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C H E U V R O N T T E X T : Fwd 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
C O O K M A N T E X T : Fwd 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (res.)
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= R E F E R E N C E S = S I T E M A P = W H A T 'S N E W = M E S S A G E F O R U M =C O N T A C T C H E U V R O N T T E X T : Fwd 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 C O O K M A N T E X T : Fwd 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (res.) |
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 Below is a scan of the front & back of the card that belonged to Lemuel.    Lemuel was a great-grandson of Rev. Joseph Cheuvront, and grandson of Joseph’s son, Aaron. Like his ancestor, Lemuel was a “Minister of the Gospel,” and farmer. He left home and was mustered into Capt. Albert J. Beckett’s Cavalry, nicknamed the “Border Guards,” on Aug. 2, about the time that the 2nd Kanawha was reformed into the 36th Regiment Virginia Infantry. Capt. Beckett’s Cavalry was attached to company “C” of the 36th. As a Confederate cavalryman, Lemuel participated in only two engagements, Cross Lanes, Va., and Carnifex Ferry, Va., before General Floyd transferred Beckett’s unit out of the 36th on Sept. 26, 1861. The company quickly disbanded and Lemuel, now a civilian, wandered toward Monroe County where he met Mary Jane Humphreys and married her on Feb. 26, 1862. For the next eight months he worked on his father-in-law's farm before receiving word that his younger brother, James M. (*previously thought to be Andrew, see below), was deathly ill at Giles Hospital. Lemuel visited his brother, staying by his sickbed for “five or six days until I was worn.” Tired and ill himself, Lemuel went back to his father-in-laws farm where he later got word that his brother had died on Nov. 24, 1862. Despondent over Andrew's death, Lemuel became disillusioned with religion and sunk into a deep depression: “I became almost insane and was so unhappy that they [his in-laws] contacted one with the Lunatic Asylum.” Lemuel’s wife soon grew tired of his mood swings so he left her and their infant son, Robert (who died later that year), on Feb. 2, 1863, and decided to go home to his mother, Hannah (Rouse) Cheuvront, in Jackson County. But traveling in Virginia during wartime was difficult and Lemuel had to get a pass from Col. Patten to cross the Confederate lines to his mother’s home.   Unbeknownst to Lemuel, a Union officer had taken his Confederate pass and scratched out the word: “Citizen,” below his name and replaced it with the word: “Reb” written in bold letters.  A day or two later, Lemuel somehow managed to escape his cell and made a mad dash across the courtyard guarded by dozens of armed Union soldiers, knowing he would be shot. “I expected to fall dead in the courtyard,” he said, but his suicide attempt failed when the soldiers apparently shot over his head instead, and he was quickly recaptured and taken back to his cell. In a note to the Provost Marshall, Lemuel expressed his remorse for his escape attempt: “I am ashamed and sorry for it,” he wrote, “I am thankful now for the good Providence that saved me from death.” Although Lemuel begged for his freedom, he was sent to the Federal Prison at Camp Chase, Ohio for seven months before he was released by order of the Secretary of War in Washington, on Nov. 2, 1863. Before they let him go, Lemuel had to sign an oath of allegiance to the Union, with the understanding that he was never again to take up “arms against the Government of the United States, or aiding or abetting its enemies,” or the “penalty will be death.” A totally reconstructed Rebel, Lemuel joined the Union cause six months later when he signed up for the 142nd Regiment, Ohio National Guard Infantry (also known as the 142nd Ohio Volunteers) at Camp Chase. Lemuel then served in the Union Army from May 13, 1864 until his discharge on Sept. 2, 1864. Lemuel became such a good citizen that he even cosigned for his underage brother, Moses, so that he could join the 7th West Virginia Infantry, of the Union Army, known as the “Bloody 7th. Lemuel returned to his wife after his discharge from the Union Army, and later became a constable in Monroe County before emigrating with his family to Nebraska in the 1880s. Lemuel G. Cheuvront never spoke to his children of his Confederate service, or his time in a Union prison, and it was known only that he was a Union soldier until his great-grandson, Michael Cheuvront, uncovered this information in Oct. 1999 in the Confederate Archives (formally known as the “Rebel Archives”) at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.. This scan shows Lemuel's signature on his Nov. 2, 1863 parole papers from Camp Chase, Ohio, where he had been held for seven months.  |