William Ingram resident of or enrolled at Clarksburg, W.Va.; 20; mustered in 22 Jun 1861 at Clarksburg, W.Va. Deserted 14 Feb 1863.

Department of the Interior
Bureau of Pensions
Civil War Division

William B. Inghram
Alias William B. Downey
G, 7 W.Va. Cav.
A, lst W.Va. Cav.
Washington D.D., Jan 10, 1910

Sir: Please answer, at your earliest convenience, the questions enumerated below. The information is requested for future use, and it may be of great value to your widow or children. Use the enclosed envelop, which required no stamp. Very Respectfully,

Signature,

Commissioner.

Mr. William B. Inghram,
Ward, Kanawha County,
West Virginia

No. 1. Date and place of birth? Answer - Greene Co Pennsylvania 1840
The name of organizations in which you served? Answer - Co. G. 7th W. Va. Cav Commanded by Colonel John W. Oley

No. 2. What was your post office at enlistment? Answer Charleston, W. VA.

No. 3. State your wife’s full name and her maiden name. Answer Parthenia Jane Escue

No. 4. When, where, and by whom were you married: Answer Rev Thomas Hawkins Griffithvill Kanawha Co W.Va.

No. 5. Is there any official or church record of your marriage? I don’t know licenses granted in Kanawha Co. If so, where? Answer Cobbs Creek Baptist Church.

No. 6. Were you previously married? 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 befor eher marriage to you, let your answer include all former husbands.
Answer:
I was married Oct 9th, 1866.
My wife died Oct 13th , 1914 on Wednesday morning. Burch Street, West Charleston, W.Va. House #311, aged 71 years, 5 months, twenty two days.

No. 8. Are you living with your wife? Answer: Dead. If there has been a separation give date of same: None

No. 9. State the names and dates of birth of all of your children, living or dead. Answer:
Emma Buenavista Inghram , born July 3, 1867, married Carmon (the first man dead), remarried Walter Thuston(?) living.
Francis Robinson Inghram, born Dec 24, 1868
Charles Andrew Inghram, born Jan 5, 1870
Martha Jane , born Oct 9, 1872
John T. Inghram, born Jan 15, 1875
Kate Gray Inghram, born April 18, 1878 - DEAD
Ida Mae Inghram, born Sep 17, 1880 - DEAD
Lenora Hastings, born Nov 26, 1882
William Allen, born July 16, 1890

Case of William B. Inghram, No. 1398637

     On this tenth day of May, 1916, at Ward, county of Kanawha, State of West Virginia, before me, Fred L. Cowles, a Special Examiner of the Bureau of Pensions, personally appeared William B. Inghram, who, being by me first duly sworn to answer truly all interrogatories propounded to him during this special examination of aforesaid claim for pension, deposes and says:

I am in my 77th year, I have no occupation now but I used to be a blacksmith and Machinest. My address is Ward, Kanawha County, W.Va.,

I am the identical William B. Inghram who enlisted in Captain West’s Company lst Va., Cavalry in June 1861, I don’t remember the exact date, it may have been in May 1861. I deserted that service in the spring of 1863. I cant give any exact dates as I am getting old and forgetful - my mind is gone.

My next and final service was in Company G. 7th W.Va., Cav. I don’t remember the exact date I enlisted in that service but in 1864 some time, that is as near as I can come to it now. I was honorably discharged from that service August the 9th 1865. I remember that well. I was never regularly attached to any other company and regiment.

I was born in Pennsylvania, in Green County, in the year 1839 or 40, I wont be positive. I have no record of the date of my birth. My father had a Family Bible, but I don’t know where the record has got to. My fathers name was Jehu Inghram, my mother was Jane Downey Inghram. I never had but one brother, Francis O. Inghram, he is still living on Browns Creek, W.Va., Teys, P.O. I had three sisters - yes there was Elizabeth, Rachel, Mary, Melvina, Emma, Lucy, Mary is now Mrs. Augustus Bryant, Tornado, W.Va., Melvina married a Goodwin, I don’t know whether she is living or not, last I heard of her she lived at Carmichaels, Pa. Emma married Newton Bobbett, now dead, she did live at Little Washington, Washington Co., Pa., So far as I know they are the only ones living, in fact I don’t know whether any of them are living except Mary. She is three years younger than I am.

