The Confederate Hollers: Sidney & F Cicero Sipe

ZACHARIAH HOLLER > JOHANNES HOLLER m (1) Sally Shue > JOHN JR > LAVINIA m Joseph SIPE

North Anna River Crossing 1864

You can read about John Holler here. He was married twice. The children of his first marriage remained in his adopted North Carolina while his second wife and children of that marriage went on to pioneer in Washington County in Indiana. John's descendants fought on both sides of the war - those who remained in North Carolina, for the South.

John's son, John Jr. was born in 1783 in Catawba County, North Carolina. He was the eldest of the four known children of Johnannes (John Sr) and first wife Sally Shue. John Jr. married Sarah "Sally" Sigsmon about 1805 in North Carolina. They had at least 12 children. Among those was Lavinia.

Lavinia was born 27 May 1814 in Lincoln County. She married Joseph Sipe, Jr. on 29 Jan 1833 in North Carolina. They also had a large family, of which eight have thus far been identified. Among those were two boys, Franklin Cicero "Cicero" Sipe, born 15 Oct 1835 and Sidney Sipe, born about 1844. By the time of the War of the Rebellion, Cicero was already married to Ann Carpenter and had their first child.

The Sipe boys joined the Confederate Army 04 Jul 1862. They were assigned to Company E, 57th North Carolina Infantry.The unit saw quite a bit of action and the one most impactful to this family came during May of 1864, when Gen Grant's Army met Gen Lee's in Virginia. Rather than meet the Army head-on, Grant engaged in a series of skirmishes, willing to fight a war of attrition. The overland campaign culminated in a battle at North Anna in Central Virginia from May 23-26, 1864.

During this time, Sidney Sipe was taken prisoner, he would be sent to Camp Lookout, the largest

Point Lookout POW Camp, Maryland

northern POW camp. There were no buildings at the camp, so the prisoners slept in tents and had no clean water or steady rations. Communicable disease was the biggest killer. Here, he would die on 30 May 1865.

"Point Lookout, Maryland, located in Saint Mary's County, Maryland on the southern tip of the peninsula was deemed the largest and worst Northern POW camp. Point Lookout was constructed of fourteen foot high wooden walls. These walls surrounded an area of about 40 acres. A walkway surrounded the top of the walls where negro guards walked day and night. It is reported the guards were brutal in their treatment of prisoners. Prisoner, John R. King said; "Two days out of every three we were guarded by a gang of ignorant and cruelsome negroes. Please do not think that I dislike the negroes as a race. Many of them are my friends, but the negroes authority over the white people and the defenceless prisoners suffered at their hands. Numbers of scars were left on the frame work of the closets made by negroes firing at the prisoners. The negro guard was very insolent and delighted in tantalizing the prisoners, for some trifle affair, we were often accused of disobedience and they would say, "Look out, white man, the bottom rail is on top now, so you had better be careful for my gun has been wanting to smoke at you all day!" 

F. Cicero & Ann Carpenter Sipe

"Estimates report that over 14,000 prisoners died while imprisoned at Point Lookout but the cemetery is known to hold 3,384 soldiers in a mass grave with no evidence to back up this massive figure. According to history data received from Point Lookout State Park, " Of the 50,000 men held at the Point between 1863 and 1865, nearly 4,000 died. Ironically, however, this death rate of 8 percent was less than half the death rate among soldiers who were in the field with their own armies." As you can see, there seems to be some controversy over the number of deaths at this prison. The Confederate soldiers' bodies have been moved twice and have found their final resting place in Point Lookout Cemetery."

http://www.censusdiggins.com/prison_ptlookout.html 

Sidney's brother, Private Cicero Sipe, survived the war and returned to North Carolina, where he became a stellar citizen, active in community affairs and being well-like by his peers. He lived to the ripe age of 81, in 1917, leaving behind a large family and wife of nearly 60 years. He was also a founding member of the Cherryville Lutheran Church.

Raid at Cabanatuan: Japanese POW Clinton Spencer Goodbla, World War II

I've decided to try and provide a list of descendency for these stories to help my fellow genealogists:

Jacob Smith > James Smith (brother of William Custer Smith - my 2nd great grandfather) > John R Smith  > Alfred Smith > Susie Smith Behrends > Dorothy Behrends married Clinton Spencer Goodbla

Add caption

Clinton Spencer Goodbla was born to Carl F Goodbla, originally from Sweden and Amelia S. Backlund in Montana. Spencer, as he was known when he was young, lost his mother in 1915. He lived with his aunt and uncle Anna and Henry Goodbla in 1920 in Musselshell, Montana and by 1930, was living with his father in Mitchell, South Dakota. By 1940, he was living in Cowlitz County, Washington. His father lived in West Bend, Iowa.

