Elkanah Anderson: Died at the Battle of New Orleans (#11 of 52 Ancestors)
Elkanah Anderson and his brother-in-law, Thomas B Whitwel, were two of my 5 times great grandfathers. In December 1814, Elkanah and Thomas joined the West Tennessee Milita and were “part of a flotila that went down to New Orleans via the Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers.” Once there, they fought in the famous Battle of New Orleans under Andrew Jackson. During the bloody, one-sided battle which lasted only about 30 minutes on January 8th, the British suffered 2,000 casualties while the Americans only had about one hundred.
According to the Tennessee Archives site, there weren’t any battle casualties in Elkanah’s and Thomas’ regiement, but there were “many deaths due to sickness” in February and March. Elkanah Anderson died on January 14th, just 6 days after the big battle. Was he one of the first to die of disease? Or did he die of battle wounds? And was he buried in an unmarked grave in New Orleans as family stories tell us?Thomas returned home to tell his wife that her brother, Elkanah, had died in New Orleans. Elkanah’s wife was presumably pregnant with their seventh child at the time of his death. Although I’m not sure exactly how he died, he died defending our young nation.
My Line of Descent
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- Elkanah Anderson (1774-1815) m Sarah “Sally” Murray (1777-1845)
- Margaret Anderson (abt 1801-1877) m Pleasant Whitwell (1803-1875)
- Martha Ann Whitwell (1830-1904) m Carroll Houston Ward (1826-1863)
- Reuben Houston Ward (1859-1906) m Sallie Harriet Dickson (1860-1960)
- Martha Lenora “Nora” Ward (1885-1916) m James Bedford Dickson (1880-1968)
- Ethel Evelyn Dickson (1915-2004) m Sherman Joseph Kaechle (1907-1987) (my maternal grandparents)
Do we share common ancestors? I’d love to talk! Please leave a comment or email me at drleeds@sbcglobal.net.
Greetings Dana – we are cousins! Elkanah Anderson and Sarah Sally Murray were my great x 3 grandparents.
Line of descent: Elkanah Anderson (married Sarah “Sally” Murray) great great great grans – (they had 10 children – the last child was born after Elkanah Sr. died in New Orleans after the Battle of New Orleans)
Elkanah Anderson Jr. (married Martha Jane Spurlock) great great grands
Sarah Jane Anderson (married Thomas Jefferson Childress) great grands
George W. Childress (married Bessie Barnes) my maternal grandparents
Bonnie Bell Childress (married Lowney LeBlanc) my parents
Just thought I’d share that with you. Take care.
Hi- we are cousins
My Line of Descent
Elkanah Anderson (1774-1815) m Sarah “Sally” Murray (1777-1845)
Margaret Anderson (abt 1801-1877) m Pleasant Whitwell (1803-1875)
Elijah Houston Whitwell m. Jin y Angelina Randel
John Randel Whitwell m. permelia Adeline Campbell
Mattie Ether Whitwell m. Walter Ailhanan Garrison
John Floyd Garrison m. Dana Rhea Hudson
And I’m Shirley Kay Garrison Arnold
I live in Seattle.
Hi, Shirley! It’s great to meet you!! And your list helped me to fill in some gaps on my tree. 🙂 And I would love to spend some time learning more about Elkanah Anderson and his wife, Sarah “Sally” Murray. I have probable names for both fathers, but nothing else.
Dana – Sarah “Sally” Murray was the daughter of Thomas Murray and Ann Thomas Cassady. Elkanah’s father was John Anderson. I don’t know who his mother was but I know it wasn’t Rebecca Maxwell. She was married to a different John Anderson but still a relative. I have the paternal Anderson names back to 1613, before our first Anderson ancestor immigrated to America.
Hi, Beth. First of all, my sincere apologies! I haven’t blogged (before today) in quite a while and somehow stopped receiving comment notifications and didn’t notice. I’m catching up tonight!
I’d love to learn more about why you believe that Sarah “Sally” Murray with the daughter of Thomas Murray and Ann Thomas Cassady! And also about Elkanah’s father. This is definitely a part of my tree that I haven’t worked on in a long time. I’d love to explore it more with traditional and DNA research.
Sincerely,
Dana