Grayson County, Virginia - Bays Mountain Falls, Hawkins County, Tennessee
Men named Bunch in the Revolutionary War
1776 - James Kincaid, son of John Kincaid, who lived across Clinch River from St. Paul, VA, and who, in the year 1779, moved with his father to Kentucky and later settled in Missouri, tells of this incident in his Revolutionary War pension statement filed in Lafayette Co., MO, in 1833.
I entered the service of the United States under the command of Captain John Dunkin. At this time his father lived in a settlement called Castle's Woods on Clinch River, about 25 miles north of Abingdon, Virginia, a frontier fort. Powell Valley had been settled, but the settlers had been run off by the Indians. A good many of them could not bring their plunder with them, but hid it. John Dunkin was ordered out with a company of militia in order to guard the people who had left their property behind them, to collect it together and bring it into the settlements. He (Kincaid) was one of Dunkin's company. At this time Captain Joseph Martin was stationed at the Rye Cove Fort on Clinch River in order to guard the frontiers of Virginia. He (Martin) kept two spys, who were brothers, to-wit: John and James Bunch.
When we got into the valley we met with these spys. They then returned with us down to what was called Martin's Station in said valley, but we found no one there - they had all fled. One of the settlers that was with us, who had fled from the valley by the name of Davis (called Captain Davis). Before the people fled he lived at Owen's Station, ten miles below Martin's. We took up at Martin's Station. Sometime after, Davis petitioned Dunkin for a few men to go down to Owen's Station with him to collect his plunder. Five men was granted him, one of whom was James Bunch. They went to the Station and collected the plunder accordingly, as I understood, and returning back to the camp the Indians waylaid the path and fired upon them, and wounded Bunch, and killed a man by the name of (Robert) Bowman at the place, and wounded another by the name of Johnson, as Bunch related, for he returned with him (Johnson) a piece, but he (Johnson) never got in. Three of the party got in that night, two of whom was Bunch and Davis.
The next day Dunkin went down with all his force, save a few left to guard the wounded. This affiant was one that went down. We went to the place and there found Bowman dead. Davis took us to a tree where he said an Indian stood whom he shot at. We went to the place and found a great deal of blood. We then took his trail and followed them, but not a great ways, as it appeared they had scattered. We returned back and buried the dead, thence to camp (at Martin's Station). This circumstance broke up the expedition.
Bunch grew very sick and we had to take him to this company at the Rye Cove. We were then all dismissed and returned home. As well as he can recollect, he states this took place in 1776. He does not recollect the particular month, except that it was in warm weather.
Andrew Lynam in his Revolutionary War pension statement filed in Bath Co., KY, on June 23, 1833, also tells of the above killing in this manner:
In the month of June, he thinks the 1st., but cannot say as to the particular day, he entered the service of the United States under Captain John Dunkin, as a volunteer for three months in 1776. At the end of this three month tour he again volunteered in Captain Dunkin's Company of militia for three months. Was in the month of September the same year as before. We were commanded by John Dunkin as Captain, and as our tour was to prevent the Indians from committing outrages upon the defenseless inhabitants we were marched immediately to Powells Valley. At this place we had a battle with the Indians in which two of our men were killed and one wounded. We then commenced our march home to a station called Rye Cove, and as winter was now about to set in and the Indians to recede for the season our services were no longer needed.
Both James Kincaid and Andrew Lynam say the above occurred in 1776. Kincaid says in "warm weather" and Lynam says in September. Powell Valley was evacuated in June 1776 prior to the Cherokee Campaign under Col. William Christian, and remained so until the conclusion of that campaign. Surely if Captain John Dunkin took his company to guard the settlers in bringing in their personal belongings it must have been soon after the evacuation of the valley. Yet, first of all, Joseph Martin was in Powells Valley and not at Rye Cove in 1776. He went from Powell Valley to Fort Patrick Henry in the latter part of August, 1776, as can be proven by the muster roll of his troops on the Cherokee Campaign, 25th of August to 7th of November, 1776, and stationed at Fort Patrick Henry from the 13th of November, 1776 to the 31st of January, 1777. Then the same company is stationed at Fort Lee on the Clinch, at Rye Cove and the Bunches are on the roster, or at least John Bunch is. James Bunch does not appear on the roster till the roster of 1st of May to June 30th, 1777, at Fort Lee, although he appears in the Shelby Family Papers as a Scout from the 19th of March to 21st of July, along with his brother John. Neither of these appear as Scouts prior to that date and James not at all.
In a letter from Anthony Bledsoe, dated Fort Patrick Henry, 8th of April, 1777, (7) he says:
I much lament poor Bunch and could have sent the doctor, but the waters prevented till there was a particular call for him down the river. This is also born out by the letter of Col. Evan Shelby, of the 27th of April, 1777, who "laments the fate of his unhappy men", meaning Martin's men and regrets he has no shock troops to send to Martin at the time.
