Friday, July 8, 2011

A tale of two musicians

MUSTER ROLL OF CO. A, 1st REGIMENT GEORGIA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY (OLMSTEAD'S), ARMY OF TENNESSEE C. S. A.,CHATHAM COUNTY, GEORGIA

McCleskey, Henry (colored)-Musician August 10, 1861 . Term
of enlistment six months. Roll for February 1862 , shows him present. Appointed Musician of Co. B, 18th Battalion Ga. Inf. Paroled near Sailor's Creek, Va. April 7, 1865 .

DeLyon, Charles Henry (colored)-Musician August 10, 1861 . Transferred to Co. D, 63d Regiment Ga. Inf. August 1, 1863 ; Co. B, October 31, 1863 . No later record.

Listed above are two soldiers from Georgia who served as musicians in the 1st Georgia Regiment. We learn some facts about the unit as members moved to the 18th Battalion, Georgia Volunteer Infantry and another Black Confederate Amos Rucker also served in the 63rd Georgia of Company C.

My goal here was to introduce more than just these names from the Henderson Roster but to look at more of the lives of these men possibly before or after the war. My Chatham county records are few as I searched cemeteries to see if these men were buried there. I could not find a pension record for these men. I did find some info in a mortality schedule

Chatham 360 DeLYON, Clarence  1m   M  M S  GA     GA     GA  OCT  Abscess 1m Chatham 360 DeLYON, Clifford  1m   M  M S  GA     GA     GA  OCT  Thrash  1m
http://files.usgwarchives.org/ga/chatham/census/1880/mortchat.txt
This was an 1880 schedule and shows the children were 1 month old and mulatto. Surely this was a sad loss for this family. We don't know if this was Charles children or not but part of the Delyon family. Other census records mention a Mordecai Delyon working for Public office and a James Delyon family of 3 with one daughter. If we can find these soldiers and they don't have a marker we can see about getting one. 
If you have any info on Henry McClesky or Charles Delyon please forward to this blog. 
Thank you