My Civil War Hero

"My Civil War Hero"
Abraham Bates Tower
by
Gail Martin
All my life I have heard stories about my great grandfather, Abraham Bates Tower. The best story of them all came from his military papers and pension records. I sent to the National Archives in Washington D.C. for this material.

Abraham was born October 16, 1837, near Leavenworth in Crafford County, Indiana. He lived and grew up with his patents Jonathan E. and Sarah B. (Monroe) Tower a farming family. It was in Crafford County, Great-Grandpa met his neighbor's pretty daughter, Nancy Angeline Long. They went to Leavenworth to obtain their marriage license and were married October 28, 1858 in Nancy's parent's home. In the next three years Abraham became the father of two small children: Laura Ann born on September 29, 1859 and Erastus Laban on August 7, 1861.

As the Civil War became a reality, Abraham went to New Albany, Indiana and enlisted 28 August, 1862 as a private. He was assigned to Co. B of the 93rd Indiana Infantry of the U.S. Army for three years. His Company was with General Grant in the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863. One of Company B's duties was to scout westward to see if General Hood's Texas army was coming to the rescue of Vicksburg.

In July 1864 Nancy Angeline received a message that Abraham was 'missing in action' during the battle at Brice's Crossroad in Mississippi. The family never received any more information and were afraid he was dead. Instead he had been captured on June 12, 1864 and sent to the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia. This notorious prison under the command of Captain Henry Wirtz, recorded 13,000 deaths from February 1864 to April 1865. Six hundred of the dead were from Indiana many were Abraham's friends and neighbors also captured during the battle at Brice Crossroads.

The prison was entirely too small for the thousands impounded there. Sanitation was non-existent and their only water supply was soon contaminated. Soon Abraham's health became very bad. Abraham claimed he didn't need as much of the cornmeal mush (sometimes rotten and often filled with worms) because he was such a small man being only five foot, six inches tall and weighed around 135 pounds. He stated that most of the deaths occurred from starvation, disease and punishment. The bodies were dragged to the fence and stacked like cordwood until they were hauled away by the wagon load to be buried in a common grave. The guards would not haul less than a load and this sometimes took two or three days for that many to dead to be gathered. The prisoners in the whole camp had to smell the ever present stench from decomposing human flesh. It's a wonder any prisoner came out of Andersonville alive.

Great-grandfather was still a prisoner in August, 1864 when several thousand prisoners began a prayer vigil for rain. The multitude of Union prisoners prayed all through the day and far into the night. History books even tell about the momentous thunderstorm that materialized that night. The rain was so heavy it opened up a spring that had been clogged for years. This spring provided a source of clean water and the joyful men named it Providence Spring. This fresh water probably saved my great-grandfather's life. He had been a prisoner for only two months when the miracle occurred.

Four months later my great grandfather was still very ill when he was released on parole December 6, 1864. His pension papers described him as "a living skeleton of 73 pounds with a serious cough; severe pain in his left side and chest and weak from scurvy.” When Abraham was finally released from a Union hospital, he returned to his Indiana home. Great grandpa found his wife and family were no longer there. He found the graves of his wife's parents but none of his own family. This convinced him they must have moved.

Months went by before he located his wife and children near LaClede in Linn County, Missouri. Nancy Angeline had received the news of Abraham being missing and presumed dead soon after her parents had died. So she and her two small children moved to Missouri to live with her sister, Mary Jane and her family.

Abraham and Nancy stayed in Linn County for several years as Abraham was slow to regain his health. Abraham and Nancy had two more daughters, Mary Louise was born 31 September, 1866; Sarah Alice on March 9 1868 and son William Warren 31 of August 1870.

Then my Grandma, Viola Matilda (Tower) McGhee was born at LaClede, Mo. on February 2, 1873 and she loved to tell me about her father. He was never the robust man he was before the war. For the rest of his life he was plagued with intestinal problems. The veteran's pension he received helped the family a little through the rough periods when he was unable to work because of bad health especially in very hot weather.

Every year on Veteran's Day when American flags are flying, my memories turn to the past and my Civil War Hero, Abraham Bates Tower, a man I never met.

Story ID:	251
Written by:	Gail Lee Martin (bio, contact, other stories)
Organization:	Kansas Authors Club
Story type:	Family History
Location:	Andersonville GA USA
Year:	1864
Person:	Abraham Bates Tower