Civil War Veterans Buried In Washington State - Obed Patty

Obed W Patty

Representing: Union


Unit History

  • 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles H
  • 27th Arkansas Infantry (Old) B
  • 39th Arkansas Regiment Infantry G
  • 2nd Arkansas Cavalry I

See full unit history

Obed Patty
Full Unit History

1st ARKANSAS VOLUNTEER MOUNTED RIFLES CAVALRY BATTALION (Confederate)
Organized: Spring, 1861
Mustered In: 6/16/61
Mustered Out: 5/1/65 Jamestown, NC

 

27th ARKANSAS VOLNTEER INFANTRY (Confederate)
Organized: Summer, 1862
Mustered In: 7/1/62
Mustered Out: 5/26/65

 

39th ARKANSAS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY REGIMENT (Confederate)
Organized: Spring, 1862
Mustered In: 6/17/62 Trenton, AR
Disbanded: 5/26/65

 

2nd ARKANSAS VOLUNTEER CAVALRY (Union)
Organized: July, 1862 Helena AR & Pilot Knob, MO
Mustered In: 7/1/62
Mustered Out: 8/20/65 Memphis, TN

Regimental History

REGIMENTAL HISTORY: (1st)

 

The 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles, primarily, a western theater regiment, although designated a Confederate cavalry unit it was, in fact, one of the earliest examples of mounted infantry i.e. rather than serving primarily in the capacity of providing the eyes and ears for an infantry unit, the mounts were utilized for rapid transportation of infantry from one location to another. Strangely, while the unit was formed as mounted infantry, during the spring of 1862 it was dismounted. Although the regiment deeply resented being forced to give up their horses and continuously requested to be allowed to resume their place as a mounted command, it fought as infantry during the remainder of the war. First a regiment of one year enlistments, it later became an organization of three year men.

 

In 1861 and 1862 the 1st participated in the earliest battles of the western theater, such as Wilson's Creek (8/10/61) and, Pea Ridge, Arkansas (3/6/62). In 1863 it was active at Jackson, Mississippi (May - July) and again Chickamauga, GA (9/19-20). 1864 found the unit involved heavily in the Atlanta campaign, while 1865 saw the regiment end its combat career at Bentonville, NC (3/19-21)

 

As four years of bloody civil war ground towards a close, depleted Arkansas regiments stationed at Smithfield, NC were consolidated into a single unit known as the 1st Arkansas Consolidated Mounted Rifles That organization, with members of the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles comprising companies "A" and "B", surrendered with the remnants of the CSA Army of The Tennessee at Greensboro, North Carolina on April 26, 1865. Members of the entire 1st Consolidated were paroled on 5/1/65 at Jamestown, NC.

 

Information pertaining to officers and enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and died from disease, accidents, etc. not available.

 

 

REGIMENTAL HISTORY: (27th)

 

The 27th, a western regiment, was formed during the summer of 1862 with men from the northeastern section of Arkansas. It was then assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department which meant it served in Confederate states located both east and west of the Mississippi River.

 

In the spring of 1864 the unit was united with the 38th Arkansas Infantry Regiment. It fought at Prairie Grove, (62) Bayou Fourche and Jenkins' Ferry (4/30/64) where the consolidated command lost 4 killed and 22 wounded.

 

The unit was included in the surrender of the Trans-Mississippi Department on 6/2/65.

 

 

REGIMENTAL HISTORY:  (39th)

 

The 39th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, a western theater/Trans-Mississippi unit has long had an identity problem. The conflict began when - as often was the case with Confederate military organizations - it was commonly identified not by its numerical designation, but by the last name of the unit's commander, i.e. Johnson's, Hawthorne's, Cocke's and Polk's Arkansas Infantry Regiment. To make matters worse, Hart's 30th Arkansas Regiment was, for a short time early-on, known as the 39th Arkansas. Then, again, when Major- General Sterling Price's staff decided to designate all infantry regiments in the Department of Arkansas as "Trans-Mississippi rifle regiments", the 39th Infantry Regiment was renamed the 6th Trans-Mississippi Rifle Regiment or the 6th Arkansas. This latter naming caused more confusion as this designation had already been given to Lyon's- Hawthorn's - Smiths 6th Arkansas Infantry Regiment in the Army of the Tennessee on the east side of the Mississippi River. This incorrect association with the “other” (Army of Tennessee) 6th is further reinforced by the fact that Alexander T. Hawthorn commanded the original "6th Arkansas Infantry" for a time and, later commanded the "other" 6th Arkansas the 6th Trans-Mississippi/39th Arkansas Infantry Regiment.  Finally, in the early 1900s as U.S. War Department clerks pored over hundreds of thousands of Confederate army records, muster rolls, payrolls, quarter master  receipts, commissary papers and prisoner of war records, etc. to painstakingly extract information and create a Compiled Service Record for each Confederate soldier, someone decided to catalogue everything pertaining to the 39th under the name of Cocke's Regiment because he was the last known, full colonel to command the organization even though John B. Cocke commanded the unit for only three months from January until April, 1864 when he was killed during the battle of Jenken's Ferry, AR.

