Private Loyd Phillips
Pvt. Loyd Phillips
Private Loyd Phillips was born c. 1831 in Franklin County, Virginia. He enlisted on October 26, 1864, in Benton Barracks, Missouri, mustering in on the same day. Benton Barracks was a key training camp for the Union Army as most Missouri Union regiments were trained there, including some of the African American regiments. The Western Sanitary Commission (WSC) set up roughly 6 hospitals in Missouri around 1861. This Commission was one of the prominent civilian relief associations in the Civil War. They set up hospitals, administered medical services, housed orphans, and improved sanitation in camps. Surgeon Ira Russell was put in charge of the hospital at Benton Barracks in 1863. Dr. Russell documented the condition of African American troops who were stationed at Benton Barracks and employed at the hospital.​​
Military records described Pvt Phillips as 33 years old, 6’0 tall, with copper complexion. His occupation was listed as farmer. He enlisted for 3 years and at the time he could not read, and he expressed his name as a mark.
His enlistment papers indicated he had been enslaved by Jenkins Phillips of St. Charles County, Missouri. He was married to an enslaved woman named Mary Ann Ball, and their marriage ceremony conducted by a Black pastor, Abram Spiers, April 28, 1858. Because enslaved people were not allowed to legally marry, this was a religious ceremony without legal documentation. They had three children: Louisa E. Phillips born April 1859, William Virgil Phillips born February 1861, and Mary Phillips born November 1863.
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Pvt Phillips served with the 49th Infantry, Company C, on garrison duty at Vicksburg, meaning that this regiment was charged with protecting and guarding the railroad, a crucial supply route. It was common for families of USCT soldiers, especially those who were newly free, to stay in refugee camps near where soldiers were stationed. Pvt Phillips’ family most likely survived in a refugee or contraband camp nearby. He died of disease in a regimental hospital in Yazoo City on June 28, 1865.
In a pension affidavit, USCT veteran Peter Abbott, who served in the same regiment and a friend who knew Phillips for 11 years before his death, said a surgeon told him that Phillips died of “brain fever.” Abbot testified that Phillips was healthy before being sent to the hospital to perform guard duty. It is possible he contracted bacterial meningitis. During the Civil War, two-thirds of all casualties were caused by infectious diseases.
Pvt Phillips’ wife Ann (Mary Ann) later remarried Henry Kenner and moved to Lincoln County, Missouri. His son, William Phillips, age 21 years, in 1880 Census records, was recorded as living in Clark Township, Lincoln, Missouri. He was employed by Joseph Heady and his son on their farm. The household included the Heady family as well as William.
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Twenty years later in the 1900 census, William was recorded as 39 years old, single, working as a horseman. He resided with his mother, Ann Kenner, who had been widowed for the second time. Also in the household were his sister Mary, 36 years old and a schoolteacher, and his half-brother Joseph Kenner, 28 and a college student, most likely at nearby Lincoln Institute. This school was financed and built by the veterans of the 62nd and 65th USCT regiments, and ultimately became the HBCU Lincoln University.
Also in the household were William’s niece and nephew, Ann Kenner’s grandchildren, Otis Banks, age 19, and Birdie Banks, age 15. Their mother was most likely Ann and Loyd’s oldest daughter Louisa. They lived in Hickory Grove township, Warren County, Missouri, near Lincoln. All members of the household could read and write.
In 1910, William Phillips was 49, single and resided with his mother and sister, Mary (Minnie) Phillips. He now owned a farm. His sister was a public-school teacher. A 20-year-old granddaughter and a nephew of Mary Ann Kenner were employed on the farm.
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By 1920, Joseph Kenner, William’s half-brother, was identified in census records as a medical doctor. The records over the years suggested that William helped support Joesph through his education to become a physician. In 1920 William lived with sister Minnie Phillips, niece Birdie, and her young children. They had moved to Douglas, Kansas. Birdie’s young children were the great-grandchildren of Pvt Lloyd Phillips — Ineta Britz, Oma Britz, and Clarence Brawley. The entire household are now identified as mulatto or mixed race.
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Contributors: Emily Martin, Sarah Plummer, Cathie Cummins, Alyssa Bandel, Eric Pratt, Elise Cortright, Conner McGlothlin, and Eliana Lyons.