Saturday, April 18, 2020

Ignatz Kiolbassa (1839-1920)


-        -William Oliphant, Sixth Texas Infantry writing about the Battle of Arkansas Post that occurred January 11, 1863 from Oliphant, William James. Only a Private: A Texan Remembers the Civil War: The Memoirs of William J. Oliphant. Halcyon Press Ltd., Houston, TX 2004. p. 28-29.



Ignatz Kiolbassa (1839-1920) began the Civil War as a private in the Sixth Texas Infantry. He mustered out in 1865 as a sergeant with the 16th Illinois Cavalry. He was the brother of Paulina Kiolbassa Richter, my wife Martha’s 3rd Great-Grandmother.  (A note on the name Kiolbassa. As may be imagined recordkeepers have used variant spellings over the years. For the sake of consistency, I have settled on the spelling Kiolbassa.)

    Ignatz was born to Piotr (Peter) and Antonia Kiolbassa on 29 July 1839 in the village of Jemielnica. The village, in Poland, is about 290 miles southeast of Berlin and 180 miles southwest of Warsaw.  T. Lindsay Baker, author of The First Polish Americans: Silesian Settlements in Texas, references Ignatz’s birth noting records from the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, Jemielnica, Opole Voivodeship, Poland.[i] At that time Jemielnica was part of the German kingdom of Prussia. The German name was Himmelwitz. The -witz in the German spelling is not the German word Joke but a German variation on a Slavic suffix like -vich or -vic meaning son of or family of.

    Ignatz’s family immigrated in 1855 sailing from Hamburg on March 28th to Liverpool and then headed to New York City.[ii] The ultimate destination was Texas. It is not clear if the Kiolbassas traveled overland to Texas or sailed from New York to Galveston. 
 
    The first group of Polish Silesians immigrated to Texas in 1854 at the urging of Father Moczygemba of Panna Maria, Texas.  Panna Maria is about fifty-five miles southeast of San Antonio. Father Leopold Moczygemba was a Franciscan missionary who was in Texas to minister to German parishes. He wrote urging his fellow Poles to join and leave the German dominated Upper Silesia. The first group of immigrants arrived in 1854. They were plagued by disease, drought, flood and marauders causing discouragement and anger. Some settlers left for other parts of Texas.[iii] 

    In 1860 the Kiolbassas farmed in DeWitt County, Texas.[iv] The family comprised Peter, 50; Antonia, 54; Ignatz, 21; Franziska, 17; and Constantine, 9.  Dewitt County was formed in 1846 and named for Green DeWitt.  Dewitt was a land agent who founded the Dewitt Colony in Texas in 1825 then under Spanish rule. [v] Stock grazing was the primary business before the Civil War. The Chisholm Trail, a major cattle trail, originated in DeWitt. The first drive occurred on April 1, 1866, and by the year's end 260,000 cattle had been driven up the trail. The trail remained in use until about 1884.”[vi]

    In February 1861 Texans voted to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy in the Civil War. The Confederacy instituted conscription after the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. Ignatz was mustered into the Sixth Texas Infantry. The record does not indicate a date.[vii] He may have enlisted or been conscripted. Conscription was not popular and slaveholders with 20 or more slaves were exempt causing the burden to fall mostly on small farmers.[viii] Perhaps as many thirty percent of Texans had Unionist sympathies. Dissenters were targeted by vigilante mobs and often homes and businesses were burned down or the dissenters were murdered.[ix]

    The Sixth Texas Infantry was organized on November 14, 1861 near Victoria, Texas. It remained in Texas until May of 1862 until it had a full complement of Companies.[x] The regiment included men from a number of counties including DeWitt, Travis, and Bexar among others. The commander was Col. Robert Garland. He was a native of Nelson County, Virginia and had served in the U.S. Army prior to the war.[xi] The regiment operated in the western theater of the war through the Battle of Arkansas Post in 1863. They were captured at Fort Hindman during the battle of Arkansas Post and relocated to prison camps across Illinois.[xii]

    Ignatz was among those captured at the Battle of Arkansas Post and taken to Camp Butler near Springfield, Illinois. In the first month of imprisonment over one hundred prisoners are reported to have died and by the end of March a total of two hundred fifty-seven. Pneumonia killed many and then there was an outbreak of smallpox.[xiii]  Mark Bielski in The Sons of the White Eagle explains that an offer to be released from prison was made to Confederate prisoners:

