Why Levi Wininger Wouldn’t Fight in the Civil War
by Susan Moore Teller: smt100@cox.net
When I was young, and trying to compile family history, I would ask my grandparents what side of the Civil War their folks were on. Our ancestors were all born in the south by the time of the American Revolution, but their politics were not uniform, not all Confederate in sympathy at all. Most had horrendous personal stories of their suffering during the Civil War, whichever side they favored. However, no one could ever tell me which side the Wininger’s favored. Porter Kalvin Wininger, my great-grandfather was too young to be a soldier. At that point in time, I didn’t even know his father’s name, nor did anyone in my immediate family. No one could – or would – tell me what the politics of his family were. I finally uncovered some of the story decades later, thanks to a Wininger “cousin” who sent me a copy of the story of the Wininger Family compiled by Mercedes Wininger Bowman. A few years earlier I had already uncovered census data proving Levi Wininger and Nancy Powell were Porter’s parents, thanks to the help of another Wininger “cousin.”
Many of my southern born ancestors had Union sympathies, and at least one joined the Union Army Calvary, the USA not the CSA or Confedrate Army. At least one famiy line had abolitionist views and at least one member of that extended family was hung in Texas for those views. Much later, we were to find one man who lived in that era, Levi Wininger was what would later be called a "concientious objector." He refused to fight in this war of brother against brother and went to great lengths to avoid doing so.
Levi Wininger (1823-1898), my 2nd great-grandfather, was born in Hawkins Co., East Tennessee, the second son of a large family. Despite five generations in this country, the German language was still spoken at home by this family and Levi spoke English with a heavy brogue, pronouncing his "W's" like "V's". He always called his eldest son William, "Villiam". Levi’s grandfather, Phillip Wininger, served in the War of 1812, and his widow, Margaret Seek Wininger received a pension after his death.
Levi’s second great-grandfather, Nicholas Wininger (1717-1788), was born in the area called “Alsace”, the Germanic city of Jettersweiller in Bas Rhin, France. It was "Suisse d'Alsace," an area German for centuries, then French, then German, then French again in various wars in the Rhine River valley on the French and German border. During five generations in America, the Wininger family had migrated from Lancaster County Pennsylvania to Berks Co., Pennsylvania then on through Augusta Co., Virginia; Hawkins Co., Tennessee; Jackson Co., Indiana; Salem Township, Marion Co., Illinois; then at last by 1850, Gainsville, Cooke Co., Texas. From there, Levi and some of the family finally went to the Sugarloaf area in Sebastian Co., Arkansas to escape the Civil War, some remained in that area. Levi is buried there. Other family members returned to Texas afterward.
Levi Wininger, aged 38, was living in Gainsville, Cook Co., Texas with his second wife and all his children by both his deceased first wife, Nancy Powell, and his second wife Arabella Gillian, when the Civil War began. Even his oldest son William, who left home for a time at 14 after his mother had died, returned to the household and was present in the 1860 federal census at age 17. William hiked from Indiana to Texas by himself at barely 14, because he didn’t care for the way his stepmother, who was only 3 years his senior, treated him! Apparently they came to an understanding later, because the merged family was in one household with Levi, Arabella and all living children. William was quite a character, and we will tell more of his astonishing story later.
On the first day of February in 1861, Texas seceded from the Union and for the duration of the Civil War, Texas was part of the Confederacy. With the Confederate surrender in 1865, Texas came under U.S. military rule. The state was finally readmitted to the Union in 1870. Arkansas also seceded as a Confederate state, but was very divided in loyalty, with much violence on both sides. Arkansas also had many very rural areas very sparsely inhabited, where it was comparatively easy to escape notice. It was one of the first Confederate states to fall to the Union, and there were many pitched battles between armies, and extensive vigilante killings by both Confederate and Union partisans.
