Ancestry.com had a free week last week where you could access their Civil War records for free. I decided to search for one of my ancestors and the first one that came to mind was Francis Kane. He was married to Mary McKinley and according to familysearch.com they had 7 children together and came from Ireland before the birth of their firstborn in 1847. They settled in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. I thought it would be a long shot to find anything among the Civil War records for Francis but to my delight the search’s first result turned up Francis Kane (spelled Cain in their records–I imagine he only said his name and they spelled it wrong) from Mineral Point, Wisconsin. He was in the 37th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, Company G. This was a volunteer regiment that was organized after the President’s call in February of 1864. According to Wikipedia and a website devoted to the history of the Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry the 37th Wisconsin Infantry participated in the Siege of Petersburg, Battle of the Crater and Battle of Boydton Plank Road. These event led to Grant’s pursuit of Lee to the Appomattox Courthouse and ultimately the Confederacy’s surrender. How about you? Do you know if you had an ancestor in the Civil War?
PS I wrote my family to tell them this neat tidbit of family history and my Aunt told me that her uncle and my great-uncle wrote a book about some of our ancestors including Francis Kane. She told me that in this book it is recorded that the Civil War records described Francis Kane as 5 feet 7 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes.
Tales of an aspiring family historian 