Alan Wills, of Windermere, reveals the stories of Westmorland-born soldiers in the American Civil War

EMIGRATION from Cumbria in the19th century was so prolific that both armies in the American Civil War contained many soldiers who were born in the county.

They included four Taylor brothers from the Kirkby Lonsdale area and a Swinbank from Staveley.

They all fought for the North and were all great uncles of Tom Taylor (1904-1987), of Windermere.

After farming at Middleton, Mansergh and Greenholme, Killington, Thomas and Agnes Taylor went to do more of the same in a mostly Amish and German Baptist area of Kosciusko county, Indiana, taking with them ten of their eleven surviving children and a daughter-in-law, in 1845.

Their son, James (baptised at Mansergh in 1834) joined the 5th Iowa Volunteer Infantry on June 24, 1861.

Throughout the next winter the 5th took on guerrillas in Missouri, who included the Quantrells and Frank James. Frank's brother, Jesse, may not have taken up arms by that time.

A comrade of James Taylor, one S.H.M. Byers, stated later: 'The first dead men I saw while in the army were eight Missouri farmers murdered by guerrillas and left lying in the hot sun and dust at the roadside. The sight moved me as no great battle ever did afterwards'.

Advancing into Mississippi the 5th reinforced the Union army after the battle of Shiloh, took part in the siege of Corinth and spent the summer of 1862 chasing the rebel army throughout the state. James was taken ill with diarrhoea, which probably meant dysentery and died in hospital at Jackson Tennessee, on 1 or 4 October. He lies buried in the Corinth National Cemetery.

Another son, John Taylor (baptised at Mansergh in 1826), joined the Union army in Iowa on August 14, 1863, and survived.

Another, Joseph (baptised at Mansergh in 1838) enlisted in the 46th Indiana Volunteer Infantry in 1861.

He became a lieutenant and saw much action, including at the battle of New Madrid and the siege of Vicksburg. He also survived.

A fourth son, Richard (baptised at Mansergh in 1825), farmed at Meramec, Missouri. After serving in the Enrolled Missouri Militia he joined the Union army on September 1, 1863, and survived.

William Swinbank, born about 1824, was a son of Joseph and Jane Swinbank, who farmed at Birk Moss, Crook, and then Low Hundhow, Staveley.

He went farming to Burlington, Illinois, before 1860, was drafted into the Union army in June, 1863, and came through the war.