Andrew and William Creekmore
Andrew Jackson Creekmore (1840-1862) and William W. Creekmore (1835-1862) were Union soldiers from Scott County who died during the Civil War.
See Also: Scott Countians killed in war
Biography
Born in 1835 and 1840, William W. Creekmore and Andrew J. Creekmore were the sons of Green Berry Creekmore (1811-1893) and Ida Ellison (1818-1887). Their siblings included Francis Ashbury Creekmore (1837-1926), Henry Newton Creekmore (1839-1921), Rasanva Creekmore (1839-1840), Roseanna Creekmore (1839-1840), Rebekah M. Creekmore (1840-1851), James M. Creekmore (1840-1919), Elizabeth M. Davis (1843-1921), Embey King Creekmore (1844-1931), Emily K. Creekmore (1845-1870), Reucanny Pennington Creekmore (1846-1923), Jasper Campbell Creekmore (1848-1918), Mary Ann Baird (1849-1949), Helen E. Creekmore (1850-1918), Rhuminta Jane Creekmore (1854-1930), Thomas B. Creekmore (1855-1879), Isaac E. Creekmore (born 1857), Nancy Ellen Cox (1859-1948), Horace Maynard Creekmore (1861-1954), and Jesse Lenhern Creekmore (1863-1870).
The Creekmore family was from Whitley County, Ky., dating back to Andrew’s great-grandfather, Robert Creekmore (1755-1824), who made the move from Virginia to Kentucky. However, Green Berry Creekmore and his family lived in Scott County. Green Berry was actually born in North Carolina. His father lived in Whitley County when the 1820 and 1830 censuses were taken. By 1840, Green Berry had made the move to present-day Scott County, which is where Andrew was born. The family continued to live in Scott County when the 1850, 1860 and 1870 censuses were taken. It wasn’t until sometime between 1870 and 1880 that Green Berry returned to the Williamsburg, Ky. area.
William W. Creekmore was born on Nov. 2, 1835. Andrew J. Creekmore was born on either Oct. 1, 1840 or Oct. 1, 1841; different sources list different dates.
Civil War
Both William and Andrew Creekmore served in Co. E of the 12th Kentucky Infantry. Both enlisted on Sept. 29, 1861 at Camp Dick Robinson in Kentucky. Andrew was a corporal; William was a private. Camp Dick Robinson was located near Danville, Ky., north of Somerset, and was where troops were being trained for a planned invasion of East Tennessee. Many Scott Countians trained at Camp Dick Robinson, and it was there that Fielding Griffith of Scott County was poisoned.
The planned invasion of East Tennessee did not happen immediately, however. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer complicated things by amassing Confederate troops under his command at the Cumberland Gap and surrounding areas, and later seizing parts of southeastern Kentucky, including Barbourville. However, things came to a head on Jan. 19, 1862 at the Battle of Mill Springs, near Somerset, where Zollicoffer was killed. That battle enabled the Army of the Ohio to march into Middle Tennessee and occupy Nashville, resulting in Isham Harris’s removal as governor and President Abraham Lincoln’s installation of Andrew Johnson as military governor of Tennessee. The move by federal troops into East Tennessee finally happened in September 1863, when Gen. Ambrose Burnside marched the Army of the Ohio through Scott County to Knoxville.
Francis Ashbury Creekmore and Embey King Creekmore, brothers to William and Andrew, also served in the Civil War. They were in Co. G, 49th Kentucky Infantry.
Little is known about the death of William Creekmore, except that it happened on July 2, 1862, when he was 26. He is buried at Zion Hill Cemetery in Whitley County.
Andrew Creekmore died on Jan. 2, 1862 at the brigade hospital in Somerset, due to typhoid fever and pneumonia. It is not clear where he was buried.
Aftermath
Following the death of his wife, Ida, Green Berry Creekmore applied for a pension on behalf of his son, Andrew. He was awarded $12 per month beginning March 17, 1888. In an affidavit, he stated that Confederate soldiers had robbed his home and destroyed most of his papers.
Ida died in 1887. Green Berry died in 1893. Both are buried at Wolf Creek Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery south of Williamsburg.