AMANDIS DERHAMMER
Amandis, carpenter and farmer, a son George and Mary Polly Derhammer, was born in Guilford Twp., Medina Co., Ohio.

George Derhammer, a native of Pennsylvania, was born 1813 in Northampton county. His parents, Reuben and Ann Elizabeth (Boyer), settled at the center of Guilford township in 1840. George came to the Buckeye state with his wife, Mary Polly, soon after the birth of their first child, James E. Here, he obtained 45 acres on the south side of Greenwich Road, a ¼ mile west of Rawiga Road. George was listed on the 1850 census with a real estate valued at $800. Ten years later, he owned $4500 of real estate, and had a personal property value of $572. Sometime between 1857-75, he acquired the 52 acres, adjoining his farm to the east, from one Jacob Leatherman, more than doubling his tillable land, which now extended to Rawiga Road. Here George spent the remainder of his days, dying on 11 Sep 1876, aged 63 years.

His wife, Mary Polly, a native of Pennsylvania was born in 1820. They had the three known children, the first born in Pennsylvania. James E. Derhammer was born in 1840; Elizabeth R. in 1841; and Amandis in Nov, 1842. Of these children -- Amandis married, on 25 Nov 1874, Hannah Loretta Halliwill, a daughter of James M. and Mary Ann (Lindsley) Halliwill. The couple had two sons, Harvey, born in 1876; and Willard H, born in April 1878.

On 5 April 1878, Amandis purchased 160 acres in Emmet County, Michigan. After three years of preparation, the family moved to Michigan in 1881, where he died on 26 Feb 1900, 57y 2m 6d. He was laid to rest in the Carp Lake Cemetery. His widow, Hannah, married Louis A. Zess 8 Dec 1903 in Saginaw, Michigan, and removed to Seville (Guilford Twp., Medina Co., Ohio) between 1910-20.

It would be unjust to complete this sketch without making specific mention of the service which his son, Amandis Derhammer, rendered to his country in the hour of its extremity. Amandis, a veteran of the Civil War, enlisted as a private in Co. C, 72nd OVI, at age 18, on 25 Dec 1861 at Fremont, Ohio. He served three years for the Union. He fought at the Battle at Vicksburg, Mississippi , among others, and was discharged as a Corporal on 11 Sep 1865. [Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Civil War Soldiers Database]. His rank was listed in the US National Archives Civil War Compiled Military Service Records as a "Sergeant to Sergeant",with the following notation added - "Amando Durhamer". His widow filed for his Civil War Pension in April of 1900.

MICHIGAN LAND PATENT
Patentee: Amandis Derhammer | State: Michigan | Acres: 160 | Metes/Bounds: No | - Title Transfer - | Issue Date: 5 April 1878 | Land Office: Traverse City | Cancelled: No | Mineral Reservations: No | Authority: 20 May 1862; Homestead Entry Original (12 Stat. 392) | Document #3085 | Application # 7337 | Accession/Serial #MI2520__.490 | Bureau of Land Management #MI NO S/N || Aliquot Parts || Section | Twp || Range || Meridian ||State || Co.
N½NW, 15/ 38-N, 4-W - Michigan-Toledo Strip - MI, Emmet
SWNW, 15/ 38-N, 4-W - Michigan-Toledo Strip - MI, Emmet
NWSW, 15/ 38-N, 4-W - Michigan-Toledo Strip - MI, Emmet

The following was extracted from "Yesterday's People Revisited: A Chronology of Northern Emmet Co.", pp. 250 & 273, compiled by Raymond Kalbfleisch, 1993: "1875 A. D. -- In November, Amandis Derhammer, a Civil War veteran, filed for one hundred and sixty acres in Section 13 and proved up in 1877. 1890 A. D. -- The population of the two Twp.s (T 38/39N ) now amounted to two hundred and thirty, and this included of course a small part of the village of Mackinaw City. The following Civil War veterans were living in the Twp.s in June of this year: Oliver C Cope, Ernest Waller, Amandis Derhammer, Hugh Kilpatrick, and Fred C. Roth."

