Research by Gerry Joyce, 1992

The Civil War beganin1861and Edward was just nineteen years old at that time. Kentuckytriedtostayneutralasthestatehadsocial,economicandpoliticaltieswithboththeNorthandtheSouth. Kentucky was invaded in the west in the summer of 1861 by Confederate troops, then Paducah was occupied by Union troops under General Ulysses S.Grant. In September the Kentucky legislature created a military force to drive the Confederates out and to try and preserve the States neutrality. This action automatically put Kentucky on the Unlon side, but many people in the State favored the South. So Kentucky like so many border states ended up being a divided State, with families fighting against each other. The Union forces numbered around 75,000 troops and there were about 35,000 fighting for the Confederacy.

According to anarticle in the Palo Alto Democrat 10 Feb 1893, Edward lived in the port on of Kentucky that was loyal to the South and alot of pressure was put on him to join that army. But his loyalty was to the Union side and he journeyed to Fleming County and joined Company L, lOth Regiment of the Kentucky Calvary Volunteers, as a Private on the thirteen day of August 1862. He was mustered in the service 9 September 1862 at Covington, KY,which is located on the Ohio River close to Cincinnati. The mustering in probably took place in Covington as this unit was assigned as advance guard to the Army of Ohio. It is not known at this point if he was under fire in any active engagement. On 19 Jan 1862, which was prior to his enlistment the Union troops won an important victory at Mill Springs in southern Kentucky, this pretty much put them in control in the eastern part of the State. The month that Edward joined the Union Army in August of 1862 the Confederates won a battle at Richmond, KY, just south of Lexington. The last real large scale battle in Kentucky was the Battle of Perryville in Oct 1862 southwest of Lexington. The losses were heavy on both sides and the Confederate forces finally retreated toTennessee. The story is told that at one time during the Civil War Edward and his unit were riding their horses on a long trip and he dosed off and fell to the ground, and his fellow soldiers thought that he had been shot. It appears that his unit was on almost constant movement, so this story could have been possible. He was mustered out of his unit on 17 Sep 1863 at Maysville, KY, after serving a little over a year. I have included some copies of his Civil War record which are interesting to look at.

While Mary and I were doing research in the Genealogy Library at Frankfort, KY I had a chance to dig into the Military records for the Civil War. I knew the outfit that Edward was in so it was quite easy to look up the record of his outfit and as a history buff I have included it in this story. This information is from the Report of the Adj.General for the State of Kentucky (Union), Volume I, period 1861-1866. The lOth Regiment of the Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry was organized at Maysville, KY and mustered in to the service of the United States by Lt. G. G. Hunt, United States Mustering Officer, at Covington, KY on 9 Sep 1862. The Regiment under the command of Col. Joshua Tevis , was immediately put upon arduous duty as the advanced guard of the Army of Ohio, in the Campaign against Gen. Kirby Smith. In November and December, 1862 having been assigned to Brig. Gen. Gilmore's Division, it was employed on the line towards Knoxville, TN, passing the entire winter in continous marching. During the spring and summer of 1863 the Regiment was employed by a battalion in West Virginia and northeastTennesse. In southwest Virginia one of its Battalions captured the breech-loading artillery so well known in connection with the history of Marshalls Invasion. The services of this regiment were of the most active and efficient in character. Its skirmishes and small fights were numerous and its marches continous and severe. Among others, this Regiment participated in the engagement of Elk Fork, TN, Gladesville, VA, Tripletts Bridge, KY, Lancaster, KY, Richmond, KY (1863) and in pursuit and rout of the rebel cavalry of Pegram & Scott, besides numerous affairs attending the advance of Maj. General Granger upon central Kentucky. This Regiment was mustered out at Maysville, KY on 17 Sep 1863, by Capt. R. B. Hull, U.S. Army. In checking out some of the other Kentucky Regiments I counted at least nineteen other Joyces. As you will note on Edward's Civil War records some times his name was spelled Joice, instead of Joyce. However, I found this to be quite common on several records including Federal Census records.

edward joyce