Rinaldo Kimmel - Civil War Soldier Buried in Farmer Cemetery

Member of the Farmer G.A.R.

Born in Williams County, Ohio, on January 22, 1840, Rinaldo Kimmel experienced more than many men during his war years.  At the age of 21, he enlisted near the beginning of the war on September 19, 1861 into Company E, 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

He was captured at Chickamauga and spent about a year and a half in three different Confederate prisons.  Seven months of that were spent in the worst of the prisons - Andersonville.  Once freed, he found himself on the ill-fated boat, the Sultana, where he saved himself from an almost certain death after it exploded.

In the Defiance Crescent-News of November 2, 1961, an interview was conducted with Mrs. Minnie Fickle Kimmel, then 89, who was then living in half of the Kimmel homestead.  The home that once belonged to her father- in-law, Rinaldo Kimmel, was located "on the road a mile east of Mason beach - gravel pit, northwest of Ney and northeast of Farmer."  Minnie was married to Granger Kimmel, Rinaldo's son, on September 25, 1898.  Minnie had saved in a scrapbook a letter of Rinaldo's, describing his war experiences: 

At the end of the war, the South delivered some of the Union prisoners home via the ship, Sultana.  When the ship exploded, Rinaldo escaped on a raft - basically a stick of wood - and floated down river "where he was rescued by sympathizers who found him nearly chilled to death," Minnie explained.  

Rinaldo Kimmel

In the book, the Loss of the Sultana & Reminiscences of Survivors, Chester Berry, Editor, 2005, this account of Rinaldo's experience was given on page 199:

"Rinaldon Kimmell.  Was born in Williams Center, Ohio, January 22, 1840 and enlisted in the service of the United States at Farmer, Ohio, Septembe 11, 1861, in Company E, 21st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  Was captured at the Battle of Chickamauga, September 20, 1863, and confined in the following prisons: Pemberton building, Richmond, Va; Dansville, Va.; Andersonville, Ga., a prisoner for eighteen months and eleven days.

He was on board the 'Sultana' when the boiler exploded, and asleep at the time.  On awakening, called to his partner Dunafin, who was sleeping with him, but received no reply.  Could not swim, and the alternative of burning to death or drowning presented itself.  He chose the latter.  Securing a small board before leaving the boat, he threw it in and jumped after it, managing to get hold of it when it came to the surface; it helped him through.  He was among the first to leave the boat.  Floated down to Memphis, just at daybreak, and was taken from the water nearly lifeless.  Was not in his right mind for several hours.  Left Memphis April 29th.  Dunafin was never heard from."

"This all happened before Granger's birth in 1870.  He was two years old when his parents, Rinaldo and Olive Lord Kimmel, sister of William Lord, purchased the present Kimmel farm."

After the war, Rinaldo filed a claim for money taken from him when he was a prisoner of the Confederates.  He asked for $150 and his claim was approved.
On May 6, 1865, at the end of the war, he mustered out, having served 3 years, 7 months and 18 days.

Rinaldo and Olive settled in Farmer Township after the war and were found there by the census enumerator in 1870.  They had two sons, Granger, 9, and Wilber, 7.  Rinaldo began his farming and by 1878, it was reported that he was building a new house on his land.  

Newspapers reported rather frequently of his illnesses and in 1882, he had an accident that some thought would be fatal.

Defiance Express, July 13, 1882

As it turned out, Rinaldo suffered a broken collar bone, but did survive. However, in 1884, it was reported he suffered from neuralgia of the heart.  It seemed that the physical hardships suffered during his war years continued to plague him throughout his life.

By 1890, the county atlas reported that he owned 140 acres in Section 12 of Farmer Township, but his health declined once again.  In April of that year, a newspaper reported that he was very sick "with little hope for recovery."         

The Bryan Press reported on November 20, 1890:

"Rinaldo Kimmel, an old soldier of the 21st O.V.I., living in Farmer township, was in Andersonville prison 17 months and was on the ill-fated Sultana when she was blown up.  He is one of the greatest sufferers from pain we have ever met.  These pains have been coming on his gradually for many years until at the present time, it seems almost impossible for him to get his breath when he is thus attacked.  Oh! that the men who are responsible for the treatment these men received while in prison could be made to share this comrade's suffering.  It is true, he gets a pension of $24 a month, but this is not enough to even pay his doctor bill, and we understand that a special effort will be made at the next term of congress by the G.A.R. boys, through Hon. M.M. Boothman, to have his pension increased to $72 dollars a month."


Rinaldo died on March 25, 1891, at 51 years old.

Difficult to read.

Albert W. King - G.A.R., Bishop Post - PART 1

Corporal Albert W. King was honored last year with a special monument in Riverside Cemetery, a recognition of his Civil War service, especially his survival of the famous explosion of the Sultana.  

King enlisted in Company D, 100th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry on July 17, 1862.  Prior to his enlistment, he worked as a clerk in a store and lived with the Leopold Waltenberg family in Defiance, according to the 1860 census.

His service for the Union was an adventure as he endured many famous battles and an imprisonment at Andersonville in Georgia.  Traveling north on the Mississippi River after his release, he found himself on the Sultana, packed in among other soldiers, all fighting to survive when the ship exploded.

