaves. And to pay for it all, he approved taxes. Lots and lots of taxes.


From the outset of the Civil War, the Union realized the importance of controlling ports. By Spring 1862 they had retaken New Orleans and controlled most of the Mississippi River. The Confederacy had few troops in Louisiana: New Orleans was surrendered without a fight and the entire state was regained fairly easily. After reclaiming an area, the Union troops gathered valuable supplies. The Debaillons were probably affected like others. “Every house, farm and store in Imperial St. Landry Parish…[was] ‘virtually denuded by…efficient foraging teams.’”⁴ 

Under these circumstances, “some Louisianans turned to guerilla warfare tactics.” Unfortunately, after a time “the guerillas operated with less and less official sanction and less and less allegiance to the Confederacy. Often labeled jayhawkers, some groups combined draft dodgers, deserters, and outlaws, and fought against both Union and Confederate soldiers while preying on the civilian population. …these jayhawker bands could number as high as 1,000 men.” One of these groups “gathered recusant conscripts from St. Landry and neighboring parishes, an area whose reputation for lawlessness predated the Civil War.”⁵ 

A newspaper of the time reported on the “outrages and depredations of the Jayhawkers” in St. Landry, who “show no mercy to their victims, but take all they have, even to leaving them naked.” When apprehended, jayhawkers were shot.⁶ 

Between the Union troops and the jayhawkers, presumably many rich Southerners lost considerable capital during the war. Whether or not Louis Debaillon’s fortunes suffered because of them is uncertain. His bottom line was unquestionably affected, however, by a different outgrowth of the war: taxes. 

"Peace with a War Measure" ¹⁰

Congress created and “President Lincoln signed into law a revenue-raising measure to help pay for Civil War expenses”⁷ — “the first federal income tax in American history.” Enacted within months of the Confederate attack on Ft. Sumter, it imposed “a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800”. As war costs increased, so did tax rates. By 1864, annual incomes of over $600 were taxed at 5% and higher incomes were taxed at higher rates.⁸ ($600 in 1862 was equal to about $16,000 in 2003.⁹) 

“States that seceded were included in the tax base as soon as Union troops established control,”¹¹ which means Louisianans began paying taxes as soon as the law went into effect.

“The Civil War income tax was only a small part of a very complicated system of federal duties, stamp taxes, and fees that the government collected from individuals and businesses.” One federal worker “described the tax structure as being based on a principle” of “‘whenever you find an article, a product, a trade, a profession, or a source of income, tax it!’”¹² 

The “Act placed excise taxes on just about everything, including sin and luxury items like liquor, tobacco, playing cards, carriages, yachts, billiard tables, and jewelry. It taxed patent medicines and newspaper advertisements. It imposed license taxes on practically every profession or service except the clergy.”¹³

Physicians—like Louis Debaillon—paid “ten dollars for each license”¹⁴ annually¹⁵.

1866 Tax list for license fees. Louis is on Line 20.  ¹⁶

Also required to have licenses were peddlers, innkeepers, confectioners, pawnbrokers, soapmakers, photographers, lawyers, bankers, auctioneers, and jugglers, among others. To ensure maximum governmental revenue, each profession was defined, sometimes broadly. “Juggler,” for instance, included “Every person who performs by sleight of hand”.¹⁷

“To administer these excise taxes…the…Act also created” the precursor of the IRS, described by its first commissioner as “the largest Government department ever organized.”¹⁸

This universal taxation “was based on nothing in past experience” and some officials believed it “would likely never be repeated.” If only we were so lucky! “In fact, the 1862 tax law served as the basis for the present internal revenue system, both in articles taxed and in organization for collecting taxes.”¹⁹ 

Unfortunately for paychecks everywhere, “Congress …discovered that the income tax…provided a flexible and lucrative source of revenue.”²⁰ 


To wealthy Southerners, the ugly realities of war, pillaging, taxation, and financial ruin might have seemed to be Lincoln’s legacy. But despite the president’s notions of right and liberty, they survived. And many, like Louis Debaillon, continued to flourish.



Endnote: For the record, Abraham Lincoln is one of my favorite presidents.  I wanted to write about these events as a contemporary Southerner might have seen them. I don’t even know if the Debaillons were Confederate sympathizers. Either way, war and taxes affected them; that is the central point of this post.
  

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Line of descent:
Louis Debaillon, born 1810
Marie Antoinette Debaillon, b. 1851
Edmee Marielouise Dufilho, b. 1869
Roger Lambert, b. 1903
Marie Louise Lambert, b. 1930

