Skip to main content

Union Service

May contain: person and human
Capt. Hiram Ashley Messenger of the Golddiggers Regiment.

This project by Sal Manna, which began in 2005, was the first to ever attempt to list Union Civil War veterans who at any time resided in Calaveras County. Later, it sparked a Confederate Civil War project. While there are certainly many more Union Civil War veterans who lived in the county than presented here, this roster is as complete and accurate as currently possible. Additional names are gratefully welcomed. To suggest additions or any other changes, or to offer further information, please contact Sal Manna at sal@calaverashistory.org. If a photograph of the individual and/or his gravesite is available, it is so indicated at the end of an entry.

Note: Residency for a veteran is defined as fulfilling any of the following conditions–listed in the U.S. Census, registered to vote, married, divorced, buried, had children, owned land or other property, conducted a business, claimed a mine, member of a fraternal organization, paid a bounty by the county or named in a newspaper or family record as having lived in Calaveras County before, during or after the Civil War. Enlistment in Calaveras County by itself does not constitute residency. Naturalizations are noted only when the veteran was not a U.S. citizen during his service.

Sources: Calaveras County Record of Burials of Ex-Union Soldiers, Sailors and Marines; Calaveras Prospect; Index to Registration Affivadits for Calaveras County, California (1900); Complete Index to Precinct Registers, Calaveras County (1904); Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (National Park Service); Proceedings, GAR, Dept. of California and Nevada, 46th Annual Encampment, Reno, Nevada, June 10-13, 1913; Las Calaveras; Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1867 (1890); Lodi Sentinel; Illinois Civil War Project; Roster and Record of 9th Iowa Vol. Infantry Regiment in the War of the Rebellion; Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion 1861-1866 (1886); Record of Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Civil War; Illinois State Archives; Great Register of Voters (Calaveras County); U.S. Bureau of Pensions; Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War; Brian Pohanka Research; History of the Fifty-second Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers (1893); Roster and Record of Iowa Troops In the Rebellion; National Cemetery Administration (Dept. of Veterans Affairs); Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio; California Death Index, 1905-1929; Foreign-Born Voters of California in 1872; Old Cemeteries of San Joaquin County California; Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865; Membership Roll Book, Campo Seco Masonic Lodge #100; U.S. Census, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930; California State Census 1852; 1890 Veterans Schedules; Calaveras Chronicle; Pre-1905 CADI Phoenix Project; Ira Hill Reed Collection (Calaveras Co. Archives); Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, Grave Registration Project; Yountville Veterans Home and Cemetery; Sacramento City Cemetery Burial Index; Bonnie Knott Research; Idahohistory.net; History of Amador County (1881); Prince Edward Island Baptismal Index; National Archives; San Francisco Call; Rootsweb.com; Genforum.com; Genealogy.com; History of San Joaquin County, California (1923); Ancestry.com; History of Sonoma County, California (1911); History of Effingham County, Illinois (1883); California Land Patents Database, Bureau of Land Management; Calaveras County Archives Death Index; Calaveras County Archives Birth Index; Calaveras County Archives Marriage Index; Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine (1872); Early California Wills, California DAR (1952); List of Pensioners on the Roll (January 1, 1883); Muster Roll, Co. E, 7th California Infantry (Calaveras Co. Archives); Stanislaus Civil War Association Cemetery Project Committee; Stockton Daily Independent; Amador Dispatch; Amador Ledger; Oliver Shaw Family Bible; Terry Brejla Research; USGenWeb Tombstone Transcription Project; San Andreas Independent; Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Merced, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa, California (1892); Barbara Filbin Research; Biographical Record of Kane County, Illinois (1912); Alameda County Record of Deaths; St. Helena Star; C.H. Burden Undertaker Records 1890-1953 (Sonora); 20th GAR Encampment Directory (San Francisco, 1886); Los Angeles Herald; Sacramento Daily Record-Union; Andersonville Historic Site; Maureen Elliott Research; Los Angeles County California Deaths 1873-1899; Alaina Young (Harmony Grove) Research; Oaklandgenealogy.com; Calaveras County Gold Rush Stories; GAR Register of the Dept. of California (San Francisco, 1886); Footnote.com; Investigator’s Reports Relative to Deaths and Burials of Ex-Union Soldiers, Sailors & Marines, San Joaquin Co.; Genealogytrails.com; Calaveras Co. Property Tax Assessment Rolls; Calaveras Co. Directory (1893); A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern California (1901); Museum.bmi.net (Sheffer Research); SFgenealogy.com; American Civil War Research Database; Library of Michigan; Washington State Digital Archives