Henry Endicott

Alternate spellings: Indicot, Indicott.  He is not to be confused with the Union cavalryman Gabriel Endicott with no middle initial.  He was the son of Samuel and Esther Johnson or Jones Endicott.

There are several unusual aspects to this man’s story.  First of all, there are several Gabriel Endicotts in the Endicott family and the exact reason for this is still being worked out.

Secondly, this Gabriel Jones Endicott started out as a Confederate, deserted, was captured, and made a Union prisoner of war.   But then he was released and served in a Union force for at least some of the rest of Civil War–– along with several brothers and cousins.

Descent from Governor Endecott
1. John
2 Zerubbabel
1. Joseph (1672-1747).  He was the grandson of John Endecott who became a Quaker and moved to New Jersey.
2. Joseph (1711-1748). He lived in Mount Holly, NJ.
5.  Thomas (1737-1831). He lived in Mount Holly, then moved south
3. Samuel (1775-1821)  He was born in Mount Holly.
7. Samuel (1802-1870)  He married Esther Johnson
8. Gabriel J.  (1833- 1910), Joshua (1837-1926); Samuel (1826-1928) all of whom were in the same unit briefly during the Civil War and mentioned elsewhere in the Civil War chapter of this book. Another brother was Francis (1841-1876),

(Note: it was the 6th, 7th, and 8th generation of descendants of John Endecott who served in the Civil War, with most of them coming from the 8th generation.)

Service for the Confederacy
We have records showing that in October, 1861 Gabriel J. Endicott enlisted as a Private and served with the 5th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, a Confederate unit.  We can’t be sure how long he served the Confederacy, though.  But if he was in that unit all time between October 1861 and March 30, 1864, it would have included his unit being at Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862) and Chickamauga (September 19-20,1863), battles in which his unit opposed units that his Endicott relatives fighting for the North belonged to:

5th Regiment, Kentucky Mounted Infantry
The 5th Infantry Regiment, assembled during the late summer of 1861, included Freeman's Kentucky Infantry Battalion.  Its members were recruited in the counties of Pendleton, Breathitt, Morgan, Magoffin, Bath, Owen, Grant, Jessamine, Henderson, Harrison, Shelby, and Franklin.  Being a twelve-month unit, when it became time to reenlist some of its members refused and were transferred to the 9th Kentucky Regiment.  Later, men of the 5th did reenlist for the duration of the war.  The 5th Infantry became part of the Orphan Brigade or Louisville Legion.  The regiment reported 134 casualties in the Battle of Shiloh, then was active at Baton Rouge before being assigned to Kelly's and J.H. Lewis' Brigade, Army of Tennessee.  It was prominent at Chickamauga and later took an active part in the Atlanta Campaign.  In the fall of 1864 it was mounted, aided in the defense at Savannah, and fought in the Carolinas. The unit had 91 men disabled at Chickamauga and totaled 201 men and 165 arms in December, 1863, and surrendered on April 26, 1865.  Its field officers were Colonels Hiram Hawkins, Andrew J. May, and John S. Williams; Lieutenant Colonels John W. Caldwell and George W. Conner and Majors Richard Hawes and William Mynheir.


The next we hear from Gabriel J., his name appears on an official list of Confederates who were prisoners of war and “received at Military Prison, Louisville, Ky.”

It says he was captured at “Lawrence Co, Ky,” but it doesn’t say when.  Then it says under “Discharged” and “Oath” with the date given only as “March.”  But because of other documents immediately below, this must be March, 1864.

After that, his name appears on another document, a roll of  “Deserters from the Rebel Army.”   Under “When discharged” it says “Mch 30, 1864.” Presumably March 30,1864.  And under remarks it says “Amnesty oath.”  All of this confirms the previously mentioned document.

Amnesty Oath

To clarify, the term “Amnesty Oath” refers to the fact that on December 3, 1863, President Lincoln offered in the Proclamation and Reconstruction of Amnesty, a pardon to all citizens with some exclusions, who would take the oath of loyalty to the United States and as soon as one-tenth of the citizens had taken the prescribed oath there in any state, there could be re-established a state government. The oath reads:

I, (repeat full name), do solemnly swear, in the presence of almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all Acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by Congress, or by the decision of the Supreme Court; and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court, so help me God.