While there were Union sympathizers in Texas, Gainsville was an especially pro-confederate area, where several hangings of northern sympathizers and those with “abolitionist” views occurred. One of the men hung in Gainsville for his abolitionist leanings was a cousin of our ancestor, Rev. Mahlon Bewley, my 2nd great-grandfather. The entire Bewley clan were for generations southern born, Quaker immigrants who became Methodist in this nation, and all had strong abolitionist views.
Levi’s parents and siblings were still living in Indiana, a Union state. He feared he might be forced to shoot one of his brothers if he were impressed in the CSA. Levi had a son, William P., who joined the CSA Army while still 17, whom he feared might be forced to shoot if he were impressed in the USA forces. He wished to avoid serving in either army for this reason. Having lived in what was now a Union state from the age of eight, Levi felt he needed to be living in a less populated, less emphatically pro-Confederate area than Gainsville in Cook County Texas.
Levi left Texas sometime after July of 1860, and moved to Hartford, Arkansas, homesteading land filed on the date of May 20, 1862. Levi lived on Prairie Creek, about five miles north of Hartford, about a mile from Midland and 23 miles southwest of Fort Smith, in the Sugar Loaf Mountain area. He lived in a large log cabin he built that sat near a large cliff of rocks that formed a cave, near the foot of Sugar Loaf Mountain in a narrow valley about five miles across. In those days, men were "drafted" by armies going through the area and drafting every able bodied man between 18 and 35 or so. The area were Levi moved was an isolated valley, near caves where he hid briefly when soldiers from either side came near, fed by his second and current wife Arabella until they were gone. Then he would return to his home and farm. In this manner he avoided service on either side throughout the four years of the war.
Levi’s eldest son, William Powell Wininger joined the 11th Regiment of the Texas Confederate Calvary. He enlisted at seventeen from Gainsville TX as a private and served as a scout and courier for four years in this capacity for Robert E. Lee, at times carrying messages between Robert E. Lee and USA General U. L. Grant, whom he also came to know well. William Powell Wininger was with the same group still guarding General Robert E. Lee at the time of his surrender. to US forces. William was captured for a time, but was either released or escaped, as he made his way home after the war. William Powell Wininger also served as a Texas Ranger. As far as we know, he never moved to Arkansas with the remainder of his family.
William Powell Wininger's unit was a famous regiment:
History of the Confederate Texas Troops, 11th Regiment, Texas Cavalry
11th Cavalry Regiment was organized with 855 men at Camp Reeves, Grayson County, Texas, in May, 1861. Some of its members were from Clarksville and Mt. Pleasant, and Bowie County. Some were from Cooke County. This regiment, along with the 8th Texas Cavalry, was one of the best in Confederate service. It was active in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and Arkansas, then was dismounted when it arrived on the eastern side of the Mississippi River.
After fighting at Richmond and Murfreesboro, it was remounted and assigned to Wharton's and T. Harrison's Brigade. The unit participated in the Chickamauga, Knoxville, and Atlanta campaigns, then was active in the defense of Savannah and the campaign of the Carolinas. It contained 599 officers and men in the spring of 1862 and reported 7 killed, 87 wounded, and 20 missing at Murfreesboro. Only a remnant surrendered on April 26, 1865.
The Wininger Brothers from Indiana
Levi’s brother, James Wininger, was 35 years of age at enlistment in Medora Indiana, mustered in 31 Dec. 1863 at Camp Horton, KY. He was 6 ft. 1 inch, with black hair, black eyes, dark complexion, was taken prisoner in Terre Noir, Arkansas on April 2, 1864, and died at the hands of the enemy in Tyler TX.
Levi's brother Kalvin, age 38 at enlistment in Medora, IL, as a corporal in the USA Army, mustered in at Camp Horton, KY, was wounded in action on Dec. 31, 1862, left in General Hospital in Jackson, TN was never afterward well. He received a govt. pension for his service.
Levi's brother Wesley was killed March 24, 1864 while serving with USA forces in Richmond.
Levi's son William Powell Wininger survived his service in the Civil War, his service as a Texas Ranger and lived to be an old man.
