19th Virginia Infantry: After the War

Continued from 19th Virginia Infantry: Defending Richmond:

Over the past month, I have told the often brutal story of the 19th Virginia Infantry during the Civil War. The regiment was formed soon after President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling up 75,000 men on 15 April 1861 and served until the remnants were captured en masse at Saylor's Creek on 6 April 1865, three days before Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. The regiment was part of the Army of Virginia until the commonwealth seceded from the United States.

Five Jennings men from Amherst County, Virginia, all first cousins to each other and some brothers, served with the 19th Virginia Infantry. This post briefly describes their lives after.

Relationship of the five Jennings men who served with the 19th
Virginia Infantry during the Civil War; created using Powerpoint

Charles Edward Jennings

The last military record on which Charles Edward Jennings, my great grandfather, was recorded, was a muster roll for Pratt Hospital in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Board of Medical Examiners cleared him to return to his regiment, but there is no 19th Virginia Infantry muster roll to prove he returned. I wrote in detail about his military service in A Lover, Not a Fighter.

He returned to Amherst County and continued farming. He married his first cousin once removed Nancy "Nannie" Jane Johnson/Johnston on 23 December 1873. They had seven children. Their youngest was born on 11 April 1892 and Nannie died two weeks later on 25 April. The newborn infant died on 9 August 1892.

Charles Edward Jennings; courtesy of Janie (Moore)
Darby

Charles then married Effie Davis Beard, my great grandmother. They received a marriage license on 2 June 1895 and married sometime there after. The lived in Roanoke, Virginia, where Charles owned a grocery business in partnership with another man. Charles and Effie had four children before she died on 4 May 1906 of heart disease. Their youngest child died on 12 June of the same year. He was seven months old. Charles died in Erwin, Tennessee, where he lived with one of his daughters and her family. He, Effie and their youngest child are buried in Fair View Cemetery in Roanoke.

Daniel Rose Jennings

Daniel Rose Jennings was wounded twice during the war -- at Gaines' Mill and Gettysburg. He was promoted to corporal after Gettysburg. On 30 March 1864 he was detailed by special order to General Pickett's headquarters where he worked as a courier. He was at Appomattox when General Robert E. Lee surrendered. He was the only one of the five Jennings men who fought with the 19th Virginia Infantry, which documentation supports him serving through the entire war. This does not mean the others did not; only that documentation has not yet been found to prove it.

Daniel returned to Amherst County and married Mary "Mollie" T. Johnson on 24 August 1865. They had five children. Daniel worked as a machinist and then engineer after the war in Appomattox County, Richmond, and Norfolk. He died on 18 January 1911; his widow on 31 October 1918. Both were interred at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

John Thomas Jennings

John Thomas Jennings was the older brother of Charles Edward Jennings. After being sent to an army hospital in Farmville, Virginia, to recover from rheumatism, he married Margaret E. Tomlinson on 1 July 1863. He returned to the 19th Virginia Infantry after Gettysburg and served until December when records indicated he transferred to Company G, 51st Virginia Volunteers, the unit in which his brother William Henry Jennings served. The last military record is a receipt for clothing issued on 11 December 1864 by the 51st Virginia Volunteers.

John remained in Amherst County and was a farmer. He and Margaret had 12 or 13 children. My assumption is Margaret died sometime before his marriage to widow Ellen Camp in 1902. I do not know when John died. He was interred at Amherst Cemetery. His, headstone, however, includes no date of birth or death.

Leroy Powhatan Jennings

Leroy was wounded twice during the war -- at Gaines' Mill and Gettysburg. He was taken prisoner at Gettysburg and sent to a hospital in Baltimore because he had suffered a gunshot wound in his right lung during the charge down Seminary Ridge. He was paroled and sent to a military hospital in Richmond and then home to continue his recovery. He was promoted to corporal after Gettysburg and returned to the 19th Virginia Infantry by January 1864. The last muster roll for Leroy was for the month of August 1864.

Leroy Powhatan Jennings; courtesy of Ancestry.com
member buffalo4me

He returned to Amherst County and farmed. He married Isabella M. White, one of three sisters to marry Jennings men. They had 11 children before Isabella died on 12 April 1883. I wrote about their lives earlier this year in, Three Brothers Married Three Sisters.

On 29 October 1884 Leroy married Sarah Ellen Clements and they moved to Texas that same year. They eventually settled in Mineola, Texas, and had ten children. Some of their descendants remain in Mineola to this day. I wrote about their lives in Gone to Texas.

Samuel Henry Jennings

Samuel Henry Jennings was older brother of Daniel Rose Jennings. He came down with smallpox when the 19th Virginia Infantry was stationed at the Fairfax County Courthouse in September 1861 and was discharged from the army on the 12th of that month.

He returned to Amherst County and to his wife, Mary Ann Howl, who he likely married just before 1860. They remained in Amherst County their entire lives and Samuel was a farmer. He and Mary Ann had eight children. In 1900 Samuel lived with his son. The enumerator listed his marital status as "married," but his wife was not enumerated in the same house. I have been unable to find her in the 1900 census.

Samuel died on 16 January 1904 of Bright's Disease and was interred at the Meade Cemetery in Madison Heights, Virginia. Mary Ann (Howl) Jennings died on 2 June 1925 and was interred at Fair View Cemetery in Roanoke.

19th Virginia Infantry: Defending Richmond
19th Virginia Infantry: Gettysburg and Pickett's Charge
Mapping the 19th Virginia Infantry: September 1862-May 1863 
19th Virginia Infantry: Fredericksburg and North Carolina
19th Virginia Infantry: Battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg
Mapping the 19th Virginia Infantry: August-September 1862
19th Virginia Infantry: Battle of Second Manassas
19th Virginia Infantry: Seven Days Battles
19th Virginia Infantry: Peninsula Campaign
Mapping the 19th Virginia Infantry: January-August 1862
19th Virginia Infantry: First Winter Camp
Mapping the 19th Virginia Infantry: 1861
19th Virginia Infantry: First Blood at Manassas
A Lover, Not a Fighter