Gregg's Civil War Veteran Ancestors The photo below is Gustavus A. Gessner, circa 1890s, Ohio GAR, Fremont & Ohio Postmaster.
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Gustavus A. Gessner as Hospital Steward, 72nd Ohio Volunteers. Photo below taken just prior to his capture at Guntown Mississippi.
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The picture to the left shows Gregg's Civil War ancestor, Color Sergeant Gustavus A. Gessner, (Collateral Lineage) 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Co. H, (90 day volunteers, 1861) and 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Co. H, (3yr enlistment) severely wounded at Shiloh, returned to his regiment and served as Hospital Steward only to be captured by troops of Rebel Cavalry Wizard, Nathan Bedford Forrest at Guntown, Mississippi. He was a survivor of Andersonville and Florence prisons. Gustavus and all men and officers of the 72nd blamed the commanding General Sturgis for their capture due to gross incompetence, drunken behavior, and cowardice. One night at a GAR meeting in Fremont after the war the men got word that Sturgis would be passing through town by train. They grabbed their guns and went to the depot to stop the train drag Sturgis off and kill him. Gustavus and the former commanding officer of the 72nd Regiment risked their lives and reputations by stopping the incident. Later they all issued a formal protest to President Grant objecting to Sturgis being the commander of the 7th U.S. Cavalry from behind a desk in Chicago, while Civil War Hero George Custer took all the risks leading the regiment in the Dakota Territories. After the war he was also appointed and re-appointed U.S. Postmaster of Ohio by Presidents McKinley and T. Roosevelt and he patented several inventions through a factory he jointly owned in Indiana. Gustavus and his brother Dr. Louis S. J. Gessner (both of Fremont, Ohio) were also friends of Rutherford B. Hayes and Benjamin Harrison. Gustavus, a well-known pharmacist and Louis S.J., like his father, was a well respected physician in Ohio. Both teamed with others to co-found the University of Michigan School of Medicine. Their father, an early Ohio pioneer, founded the first hospital in the Sandusky Valley of Ohio. (ref. Hayes Library archives, Fremont, Ohio, and the Ohio Historical Society).
Gregg's other ancestors who fought in the Civil War were: Dr. Louis S. J. Gessner, Officer/Surgeon, 37th Ohio Volunteer Infantry; William W. Servis, Drummer, 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry (Iron Brigade); Pvt. Henry Mierke, 2nd Battery, Wisconsin Independent Light Artillery; and Pvt. John Mierke, 16th New York Heavy Artillery.
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