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Witt/Dunn Family: XAVIER WITT, b. December 12, 1811 in Schurheim, Bischwiller, Bas/Rin, France. Married MARY SCOTT. Xavier served in the French army as a grenadier from 1828 to 1832.
Child of Xavier Witt and Mary Scott:
Child of MICHAEL WITT and CATHERINE KIRBY:
Children of WILLIAM WITT and MARY THORPE:
Vera Dunn Witt.
From Decatur Herald & Review. Sept. 1921: Marriage of Vera Dunne and Bernard Witt. "The marriage of Miss Vera Dunne and Bernard Witt took place in St. Patrick’s Catholic Church Thursday morning at 7:45 o’clock. The marriage ceremony was performed by Rev. Father Murphy. They were attended by Miss Aimee Dunne, sister of the bride and Francis Witt, brother of the bridegroom. The bride wore a brown Duvet de Laine suit with gray squirrel trimmings and hat and shoes to match. The bridesmaid also wore a brown beaver trimmed suit with corresponding hat and shoes. The wedding breakfast was served in the home of the bride’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. D. F. Kinney, 354 Main Street. The couple left immediately for Chicago. During the week a number of parties were given in honor of the bride. Miss Marie Traughber entertained the Octo club in home near Mt. Zion Thursday afternoon. The affair was a miscellaneous shower. Mrs. C.F. Kekelsen gave a kitchen shower on Monday evening, entertaining about 20 guests. The evening was spent in hemming and decorating tea towels for the bride. A variety shower was given on Wednesday evening by Miss Irma Dunn in her home 525 W. Eldorado who entertained three tables of 500 with a two course luncheon. After their return from Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Witt will be at home to their friends in 717 West Eldorado street." Decatur Herald: Mon. Jan 18, 1971 . Witt"Mrs. Bernard (Vera Marie Dunn) Witt, 73 of 90 Ridge Lane, died at 7:55 pm Saturday in the Macon County Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Funeral services will be at 9:30 am Tuesday in St. Patrick Catholic Church. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery. There will be no visitation. The J. J. Moran & Sons Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Mrs. Witt was born in Findlay, a daughter of Louis and Lizzie Henneberry Dunn. She was a member of St. Patrick Catholic Church. She was married to Bernard Witt in Decatur, Sept. 8, 1921. He preceded her in death. Surviving are daughters, Mrs. Roger (Shirley) ________ of Decatur and Mrs. James (Maurine) Brown of Peoria, a sister Mrs. Aimee Knowles of Decatur, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild. The family suggests memorials to St. Mary’s Hospital."
Bridegroom Enters U. of
I. Decatur Herald: Sunday, September 9, 1945.
116th Illinois Infantry: Illinois State Archives/Civil War Michael
Witt: Private, Unit 116 Company I, Decatur. The
ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH INFANTRY was recruited almost wholly from Macon county,
numbering 980 officers and men when it started from Decatur for the front on
November 8, 1862. Company
F was from McLean county, Company H from Christian and Shelby counties. The
Regiment, with the noble and brave Colonel Nathan W. Tupper in command, went
into Camp Macon near Decatur, and was mustered into United States service
September 30, 1862 by Captain Wainwright of the regular army. The
Regiment remained in Camp Macon until November 8th, when it was ordered to
Memphis via Cairo to join General W. T. Sherman’s Fifteenth Army Corps, and
was assigned to the First Brigade, Second Division (the same which General
Sherman commanded at Shiloh) and the one he selected from his whole army
subsequently near Savannah, Georgia to storm Fort McAllister, to open his
cracker line, as the
General facetiously put it. From
Memphis the Regiment marched to the Tallahatchie River, reaching it on December
13;returned to Memphis and started down the Mississippi on the 20th, and on the
26th reached the Yazoo River and ascended it 15 miles. During the following
three days the Regiment received its first baptism of fire, engaging in the
battle of Chickasaw Bayou, the officers and men fighting so gallantly as to
receive the highest compliments from the veterans of the older regiments in the
Brigade. General Morgan L. Smith was wounded in this engagement. On
January 1, 1863, passed down the Yazoo to the Mississippi River, and up that and
the Arkansas River to Arkansas Post, where on the 10th and 11th of January it
fought its second battle, sustaining very heavy losses. Here Captain Lewis Eyman,
of Company E, and Lieutenant John S. Taylor, of Company B, were killed. The
casualties in Company B were particularly severe, the company coming out of the
battle with but 25 men, in command of Fifth Sergeant, afterward Lieutenant and
Captain Christian Riebsame. In
the month of March the One Hundred and Sixteenth went up the Black Bayou and
Deer Creek in company with the Eighth Missouri, to save Admiral Porter’s fleet
and gunboats worth $3,000,000 from the clutches of the rebels which was done
after a hard fight, General Sherman in person and on foot with his own Regiment,
the Thirteenth Regulars, coming up at a critical moment to assist in
accomplishing the object. The
Regiment engaged in the battles of Champion Hills and Black River Bridge and in
the bloody charges on May 18th and 22nd and lost very heavily. Among the losses
and casualties were these: Lieutenant Colonel Jas. P. Boyd was shot through the
lungs and died of this wound at home in Decatur, Captain Gustin F. Hardy, of
Company A, was mortally wounded and died in the hospital. Lieutenant Nathan W.
