Ferdinand Fleishman: Tragedy in Civil War Era Cincinnati

A previous post aluded to the tragic end of Ferdinand Fleishman. Ferdinand left Quincy, FL during the war. The Israelite told his story in its July 22, 1864 issue:
"CINCINNATI - Some five or six weeks ago, Fred. A. Fleischman, a German, of the Israelitish faith, twenty-eight years of age, arrived in this city as a refugee from Florida. He took the oath of allegience at Key West, January 28, 1864. He has been boarding at the Sylvester House, but Friday evening went to the residence of Mr. Oehlman on East Fifth street, and retired to his room at an early hour. In the morning his door was found locked, and no answer was made to knocking on the door, or repeated calls. Finally the door was forced upon, and Fleischman found lying on the floor, with a pillow under his head, his right arm bent over the shoulder, almost in contact with the temple, and beneath it a pistol, which had fallen from his hand after the discharge. The pistol is a small, singled-barreled breach-loader, partially covered with blood, and had been discharged, portions of the catridge still remaining in the barrell. He had placed himself in an easy position, and must have died instantly. As additional evidence that he had commited suicide designedly, he left on a sheet of fools-cap a note to Mr. Oehlman, as follows: "Mr. Oehlman - My clothes are at Mr. Moore's. You will find $31 in my pants pocket. Let my wife know. Ferdinand." Fleischman was suffering from a depression of spirit, induced partly by the expected arrival of his wife and four children, from Quincey, Florida, where he resided and owned considerable property, and partly by his cold reception on his arrival in New York, by those whose duty and pleasure it should have been to give him succor and extend to him the warm hand of friendship in this his hour of adversity. We most heartily sympathize with the bereaved family, and hope that the God of Israel will give them consolation."
Ferdinand had been mentioned in "The Israelite" a few years earlier. H. Loewenthal sent the paper a report, published on Dec. 21, 1860, of his visit to Florida where had had been called as a mohel. Loewenthal performed the brit mila for Ferdinand Fleishman's son in Quincy and reported that "I must confess that I never met with a more liberal set of men and women than I found in those I there become acquainted with. I am only sorry my time was too brief and my heart too wounded on account of my too recent affliction - you know I lost my wife lately."
Ferdinand was born about 1835 in Bavaria and was listed as a merchant in the 1860 census. He also worked for a while at the Aspalaga post office in 1859. Ferdinand and Fannie Davis, born in the late 1830s in Baden, Germany, were married in Gadsden County on Nov. 7, 1859. Fannie was listed in the 1860 census as having a fancy goods store. Ferdinand and Fannie had four children, Albert and Mary, both born about 1860, and Joseph and Bertha, both born about two years later. The child brought into the convenant by Loewenthal was certainly Albert. The 1860 census lists Fanny and Ferdinand with a two year old child, Samuel. Unlike Fannie's four children with Ferdinand, the 1870 census lists Samuel's last name as Davis. It is unclear whether Samuel is a child of Fannie's from a previous marriage or the child of a relative. The 1860 Gadsden census listed a S.M. Davis, born about 1838, clerk from Hessia Germany and the 1850 Gadsden census listed a Lewis Davis, a peddler born about 1820 in Germany. The connection between these people is unclear.
As reported in a previous post, Ferdinand seems to have found a substitute to serve in Florida's 6th Infantry Regiment, probably in mid-1862 when Simon and Benjamin enlisted and set off for the North in late 1863.
A few years after Ferdinand's suicide, Fannie married Morris Warendolff, a native of Prussia. Fannie and Morris were living in Gadsden County as of the 1870 census. This census lists two young children: Alexander (age 3) and Bernhard (age 1), both born in New Jersey. It is unclear whether these were Fannie's own offspring or Morris's from a previous marriage. The Israelite article describing Ferdinand's suicide reports the impending arrival of Fannie and her four children, suggesting that she may have gone North after all in 1864 and that the fifth child, Samuel, was not hers. Perhaps she met Morris in the North and married in New Jersey and had two children there. It is impossible to determine.
By 1880, Fannie was living in Brooklyn, with Samuel (now named Warndolff), her four children named Fleishman, the two Warndolff boys born in New Jersey, and three more Warendolff children who are defintiely Fannie's: Victor (born Florida 1871), Herman (born New York 1874) and Edward (born New York 1876). Morris is not listed with the family - presumably he was dead. It seems that Fannie later married a individual named Manheimer.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION POSTED AUG. 31, 2009: Like Ferdinand, Samuel Fleishman had also lived in Quincy before moving to Marianna. In the Tallahasee Floridian & Journal dated Jan. 26 1856, the following announcement is found:
"Co-Partnership
PHILIP M. FLEISHMAN and FERDINAND A. FLEISHMAN, under the firm of P. & F. Fleishman, having purchased the entire stock of S. M. Fleishman, will continue the business at the old stand, and respectfully solicit a continuance of the patronage of their friends and the public in general.
P. & F. FLEISHMAN
_____
The subscriber having sold his entire stock to P. & F. Fleishman, would respectfully solicit in their behalf, a continuance of that favor so liberally bestowed on him.
S. M. FLEISHMAN
Quincy, Fla. Jan 1, 1856

Charles Memorial Hamilton: The Military Record

I glossed over Hamilton's military service in the FHQ paper. Here is a more complete account.