The Wininger’s go West in 1831
Levi left Scott County, Tennessee to go west at about eight years of age with his father Adam (1796TN-1855IN), his mother, Mary Kepler (1797TN-1882IN) and his brothers and sisters; settling in Jackson Co. IN in 1831. They traveled along the Wilderness Road, to the Vincennes Trace in Indiana, to Jackson County. Levi Wininger left Jackson Co. Indiana for Salem, Marion County, Illinois upon reaching the age to marry, to make his own way. At the age of twenty, he married sixteen year old Nancy Ann Powell (1826TN-1867IN), the daughter of William Powell and his wife, Nancy Porter. She was said by family to carry Cherokee blood. Levi and Nancy had seven children, all born in Salem, Marion Co. IL.
Nancy died at the birth of her 7th child in 1857, "in the first part of the year, before she was 31 years old." Porter Kalvin, my great-grandfather, was just under two years of age when his mother died. His father Levi, married again within the year to a "full blooded" German girl, Arabella Gillian, who was only three years older than Levi's oldest son by Nancy, his first wife. Arabella, according to the book "The Genealogy of the Wininger Family in America" by Mercedes Bowen, was "very heavyset, and not much loved by her step-children." Her eldest stepson, William Powell Wininger did not get along with her at all, and left for Texas, 1500 miles away, when he was not quite 14, on foot. He settled in Gainsville, Cook Co. TX and sent for his two young brothers, Porter Kalvin and James M. within a year.
By 1860, Levi had sold all his land in Indiana(*1) and moved with his second wife, Arabella and the remaining children by Nancy, to Cook Co. TX, where he is found July 7, 1860, with all children by both wives, even including William Powell!
Levi lived in Arkansas until his death in 1898, and his tombstone can be found in Lot 117, Harford Cemetery, Sebastian County, Arkansas. Levi Wininger and Arabella continued to have children, 11 in number, to make Levi the father of a total of 18 children in all.
*1(see Land Records)
by Susan Moore Teller: smt100@cox.net
When I was young, and trying to compile family history, I would ask my grandparents what side of the Civil War their folks were on. Our ancestors were all born in the south by the time of the American Revolution, but their politics were not uniform, not all Confederate in sympathy at all. Most had horrendous personal stories of their suffering during the Civil War, whichever side they favored. However, no one could ever tell me which side the Wininger’s favored. Porter Kalvin Wininger, my great-grandfather was too young to be a soldier. At that point in time, I didn’t even know his father’s name, nor did anyone in my immediate family. No one could – or would – tell me what the politics of his family were. I finally uncovered some of the story decades later, thanks to a Wininger “cousin” who sent me a copy of the story of the Wininger Family compiled by Mercedes Wininger Bowman. A few years earlier I had already uncovered census data proving Levi Wininger and Nancy Powell were Porter’s parents, thanks to the help of another Wininger “cousin.”
Many of my southern born ancestors had Union sympathies, and at least one joined the Union Army Calvary, the USA not the CSA or Confedrate Army. At least one famiy line had abolitionist views and at least one member of that extended family was hung in Texas for those views. Much later, we were to find one man who lived in that era, Levi Wininger was what would later be called a "concientious objector." He refused to fight in this war of brother against brother and went to great lengths to avoid doing so.
Levi Wininger (1823-1898), my 2nd great-grandfather, was born in Hawkins Co., East Tennessee, the second son of a large family. Despite five generations in this country, the German language was still spoken at home by this family and Levi spoke English with a heavy brogue, pronouncing his "W's" like "V's". He always called his eldest son William, "Villiam". Levi’s grandfather, Phillip Wininger, served in the War of 1812, and his widow, Margaret Seek Wininger received a pension after his death.
