John Wilson Smalley in the Civil War

When I wrote John's birthday information on January 26th, I said I would write this week about his Civil War experience.

So far in my researching, John was my only direct ancestor who fought in the Civil War - everyone else was too young, too old, Quakers who preferred not to fight and others who chose not to fight.

In 1861, John was living in Adams County, Ohio. Both he and his older brother Abner enlisted in Company C, of the 70th Regiment, Ohio Infantry, John on 14 Oct 1861 and Abner on 14 Nov 1861. The Sherman County Kansas history stated that John fought on the Union side and a brother on the Confederate Side. Family tradition indicated that he lost an arm in the war. So far, I have not found either to be true.

His pension records were ordered from the National Archives in Washington D.C. and we were surprised to discover that he was classified as absent without leave (AWOL) from 6 Feb 1862 until 3 Aug 1863 when he was arrested and placed in confinement until 31 Dec 1863. Apparently after he had served his time, he was again a soldier, so he was mustered out with an honorable discharge 28 Oct 1864 at Chattanooga, Tennessee.. Because he had actually served over a year and claimed disability he did receive a pension.

Sadly it was 14 Aug 1864 during the siege of Atlanta (Georgia) that his brother Abner was killed in action. I have wondered what Abner thought about his brother who was AWOL, while evidently he continued fighting.

What did Rachel, John's wife, know about his activities? The county history states: "During John's absence in the Army, Rachel fixed meals for the slaves who were going to Canada on the 'Underground Railway.'" When John enlisted they had 3 small children, the oldest being 4. It appears that Rachel was 3 months pregnant at the time, since their son James was born 11 Apr 1862. If the Army dates are correct, John could have been home at that time. He had been stationed at Camp Riley, which was in a neighboring county in Ohio. We can be fairly sure that he was at home in April of 1863 as his son William was born 24 Jan 1864, after he had been arrested and confined and probably put back on duty. There are some items in his files about his being listed as sick and even in the hospital, so maybe there was enough confusion about this, that he just went home.

Whatever the circumstances, John seemed to be proud of his Civil War service and joined the Union Veterans organization, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). Both the W.S. Robinson post of the GAR in Sherman County, Kansas, and the Women's Relief Corp participated in his funeral service and his obituary called him an "honored member" of the W. S. Robinson Post GAR.