Once again, this column will discuss information found in Civil War pension application files. We previously explored the deposition of a former slave and the humiliations that she endured. In this article, we will discuss another pension file that contained unexpected information in rich detail. The discovery of this information provides a solid example of the importance of conducting a “reasonably exhaustive search,” the first step in the Genealogical Proof Standard.
Isaac Hawkins, a slave born and raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland, enlisted in Company H of the 19th U. S. Colored Infantry, on 5 January 1864. He served for three years, stationed in Texas from the end of the war until his company mustered out on 15 January 1867. On 30 July 1864, during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, Isaac was struck by shells in his back and on his left hand. While in Satterlee General Hospital in West Philadelphia, he contracted rheumatism. Because of these injuries, he was entitled to a pension after the War. In 1879, Isaac applied for and received a pension, also receiving several rate increases in his remaining years until his death in 1906.
In 1916, ten years after Isaac’s death, another man, living in Baltimore, Maryland, applied for a pension under the same service. The Pension Bureau ordered a Special Examination into the matter, in which they decided that this other Isaac Hawkins made an honest mistake and was not guilty of fraud. However, from a genealogist’s perspective, the documents that he submitted to the Pension Bureau and the deposition that he gave to the Special Examiner, provide otherwise unavailable information about this man. To put the icing on the cake, this former slave was born and raised in Calvert County, Maryland, a county in which the courthouse burned in 1882, with total loss of records. Even the slightest sliver of information concerning former slaves from Calvert County is extremely difficult to discover, yet the information contained within this pension file—for a different soldier entirely!—provides amazing detail.
For example, Isaac Hawkins submitted the following completed questionnaire:
Mr. Isaac Hawkins,
#1303 Druid Hill Avenue,
Baltimore, Maryland
No. 1. Date and place of birth? Answer. Born March 1837 at Cherry Hill [interlined] Calvert Co Md
The name of organization in which you served? Answer. Co H 19 U S C Inf
Enlisted Jan. 13th 1864. Dis Jan 15th 1867 Calvert Co [interlined] Md
No. 2. What was your post office at enlistment? Answer. William Sotha[?] P O
No. 3. State your wife’s full name and her maiden name. Answer. Louisa
Hawkins nee Watkins
No. 4. When, where, and by whom were you married? Answer. feb 23rd 1888
Annapolis Md.
Rev William S Southgate
No. 5. Is there any official or church record of your marriage? Yes.
If so, where? Answer. Carth [sic] house Annapolis MD.
No. 6. Were you previously married? If so, state the name of your former wife, the date of the marriage, and the date and place of her death or divorce. If there was more than one previous marriage, let your answer include all former wives. Answer. Yes.
Sallie Freeman 1873 Died Bayridge
Md. 1885. No.
No. 7. If your present wife was married before her marriage to you, state the name of her former husband, the date of such marriage, and the date and place of his death or divorce, and state whether he ever rendered any military or naval service, and, if so, give name of the organization in which he served. If she was married more than once before her marriage to you, let your answer include all former husbands. Answer. No.
No. 8. Are you living with your wife? Answer. No. If there has been a separation give date of same. Answer. Died feb 20 1914.
No. 9. State the names and dates of birth of all your children, living or dead. Answer.
Rachel Ellen Hawkins Born feb 1875 Dead
Mary Priscilla Hawkins feb 1877 Dead
Benson Hawkins Born Aug 1880 Dead
Date Dec 28 1916 (Signature) Isaac his X mark Hawkins
Witness
Nettie Watts
The following deposition, given to Special Examiner W. H. Stovall on 28 February 1917, provides even more detail about this soldier’s life:
I do not know my age but feel like I am about 80 years, and have no occupation but used to drive a team, and my post office address is 1303 Druid Hill Ave, Baltimore Md.
I am the identical Isaac Hawkins who went to lawyer Stanton last summer and put in a claim for pension and I would have done so sooner but thought I would wait until the others got all they wanted and then I would apply, and another reason for the delay in filing a claim is that I lost my papers years ago out of my pocket on the street one day and thought I could’nt get a pension without them.
