When Pius Blessing’s muster roll listed him as “missing” in the spring of 1864, the Army had no better word for what had happened to him. It would be nearly a year before that record was corrected, and considerably longer before the rest of his story – a family already marked by grief, a prison in Georgia, a headstone, a newspaper clipping nearly a century later – could be pieced back together.

Pius Blessing was born on May 23, 1837, in Tannheim, a small village that was in the Grand Duchy of Baden – now part of modern-day Germany. He was born to Josef Blessing and Kreszentia Majer, one of eleven children in a large, Catholic family. [1][2]

While it is unclear why or precisely when Blessing emigrated to the United States, he made his way to western Virginia by the time the Civil War broke out. He married his wife Rebecca Meyers Blessing on May 30, 1861.[3][4] Blessing was working as a farmer.[5] Service records describe him at enlistment as twenty-five[i], five feet three inches tall, with a fair complexion, blue eyes, and dark hair.[6][7] On August 13, 1862, he enrolled in New Martinsville for a three-year term, and on September 8 mustered into Company K of the 15th Virginia Infantry at Wheeling – soon redesignated the 15th West Virginia Infantry when the new state was admitted to the Union in the summer of 1863.[8]

Pius and Rebecca had two children, Josef and Mary. Josef Blessing was born April 4, 1862, in Wetzel County. He lived to be five and a half months, passing on September 18, 1862.[9] Mary Blessing was born in neighboring Tyler County on June 3, 1863, just weeks prior to West Virginia statehood taking effect. She lived only a month, passing July 5, 1863.[10]

For a year and a half, Blessing’s service record is largely unremarkable despite his losses experienced on the homefront. He is noted only as present in muster rolls.[11] That changed in the spring of 1864, when Union forces under General George Crook pushed into southwestern Virginia to strike the railroads supplying the Confederacy.[12] That spring, Blessing’s muster rolls note that he is “missing,”[13] but by early 1865 more light is shed on his story. In May of 1864, at the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain, Blessing was captured.[14][ii]

Pius Blessing’s muster roll, noting his capture at Cloyd’s Mountain, May 9, 1864 (National Archives)

His name appeared on the first edition of Clara Barton’s Rolls of Missing Men, published June 1, 1865. It is not clear who submitted Pius Blessing’s name and information to the Missing Soldiers Office, but his fate was uncovered shortly thereafter.

Roll of Missing Men No. 1 (Maryland State Archives)

Following the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain, Blessing was held captive in Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville. This Georgia prison held tens of thousands of Union prisoners by 1864 in conditions that killed thousands through exposure, malnutrition, and disease. No surviving record fixes his exact arrival date at Andersonville, only the outcome: hospitalized on October 8, 1864, and dead ten days later, on October 18.[15] His official cause of death is recorded as chronic diarrhea,[16][17] the affliction that killed more Andersonville prisoners than any other; a separate record lists the cause of death as scorbutus[18] – scurvy – reflecting the compounding toll of starvation and unsanitary conditions. He was twenty-seven.

Record of Blessing’s admission to the hospital at Andersonville and his death, October 1864 (National Archives)

Andersonville death register entry for Pius Blessing, grave no. 11090 (National Archives)

Union private Dorence Atwater was imprisoned in Andersonville as well. Atwater was tasked with keeping a ledger of the deceased within the prison camp. Upon his release, he secretly copied the death registers. Many of the names on his ledger matched the names on Clara Barton’s first Roll of Missing Men, including Pius Blessing. Atwater and Barton joined an Army expedition to Andersonville led by Captain James Moore that aimed to identify Union soldiers lost behind Confederate lines and to reinter them within Federal cemeteries or with their families. The expedition resulted in the establishment of Andersonville National Cemetery.[19] A headstone, site 11090, marks the burial grounds of Pius Blessing.[20]

Pius Blessing’s headstone, Andersonville National Cemetery (Find a Grave)

Notification would have been received by Rebecca Meyers Blessing. She lost her husband and both of their children between 1862 and 1864. Her grief, while it goes unwritten within surviving documents, is unimaginable. She filed for a widow’s pension in July 1865,[21] initially receiving $8 per month.[22] She remarried a West Virginia infantryman named Richard Lemley in November of 1865, which terminated her pension at that time.[23]

Marriage license of Richard Lemley and Rebecca Blessing, November 16, 1865 (Ohio County, West Virginia)

Lemley was a widower, having lost his wife, Nancy Fluharty Lemley, in 1865.[24] Richard and Rebecca had one child, David, the following year in 1866[25] and their household was a blended one. Richard had several children with his first wife that continued to reside with him, as noted in the 1870 census.[26] Rebecca and Richard remained married until his passing in 1892.

