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Joseph Rollin Prentice

#10, Joseph Rollin Prentice is the son of John Roland Harris Prentice and Elizabeth C. Eyanson.

Joseph Rollin7 Prentice was born, 6 Dec 1838, in Lancaster, Fairfield, OH831. Died, 7 Aug 1908, in Glockner Hosp., Colorado Springs, CO. Burial in Calvary Cem., Hebron, Thayer, NE.

Joseph Prentice was named for his mother's older brother, Joseph Eyanson. Raised in a German community, he learned to speak German from the Eyansons. While Joseph was still a youth, his father left his family, marrying two more times. His mother remarried, this time to John Paul Schmidt. Joseph adored his mother, but had little use for his father, long thought dead, who returned years later to tell of his other families. When the Civil War came, Joseph is said to have flipped a coin with his brother, George, to see who would go to war. Joseph won and enlisted for a 3 year period at Lancaster, OH but was not taken because the ranks were already full. He reenlisted again, this time successfully, and was inducted into the Army of the Ohio, 2nd Division, 4th Brigade, 19th U.S. Regiment of Infantry, Company E, at Fort Wayne, Indiana, on 3 March 1862. The 19th appears as a part of the 2nd Division (Brig. Gen. Alexander McCook), 4th Brigade (Brig. Gen. Lovell Rousseau) at the Battle of Shiloh. The unit had been originated on 4 May 1861 by Presidential Order, later confirmed by Congress, and organized at Indianapolis, IN.

Joseph's enlistment papers describe him as 23 years of age, by occupation a farmer. He was also described as having blue eyes, sandy hair, sandy complexion, and 5' 9 1/2" in height. In October, 1861, he was sent to Camp Robertson, KY. All the officers and men received their rations raw or uncooked. Some officers selected enlisted men to do their cooking and, in return, those cooks were freed from the mundate duties of guard duty and other menial tasks hated by the average private. Joseph was selected by one of the officers to be his cook.

On 2 Apr 1864, Confederate commanders received word that Buell was on his way from Nashville, TN to link up with Gen. Grant who was planning an attack on Corinth, MS. Confederate Generals Beauregard and Bragg then decided on an attack at Pittsburg Landing, TN near Shiloh.

Buell had not yet arrived when the Confederate army attacked Shiloh on the firwt day of battle, 6 Apr 1864. Union forces, driven back, had regrouped near Pittsburg Landing when Buell's reinforcements began crossing the Tennessee River in steamboats, arriving at Pittsburg Landing after dark that evening, the lst day of the battle of Shiloh. At 5:30 a.m. the next morning, the Division of McCook, to which the 19th was assigned, was formed to the right of Crittenden, on the north side of the western Corinth road. In later years, Joseph said he began April 7th as a "green and footsore farm boy, but that evening I was an experienced veteran soldier." He said that he could have walked a half a mile from where he was after the battle, by walking on bodies instead the ground.

    Other actions in which Joseph was involved included:

  • Siege of Corinth, MS Apr. 29-May 30 1862
  • Buell's N. AL Campaign June-August 1862
  • Pursuit of Bragg's Army Aug. 21-Sep. 26 1862
  • Cont. Pursuit of Bragg Oct. 1-Oct. 15 1862
  • Battle of Lawrenceburg Oct. 8 1862

As they maneuvered through the rugged countryside, troops on both sides suffered from a worsening drought. The water situation grew soserious that on the afternoon of 7 Oct 1864, federal troops had made a dash for water at Doctor's Creek, a few miles west of the little town of Perryville. Confederate troops of the 7th Arkansas were in the town, and it was there, at Perryville, the combatants came together.

  • Battle of Perryville Oct. 9 1862
  • March on Nashville Oct. 17-Nov. 7 1862. It was during the March on Nashville the Gen. Buell was replaced on 23 Oct 1864 by Maj. Gen. Wm. S. Rosecrans.