The Bowman who Kincaid says was killed was Robert Bowman who was a member of Martin's Company at the time. Since these troops, for the most part, were from Pittsylvania Co. (as was Martin) they would not show in the local records. Who Johnson was is hard to say, but he, too, was perhaps a Pittsylvania man.
The Bunch brothers, John and James, who were Indian Scouts under Martin while he was stationed at the Rye Cove, both moved to Tennessee. James was made a Captain of Militia in Hawkins Co., TN in 1790, and John was made an Ensign in 1793, and a Captain in 1794 in Knox Co., KY. This was while Tennessee was still a territorial government.
1776 - Thomas Bunch, his name was found on a list of prisoners on board the "Ol' Jersey", a British war ship.
1782 - 1782 Henry County, Virginia Personal Property Tax List Bunch, Robert - 1 tithe - 3 horse - 6 cattle Bunch, David - 1 tithe - 1 horse - 7 cattle
1787 - Bent Creek Baptist church (then in Hawkins County, Tennessee) on the third Saturday of August in 1787, when the church minutes state:
Benjamin and Mary MURRELL are found in the records of the Bent Creek Baptist church (then in Hawkins County, Tennessee) on the third Saturday of August in 1787, when the church minutes state: "The church met at Thomas MURRELS and after divine service proceeded to receive Mary MURREL by experience.
2nd. Micahah BUNCH and Lydia his wife by letter
3rd. Jeffrey MURREL and Margaret his wife by recommendation.
4th. Received Moses JOHNSON and Sarah his wife by letter
and Thomas TONECANLEY by experience
and baptism given up for constitution Thomas MURREL, Benjamin MURREL, and Mary his wife, and Jeffry MURREL and Martha his wife, Bartlett SIMS and Elizabeth his wife, Negroe Sal, Agnes JOHNSON, Elisha WALLEN, Micahah BUNCH, Lydia BUNCH, Moses JOHNSON, Sarah JOHNSON, Mary DOTSON [DODSON], Elisha DEBUSK and Mary Williams." (Bent Creek, Journey into Century Three, by Glenn Alfred Toomey, 1988, Church minutes, p. 43)
1790 - The majority of the Melungeon source families began to migrate to Hawkins County, Tennessee in the 1790's. - Jack Goins
1790's - Micajer “Caiger” Bunch moves to Hawkins County, Tennessee.
Article on Melungeons taken from the Hancock County Times, Sneedville, TN, 4/17/1903
"Much has been said and written about the inhabitants of Newman's Ridge and Blackwater in Hancock County, Tennessee. They have been derisively dubbed with the name "Melungeon" by the local white people who have lived here with them. It is not a traditional name or tribe of Indians. Some have said these people were here when this country was first explored by the white people, and others that they are a lost tribe of the Indians and have no date of their existence here, traditionally or otherwise. All this however, is erroneous and cannot be sustained. These people, not any of them were here at the time the first white hunting party came from Virginia and North Carolina in the year 1761—the noted Daniel Boone was at the head of one of these hunting parties and went through Cumberland Gap. Wallen was at the head of another party from Cumberland County, Virginia, and named Cumberland Mountain for his home county and called the river beyond North Cumberland Wallen's Ridge and Wallen's Creek for himself. In fact, these hunting parties gave all the historic names to the mountain ridges and valleys and streams, and these names are now historical names. Wallen pitched his first camp on Wallen's creek near Hunter's Gap in Powell's Mountain, now Lee County, Virginia. Here they found the name of Ambrose Powell carved in the bark of a beech tree, from this name they named the mountain, river and valley for Powell; Newman's Ridge was named for a man of the party called Newman; Clinch River and Clinch Valley—these names came at the expense of an Irishman of the party n crossing the Clinch River, he fell off the raft they were crossing on, and cried aloud for his companions to "clinch me," "clinch me," and from this incident the name has become a historic name. About the time the first white settlement west of the Blue Ridge was made at Watauga River in Carter County, TN, another white party was then working the lead mines in part of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge. In the year 1762, these hunters returned, coming through Elk Garden, now Russell County, VA. They then headed down a valley north of Clinch River and named it Hunter's Valley, and it goes by this name today. These hunters pitched their tent near Hunter's Gap in Powell's Mountain, nineteen miles from Rogersville, Tennessee on the Jonesville, VA road. Some of the party of hunters went on down the country to where Sneedville, Hancock County, now stands and hunted there during that season. Bears were plentiful here and they killed many, their clothing became greasy, and near the camp a projecting rock on which they would lie down and drink, and the rock became very greasy, and they called it greasy rock, and named the creek Greasy Rock Creek, a name by which it has been ever since, and here is the very place where these Melungeons settled, long after this, on Newman's Ridge and Blackwater. Vardy Collins, Shepherd Gipson, Benjamin Collins, Solomon Collins, Paul Bunch and the Goodmans, chiefs and the rest of them settled here about the year 1804, possibly about the year 1795, but all these men above named, who were called Melungeons, obtained land grants and muniments of title to the land they settled on, and they were the very first and came here simultaneous with the white people not earlier than 1795. They then had lost their language and spoke the English very well. They originally were the friendly Indians who came with the whites as they moved west. They came from the Cumberland County and New River, VA stopping at various points west of the Blue Ridge. Some of them stopped on Stony Creek, Scott County, VA where Stony Creek runs into Clinch River.
