Ancestor Civil War

Challenge -- to write about my great grandfather, Andrew J (Jack) Healan, who served for four months in the Ninth Georgia Regiment in 1861 in the Civil War. I have a copy of Jack's enlistment record and a few of the company muster rolls listing him as present. What little I had was not enough for a good story.

Most of what I found on the Internet concerned the Ninth Georgia after Jack had resigned. There is almost nothing about the regiments' activities in the beginning years. Certainly there is no mention that the Ninth Georgia initially served in the Army of the Shenandoah.

Then I discovered General Joseph E. Johnston's Narrative of Military Operations During the Civil War. He records that the Ninth Georgia joined his Army of the Shenandoah at Winchester, VA, in June 1861. Not all his troops made it to the battle at First Manasses in July 1861 because problems with the trains that were supposed to get all the soldiers to the battlefield in time. Now I had a story.

Later in the fall or winter of 1861, the Ninth Georgia was one of the many regiments to be reorganized into the Army of Northern Virginia.

A wonderful free resource for Johnston's book is Perseus Digital Library.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/