Biographies and Obituaries
In loving memory
William Nelson McCracken
William Nelson McCracken was the son of John McCracken and Sarah Jane Webber.He was born 11 November 1828 in Daviess County, Indiana, On 27 March 1853 he married Sarah (Berry) McGehee who was the widow of his first cousin Charles McGehee. Sharah had one son, William Henry McGehee, who was born 2 December 1848. her first marriage lasted less than two years and she was a widow when she was not quite nineteen years old.
William Nelson McCracken enlisted at the age of 32 as a private in Company "G" 42nd Regiment of Indiana Volunteers on 28 September 1861 at the same time his three younger brothers and two first cousins enlisted. They wer all mustered in at Evansville on 10 October 1861. He left a wife, four children and a step-son behind when he joined the 42nd.
The 42nd was in camp near Huntsville, Alabama from April until August 1862. Their duties included brigade drill, picket duty and building stockades. The men considered it "featherbed soldiering".
Comfederate General Bragg and his men were then occupying Chattanooga, which was the key to transportation and communication in that part of the south. On August 19th General Bragg began his invasion of kentucky, Hoping to obtain supplies and recruit soldiers for his army. It was not long before the Federal forces at huntsville, including the 42nd, began their march northward in pursuit of the Confederates. They marched from Huntsville to Louisville, Kentucky, in a month. During the grueling march they were cut off from supplies most of the time. Through parts of kentucky the line of march often followed in the wake of the Confederate drive north. As a result, the countryside had been depleted of most of its food supply, and the water supply (which is normally poor during late summer) amounted to stagnant ponds which were often contaminated by dead mules left by the rebs.
Nelson was driving a regimental train wagon, and he became overheated due to the extremely hot weather. His left arm and shoulder "played out" and he had to be relieved from duty. He was treated in regimental hospitals several times during the next two years because of the chronic illness that he contracted on the march. In March of 1864 he was transferred to the Beterans Reserve Corps and was discharged 14 October 1864 at Lexington, Kentucky.
William nelson McCracken returned home to Daviess County. He and Sarah lived on farms in Barr and Reeve Townships and had five more childre. They moved to Washington, Indiana, about 1893 and retired. Sarah died 25 September 1906 and William N. died 15 May 1910 at the age of 81. Both are buried in Mount Olive Baptist Church Cemetery.
Contributed by: Mrs. Jeanne Everett, McCracken Family Historian