Chinese Union Soldier, 1863 POW

The Daily Dispatch
(Richmond, Virginia)
June 17, 1863

From Fredericksburg.
There was nothing from Fredericksburg by last evening’s train except twelve Yankee prisoners captured at Falmouth. They were a motley set, including Irish, Dutch, and a Chinaman. A gentleman who walked over the course on the Stafford aide says there is not a Yankee about the old camping ground. A few worthiest tents are left standing, some bayonets dropped about in the old camps, cartridge boxes, “played out” uniforms, which would be valuable to a paper mill, tin cups, canteens with holes in them, a broken cannon wheel, &c., show that the large family which has been occupying the premises have carefully cleaned up everything valuable before leaving.

The Chinese Union soldier POW was John Tomney.

Tomney is in the National Park Service book, Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civil War.

(Next post: Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civil War)

William H. Kwan / Kevan

“Chinese in the Civil War”, by Thomas L. Lowry and Edward S. Milligan, appeared in the North & South, April 1999. They wrote about a Confederate soldier with the surname Kwan, whose name may have been a misreading of Kevan.

An even more mysterious Confederate was William H. Kwan of Company B, 12th Virginia Battalion of Light Artillery (Martin’s Battery, Richmond)....The handwritten records of the Virginia troops show a William H. Kevan in that company and battalion. In the calligraphy of the time, “Kevan” and “Kwan” are almost indistinguishable. But history has its little surprises. The eminent historian Robert K. Krick, and the late Lee A. Wallace, Jr., men familiar not only with Kevan but also with his present-day descendants, state there is no record or evidence of any such ancestor even remotely Chinese.

Looking at the U.S. Federal Censuses from 1850 to 1920, there are two men who could be the Civil Ward veteran mentioned in the article. “William H. Kevan”, “Wm. H. Kevan”, “W. Henry Kevan”, and “William Kevan” all lived in Petersburg, Virginia. Presented below are details of the census records so one can see the handwriting of the enumerators. I believe the handwriting contributed to the confusion of interpreting the name.

1850 

Loop of the “e” is closed, and when connected to the “v”,

together, they look like a “w”. So, Kevan looks like Kwan.
William Kevan’s father, Andrew, was born in New York
around 1804.

1860

Similar handwriting problem is seen here. William’s
father, John, was born in New York around 1818.
William was born in Virginia.

1870

Same family, from 1860, whose surname was legible.

1880

Kevan is legible.

1900

The “v” looks like an “o”.

1910

Kevan is legible.

1920

Kevan written less legibly; looks like Keram.

Links
Find a Grave has a W. H. Kevan buried in the Confederate section of the Blanford Cemetery at Petersburg, Virginia.

The National Park Service has a record for Kevan but none for Kwan.

North & South, April 1999, page 39

Kwan is listed in the National Park Service book, Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civil War.

(Next post: Kwong Lee)

Chinese Union Soldier, 1862 POW

The Campaign from Texas to Maryland
Rev. Nicholas A. Davis
Presbyterian Committee of Publications of the Confederate States, 1863

...March 13 [1862]—A detail was made from each Texas Regiment of one Lieutenant and fifteen men, who were ordered to return to the vicinity of Dumfries, to watch the movements of the enemy. They captured prisoners daily, and on the 18th, at Glasscock’s Hill, they saw a brigade cross the Potomac, pass up to Dumfries, back to Evansport, and recross the river. On the next day they captured a Yankee Chinaman, who being committed to the care of Barker, (of Co. G, 4th Texas,) and proving a little stubborn, that practical frontiersman quietly placed the Celestial across his lap, and with his leathern belt administered such a chastisement as that “ruthless invader” had probably not received since childhood.

The Daily Dispatch
(Richmond, Virginia)
March 24, 1862

An Adventure 

On Monday, a small party of Federals came to Dr. —’s house in the upper part of Stafford, and after getting something to eat left. Soon after leaving, they overtook a cart of the Dr’s loaded with bacon, which he was sending off. They seized this, together with the cart and horse, as booty, but the negro boy who was driving escaped. 

After this party had left Dr. —’s, he was surprised by the sudden appearance before him, in his room, of a Federal soldier, a picket, armed with a musket, who called out — “You are my prisoner!” The Dr. sprang at the man and wrested the gun from his hand, coolly answering — “No, sir, you are my prisoner.” The Dr. started the fellow before him, but before they had gone far, the soldier said he would go no further. Dr. — told him he would shoot him if he did not, but the fellow said he would as soon be as be taken prisoner. Fortunately at this juncture some of our scouts came in sight, and the prisoner [didn’t] seem to be at all disposed to die, as the Texans were willing to accommodate him. He was forwarded to Richmond on Wednesday. 

The fellow is a Chinaman; so if seems the United States are hiring of all nations their refuse people, to subjugate the independent people of the South.

Early research at the Association to commemorate the Chinese serving in the American Civil War believed that the unnamed Chinese soldier was John Tomney. Further research in Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civil War confirmed that it was John Tomney.

The Sun
(New York)
June 16, 1862
“A Yankee Chinaman”

Did these three words refer to the captured John Tomney?


Tomney is profiled in the National Park Service book, Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civil War.

(Next post: John Tomney)