 

Principal actions fought by the 39th included Prairie Grove, AR (12/7/62); Helena, AR (7/4/63); Little Rock, AR (9/10-11/63) and Jenkins' Ferry, AR (4/30/64).

 

No loss records are available for officers or enlisted men of the 39th.

 

REGIMENTAL HISTORY: (2nd)

 

The 2nd Arkansas Cavalry (Union) was a three year western theater unit founded in July, 1862 in both Arkansas and Missouri. During the period of its existence the regiment moved extensively within and between both states. Assignments included garrison, guard, expeditional and scouting duties. Although the regiment fought in no major battles, it was engaged in numerous skirmishes with both regular and irregular Rebel forces.

 

Officer and enlisted men loss numbers from combat, disease, accidents, etc. not available.  

Soldier History

SOLDIER: (1St))
Residence: Carrollton, AR (est.) Age: 23 .6 yrs.
Enlisted/Enrolled: 11/10/61 Fayetteville, AR   Rank: Pvt.
Mustered In: Inf. Not Avail.
Deserted: November or December, 1863. (Est.)
Highest Rank: Pvt.

 

SOLDIER: (27th)
Residence: Carrollton, AR (est.)   Age: 23.9 yrs.
Enlisted/Enrolled: 2/15/62   Rank: Sgt.
Mustered In: 2/15/62
Deserted: 7/6/62
Highest Rank: Sgt.

 

SOLDIER: (39th)
Residence: Carrollton, AR (est.)   Age: 24.11 yrs.
Enlisted/Enrolled: 4/1/63 Sebastian, Madison Co., AR (est.)   Rank: Pvt.
Mustered In: Inf. Not Avail. 
Mustered Out: Inf. Not Avail.
Highest Rank: Pvt.

 

SOLDIER: (2nd)
Residence: Berryville, AR   Age: 25.9 yrs.
Enlisted/Enrolled: 2/2/64 Berryville, Carroll Co., AR   Rank: Pvt.
Mustered In: 2/29/64 Springfield, MO
Mustered Out: 8/20/65 Memphis, TN
Highest Rank: Pvt.

Family History

PERSONAL/FAMILY HISTORY:

 

  While a great deal of evidence points to Obed Willard Patty having been  born on April 24, 1838 in Athens, Carroll Co., Tennessee, his  birthplace was, in actuality, in The Volunteer State's Roan County. His parents were Jesse (b. 1806 VT) and Mary Howard (nee Burnett b. 1807 VT) Patty. As best as can be told, Obed was the fifth of ten identifiable Patty children. Those older than he were: Sarah (b. ca. 1826), Martha (b. 1830 TN), Jane (b. 1833 TN), Frances (b. 1835 TN) and John (b. 1847 TN). Those younger: Jeremiah (b. 1840), Mary Elizabeth (b. 1843), Texas C. (b. 1846) and Harriet P. (b. 1850). The Pattys were a farming family.

 

Here it should be noted that when this biographical profile was begun it was known that Obed had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. That information is on his cemetery headstone. What was not known at the time, however, was that- what's this? -  prior to enlisting in and serving in the U.S. military, it appears he had also served in three Confederate States military organizations. Suprise!! Surprise!! Surprise!!
Were there two Obed W. Pattys? Likely not.  Further, the Confederate Obed’s age and dates of service dovetail perfectly into those of the Union Obed.

 

As we shall learn, available documentation on Obed's time as Confederate is, at best, confusing. His first exposure to the CSA military apparently came on 11/10/61 when he joined an organization which would subsequently become company "H" of the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles. Led by a Captain Thomas J. Daniel, the company appears to have formed in May of 1861 as an infantry company known as the Yell County Rifles which became part of the 26th Arkansas State Militia which, itself, later, was an element of the 1st Arkansas.  Whether or not Private Patty was a part of the organization from the beginning or only as it became company "H" of the 1st, is not known.

 

Private Patty's term of enlistment was seven months. For providing his own horse he would receive payment of forty cents per day. It appears he may have also been eligible for an enlistment bonus or "bounty" although no details are available on this matter.