1861
May: joins Co. A, 5 Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry as a private at Jersey Shore, PA
June: Skirmish at New Creek, WV

1862
June - July: Peninsula campaign: Battles of Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill, Charles City Cross Roads or White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill
July: promoted to corporal
Sept: Battles of South Mountain and Antietam
Nov.: CMH courtmartialed, charged with "absence without authority from company while on picket duty." CMH was arrested by a Union army patrol outside of the picket lines near Rappahannock Station on Nov. 12, 1862. The Cavalry officer who had arrested CMH testified that he found CMH and another man outside of less than a mile beyond the picket lines at a house near the river with another man "carrying off some fresh pork." Col. Fisher of CMH's regiment testified that he knew "of no young man possessed of a better character." CMH's officers stated for the defense that they had given CMH permission to visit a nearby house to buy bread. CMH was found not guilty of the charges against him.
Dec. 13, 1862: Battle of Fredericksburg: wounded (fracture of tibia caused by gunshot), left on field for 5 days, captured and taken to Richmond
Dec. 1862 - Jan 1863: Imprisoned ("enjoyed the storied feliciities") at Richmond's Libbey Prison

1863:
Jan.: imprisoned in Richmond and exchanged
Jan - April: U.S. Hospital, Annapolis MD (receives 20 days leave of absence to PA home where fell ill with "typhus fever")
March: Promoted to Sargeant
May - Aug.: U.S. Hospital in Philadelphia (typhus fever and treatment of leg wounded)
Sept.: Ordered Invalid Corps to report as guard to the Provost Marshall's office, Philadelphia
Oct.: Discharged by order to the War Dept. to accept a commission as 2nd Lieut in Invalid Corps (Co. B, 9 Veteran Reserve Corp) on account of disability: fracture of tibia
Nov.; VRC unit stationed in Washington: CMH "detailed to commant the Guard, and take charge of the Aqueduct Bridge"

1864
Jan.: Takes charge of Washington's Chain Bridge
Feb. - Apri: detalied as Judge Advocate of a General Court Martial
April 1864 - Dec.: detailed on General Martindale's staff as assistant Pass Officer, also Transportation Officer
Dec.: Assigned as Post Adjutant as Forrest Hall Prison in Georgetown

1865 and later
Jan.: Transferred to to Central Guard House prison
March: CMH reassigned to his regiment
April: Granted leave to accompany his father to recover the body of his brother John killed at Peterburg; detailed back to the Central Guard House prison, returned to his regiment and then assigned to command the Guard at Secy Seward's residence
June: assigned to transport Burnett of the Confederate Congress to the care of Maj Gen'l Palmer in Kentucky
July - Oct.: detalailed as Judge Advocate General Court Martial
Oct: ordered to report with detachment of 33 soldiers to the Freedmen's Bureau sub asst commission at St. Mary's Co., MD
Nov.: returned to his regiment and elects to remain in U.S. service
June 1867: promoted by brevet to 1st. Lieut and Captain to date from March 13, 1865 for "faithful and meritorious services during the war"
Jan. 1868: Honorably discharged from military service

The Fighting Fleishmans of Gadsden County, FL: Forgotten Jewish Confederates

The Simon Wolf index is a list of Jewish Civil War veterans originally compiled in the 19th century. The index does not include any of the Florida Fleishmans. Benjamin and Simon Fleishman served in the 6th Regiment of the Florida Infantry. Simon, born Feb. 21, 1840, was listed in the 1860 census as living with Samuel Fleishman's brother Philip. Like Philip and Benjamin, Simon was a native of Bavaria - possibly he was another brother, but more likely a cousin since he was as much as 18 years younger than Samuel. Benjamin was listed in the census as boarding with the family of Ferdinand and Fannie Fleishman and their child Samuel. Born about 1832, Benjamin was also, like Ferdinand (born about 1835), a Bavarian. As discussed in the Fleishman paper in the SHJ Journal, Philip found a substitute to serve in the Confederate army in his place. Ferdinand is listed under the 6th Regiment, but apparently never served and left for the North where, as recounted in The Israelite, he committed suicide under miserable, lonely circumstances in July 1864.

