CABINET CARDS OF THE 161ST INDIANA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY

[BEAST]

Recently picked up these photos ID’d to officers of the 161st IVI.  I’ll post individual shots in another thread.

[postmanusnac]

Very cool!  My 3rd great grandfather, Empson Loy, was in two Indiana regiments, the 116th and 154th.  He also served in the 17th Kansas.  I have original copies of all his discharge papers.  He didn’t see much action but the 116th was also known as the Persimmon Brigade, which has a unique history.  I wrote the below in a FB post I did awhile ago on a Indiana history page.

 

 

The Persimmon Brigade was a nickname given to the 115th, 116th, 117th, 118th Indiana Volunteers during the Civil War who mustered for service at Indianapolis, Lafayette, and old Camp Wabash in the summer of 1863. 

During that winter, the ill-equipped brigade was cut off from supplies near Cumberland Gap and were forced to survive on less than 30 days worth of rations for roughly five months.  That area of Eastern Tennessee is abundant in persimmons and the men ate them whether ripe or not, among whatever else they were able to forage.

 

They were originally called "Persimmon Knockers", but that eventually changed to "Persimmon Brigade".  They were also called the "Young Mans Brigade", because all the men were between 15 and 20 when they mustered.

 

In 1897 the men of the reunions organization adopted an official badge called "seven men, six persimmons".

 

A total of 57 reunions where held between 1883 and 1940, with only 2 in attendance on that final meeting.   In 1941 one final reunion was held for friends and relatives. Then the last person who served in the "Persimmon Brigade", James W. James, of Jamestown (that is a lot of James), died in 1942 at the age of 92.  He was in Co. G, 116th Infantry.

 

 

 

[BEAST]

Postmanusnac, that’s a very good write-up! I have not seen very many published unit histories on the Indiana Regiments, especially the mid to late war units.