The next document shows Gabriel J. Endicott’s name appearing on an “Oath of Allegiance to the United State” in a document dated March 30, 1864.  It says he was 5’ 10” with dark complexion, dark hair, and dark eyes.  Under “Remarks” it says:

Volunteer
Deserted
Reported
Louisa, KY

At the bottom of the document is says:  “Indorsement shows: “Roll of 107 Rebel Deserters released from the Military Prison at Louisville, KY during the month of March, 1864.”

So, in sum, because he was willing to sign the Oath of Allegiance, Gabriel J. Endicott was one of 107 former Confederates released from the Union POW camp at Louisville, Kentucky in March 1864.

It should be noted that “released on Oath” is not the same as “released on parole” described elsewhere in this book (see Caswell Endicott entry,  for example).  Among other differences, if you were released on parole you were not required to swear allegiance the United States.

Service for the Union

The next record we have of Gabriel J. Endicott is that his name appears along with Joshua Endicott and Samuel Endicott on the muster roll of Captain Ira Goff Copley’s Company of Independent Scouts of Wayne County, West Virginia for the period February 15 through April 30, 1864.  This is a unit in support of the Union.

(Prior to serving in this unit Ira Copley had been a First Lieutenant in the 5th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment from September 2, 1861 to March 20, 1862.  Then he served in the 167th Regiment of the Virginia Militia from August 2, 1862 to 1863.)

The evidence that the Confederate Gabriel J. Endicott is the Gabriel Jones Endicott in Copley’s unit is that his brothers Joshua and Samuel were also in that unit.

But look at the date:  February 15-April 30, 1864 was when Gabriel J. was supposed to be in the Louisville POW camp and he wasn’t officially released until March 30. How to explain this?

Could it be that when Gabriel J. joined the Copley unit he was allowed to do so before his official discharge from the POW camp was signed?  And that he saw that his brothers (and some of his cousins) were all in Copley’s unit, so then he joined that?  But Copley’s unit was short-lived, so was that the end of Gabriel J’s military career?

Independent Scouts

What does “Independent Scouts” mean?  The Adjutant General of West Virginia’s report states that at least 35 companies of Independent Scouts were organized in West Virginia in “different Counties for the protection of such Counties against Guerrillas.”

The Adjutant General’s report states that these companies were all disbanded in 1864, with Captain Copley’s being disbanded on May 9, 1864 along with several others.  Copley’s was short-lived, only about 3 months, having been organized in February 1864.  Some of the other companies had been organized as early as June 1863.

In the introduction to the West Virginia Adjutant General’s Report it explains these companies comprised “over one thousand men in the State service in the border counties without which there could be no enforcement of the civil laws of the State, nor collection of revenues for the United States, and the loyal people could not have remained at home.”

It goes on to say they have been “proven very effective as scouts and guides for our armies, and generally much more effective for the purpose they are intended than our soldiers in the United States service would be.”

Switching sides in the Civil War

Since as we have seen the evidence is very strong that Gabriel J. Endicott switched sides in the Civil War, a word about this is in order.  It turns out that switching side in the Civil War was relatively common.  It was usually done from Confederate to Union, and usually done in one of the following two situations:

*  Men who joined the Confederacy right at the beginning of the war but then got disillusioned with the cause and switched to the Union side.

*  Confederates taken prisoner and offered the chance to join the Union side and accepted.  This appears to be Gabriel J’s situation. Some sources say as many as 5,600 former Confederates switched sides like this.  Confederates who for whatever reason switched to the Union side were called “galvanized Yankees.” Due to doubts about their ultimate loyalty, galvanized Yankees were often assigned to garrison forts far from the Civil War battlefields or to fight against Indians in the west.  But this is not what happened to Gabriel; he remained in the East.

There were whole Union regiments comprised of galvanized Yankees.  For example, there were the 1st – 6th Volunteer Infantry regiments organized in late 1864 or early 1865. In addition, state volunteer units from Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in Federal service recruited their own galvanized Yankees.

There was switching from the Union side to the Confederate side, too. For instance at least 1,600 former Union prisoners of war became “galvanized rebels” enlisting in both Confederate regular units and state units in Confederate service.  These were usually recent German and Irish immigrants who had been drafted into Union regiments.