On April 27, 1917, he gave an account of his experiences to a reunion of Sultana survivors.  This account came from the notes he wrote in his journal (the spelling is his) to use as he spoke to the group:

"My Dear Colonel, Ladies and Friends:

There's some few comrades present here this evening who were taken prisoners at the battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, where I was captured. 

You remember very distinctly how we suffered for want of clothes and rations on our way south that winter.  After traveling for months on foot, on railroads and boats, we were finally landed in Andersonville prison.  Our stay in Andersonville was not long due to the surrender of General Lee and his army at Appomatox, where we were released and guarded to our lines at Black River near Vicksburg where we received rations from our U.S. Government.  For some, there were weeks in paroll camp with Confederate General Howard Henderson and his staff to see that we should be exchanged or parolled before we took up arms in defense of the U.S.

Finally, we got transportation north on the Steam Boat Sultana, a large river boat with a usual passenger list and a heavy guard of Yankee soldiers from New Orleans.  Perhaps nearly two thousand of us parolled prisoners were placed on board, crowding the boat in an indiserible manner, on every deck, on the wheel houses, and the wood racks over the boilers.

After steaming up against the heavy current, as the river was very high and in many places flooded the country for miles inland, we reached Memphis the second or third evening where a large quantity of sugar and other groceries were unloaded up to about midnight.  When the steam left Memphis for coal barges above the city to take on a supply of coal, I and five members of my company fell asleep about this time and inside of one hour, the explosion of the boilers occurred, we being on the boiler deck near the stern of the boat.  We were stunned, smothered with steam and ashes and tumbled over and over, and many men, cord wood and coats were thrown onto us, and over us, shattering the house work beyond us.  And when we came to our senses, we made frantic efforts to get out on the stern deck.

Soon thereafter, a large body of fire shot up, the igniting of gas which the explosion produced, which showed us the center of the boat, shattered and torn out.  The blase was only of short duration and the boat in utter darkness, but not long when the next blase started.  It soon devoured the cabins.  Many men, women, and children had been blown overboard in the explosion and were calling for help.  The crowd on the boat were now rushing overboard to get away from fire and heat.  Many, who were crippled in the force of the explosion, begged to be thrown overboard, but received little attention.  Five of us had slept together and were not very badly injured and were trying hard to break out a section of the house work, but did not succeed.  And soon the heat became so intense that we could not remain on the steam deck, and it was now every man for himself.

I jumped upon the stern railing and watched the crowd in the water, waiting to see an opening to make the jump without striking anyone.  And when I did make the plunge, I came in contact with drowning men, and when I came to the supposed surface, I struck the bottom of the boat.  But I soon succeeded in getting out, but many were still on the water and got a hold on me, but I fought hard for freedom, and saw a chance to pass under the stern of the boat without being nabbed.  When a lady jumped down upon me and getting a hold on my shirt and nearly strangled me, I soon broke away from her and swimming but a short distance where a board came up in front of me, which I grabbed for support and returned to help the lady who was loudly calling for assistance.  When another board popped up in front of me, I placed one on top of the other and went back to her and placed the boards under her arms.  She informed me that she had on a life preserver which slipped down when she jumped from the cabin window to water while clinging to a rope.

I was causious to keep her in front of me, working hard toward the Arkansas side.  Often she would ask me if I thought we would be saved.  To this, I could give her no incouraging answer as everything around us was now in darkness, and many going in the same direction were calling loudly for help.  The boat had burned down and was floating a long distance below us when I discovered that we were drifting in amongst brush up on an island over which the water was rushing many feet deep.  We were soon seated on a log amongst the drift wood and by us holding onto a cottonwood sapling , we could keep our heads above water.  It was one of the Hen & Chicken Islands.

Sometime after daylight, we were picked up by men in a large rowboat, attracted to us by Commander L. G. Morgan who called to them for to pick us up, which they did, and were taken to a cabbin on the island and placed before a hot fire in a fireplace in company with many others, where we soon thawed out.  Later in the day, we were taken aboard a small steamer with many others and transported to Memphis.  On landing, we were given wool underclothes by the citizens, I presume merchants of Memphis. As I refused to go to the hospital, I was taken along with others to the Soldiers Home some distance out from the city. 

The lady was taken charge of by some doctors.  While we were in front of a good fire in the cabbin on the island in the presence of one of my company comrades, the lady took from her finger a very nice ring and presented it to me, saying that she was the wife of an engineer who operated on Red River, that his name was W. C. Perry whom she had just visited and was on her way home to Cincinnati and had lost all her valuables in the disaster.

Twenty years later, I went to Cincinnati to locate these Perrys, but did not succeed.  Afterwards, I tried to find them by using the newspaper, but without learning anything as to their whereabouts."

 TO BE CONTINUED...

(This is part of a series on Civil War veterans of Defiance County who were part of the G.A.R., Bishop Post, that headquartered in the city.  Formed in 1879, the post was named after a local man, Captain William Bishop, Company D, 100th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Army who died as a result of wounds received in battle.  The veterans' photos are part of a composite photo of members that has survived.  If you have other information or corrections to add to the soldiers' stories, please add to the comments!)