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Note: , OH (Enumeration District 240, House 81, Family 81), shows Adam with the middle initial 'S.' As none of the earlier sources show this initial, it is not shown as such in this history.
Death: Although Camp Sumter was the official Confederate name for the prison camp, it was more popularly known as Andersonville for a nearby town. At the time, the camp was in Sumter Co. but, because of later boundary changes, the site is now in Macon Co. and is known as Andersonville National Historic Site and Cemetery.
Burial: According to Joan Stibitz, Park Ranger at Andersonville , Adam was buried in Grave #7540 in Andersonville National Cemetery, Section H. His grave is not a common grave and is marked with a stone, bearing his name. Prisoners were buried in trench graves and each one's place in the trench was marked with their name in July and August of 1865. The markers at that time were painted wooden boards and have since been changed to marble markers."
Children: The 1860 Federal census shows two children listed between Adam and Lucy, Eliza B. Sell, age 12, born OH, & John Sell , age 8, born OH. They do not appear to be Adam's & Lucy's natural born children as Adam & Lucy were not married until 1852. Both Adam & Lucy were living with their parents in 1850, and Eliza was not listed at either location. Who were these children?
Military:
By Nov 1862 Northern states were responding to U. S. President Abraham Lincoln's July call for 300,000 more volunteers "to bring this unnecessary and injurious civil war to a speedy and satisfactory conclusion." However, a militia draft slated to start in October for 300,000 men to serve for nine months was not put into effect, but probably encouraged some men to volunteer for longer periods in units of their own choosing. In the meantime, the three Confederate thrusts of late summer and early fall had been turned back and the immediate threats of Confederate invasion were gone. At the moment, the war seemed to be dragging.
On 11 Nov 1862 Adam Sell, age 33, born York Co., PA, 5'9 1/2", dark complexion, dark eyes, dark hair, carpenter) joined for duty and was enrolled in Captain Baugh's Company (later Company E) , 125 Regiment Ohio Infantry, at Mansfield, Richland Co., OH, for three years. He was paid a $25 bounty. On 17 Dec the 125th was mustered into Federal service at Camp Taylor, Cleveland, OH, and on 31 Dec Adam was mustered in at Camp Taylor. On 3 Jan 1863 the 125th moved to Cincinnati, OH, then on to Louisville, KY , where it was attached to the District of Western Kentucky, Department of the Ohio. On 28 Jan the 125th moved to Nashville, TN.
On 5 Mar 1863, with Confederate forces under Major General Earl Van Dorn and Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest pressing from the south, the 125th moved to Franklin, TN, where it was a part of the Army of Kentucky, Department of the Cumberland . On 10 Apr Van Dorn's Confederates attacked the Federals, including the 125th, at Franklin in a sharp engagement, but a counter attack forced the Confederates to withdraw.
On 24 May Adam was sent on detached service in the Pioneer Corps (Engineers) until at least the end of the month. On 2 Jun the 125th moved to Triune, then on to Murfreesboro where it was attached to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 21st Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, under Major General William Starke Rosecrans . On 23 Jun, after much urging, Rosecrans finally moved from Murfreesboro toward General Braxton Bragg's Confederates at Tullahoma. Exhorted to take the pressure off Major General Ulysses Simpson Grant at Vicksburg, MS, by preventing Confederate reinforcements, Rosecrans conducted the Tullahoma or Middle Tennessee Campaign brilliantly. He outflanked Bragg and finally forced him to fall back behind the Tennessee River by the end of the month . The campaign ended in early July. No major fighting marked the campaign and the 125th was not involved in any skirmishing.
On 3 Jul 1863 the 125th entered Hillsboro and remained there until 5 Aug when it left to rejoin Rosecrans. On 16 Aug, after urging from Washington, Rosecrans and the Army of the Cumberland started toward the Tennessee River and Chattanooga from the area south of Tullahoma. Rosecrans had delayed, he said, because of ripening crops to be harvested, repair of railroads, and need of support on both flanks. On 1 Sep Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland began crossing the Tennessee River in the Bridgeport, AL, area and at Shellmound, TN, preparatory to moving on Chattanooga and Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee. The crossing was largely unopposed. On 4 Sep the Army of the Cumberland completed its crossing of the Tennessee River, threatening Bragg's army in Chattanooga from both south and west.
On 5 Sep 1863 Rosecrans, convinced that Bragg was evacuating Chattanooga, split his army into three groups to speed up pursuit of Bragg's army. The 21st Corps was the northernmost group. On 8 Sep Bragg, perhaps fearing a siege like that at Vicksburg, MS, which ended with Southern surrender in July, marched his army out of Chattanooga and withdrew toward LaFayette, GA. On 9 Sep the 21st Corps advanced through Chattanooga and the other two groups of Rosecrans' forces pushed ahead through the Georgia mountains to the south. On 12 Sep the 21st Corps took up position at Lee and Gordon's Mills on West Chickamauga Creek, GA, and waited for the other two groups to join it.
On 17 Sep 1863 Bragg, now on the east bank of the creek, planned to turn the Union left flank and get behind Rosecrans' army, cutting off the roads to Chattanooga. However, Rosecrans understood Bragg's moves and hurried to protect the roads to Chattanooga . The next day both armies continued to maneuver, with Bragg crossing to the west bank of the creek. A major battle was in sight . On 19 Sep neither Rosecrans' Federals nor Bragg's Confederates were sure of each other's positions as they moved into roughly parallel lines. The area was densely wooded and under brushed . The fighting began almost by accident. Major General George Henry Thomas, on the Federal left (north) flank, sent one of his divisions to reconnoiter near West Chicamauga Creek; these troops suddenly encountered the dismounted Confederate cavalry of Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who returned fire and called for infantry help. Soon hostilities erupted along most of the battle line. Throughout the day, Bragg threw his strongest efforts against the Union left, pursuing his plan to get behind the enemy and cut them off from Chattanooga. Rosecrans responded by moving division after division to his left, extending his battle line north. By the end of the day, losses were enormous on both sides, but neither had gained any significant advantage. The battle came to a standstill: dead men blanketed the woods, wounded men crawled toward the rear, stretcher men carried hundreds to the overworked field hospitals which were soon marked by bloody heaps of amputated limbs.
