A New Treasure

A little over a month ago, a box was donated to Special Collections full of the papers of Judge Americanus Willis, who was here from the late 1800’s to the mid 1910’s. My boss has slowly been going through them and the historical documents are exciting! Some of them are being prepared to be digitized online in the Louisiana Digital Library. One thing she brought down to show me was a booklet called, “Constitution and By-Laws of the Henry W. Allen Camp No. 182 United Confederate Veterans, of Monroe, LA.” WOW! The date on the front was June 15, 1892, which is a month after it first organized (May 14, 1892). You have the usual stuff, such as electing officers, what their duties are, etc. One of the officers was the chaplain, and included was the speech that the chaplain was required to read at every funeral of a former soldier! I’d like to think this was read over Union and Confederate soldiers’ graves alike. I know the group was asked to conduct the funeral of at least one former Union soldier.

You can see the whole book digitized here: https://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/oplib-orv%3A147

On the back two pages were a list of officers and members. I think these are the original charter members of the camp. I’ll combine the two lists here:

Wm. R. Roberts – Commander
H. Meyer
H. Moise – Adjutant
John H. Noble
J.B. Garretson
Thos. Y. Aby
Will A. Strong
A.A. Cann
L.A. Shields – Vidette
E.H. Rills
Franklin Garrett
R.B. Vinson [may be R.P. Benson]
Thomas O. Benton
E.W. Mealy
Robert H. Endom – Quartermaster
A. Willis (Whose collection this is from!)
J.N. Fuller
W.W. Renwick
T.S. Mangham
M. Peevy
T.A. Watson
M.M. Marcus
G.A. Bruton
A. Mitchell
J.E. Hanna – 1st Lieutenant Commander
C.T. Hines
J.T. Camp
R.W. Richardson
N.J. Drew
John Fullam
J.T. Heath
G.A. Rape
W.G. Dunn
J.H. Rhymes
H. LaBaum
Richard M. Patterson – Color Guard
G.L. Batte
D.H. Key
F. Vollman
J.H. McCormick
W.A. Head
H.H. Sanders – Sergeant Major
L.G. Johnston
T.N. Conner
G.W. McCranie
Sig Meyer
Isaiah Garrett [Jr.] – 2nd Lieutenant Commander
Frank P. Stubbs
W.P. Renwick – Color Guard
Jas. L. Nelson
W.H. Awl – Treasurer
J.M. Tindel
W.N. Potts – 3rd Lieutenant Commander
John G. Boutz
C.H. Peevy
C.H. Calhoun
John C. Tolbird
M.J. Duty
D.W. Hollis
S.R. Franklea [sic Finklea]
W.W. Allen
Newton Camp
J.M. Stafford – Color Sergeant
E.N. Potts – Surgeon
J.L. Graves
N.G. Watson
C.V. Shoemaker
Sam’l Kuhn
J.C. Newman [May be J.E. Newman]
W.B. Custer [murdered just two months later. I wonder if he was one of the men moved to under the Confederate Monument in Old City?]
J.C. Duncan
Bennett R. Truly

C.T. Munholland was not listed in the membership list, but was listed in the officer’s list as Chaplain. He may have joined after the initial meeting to organize. I found an article about the history of the organization and it said the original members who met to organize numbered 72, a record in the state. There are 72 men listed above without C.T. Munholland.

I’ve been researching each of the men and have found info on most of them, such as full name, burial location, Unit they served in, obituary, etc. J.T. Camp and C.V. Shoemaker are giving me fits though! All the records for the UCV are at LSU. One day I will need to go down there for a few days and research if our local camp is mentioned! Maybe I’ll find a deceased list, with dates!