Thursday, October 3, 2013

Deaf Soldiers in the Civil War

From: deafdigest.net


- John Gross Barnard  fought for the Union, was hard of hearing, but was able to graduate from West Point.

- William Meade Berkeley fought for the Confederates, was wounded in action.

- John Blount fought for the Union, graduated from Kentucky School for the Deaf and became a teacher at the same school.

- William Martin Chamberlain fought for the Union, hid his deafness and fought for a while before his deafness was discovered and he was discharged.

- Hartwell Macon Chamberlayne fought for the Confederates at the Battle of Newmarket, he ran into James Jennings (see below) who was a prisoner of war.

- Henry Clay English fought for the Confederates, taught at schools for the deaf before fighting in the war; when war ended he went back to his teaching career.

- G.E.Fischer fought for the Union, served on the Union ships during the war.

- James Goodloe George fought for the Union, was a career teacher, like English (see above).

- James Jennings fought for the Union, as a prisoner of war, made acquaintance with a rival solder (Chamberlayne, see above). They both knew each other from way back before the war broke out.

- Robert Heber King fought for the Confederates, cultivated the contacts of higher ranked officers, which helped him in his post war careers in various positions.

- James H. McFarland fought for the Confederates, role in the war was to carry dispatches between Confederate troops positioned away from each other on the field.

- Benedict Oppenheimer fought for the Confederates, was a rarity; one of the few Confederate solders of Jewish faith; was the one that fired the cannons, since noise did not bother him!

- William Simpson fought for the Union, was able to hide his deafness throughout the war.

-  John H. Yeager fought for the Union, graduated from the Kentucky School for the Deaf.

IMAGE: Kentucky School for the Deaf

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