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My own life and my opinions are shared at When I was 69.

REMEMBER: In North America, the month of September 1752 was exceptionally short, skipping 11 days, when the Gregorian Calendar was adapted from the old Julian one, which didn't have leap year days.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

A veteran of the Civil War fromTexas

Samuel James Webb 1827-1877, my mother's great grandfather. Born in Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland, died in Clinton, Dewitt, Texas

His son was Leroy Francis Webb.



Yes I admit I've used this 1894 photo of roof-sitting friends for my great grandfather Leroy F. Webb before in Sepia Saturday HERE.  But last week I promised to show a sepia photo, rather than my usual more recent ones!

So I will talk about Leroy's father, Samuel J. Webb.  I posted about him a few years ago Here (also a Sepia Saturday link.)

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photo!

Since everyone (in the US at least) has been celebrating our veterans last week, those who fought and died that we might have freedom, I'm going to consider his fighting for the Confederacy in a losing battle had as much merit as many other soldiers.

He enlisted in 1862 in the Confederacy, in Waul's Legion (Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery) according to US, Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865.  Another record from the same source says he was a private, Company B, in Waul's Texas Legion.

I'm currently reading more about the Siege of Vicksburg which ended on July 4, 1863.  That's because the lists on Wikipedia of the Confederate leaders doesn't include Waul.  Yet they do list him being there under his own biography.  Just curious, because also his biography doesn't list a Company B (in which Samuel J. Webb was listed) But there is a memorial to Waul's Legion in Vicksburg.

Waul's Texas Legion Monument, Vicksburg National Military Park
What I do know is that the north's winning general, U.S. Grant, did not want to keep track of all the prisoners of the Confederate Army following the eventual end of the siege...so he sent most of them home.  Those who weren't sick or injured continued to fight from Alabama.  I don't know whether S. J. went back to Texas at this point or kept fighting. But he was a private both in enlisting and leaving the army.

I'm linking to Sepia Saturday with some new photos I have found since my last posting about my great great grandfather.  This continues to be a process, so more information may come along in the future, about the past!

The house in Vienna MD may have been where Samuel J Webb lived, or perhaps cousins of his...the connection has not yet been found. There seem to be a lot of Webbs in the same area of Maryland, and some of them fought in the Civil War for the Union...most probably his brother Thomas H. Webb.


Handsell or Webb home Viena, MD

"Handsell, also known as the Webb House, is a historic home located at Vienna, Dorchester County, Maryland. It is a late-18th-century Georgian-style manor house. It is a ​1 1⁄2-story brick structure over an English basement. The main facade is five bays wide and has a central entrance containing a double door flanked by windows. Handsell bears the name of a 1665 land grant, which has been in the Webb family since 1892. Handsell was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

I now have a photo of Samuel J. Webb's grave in Clinton, DeWitt County, Texas...with probable dates for birth and death.












18 comments:

  1. That is quite an austere manor house! I wonder what the inside look like.

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    1. I think it had been abandoned by the time this photo was taken, after the openings were boarded up. Someone did plan to do restoration I think.

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  2. Your family history is always interesting - and I don't mind the more modern photos at all. Thanks.

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    1. Thanks. I definitely am a borderline sepia photographer...mostly color photos and in the 60's onward. But every once in a while I can get my family history into it.

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  3. Thanks Agnes, glad that you stopped by.

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  4. Hmmm? I have a family of Webbs in my family through a cousin's marriage, but they're in South Carolina. Some nice pix here. You hit the mark with the first one which includes a crowd of people with some on a roof! :)

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    1. I have looked at several other Webb families, which don't seem to have a connection to this one. Who knows. I don't know where this Maryland family came from originally either.

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  5. I did not know there was a Vienna in Maryland I learn something every week on Sepia Saturday! The Webb house looks impressive, and like Violet, I am always intrigued to find out what old houses are like inside.

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    1. I'm searching for the article I read years ago about a couple who were doing renovations of old houses.

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  6. There has been a lot of work on the Handsell House, and it's being restored. It has it's own web page...and I'll clip some for keeping here in this blog tomorrow. Link is here... https://www.restorehandsell.org

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  7. Many families in the border states like Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky suffered more from the division of the states as brothers and cousins chose to follow their convictions. Since there were really no standing armies in the South, men who followed the Confederates were making a fateful decision. The house looks preserved but not much restored.

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    1. Even people in Texas and Tennessee had to choose whether to stay in their communities and fight for the south, or leave. I recently read that that was why some Texans moved to Mexico.

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    1. Thanks. For me I have more questions than answers about my ancestors.

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  9. Such a gorgeous house, and a beautiful grave marker. What does the photo with "In Memory of..." commemorate. It almost seems like the whole family died? But I know that can't be right. Did the family go out of business?

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    1. I have only my own guesses to go by, until I find any documents about the photo. I guess the family moved to San Antonio at this time...so maybe they sold the business.

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Looking forward to hearing from you! If you leave your email then others with similar family trees can contact you. Just commenting falls into the blogger dark hole; I'll gladly publish what you say just don't expect responses.