Eli Kanipe joined Company F of the McDowell Rangers in the 58th North Carolina State Troops. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864 and followed Confederate prisoner flow to Nashville, Louisville and Camp Chase. He would die at Camp Chase on March 7, 1865 due to small-pox. His tombstone today in grave 1587 has his surname spelled as Canipe. I believe his full name was Elias Franklin Kanipe.

While doing the Chase biographies I try to see if any other family members might have been well known in American History. Sometimes I get lucky.

Eli had a famous brother named Daniel Alexander Kanipe. Born in 1853 in McDowell County, North Carolina he was of course too young for the war.

Most of the readers who follow this board know of Daniel A. Kanipe but perhaps not by his name only.

In 1872 Daniel A. Kanipe entered the United States military and would be assigned to Company C of the now famous United States 7th Cavalry. He rode with Custer into the Little Bighorn. When Custer spotted the huge Indian village he sent a courier to tell Reno to bring up the pack mules quickly and chose Daniel A. Kanipe to deliver the message. But Reno soon was in trouble himself and no supplies or soldiers were sent. Later Custer sent another courier by the name of Martin but he too never returned.

Two days later Daniel A. Kanipe would volunteer to see the dead at the Little Big Horn in hopes of recognizing some of the dead. According to Kanipe's testimony he stated the members of the 7th Cavalry who had been wounded were later disfigured by the Indian women. However those who had been killed in the battle were not hacked. Kanipe stated as many as a dozen arrows had been shot at the wounded and hacked with a hatchet in the face as to not being recognized. He said he saw George A. Custer's bloated body over two soldiers and his body and had not been hatched. He hunted for Tom Custer his commanding officer in Company C but could never locate his body. He did however find his sergeant Lemuel Bobo sometimes referred to as Edwin. Daniel A. Kanipe would later marry Bobo's widow who was living in Franklin County, Ohio.

Daniel and his wife would move back to Marion, North Carolina and live out their years.

Somehow it's interesting to think that days before Eli would die at Chase if someone had told him his youngest brother would be one of the last to see Custer alive he might have given a slight smile.

In my book, Eli Kanipe was just as much a hero as was his youngest brother Daniel A. Kanipe.