Thomas Tryon (1838 - 1864)

Born 16 Mar 1838 in Ransomville, Niagara, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died 24 Sep 1864 at age 26 in New Bern, Craven, North Carolina, United States [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Michael Maranda [send private message] and Michael Tryon [send private message]

Biography

Thomas was born in 1838, the son of Thomas Tryon and Wealthy Church.

He enlisted in the "Ransom's Battery" which became or was amalgamated with the 23rd Independent Battery New York Light Artillery at Cambria, Niagara, New York on 15 Sep 1862 and died^[1] in service in Guilford, North Carolina, probably of disease.^[2] The U.S. Civil War Draft Registrations source places his death at New Bern in Craven County, NC, used here.

In 1862 the area around New Bern was the site of the Battle of New Bern. Federal forces captured and occupied the town until the end of the war in 1865. Nearly 10,000 enslaved blacks escaped during this period in the region and went to the Union camps for protection and freedom. The Union Army set up the Trent River contraband camp at New Bern to house the refugees; it was likely that the 23rd was acting as protection for this camp.^[3] His record reads: "23rd Independent Battery, New York Light Artillery; Soldier's Rank In: Private; Soldier's Rank Out: Private; Film Number: M551 ROLL 142.^[4]

According to Simeon Church of Chester he was married to Charlotte Dean.

Occupation: shoemaker.

Research Notes

In some records he is listed as the son of Thomas and Ellen Tryon. Ellen is his father's second wife and not his mother. This confusion probably comes from the 1850 census of Wilson, Niagara, NY, when he is 12 years old, with father Thomas (57), mother Ellen (44), and siblings Emily (16) and Alvira (1). Emily is Ellen's daughter from previous marriage and Alvira (Elvira) is daughter of his father and Ellen.

Sources

1. ↑ New York, Registers of Officers and Enlisted Men Mustered into Federal Service, 1861-1865; Vol 6: Volunteers Who Have Died While In Service (Ancestry.com)
2. ↑ The unit's history shows all losses as a result of disease, not of wounds or killed in battle.
3. ↑ New Bern in the Civil War
4. ↑ Thomas Tryon's Record in Civil War

• North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000; Simeon Church of Chester, Connecticut, 1708-1792, and his descendants (Ancestry.com)

• Genealogy of the Cowles families in America, Vol. I. Family of John Cowles of Farmington and Hartford, Conn., and Hatfield , Mass. (ancestry.com)

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCBK-ZL3 : 12 April 2016), Thomas Tryon in household of Thomas Tryon, Wilson, Niagara, New York, United States; citing family 355, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• New York, Wills and Probate Records, 1659-1999, Thomas S. Tryon (ancestry.com)

• New York, Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, 1861-1900 (ancestry.com)

• U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865, New York, 29th, Vol 4 of 4 (ancestry.com)