The white emigrants with the friendly Indians erected a fort on the bank of the river and called it "Fort Blackmore," and here yet many of these friendly "Indians" lived in the mountains of Stony Creek, but they have married among the whites until the race has almost become extinct. A few of the half-bloods may be found—none darker—but they still retain the name of Collins, and Gibson, etc. From here they came on to Newman's Ridge and Blackwater, and many of them are here yet; but the amalgamations of the whites and the Indians has about washed the red tawny from their appearance, the white faces predominating, so now you scarcely find one of the original Indians; a few half-bloods and quarter-bloods balance white or past the third generation. The old pure-bloods were finer featured straight and erect in form, more so than the whites, and when mixed with whites, make beautiful women, and the men very fair looking men. These Indians came to Newman's Ridge and Blackwater. Some of them went into the war of 1812-14 whose names are here given: James Collins, John Bolin and Mike Bolin, and some others not remembered; those who quite full blooded. These were like the white people; there were good and bad among them, but the great majority were upright, good citizens, and accumulated good property, and many of them are among our best property owners and as good citizens as Hancock County, Tennessee affords. Their word is their bond and most of them are as true to their promise as the magnetic needle to the North pole. The first ones of them that ever came to Hancock County, TN, then to Hawkins County and Claiborne, are well remembered by some of the present generation here now, and they have left records to show these facts. They all came here simultaneously with the whites from the State of Virginia between the years 1795 and 1812, and about this there is no mistake, except in the dates these Indians came here from Stony Creek. —L.M. Jarvis
1793 - Grayson County, Virginia was formed in 1793 from part of Wythe County and was named for William Grayson, delegate to the Continental Congress form 1784 to 1787 and one of the first two U.S. Senators from Virginia, the County seat is Independence. Grayson is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains and embraced on the north by Wythe County, on the west by Smyth and Washington Counties, Carroll County on the east, and touches North Carolina and the northeastern tip of Tennessee on the southern borders.
1805 - Grayson County, Virginia Tax List
Bunch, Benjamin - 1 white male 16+ - 1 horse - tax .12
Bunch, Paul - 1 white male 16+ - 1 horse - tax .12
1810 - Grayson County, Virginia Tax List
Bunch, Benjamin - 1 white tithables - 0 slaves over 12 - 0 horses
Bunch, Paul - 1 white tithables - 0 slaves over 12 - 2 horses
Bunch, Benjamin - 1 white tithables - 0 slaves over 12 - 1 horse
Bunch, Rachel - 0 white tithables - 0 slaves over 12 - 1 horse
Men named Bunch in the War of 1812
Benjamin Bunch - 4th. Regiment Virginia Militia
Caden Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Mccottor's) North Carolina Militia Dandridge Bunch - 5th. Regiment (Mcdowell's) Virginia Militia David Bunch - 1st. Regiment Mounted Gunmen (Dyer's), Tennessee Volunteers David Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Lillard's) East Tennessee Volunteers David Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Lillard's) East Tennessee Volunteers David Bunch - 7th. Regiment (Gray's) Virginia Militia.