I lived in Penna with my parents until I volunteered the first time. I had trouble with my father over the question of the north and the south. He was a southern sympathizer while I held with the Union. Finally I told him I was going to enlist, and he said if I did he would disown me. In Fayette Co., we collected a company with Captain West at the head of it-nearly all of him company were Pennsylvanians. He went to Morgantown, Va., and got some men there, we met in Uniontown and formed, from there we went to Morganstown, from there to Clarksburg, (now W.Va.,) where we were mustered in.

Q:-How did you happen to get in that particular Co.?
A:-Captain West had been sent to Omaha, Neb. By the Secy of the Interior, and he proved to be a defaulter, (he was my second cousin, so I know) He had to get out ahead of the U.S. Marshall, (I am going into this to show I became affiliated with him) He came back to Fayette Co., Pa…, that was about the beginning of the war. He came over into Greene Co., where I was and solicited me to go with him into the Union army. I did so. We went to Uniontown, Pa. There he pledged himself, if I would go with into the army he would give ma a commission as Lt for the services I had rendered him in getting him out of the hands of the U.S. Marshall. (I took two horses, when he came to my fathers on the run and my father did now want him there, and I took his over into Wash’n Co. to my uncles. Then after we were there three or four days, I took him to Uniontown where his home was, and from there I took the two horses and came back into Green and I left him there. The next thing was for him to get into the army so he could avoid arrest. When he got into the army he considered himself safe and that is how I cam to get into his company) He falsified his pledged work to me and appointed a drunken vagrant leaving me out in the cold. When we moved to Washington, D.C. I told him that I was going to give him away because he had not acted the part of a soldier nor a gentleman. He tried to hush and scare me to keep from doing what I said I was going to, but I persisted in my intention. He tried to bluff me by saying he would have me shot for insubordination. I told him I was soldiering for the country and not for a thief. I had been in the service some time then. We had already fought the battle of Carnafax Ferry and went with Rosecranz to Sewell Mountain, came back. West got into trouble and they discharged him, and the Drunken Dog, Livingston, Charles Livingston became the commanding officer of the Co., and he had it in for me for various reasons.

Livingstone kept up the same old rawhiding, I tried in everyway to convince him that he was doing wrong. He said he was going to get rid of me now, (We had come back to the Kanawha valley (W. Va.,) and this happened at the Falls.) He took my horse away from me and gave me a little bit of a thing that was not able to carry me at all-this led us into a controversy, with the result that he chucked me into the Guard House. He would not listen to my pleas to be released, and I broke out of the guardhouse and got away as soon as I could. There was no one went with me from the guardhouse and I did not pick any one from the company to go with me- that wasn’t the ideas, I was looking after myself and noone else. The company was in tents at t camp at the mouth of Blue? Creek, just below the falls of the Big Kanawha. I took to the woods. I didn’t want to be hounded. I knew if they got me they would deal severely with me. Eventually I came across some fellows back in the woods whop roved to be deserters from the Confederate army, and I conceived the idea of organizing an Independent Co., of my own, so I swore those fellows into the service of the United States with an oath of my own, hiding from them the knowledge that I had deserted. I started out to make war on the independent rebel companies who were raiding loyal citizens in the Kanawha Valley. We had a very limited supply of arms and so forth. I had eighteen men and we picked up arms wherever we could find them and from whomever we could find with arms. I raided with my men as free lances, until I found that they the rebels were likely to get me, then I concluded I had better attach myself to some regular organization. I brought my men inside of the Federal outpost at the mouth of Stoney Creek, W.Va. and surrendered my arms to a Captain Turner, a captain of the home guards. He furnished us with rations (we were starved out) He insisted that I stay there with him, (no not under arrest) but I
Could not see my way clear to doing that, I had to have something to fall back on. I was willing to fight, but we could not fight without something to eat. I told the boys that I wanted them all to volunteer in the United States Service, and I would vouch for them. We made a plan that we would straggle into Charleston one or two, or two or three at a time and enlist.