“Colonel W.I. Lynch and some detachments of the 58th Illinois Volunteers had been assigned to prison guard duty at Camp Butler during that period. He observed in his report of 4 February 1863, that ‘nearly one-half of the prisoners confined’ had been conscripts who had been ‘pressed into the Confederate service.’ Moreover, they were ‘foreigners, Germans, Polanders, & c.’ who might take the oath of allegiance and join the Union army.”[xiv]


Seventy-three men from the Sixth Texas took the oath including thirty-five members of Ignatz’s Company I.[xv] Ignatz was among those who took the offer and enlisted as a private in Company D of the 16th Illinois Cavalry.[xvi] [My 3rd great-grandfather, Gideon Mellen, had been a member the 58th Illinois.  However, after being captured at the battle of Shiloh he died in a Georgia prison camp in October 1862 before the events at Camp Butler. Remaining members of the 58th in the prison were exchanged in November 1862.]

    The 16th Illinois was fully organized as of June 11, 1863 and sent to Knoxville, Tennessee.  The regiment took part in the battles of Rocky Face Ridge, Buzzard Roost, Resaca, Kingston, Cassville, Cartersville, Allatoona, Kennesaw and Lost Mountains, Powder Springs, Chattahoochee river, and various engagements in front of Atlanta and Jonesboro. In 1864 the regiment was assigned to the Cavalry Corps under General George Stoneman. The regiment also took part in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Scouting duty was performed in Tennessee and Alabama.  The regiment was mustered out at Nashville. The original force of the regiment was 1,200 men. It received 100 recruits, and at its discharge could muster only 285 men, showing a casualty list of nearly 1,000.”[xvii] Ignatz was mustered out in Nashville, Tennessee on 19 August 1865 with the rank of sergeant. [xviii]

    Ignatz returned to Texas. He married Johanna Kozielsky on 18 February 1870 in Dewitt County, Texas.[xix] An entry of the 1870 Federal Census reports a household of Ignatz and Anna Kiolbassa, though the entry shows Ignatz’s age as twenty-one but he would have been closer to thirty-one. [xx] In the post-war period Dewitt County became associated with lawlessness. Read the story of the Sutton-Taylor Feud - https://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-suttontaylor/.  

    According to county tax rolls by1876 the Ignatz and Johanna were living in Bexar County.[xxi] The county was created in 1836 and named for San Antonio de Béxar, one of the 23 Mexican municipalities (administrative divisions) of Texas.[xxii] The1880 Federal Census for Bexar County reported that Ignatz and Johanna were farming and had six children including: Felix, August, Albina, Adrian, Peter, and Edward.[xxiii] Ignatz remained in Bexar the rest of his life. In 1896 Ignatz filed a pension claim as an invalid for his service with the 16th Illinois. Upon his death on 28 July 1920, Johanna filed a widow’s claim.[xxiv] Johanna passed away on 30 October 1922.[xxv]

    T. Lindsay Baker, an author mentioned above, wrote a dissertation on the early history of Panna Maria including the post-Civil War.  There were Texans who took exception the Polish Silesians who were not enthusiastic supporters of the Confederacy. Men rode into the community many times to terrorize the Poles.  The confrontations culminated in the following incident:


“On this occasion the Americans fell upon the Silesians while they were all in the church for Mass. Together with ten carriages full of their women who had come to see the defeat of the foreigners, the Americans waited to provoke the Poles as they left the church. Understanding what was happening. Father Bakanowski ordered all the women and children to remain in the church with Father Zwiardowski while the men went with him to the school.

Taking their position on its second story balcony, the Silesian men armed themselves for a final fight with the Americans. With the Poles on the balcony, the Americans formed for battle into a single mounted rank. The carriages full of American women formed 'a line to one side of the action. Then the cowboys began to charge the school, taunting the Poles with threats that they would all be killed. With presence of mind Father Bakanowski aimed his gun at them and shouted for all to hear: "Stop". Or I'll shoot." The American women began to scream and the American men stopped. Shouts of "Shoot" repeated among the rank of mounted men. Seeing the difficulty of the situation, Bakanowski altered his strategy. Realizing that the American women were nearby, he changed the direction of the fight toward these women by shooting twice over their heads. This caused a great panic among them, all of the women and then all of the men retreating to Helena. Father Bakanowski opened the church and all the Silesians returned home in uneasy peace.”[xxvi]

