The Civil War Wiseley's

Please forgive the long interval since my last blog. We finally got away for a long needed vacation and went to Springfield, Illinois to see the Lincoln Presidential library and Museum.  I was able to spend a day in the research library and learned some very interesting things about the Civil War and the Wiseley name. Perhaps the oddest thing was a new way to spell Wisely.  I found an entry for a Wisly. First time I have seen that variation of the name.
     I was able to collect several names of Wiseley's that served in the Civil War and what unit they were in. The reading makes you want to go and find out what their unit did, what battles they fought and anything else you could learn. So, here are the Wiseley's that served in the civil war.

      One of the first books i grabbed looked promising. But state after state I could find no Wiseley's had served in the union army. Here are the states from

Janet B Hewett – Roster of Union Soldiers .

 Mo, KS, AR, NC, TX, AL, FL, GA, MS. 

No Union soldiers were listed from these states!!

I was sure i had traced Wiseley's in some of these states until it dawned on me these were all southern states and of course there would be no "Yankees" serving from these states.

     Then i began to discover states where we did have a Wiseley representative in the service. 

    

PENNSYLVANIA                Jacob H. Wisley 2^nd Hvy Art

Only one name from Pennsylvania??  I guess they had moved west or died or something. Maybe Pennsylvania Wiseley's were Like my 5G-Uncle Francis. He was enrolled in the Malitia in 1780-90. I have several records that list him as having paid fines for missing Muster. At first I thought he was a slacker who just was careless about showing up. Then I learned Francis was a Quaker and they did not believe in war. So he was fined and paid the fine, but apparently never made the annual muster.

    Still it seemed odd that there were so few from Pennsylvania.

 A search of the New England states yielded no one. Maine, New Hampshire, Masachussetts, Vermont, Rhode island.  No Wisely's from any of these states.

Then came New York and it was a different story.

NEW YORK

Luke T. Wiseley – 83^rd Inf Co C

John  Wisely – 38^th Inf Co B

John Wisly – 182 Inf Co A

Note the three different spellings of Wiseley or Wisely or even a new one, Wisly

New Jersey, Maryland, Deleware, the District of Columbia also had no one serve named Wisely.   And the western states were very thinly populated and no one named Wiseley was from those states either. 

None were found in  Nevada Washington Oregon  Arizona Dakota Utah Nebraska New Mexico California Colorado Michigan Conneticut Vermont, Maryland Minesota  or Iowa.

But Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois had several

OHIO

Nathan L. Wiseley – 187^th Inf

John G Wisely – 15^th Inf (3 mnths-1861) Co K

John G Wisely  (John) – 20^th inf Co F

Nathan L Wisely (Nathan) 20^th Inf Co F

Nathan L Wisely – 193 Inf Co D

John W Wisley – 45^th Inf Co G

ILLINOIS-

Daniel A. Wiseley – 3^rd Cav Co F

James Wisely – 139^th Inf Co K.

James (or James A.) Wisley – 151 Inf Co G

INDIANA

George Wiseley – 1^st hvy art Co D

James Wiseley – 6^th Cav Co F

Jordan Wisely – 133 inf Co K

Jordan Wisely – 145 AInf Co E

Samual H. Wisely – 149^th Inf Co D.

Jordan Wisley – 117^th Co E

 

BUT THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF MEN WHO SERVED IN THE CIVIL WAR.

We have to list the confederates as well.

CONFEDERATE TROOPS FROM "Roster of Confederate Troops" published 1996 by Janet B Hewett.

D A Wisely – MO- Cav 3^rd Regt –St Guard – Co A 1^st Lt

Isaac N. Wisely – VA Mil Wythe City

.

J R Wiseley – Va Mil – Wythe City

Michael Wisely – VA 19^th Inf

Mike Wisely – VA Mil – Wythe City

Daniel Wisley – MO5th Cav Co A Sgt

James P. Wisley – VA45th Inf co Joel Wisley – VA 29^th Inf Co B

Joel S. Wisley – VA 45^th Inf Co B

William Wisely – TX 34^th Cav Co C.

But there were others I had not expected to find.  It just never dawned on me there would be black Wiseley's but here they are. There must have been several US units of Colored Soldiers.

COLORED TROOPS

George Wisely US 47^th Col’d Inf Co I

Riall Wisely – US 18^th Col’d Inf 

I don't know much about these last two.  Perhaps they took the name Wiseley from a slave Master at some time.


But there were even more Wiseley's who served in the Civil War. I have no explanation for how we had Wiseley's serving in this unit but here it is.

 
  A Wisely – 1^st chickesaw Inf Wallace’s Company B

 James Wisely – 1^st Chickesaw Inf Wallace’s Co B

1ST CHICKESAW??   Indians named Wiseley??  I need to do more research on this unit to see if the Wiselys mentioned here are Union soldiers assigned to the 1st Chickesaw or if James and A were actually Indians. 

This blog has raised more questions than it has answered.  Hopefully it has gotten your attention enough to make you wonder about the family history.  Who knows maybe one of these soldiers was your great great grampa??


Next time I will try to get back to Oakwood and finish up that story.