Private Henry Allen Turpin
Dublin Core
Title
Private Henry Allen Turpin
Subject
Company C, 62nd Regiment N.C. Troops
Description
Henry Allen Turpin enlisted at Webster with his brother James in Company A (the “Jackson Volunteers”), 16th Regiment N.C. Troops, on April 27, 1861. Henry mustered into service as a corporal, but was subsequently reduced to ranks. With the exception of a week-long hospitalization for “intermittent fever” in April 1862, he was reported present through October 1862.
On October 5, 1862 the “Jackson Volunteers” were transferred to the Infantry Regiment, Thomas’s Legion N.C. Troops, and designated Company A of that command. Service with the Legion was brief, however, and within weeks the “Volunteers” were transferred again, this time to the 39th Regiment N.C. Troops, and designated Company K.
Henry was reported absent without leave in late 1862, and the January-February muster roll of Company K reports that he “Deserted the Company at Strawberry Plains, E[a]st Tenn., Jan 15, 1863.” Subsequent muster rolls report him absent without leave or a deserter.
However, the records of Company C, 62nd Regiment N.C. Troops, organized in Haywood County in July 1862, report that Henry transferred from Thomas’s Legion on October 16, 1862. Company C was commanded by John H. Turpin, presumably a brother or other close male relative. However unorthodox the transfer appears to have been, Henry served with Company C until the 62nd North Carolina was surrendered at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, on September 9, 1863.
The 486 enlisted men from the 62nd North Carolina captured at Cumberland Gap were incarcerated at various Federal prisons, most of them at the notorious Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois. Of that number, 221 died by the end of the war, a mortality rate of forty-five per cent (204 died at Camp Douglas). One of them was Henry A. Turpin, who perished on December 26, 1864, of “remit[tent] fever.” He was buried in grave number 337, Block 2, Chicago City Cemetery.
On October 5, 1862 the “Jackson Volunteers” were transferred to the Infantry Regiment, Thomas’s Legion N.C. Troops, and designated Company A of that command. Service with the Legion was brief, however, and within weeks the “Volunteers” were transferred again, this time to the 39th Regiment N.C. Troops, and designated Company K.
Henry was reported absent without leave in late 1862, and the January-February muster roll of Company K reports that he “Deserted the Company at Strawberry Plains, E[a]st Tenn., Jan 15, 1863.” Subsequent muster rolls report him absent without leave or a deserter.
However, the records of Company C, 62nd Regiment N.C. Troops, organized in Haywood County in July 1862, report that Henry transferred from Thomas’s Legion on October 16, 1862. Company C was commanded by John H. Turpin, presumably a brother or other close male relative. However unorthodox the transfer appears to have been, Henry served with Company C until the 62nd North Carolina was surrendered at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, on September 9, 1863.
The 486 enlisted men from the 62nd North Carolina captured at Cumberland Gap were incarcerated at various Federal prisons, most of them at the notorious Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois. Of that number, 221 died by the end of the war, a mortality rate of forty-five per cent (204 died at Camp Douglas). One of them was Henry A. Turpin, who perished on December 26, 1864, of “remit[tent] fever.” He was buried in grave number 337, Block 2, Chicago City Cemetery.
Creator
Unknown Photographer
Source
Manarin et. al., North Carolina Troops 6:20; 10:186, 15:20, 55, 64; 16:255; “North Carolina Death Study”; service record files of Henry A. Turpin, 16th, 39th, and 62nd Regiments N.C. Troops, and Infantry Regiment, Thomas’s Legion N.C. Troops, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers from the State of North Carolina (M270), RG109, NA.
Contributor
North Carolina Office of Archives and History
Files
Citation
Unknown Photographer, “Private Henry Allen Turpin,” Tar Heel Faces, accessed May 18, 2024, https://tarheelfaces.omeka.net/items/show/119.
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