1850

Alabama Fayette County

1860

Mississippi Oktibbeha County
Page 68

1870

Alabama Sanford County
Precinct 1 Page 1

1880

Alabama Lamar County Beat 1 District 134 Page 33

1900

Alabama Lamar County Vernon District 43 Page 13A

Death Certificate, James F. Redus

James Franklin Redus
Lamar County, Alabama

Military Service

U.S.S. Susquehanna

James F. Redus was conscripted into service of the Confederate Army in the spring of 1862.  Hattie Redus, wrote this about Mr. Redus, her father-in-law:

"The Civil War came and southern men called "Tories" brought terror and death forcing men off to war claiming they had authority. They came in the night and at gun point carried Father Redus. They didn't want to give time for him to put his shoes on, but Mother Redus told them he was going to put on his shoes. He was not heard from for twelve days, and they feared that he was dead. He was in jail at Fayette. From there he was taken to war, leaving Mother Redus and small sons, Jim Henry and Gan. She had to plant and plow corn, made enough for bread. She said they often had just buttermilk and cornbread."

Little is known of his C.S.A. service.  Later U.S. Military documents after his capture by Union forces show him as serving in Company I of the 18th Alabama Infantry.  No record of his service in this regiment or any other has been found.  There does exist a record for receipt of rations in December of 1862 for a "J. F. Redus" at a Confederate training station located in Talladega, Alabama.  This training station is known to have trained Confederate conscripts for the 18th Alabama Infantry and was located near land owned by a certain Curry family. Since the 18th Alabama Infantry's I Company's nickname was the "Curry Guards", it is probable that the record for "J. F. Redus" is for our subject, James F. Redus.  The ration receipt was initially issued with the name "J. F. Reeder", which was marked through and the name "J. F. Redus" written next to it so perhaps Mr. Redus is listed on muster rolls under a different name.  The 18th Alabama Infantry Regiment is also known to have fought at the "Battle of Resaca" near Resaca, Georgia, in May 1864 which is where and when Mr. Redus is known to have been captured.

James F. Redus's wife, Elizabeth Ferguson Redus, in a sworn statement to support her claim to a widow's pension, stated that Mr. Redus was conscripted and forced to join the Confederate Army sometime during the year 1862.  While she couldn't recall the company, she believed he was a member of the 18th Alabama Infantry.

James F. Redus was captured by forces commanded by Major General George H. Thomas at the Battle of Resaca in Georgia on May 16th, 1864.  As a prisoner, he was transferred to Nashville and on the 20th of May moved to Louisville, Kentucky, arriving on the 21st.  On May 23, 1864, Mr. Redus was transferred to the military prison at Alton, Illinois, arriving May 25th.  Mr. Redus then enlisted in the U. S. Navy on June 2, 1864.

James F. Redus wrote in a sworn statement that he enlisted in the U. S. Navy at Alton, Illinois  onboard the U.S.S. Susquehanna.  However, this ship was sitting in the New York Naval Yard as it had been decommissioned in May 1863 and was not re-commissioned until July 1864.  As records show he was first assigned to the U.S.S. North Carolina, this writer believes that Mr. Redus enlisted in Alton, Illinois and was taken to New York, perhaps by way of Rock Island (which housed confederate prisoners, and is probably the place Hattie Redus in her memoirs was

 referring to when she said Mr. Redus was taken to "Long Island, New York"). There he might have been placed on the U.S.S. North Carolina which was a receiving station known to have been anchored in New York Naval Yard at that time.  Naval receiving ships were permanently moored ships for the in-processing of sailors, especially those that might be considered a flight risk, such as former prisoners of war.  And at some point Mr. Redus was assigned to the U.S.S. Susquehanna.  The above is only conjecture, but is what I consider to be the most likely course of events.

Photo from 1866 showing the U.S.S. Susquehanna (far left ship) sitting in New York Naval Yard.

James F. Redus, at the rank of Landsman (the lowest enlisted rank, usually for those with little or no previous experience at sea), served on the U.S.S. Susquehanna until his discharge on May 11th, 1865, after the end of the war.  The Susquehanna was a side paddle steamer sloop launched in 1850.  The U.S.S. Susquehanna, after she was commissioned again in July 1864, took part in battles at Fort Fisher and the Port of Wilmington, both in North Carolina.  In later pension applications, Mr. Redus claimed he suffered joint pain while in service and was frequently relieved of duty for that ailment.  Hattie Redus wrote that Mr. Redus's "feet froze" on the ship and this caused him discomfort the rest of his life.

Military records describe James F. Redus as 5 feet, 6½ inches tall with brown hair and eyes and a dark complexion. A later medical report by a civilian doctor to support Mr. Redus's claim for his pension describes him as 5 feet, 7½ inches tall and weighing 130 pounds.

Upon his discharge, James F. Redus returned to Alabama and resumed his farming.  In the year 1890, Mr. Redus applied for a military pension as an invalid due to "rheumatism or neuralgia or age".  The pension was approved the next year, certificate 13805.

After James F. Redus's death June 14th, 1903, his widow, Elizabeth, received a widow's pension, certificate 16850 dated December 22, 1904, at the rate of eight dollars a month.

Source Documents 

Affidavit of James F.  Redus in support of application for invalid pension.

Mr. Redus' Application for Invalid Pension.

Medical exam in support of Invalid pension application.
Pages one and two.

Affidavit of Elizabeth Redus in support of application for widow's pension.

Elizabeth Redus' Application for Widow's Pension.

Excerpts From "Memoirs of Hattie Ellen Taylor Redus"

. . . One day in April 1903, Father Redus came before breakfast and told me that he had a vision that he was ill and we were all around his bed.  With tears in his eyes he said if that vision was like death he didn't mind dying.  He didn't want to eat, but I begged him to eat a little and drink some coffee.  On June 14, 1903, he had a stroke and didn't live long.  He told his sons, "don't cry boys, let me go easy and happy."  He was then living at the Rube Burrow's place.  He was laid to rest in Mt. Nebo Cemetery near our little Lola D.  Bro. R. H. Jones held the service.  How we all missed him. . .

. . . When I came into the Frank Redus Family November 6, 1889, I felt very strange in a home I'd never seen.  I had only met the family a few times at Shiloh Church.  I tried to be a faithful daughter-in-law and loved them for they were my own husband's people.  I enjoyed hearing them tell of the past for I have always liked history.

Father Redus' mother was Abbie Elizabeth Molloy, his father was Henry, a local Methodist preacher.  Their children were Frank, William, Thomas, Dale, Lydia and Chelnissa.  His last wife was Jane Nealand and their children were John and Henry Wood.  All moved to Arkansas except Father and Mother Redus.

The Civil War came and southern men called "Tories" brought terror and death forcing men off to war claiming they had authority.  They came in the night and at gun point carried Father Redus.  They didn't want to give time for him to put his shoes on, but Mother Redus told them he was going to put on his shoes.  He was not heard from for twelve days, and they feared that he was dead.  He was in jail at Fayette.  From there he was taken to war, leaving Mother Redus and small sons, Jim Henry and Gan  She had to plant and plow corn, made enough for bread.  She said they often had just buttermilk and cornbread.  Father Redus was captured and carried to Long Island.  The Yankees were good to him, but he worked on a ship until his feet froze, so he suffered from that.  He was a true Christian of the old time religion, died of a stroke June 14, 1903.

This is as was told to me by Father and Mother Redus.  Their graves, with our baby Lola, are in the old Mt. Nebo Cemetery five miles west of Vernon, Alabama. . .

Graves of James F. and Elizabeth Redus at Old Mt. Nebo, Lamar County, Alabama