Levi’s second great-grandfather, Nicholas Wininger (1717-1788), was born in the area called “Alsace”, the Germanic city of Jettersweiller in Bas Rhin, France. It was "Suisse d'Alsace," an area German for centuries, then French, then German, then French again in various wars in the Rhine River valley on the French and German border. During five generations in America, the Wininger family had migrated from Lancaster County Pennsylvania to Berks Co., Pennsylvania then on through Augusta Co., Virginia; Hawkins Co., Tennessee; Jackson Co., Indiana; Salem Township, Marion Co., Illinois; then at last by 1850, Gainsville, Cooke Co., Texas. From there, Levi and some of the family finally went to the Sugarloaf area in Sebastian Co., Arkansas to escape the Civil War, some remained in that area. Levi is buried there. Other family members returned to Texas afterward.
Levi Wininger, aged 38, was living in Gainsville, Cook Co., Texas with his second wife and all his children by both his deceased first wife, Nancy Powell, and his second wife Arabella Gillian, when the Civil War began. Even his oldest son William, who left home for a time at 14 after his mother had died, returned to the household and was present in the 1860 federal census at age 17. William hiked from Indiana to Texas by himself at barely 14, because he didn’t care for the way his stepmother, who was only 3 years his senior, treated him! Apparently they came to an understanding later, because the merged family was in one household with Levi, Arabella and all living children. William was quite a character, and we will tell more of his astonishing story later.
On the first day of February in 1861, Texas seceded from the Union and for the duration of the Civil War, Texas was part of the Confederacy. With the Confederate surrender in 1865, Texas came under U.S. military rule. The state was finally readmitted to the Union in 1870. Arkansas also seceded as a Confederate state, but was very divided in loyalty, with much violence on both sides. Arkansas also had many very rural areas very sparsely inhabited, where it was comparatively easy to escape notice. It was one of the first Confederate states to fall to the Union, and there were many pitched battles between armies, and extensive vigilante killings by both Confederate and Union partisans.
While there were Union sympathizers in Texas, Gainsville was an especially pro-confederate area, where several hangings of northern sympathizers and those with “abolitionist” views occurred. One of the men hung in Gainsville for his abolitionist leanings was a cousin of our ancestor, Rev. Mahlon Bewley, my 2nd great-grandfather. The entire Bewley clan were for generations southern born, Quaker immigrants who became Methodist in this nation, and all had strong abolitionist views.
Levi’s parents and siblings were still living in Indiana, a Union state. He feared he might be forced to shoot one of his brothers if he were impressed in the CSA. Levi had a son, William P., who joined the CSA Army while still 17, whom he feared might be forced to shoot if he were impressed in the USA forces. He wished to avoid serving in either army for this reason. Having lived in what was now a Union state from the age of eight, Levi felt he needed to be living in a less populated, less emphatically pro-Confederate area than Gainsville in Cook County Texas.
Levi left Texas sometime after July of 1860, and moved to Hartford, Arkansas, homesteading land filed on the date of May 20, 1862. Levi lived on Prairie Creek, about five miles north of Hartford, about a mile from Midland and 23 miles southwest of Fort Smith, in the Sugar Loaf Mountain area. He lived in a large log cabin he built that sat near a large cliff of rocks that formed a cave, near the foot of Sugar Loaf Mountain in a narrow valley about five miles across. In those days, men were "drafted" by armies going through the area and drafting every able bodied man between 18 and 35 or so. The area were Levi moved was an isolated valley, near caves where he hid briefly when soldiers from either side came near, fed by his second and current wife Arabella until they were gone. Then he would return to his home and farm. In this manner he avoided service on either side throughout the four years of the war.
Levi’s eldest son, William Powell Wininger joined the 11th Regiment of the Texas Confederate Calvary. He enlisted at seventeen from Gainsville TX as a private and served as a scout and courier for four years in this capacity for Robert E. Lee, at times carrying messages between Robert E. Lee and USA General U. L. Grant, whom he also came to know well. William Powell Wininger was with the same group still guarding General Robert E. Lee at the time of his surrender. to US forces. William was captured for a time, but was either released or escaped, as he made his way home after the war. William Powell Wininger also served as a Texas Ranger. As far as we know, he never moved to Arkansas with the remainder of his family.