Davis Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Dannaldson's), Mounted, Kentucky Volunteers
Edmund Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Mcdonald's) North Carolina Militia
Edmund Bunch - 5th. Regiment (Mcdonald's) North Carolina Militia Elijah Bunch - Bunch's Regiment (1814), E. Tennessee Militia
Elijah Bunch - 5th. Regiment (Mcdonald's) North Carolina Militia Fontaine Bunch - 7th. Regiment (Gray's) Virginia Militia
Garrett Bunch - 11th. Regiment (William's) Mounted, Kentucky Vols
Garsard Bunch - 11th. Regiment (Williams'), Mounted, Kentucky Volunteers
Godfrey Bunch - Col. Claiborne's Regiment Mississippi Militia
Granvel Bunch - Howard's Detachment, South Carolina Militia
Henry Bunch - Bryan's Detachment, Tennessee Militia Henry Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Cocke's) W. Tennessee Militia Huderson Bunch - 3rd. Regiment (Johnson's) E. Tennessee Militia
Israel Bunch - 14th. Regiment (Mitchisson's) Kentucky Militia
James Bunch - Howard's Detachment, South Carolina Militia James Bunch - Mccrory's Regiment, West Tennessee Militia
James Bunch - Rowe's Regiment, South Carolina Militia
James Bunch - Rowe's Regiment, South Carolina Militia
James Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (2 Battalion, Oswald's,) South Carolina State Troops
James A. Bunch - Howard's Detachment, South Carolina Militia
James A. Bunch - 31st. Regiment (1814-15) South Carolina Militia Jesse Bunch - died: 15 March 1865 Greene County Indiana - Private in Capt. Michael Shively's Company 7th. Regiment Virginia Militia, served December 11, 1814 to February 22, 1815 Jesse Bunch - born: 25 November 1773 Louisa County, Virginia - married: 24 January 1799 Louisa County, Virginia Elisabeth Pullman - died: 5 October 1841 Henry County, Missouri - Private 7th. Regiment (Gray's) Virginia Militia discharged at Camp Carter, Virginia 3 Feb 1815 Jessee Bunch - 7th. Regiment (Saunders') Virginia Militia
Jessey Bunch - 27th. Regiment (Long's) Maryland Militia
John Bunch - Howard's Detachment, South Carolina Militia
John Bunch - Rowe's Regiment, South Carolina Militia
John Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Mcdonald's) North Carolina Militia
John Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Mccottor's) North Carolina Militia John Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Lillard's) East Tennessee Volunteers John Bunch - 2nd. Regiment W. Tennessee Militia, (Colonel Lowry, Lieut. Col. Hammons)
John Bunch - 3rd. Reg't (Rutledge's) South Carolina State Troops
John Bunch - 5th. Regiment (Mcdonald's) North Carolina Militia
John Bunch - Batt'n 7th. Regiment (Perkins') Mississippi Militia
John Bunch - 31st. Regiment (1814-15), South Carolina Militia John Bunch - 78th. Regiment (Feb.-Mar., 1815,) Virginia Militia Joshua C. Bunch - 3rd. Regiment (Johnson's) E. Tennessee Militia Josiah Bunch - 3rd. Regiment (Boykin's) Virginia Militia
Julius Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Mccottor's) North Carolina Militia Lambert Bunch - 78th. Regiment (Feb.-Mar., 1815,) Virginia Militia Nathaniel Bunch - Mccrory's Regiment, West Tennessee Militia
Nathaniel Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Mccottor's) North Carolina Militia
Nathaniel Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Mcdonald's) North Carolina Militia
Nicholas Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Dannaldson's), Mounted, Kentucky Volunteers Pouncy Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Ballowe's) Virginia Militia
Richard Bunch - 33rd. Regiment (Comstock's), Connecticut Militia
Rodden Bunch - 7th. Regiment (Barbee's) Kentucky Militia Roderick Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Cocke's) W. Tennessee Militia
Samuel Bunch - Unregimented Battalion (Sanford's), New York Militia Samuel Bunch - Bunch's Regiment, Mounted (1813-14), East Tennessee Vols Samuel Bunch - Bunch's Regiment (1814), E. Tennessee Militia Samuel Bunch - Williams' Mtd. Regiment, E. Tennessee Volunteers
Samuel Bunch - 3rd. Regiment (Rutledge's) South Carolina State Troops
Samuel G. Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Johnston's), Georgia Militia
Saul T. Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Mccottor's) North Carolina Militia
Solomon Bunch - 5th. Regiment (Mcdonald's) North Carolina Militia
Stephen Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Youngblood's) South Carolina Militia Waller Bunch - Major Woodford's Squadron, Cavalry, Virginia Militia
Will Bunch - 11th. Regiment (Williams') Mounted, Kentucky Volunteers
William Bunch - Adams' Battalion (1812-13), Ohio Militia
William Bunch - 1st. Regiment (Means') South Carolina Militia William Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Benton's) Tennesse Volunteers William Bunch - 2nd. Regiment Mounted Gunmen (Brown's), East Tennessee Volunteers William Bunch - 2nd. Regiment (Lillard's) East Tennessee Volunteers William Bunch - 3rd. Regiment (Johnson's) E. Tennessee Militia William Bunch - 4th. Regiment (Bayles') East Tennessee Militia William Bunch - 7th. Regiment (Gray's) Virginia Militia
William Bunch - 11th. Regiment (Williams'), Mounted, Kentucky Volunteers
William Bunch - 17th., 18th. And 19th. Consolidated Regiment Louisiana Militia Willie Bunch - Battalion Of Art'y (1813-14), Virginia Militia
1813 Grayson County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists:
Bunch, Rachel - 1 white tithe - 2 horses- tax .32
Bunch, Benjamin - 1 white tithe - 0 horses - tax 0
Bunch, Paul - 1 white tithe - 3 horses - tax .48
1813 - According to the Stony Creek Church Minutes, most of the Melungeons had left by 1813 and joined Blackwater and Mulberry Churches in Hawkins County, TN. The first written record of the word Melungin is recorded in the 1813 Minutes of Stoney Creek Church.