I dont remember the number of my regiment but it was under Grant, and the other officers were --- well I am right forgetful on that point, and I cant bring any comrades to mind except Lemuel Thomas a cook and Jim Wilson. They slept in my tent. I enlisted at Benedict Md and served three years and was discharged at City Point. I cant give the years or dates in this business. I was a soldier and carried a gun and did what the rest did. I incurred no wounds or injuries in the army and suffered with no sickness except chills at City Point and all along the line as they come on me every evening it seemed like. I served under the name of Isaac Hawkins in the army and enlisted only one time and I was never in the navy or marine corps or other branch of the service. I was in Lincolns army and not the rebel army. I was not a teamster or hired employee of any officer but a regular soldier and was sworn in and sworn out like the others and had a paper showing my discharge and it got lost. I received eighteen dollars per month I guess. I have gotten no pension money or back pay or bounty since my discharge. I lived on the Patuxent river in Calvert Co Md opposite Benedicts before the war and was the slave of Mr Benjamin Harrison, and I have lived in Baltimore and Annapolis Md since the war and in Calvert Co awhile. Have been here eight years. I have done farm and labor work for a living. I broke my left leg twelve years ago in Annapolis while driving a wild horse hitched to a load of lumber and the leg is so drawn it makes me badly crippled. I do not know the location of any comrades.
Qr. Where did you get your company and regiment when you applied for pension on August 28, 1916?
Ans. I went to see Mr Stanton and told him what I knew and he looked it up. I had some things in my head then I hav’nt got there now. I do not know whether I was in Co H 19th U.S.Col Inf but it sounds like the 19th I was in.
Well yes I was in some fights, was in one at City Point Va and another at Dutch Gap and at Woody Hundreds. We had men killed in each fight and they lay so thick I could’nt count them. I am unable to name any comrades who were killed or wounded in those fights. City Point is the only place the regiment went to I am now able to recall but I was there three years and went everywhere they went.
Qr. Where were you when President Lincoln was assassinated?
Ans. I was here in Baltimore driving a team for my brother in law Sampson Maynard and had just gotten discharged. I stopped in Baltimore on my way home to Calvert county and he got me to drive for him a short while and it was at the time Lincoln was killed. I dont recollect about the Baltimore riots. I served with Grant yes but was not with him at date Lee surrendered to him, was then in Calvert.
Qr. Did the men on the list of comrades I will now read to you serve with you, or do you know anything about them? ( List of comrades read to claimant – W. H. S. )
Ans. I recollect a man with a name something like Plater. He was a good sized man bred like I am. He died soon after the war but I cant tell you where he died.
I remember no other fellow on that list. I am not able to specify other men I served with nor my captain or 1st sergt or the colonel or major yet think I am doing pretty well with you so far. Well I was 22 years old at enlistment in the army and 5 foot and 1 inch tall, mulatto complected as my mother was pretty near white and my father dark, and I have brown fried meat kind of eyes, and hair formerly black but now white, and I wore a dark short beard in the army and had no marks or scars then. (Claimant is a very short man, is almost a midget in heighth, and legs so badly bent it is difficult to tell his original height, but he evidently was not over 5 feet. – W.H.S.Spec Exm.)
I was not born in Prince George Co Md and never lived there. I know where that county is. I was not the slave of Sarah S. Baden or the Baden family before enlisting. I was born at Cherry Hill, Calvert Co, Md, and 10 years old when Benjamin Harrison bought me of my first owner, the Arnott estate of Cherry Hill. And my parents were Isaac and Elizabeth Hawkins of Joey Norfolks place in Calvert County, both dead, and I have no living brothers or sisters or other relatives. There is no person in Baltimore who knew me before I enlisted. Nobody here would know I was in the army either.
Qr. Give the names of persons, still living, who know that you served in the Co and Regt alleged in your application.
Ans. I cant do it, all are dead. Death don’t wait on you.
Qr. Are you positive you did not get injured in the army?
Ans. Yes sir. Not a scratch did I get. I was not wounded in the fight at Petersburg. I have no scar on the left hand. I never could read or write or sign my name. I was in company A in the army was’nt it? I have no memoranda showing my service except what lawyer Stanton gave my granddaughter. (Slip of paper exhibited. It shows that Isaac Hawkins was in Co H 19 U.S.C.Inf. – W.H.Stovall.)