I came in along, but was joined by a man by the name of Ora Meikle in the camp who belonged to Co. G. of the 7th W.Va., Cav. And I concluded to enlist in his company. I went myself to the camp, As a matter of fact Mikle joined me at Luke Creek and went with me down to Charleston where I was going to enlist in the 7th (his regiment.) While I was in the same building as the mustering office,a man came up to me from the other end of the room and said he wanted me mustered in now. There were two of the Lovejoy boys and two of the Adkins boys who acquaintee I had already formed and who had agreed to enlist when I did,) in the room with me then. I was a man then who drank a good deal and I was pretty well shot by the time I got to the mustering office when this man came up and said he wanted to muster me, I called out to these boys I have named that now was a good time to get all the whiskey we wanted. This man, a stranger to me, said yes, and he pulled out some money from his pocket-I should judge somewhere between twenty and thirty dollars -not exceeding twenty dollars though I am sure-(word “between,” line above interlined) I went out and bought some more booze as I was not yet in the regular service. While I was out of the room this strange man had two of the boys mustered in-I don’t remember which two it was-either Lovejoys or Adkins. No I cant remember the given names of any of these boys, have not seen them since the service, but you will find their names on the rolls of Co. G. I think they all went in that Company. I want to state candidly and honestly that I got no money at all, except that $20 or $30 the man gave me to buy whiskey with. If he had me credited to any particular place where they were paying bounties that man embezzled the money for I did not get any of it except the money he gave me to buy booze with. That is the straight honest truth. I want too full of booze to inquire into the generosity of the total stranger. I simply took his $20 or $30 and went out and got as much booze as I thought I needed, and when I came back he already had two of the boys mustered in, and my enlistment or enrollment followed soon after.

There was nothing said about bounty and I had no thought of bounty. I was a deserter and I knew it, I had been a free lance with a gang of men with me, and I did not know what might happen to me, and I went to Charleston with the deliberate intention of enlisting in the army so I would have something to back up against in case of trouble.

I will swear that when I was free lancing it I did no prey on the Union Soldiers or Union People. I made it my duty to protect Union People and I (piloted) them many times to places of safety away from the rebels.

Q-What Government bounty did you get when you enlisted the first time?
A: None, not a dollar, nor any other kind either.

Q:-What bounty did you get for enlisting in the second service?
A:-I may have got some Government bounty in my second service but honestly I don’t remember it. I will not say I did not, but I cant conscientiously swear I did.

Q:-Do you know to what county, town, ward, or congressional district you were credited?
A:-I did not know I was credited to any place in particular I never heard that I was credited to Kanawha Co., or Wetsell Co.

Q:- As a matter of fact didn’t you know that they were paying big bounties to have men enlist at the time you say you got nothing. Why did you enlist for nothing when you could have just as well not gotten three to five hundred dollars?
A:-I was not offered anything. I had been out in the woods practically a fugitive and I did not know what was being paid and what was not. I want to say that I never met Captain Cassidy before I met him in his office at the time I was mustered in, but I want to say that he knew who I was all right, because he immediately made me an offer to take charge of a scouting party to round up some rebel guerrillas who were raiding the Kanawha valley. These rebels were under a Captain Payne who was killed by some one in my party. They claim I killed him.

Question:-How much bounty did the Lovejoys and Adkins get when they enlisted?
A:- I don’t know, I never heard them say, I never talked with them on the subject. I want it understood that as soon as I was enrolled I was immediately detached and put in charge of the scouting party and they kept me on detach service all the time. When I was not scouting I was sent out to bring in refugees. I know very little about what was going on the outside.

Question:-As a matter of fact did you not have a brotherinlaw with you in both services?
A:-No that was my wifes uncle, Andrew J. Escue, he was in the 7th Co. M. but he was not with me in Captain Wests Co.