"Then came forward sister Kitchens and complained to the church against Susanna Stallard for saying she harbored them Melungins" - Jack Goins
1817 Grayson County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists:
Jessey - 1 white tithe - 1 horse - tax .18
Lambert - 1 white tithe - 1 horse - tax .18
Benjamin - 2 white tithes - 1 horse - tax .18
1820 Census Grayson County, Virginia
Benjamin Bunch, Grayson County, Virginia 1820
Jesse Bunch, Grayson County, Virginia 1820
John Bunch, Grayson County, Virginia 1820
Lambert Bunch, Grayson County, Virginia 1820
Paul Bunch, Grayson County, Virginia 1820
William Bunch, Grayson County, Virginia 1820
(Jesse and Lambert Bunch - 43-44A)
1824 - The History of Tennessee and Tennesseans also noted the Melungeons were counterfeiters of Silver and is a case dated 1824 State of Tennessee, Hawkins County vs John Bunch.
The Grand Jury for the State charged and sworn upon their Oath, Doth present and say that John Bunch being an evil disposed person, on the 18th day of March 1824 did alter and pass to a certain Morning Winstead two pieces of base metal being the counterfeit likeness of 2 silver coins of the value of 2 dollars current money in the United States and with an intention to defraud the said Mournen Winstead to the great Damage to the said Mournen Winstead to the evil example of all others in like cases against the peace and dignity of the State.
1824 Grayson County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists: Bunch, Paul - 1 white tithe - 3 horses - tax .18 Bunch, Green - 0 white tithe - 1 horse - tax .12
1828 Grayson County, Virginia Personal Property Tax Lists: Bunch, Paul - 2 white tithes - 3 horses - tax .36 Bunch, Lambert - 1 white tithe - 1 horse - tax .12
1830 Census Hawkins County, Tennessee
Page 76 Benjamin Bunch
1 white male 60-69 years old (Benjamin Bunch)
1 white female 10-14 years old
2 white females 15-19 years old
1 white female 50-59 years old
Jesse Bunch
1 white male 1-4
1 white male 10-14
1 white male 30-39 (Jesse Bunch)
1 white female 1-4
2 white females 5-9
1 white female 20-29
Lambert Bunch
2 white males 1-4
1 white male 5-9
1 white male 30-39 (Lambert Bunch)
1 white female 1-4
2 white females 5-9
1 white female 10-14
1 white female 30-39
Page 77 Rachel Bunch
1 free white male 5-9
1 free white male 10-14
1 free white female 20-29
1 free white female 50-59 (Rachel Bunch)
Page 79 Paul Bunch - (Sibling to Benjamin Bunch and Rachel Bunch's deceased husband Joseph.)
1 male under 5
3 males 10-15
1 male 20-30
1 male 40-50 (Paul Bunch)
4 females under 5
2 females 5-10
1 female 10-15
1 female 40-50
Green Bunch
2 males under 5
1 male 20-30
1 male 80-90
1 female 20-30
1830 - Sims grant opened to claims between 1830 and 1840
Records in Register's Office, Hawkins Co., TN:
Sims Survey entries, Entry Book B, Hawkins Co., TN:
Benjamin Bunch-150 acres on Newman's Ridge-p. 95
Names on early warrant deeds & land papers (Grohse papers, Reel 3): Entry Book #1,
Hawkins Co., TN:
Benjamin Bunch, 1, 95
1834 - First Settler of Norman Township, Grundy County, Illinois - David Bunch was the first settler, as he came to Section 21 in the winter of 1834-5. The attraction of this locality for him, was the fine timber, for there was a good market for it at Ottawa and other river points. For years, Mr. Bunch cut and raised timber from Norman, but did not make it his home until much later on, when he developed a fine farm. In 1835 Datus Kent joined Mr. Bunch, and they carried on the lumber business together. Mr. Kent had a cabin on Section 15, and he also built a hotel of logs across the river, known as Castle Danger. In 1837, he left Norman Township and went to Arkansas.
