Brothers In Arms

By Eilene Lyon

Veteran’s Day 2025

The two youngest sons in the Henry Zane Jenkins and Abigail G. Bedford family served in—and survived—the US Civil War. Their home state of Indiana held vast numbers of Southern sympathizers, immigrants from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. It was often called “the Dixie of the North.”

But the Quaker strongholds in east-central Indiana, such as Jay County where the Jenkins family lived, supported the Union. The Jenkins family did as well.

Thomas Bedford Jenkins (1833—1880)

Thomas Bedford Jenkins, known as Bedford, was 28 years old when the war began. He and his wife, Patience Randall, had three young children when Bedford enlisted for a three-year term in Hartford City, Blackford County.¹ Company K of the 84^th Indiana Regiment mustered in at Richmond, Indiana, on September 3, 1862 and departed for Covington, Kentucky, five days later.² Records indicate Bedford’s enlistment date was a bit later, on September 28.

The regiment boarded a train to West Virginia on October 1 and remained there until mid-November. Bedford was far from his home that October while Patience nursed their three sick children. Many diseases spread quickly in the community and some were fatal. William, Emma, and Mary Jenkins all perished by the end of the month, leaving their mother bereft and childless.³

The 84^th Regiment moved back to Kentucky in late November where it remained until February 1863. Their first taste of battle came the following month in Tennessee. They fought at Chickamauga in Georgia in September and Missionary Ridge in Tennessee in November 1863. Their longest fight—eight days—occurred at the Battle of Dallas in Paulding County, Georgia, in May 1864.⁴

The Army promoted Bedford to Corporal on August 1, 1864. The regiment mustered out at Nashville on June 14, 1865.⁵ He returned home to his grieving wife, who must have felt immense relief he had survived.

They had two more children, Frank and Abbie. Patience died in November 1873 at age 39, probably of tuberculosis, a disease that Bedford may have also suffered.⁶ Son Frank was tragically killed by a runaway horse at age 10, leaving just Bedford and Abbie to carry on.

Barton Bradbury Jenkins (1843–1918)

The youngest member of the Jenkins family was the first to go to war. Barton served in three different units over the course of the war and rose from Private to Second Lieutenant. He first enlisted for a three-year term in Indianapolis on August 11, 1861 at the age of 17, joining Company C of the 39^th Indiana Volunteers.⁷ The regiment was later reconfigured as the 8^th Indiana Cavalry.

The regiment was ordered to Muldraugh’s Hill in Kentucky and moved to several other locations. The men saw action on October 12, 1861 at Upton’s Hill. They fought at the battle of Shiloh in April 1862 and other battles in Alabama and Mississippi.⁸

Barton received a discharge for disability in March 1863 at Camp Sills, Tennessee, and returned home. He suffered from a hernia and an enlarged prostate.⁹ While his older brother was engaged at the Battle of Chickamauga, Barton was preparing to wed Eliza Jane Baird in Jay County on October 13, 1863.¹⁰

Prior to his marriage, Barton reenlisted in Co. E of the 7^th Indiana Cavalry. His service record states he enlisted in July 1863, again at Indianapolis, this time as a Sergeant.¹¹ The regiment mustered in October 1, 1863 (presumably he was a bit tardy). He transferred to Co. B of the same cavalry regiment on March 20, 1865, with a promotion to Second Lieutenant.¹² A listing of the movements of Barton’s units would get too lengthy for this blog.

Barton was discharged from the 7^th Cavalry on February 18, 1866.¹³ He had additional health issues noted in his record for an enlarged heart and history of sunstroke. In addition, he suffered from chronic rheumatism.¹⁴

He returned home to Eliza, who gave birth to their daughter, Jennie, on March 9, 1867.¹⁵ Eliza disappears from records at that point. I do not know if she died or they divorced. The following year, Barton remarried to Nancy Isabel “Belle” Arnold and they had nine children together.¹⁶ All of Barton’s children survived to adulthood, though a daughter died at age 21 from tuberculosis.

As a consequence of his service and disabilities, Barton received a military pension. In his final two years of life, he resided at the National Military Home in Marion, Indiana.

Neither Bedford nor Barton received military headstones for their graves, but their service is remembered and honored by descendants and other family. They are both buried in Jay County.

Thomas Bedford Jenkins at Find a Grave

Barton Bradbury Jenkins at Find a Grave

Feature image: Barton B. Jenkins as an old soldier. Photo from his obituary, The Star Press (Muncie, Ind.) October 6, 1918.