Ancestors and descendants

The Men of Company I,
13th Virginia Infantry Regiment

This page is dedicated to the personal stories of the soldiers of the original Company I. These stories has been provided to us by the descendants of these men. We thank all of you for sharing this information with us and for
giving your permission to publish it on this web-site.

Private Benjamin M. Haines, Company I
(Thanks to Mr. Dan Cowgill of Middletown, DE for providing this picture and information of his ancestor).

Benjamin M. Haines.

He served with company I until just after Gettysburg and I have found different explanations for his departure. On the internet, his official document says he deserted (possibly joined the signal corp.)  In an 1890s history book on Hampshire County, it is said that he definitely joined the Signal Corps.  

Benjamin is buried out in Slanesville, WV, at Salem Church on the front left side if you are facing the church, living into the early 1900's at his family farm a couple of miles away.  He had operated a small store on the property at one point.  We (the descendants) still return to the farm on a regular basis for frequent family gatherings, bluegrass music, fishing in the pond, etc.  The house he lived in is still standing, at one time a log cabin but the necessity of the family's size had them adding on to where it now looks like a farmhouse.  The walls are thick where the original logs still reside.  My grandmother, Margaret Haines Voit lived there until her recent passing.

Private Thomas Scanlan, Company I
(Thanks to Mrs. Debbie Scanlan Falls, Winchester VA for providing this picture and the story of her ancestor).

The History of Thomas Scanlan.

Prewar.
Thomas Scanlan was born in December, 1828 in the Village of Lisselton Cross, County Kerry, Ireland.  He was one of 11 children.  He, with his sister Ellen, were the first of the family to immigrate to America.  After six long weeks in a sailing vessel, their voyage ended in New York in 1849.  Disliking public works and the city, he soon made his way to Hampshire County, Virginia, and gained employment with a Mr. Long on a farm near Springfield.  It was here that he met his future wife.  On February 10, 1852 he married Maria Sneathen, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Rinker Sneathen of Three Churches, Va.  The marriage took place in Cumberland, Maryland in a Methodist Church (According to present information Maria appeared to an American Indian.  Apparently her mother, Elizabeth Rinker, was Indian).

On February 2, 1859 he received his Naturalization papers for the U.S.  (I have the original document.)

The War.
He enlisted in the Army of the Confederacy in April, 1861 as a private in Company I, or "Frontier Riflemen" (Hampshire County) 13^th Regiment, Virginia Infantry, Kirby-Smith's brigade, A. P. Hill's Regiment commanded by Captain Robert White.

Very early in service, he suffered a leg and foot wound at Manassas Junction, Virginia. While acting as a sniper, using the log of a snake and rider fence, he accidentally shot himself in the foot. He was taken home to recover and later returned to Manassas where he found that his company had moved on. In order to continue his service, he temporarily joined the Medical Corps.

While serving as a medic, in some manner he and Captain White met each other again, and the captain preferred charges against him of desertion. At his Court Martial, it was proven that he had not deserted but had continued service with the Confederacy.

Later on while serving with a burial detail, who should he find but the captain who had him court marshaled. During this war, common soldiers were buried in large trench graves side by side, while officers all had a pine box. These boxes were all of one size and, as the officer was a big man, he did not fit in the box too well. This was solved by putting him in the box as best they could, nailing one end of the lid down, and Thomas then jumped up and down on the lid until it was possible to nail it completely. In later years when telling the story, Thomas often said, "Faith and by Jesus I never had so much fun in all me life".

Not many details about his normal activities are known between this period and when he was injured for the second time. It is known that for a period of time he was a prisoner of war at Fredericksburg, Virginia. For how long or how his release came about is not known. Probably he was exchanged for a Yankee prisoner.

On June 10, 1863 he suffered severe chest and abdominal wounds in Oldtown, Maryland just across the Potomac River from Green Spring, while engaged in one of the two skirmishes fought with Captain Ginnevan's Cavalry, a portion of Imbodin's Cavalry.

The story goes that while on a skirmish for food, he leaned off his horse to open a farmer's gate, and the farmer stepped out on the porch and fired a musket a him, hitting him in his chest and ranging down and then coming out of his back, tearing a hole that, when it finally healed, in later years it left a cavity in his back that was large enough to cover half of a man's clenched fist.

Under the cover of night, is fellow soldiers carried him by wagon to his humble cottage home in Three Churches, where it was found that his wife, Maria, had just given birth to their third son, Thomas Lee, on June 6, 1863. His recovery seemed miraculous indeed with the limited medical facilities available, but he did recover and returned to his company and served faithfully till the end of the war.

Three Churches is about eleven miles from Romney. This town changed hands about 39 times during the war and, while Thomas was recovering from his wound, was in the hands of the Yankees. While he was recovering, the farm was visited a number of times by Yankee patrols with the intentions of taking him prisoner when he had recovered enough to be moved.

One of the patrols was commanded by a Lt. Scanlon, who was very sympathetic, and often brought them food. If he hadn't, there were many times that they would have gone hungry. He told them that when the war was over, he would come and visit them. He never returned, so they could only assume that he had been killed and couldn't come.

Another time a patrol came and, in some manner, Maria knew they were coming. Thomas hid in the lilac bushes behind the house. The officer in charge was very angry that Thomas was not there, but searched the house thoroughly, even going so far as to jam his bayonet through the feather mattress on the bed in hopes that Thomas would be under it. He then patted the stock of his musket and said, "sooner or later I'll find him and, when I do, Old Betsy will make short work of him". Maria retorted, "Maybe you will and maybe you won't. Bill Wills' Guerrillas might get you first". No-one knows how she contacted Bill Wills, but this patrol was way-laid on the way back to Romney and was completely wiped out.

(At this writing, I do not know exactly when he was discharged from the army. I do know that he received the "Southern Cross of Honor" that is being held by the writer of these pages, and will be passed on to his son, David, upon his death. In turn, David is to pass it on to his eldest son, Timothy, who will in turn pass it on to his eldest son. All portions of this history was told to the writer by his father, Grover Cleveland Scanlan, who had been told these things by his grandfather, Thomas Scanlan.
This information was compiled by me on March 27^th and 28^th, 1982.
Ellis W. Scanlan)

After the war.
Thomas and Maria had seven children. He died on December 12th 1907 and is buried in Mount Bethel Cemetery in Three Churches, WV.

(Thanks to Mr. Matt Combs for providing this of information about his ancestor).

John Slidell MacKenzie Combs.

My great-grandfather, John Slidell MacKenzie Combs was a member of CO. I, 13th Virginia Infantry Regiment.
I am interested in knowing if there are any pictures of the unit available [not to our knowledge].  I don't know what my great-grandfather looked like, and was wondering if a unit picture existed. 

My great grandfather was a newspaperman before and after the war.  I've read many of the papers he set type/edited/wrote for, and never found an article by him on the war. I would have thought he might have written about it, but didn't find any.

Matt Combs