Pvt. William Rowe

Biography

Spouse

Children

Personal History

William Row arrived in America on September 8, 1849 in New York City, New York. It is not known where he spent the first 2 1/2 years in America, but by 1852, William is found in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. The first real paper record of William Row is found when on July 4, 1852, William Row was married to a Ellen McFarland in Tippecanoe County, Indiana.

Dotty Kinnun, one of the Historians of the Row/Rowe family, has recorded much of the family history as well as the family legends and stories in a wonderful 12 page record for the family. The following information about William Row comes directly from that record.

"A few months after their wedding, on November 1, 1852, William Row went to the County courthouse in LaFayette, Indiana and made a Naturalization Declaration, the first step in becoming a citizen of the United States. In this application he stated he was 27 years old, born in 'The Kingdom of Württemberg ' in Germany. He also stated that he sailed from Antwerp, Belgium and arrived in the United States at New York City on September 8, 1849. He renounced his previous allegiance to 'William, King of Württemberg in Germany.' By this he must have meant King Wilhelm I, of Württemberg, a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918 within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. However, this clue has not enabled us to find William. One ship, the 'Emily Miner', sailed from Antwerp and arrived in New York on that day, but her passenger list does not contain anyone who matches William.”

For some time, William Row is known to have been employed by local Merchant and Barrel Manufacturer, Allen L. Fahnestock.

Military History

On August 9, 1862 William Row volunteered at Lancaster, Illinois to serve in a company which was being raised in the Lancaster, Illinois/Timber-Hollis Township area of Peoria County by Lancaster area merchant and his former employer, Allen L. Fahnestock, for service in the Union army during the American Civil War (1861-1865). At the time he enlisted, William gave his place of residence as Orion Township of Fulton County, Illinois.

When Fahnestock had about 100 volunteers he led his company into Peoria, where they went into camp at Camp Lyon, near present day Glen Oak Park. Fahnestock was elected Captain by the men of the Timber Township company and on August 27, 1862, Fahnestock, and 96 of the other Timber Township volunteers, including now Private William Row, were mustered in as Company I of the 86th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

In September 6, 1862, the men of the 86th Illinois were issued their first uniforms of blue. They were also issued their 1st weapons. This was the Model 1854 Austrian Lorenz rifled musket. However, only a little over 400 were available at the time and these were spread out through the approximately 890 enlisted men in the regiments.

The following morning, September 7, 1862, the men of the 86th Illinois marched out of the gates of Camp Lyon, with much fanfare, through the streets of Peoria down to the railroad depot. There they were joined by the men of the 85th Illinois, who had been mustered into service at Camp Peoria. Together, at the depot, the men of the 85th & 86th boarded trains bound for Camp Joe Holt in Jeffersonville, Indiana, across the river from Louisville, Kentucky. Three weeks later the men of the 85th & 86th were in the field in Kentucky as part of Colonel Daniel McCook's 36th Brigade, which was part of the army commanded by Union General Buehl, who was in pursuit of Confederate troops under the command of Confederate General Bragg. On October 8, 1862, the men of McCook's Brigade were engaged with those Confederate troops during the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, McCook's Brigade suffering their first casualties. There would be many more in the next few years.

However, even before the men of McCook's Brigade even thought about leaving the Jeffersonville/Louisville area, the men were having great difficulty with their health, the new diet and life style were not conducive to good health. Before McCook's Brigade left the Jeffersonville/Louisville area, the Louisville Hospitals, where the big area hospitals were located, were full to over flowing with sick soldiers. The local National Cemetery, the Cave Hill National Cemetery, got it’s start as the Union burying ground for soldiers who died in the Jeffersonville/ Louisville area during that winter of 1862/63. When it came time for General Buehl's army to head out into the field, many of McCook's soldiers were left behind sick in the hospitals. Still others are believed to have been left behind to help defend the city. Whether he was sick in the hospital at the time McCook's Brigade left the area or whether he was left behind to help defend the city of Louisville, one of the soldiers who is believed to have been left behind was Private William Row.

Private William Row, as many of the men of the 86th who had been left behind in Louisville, would spend their Christmas in the Jeffersonville/Louisville area. Some the men didn't even live to see what would have been their 1st Christmas in the service. Periodically, as some of the troops got better, they were sent south to Nashville, Tennessee, where the 86th was encamped for the winter, to join their respective companies. Whether he was left behind, initially, sick in the hospital or just to help defend the city, Private William Row spent, at least, the 1st few weeks of the new year in the hospital. However, by the middle of January of 1863, Private William Row, was getting better and Private Row was given a weekend pass to go into Louisville.

Apparently on Friday, January 23, 1863, Private Row went into town. Sometime Friday, he got into some kind of trouble and by Friday night be was back in the hospital with a civilian bullet in his back. Very few things are known for certain about the shooting, there is even some question about when the shooting occurred. The Illinois Adjutant Generals Reports, seen above, state that Private William Row "DIED IN HOSPITAL AT LOUISVILLE KY JAN 18, 1863 FROM PISTOL SHOT WOUND PVTD WHILE OUT OF THE LINE OF DUTY”. The one thing that even the Illinois State records agree upon is that the shooting occurred "out of the line of duty." Most other records state he was shot on the 23rd of January and died in the hospital on January 24, 1863. Army records show that an unnamed citizen shot him with a pistol. The official records do not say who shot him. Family legend has Private William Row "shot in the back by his landlady on the stairs." Perhaps Private Rowe rented a room for the weekend in a boarding house or a hotel and got into some kind of trouble. The Proprietor may have been called and got involved in whatever was going on, the situation escalated and Private William Row was shot, for reasons we will never know. Private Row was taken to the hospital and died the following day. Another tragedy in this situation is the fact that because he was killed by a "civilian bullet", this apparently disqualified Ellen and the children from ever qualifying for a pension. After his death, the mortal remains of Private William Row, were laid to rest on January 25, 1863 in that Union army burying ground that today is known as the Cave Hill National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. Today they lie in what is identified as Grave #1232 in Section B of the CAVE HILL NATIONAL CEMETERY. His grave is incorrectly marked as his serving in Indiana Regiment. The fact that he was from Indiana, probably caused this mistake to occur. The doctors probably all found out that he was originally from Indiana.

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