Q:-Under what name did you enlist the second time?
A:-Under the name of William B. Downey, which was my mothers maiden name. I changed my name on account of my desertion from lst Cav.

Q:-Who soldiered with you that knew your correct name?
A:-I don’t remember of any, but it has been so long ago that these things have gone from my mind.

Q:-Are you willing to swear that you did not enlist in any organization either Union or rebel during the period you were absent from Capt Wests Co., lst Va. Cav., and the your enlistment in Capt. Jas A. Cassidys Co., (G) 7th W.Va., Cav.
Answer:-Yes sir, I am willing to swear it, and I do swear. When I had my “Wolverines” I swore them in, but I was not sworn in myself and that was the hardest service I ever had.

Q:-Give me some of the names of the men who were in that service with you?
A:-Miles Pool, Bill Snodgrass, (Pool was killed) Bill was a ________ fellow and he could not stand the travel. The rebels had drafted him and he ran off home, at the French Sulpher Spgs. And I went in the night, arrested him and took his confederate arms away from him and took him into my company. He remained with me until we brokee up. Then he went back home. Grambo G. Stafford, that should be Granville G. Stafford, of Spruce Run was another member of my Co.,

Q:-Are any of these fellows getting pension or did any of them ever try to get a pension?
A:-I understood that Stafford did and there was a Snodgrass applied, and they sent me on blanks and I filled them out, but I never knew whether he got his pension or not.

Q:-Did any of them get into the 7th with you?
A:-Young Snodgrass, I forget his given name went into the 7th seems to me he was in B. Co.,

Q:-How did they designate your company, your Wolverines?
A:-They called it Captain Inghrams Independent Co., U. S. Scouts but I had no authority to swear them in-they did not know it. I don’t know how they designated it in their applications for pensions. If they applied on that service, which I doubt.

Q:- Now give me the names of some of the boys who enlisted when you did in the W.Va., Ca.
A:-I cant do it, my mind does not serve me. I simply cant remember any more. I told you about the Adkins and Lovejoys-look it up.

Q:-Did you hear the name of the man who gave you the $20 or $30 when you enlisted in the 7th?
A:-There was a Smith there, but I don’t think he was the man. The man who slipped the money to me was a civilian, or was so dressed, and I don’t know where he was from or what his name was, The first I knew, I was called in to the mustering room, and they “duded” me to the skin for examination. Two Surgeons went over me and decided I was just about as near perfect man as they ever felt the pulse of. When they got through I put my clothes on again and went out of the room. There was no money handed to me then and I never had a chance to get any money after I enrolled. All I got was the $20 or $30 to buy whiskey with. I did not understand it to be bounty money, it was as I thought to buy whiskey with the hold the men together. I will swear that I did no know they were paying bounty. I didn’t care.

     After I was discharged at Wheeling August 9, 1865 I came back to Kanawha valley where I had a girl that I had engaged myself to after I got in the 7th. I settled down in Kanawha Co., near what was then Upper Falls, W.Va., renamed Tornado. I worked in that vicinity at the blacksmith trade. In 1866 on Oct. 9 I married Parthenia Jan Escue, daughter of Kendrick Escue, and we lived together until her death Oct. 15, 1914 in West Charleston, W.Va., Neither my wife nor myself had been married before, I have not remarried since her death.

     I lived in the Kanawha Valley from discharge to the present time except two years I went back into Penna. Sate in the oil region. My wife did not have her health there and wanted to come home, so I pulled up and came back.

Q:-When did you live in Clarksburg, W.VA.
A:-Never lived there. I was mustered in the lst cav., there. No I have not been there for years and years. Don’t know anybody

Q: Do you know what Co., Clarksburg is in?
A: I don’t know.

Q:-Give me the names and addresses of all the members of G. you remember?
A: The Capt. Was James S. Cassidy, he lived and died in Huntington. There was a Lt. Swar, but he is dead, the other Lt. Was Jas Fellers whether living or not I don’t know. His home was Charleston. Sgts Dow Brammer, Enoch A. Hagar, Baldwin, dead, Ora Mikel, dead,

Q: Now give me the names of some of the living?
A: William Pawley, on the head of Mud Creek, I think he enlisted after I did. I don’t know anyone else now.

