1861-1865
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
Coxon, Coxen and Coxson were on both sides
The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states known as the Confederate States of America.
It was originally formed by seven slave states – South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
After the Civil War began in April, four slave states – Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee – also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy.
Soldiers on both sides were young and inexperienced; most were in their teens or early twenties.
In the North, they were farmers and factory workers and newly arrived Irish immigrants; some were African Americans—both escaped slaves and, after 1862, free blacks who were recruited for the United States Colored Troops.
In the South, they were farmers, mechanics, and students. Most were volunteers who joined for the cash bounty or the monthly salary ($13 for privates in the Union army; $11 in the Confederate army).
Coxon, Coxen & Coxson
The soldiers, sailor and cavalry recorded with our name who fought in the American Civil War are in the military records.
Men were recruited usually from the county where they lived into their local regiment. Later, with so many casualties the soldiers were moved to other regiments. The same name shown with different regiments may be for that reason.
[Where the name is shown with alternates in the military record then both names are listed e.g. Coxon (Coxen)]
Confederate Soldiers
Confederate soldiers were often forced to outfit themselves. They wore various uniforms, although gray jackets became common, often with felt slouch hats.
Many had no knapsacks; instead they looped their bedrolls across their chests when they marched. Tents were scarceMen kept tobacco and pipes, a bit of soap, maybe foraged apples in their haversacks. Many immediately cooked and ate their three-day ration of fatback and cornbread, rather than packing it.
They filled their canteens with buttermilk or cider, and kept a cup to dip water from streams. They carried their muskets, but most had no cartridge boxes, so they stuffed ammunition into their pockets.
Edward Coxon (Coxen) – 2nd Regiment, Louisiana Infantry “Louisiana Zouaves”
Edward Coxson (Toxson) – 10th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry “Lee’s Foreign Legion”
Edward Coxson – 22nd Regiment, Louisiana Infantry “Heard’s-Herrick’s”
John Coxon (John H Coxen) – 1st Regiment, Arkansas Infantry “Colquitt’s”
Union Soldiers
Union troops were well-outfitted, even overburdened, with army-issued supplies and equipment. They wore regulation uniforms of heavy wool—in just two sizes—with leather-billed caps and stiff shoes.
Atop knapsacks stuffed with extra clothes, a weekly change of underwear, and personal “truck,” they carried rolled-up wool and rubber blankets and half a tent.
They filled haversacks with salt pork, hardtack, coffee, sugar, dried peas, pressed sheets of desiccated vegetables, and perhaps a pickle. They slung canteens and cartridge boxes over their shoulders and carried muskets.
Edward Coxson – 86th Regiment, US Colored Infantry
Francis Coxon – 9th Regiment, Maryland infantry
George F. Coxon – 11th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry
John L. Coxson – US Army (Regular Army)
John L. Coxson – 12th Regiment, Maryland Infantry
John P. Coxon – Veteran Reserved Corps
Jonathan Coxon (Caxon) – 21st Regiment, New Jersey Infantry
Joseph Coxson (Coxen) – 63rd Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry
Joseph Coxson – 51st Regiment, New York Infantry
Joseph Coxon – 105th Regiment, Pennsylvania infantry “Wildcat Regiment”
Mark S. Coxson – 12th Regiment, New York State Militia
Mark Coxson – 84th Regiment, New York Infantry National Guard
Richard Coxon – 19th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
W. P. Coxon (Wm H Coxson/W H Caxson) – Captain, 176th Regiment, New York Infantry “The Ironsides”
Union Sailor
The American Civil War was not only resolved on land, the naval blockade of the South played a large role in the Union victory.
USS Santee was a wooden-hulled, three-masted sailing frigate. She was one of its last sailing frigates in service. She was outfitted with heavy guns and a crew of 480; the USS Winnipec was a gunboat.
Union Cavalry
In the early American Civil War existing Union cavalry regiments were reorganized and renamed into six cavalry regiments.
Cavalry saw a role as part of screening forces and in foraging and scouting.
The later phases of the war saw a truly effective cavalry force fighting as scouts, raiders, and, with repeating rifles, as mounted infantry.
Emanuel R. Coxon (Coxen) – 9th Regiment, Illinois Cavalry
George Coxon – 12th Regiment, Kentucky Cavalry
George R. Coxen – 1st District of Columbia Cavalry
John P. Coxson – 9th Regiment, Kansas Cavalry
Victory for the Union
The Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U.S. history. The war had its origin in the factious issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. Four years of intense combat left 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers dead, and destroyed much of the South’s infrastructure.
The Confederacy collapsed and slavery was abolished in the entire country.