Wheeler, of Company K, was killed May 22d. Captain Joseph Lingle, of Company D,
was wounded and died at home, and Captain William Grason, of Company A, was shot
through the breast, but recovered. Captain Austin McClurg, of Company B, was
wounded, recovered and promoted Major. Then followed the long siege of Vicksburg
which ended by the surrender of that stronghold on the 4th of July. The
following day started in pursuit of General Jos. E. Johnston, and chased the
enemy to and beyond Jackson, Mississippi, and across Pearl River.On July 25, went into Camp Sherman, near
Black River, enjoying a season of rest until after the battle of Chickamauga,
when General Grant sent for his trusty lieutenant, General Sherman, and his
veterans, to come to Chattanooga. The
One Hundred and Sixteenth embarked at Vicksburg in October for Memphis; from
thence marched via Corinth to Chattanooga, which was reached on the 21st of
November. During the night of November 23, the One Hundred and Sixteenth
Illinois and Sixth Missouri Regiments, under General Giles A. Smith, floated
down the Tennessee River in pontoon boats to the mouth of Chickamauga Creek,
capturing the rebel pickets and holding the position until the whole Corps had
crossed over. On November 23, advanced to the foot of Missionary Ridge, after a
lively skirmish, during which General Giles A. Smith was severely wounded. (The
General’s death after the war was the result of the wound received that day.) The
great battle of Missionary Ridge, Tunnel Hill and Lookout Mountain was fought
next day, November 25. The One Hundred and Sixteenth, with the other Regiments
of the Brigade, formed the extreme left of General Sherman’s Army, and
obtained the credit of turning the enemy’s right flank on that bloody day.
Colonel N. W. Tupper, after General Smith was disabled, assumed command of the
Brigade, and proved that he was the right man in the right place. When disease,
contracted in the service of his country, and of which he died on the 10th day
of March 1864, compelled him to leave the army, every man in the One Hundred and
Sixteenth felt that he had lost a friend and the nation a patriot. After
the victory of Chattanooga, and without being permitted to return to camp across
the Tennessee for blankets or overcoats, the One Hundred and Sixteenth, with
other of Sherman’s Army, was hurried forward to Knoxville to the relief of
Burnside. The winter was a very cold one, and while the boys could keep warm
marching twenty-five to thirty miles during the days, they suffered greatly
while camping at night. They would build big fires and hug them close, but the
other side would be chilled to the marrow of the bone; rations, also were very
short, and when at last the Regiment went into winter quarters on January 9,
1864, at Larkinsville, Ala., the men all felt that they have been on the hardest
campaign during their service. The
march from Missionary Ridge to Knoxville, and back to Larkinsville via Tellico
and Strawberry Plains and Chattanooga, will never be forgotten by Sherman’s
boys who were along. In May, the One Hundred and Sixteenth, with the rest of the
Army of the Tennessee, moved against the enemy, and found him at Resaca, GA.,
when, on the 14th of May, the Regiment was hotly engaged, losing heavily, but
driving the enemy across the creek, and planting their colors upon the rebel
works. The One Hundred and Sixteenth was repeatedly attacked, but could not be
driven from the position gained. It was in this battle that Major Anderson
Froman was wounded, and he died in the field hospital. Then followed in quick succession the battles of Dallas, Big Shanty and Kenesaw Mountain. Captain Thomas White, of Company C, commanding the Regiment, was killed on the skirmish line May 26, at Dallas, and Captain James N. Glore, Company K, was wounded about the same time. The Regiment lost heavily on June 27, 1864, in the assault on Kenesaw Mountain. Among the wounded was Lieut John H. Miller, of Company B. August
31 and September 1, was hotly engaged with the enemy at Jonesboro. After the
fall of Atlanta, and when Hood started for General Sherman’s rear, the One
Hundred and Sixteenth assisted in the pursuit of the enemy as far as Gadston,
when, leaving the rebels to the care of General Thomas, marched back to Atlanta,
and on the 15th day of November went with Uncle Sherman from Atlanta to the Sea,
arriving at Fort McAllister, GA., near Savannah, December 12. The next day,
December 13, General W. B. Hazen, commanding Division, selected nine regiments,
including the One Hundred and Sixteenth, to carry the fort, and within five
minutes after the sound of the bugle “Forward” the Regimental colors were on
the works and the garrison captured. Lieutenant Isom Simmons, of Company H, was
killed in this charge. After
a few days rest in the beautiful city of Savannah, we started on the campaign of
the Carolinas, hunting the enemy and finding him first near the swamps of
Pocotaligo, chased him through creeks and across rivers, skirmishing constantly
until nearing Columbia, S.C., where the Fifteenth Corps, the One Hundred and
Sixteenth included, run short of chewing tobacco. Learning that there was an
ample supply of the article in the city of Columbia, paid that city a visit on
the 17th of February 1865, and replenished stock. After a few days rest resumed
march, facing home, crossing the great Pedee River at Cheraw, S.C., then to
Fayetteville, N.C., and to Bentonville, where the One Hundred and Sixteenth for
the last time encountered its old foe, General Jos. E. Johnston’s Army, and
fought its last battle. From Goldsboro, where the army was re-equipped (and it
was in need of everything except the musket and forty rounds), the Regiment
started picnicking for Washington via Raleigh, Richmond and Alexandria,
participating in the grad review before the President in May 1865, being finally
mustered out near Washington on June 7, 1865. The
history of the One Hundred and Sixteenth Infantry is identical with that of the
Army of the Tennessee from Memphis, 1862, to Washington, 1865. It was never on
detached service, but always with the moving column. The Regiment was peculiarly
fortunate in retaining through its eventful history the very efficient services
of its medical staff, and the members had plenty of work to do. Major Ira N.
Barnes, M.D., Decatur, Ill; Assistant Surgeon John A. Heckelman, M. D., St.
Louis, and Assistant Surgeon J. H.l Hostettler, M.D., Decatur, all served to the
end of the war, and every one of the 350 survivors in 1865 had cause to feel
grateful to them. The esprit du corps of the Regiment, under the command
of Colonel Tupper, was splendid, and under such Brigade Commanders as General
Giles A. Smith, and Division Commanders as W.B. Hazen, retained it to the end of
the war.
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