Richard Lemley household, 1870 U.S. Census (National Archives)

Rebecca Blessing’s widow’s pension file, recording her remarriage and Richard Lemley’s death (National Archives)

On March 3, 1901, Congress allowed widows who lost their pensions due to remarriage to regain their pensions following the loss of their husbands. Widows could also pursue pensions if they were divorced due to no fault of their own.[27]Rebecca had experienced the loss of her second husband in the years prior and filed to restore her pension from Pius Blessing on September 10, 1903. She was granted a pension at the rate of $12 per month.[28][29] Rebecca received this pension until her death in 1905.[30]

Nearly a century after Blessing’s death, on October 13, 1962, a newspaper called the West Virginia Hillbilly ran a piece remembering him by name – a West Virginian who had died a prisoner at Andersonville, still worth recalling by people who had never known him.[31]

West Virginia Hillbilly, October 13, 1962 (Virginia Chronicle)

West Virginia Hillbilly, October 13, 1962 (Virginia Chronicle)

“Whatever you do, don’t give this a lick and a promise. Keep it, because here quite possibly is the first listing of the graves of West Virginians buried at Andersonville. The writer has worked long and hard to preserve this bit of history,” the subheading reads. In the spring of 1864, the Army could only call Pius Blessing “missing.” In the century that followed, Dorence Atwater’s ledger, Clara Barton’s Roll of Missing Men, and a small-town newspaper each recorded his name again – each kept by someone who thought it worth keeping. We hope our readers promise to keep this bit of history too.

About the Author

Madeleine Thompson is the Site Manager of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum. She holds a BA in Political Science from West Virginia University and a MA in Sexual Dissidence from the University of Sussex.

Sources

[1] Entry for Pius Blessing, “Geneanet Community Trees Index,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62476/records/7337006997.

[2] Entry for Pius Blessing, “Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558–1898,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9866/records/95159852.

[3] Widow’s pension file of Rebecca Blessing (widow of Pvt. Pius Blessing, Co. K, 15th West Virginia Infantry), page 2, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications of Widows and Other Veterans of the Army and Navy Who Served Mainly in the Civil War and the War with Spain, 1861–1934, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15, National Archives, Washington, DC, digital image, “US, Civil War Widows’ Pensions, 1861–1910,” Fold3, https://www.fold3.com/image/271200999/blessing-pius-page-2-us-civil-war-widows-pensions-1861-1910.

[4] Rebecca Blessing widow’s pension file, page 3, https://www.fold3.com/image/271201006/blessing-pius-page-3-us-civil-war-widows-pensions-1861-1910.

[5] Compiled service record of Pvt. Pius Blessing, Co. K, 15th West Virginia Infantry, page 1, Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of West Virginia, microfilm publication M508, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Record Group 94, National Archives, Washington, DC, digital image, “US, Civil War Service Records (CMSR) – Union – West Virginia, 1861–1865,” Fold3, https://www.fold3.com/image/268916269/blessing-pius-page-1-us-civil-war-service-records-cmsr-union-west-virginia-1861-1865.

[6] Blessing compiled service record, page 1.

[7] Document image attached to Pius Blessing profile, Ancestry Family Trees (tree 5976452), Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/5976452/person/25901497/media/e837fd01-f1e6-4e44-bfe8-03a478c2bc9b.

[8] Document image attached to Pius Blessing profile, Ancestry Family Trees (tree 5976452), https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/5976452/person/25901497/media/7e495066-7059-44dc-8b89-787ae7e9a131.

[9] “Pious Blessing (1837–1864),” Find a Grave, memorial no. 51151556, created by John C. Anderson, April 15, 2010, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/51151556/pious-blessing.

[10] Entry for Mary Blessing, “Geneanet Community Trees Index,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62476/records/7337006929.

[11] Blessing compiled service record, page 6, https://www.fold3.com/image/268387708/blessing-pius-page-6-us-civil-war-service-records-cmsr-union-west-virginia-1861-1865.

