Re: Capt. John Hyde, Co. F, 1st Wisconsin Cavalry
-
In reply to:
Capt. John Hyde, Co. F, 1st Wisconsin Cavalry
Brian Snavely 9/09/03
I can only offer you a suspicion. This may be Lt. John T. Hyde, whose niece mentions something of him in her recolllections. He was promoted to Lieutenant for some act of conspicuous valour; a hint suggesting something to do with saving Gen. Meade. After his father's death, his mother and siblings moved to Wisconsin from Prince Edward Island, Canada, or from Tabusintac, New Brunswick to set up lumber and grist mills (apparently still standing) at what was Hyde's Mills, Iowa Co., Wisconsin about 1856. His brother, James, was in the infantry, and arrived home in rags. John, as an officer, arrived in resplendent uniform on a fine horse. He was the great grandson of an early settler on Isle St. Jean (as PEI was known before 1783), Thomas Hyde from Ireland about 1770; and whose family was proninent in the affairs of that province.
His father was Thomas Hyde, and his mother was Caroline Urquhart, granddaughter of a rather wandering Presbyterian minister, the Rev. John Urquhart from Scotland. Many of his in-laws were from Loyalist families, some from Long Island, NY having been there since the Dutch New Netherlands settlements.
Perhaps one factor is that few Americans realize how many Canadians were involved in the Civil War (or are presently involved.) Or how many Canadians are descended from the very earliest European settlers in the New World.
Thomas