William Laughlin (at right) with brothers Samuel and Alexander
On July
15, 2013, we published an article on our blog entitled “Civil War Artifacts of
George C. Hall.” The article focused on a
small collection of items relating to the Civil War contained in a leather
wallet inscribed with the name of George C. Hall, a private in Company C of the
78th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Although the company was raised in Zanesville, Ohio, where John Glessner
was living at the time, it was unknown what connection existed between Hall and
Glessner. A notation in Frances Glessner’s
journal has solved this mystery, as well as revealing the identity of “William”
mentioned in a penciled note by “Margaret” which was also contained in the
wallet.
On October
28, 1881, John and Frances Glessner arrived in Zanesville, Ohio, for the annual
reunion of the Glessner family. (Their
children, George and Fanny, were left in Chicago under the care of Isaac
Scott).
Margaret (Laughlin) Blocksom
One of John Glessner’s favorite
relatives in Zanesville was his Aunt Margaret (Laughlin) Blocksom, a younger
sister of his mother. On October 31,
Frances Glessner noted, “John and I went over to see Aunt M. who gave John a
number of things that had belonged to her brother William, and that were all
keepsakes from the war of the rebellion.”
The Laughlin family; William and Mary (Drake) Laughlin stand at upper left
William M.
Laughlin was born in 1822 in Wheeling, Virginia (later West Virginia) to John
and Nancy (Lyle) Laughlin, making him just two years younger than his sister
Margaret. In 1851 he married Mary Drake,
and two years later, their only child, John Lyle Laughlin was born. Mary Drake Laughlin died on November 17,
1861, just four days after William enlisted for three years of service in
Company C of the 78th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as a wagoner.
William
Laughlin was appointed Sergeant on May 1, 1862; 1st Sergeant on
April 30, 1863; and 2nd Lieutenant on November 29, 1862, but not
mustered. His company fought in the
following battles:
Shiloh, Tennessee (April 6-7, 1862)
Shiloh, Tennessee (April 6-7, 1862)
Bolivar,
Tennessee (August 30, 1862)
Raymond,
Mississippi (May 12, 1863)
Champion
Hills, Mississippi (May 16, 1863)
Vicksburg,
Mississippi (May 18-July 4, 1863)
Canton,
Mississippi (February 26, 1864)
Kenesaw
Mountain, Georgia (June 9-30, 1864)
Battle of
Atlanta (July 22, 1864)
Battle of Atlanta, by Kurz and Allison
The Battle
of Atlanta was part of the effort led by General William T. Sherman to seize
the important city of Atlanta, which served as a rail and supply hub of the
Confederacy. Atlanta fell on September 2nd
and was followed by Sherman’s famous March to the Sea. It was during the Battle of Atlanta on July
22nd that William Laughlin lost his life. His body was not recovered. Presumably, Private George C. Hall gathered
together William’s personal items in his
wallet and presented them to Margaret Blocksom when he returned to Zanesville
at the close of the war.
The most
interesting item turned over to John Glessner was a cardboard pin box
containing a small fragment of wood with a note written by his Aunt Margaret:
“A piece of the tree under which Gen. Pemberton
surrendered Vixburgh, it was cut by William, and he took it out of his pocket
book and gave it to me the last time he was home. Who ever may get this do treasure it for his
sake and mine too. Margaret.”
Pemberton's surrender to Grant at Vicksburg, note tree at left
As noted in the earlier article about George C.
Hall, Pemberton’s surrender at Vicksburg is well
documented, as is the tree from which William cut the fragment. On July 3, 1863 Pemberton sent a note to
General Ulysses S. Grant, who demanded unconditional surrender. The surrender was finalized on July 4,
Independence Day, a day Pemberton had hoped would bring more sympathetic terms
from the United States. Surrender was
formalized by an old oak tree “made historical by the event.” In his Personal
Memoirs, Grant described the fate of this luckless tree:
“It
was but a short time before the last vestige of its body, root and limb had
disappeared, the fragments taken as trophies.
Since then the same tree has furnished as many cords of wood, in the
shape of trophies, as the ‘True Cross’.”
Marker commemorating the 78th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Vicksburg
A cenotaph
was erected to the memory of William M. Laughlin in Greenwood Cemetery, located
in Wheeling, West Virginia. Wheeling,
which sits on the border with Ohio, served as the first capital of West
Virginia after it seceded from Virginia and was admitted to the Union in
1863.
The marker, which is worn from time, appears to read:
Laughlin family marker (Peace4Me, FindAGrave.com)
William Laughlin's cenotaph (Peace4Me, FindAGrave.com)
The marker, which is worn from time, appears to read:
“To the memory of Lieut. Wm. M. Laughlin, 78th
Reg. of Ohio V. Inf., who fell in battle in front of Atlanta, Ga. July 22,
1864, while charging the enemy, his body was not recovered.”
William
and Mary Laughlin’s son John was raised by William’s younger brother Samuel and
his wife Sydney. John married in 1884
and had two children, Mary and James.
He died in 1903 and was buried in the Laughlin plot at Greenwood
Cemetery.
We are
pleased to, at long last, be able to identify the William identified in his
sister Margaret’s note. In so doing, we
can treasure his memory and the Civil War artifact he left behind, as she
requested.
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