Tennessee men named Bunch in the Civil War
(Confederate States of America & United States of America (Union))
Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Tennessee of the Military Forces of the State from 1861 to 1866
Alexander B. Bunch, Anderson Bunch, Asberry Bunch, Greeberry Bunch, Hamilton Bunch, Hilbery C. Bunch, James Bunch, James Bunch, James Bunch, James Bunch, James Bunch, James P. Bunch, Jesse Bunch, John Bunch, John Bunch, Joseph H. Bunch, Lanford Bunch, Math Bunch, Paul Bunch, William Bunch, William Bunch, William Bunch, William H. Bunch
Alexander Bunch - Union
Alexander Bunch - Confederacy
Anderson Bunch - Unit: 5th. Tennessee Infantry Regiment - Company H - Rank: Private - Age: 24 - Remarks: Died March 10, 1865 - Confederacy
James Bunch - 2nd. Tennessee Infantry Regiment - Company H - Rank: Private - Age: 18 - Enlisted: February 25, 1862 - Mustered: Not mus. - Remarks: Died May 5, 1862
James Bunch - 1st. Tennessee Cavary Regiment - Company N - Rank: C Sargent - Age: 21 - Enlisted: December 20, 1862 - Mustered: December 20, 1862 - Remarks: Joined by transfer from Company H to Company M June 10, 1865
James Bunch - Unit: 10th. Tennessee Cavalry Regiment - Company K - Rank: Private - Age: 18 - Enlisted: February 16 - Mustered: March 7 - Remarks: Died April 25, 1864
James P. Bunch - Unit: 8th. Tennessee Infantry Regiment - Company B - August 11, 1863 - Rank: Corpl - Enlisted: December 5, 1862 - Mustered: May 15, 1863 Remarks: Killed at Resacca, Ga. May 14, 1864
James T. Bunch - 5th. Tennessee Infantry Regiment - Company F - Rank: Private - Age: 17 - Enlisted: February 25, 1862 - Mustered: March 28, 1862 - Remarks: Died May 2, 1862, killed in battle.
James W. Bunch - 32nd. Infantry - Compant B - killed at Fort Donelson, Feb. 15, 1862
Jarnagin Bunch - Confederacy
Jesse Bunch - Unit: 5th. Tennessee Infantry Regiment - Compant H - Rank: Private - Age: 17 - Enlisted: Apr ... - Died January 22, 1863
John Bunch - 8th. Tennessee Infantry Regiment - Company H - Rank: Private - Age: 24 - Enlisted: July 25, 1863 - Mustered: January 30, 1864 - Remarks: Absent without leave from October 11, 1864
Joseph - Union
Laford L. Bunch - Unit: 2nd. Tennessee Infantry Regiment - Company H - August 10, 1863 - Rank: Private - Age: 18 - Enlisted: Feb 20 62 - Mustered: June 5, 1863 - Remarks: Deserted August 22, 1863
Mack Bunch - Confederacy
Martin Bunch - Confederacy
Matthew Bunch - Union
Paul Bunch - 5th. Tennessee Infantry Regiment - Company H - Rank: Private - Age: 28 - Enlisted: Apr 26 62 - Mustered: May 21 62
R. Bunch - Confederacy
Samuel Bunch - Confederacy
Solomon Bunch - Confederacy
Captain T. Hopkins Bunch - Unit: 9th. Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, U.S.A. - The first mention of this regiment in the Official Records was in a note dated July 25, 1863, to Brigadier General W. S. Rosecrans with regard to a set of plans of the defenses of Mobile drawn up by Captain T. H. Bunch. The note stated that Bunch had been seized in East Tennessee, while trying to reach the Federal lines, and conscripted into an Alabama Confederate regiment which served for a while at Mobile, but was later transferred to General Braxton Bragg's army. When Bragg retreated from Tullahoma, Bunch managed to escape, and promptly raised a company for the 9th Tennessee Cavalry, U. S. A. - Captain T. Hopkins Bunch mustered at Nashville, Tennessee, August 13, 1863.
William Bunch - 8th. Tennessee Infantry Regiment - Cimpany A - Rank: Private - Age: 18 - Enlisted: December 20, 1862 - Mustered: May 16, 1863 - Remarks: Died: June 15, 1863
William Bunch - 1st. Tennessee Cavalry Regiment - Company D - Rank: Private - Age: 20 - Enlisted: November 16, 1861 - Mustered: November 1, 1862
William Bunch - 1st. Tennessee Cavalry Regiment - Company G - Rank: Copl - Age: 16 - Enlisted: July 1, 1862 - Mustered: November 1, 1862 - Remarks: Pro Corp May 1, 1865
William F. Bunch - Unit: 1st. Cavalry Regiment - Company: D - Rank: Private - Cemetery: Chattanooga Confederate Cemetery
William H. Bunch, - Unit: 8th. Tennessee Cavalry Regiment - Company K - Rank: Private - Age: 18 - Enlisted: March 5, 1865 - Mustered: March 18, 1865
Indiana men named Bunch in the Civil War
(United States of America (Union))
George M. Bunch - Roden Bunch - George W. Bunch
America Bunch - Fountain County, Indiana - Enlisted: 22 July 1861 - Indiana Union
Andrew Bunch - Enlisted: 15 January 1862 - Indiana Union
Benjamin Bunch - Bloomfield, Greene County, Indiana - Enlisted: 15 August 1861 - Indiana Union - Ben Bunch was born March 2, 1836, and died January 6, 1915, aged seventy-eight years, nine months and twenty-four days. He was a son of James & Mary Bunch. His first wife was Margaret Goben, who died March 28, 1905. They had five children: John and Charles Bunch, of Alvin, Ill.; Joseph Bunch and Mrs. James Robertson, of Terre Haute, and Mrs. C. W. Wilson, of Winston-Salem, N. C. Besides these there are thirteen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He was married to Mrs. Elizabeth C. HASH, November 28, 1910, by whom he is survived. He was a veteran of the civil war, having enlisted in Company I, 22nd. Regiment Indiana Volunteers. The funeral services were conducted from the late residence at Sharkey last Saturday at 11 a.m., by Elder J. A. Spencer and the body was buried at Tulip Cemetery, Tulip, Greene County, Indiana.