    The San Antonio Conservation Society has list of historic farm and ranch complexes.  Among them is the Aniol / Kiolbassa farm. The site says

 “In 1892, Valentine Aniol conveyed the property to his daughter Julia Aniol Rakowicz and her husband John Rakowicz with the stipulation, “to furnish to the said Valentine Aniol a room on the premises including support, medical attention and clothing during her (sic) natural life.”   In 1896, the property came into the Kiolbassa family when it was purchased by Ignatz Kiolbassa from John and Julia Aniol Rakowicz. The farm passed to Ignatz’s son Felix. Presently, the Felix Kiolbassa house resides on a fifteen-acre tract owned by Clarence R and Barbara Jean Kiolbassa.  The tract is a subdivision of an original tract comprised of two hundred acres.”[xxvii]

The Society has posted a short YouTube video about the Silesians in Bexar – Video.



[i] Baker, T. Lindsay. The First Polish Americans: Silesian Settlements in Texas. Texas A&M University Press, 1996. 268 pages.  p. 72

[ii] Staatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Volume: 373-7 I, VIII B 1 Band 002; Page: 43; Microfilm No.: S_13116B. Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2008. Original data: Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Bestand: 373-7 I, VIII (Auswanderungsamt I). Mikrofilmrollen K 1701 - K 2008, S 17363 - S 17383, 13116 - 13183.

[iii] Handbook of Texas Online, Louann Atkins Temple, "PANNA MARIA, TX," accessed July 31, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlp04.  Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
[iv] Year: 1860; Census Place: DeWitt, Texas; Roll: M653_1292; Page: 491; Family History Library Film: 805292.Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.
[vii] Ancestry.com. Texas, Muster Roll Index Cards, 1838-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: Civil War Muster Rolls Index Cards (both Confederate and Union). Also Texas State Rangers. Austin, Texas: Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
[viii] https://www.tsl.texas.gov/lobbyexhibits/civil-war-conscription
[ix] https://www.tsl.texas.gov/lobbyexhibits/civil-war-dissent
[x] Oliphant, William James. Only a Private: A Texan Remembers the Civil War: The Memoirs of William J. Oliphant. Halcyon Press Ltd., Houston, TX 2004. p. 12-13.
[xii] Handbook of Texas Online, Brett J. Derbes, "SIXTH TEXAS INFANTRY," accessed July 31, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qks14.  Uploaded on April 10, 2011. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
[xiii] Oliphant, William James. Only a Private: A Texan Remembers the Civil War: The Memoirs of William J. Oliphant. Halcyon Press Ltd., Houston, TX 2004. p. 21
[xiv]Bielski, Mark F. Sons of the White Eagle in the American Civil War: Divided Poles in a Divided Nation (Casemate, 2016). P. 196
[xv] Lundberg, John R. Granbury's Texas Brigade: Diehard Western Confederates Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War Conflicting worlds. LSU Press, 2012. P. 79
Oliphant, William James. Only a Private: A Texan Remembers the Civil War: The Memoirs of William J. Oliphant. Halcyon Press Ltd., Houston, TX 2004. p. 81.
[xvi] Side served: Union; State served: Illinois; Enlistment date: 9 Mar 1863. Source Information Historical Data Systems, comp. American Civil War Soldiers [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
[xvii] Historical Data Systems, comp. U.S., American Civil War Regiments, 1861-1866 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
[xix] Ancestry.com. Texas, Select County Marriage Index, 1837-1965 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
[xx] Year: 1870; Census Place: Precinct 3, DeWitt, Texas; Page: 257A; Family History Library Film: 553081.Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.
[xxi] Ancestry.com. Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013.

[xxii] https://www.bexar.org/2985/History-of-Bexar-County
[xxiii] Year: 1880; Census Place: Bexar, Texas; Roll: 1291; Page: 216A; Enumeration District: 017
Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by
Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

[xxiv] The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773 - 2007; Record Group Number: 15; Series Title: U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; Series Number: T288. Source Information
National Archives and Records Administration. U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.

