Noah Dennis (1819 - 1862)

Noah Dennis (1819–1862) was born about 1819 in Knox County, Ohio, the seventh of nine children of Philip Dennis and Elizabeth Horn. His great-grandfather, Johan Philip Dennis (also known as Dinges), was a German immigrant from Rheinland-Pfalz who arrived in Pennsylvania in 1749 and settled in Lancaster and Washington Counties. His grandfather, Michael Dennis, served in the Pennsylvania Line during the Revolutionary War. Noah’s father, Philip, was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and had moved his family to Knox County, Ohio, by the 1820 census.

On 6 June 1844, Noah married Elizabeth Meredith in Coshocton County, Ohio. They had seven children: Sarah Elizabeth (1845), Louisa (1848), Priscilla (1849), Lovina (1851), Isaac Meredith (1853), Nancy Rebecca (1855), and Mary Marilla (1857). Elizabeth Dennis died on 16 July 1859.

On 26 January 1860, Noah married widow Rachel (Walters) Spurgeon in Knox County, Ohio. They had one daughter, Delilah Jane, born in 1861. Noah worked as a farmer in Jackson, Ohio, and was recorded as illiterate on the 1860 census.

On 27 December 1861, Noah enrolled at Millwood, Ohio, as a Private in Company K, 43rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Captain William Walker. He mustered in on 22 December 1861 at Mount Vernon, Ohio.

The 43rd Ohio Infantry Regiment was organized at Mount Vernon between 28 September 1861 and 1 February 1862, and mustered in for three years of service under Colonel Joseph L. Kirby Smith. Private Dennis would have participated in the siege of New Madrid, Missouri; the siege and capture of Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River; and the siege and occupation of Corinth, Mississippi.

On 15 September 1862, four days before the Battle of Iuka, Noah was admitted to the General Hospital at Corinth. Records note he was later left sick in a hospital at Jackson, Tennessee. On 19 September 1862, he was admitted to the General Hospital at Mound City, Illinois, for treatment of typhoid fever.

Noah Dennis died on 2 November 1862, accidentally drowning in the Ohio River. His widow Rachel reported that he had died on 20 October 1862 in the hospital from disease. However, affidavits from Sergeant John Hawn and Corporal Peter M. McClusky, both patients at the Mound City hospital, stated that Dennis drowned near a houseboat used to transport fresh water from the river to the hospital. A wooden plank connected the shore to the boat, and Dennis’s body was found about 10 feet from the plank.

Private Noah Dennis was buried in Mound City National Cemetery in Pulaski County, Illinois. Two months prior to his death, his nephews James M. Dennis and William W. Dennis had both mustered into the 2nd Iowa Cavalry. Rachel Dennis later remarried and filed for a widow’s pension following Noah’s death.

Noah Dennis's gravestone.

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Notice: The information in the biography above has been researched and provided by the author and has not been verified by the SUVCW or the ASUVCW.