Abraham Merideth

Great-grandfather of Ranzel L. Merideth

Abraham Merideth was born on the 10th of September 1836 in Edmonson County. He was born to Joseph Abraham Meredith and Elizabeth Sanders Meredith who were both in their mid 40's at the time. The 1840 census shows the family settled in Edmonson County. In addition to the parents, there were 8 boys listed, no girls. One can only presume these were Abraham and his older brothers.

On Christmas Eve, 1861, Abraham mustered-in the Union Cavalry, 4th Kentucky, having enlisted a month earlier. On the 28th, he appears on the company roll at Camp Anderson which was located at Lebanon Junction, Ky. In March, the company proceeded toward Nashville, TN. Command was given to Col. Smith in May, and they engaged the Confederate cavalry several times. The most significant of these was at 4 am on May 5th at Lebanon, TN against Morgan. In the summer of 1862, Pvt. Meridith was promoted to corporal. However, in April 1864 he was demoted back to private. His enlistment described him as dark complected with black eyes and black hair.

The 4th Kentucky was involved in the pursuit of General Bragg into Kentucky as far as Bowling Green. In the winter of 1863, they returned to Nashville. In Tennessee, they engaged in several contests against the troops of Van Dorn and Forrest. At the Battle of Chicamauga, 9/20/1863, they were involved in heavy fighting losing 90 men and 4 officers.

For the beginning of the Atlanta campaign, Copl Meridith was assigned to the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry but eventually rejoined the 4th in April at the time of his demotion. He fought throughout Georgia and was sent home to Kentucky at the end of the year to be mustered-out.

He returned to the farm and in 1868 he married Minisa Crouch, the daughter of a James and Sarah Crouch. James was a farmer, Sarah, a midwife. Minisa picked up the trade of midwifery and herbs from her mother. When Minisa later would apply for pension assistance, Sarah testified that she delivered six children belonging to Minisa and Abraham in addition to the over 600 children Sarah had delivered professionally. These children were James E. Merideth (father of John Edsel Merideth) b. 1873, Flora Bell b 1874, Noah Clint b. 1876, Pernia Ann b. 1878, Leonard Bert b. 1880, and William A. born 1885.

Family lore tells that Abraham didn't get along with the other Meredith's in the area and so changed the spelling of his name. It appears as both Merideth and Meridith in his civil war papers. Although, he weathered many battles in the war, his life was still cut short at 56. On Nov 5, 1892 he was killed by an explosion at a sawmill. His grandfather had brought the clan to Kentucky almost 100 years beforehand and had operated one of the first Gristmills in the region. Some stories I have seen say that Abraham was just riding by on horseback at the time of the accident. Whatever the cause, he left 6 children ages 7 to 19. Mincy followed him six years later at the age of 52. They were buried in Old Cub Run cemetery in Hart County, Ky.

Thomas F. Hall

Great-grandfather of Marshall A. Paris

Nelson Thomas Frazier Hall was born around Shelby County, Kentucky in 1840. His parents were Norman Franklin Hall and Naomi Hall. They were born in Virginia, but traveled to Kentucky at a young age. They were married June 27, 1834 in Shelby County, Kentucky. By 1843, they were living in Union County, Kentucky, eventually settling in the Grove Center area (then called Gum Grove). They had at least seven children together, of which, Thomas was the oldest known.

At the age of 22, Thomas enlisted in Company D, 10th Kentucky Cavalry (Johnson's Calvary) as a private, Sept 3, 1862. He was recruited by confederates in Union County and signed up for three years. Census records for his family do not indicate that they owned slaves. Perhaps his strong Virginia roots were his motivation for choosing sides. Recruitment in this regiment was helped greatly by Johnson's victories in capturing Newburg, Madisonville, Slaughters, etc, in the region during the summer of 1862.

Within a few months of enlisting, Thomas was promoted from private to 3rd corporal. Colonel Johnson, the commanding officer, originally intended the regiment to be a band of guerilla fighters in Western Kentucky. However, soon after formation, the regiment was called to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. There, they were attached to Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan's cavalry division.

Morgan led 4000 confederates (90% ky natives) from Alexandria, TN, on December 22, 1862.
They quickly marched about 50 miles to Tompkinsville, Ky, by the next night. On a cold Christmas Eve, the men continued on to Glasgow and took the city from a small Federal garrison. They then continued and camped in Upton for a few days while small detachments took out bridges and telegraph lines. The rebels marched on to Elizabethtown on the 27th where 650 union troops were garrisoned. After a troop and artillery assault on the town, the confederates took the town. They were welcomed by the residents with whiskey and Christmas festivities.

Morgan moved his troops north toward Bardstown. It was only the next day that Union troops arrived in Elizabethtown in chase. Amazingly, the confederates were able to stay out of the federals grasp and snuck from Bardstown to Tennessee in a snow storm at the close of the year.

Morgan led an even bigger venture in the summer of 1863. Against the orders of his commanding officers, he led a raid from Tennessee and through Kentucky to Indiana and Ohio. He raided the garrison in Lebanon, KY and moved on through Bardstown. They eventually crossed the Ohio River at Brandenburg and moved on to Corydon, IN where a battle was fought with militia. He crossed toward Ohio, looting small towns along the way. They then proceeded to a ford over the Ohio River to West Virginia. The Union Army anticipated his attempt to escape south and were ready with militia, cavalry and gunboats. In the Battle of Buffington Island, Morgan attempted to make a crossing but 750 of his remaining 1150 men were captured in the attempt. A second attempt caused many men to drown. With only 300 men eventually escaping to West Virginia.

Morgan succeeded in terrorizing the region and damaging bridges and rail. He also captured and parolled 6000 Union troops. Most of the men that followed him on this raid were sent to Camp Douglas in Illinois.

Thomas' war records are spotty. He was with Johnson's cavalry for the November and December rolls in 1862. This confirms he was most likely a part of the Christmas Raid. However, I have no attendance information for him until he was captured Sep 9 1863. At that time he was still with the 10th Ky Cavalry. So, I assume he stayed with them the whole time. It is only a theory that he was a part of Morgan's largest raid. In any event, he was not one of the men captured crossing the Ohio River. He made his way to Cumberland Gap. A garrison of 2300 men collected there with self dug trenches. On Sep 7th, large Union forces arrived and began demanding surrender. The confederate commander surrendered facing poor odds and the very low moral of his troops after news of Gettysburg and Vicksburg. So, at 3pm on Sep 9th the rebel forces surrendered unconditionally.

On Sep 26, 1863, Thomas Hall arrived at Camp Douglas, the most notorious prison camp in the North. 1 in 6 prisoners died there. This was largely due to poor sanitation, overcrowding, and inadequate food and clothing. Stories abound of rations being withheld and blankets taken away from prisoners. Many died of disease or froze to death in the bitterly cold Chicago winters. Still, Thomas survived two winters there. He was part of a prisoner exchange between North and South. He was released at Point Lookout, Maryland on Feb 24, 1865.

Thomas returned to Union County. In 1866, he married Susan Livesay. They had three children Ollie, Laura, and Charles. He got started making Wagons and working as a Blacksmith. Eventually, he took up farming like his father. He died in 1922 of dysentery and was buried in Bethel Cemetery.