GRAVE 2080 AT CAMP CHASE READS- LIEUT. Z.W. WILSON 1 TENN. REG. CSA
GRAVE 2080 should read 2nd Lieutenant Zebedee Wiseman Wilson Company H 35th Tennessee Infantry also known as the 5th Tennessee Provisional Army and Mountain Rifle Regiment CSA This unit was also known as the also called 1st Tennessee Mountain Rifle Regiment. Finding this soldier was more of a system of a process of elimination and prior experience from doing these short biographies. In 1886 the government started making the Compiled Military Service Records and the monstrous task fell to General Ainsworth and his staff. Every time an entry was found such as muster rolls, pay rolls, descriptive rolls, hospital records, prison records etc, a card was made and these cards were placed in a jacket and known as the Compiled Military Service Records. Because of the enormous undertaking over a million Compiled Military Service Records the government upon a few occasions created soldiers who never existed and placed other records with the incorrect soldier. And vice-versa there are some soldiers who served who do not have Compiled Military Service Records for various reasons. To add to the confusion some descendants took their ancestors Compiled Military Service Records from the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC where they are housed, because they felt the records belonged to them and not the public. This may have helped with the creation of Footnote, now known as Fold 3. Officers for the most part do not have a physical description other than an occasional mention of their age upon muster rolls. Officers were either elected or appointed and a card should be available for that source in the Compiled Military Service Records. Not seeing this raises a minor red flag for me while doing research. The lack of proper entries on the Compiled Military Service Records may raise a series of red flags while doing research. With this particular officer, 2nd Lieutenant Zebedee Wiseman Wilson Company H 35th Tennessee Infantry also known as the 5th Tennessee Provisional Army has 11 pages of Compiled Military Service Records. However, on one page it says he was killed at the battle of Shiloh and some pages say he was captured at Fort Donelson, Tennessee and numerous pages have him as missing at the battle of Shiloh, perhaps the best report being made by his Captain Edward J. Wood. Looking at the regimental history of 35th Tennessee Infantry also known as the 5th Tennessee Provisional Army I find they were at the battle of Shiloh and never were at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. A number of soldiers thought to be killed at Shiloh would turn up at Northern hospitals after the battle. During the War, the Army who won the battle also had the job of tending to both armies wounded. 2nd Lieutenant Zebedee Wiseman Wilson is shown on his Compiled Military Service Records as enlisting as a private on September 6, 1861 at Camp Smartt near Mcminnville, Tennessee, by Captain E.J. Wood. He would be elected as a 2nd Lieutenant of Company H 35th Tennessee Infantry also known as the 5th Tennessee Provisional Army on February 1, 1862. Perhaps one of the more odd entries of his Compiled Military Service Records and one I have never saw before was his transfer at Camp Chase to the Columbus, Ohio lunatic asylum on May 9, 1862. He was reported as died there on May 21, 1862. During the War the lunatic asylum was part of the Columbus State Hospital located northeast of the State Capitol. Some veterans who fought at Shiloh say it was the worst battle they had ever participated in during the War. 2nd Lieutenant Zebedee Wiseman Wilson may have had what we call today as extreme post traumatic stress disorder. Many veterans of Shiloh had eerie and violent nightmares of Shiloh for the rest of their lives. The following is from the Allred Family Organization.
"Zebedee Wiseman Wilson, oldest son of William Wilson and Margaret Allred, was born March 20, 1823 in Randolph County, NC. An old Bible record says that he was born in Deep River near Solomon’s Creek. He remained in Randolph County until at least the mid 1840’s. He arrived in Warren County, TN, about 1848 where he married Sophronia Elizabeth Bracken. They are listed in the 1850 census of Warren County. His parents, William and Margaret Allred Wilson were in Randolph County at this time, but they also went to Warren County, TN, before 1860, when they and their two single children, Nancy and William J., are found living with Zebedee Wiseman and his wife, Sophronia." To support 2nd Lieutenant Zebedee Wiseman Wilson as being our soldier, his age on his Compiled Military Service Records does correspond with the Allred Family Organization records. Also the history of the Company H 35th Tennessee Infantry also known as the 5th Tennessee Provisional Army mentions Company H's members being from Warren County Tennessee. When doing research I must look at all possibilities. There was a private Zebedie Wood Wilson with the 31st Tennessee Infantry although he too had been born in North Carolina about the same time period and living in Tennessee however he was a private and according to a pension that his wife made, he died in 1892. The next possibility is much more difficult and a very close match. He is listed as 2nd Lieutenant Z.W. Wilson Company H 3rd Regiment Tennessee Infantry (Clack's) He has four Compiled Military Service Records and that is including the title page. The second page of his Compiled Military Service Records states he was captured at the battle of Shiloh. The 3rd Regiment Tennessee Infantry was not at Shiloh. The third and fourth page of his Compiled Military Service Records say that he was with the 1st Tennessee Infantry with no company mentioned and was captured at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, and died on May 21, 1862 at the Columbus, Ohio lunatic asylum. It is my opinion that one of these pages was used for making his inscription at the Blue Ridge Marble Company in 1907-08 at Nelson, Georgia, on stone #2080 at the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery. The 1st (Colms) Battalion Tennessee Infantry was at the battle of Shiloh however Z.W. Wilson is not listed as being with them. The unit was not at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. Let's go back to page two of his Compiled Military Service Records with the 3rd Tennessee Infantry (Clack's) They were at Fort Donelson and a 2nd Lieutenant Z.W. Wilson is listed as being with this unit. However, I have access to the list of prisoners brought to Camp Chase from Fort Donelson, Tennessee and 2nd Lieutenant Z.W. Wilson 3rd Tennessee Infantry (Clack's) is not listed as being a prisoner, but as we know the Camp Chase records did make some mistakes. The odds of two separate 2nd Lieutenant's Z.W. Wilson's from Tennessee dying on the same day and year and both being sent to the Columbus, Ohio lunatic asylum and having died there are "nuts" pardon the pun. Because 2nd Lieutenant Zebedee Wiseman Wilson Company H 35th Tennessee Infantry also known as the 5th Tennessee Provisional Army has 11 Compiled Military Service Records and because they are in much more detail ie election as a 2nd Lieutenant etc, it is my opinion this is the correct soldier. I do believe however that there was a soldier named Z.W. Wilson with the 3rd Regiment Tennessee Infantry (Clack's) The Camp Chase prison records do show a 2nd Lieutenant Z.W. Wilson as being with the 1st Tennessee Infantry. No mention is shown as 2nd Lieutenant Z.W. Wilson being buried at the Southeast City Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio by Brotherlin & Halms. (contracted government undertakers) Captain Irving of the United States Quartermasters Department in May of 1869 does not mention re-interring any Confederate bodies to the Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery other than the Southeast City Cemetery. My speculation is that he was buried at the cemetery at the lunatic asylum at the Columbus State hospital and is marked as an unknown grave there, if marked at all. Furthermore I do not believe that his body was used at the medical college because of the time of year he died in May. My opinion is that when he was transferred to the lunatic asylum on May 9, 1862 from Camp Chase, he went from a Federal problem to a State problem. However he is shown as being on the Confederate dead list at Camp Chase. I believe that the government was not sure about his burial place when making the stones in 1907-08 and as a result decided to error in caution and issued 2nd Lieutenant Z.W. Wilson a stone.
ZEBEDEE WISEMAN WILSON OWNED NO SLAVES according to the census of 1860 slave schedule.