Kate Locke Ancestry: June 2010

Recently I have been on the hunt to find the Civil War records for Josiah Locke (Kate Locke-Gus Thomas Leon Locke-Josiah Locke-Joseph Lock-Josias John Lock-James Lock). Using the above photograph of Josiah Locke in his military uniform & information online, my father was able to determine that the best match for this uniform was the Union Tennessee Cavalry uniform, although the buttons appeared on the wrong side of the uniform. Since the daguerreotypes or tintypes from the 1860's would take images in reverse, the uniform in mirror-image is typical & expected. It also was very likely that Josiah was a Union soldier because the McClanahan brothers (one of which was Josiah's brother-in-law) & other neighbors of the Lockes in Meigs Co, TN fought for the Union.

For those of you less familiar with Civil War history (like I was until I moved to the South), during the Civil War, the state of Tennessee had soldiers serving in both the Union & Confederacy. Eastern Tennessee tended to be aligned with the Union, while middle & western Tennessee supported the Confederacy. For this reason, the state of Tennessee had the most battles of any other state except Virginia. [See this link for a more thorough explanation of Tennessee's allegiances during the Civil War.]

However, I have been hesitant to pay to order any Civil War records from the National Archives until I had more evidence of which soldier named Josiah Locke I needed. (I didn't want to end up with records on the wrong Josiah Locke.) Thankfully my fabulous sister-in-law let me know about the brand new Civil War records collection available on footnote.com for FREE. And Josiah's records I did find!! His file was well-documented and included his enlistment papers with his place of birth, age, signature, and physical description. Much more than I thought would be on them.
The images can be found at: http://www.footnote.com/image/#261074121

From the records below it shows that Josiah Locke:

Was a Private in the 3rd Tennessee Cavalry, Company H
Joined up October 16, 1863 in Nashville, TN.
Mustered In on November 12, 1863 in Nashville, TN (Nashville was captured by the Union in Feb 1862.)
Was age 36 at time of enlistment
Captured by the enemy on September 24, 1864 in Athens, Alabama
Released on March 21, 1865 at Vicksburg, Mississippi
Arrived at Camp Chase, Ohio on May 7, 1865
Mustered-out from service at Camp Chase on June 27, 1865 & then on August 3rd, 1865 from Pulaski, TN
Physical description: black eyes, brown hair, light complexion, 6'2''
Born in Chester Co, SC (not new info, but verifies that this is the right Josiah)