On 20 Sep 1863, about 9:30 AM, Bragg's right flank moved against the Union left, trying determinedly to flank the Federals, but Thomas' men held at the breastworks built the night before and, as it did the day before, the fighting swayed back and forth indecisively. Then about 11:00 AM there occurred a strange and fatal error. Rosecrans, mistaken as to the location of his divisions in the thick brush, ordered Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood's division (of which the 125th was a part) to close up on and support Major General Joseph Jones Reynolds' division (4th Division, 14th Army Corps), which he supposed was immediately on Wood's left, thus tightening the battle line. However, there was another division between Wood and Reynolds, that of Brigadier General J. M. Brannan (3rd Division, 14th Army Corps). Wood, following orders, pulled back out of the line and moved left behind Brannan's division toward Reynolds' division, thereby leaving a gaping hole in the Union line. But before Wood completed his withdrawal, Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet, whether because he observed the withdrawal or whether through coincidence, charged in a solid column directly into the gap with devastating effect. The Union line was cut in two with the right wing in disorderly rout and Thomas' men being pushed left toward Snodgrass Hill. Thousands of Federals were killed or captured, and most of the rest ran. Adam was slightly wounded (where on the body is not known) and taken prisoner.
In the confused aftermath of the battle, Adam was listed as absent and sick at Nashville for the rest of the month and through October 1863. On 29 Sep Adam was confined in prison at Richmond , VA, in one of about half a dozen factories used for prisons at different times during the war. On 12 Dec Adam was sent to Danville where, on 15 Dec, he was admitted to the hospital with debility. On 11 Jan 1864 Adam was returned to prison at Richmond.
On 27 Feb 1864 Federal prisoners of war began arriving at an unfinished prison camp in Sumter Co., GA, officially Camp Sumter, but known to history as Andersonville after a nearby town. Between March and June, the number of prisoners grew from about 7,500 to over 22,000, with about 33 square feet per man. It was probably during this time that Adam was transferred here.
During June 1864 the stockade was increased by about 40 percent and the average space available per man was slightly enlarged to less than 36 square feet. The theoretical ration was one pound of beef or 1/3 pound of bacon, 1 1/4 pounds of corn meal, and an occasional issue of rice, beans, molasses, and vinegar. However, this dwindled to 1 pound of cornmeal and 1/3 pound of bacon. Later, bacon was not always issued. The cornmeal was unsifted because there were no sieves, and the sharp particles of the husk so irritated the stomachs and intestines of those unaccustomed to its use that diarrhea was practically universal. The lack of vegetables, the crowding, and the filth brought on much sickness for which the camp hospital accommodations were totally inadequate. The hospital was at first inside the stockade, but was soon transferred to the outside, though to little advantage.
In September 1864 the prison was described by a Dr. Joseph Jones , who spent several weeks there, as follows: "In the stockade, with the exception of the damp lowlands bordering the small streams, the surface was covered with huts and small ragged tents, and parts of blankets and fragments of oilcloth, coats, and blankets stretched upon sticks. The tents and huts were not arranged according to any order, and there was in most parts of the enclosure scarcely room for two men to walk abreast between the tents and huts. Masses of cornbread, bones, old rags, and filth of every description were scattered around or accumulated in large piles. If one might judge from the large pieces of cornbread scattered about in every direction on the ground, the prisoner s were either very lavishly supplied with this article of diet or else this kind of food was not relished by them. [The stream was not strong enough to carry away the filth and the swampy lowland became indescribably foul.] Each day the dead from the stockade were carried out by their fellow prisoners and deposited upon the ground under a brush arbor just outside of the southwestern gate. From thence they were carried in carts to the burying ground one-quarter of a mile northwest of the prison. The dead were buried without coffins, side by side, in trenches four feet deep. The hospital itself was a group of worn-out tents, many of them leaky and some of them without sides. There were no bunks and but little straw. Hundreds of the patients lay upon the bare ground. Their food differed little from that of the prisoners within the stockade though the surgeon in charge was able to obtain small quantities of flour and arrowroot. The prevalent diseases were scurvy, diarrhea, dysentery, and hospital gangrene."
On 16 Jul 1864 Adam was admitted to the camp hospital (reason is not recorded). On 2 Sep he died of either scurvy or chronic diarrhea, or both (both are shown separately), and was buried in common grave 7540. His death was not reported on his company muster roll until May 1865. He was shown as last paid to June 1863, and due $75 bounty. The clothing issued to him was valued at $30.77.
Biography
Adjutant General's Records, Columbus, OH: 1972
Bowman, John S. (ed.), The Civil War Almanac, New York: World Almanac Publications, 1983
Compiled Military Service Records of the Union Forces of the Civil War, Washington, DC: National Archives, 1978
Cowles, Captain Calvin D. (ed.), The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War, New York: The Fairfax Press, 1983
Dyer, Frederick H., A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion , 3 vols., New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1959
Long, E. B., and Barbara Long, The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-1865, Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 197 1
Miller, Francis Trevelyan, (ed.), The Photographic History of the Civil War, 10 vols., New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1957
"125th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Three Years Service," Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Ohio, Cincinnati : The Ohio Valley Press, 1888.
Note: Name: 1890 Special Federal Census for North Bloomfield Twp., Morrow Co.
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