15 Two Deserters and One Big Mistake—Mine

Maternal 2nd Great Grandfather Daniel S. McCorkle

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 15 April 7, 2025


Prompt: Big Mistake

The book that broke a brick wall,

When I first started gathering details about my second great-grandfather Daniel S. McCorkle, I expected the “big mistake” would be his own—deserting the Confederate army not once, but twice, and later being denied a pension for lack of proof of service. But as I dove back into his story for this week’s prompt, I made a surprising discovery. The bigger mistake wasn’t his. It was mine.

(All quotations in italics are from The History of the Sixteenth Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, Volume I by Jamie Gillium.)

Early Life and Enlistment

Daniel S. McCorkle is my maternal second great-grandfather, father of Mattie McCorkle and grandfather to Leonard Nolen. In 1850 and 1860, Daniel lived with his mother and siblings in McMinnville, Warren County, Tennessee. His occupation in 1860 was listed as "Student," and it’s likely he attended Irving College, located eight miles south of McMinnville.

“Irving College students departing to join the Confederate army, 1861.”

In April 1861, Irving College closed due to the Civil War. The students, from across the South, chose to join the Confederate army. The school library was divided among the students and they left the school for their homes.

On May 18, 1861, at Lynchburg, Tennessee, the 16th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment was formed. Roster H listed students and faculty members of Irving College. Daniel McCorkle was among them.

The first muster roll for Daniel shows that he enlisted in Lynchburg, Virginia, on July 23, 1861, as a Private in Company G, 16th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry.

Piecing Together the Muster Rolls

The next several muster rolls are inconsistent. One reports him present, another sick in the hospital, and another declares he deserted. The confusion builds:

Present through April 30, 1862

March 1 to July 1, 1862: in the hospital sick

It is likely he was hospitalized in Tupelo, Mississippi. "After arriving at Tupelo, a number of men were ill and sent to the hospital.”

On June 27, Company H built a large shelter of logs and branches. 

"Sam McCorkle and Lt. Fate Hayes played the fiddle and accordion under it trying to pep up the boys."

Conditions were difficult. "On the 29th, an old man came to camp from McMinnville and stated that the Yankees had passed through... plundering and pillaging as they went."

The next muster rolls get more damning:

March & April 1862: Deserted September 5, 1862

May 1 to September 1, 1862: Deserted

And again later:

September 1, 1862 to January 1, 1863: Deserted January 10, 1863

January & February 1863: Deserted January 10, 1863

Army morale was shaky. "The stresses of separation from family and army life began to take its toll... A brief stay near their homes in mid-1863 helped to reinvigorate their spirits."

Was it a mistake for Daniel to leave the ranks? Or simply the act of a young man overwhelmed by illness and the hardship of war?

Brothers and Fathers

Daniel’s brother Samuel appears in the regimental history as well. "On August 28th, Samuel McCorkle of Company H was found to be absent from the ranks. Colonel Savage reportedly said, '…he will shoot him if he gets him.’"

Sam Jr. and Sr. were fiddlers.

And it turns out their father served too.

“Samuel was brother to Daniel and son to Samuel A. McCorkle who had been discharged as over age on July 16, 1862.” 

"Private Samuel A. McCorkle... was 49 years old in 1862 and was sick in the hospital on April 30, 1862. He was discharged... on July 16, 1862 at Tupelo, Mississippi.”

This is the same man I had recorded in my tree as a third great-uncle. For years, I believed Daniel and Samuel’s mother was a widow because she appeared alone in the 1850 census. I didn’t realize that their father, Samuel A. McCorkle, had simply been listed separately, married to Lydia Vickers.

Post-War Life and Rejected Pension

By 1870, Daniel was in Wilson County, Tennessee, working as a farm laborer with his future wife's family. He married Hester Ann Estell Williams on September 14, 1870, in Lebanon, Wilson County, Tennessee. They had four children and eventually relocated to Hampton, Lee County, Arkansas.

Pension Rejected - A Big Mistake

In 1896, Daniel applied for a Confederate pension for his service in the 16th Tennessee. Proof of Service was provided by Geo. Marchbanks, Adj. 16th Tenn. CSA. It simply stated that the soldier served from 1861 enlistment to spring of 1861 and that Meadows Co. had several McCorkles. The evidence of physician states Daniel was shot in the mouth, the ball lodging at an unknown locality but affecting his vision to a serious degree. Loss of vision to the extent that he is unable to do any work requiring close scrutiny. The pension board consisting of a county judge, Sheriff, and Clerk, found Daniel a wounded Confederate soldier in indigent circumstances and partially incapacitated for manual labor, that his claim was just and that he should be allowed $75 pension. However, his application was rejected—no proof of service.

Ironically, the muster rolls are inconclusive. He may have completed his initial twelve-month term, or he may have been swept into the chaos of war and never formally discharged.

A Discovery Hidden in Plain Sight

Whether Daniel McCorkle truly deserted his regiment or simply faded from the records during a time of illness and uncertainty, we may never know for sure. But his story reveals how fragile and contradictory wartime records can be—and how easily stories get lost or misunderstood. His rejected pension application and scattered service notes were frustrating at first, but they kept drawing me back for another look.

Typing a transcript makes you really "see" facts. 

And in doing so, I found the real breakthrough. Tucked in a regimental history I’ve read before—maybe too quickly—was the footnote that named Daniel and his brother Samuel as sons of Samuel A. McCorkle. The very man I had in my tree, mislabeled and misfiled, waiting patiently for me to notice. It turns out the real “big mistake” wasn’t his desertion or the pension rejection—it was my oversight. But like so many mistakes in genealogy, this one led me somewhere new. I broke a brick wall by transcribing a footnote in the regimental history.