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At Historic Fort Steuben where I am the director, people frequently come to us with old papers or documents they might have found in a book, in the estate of a deceased relative or in an odd place such as a box of old china.
We usually suggest they take the article to the Jefferson County Historical Association or send it to the Ohio History Connection. But recently, I was given a document that I knew my son would find interesting. Jonathan is a military historian whose first "love" was the Civil War. When I received an actual discharge paper from an Ohioan who served in that war, I decided to pass it on to him. And, as I expected, he did a deep dive to find out about the veteran who had been given that discharge. Note that among his sources was the precursor of our own Herald-Star. Here is what he found:
Joseph McKee was born in Jefferson County in 1838 and worked in his father's wool factory until he enlisted in the Jefferson County Company (D) of the 126th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, organized at Camp Steubenville in 1862. He saw considerable action in 1863 and was severely wounded at the Wilderness on May 7. What happened after he was wounded, I will leave to the Steubenville Herald of Aug. 3, 1864 to relate:
"MR. EDITOR: An instance of what our soldiers patiently suffer has just come to my knowledge, which I think is unsurpassed.
"Seargant Joseph McKee and Corporal James Dennis, Co. D, 126th Regt. Ohio Vols., both from Jefferson County, were wounded severely on the 7th of May, both in the thigh, at the same time. They were taken prisoners and with many others were removed about one mile from where they were wounded. There they laid thirty days, dressing their own wounds.
"On the 5th of June, the rebels came with ambulances and removed all the wounded but a few who were to remain until the next day.
"Our two heroes were among the latter number. After the (r)ebels left they came to the conclusion (t)hat they would rather die in trying to get inside our lines, than go to Richmond and die. Accordingly, on the evening of the 5th they started, the sergeant on crutches.
"On the 6th, they forded the Rapidan, the water being waist deep. Then they struck the railroad and followed it, procuring their provisions from the citizens, paying as high as $3 per doz. for biscuits. On the 9th, they reached our picket line, nine miles south of Alexandria, Va., having traveled over sixty miles, one of them on crutches. They suffered terribly, yet they bore it patiently.
"They are now in the Summit House Hospital in Philadelphia, and are doing as well as can be expected. Are not such men worthy of the sympathy of every one in the North? Yet Copperheads hoot at them 'Nobody, but a poor mean soldier.' They will discover 'the error of their ways' when it is too late."
Joseph was promoted to lieutenant in March 1865, which his discharge notes. He returned home to Ohio, married, and had three children. He died in 1892. His discharge paperwork will be preserved and turned over to Joshua Mann, the Ohio National Guard historian.
If you come across old papers and don't know what to do with them, please -- call a historian who will know what to do with them and thus preserve our precious history. And join me in being thankful for our newspapers, which not only keep us knowledgeable about what is happening in the world but help us "Keep History Alive!"
Note: Jonathan Bratten is a captain in the Maine National Guard, currently serving as the Revolutionary War 250th Coordinator at the U.S. Army Center of Military History.
(Bratten is the executive director of Historic Fort Steuben)