In the last post, two Iowa newlyweds, John and Nancy, had marital problems after they moved to Tennessee. Two times, John sent Nancy back to Muscatine.
I invited readers to give Dr. Phil-like advice. Venvs70 wrote: “Sorry, John sounds like a bum. He isn’t interested in keeping his family around (although he keeps proclaiming it’s for safety.) He quits corresponding and at no point does it ever say he helps support them while they aren’t with him.”
Arla wrote that John was “doing the best he could under trying circumstances.”
What happened to Nancy and John?
Nancy’s father went to Confederate-held Tennessee, the following spring of 1862. He saw John’s “manner and action” and thought “his affections were entirely alienated from his wife and child.” His conclusion? John was devoted to “the Southern confederacy.”
Mutual friends said that John had been promoted. He was now a captain and Acting Commissary of Subsistence (who provided food to soldiers). But he still didn’t send money to support Nancy and their son. Of course, John was paid in Confederate dollars that Nancy couldn’t spend.
Bad press
The Muscatine Journal reported that John was in the Confederate Army, and had been captured at Island Number 10. (He wasn’t captured.)
The Journal also stated that the 11th Iowa Infantry lost half of their officers at Pittsburgh Landing. Local passions burned against rebels and their families and supporters.
The marriage ends
The next year, on January 14, 1863, Nancy filed for divorce, claiming “desertion and abandonment of her and their child.” Her lawyer said that John was serving “a nefarious cause.”
Nancy believed that John had sent her back to Muscatine in order to “free himself” from his responsibilities, and to aid the Confederacy. She obtained a divorce on June 1, 1863, while John was in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Nancy soon married another Muscatine man.
John’s motives are a mystery. One descendant implied that John’s drinking was a factor in the divorce.
Captured!
Two years later, Robert E. Lee surrendered, and Jefferson Davis fled Richmond, heading for the Deep South. In the manhunt that ensued, Union Brigadier General W.J. Palmer captured John near Athens, Georgia, on May 8, 1865.
Post-war career in Muscatine
After the war, John returned to Muscatine and worked as a bookkeeper and insurance salesman. In 1893, he was elected to one term as Muscatine City Treasurer.
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Thanks for reading my blog! Please leave any comments below.
Dennis Ashby
2 Feb 2016Did He ever remarry and have another family?
David Connon
2 Feb 2016Hi, Dennis. Thanks for asking! Yes, John C. Shipley remarried in 1883. His second wife died later. John died July 7, 1911, in Indianapolis and was buried in Muscatine. His obituary mentions his Confederate service. (I left out this information to keep the blog from being too long.)
Dick Daswick
24 Apr 2016Having spent my college years in Nashville (TN), I can see how John may have gotten leanings that way. To this day, I still wonder whether the modern assertion that the entire Civil War was based on slavery is not a Northern fabrication. Slavery was a major cause for the general distrust and ill feelings, both in the North and in the South. It culminated in a violent attack by one Senator on another ON THE SENATE FLOOR, and questionable decisions such as Dred Scott. But most of the average Southerners would not have said it had anything to do with slavery and everything to do with the overreaching power of the Federal government. The South sees the Civil War as “The Second American Revolution”.
I have also been an interpreter in the 1875 Iowa town at Living History Farms, and this has given me a greater understanding of the Northern side of this conflict. The actual ill feeling in the North for the South, back then, was caused by the horrors of that war – so close to home, the losses in life and property – even in Iowa, and the propaganda of the newspapers.
So, this tinder box of feelings, pro and con, is really only understood in the light of the feelings of the time. Memphis was a prosperous town, in which John seems to have connected and made friends. if his friends and business were impacted by the tensions of the situation, he would have, initially, sent Nancy & the baby home & defended his interests in Memphis. As time passed, whether he was a Iowan or not, he may well have been drawn deeper into defending the underdog – which happened to be his business and friends.
It was interesting that he was captured on the run – he had given himself completely to the cause. But it is also interesting that, after that, he found employment – and even was elected to one term handling the money for the town – back in Iowa. He, obviously, had realized the futility of continuing. Sadly, too many Southerners, both then and now, still harbor a vain hope of secession – reminiscent of many of the Scots at Culloden.
David Connon
24 Apr 2016Hi, Dick.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. You made some good points. I appreciated your statement, “The actual ill feeling in the North for the South, back then, was caused by the horrors of that war …” Even though no battles or skirmishes were ever fought in Iowa, I imagine that nearly every Iowan was related to or knew at least one Union soldier who was killed, wounded, or who returned from the war with emotional wounds.