Stanton has been here at my house once and I went to his office once in connection with this claim and I paid him one dollar for his services it looking the thing up and fixing the claim so I could get a pension. I have no contract or agreement with David L. Stanton or other person for assistance in getting a pension. I made no payments to the Notary. It was the notary and not Stanton who came to my house, and I was at Stantons office once in this case. I have received no advice or assistance from any other person in the matter of applying for a pension. I was not in the hospital while I was a soldier, told you that once.
My regiment was organized at Benedict Md and we went from there to City Point Va and served around there until I was discharged, and I do not remember the names Chancellorsville New Kent Court House Diascond creek Chickahominy river Barleys creek, Petersburg yet hold on I recollect that name and was at Petersburg and in a fight there. I dont recall those other names and there is no use asking me about them. I was at a lot of places in the army but my mind is gone. I was not in the mine explosion though I heard of it. I do remember Bermuda Hundreds and Richmond and City Point and served in the army there. And I shouldered a gun at all those places and saw the fighting. I did not take a trip on the sea and was not in Texas or New Orleans, was not at Brownsville Texas or Whites Ranch Texas no sir. I dont remember Mobile Bay. I was just in Virginia. I was mustered out with the regiment I always thought and if it went to the places you called I dont understand it. I did not get a discharge for disability sir but served my time out. I do not recall the names of the officers read to me from the paper in your hand, none of my officers got killed.
I was never in the Satterlee General Hospital at West Philadelphia suffering with a gunshot wound of left hand. I was in the Petersburg fight but not shot there. I did not have rheumatism in the army. I knew no other soldier in my regiment or company named Isaac Hawkins or any other Hawkins. I never before heard of the pensioner in this case but there are a lot of Isaac Hawkins’ I understand.
I have been married twice, first to Sarah Freeman of Calvert county who died at Annapolis Md, thirty odd years ago, and next to Louis Watkins of Annapolis who is still living with me and we have never separated or been divorced. I married Louisa at Annapolis with the usual license and Rev Southgate of some church at that place performed the ceremony. I have no living children by either wife. Louisa Watkins was not previously married to my knowledge.
Qr. I have explained to you that the soldier who served in Co H 19th U.S.Col Inf under the name of Isaac Hawkins lived in Prince George County and was a pensioner before his death. Do you still claim that you rendered that service instead of him?
Ans. No I do not. He is another man and I may have heard of him but never knew him and I was in a different company no doubt. But the company I served in, or the regiment, I am not able to show today and dont feel well.
I went to Gen Stanton and told him I was in the army and he said to bring him the right news concerning it and he would put the claim in so I went to another man I knew, a white man in Calvert county, and he told me it was the 19th that I served in so I decided to go ahead with it. I mean I wrote to the whiteman. I forget his name and he died since christmas. I took a piece of paper he sent me to Stanton and he sent the notary up to my house to swear me to the application. I desire to make no further statement in connection with my claim. I am old and forgetful is the reason I cant straighten you out. I do not know the date I was born but there may be a record of it in Calvert.
Qr. If you are not identical with the Isaac Hawkins who served in Co H 19 U.S.Col Inf what regiment or organization were you in?
Ans. I do not know the regiment. I do not know whether it was the 29th or 40th or what it was. It may have been the 9th regiment because it sounds like it.
Qr. Your reasons for not sooner applying for a pension seem flimsy. What is the real reason?
Ans. I just put it off and put it off. I have no other reasons. I was not a waiter in the army or anything like that. I carried a gun and did a soldiers work and it was under my name of Isaac Hawkins and if the name got changed on the rolls I never told them to. I am unable to show my service since you have explained to me what you are after, and fully understood your questions in this matter.
I dont know any incidents of my service worth relating.
…
[SOURCE: Pension application no. 283,107, certificate no. 999,947; service of Isaac Hawkins (Pvt., Co. H, 19th U. S. Colored Infantry, Civil War); Case Files of Approved Pension Applications..., 1861-1934; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D. C.]
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