CARP LAKE, MICHIGAN
Emmet Co. Michigan was founded in 1840 as Tonedagana Co. and changed to Emmet Co. in 1843. The Co. seat is Petoskey, and the Co. was officially organized in 1853. Carp Lake is located on the western shore of Paradise Lake in Emmet Co.. The village was founded by Octave Terrian. A station on the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad and a post office were established on January 27, 1880. Alpheus B. Hendricks was assigned as the first postmaster. Today, Paradise Lake provides excellent fishing for walleyes, rock bass, yellow perch, small & large mouth bass, northern pike, rock bass, and sunfish. Paradise Lake is also popular with boaters. Wilderness State Park is located in Carp Lake, Michigan, eleven miles west of Mackinaw City on Wilderness Park Drive. It contains 8,286 acres, two hundred and fifty sites, twenty-six miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and sixteen miles of hiking trails - a nature lover's dream.

MILITARY
Amandis enlisted as a private in Co. C, 72nd OVI, at age 18, on 25 Dec 1861 at Fremont, Ohio. He served three years for the Union. He fought at the Battle at Vicksburg, Mississippi (among others) and was discharged as a Corporal on 11 Sep 1865. [Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center Civil War Soldiers Database]. His rank was listed in the United States National Archives Civil War Compiled Military Service Records as a "Sergeant to Sergeant" (with the following notation added - "Amando Durhamer"). His widow, Hannah L. Derhammer, later filed for his Civil War Pension in April of 1900, Application number 716820, Certificate number 528344. The Carp Lake Cemetery records read as follows - Amandis Derhammer, died 26 Feb 1900, age 57 ys, 2 mo, 6 dys. Cpl., Co. C 2 Ohio Inf. [Bob Strong, Carp Lake Cemetery 231-537-4962].

The 72nd OVI unit was attached to Brig. Gen. Ralph P. Buckland's & Col. William L. McMillen's 1st Brigade of Brig. Gen. James M. Tuttle's 3rd Division, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's XV Army Corps and was commanded by Col. LeRoy Crockett & Maj. Charles G. Eaton. From mid-Oct. 1862, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant made several attempts to take Vicksburg. Following failures in the first attempts, the Battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, the Yazoo Pass Expedition, and Steele's Bayou Expedition, in the spring of 1863 he prepared to cross his troops from the west bank of the Mississippi River to a point south of Vicksburg and drive against the city from the south and east. Commanding Confederate batteries at Port Hudson, La., farther south prevented the transportation of waterborne supply and any communication from Union forces in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Naval support for his campaign would have to come from Rear Adm. David D. Porter's fleet north of Vicksburg. Running past the powerful Vicksburg batteries, Porter's vessels, once south of the city, could ferry Federals to the east bank. There infantry would face 2 Confederate forces, one under Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg and another around Jackson, Miss., soon to be commanded by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.

Battle at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
In Jan. 1863 Grant organized his force into the XI Corps under Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand, the XV Corps under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, the XVI Corps under Maj. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut, and the XVII Corps under Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson. Simultaneous with Grant's Vicksburg offensive, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks began his maneuvering along the Red River in Louisiana. Hurlbut's corps was subsequently transferred to New Orleans. With his 3 remaining corps, Grant began operations late in March. On the 29th and 30th McClernand's and McPherson's men, at Milliken's Bend and Lake Providence, northwest of Vicksburg, began working their way south, building a military road to New Carthage, La., preparatory to a move south to Hard Times, La., a village opposite Bruinsburg, Miss.