 

Available documents point to Private Patty being involved with the 1st until September/October, 1863. Along the way he was seemingly always listed as present for duty and paid for his service and those of his horse. However, confusion enters the picture on 2/15/62 when, in Carrolton Co., AR he enlisted and was mustered into (Old*) Company "B" of the 27th Arkansas Infantry. [*Note: The company designation stems from a "New" company "B" being formed  12/16/62 from the consolidation of two other existing companies, "G" and "F".]  The enlistment was as a sergeant, the same rank he was holding when, on 7/6/62 he reportedly deserted from the 27th. Finally, on 4/1/63 Obed shows up in Company "G" of Hawthorn's (39th Arkansas) Infantry Regiment. Again, this is while he is still shown to be present on the rolls of the 1st. As a private, he allegedly continued to serve in this organization until at least 6/30/63. Oddly, on this last muster roll it is noted that Obed is "Absent from wounds received in the battle of Prairie Grove (Arkansas) 12/7/63." What is odd is that in later life Obed never mentioned any old "war wounds." Further, the battle of Prairie Grove actually took place on 12/7/62, not '63. How Private Patty exited the 39th is not documented.

 

On 2/2/64 Obed Patty enlisted in the Union Cavalry. On the date of his Federal enrollment we learn that, according to military service records, he was 24 years old. In actuality, however, accepting his birthdate as 4/24/38 he was 25 plus years of age. Why the discrepancy downward is puzzling..... Was this an attempt to create a different identity from the Obed W. Patty that had served for the Confederacy? We will likely never know.

Obed's age is referenced only once in  Confederate military service records, that one time being 1st Mtd. Rifles muster roll for May/June, 1862 which noted him as 23 years of age. Further, we learn that Obed was a farmer, was five feet ten inches tall, had grey eyes and brown hair. His enlistment papers indicate he had a dark complexion while the notation at his mustering into Federal service was that he was lightly complexioned. Another puzzler. For signing into the army for three years or the duration of the conflict his country was then plowing through, he became eligible for a $300 enlistment bonus or "bounty". $300 was more than a tidy monetary sum in those days.

 

Private Patty's Federal military experience would prove to be rather benign and uneventful from beginning to end. The first notations pertaining to that service came in late March when he was first reported as being sick in the hospital (no ailment noted) and towards the end of that same month when he was sent on "escort duty."

 

In April, '64 Private Patty was noted as missing in action, but that standing was changed to being sick. His sick status continued into June when he was granted leave for an undisclosed reason. [1.] He ended the year again on the sick list, and, as earlier, the nature of his illness was not documented.

 

1865. In February Private Patty was assigned duty as a regimental pioneer. Pioneers were troops who went ahead of an army, corps, division, regiment, etc. creating roads, building bridges, etc. allowing military units to travel to their destinations. With the exception of a three day period from March 16th to the 18th - when our private was treated in the regimental hospital for diarrhea a condition for which he was given a prescription of opium and camphor pills (an old remedy for diarrhea) - he remained on duty as a pioneer until being mustered out of the service.

 

Obed's mustering out and return to civilian life came on August 20th in Memphis Tennessee. At that time it was determined he owed the U.S. Government $37.30 for clothing drawn from the quartermaster department and an additional $2.77 for arms, equipment, etc. that had either been lost or which he was keeping as his own. On the other side of the ledger, the U.S. owed him the entire $300 of his enlistment bounty. This is somewhat unusual in that generally, one third of bounties were paid up front with the other two thirds coming in later, 1/3 or smaller, increments.

 

****************************************************************************************************************************

 

Perhaps it was because of his having, in fact, been shown something  he liked while crisscrossing Missouri in the cavalry that drew him to the state, but whatever the reason, after leaving the army Obed did not return to  Arkansas, but instead, settled in  "The Show Me  " state. While his initial location of settlement is not documented, the stay would last twelve years.

 

On Augusts 3, 1868 in Galena, Stone County, Missouri Obed Patty married. His teenaged bride was Mary Elizabeth Cloud (b. 1853 MO). The marriage was the first - and last - for both.

 

During their years together - nine - before Mary's death, she bore him four children.. Three would survive into adulthood. One - daughter Mary Catherine - died in infancy. Although where Mary Catherine fit into the birth progression of the Patty children is not known, perhaps she was the last and, unfortunately, the cause of her mother's demise which came on 10/12/77. While it is not documented, his wife's death is likely, the reason Obed and his three remaining children would leave Missouri.

 

The surviving Patty children were: son Ollis Willard (b. 3/4/70 MO); daughter Ida Geniva (b. 10/3/72 MO) and daughter Alice Vernelia (b. 1/30/75 MO). (Note: The census of 1880 would indicate her birth year as 1874. During his last years, "from memory" Obed would indicate Alice was born in 1873).

 

The census for 1870 placed Obed and Mary in or near the community of Cass located in Stone County, MO. There, Obed was employed as a "laborer". Also in the home at the time was the Pattys' first child, seven month old Ollis W.

