My Genealogy Hound

WINTER, CAPT. JOHN E., Milwaukee saloon, No. 27 North 6th street; born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, Nov. 19, 1836; came to the United States, June 1, 1852, and located in New York; went to St. Louis, Mo., 1853. He followed steamboating on the Mississippi river and tributaries, as clerk, pilot and captain, until the breaking out of the rebellion, 1861. His boat was stopped at Memphis, April, 1861, and the crew and officers taken up to swear allegiance to the Confederate flag. Captain Winter happened to be asleep in his room, after his watch, and was overlooked, until the return of the vigilance committee, when they ordered him to get up and take the oath to sustain the Rebel flag. He told them he knew no flag but the Stars and Stripes, and with a revolver in his hand, he drove the committee off his boat. They then went for reinforcements, and did bring a whole company of armed soldiers, to bring him up dead or alive. There was another boat going up the river, and, at the earnest request of the captain, he went aboard, and was landed at a point fifteen miles up, on the opposite side of the river from Memphis. He was guided by a colored man to Bird’s Point, opposite Cairo, and from there he went to St. Louis, to find General Frank P. Blair and several Union men barricaded in Turner Hall, whom he immediately joined, and enrolled in the first Union military company organized in St. Louis, Co. A., 1st Mo. Inf. (Colonel, F. P. Blair). He was present at the capture of Camp Jackson, St. Louis, battles of Booneville, Mo., Duck Springs and Wilson’s Creek, where his regiment lost 130 killed and 410 wounded, himself included, receiving nine buckshot in his body. He came back to St. Louis with his regiment, which was re-organized as the 1st Mo. Light Artillery. He was transferred to the navy, with the rank of First Master and Pilot; was present at the organization of the Mississippi Squadron, at Cairo, and took command of the propeller Laural; was at the battles of Ft. Henry, and towed the gun-boat Essex out of range of rebel guns, after she was disabled, and towed her to Mound City; was at the reconnaissance of Columbus, Ky., 1861-62; also at the siege of Island No. 10 and Ft. Pillow. His propeller caught fire there and rendered unserviceable; after refitting her, he took part in the naval fight at Memphis, where they captured three rebel gun-boats and destroyed four. He went with the fleet to Helena, Ark., then up White river, where the United States steamer Mound City, Captain Ketty, was exploded by a rebel shot and the Captain wounded. He went with Captain Welke’s expedition to Yazoo river, 1862, and remained there until the fall of Vicksburg; was at the capture of Arkansas Post; was soon after transferred to the gun boat Tyler, in which he was engaged in a continuous guerilla warfare with bushwhackers, keeping communications open. He was mustered out at Mound City, 1865; returned to St. Louis and assumed his old avocation of steamboating. He married Lizzetta Thomas in Quincy, Feb. 22, 1866, and located in Quincy, 1873; was first clerk at the Tremont House one and one-half years; has been in business since 1875. His children are: Jennette, Willie, Albert and Edith. He is a Republican.