Clinton served in the US Army during World War II and was assigned to Battery A of the 60th Coast Artillery Regiment that was assigned to protect Manila and Subic Bay with anti-aircraft support. The battle for the Philippines was fought from 1941-1942 under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur. By March 1942, the Japanese having overrun the area, MacArthur was ordered by the president to leave the islands so he wouldn't be captured or killed. He ran his battle from Australia. The Japanese took many prisoners before the ultimate surrender of the islands by MacArthur with his famous words, "I came through and I shall return."  

POWs Celebrate Liberation

The Bataan Death March wherein 78,000 (12,000 US and 66,000 Filipino) POWs were moved north 63 miles to confinement areas began on April 10, 1942. Clinton was one of those force marched. An estimated 7,000-10,000 died on this trek which lasted 5-12 days. The Japanese were not prepared to deal with this many people and also believed that those who surrendered had no honor and did not deserve humane treatment. Once the group arrived at San Fernando, they were herded into box cars for Camp O'Connell. From there, many were transported to one of three camps at Cabanatuan. Clinton was placed in one of these camps.

Conditions in the camp were brutal.  According to Clinton, "The healthiest prisoners were segregated and shipped to Japan, (ed note: where they were slave labor) many after the Nipponese realized the Yanks would reconquer Luzon." Many of these POWs were forced to work in factories, airfields, and shipyards to help the Japanese war effort in Japan, Manchuria, and Formosa.

The camp hospital doctors were forced to list causes of death for those who continued to die as being from disease instead of abuse or malnutrition.  Those who tried to escape were shot.

"To prevent any more escape attempts, the Japanese captors initiated what were called 'Shooting Squads' or 'Blood Brothers.' Each POW was assigned to a group of ten. If anyone in that group escaped, the other nine would be shot," according to fellow POW Billy Alvin Ayers.

According to this report from medical officer Col Webb E. Cooper:

"Each day an attempt was made to clear each barracks of the dying. They were removed to “zero” ward (ed note: those landing in this ward had '0' percent chance of leaving alive), laid on the bare floor entirely naked. These patients usually were profoundly emaciated, in fact, little better than skeletons with a feeble spark of life. Heroic corpsmen and doctors did what they could to alleviate the indescribable conditions.  They tied grass onto sticks and attempted to cleanse the floors.  They used the same method of cleansing the body.  Occasionally a big puddle of rainwater would provide enough water to wash the floor. At this time the use of the regular water supply system was strictly forbidden by the Japanese.  The few laymen who saw these conditions were utterly horrified.  Even the Japanese doctors would not enter these wards and the Japanese staff at Headquarters gave it a wide berth."

After three long years of horrifying imprisonment, with MacArthur and troops back in country, the Sixth Army's intelligence chief Colonel Horton White and Lt. Col. Henry Mucci, leader of the 6th Ranger Battalion, and three lieutenants from the Alamo Scouts—the special reconnaissance unit attached to his Sixth Army—met for a briefing on the mission to raid Cabanatuan and rescue the POWs.The group developed a plan to rescue the prisoners. After only a brief couple of weeks, the plan was approved and they took action on January 30, 1945, successfully freeing the prisoners in Cabanatuan and Camp O'Donnell. The exciting adventure is a must-read here.

Noted Associated Press war reporter from the Pacific, Fred Hampson, wrote this about his meeting with Clinton S. Goodbla after his liberation:  

Clinton was released from the military as a Technical Sergeant. He returned home and married Dorothy Behrends. They resided in Longview, Washington, where Mr. Goodbla worked as a millwork shop foreman.

Tragically, on December 19, 1953, Mr and Mrs Goodbla were driving along the Columbia River, 11 miles west of Longview, when their car plunged into the river. Dorothy was killed and Clinton was critically injured.  He did eventually recover and in 1954, married Lenore Malone. Clinton died on Feb 27, 1988 and was buried in Willamette National Cemetery in Multnomah County, Oregon.