The most well-known officer to switch sides is probably Francis "Frank" Crawford Armstrong who was Captain in a Union cavalry unit at the first battle of Bull Run and then later became a brigadier general serving in some major battles such as Chickamauga and Murfreesboro.

Confusing situation in West Virginia

Switching sides in the Civil War was more common in West Virginia than elsewhere because it was a border state and there was a lot of confusion there.  West Virginia became an unofficial State of the Union following the Wheeling Conventions of 1861, at the start of the war. As a result of these conventions, a popular vote was called for and the result was overwhelming: 18,408 for making West Virginia a new State in the Union versus 781 for going with the Confederacy.

But the vote was controversial because a great many people either did not vote, were kept from voting by Union troops who thought them Confederate sympathizers, or because in some cases the voters were actually Union solders from out of state.

In any case, on April 20, 1863, President Lincoln issued a proclamation admitting West Virginia to the Union, it having met his condition that it gradually eliminate slavery, and the Supreme Court upheld his action by a 6-3 vote.  But although Union control of the State was uncontested after the summer of 1861, Confederates continued to raid it ––hence the need for Captain Copley’s Independent Scouts.

Furthermore, it turned out that West Virginia furnished about the same number of troops to both the Union and the Confederacy, about 22,000 – 25,000 to each. To further demonstrate how split the State was, after the war, the only way its government could retain control was by denying the vote to all the Confederate soldiers who returned home.

After the Civil War

There is one more bit of evidence about Gabriel J. Endicott.  In 1903, 40 years after the Civil War, there was large document called “West Virginia Governor’s Message to the Legislature of 1903” that contained a variety of reports.

One of those reports was the “Report of the West Virginia State Service Commission 1902”, done by the State Adjutant General.  This was a report commissioned “for the purpose of receiving and passing on the proof for all claims of active service, either for this State or the United States, during the late Civil War, whether as Home Guard or militia.”

The objective was to establish the exact time of service and whether the claimant had been properly paid for it.  The Commission denied almost all of the claims on the grounds that the applicants had already been recompensed.

What’s interesting is that on page 93 of this report, under “Captain Ira G. Copley’s Co attached to the 161st Regt. Militia.” it lists the following names of 6 Endicott claimants:

Gabriel J. Endicott, Private, claims 20 months less $229.50, paid.  Paid in full by above payroll voucher No. 4 $229.50.  This is our man Gabriel Jones Endicott.

John Endicott, Private, claims 20 months less $229.50, received.  Paid in full by above payroll voucher No. 4 $229.50.  He is the brother of the other Gabriel Endicott (see below) the one who served as a Union cavalryman.   So, a cousin of Gabriel Jones Endicott.

Joshua Endicott, Private, claims 20 months less $229.50, received.  Paid in full by above payroll voucher No. 4 $229.50.  It’s not clear whether he was a  brother of Gabriel Jones Endicott or the other Gabriel Endicott (see below) the one who served as a Union cavalryman, because they both had brothers named Joshua.

Samuel Endicott, Private, claims 20 months less $229.50, received.  Paid in full by above payroll voucher No. 4 $229.50.  It’s not clear whether he was a  brother of Gabriel Jones Endicott or the other Gabriel Endicott (see below) the one who served as a Union cavalryman, because they both had brothers named Joshua.

Samuel Endicott, Private, claims 17 months 29 days, less $229.50 paid.  Paid in full by above payroll voucher No. 4 $229.50.  It’s not clear whether he was a  brother of Gabriel Jones Endicott or the other Gabriel Endicott (see below) the one who served as a Union cavalryman, because they both had brothers named Joshua.

Wm. Endicott, Private, claims 17 months 29 days, less $229.50, received.  Paid in full by above payroll voucher No. 4 $229.50.  He is probably a cousin of Gabriel Jones Endicott.

https://books.google.com/books?id=FdcaAQAAIAAJ&pg=PT116&lpg=PT116&dq=captain+copley%27s+independent+scouts&source=bl&ots=d2Dhyn2bZb&sig=ACfU3U3BMEv2yslPe0Mebr2Th8I7acf9sw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiz2ZX36tfkAhWptlkKHbqXDXcQ6AEwCnoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false