"United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2M29-RY8 : 20 August 2019), Ignatz Kiolbassa, 1907-1933; citing NARA microfilm publication M850 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,635,299.
[xxv]Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi. Accessed 10/5/19.
[xxvi] Baker, Thomas L. "The Early History of Panna Maria, Texas." PhD diss., Texas Tech University, 1972.
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Jacob Kundert (1842-1861)


Jacob Kundert (1842-1861) was born to Johann Heinrich Kundert and Elsbeth Kundert in Rüti, Glarus, Switzerland. (Jacob was an uncle to my great-grandmother, Amanda Kundert Boegli.)  Jacob's father, Johann Heinrich, died in 1851 in Switzerland.  In 1853 Elsbeth Kundert with her children and some twenty other Kundert family members immigrated to New Glarus. Making their way from Switzerland to Liverpool, England and landing in New York City.[i]   

In 1860 Jacob was working as a hired farm hand for the Luther and Ann Green in Montrose Township, Dane County, Wisconsin just across the county line.[ii] Jacob enlisted in Company K of the Third Wisconsin Infantry in 1861 at the age of eighteen.[iii] The Wisconsin Veterans Museum Civil War database references him as Jacob Condrett. 

 The 3rd Wisconsin Infantry was organized at Camp Hamilton, in Fond Du Lac and mustered into service on June 19, 1861. From Wisconsin it moved to Hagerstown, Maryland, on July 12 and then went on to Harper's Ferry, Virginia, July 18, 1861. During its service it moved through Maryland, Virginia, the Washington, D.C., area and Pennsylvania. After brief duties in New York and Alabama, it moved through Georgia, the Carolinas, and ended up in Kentucky. The unit fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Resaca, and in the siege of Atlanta, and participated in Sherman's March to the Sea. It was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, on July 18, 1865. The regiment lost 282 men during service. Nine officers and 158 enlisted men were killed. Two officers and 113 enlisted men died from disease.[iv] 

 The regiment first saw action 16 October 1861 in a skirmish at Bolivar Heights, Virginia. They were in Banks' Corps in the Valley Campaign in Spring 1862, and were in combat at Cedar Mountain in August, after which they became part of the XII Corps, Army of the Potomac.[v]

 Jacob was killed on September 17, 1862 at Antietam. The unit was posted just north of the Miller Cornfield at dawn on 17 September, and was hit by Hood's Division emerging from the corn at about 7:30 am. Colonel Ruger was slightly wounded there in leading the regiment, but remained in command and on the field.

" The Third Wisconsin was in a very exposed position,' wrote Lieutenant Bryant, 'and it's lines thinned rapidly. It stood on higher ground than the Confederates, the sky behind it, in good musket range and close line -- a good target.' "

A short time later, as Hood's attack receded, " General Hooker was seen galloping up, blood dripping from his boot. He ordered the Wisconsin men to fix bayonets and pursue. There are only 60 men left! Joining them was the Twenty-Seventh Indiana, which increased the number to about 150. 'With a whoop and hurrah, our regiment and the Twenty-Seventh Indiana started down through the cornfield,' [wrote Captain] Hinkley. 'General Hooker himself leading like a captain.' "

"At charge-bayonets, the two western units advanced across the cornfield. The flags of Indiana and Wisconsin flapped wildly in the breeze. The ground was strewn with the bodies of the Confederates. Towards the woods, at the edge of the cornfield, they marched. Suddenly a staff officer galloped up and ordered the small attacking line of blue to halt and get out of the way. A division was advancing towards that position from the east. 'This was all that prevented us from assaulting a position with about a hundred and fifty men,' reported Hinkley, 'which a few minutes later Sedgwick's division, with five or six thousand, failed to carry.' "[vi]

Jacob had enlisted with the rank of private and at his death, at the age of twenty, had been promoted to corporal.  His mother, Elsbeth, filed for a pension in 1882.  She died in 1886.


[i] Year: 1853; Arrival: New York, New York; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Microfilm Roll: Roll 125; Line: 41; List Number: 353. Ancestry.com. New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897. Microfilm Publication M237, 675 rolls. NAI: 6256867. Records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36. National Archives at Washington, D.C. Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.


[ii] Year: 1860; Census Place: Montrose, Dane, Wisconsin; Roll: M653_1404; Page: 710; Family History Library Film: 805404. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

[iii] National Park Service. U.S. Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, online <http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/>, acquired 2007.


[vi] Ibid
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