Service records of Simon and Benjamin Fleishman:
SIMON FLEISHMAN: enlisted in Quincy on March 12, 1862 as a private in Co. B of the 6th Infantry FL. He was captured at Missionary Ridge (TN) on Nov. 25, 1863 and confined in the Union p.o.w. camp at Rock Island, IL on Dec. 1, 1863. Simon was released upon swearing an oath of allegience on June 22, 1865. He is described as 5'7.5", with "fresh skin, dark hair, hazel eyes." Simon was the only of the Jackson-Gadsden Fleishmans to remain in Florida long after the War. He was an "active businessman in Quincy in the post-war period" and a building on the west corner of the south side of Quincy's town square was known as the "old Simon Fleishman building." In 1907, Simon applied for and received a Confederate army service pension from the state of Florida. It is not clear that he ever married.
[UPDATE AUG. 23, 2010:  Fate of Simon Fleishman solved - Born in 1840, Simon "Fleischman" was buried in Chicago in 1908 - See: http://genealogytrails.com/ill/rebelsoldiersa-g.html ]

BENJAMIN FLEISHMAN: enlisted at Chattahoochee on June 14, 1862 as a private in Co. B of the 6th Infantry, FL. He was wounded at Chicamauga, GA on Sept. 20, 1863 and captured at Nashville, TN on Dec. 16, 1864. Benjamin was confined at Camp Chase, OH on Dec. 20, 1864 and was released after swearing the oath of allegience on May 11, 1865. Benjamin had some business interests in Jackson County after the war and briefly served as county treasurer. He died in the mid-1870s.

Record of the Florida 6th Florida Volunteer Infantry;
"The Regiment was formally organized on April 14, 1862 with the election of officers...After several months of training at Chattahoochee, the regiment was ordered to report to Knoxville, Tennessee....The 6th and 7th Regiments reinforced General [Edmund Kirby] Smith's army before the great Confederate invasion of Kentucky during the late summer of 1862. Moving fast out of Knoxville, through the Cumberland Gap, General Smith captured Frankfort and Lexington and threatened Cincinnati before his offensive ran out of steam. Many of the men in the 6th Florida weakened by the vigorous marching, poor food, and foul water, were laid low by disease... During the invasion of Kentucky the 6th Florida did not participate in any major engagements. For the next year the regiment was mainly used on guard and garrison duty in East Tennessee. The Unionist living in the mountains were a constant threat to the railroad that ran from Chattanooga, through Knoxville, to Virginia. The duty of guarding the railroad was dull but necessary. The Union offensive in Tennessee during the summer of 1863 changed this monotonous existence of the 6th Florida. The Confederates were forced to evacuate Knoxville, their small force there falling back to join General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee, which had been forced out of Chattanooga. This combined force retreated a few miles south to make a stand near Chickamauga Creek. At Chickamauga the 6th Florida had its baptism of fire. After Chickamauga all of the Florida regiments in the Army of Tennessee were formed into one brigade... This new brigade was stationed near the center of the Confederate line at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, and did not retire from the ridge until ordered to do so. After spending the winter at Dalton, Georgia, the 6th Florida was nearly constantly engaged in battle during the Atlanta campaign, suffering heavy casualties.... A much reduced regiment emerged from the Atlanta Campaign to take part in Hood's disasterous Tennessee invasion in late 1864. At the Battle of Nashville, the Florida Brigade, as well as the rest of the Confederate army, was virtually destroyed. The survivors retreated back to Mississippi. Here what was left of the 6th Florida was consolidated with the survivors from the other Florida regiments in the Army of Tennessee to form one regiment. This 1st (Consolidated) Florida Regiment was sent east to join Joe Johnston's army in North Carolina. Here they were finally surrendered to General Sherman's army at Greensboro, N. C. on April 26, 1865, three years after their violent adventure." [Posted by MelindaWebb Russ at http://history-sites.com/mb/cw/flcwmb/index.cgi?noframes;read=184]

Simon and Benjamin have both been added to the Jewish Civil War service database at http://www.jewish-history.com/database.html
[Flag image from http://www.florida-scv.org ]

Samuel Fleishman in New York

While Samuel spent at least a few years during the war in New York CIty, he also maintained a residence there after he returned to Marianna. Samuel appears in the 1868-1869 New York City Directory with a residence at 202 E. 27th street and a place of employment at 39 Third Ave. The Third Avenue address, of course, was the site Altman dry goods store after Morris and Benjamin moved uptown from the Bowery a few years after the death of their father, Phllip. Samuel is also listed in the 1869-1870 directory with a residence now at 252 E. 10th Street. The 10th street address was also the home of Samuel's widowed mother-in-law Celia Altman. By this time, the Altman store had expanded to include 43 Third Ave. The following year, Sophia and her children had moved to 318 E. 49th Street which they shared with Celia. Phlip Fleishman was living nearby at 318 E. 49th Street.

For our Jackson County, FL readers - Fleishman's Campbellton property

The Florida state archives contain several deeds transferring a property in Campbellton involving the Fleishman family. On Feb. 2, 1860, Samuel Fleishman purchased from B.A. Hinson for $1,250 a two acre property containing a "store-house and dwelling." The property "lying at the commencement of the Geneva and Orange hill roads" ran 140 yards South and 70 yards West. On Feb. 8, 1862, Samuel deeded this property to his wife Sophia for the sum of $2,500. Sophia transferred to this property to Samuel's brother Phillip Fleishman of Gadsden County on Nov. 29, 1864 for $2,500. Presumably Samuel transferred this property to Sophia when he contemplated leaving the South. The reason for Sophia's transfer to Philip so subject to similar speculation. Perhaps she contemplated leaving the South late in the War? If any readers are familiar with Campbellton, is this property identifiable?