Actions in which Joseph was involved under Gen. Rosecrans included:

  • Advance on Murfreesboro Dec. 26-30 1862
  • Battle of Stones River Dec. 30, 1862 to Jan. 3, 1863

At Stone River, Joseph's unit is described as under the command of Maj. Gen. Geo. H. Thomas, with the following chain of command: 1st Div. under Maj. Gen. Rousseau; 4th Brigade under Lt. Col. Oliver S. Shepherd; 3rd Battalion under Maj. Frederick Townsend; and 19th U. S. 1st Battalion under Major Stephen D. Carpenter and Capt. James B. Mulligan.

On Dec. 26, 1862, Gen. Rosecrans set out from Nashville to attack Confederate forces under Gen. Braxton Bragg in the area of Murfeesboro at Stones River, TN. The battle lasted from Dec. 31st toJanuary 2nd. Attacked by Bragg's troops at dawn, the 19th was forced to retreat. Dring the retreat, Joseph was passed by his commanding officer's riderless horse. Upon regrouping, a volunteer was sought to go after the missing officer, Maj. Carpenter. Joseph volunteered, and braving heavy enemy fire, found Maj. Carpenter, loaded him on his back, and carried him back to his own lines. Maj. Carpenter died, perhaps fatally wounded on the trip back to his own lines, and was replaced by Capt. McMulligan. Joseph's heroism was witnessed by McCook wh retired later as a General. For that act of heroism, McCook recommended, and Joseph Prentice received, the Congressional medal of Honor, now displayed at the national war monument at Stones River.

After Murfeesboro, Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland lay inactive for six months. Then Rosecrans headed toward the rail center of Chattanooga, swinging in from the southwest. Bragg evacuated the city, withdrawing to northwestern Georgia. Finally the two armies collided on 19 Sep 1863 near Chicamauga Creek, a dozen miles south of Chattanooga where the north ksuffered 16,179 casualties and the south some 18,454 in the bloodiest two days of the war. Joseph's unit, the 19th, was heavily involved, and was part of the Army of the Cumberland under Rosecrans in the XIV Corps under Maj. Gen. Geo. H. Thomas with the following chain of command: 1st Div. under Gen. Baird (who replaced Rousseau), 3rd Brigade under Brig. Gen. John H. King. Later actions in which Joseph participated, including Chicamauga, include:

  • Battle of Chicamauga, GA Sep. 19-21 1863
  • Rossville Gap Sep. 21 1863 With the Union army trapped at Chattanooga, Gen. Thomas replaced Rosecrans.
  • Siege of Chattanooga Sep. 24-Nov. 23 1863
  • Battle of Chattanooga Nov. 23-27 1863
  • Battle of Orchard Knob Nov. 23-24 1863
  • Missionary Ridge Nov. 25 1863
  • Graysville Nov. 26 1863
  • Pea Vine Creek Nov. 27 1863
  • Occupation of Chattanooga Dec. 1863
  • Occupation of Chattanooga Jan.-Feb. 1864
  • March on Dalton, GA Feb. 22-27 1864
  • Tunnel Hill Feb. 23-24 1864
  • Buzzard Roost Gap Feb. 24-25 1864
  • March on Atlanta Begins May 1 1864
  • Battle of Resaca, GA May 14-15 1864
  • Advance on Dallas, GA May 18-25 1864
  • Battle of Dallas, GA May 25 1864

Joseph was shot in the left shoulder on 25 May 1864 during the battle of Dallas, Georgia. On 24 Jun 1864 he was transferred to the Army Hospital at Louisville, KY and on 11 Jul 1864 to the Army Hospital at Indianapolis, IN. On 12 Feb 1865 he returned to his unit at Camp Lookout Mt., TN for service as a company clerk. His Certificate of Discharge for medical disability is dated 3 Mar 1865 at Camp Lookout Mt., TN and he was discharged from there on 5 May 1865.

During the Civil War, 184 members of the 965 (19 percent) Joseph's unit died: 3 officers and 55 men killed in action and 2 officers and 124 men of various diseases.