     I have fully understood the examiners questions and my answers to the same have been correctly recorded. I want the examiner to add this statement to what I have to say, and that is there never was a time when I wanted to desert country in its trials and tribulations. I did not enlist for a bounty, No. sir, no sir. NO SIR.

William B. Inghram (signature) alias - William B. Downey (signature)
Deponent.

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 10th day of May, 1916, and I certify that the contents were fully made known to deponent before signing.
Fred L. Cowles (signature)

DEPOSITION

Case of William B. Inghram, alias Downey, No. 1398637

On this eleventh day of May, 1916, at Charleston, county of Kanawha, state of Ohio, before me, Fred L. Cowles, a Special Examiner of the Bureau of Pensions, personally appeared Andrew J. Escue, who, being by me first duly sworn to answer truly all interrogatories propounded to him during this special examination of aforesaid claim for pension, deposes and says:

I am 88 years of age, I live at the Pawley Hotel, Charleston W.Va., which is my postoffice address.

I became a member of Company M. 7th W. Va., Vol. Cav., was enrolled on the 7th day of October 1864 and was discharged on or about August 1865. I had no other service either military or naval.

I will state that the claimant William B. Inghram married my neice Parthenia Escue, and to that extent was related to me. His wife died about two years ago.

The first I knew of this man was when he joined my regiment about the year 1864 and a week or so after I became a member of the regiment. He came to us under the name William B. Downey, and I never found out that Downey was not his correct until about two years after the war, when his father Jehu Inghram came to into the neighborhood where I lived and settled down. Then it developed that the man I had known as William B. Downey, was in fact William B. Inghram. The old man told me that Bill’s mothers’ name was Downey and that Bill had assumed her maiden name when he joined my regiment. I will say here, that the man I had known as Downey, after his discharge from my regiment came to my neighborhood, and there met and married my neice Parthenia under the name he had gone by in the 7th Cav., William B. Downey. I never knew that his true name was Inghram until his father came out. The old man settled down in that neighborhood and finally died there. When I talked with Bill about this change in his name and asked him why he had made the change, he said that he had first gone in the army under an uncle of his, by the name of West, and that he and Captain West had had a fuss and he, Bill, deserted. He said he was from Pennsylvania, in fact I knew that from his father. He did not say how he happened to be out in this country, and I don’t think he ever told me what he had been doing all the time he was in desertion until he joined my regiment. He said he had assumed the name of Downey because of his desertion under the name of Inghram. I will say that he did little or no duty because he and a man by the name of Joe Moore were detailed to Scout duty, and they acted as scouts all throughout their service with the 7th Cav.

Now in regard to the bounty he claims he did not get, he has always maintained to me that he never got any bounty. I never believed that story though, for the fact he enlisted here in Charleston only a short time after I did, and I know that I got two hundred dollars bounty which was paid to me at enlistment. This money was handed to me as soon as I had been examined by the Examining Surgeons and passed my exam as sound. As I remember the Doctors who examined me were the ones who gave the money. I understood at the time that this two hundred dollars was State bounty, and not Government bounty. I never got any more money as bounty while I was in the service. If there was a Government bounty I never got any of it. Of course I have no way of telling whether Inghram or Downey as he was known, got any bounty or not, all I know is that he has always claimed to me that he did not get any. I did not go as a substitute for some other man, I was called a recruit, and the money paid for my going in, was state money for recruits. Joe Moore only died a week or two ago. I don’t know any one living that was present when Inghram enlisted or who could tell what bounty he got. All I know is that all the men who enlisted when I did got $200, state bounty. I have no interest in this claim I have understood the examiners questions and I am correctly recorded.

Andrew J. Escue (signature)
Deponent.

Suscribed and sworn to before me this 11th day of May 1916, and I certify that the contents were fully made known to deponent before signing.

Fred L. Cowles (signature)
Special Examiner