On 24 July 1863 a John S King (in some records the name is given as John L King) was mustered into the Union Army at New Brighton, Beaver County, PA. His age is given as 44 yrs. He served with Company H of the 46th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was mustered out with his company near Alexandria, VA, on 16 July 1865, after having been promoted to Corporal a couple weeks earlier.
I think this might have been my gr gr grandfather John S King, who lived in New Castle, PA, at the time (within walking distance of New Brighton in those days--when people walked). But I'd like to verify this somehow.
There were several John S Kings in this area at this time, but none other than my John was quite the right age. A couple were much older, several were younger, one had already served, and one died in 1864. The age is a year or two too young to be my John, but he wouldn't have been allowed to enlist if he had given his real age, 44 being the maximum age allowed for enlistees as I understand it. Since he was enlisting as a substitute (i.e., someone was paying him $300 to take his place in the draft), he would have had to fudge his age a bit in order to make this work.
There were 22 men who were mustered in at New Brighton in July 1863 and who served in Company H 46th Penna Infantry. I've attempted to locate all of them in the 1860 census. As nearly as I can tell, they were predominately from Mercer, Lawrence, Beaver, and Washington Counties (western PA border counties), with a few coming from nearby Ohio counties. There were very few other men named John King in this area who might match this age (in 1860). There was a John S King, age 40 in 1860, in Hocking County, OH, which is south of Columbus, but I can't see him coming to New Brighton to enlist.
As to the name confusion, in the handwriting of the day it was often difficult to tell an L from an S. I don't know of any John L Kings in the area, which doesn't mean there weren't any. The information I have is apparently abstracted from Bates' Pennsylvania Volunteers (which I've consulted). It is on an index card that can be viewed online at
www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us. The service records at the National Archives apparently give the middle initial as L.
Since Company H was originally recruited in Potter County (1861), the Potter County histories often take credit for John S/L King as being one of their own, but this is very unlikely it seems to me. Potter Co is a long way off from New Brighton. John S King's service is not recognized in the Lawrence Co histories, however. (I don't think that really means anything, as the histories only seem to deal with companies and regiments that were originally recruited locally.)
There was no pension based on this service. My John died in August 1889 (in Pennsylvania), a year too soon to be included in the 1890 Veterans' Schedules. His widow was still living (in Kansas--they had gone their separate ways 7 or 8 years earlier), but she was not included either. I have not seen the original service record (from NARA), but I've ordered service records in the past, and they didn't include any more information than I already have. Also, I don't believe (but don't know) that the original records of who subbed for who are still in existence for Beaver and Lawrence cos., PA. They are not among the microfilms at Penna Archives anyway with those from other counties.
In short, if this wasn't my ancestor, then I don't know who it could have been. However, I am not ready to close the case just yet. There were just too many John Kings floating around to say for certain. I've been in contact with family members from all over the country. This is news to them. Is there anything else I might try in an attempt to verify the identity of John S/L King?
Thanks,
Bill King