Joseph returned to Adams Co., IN. His war injury prevented him from raising his left arm. He bought a team and wagon and went into teamstering. The trips took him into Kansas and he settled near Sabetha, Kansas. He married a widow with two sons, David and Henry. Her husband had died in the Civil War. After the death of his first wife, and his mother having died about the same time, Joseph asked his four half-sisters, Emily (Emma), Mary (Molly) Alice and Isabel (Belle) to live with him. Eventually Emily and Mary did come.

In 1875 he married Margaret Rooney, and in late Spring of 1866 the family moved to Albany Brown Co., KS where about a half mile south of town he bought 60 acres for $75. He later bought 160 acres 6 miles south of Albany. He also began buying unclaimed and abandoned parcels, 11 in all.

His family attended St. Augustine Catholic Church in nearby Fidelity, now a part of Fairview, KS. In Sabetha he took over a bankrupt implement business. He also invested in land and farms, becoming moderately well-to-do. As land prices boomed in Brown and Nemaha Counties, Joseph began selling his holdings there and reinvesting in unimproved land in abutting Thayer Co., Nebraska. By late 1894 he had sold the last of his Nemaha County holdings.

Moving to Hebron, his home was said to have been the biggest and nicest home in town, built to entice his wife to move there over her objections to moving. He built homes and barns on all his various holdings. He was an all-around good mechanic as well as his own vintner, brewer, and for many years was famous for his watermelons which he shipped as far as Chicago. He traveled extensively and began reinvesting in Rawlins County in northwestern Kansas.

The Lincoln Evening News of 19 Nov 1906 related that a rusty can was uncovered while grading a road in front of his home. Opened, it contained $2,130 in gold coins which, later unclaimed, he retained.

In 1908, while on a trip to Colorado, Joseph he became ill and died at Colorado Springs on 7 August 1908 of Brights Disease at the age of 69. His body was returned to Hebron for burial at the Catholic Cemetery. He is said to have had 87 children and grandchildren by the time he died.

His home remained in the family until 1928 when his widow Willed it to the church.

On 2 Jul 1995, The Medal of Historical Society, whose function included the finding and marking graves of Medal of Honor recipients, held a formal ceremony honoring Joseph and marked his grave with a military headstone. Participants included the 1st Nebraska Volunteers of the Reenactors of the Frontier Battalion in full Civil War uniform, and the Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1861-5.

He married, first, Hester Ann (Reynolds) Lunham (widow), 21 Nov 1865, in Sabetha, Nemaha, KS. Born, 16 Jun 1843, in OH832. Died, 2 Apr 1872, in Albany, Nemaha, KS. Burial in Fidelity Cem., Nemaha, KS833. Hester was a widow with sons David and Henry when she married Joseph Prentice. She died at the age of twenty-eight; the cause of death is not now known. Children:

  • i. Joseph Rollin8 Prentice. Born, circa 1866 (?), in Sabetha, Nemaha, KS. Died, circa 1866 (?), in Sabetha, Nemaha, KS. Joseph may have died at birth.
  • ii. David Prentice. Born, circa 1868 (?), in Sabetha, Nemaha, KS. Died, circa 1868 (?), in Sabetha, Nemaha, KS. Family tradition relates that David's mother had just scrubbed the kitchen floor with lye water and soap. Baby David started crying so Hester picked him up and put him on her hip. A pan on the stove boiled over. Hester made a dash for the stove, slipped on the soapy floor, and she fell on the baby who soon died.
  • iii. Sarah Elizabeth "Lizzie" Prentice.
  • iv. Clara Belle Prentice.

Joseph married, second Margaret Jane Rooney. For their children, see her.

Additional information about the ancestors and descendants of Joseph Rollin Prentice may be found in the Prentice Book by Linus Joseph Dewald Jr.

We invite the submission of any additional information you may have so as to make this website ever more helpful to others. Please email your information to Linus Joseph Dewald Jr. at dewald@prenticenet.com.


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