Joel Ross

Joel C. Ross was a Winfield boy who served in the Union army during the Civil War. Legend has it that he was forced into service. He and his father, Alfred Ross, both died during the war.

See Also: Scott Countians killed in war

Biography

Joel Ross was born in 1847, the son of Alfred Ross and Hannah “Honor” Chitwood. His siblings included Manerva Jane Stephens (1839-1921), Margaret Ann McPeters (1840-1892), Sarah “Sally” Smith (1842-1912), Mary “Polly” Ross (1842-1912), Katherine Emily Thomas (1846-1921) and Joel C. Ross (1847-1864).

Joel’s mother was a granddaughter of Revolutionary War veteran James Chitwood. The Ross family was also prominent in the Winfield area at the time. However, his paternal grandparents and many of his father’s siblings left Scott County and moved to Missouri prior to his birth in 1847.

There is speculation that Alfred Ross was married before he met Honor Chitwood and had a son, Newton, who was raised by Alfred’s brother, Alvin, in Missouri. However, it’s not known who his first wife would have been or what became of her.

Civil War

Along with his father, Joel Ross enlisted in the Union army on Oct. 11, 1861. He was mustered into Co. G of the 2nd Tennessee Infantry.

Family history tells that the father and son were forced into service. According to a story that was handed down by Ross’s sister, Mary, who would’ve been in her teens at the time, two Union soldiers rode up to the Ross house on horseback and told Alfred Ross and his son that they would have to join the service. When they refused, they were forced onto horses and ridden away to Camp Dick Robinson in Kentucky.

Ross was only about 14 at the time.

Alfred Ross died of measles less than two months later. Joel Ross served in the Union army for most of the war. He was captured by Confederate forces at the Battle of Rogersville in East Tennessee in November 1863, along with several other Scott Countians.

After being captured by Rebel soldiers at the Battle of Rogersville in 1863, Ross was imprisoned at Belle Isle, the infamous Confederate prison in Richmond, Va. He was paroled on March 21, 1864 and admitted to the hospital in Annapolis, Mary. with pneumonia three days later, on March 24, 1864. He was only 17 at the time. He died on May 9, 1864.

He was buried at Annapolis National Cemetery.