Vivian Eakes Hull
17th ALABAMA - BANISTERs
Tue Jan 2 10:55:23 2001


Thank you for your response...
I have some information on William Banister (my gg-grandfather) and even more on his son David BANISTER (my g-grandfather) who also served in the 17th. I will be happy to send you some of that. David Banister was but a boy and lost an eye at Kennesaw. He was captured and taken prisoner and spent the reaminder of the war at Camp Morton (near Indianapolis) where he said he "was so hungry I even helped eat part of a dog". Family stories say that he learned to read and write while a prisoner which is borne out by the fact that early documents were signed with his mark and after the war he COULD read and write. My interest started when I learned that David Banister was a QUAKER and I was interested in the fact that a QUAKER boy would serve ... I found that David never went home after the war. His father had died and he said he "had no home to go to".. His siblings had married and scattered. He went instead to Dayton Ohio, where he married and later is found uniting with the Quaker Church "on his own request" so I do not know if his family was formerly Quaker or his Quaker beliefs came AFTER the war.. He was a little guy... His military records say 5'6" tall with dark hair and hazel eyes. Before the war he had worked at the Alabama Penetentiary in Wetumpka where he and his father were guards.. and as a boy he worked "plowing with oxen". So even though young, he had already been doing a MAN's job. I do have a photo in uniform, but I am UNCERTAIN that it is David BANISTER. It was in my grandfather's things when he died and it would appear likely that it was him. David Banister's second wife was my g.grandmother and it is a long story so one I will not elaborate here. If you, or your contact, care to discuss further, please email me at Vhull@aol.com
David also had another brother who served in the 17th (John J. BANISTER).
David BANISTER is buried in Wilson County TN. and there is no Civil War marker for his grave, though I have tried to get one without success. I can document his service and the funeral home acknowledged it and did apply for the marker but no response has ever been received. I am told that these markers may have been discontinued? I would like to mark his grave with such a marker. He does have a marker put there by our family, but none that indicates his civil war service. Are there other resources for doing this besides the federal government? I would love to find the burial site for William BANISTER, father of David but I have been unsuccessful at doing so. Thanks you for your response and your suggestions. By the way, David Banister filled out a Civil War Vets Questionnaire in Tennessee abt. 1910 which was a MAJOR source of information for me. The questionnaire apparently had to do with someone's study or thesis regarding whether non-slave owners and slave owners in the south were equally advantaged but it asks numerous personal questions. The answers David gave were very revealing for me... and this muliti-volume set of the questionnaires is available in many Tennessee libraries... and perhaps in other areas? I know there were two volumes.. maybe more. I have the military records and the pension application for both William and David Banister. Unfortunately William's give little in the way of information regarding the place of his death.
Again, thanks for responding.
Vivian

• 17th alabama — Kevin Miller, Tue Jan 2 11:34