On the night of 16 Apr., at Grant's request, Porter took 12 vessels south past the Vicksburg batteries, losing 1 to Confederate fire. On 17 Apr. Grierson's Raid began. Led by Brig. Gen. Benjamin H. Grierson, Federal cavalry left La Grange, Tenn., for 16 days riding through central Mississippi to Baton Rouge, La., pulling away large units from Vicksburg's defense to pursue them. Porter, encouraged by light losses on his first try, ran a large supply flotilla past the Vicksburg batteries the night of 22 Apr. Sherman's troops, many at work on a canal project at Duckport, abandoned this work, joined in a last action along the Yazoo River, northeast of Vicksburg, and 29-30 Apr. made a demonstration against Confederate works at Haynes' Bluff and Drumgould's Bluffs, diverting more of Pemberton's force. Also on 29 Apr., as McClernand's and McPherson's troops gathered near Hard Times, Porter's fleet assailed Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, 33 mi. southwest of Vicksburg, testing the Grand Gulf area as a landing site for Union troops. Though Porter found the guns there too strong, he had succeeded in further diverting Pemberton in Vicksburg. Grant had originally determined that Rodney, Miss., would be the starting point of his invasion, but took the advice of a local slave and picked Bruinsburg instead. McClernand's and McPherson's corps were ferried east across the Mississippi from Hard Times 30 Apr. That day Grant sent word north for Sherman to follow McPherson's route south and join him.

On 1 May the Federal invasion force engaged the Confederates in the Battle of Port Gibson. Pemberton had just over 40,000 men assigned to the Vicksburg region. Since they were scattered throughout the area, chasing Grierson and wary of Sherman, few of them could be brought to bear against Grant on short notice. Defeated at Port Gibson, Pemberton's troops moved north. Grant, to Pemberton's confusion, pushed northeast. Sherman's corps joined him 8 May, and 12 May the engagement at Raymond was fought. Johnston took personal command of Confederates at Jackson, 15 mi northeast of Raymond, 13 May. On 14 May Federals quickly won an engagement at Jackson, cut off Johnston from Pemberton, and ensured the latter's isolation for the rest of the campaign. In 2 weeks Grant's force had come well over 130 mi. northeast from their Bruinsburg landing site. Ordering Sherman to destroy Jackson's heavy industry and rail facilities, Grant turned west, roughly following the Southern Mississippi Railroad to Bolton, and 16 May fought the climactic combat of his field campaign, the Battle Of Champion's Hill. With the largest force he had yet gathered to oppose Grant, Pemberton nevertheless took a beating there and pulled his army into the defenses of Vicksburg. In a delaying battle at Big Black River Bridge, 17 May, Confederates crossed the Big Black, destroying their river crossings behind them. Undeterred, Federals threw up their own bridges and continued pursuit the next day.

Approaching from the east and northeast, McClernand's, McPherson's, and Sherman's corps neared the Vicksburg defenses 18 May, Sherman's veering north to take the hills overlooking the Yazoo River. Possession of these heights assured Grant's reinforcement and supply from the North. The next day Federals made the failed first assault on Vicksburg. The second assault, 22 May, was a disaster for Union forces, showed the strength of the miles of Confederate works arching east around the city, and convinced Grant that Pemberton could only be defeated in a protracted siege. The siege of Vicksburg began with the repulse of the 22 May assault and lasted until 4 July 1 863. As the siege progressed, Pemberton's 20,000-man garrison was reduced by disease and starvation, and the city's residents were forced to seek the refuge of caves and bombproofs in the surrounding hillsides, Hunger and daily bombardments by Grant's forces and Porter's gunboats compelled Pemberton to ask for surrender terms 3 July. Grant offered none, but on the garrison's capitulation immediately paroled the bulk of the force. Many of these same men would later oppose him at Chattanooga. Pemberton's surrender ended the Vicksburg Campaign. But during the siege, to the east Johnston had raised a 31,000 man force in the Jackson area. On 4 July, as Confederates were being paroled, Sherman moved his force to oppose this new threat. Sherman's march would result in the Siege of Jackson [Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War, edited by Patricia L. Faust].