Bussel Bunch - Marshall County, Indiana - Enlisted: 16 December 1863 - Indiana Union
Charles Bunch - Bradford, Indiana - Enlisted: 19 August 1862 - Indiana Union
Charles Bunch - Enlisted: 9 February 1862 - Indiana Union
Charles Bunch - Enlisted: 21 November 1861 - Indiana Union
E. Bunch - Randolph County, Indiana - Enlisted: 9 July 1863 - Indiana Union
Elias Bunch - Leavenworth, Indiana - Enlisted: 28 January 1864 - Indiana Union
George Bunch - Wayne County, Indiana - Enlisted: 1 November 1861 - Indiana Union
George Bunch - Crawford County, Indiana - Enlisted: 20 August 1861 - Indiana Union
George Bunch - Richmond, Indiana - Indiana Union
Hardin Bunch - Petersburg, Indiana - Enlisted: 13 December 1861 - Indiana Union
Jackson Bunch - Wayne County, Indiana - Enlisted: 10 July 1863 - Indiana Union
James Bunch - Bradford, Indiana - Enlisted: 29 February 1864 - Indiana Union
James Bunch - Floyd County, Indiana - Enlisted: 12 August 1863 - Indiana Union
James Bunch - Tippecanoe County, Indiana - Enlisted: 22 July 1861 - Indiana Union
Jesse Bunch - Enlisted: 15 June 1863 - Indiana Union
John Bunch - Sullivan County, Indiana - Enlisted: 12 June 1861 - Indiana Union
John Bunch - Lakeville, Indiana - Enlisted: 20 September 1861 - Indiana Union
John Bunch - Delaware County, Indiana - Enlisted: 10 July 1863 - Indiana Union
Joseph Bunch - Union City, Indiana - Enlisted: 15 December 1863 - Indiana Union
Joseph Bunch - Lakeville, Indiana - Enlisted: 11 September 1861 - Indiana Union
Nazareth Bunch - Petersburg, Indiana - Enlisted: 13 December 1861 - Indiana Union
Roden Bunch - Crawford County, Indiana - 49th. Indiana - Company F - Enlisted: 21 November 1861 - Indiana Union
Solomon Bunch - Mooresville, Indiana - Enlisted: 3 May 1864 - Indiana Union
Stacy Bunch - Centerton, Indiana - Enlisted: 30 August 1861 - Indiana Union
Thomas Bunch - Centerton, Indiana - Enlisted: 30 August 1861 - Indiana Union
Willis Bunch - Crawfordsville, Indiana - Enlisted: 30 January 1864 - Indiana Union
Zachariah Bunch - Crawford County, Indiana - Enlisted: 20 August 1861 - Indiana Union
A Queer Tennessee People
The Philadelphia Inquirer - 1/14/1894
There is a race of people in Hawkins County, Tenn., whose origin is a mystery," said G. L. Babbit. "They are called the Melungeons, and are found no place else. They have been traced back to North Carolina, but further than that nothing is known. They are not Indians, they are not negroes, they are certainly not of any known race of white people. But few of them can speak the English language, although they have lived here for over a century, and the language they do speak is an unknown one to the most accomplished linguist. They are dirty and degraded, but with a race pride about them that prevent their intermingling with the lower order of Americans or with negroes. A Melungeon will work when he is hungry, but only under press of necessity. they avoid the towns, and cultivate small patches of corn on the most barren mountain sides, the rest hunting and fishing. Every attempt made as yet to better their condition has been a failure, and yet the race continues to exist independently of the white people, growing no smaller and changing none of its attributes.
The American Antiquarian
The Melungeons are a people of Tennessee, which have been made more of a mystery than they really are. They live at Clinch River, near Holston River, and when they have merchandize to trade, they bring it for sale to the town of Rodgersville, in Hawkins County., TN. The locality where their homes are, is near the quarries in Hawkins County, where marble of a pink color is now quarried. They are small in stature and darker than their neighbors, and though they call themselves Portuguese, James Mooney, who investagated them, thinks they are a medley, of some Atlantic coast Indians and of inland negros. By all events they differ in race from the Anglo-Americans, though they speak an English dialect, somewhat corrupted. They are known to have lived there for a century says G. L. Babbett, and will work only under the press of hunger and necessity. A short article on these people will be found in one of the more recent volumns of the American Anthropologist, Washington D.C. (1889 pp. 347, sq.)