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Notes: 
1 – All biographical information is from records at ancestry.com.
2 - United States Department of Health and Human Services, Life in 1918 “Seeking Medical Care,”  www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/life_in_1918/medicalcare/  , Accessed December 5, 2014.
3 - “Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical,” Biographical Section, p. 34. Ed. William Henry Perrin. Gulf Publishing Company, 1891. files.usgwarchives.net/la/stlandry/bios/debaillo.txt 
4 - Gary M. Lavergne, “The Civil War and Reconstruction,” Lives of Quiet Desperation,  www.garylavergne.com/oath.htm  . Accessed 11 Dec 2014.
5 - John M. Sacher, “Civil War Louisiana,” KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana.  www.knowla.org/entry/536   . Accessed 11 Dec 2014. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 6 Jan 2011.
6 - “Jayhawking in St. Landry Parish,”  www.louisianacivilwar.org/2010/07/jayhawking-in-st-landry-parish.html?m=1   . Accessed 11 Dec 2014. Quoting the New Orleans Daily Picayune, 21 Apr 1864.
7 - IRS, “Brief History of IRS,”  www.irs.gov/uac/Brief-History-of-IRS  , Accessed December 5, 2014.
8 - Tax Analysts, Tax History Museum: 1861-1865, The Civil War.  www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/THM1861?OpenDocument  , Accessed December 5, 2014.
9 -  www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-imposes-first-federal-income-tax  , citing U. S. Treasury Department, Accessed December 5, 2014.
10 – Thomas Nast, “Peace with a War Measure,” Harper’s Weekly, 9 Feb 1878,  www.taxhistory.org/thp/imagegallery.nsf/Images/93B8F3B89C28458585257419006EB0AA?OpenDocument  
11 - National Archives, Prologue, Winter 1986, Vol. 18, No. 4, “Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years,” Cynthia G. Fox,  www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1986/winter/civil-war-tax-records.html  , Accessed December 5, 2014.
12 - National Archives, Prologue, Winter 1986, Vol. 18, No. 4, “Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years,” Cynthia G. Fox,  www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1986/winter/civil-war-tax-records.html  , Accessed December 5, 2014.
13 - Tax Analysts, Tax History Museum: 1861-1865, The Civil War.  www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/THM1861?OpenDocument  , Accessed December 5, 2014.
14 - Charles F. Estee, “The Excise Tax Law. Approved July 1, 1862; and all the Amendments,” paragraph 32, page 48, published 1863, archive.org , Accessed December 5, 2014.
15 - Charles F. Estee, “The Excise Tax Law. Approved July 1, 1862; and all the Amendments,” p. 42, published 1863, archive.org , Accessed December 5, 2014.
16 –Ancestry.com. U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918 http://mediasvc.ancestry.com/v2/image/namespaces/1264/media/rhusa1862_101850-00627.jpg?securitytoken=134d0fb8646f2af50942d81af20086f3&download=false&client=IIV&imagequality=HighQuality&enhancement=AdaptiveContrast
17 - Charles F. Estee, “The Excise Tax Law. Approved July 1, 1862; and all the Amendments,” published 1863, archive.org , Accessed December 5, 2014.
18 - Tax Analysts, Tax History Museum: 1861-1865, The Civil War.  www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/THM1861?OpenDocument  , Accessed December 5, 2014.)
19 - National Archives, Prologue, Winter 1986, Vol. 18, No. 4, “Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years,” Cynthia G. Fox,  www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1986/winter/civil-war-tax-records.html  , Accessed December 5, 2014.
20 - Tax Analysts, Tax History Museum: 1861-1865, The Civil War.  www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/THM1861?OpenDocument  , Accessed December 5, 2014.

(ROBERTS) My first slave-owners! (Although I use the term "owners" loosely)

After 13 years of family history research, I have finally found some ancestors who owned slaves. I have long been proud of my Northern roots and my family's lack of involvement in slavery. And, after discovering this couple, I am still proud.

Rev. Simon Peter

Simon Peter married Elizabeth Hannah Hughes in 1822. They were both born and raised in "slave states": he in Kentucky, she in Tennessee. Simon was a minister for the Methodist Episcopal Church. After their marriage, he preached in the area for six additional years, at which point the couple "removed..., with a view of locating somewhere on the free soil of Illinois."1 According to one source, Simon left the South "because of his bitter opposition to slavery"2.

And so we come to the slave "ownership." A book documenting prominent Tennessee families includes this comment:  “Elizabeth Hughes, who married Rev. Simon Peter... removed to Illinois, carrying with them several valuable slaves and emancipating them because they were convinced the institution of slavery was wrong. It need not be added that the courage to do right under such

Elizabeth Hannah Hughes Peter

temptations sustained them in a life of usefulness and great prosperity.”3

Elizabeth's third cousin was also opposed to slavery, famously so. In 1864 he wrote, "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."4 Shortly thereafter, he worked with Congress to pass the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery. His name? Abraham Lincoln.5 [Incidentally, we are also distant cousins of Mitt Romney through the same line.] 

Simon and Elizabeth had closer relatives also involved in the Civil War. Two of their sons "yielded to the voice of conscience, and their country's call"6 and served on the Union side. Both gave their lives fighting for the country they loved, and for the freedom of millions. Sadly, one died in battle in his mother's own home state--Tennessee.

In every article I have read, Simon, Elizabeth, and their children, are praised for their uprightness, their community service, and their devotion to doing right. They are among my noblest ancestors, and I am proud to be descended from Simon and Elizabeth Peter.


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Line of descent:
Simon Peter (1792-1877) [my 4th-great grandfather]
Simon J Peter (1836-1923)
William H Peter (1868-1923)
Earl Raymond Peter(s) (1893-1963)
Dolores Mae Peters Roberts (1927-1992)

Notes:
1) "The Story of the Peter Family in America," compiled by Stephen B. Peter, p. 21, Carlinville obituary. Available from the Family History Library as a PDF download, see https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/oclc/866000813?availability=Family%20History%20Library [Hereafter cited as "Peter Family"]
2) "Peter Family", p. 23, quoting "There the Heart Is, A History of Brighton, Illinois," by Martha A. Bentley, 1965, p. 53
3) Sketches of Prominent Tennesseans: Containing Biographies and Records of Many of the Families who Have Attained Prominence in Tennessee (Google eBook), p. 231 [I am well aware that this implies that Elizabeth's parents owned slaves, and I still love them and think they're wonderful. I certainly don't have any living relatives who are perfect, so I don't expect that from the dead ones either. :) ]
4) http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/hodges.htm
5) This chart, showing the relationship between Elizabeth Hughes Peter and Abraham Lincoln is from "Peter Family," p. 27

6) "Peter Family," p. 44, "Letter to the Editor"