 

Mentioned earlier, in late 1877, not long after his wife's death Obed moved his children from Missouri back to Arkansas. There they settled in Carroll County.  The U.S. Census of 1880 listed their community of residence as being Carrollton.

 

Some five years after moving to Arkansas former cavalryman Obed W. Patty initiated the paperwork to obtain a U.S. Government disability pension based on ailments and physical conditions which he traced back to his Union days of Civil War soldiering. In Obed's case, the disability was to his eyesight. A medical examination on 7/19/82 found that the former soldier's right eye had been attacked by a condition that had left a scar extending over the pupil and resulting in the eye being slightly atrophied. Additionally, the lid of the left eye was thickened and granulated with the eye inflamed, and the cornea opaqued. In all, examining doctors declared the disability to be three quarters in severity and permanent. While available documents do not pinpoint the onset of the disability, it apparently did stem from his period of soldiering as a $6 per month disability stipend was recommended and, apparently, immediately instituted.


**************************************************************************************************************************

 

Sometime, ca. 1889, after twelve years in Arkansas, Obed and children - as well as his sister Mary Elizabeth (Pinkney) and family - departed that state via covered wagon and headed for Oregon's Grande Ronde Valley on the west coast of America. There, each family would establish a farming foothold.  What had prompted the long-distance westward jump is not known, but his older brother John, and family, had moved there some five years earlier, so family likely played a role in the move. Twenty one years of residence in Oregon would follow. As far as is known all of those years were with a mailing address of Wallowa which was located in the county of the same name. However, the homestead was located not within the community itself, but in a remote region some thirty miles from the nearest railhead. What had drawn Pattys to this isolated spot is not documented.

 

1900. A new century, a new decade and a new census. This U.S. population tally would find Obed still in Oregon, but by then residing in Union, Union County in the home of now-married daughter Ida, her husband and children.

 

Circa 1908 Obed departed Oregon and moved northward to the Puget Sound area of western Washington State. Again, what had drawn him there is not documented, but once more older brother John had moved there first.  Obed’s first known residence in Washington was the Snohomish County community of Arlington where on 12/3/08 he was documented with Sister Sarah living under his roof.

 

The census of 1910 identified Obed as still residing in Snohomish County, but by that date living south of Arlington in the rural community of Lowell outside of Everett, WA.  Once again he was living in the home of one of his children, this time the residence of daughter Ida Alice (Johnson) and family.

 

Sometime in 1913 a brief firestorm flared between Obed and the U.S. Pension Bureau over the issue of pension stipend increases. According the Bureau, in a documented dated 11/7/11 he had indicated his date of birth was 4/24/38. Then, on 5/31/12, in another document, he placed his birth date on 4/14/38....What was going on???? The storm continued on until 11/5/13 when the Honorable W.L. Jones - a U.S. Senator from Washington State - became involved and wrote a letter to the Pension Bureau suggesting that affidavits from Obed and his brother, John, be accepted in a favorable light in terms of settling the matter. Initially the Pension Bureau replied to the Senator that the affidavits were not enough proof and, in fact, if Obed had been 24 years of age when he enlisted his birth year would have been 1839. However, concluded the Bureau, if Obed could provide the town, township, county and state names in which he resided in 1840 and 1850 as well as the names of his parents or whomever he was residing during those years, with the help of the U.S. Census Bureau, the matter could be settled. While no documentation is available pertaining to the final outcome of the issue, it appears Obed's birth date remained 4/24/38

 

 

By 11/5/13 Obed was no longer residing on his own or with family. Instead, he was a resident (inmate) of the Washington State Soldier's Home located in Orting, Pierce County, WA. How and why he had come to be there is not documented. According to one pension document, his older brother, John, was also at the time, an Orting resident. [Note: During the American Civil War John had served in the 2nd Missouri Light Artillery, Co. "K".] The Orting old soldiers' home was where the census of 1920 also found the aging Obed.

 

Obed W. Patty last received a U.S. Government disability pension payment of $90 on 10/4/29. He died the following day. As no death certificate is available, at the time of this writing, the cause of his passing is not known.

 

The place of Obed's death was not Orting.  His final resting place was/is the Kirkland Cemetery located south of there in Kirkland, WA. Obed's brother, John, and his wife, Mary, are also buried within those grounds.

 

*************************************************************************************************************************

 

[1.] On 5/27/64 near his home in Carrollton, Carroll Co., Arkansas Obed's father, Jesse, a 2nd lieutenant in Captain George E. Gaddy's Independent (Union) Company of Arkansas Home Guards was killed while in action against Confederate forces. It is possible Obed, upon learning of his father's death and already convalescing from illness, was granted leave to visit his now-widowed mother.

Cemetery

Buried at Kirkland Cemetery


©2022 Civil War Veterans Buried In Washington State • All Rights Reserved.