[12] George McLean, “The Virginia and Tennessee Railroad during the Civil War,” Encyclopedia Virginia, Virginia Humanities, June 8, 2023, https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/the-virginia-and-tennessee-railroad-during-the-civil-war/.

[13] Blessing compiled service record, page 6.

[14] Blessing compiled service record, page 4, https://www.fold3.com/image/268387705/blessing-pius-page-4-us-civil-war-service-records-cmsr-union-west-virginia-1861-1865.

[15] Prisoner of war record card, Pvt. Pius Blessing, Co. K, 15th West Virginia Infantry, digital image attached to Pius Blessing profile, Ancestry Family Trees (tree 5976452), Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/5976452/person/25901497/media/cd6bffb7-3ea4-40d6-8bcc-953129862172.

[16] Entry for Pius Blessing, Selected Records of the War Department Commissary General of Prisoners Relating to Federal Prisoners of War Confined at Andersonville, Georgia, 1864–65, microfilm publication M1303, roll 3, Records of the Commissary General of Prisoners, Record Group 249, National Archives, Washington, DC, digital image, “U.S., Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861–1865,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1124/images/M1303_3-0394.

[17] Document image attached to Pius Blessing profile, Ancestry Family Trees (tree 5976452), https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/5976452/person/25901497/media/9196a6ae-802c-43d8-aec0-21b18180cab9.

[18] Entry for Pius Blessing, “Andersonville Prisoners of War,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3708/records/4769.

[19] Burial register page, digital image, “U.S., Burial Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries, 1862–1960,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/3135/images/40447_5121003239_0618-00048.

[20] Interment control form, Pius Blessing, Andersonville National Cemetery, grave 11090, digital image, “U.S., National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928–1962,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2590/images/40479_2421406259_0415-00652.

[21] Pension index card, Pius Blessing, General Index to Pension Files, 1861–1934, microfilm publication T288, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15, National Archives, Washington, DC, digital image, “U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861–1934,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/4654/images/32959_032701-01074.

[22] Rebecca Blessing widow’s pension file, page 17, https://www.fold3.com/image/271201092/blessing-pius-page-17-us-civil-war-widows-pensions-1861-1910.

[23] Marriage license, Richard Lemley and Rebecca Blessing, November 16, 1865, Ohio County, West Virginia, digital image attached to Ancestry Family Trees (tree 18387690), Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/18387690/person/1524861824/media/c5736960-e5ea-4ba5-a28f-c279291a2a4d.

[24] “Richard Lemley (1832–1892),” Find a Grave, memorial no. 59689908, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59689908/richard-lemley.

[25] “David W. Lemley (1866–1937),” Find a Grave, memorial no. 59690814, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59690814/david_w-lemley.

[26] 1870 U.S. Census, West Virginia, population schedule, dwelling 56, family 56, Richard Lemley household, microfilm publication M593, National Archives, Washington, DC, digital image, “1870 United States Federal Census,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/images/4268439_00265.

[27] U.S. Congress, House, Committee on Invalid Pensions, Pensions to Remarried Widows, 57th Cong., 1st sess., 1902, H. Rep. 1526, serial 4404, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SERIALSET-04404_00_00-104-1526-0000/pdf/SERIALSET-04404_00_00-104-1526-0000.pdf.

[28] Remarried widow pension application index card, service of Pius Blessing, Co. K, 15th West Virginia Infantry, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15, National Archives, Washington, DC, digital image, “U.S., Civil War and Later Wars Index to Remarried Widow Pension Applications, 1848–1934,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2402/images/33126_b092799-00708.

[29] Rebecca Blessing widow’s pension file, page 44, https://www.fold3.com/image/271201219/blessing-pius-page-44-us-civil-war-widows-pensions-1861-1910.

[30] Probate record of Rebecca Lemley, digital image, “West Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1724–1985,” Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/9087/images/007615639_00394.

[31] “They Didn’t Come Back from Andersonville,” West Virginia Hillbilly (Richwood, WV), October 13, 1962, Virginia Chronicle, Library of Virginia, https://www.virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=WVH19621013.1.10.

[i] Note: His age is also listed as 24 on his discharge documents.

[ii] Note: the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain occurred on May 9, 1864, however one muster roll notes he was captured May 8, 1864. Another muster roll notes his capture on May 9, 1864.