William Powell Wininger's unit was a famous regiment:
History of the Confederate Texas Troops, 11th Regiment, Texas Cavalry
11th Cavalry Regiment was organized with 855 men at Camp Reeves, Grayson County, Texas, in May, 1861. Some of its members were from Clarksville and Mt. Pleasant, and Bowie County. Some were from Cooke County. This regiment, along with the 8th Texas Cavalry, was one of the best in Confederate service. It was active in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and Arkansas, then was dismounted when it arrived on the eastern side of the Mississippi River.
After fighting at Richmond and Murfreesboro, it was remounted and assigned to Wharton's and T. Harrison's Brigade. The unit participated in the Chickamauga, Knoxville, and Atlanta campaigns, then was active in the defense of Savannah and the campaign of the Carolinas. It contained 599 officers and men in the spring of 1862 and reported 7 killed, 87 wounded, and 20 missing at Murfreesboro. Only a remnant surrendered on April 26, 1865.
The Wininger Brothers from Indiana
Levi’s brother, James Wininger, was 35 years of age at enlistment in Medora Indiana, mustered in 31 Dec. 1863 at Camp Horton, KY. He was 6 ft. 1 inch, with black hair, black eyes, dark complexion, was taken prisoner in Terre Noir, Arkansas on April 2, 1864, and died at the hands of the enemy in Tyler TX.
Levi's brother Kalvin, age 38 at enlistment in Medora, IL, as a corporal in the USA Army, mustered in at Camp Horton, KY, was wounded in action on Dec. 31, 1862, left in General Hospital in Jackson, TN was never afterward well. He received a govt. pension for his service.
Levi's brother Wesley was killed March 24, 1864 while serving with USA forces in Richmond.
Levi's son William Powell Wininger survived his service in the Civil War, his service as a Texas Ranger and lived to be an old man.
The Wininger’s go West in 1831
Levi left Scott County, Tennessee to go west at about eight years of age with his father Adam (1796TN-1855IN), his mother, Mary Kepler (1797TN-1882IN) and his brothers and sisters; settling in Jackson Co. IN in 1831. They traveled along the Wilderness Road, to the Vincennes Trace in Indiana, to Jackson County. Levi Wininger left Jackson Co. Indiana for Salem, Marion County, Illinois upon reaching the age to marry, to make his own way. At the age of twenty, he married sixteen year old Nancy Ann Powell (1826TN-1867IN), the daughter of William Powell and his wife, Nancy Porter. She was said by family to carry Cherokee blood. Levi and Nancy had seven children, all born in Salem, Marion Co. IL.
Nancy died at the birth of her 7th child in 1857, "in the first part of the year, before she was 31 years old." Porter Kalvin, my great-grandfather, was just under two years of age when his mother died. His father Levi, married again within the year to a "full blooded" German girl, Arabella Gillian, who was only three years older than Levi's oldest son by Nancy, his first wife. Arabella, according to the book "The Genealogy of the Wininger Family in America" by Mercedes Bowen, was "very heavyset, and not much loved by her step-children." Her eldest stepson, William Powell Wininger did not get along with her at all, and left for Texas, 1500 miles away, when he was not quite 14, on foot. He settled in Gainsville, Cook Co. TX and sent for his two young brothers, Porter Kalvin and James M. within a year.
By 1860, Levi had sold all his land in Indiana(*1) and moved with his second wife, Arabella and the remaining children by Nancy, to Cook Co. TX, where he is found July 7, 1860, with all children by both wives, even including William Powell!
Levi lived in Arkansas until his death in 1898, and his tombstone can be found in Lot 117, Harford Cemetery, Sebastian County, Arkansas. Levi Wininger and Arabella continued to have children, 11 in number, to make Levi the father of a total of 18 children in all.
*1(see Land Records)