Today I continued my search to learn more about James Rodney Edemy, a Civil War veteran interred at Halfway African American Cemetery in the neighborhood where I grew up.
Part 1 James Rodney Edemy
James Rodney Edemy, U.S.C.T. Civil War veteran, stonemason, farmer, boatman on the C&O Canal, School Trustee, father, husband, and grandfather, was born in 1836 in the Sandy Hook District of Washington County, Maryland near Weverton. He went by his middle name, Rodney. His parents were Joseph Edemy and Eliza Hall. Rodney and his family members were enslaved by the Alexander Neill family and the Stonebraker family of Sandy Hook District.
Sometime before the 1860 census Rodney and his older brother John obtained their freedom. The brothers worked as boatmen on the C&O Canal prior to the war. John owned a canal boat called the Archibald Carey. In 1857, John sold his boat, horses, mule, cookstove and night lamp for $430 cash. The brothers continued to work as boatmen on the canal.
In 1860, Rodney was twenty-one and living in Sandy Hook with his sister and brother and three small children. Four years later Rodney and John, both single, continued to work as boatmen on the canal. Rodney lived in Sharpsburg; John was in Sandy Hook. In May of 1864, Rodney was drafted for a period of three years, and enrolled at Frederick. He was twenty-eight years old. He mustered in at Baltimore, joining Company K of the 19th Regiment, United States Colored Troops. Wounded in action at the “Mine” near Petersburg, Virginia in July of 1864, he spent almost a year at L’Ouverture Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia.
The Acting Assistant Surgeon at the hospital wrote in Rodney’s medical records, “June 15, 1865. I respectfully recommend James Edemy, Co. K. 19 U.S.C. Troop for discharge, in consequence of amputations of index, middle, and ring fingers. . . of left hand, rendered necessary from gunshot would received in [the] charge before Petersburg VA July 31, 1864.” The surgeon determined that the degree of disability was “1/2” and that Rodney was “unsuitable for transfer.” Discharge papers were sent from the Adjutant General’s Office to the Pension Office.
The military records are unclear about why Rodney remained in hospital for that year. He was discharged from the hosptial “by reason of wounds” in July 1865. His name appears on the Company Muster-out Roll, Brownsville, Texas, January 15, 1867.
Rodney returned to Sandy Hook after the war and married Eliza Davis in 1867. The young couple raised their ten children near Weverton — Georgianna, James T., Mary Ellen, Joseph, William, John, Annie May, Josephine, Alexander, and James B. Edemy. Rodney supported the family by working as a stonemason.
More of James Rodney Edemy’s story to follow.
Sources: U.S. Census Records, Obituaries, Death Certificates, Washington Co. MD Land Records, Fold3 Military Records/Ancestry, Hagerstown Mail, Hagerstown Herlad & Torch Light, Hagerstown Daily Mail, Alexandria Gazette, Frederick News, Library of Congress website, “History of L’Ouverture Hospital,” City of Alexandria Virginia website, “C & O History - blacks ignored,” Western Maryland’s Historical Library.
The Library of Congress includes a collection of unidentified African American Civil War soldiers who fought for the Union. The following hand-colored tintype is an example.
Hand-colored tintype of an unidentified African American Union soldier, circa 1862-1865, Library of Congress Liljenquist Family Collection. So far, I’ve located no photographs of Edemy family members.