Tennessee Melungeon and Related Groups
Virginia Easley DeMarce, Historian
Branch of Acknowledgment and Research, Bureau of Indian Affairs
What is a social isolate?
The great majority of individuals in the United States who carry a mixed European, African, and Native American genealogical heritage are not members of social isolate groups. The majority of them identify with some other component of the wider society--most commonly white, sometimes Black, and sometimes Native American. As such persons trace their family history, they may find that some, though probably not all, of their ancestors were at some time part of a tri-racial isolate settlement. Therefore, the genealogical study of such groups is of interest to a wide segment of the modern American population.
The most basic and useful definition of mixed-race social isolates for the purposes of academic study was compiled in 1950 by a professional geographer. Edward T. Price wrote:
(1) The people must be racial mixtures of white and non-white groups, Indian and/or negro peoples presumably providing the latter blood in the absence of evidence to the contrary;
(2) they must have a social status differing from that accorded whites, Indians, or negroes in the area in such away as to throw them generally together in their more personal social relationships;
(3) they must exist in such numbers and concentration as to be recognized in their locality as such a group and usually to be identified by a distinguishing group name (Price 1950, 5).
Price's emphasis on the existence of a group is fundamental to studying the genealogy of social isolate groups as groups. In spite of the ongoing myth that one drop of African ancestry classified an individual or family as Black, the historical fact is that this principal was nowhere a matter of law in the United States prior to the early 20th century, whereas in most jurisdictions prior to the Civil War, free persons with less than 1/8 or 1/16 African ancestry were, for legal purposes, classified as white. While the prevalence of legal and social discrimination should not be underestimated, neither should it be overestimated. In many communities, whites were reluctant to apply law codes which had been passed to control slaves and emancipated slaves to those mixed-race families that had been free since early colonial times. Often, if one mixed-race family moved into a county or comparable jurisdiction, it was simply assimilated by the local majority population, leaving scarcely a ripple in the historical record. In order for a social isolate to develop, there had to be a large enough group to permit enough endogamous marriages to sustain a distinct population. For a general discussion of the complexities, see the well-known article by Gary B. Mills and the recent more general survey by Gary B. Nash.
What are the basic sources of information on social isolates?
Writing about social isolates has falls primarily into the categories of fact, folklore, fantasy, and even modern fiction. It is not always easy to distinguish these categories of writing. Spurred on by the wishful thinking of authors, fiction, fantasy, and folklore have masqueraded as fact with some frequency. Outright fiction is probably the least common: it can be very interesting in its own right. However, at least in the case of Appalachian writer Sharyn McCrumb's Elizabeth MacPherson mystery novel, the "common sense" historical explanation which the author adopted has no discernable basis in the genealogical documentation of the families who are known to have lived in social isolate settlements in the tri-state region of southwestern Virginia, northwestern North Carolina, and northeastern Tennessee.
Fantasy - John Sevier's letter mentioning a tribe of "white Indians" which supposedly lived in eastern Tennessee in the late 18th century has provided the root of many of the more improbable speculations on the origins of the isolate settlements. One of the most widespread resulting fantasies has been the attempt to link these settlements with early Portuguese explorations of the North American continent. The improbability of such connections is made clear by Charles M. Hudson's recent impartial survey of these explorations. Turkish origins are equally improbable.
Fact - The actual, factual, history of social isolate settlements is going to be written by genealogists and family historians: document by individual document, fact by painstaking fact. The function and duty of the historian and the genealogist is to demystify and to demythologize.
I want to particularly cite one family genealogist who, by painstaking local research, has traced the written usage of the word "Melungeon" at a date much earlier than it had been located by professional historians and anthropologists, who had made do with a recollection, written in the 1880's, that the word had been used in the late 1840's: Jack Harold Goins of Rogersville, Tennessee, located a written use of the word on September 26, 1813. Jack descends from Zephaniah Goins. Knowing that his ancestors were Primitive Baptists, Jack Goins searched first the minutes of the Blackwater Primitive Baptist Church, where Zephaniah and Elizabeth (Thompson) Goins were members. These led him to the minutes of the Stoney Creek Primitive Baptist Church at Ft. Blackmore, Washington County, Virginia (about eight miles southwest of present-day Dungannon, Virginia, in Scott County), just across the state line from Tennessee.
By carefully tracing a specific family along a specific migration route, this author has made a major contribution not only to family genealogy, but to historical and anthropological research. More research of equally high quality needs to be undertaken. When we know the origins of each individual Melungeon family, we will know the origins of the Melungeons. When we know the origins of each family in other social isolates, we will begin to understand their genesis and development.
