What Happened to Herman Hallen?

What Happened to Herman Hallen? Herman Hallen was born in 1844 in Spellen, Westfalen, Germany. He was the youngest child of Hermann Hallen and Elisabetha Wink. Hermann and Elisabeth had five other children: Joanna, Theodore, Christina, Godfrey, and Anna. Immigration records show that they all traveled from Spellen to Waterford, Racine, Wisconsin, in 1856. They all show up on the 1860 United States Census. Herman was sixteen years old at the time of the census. The 1860 census is the last record of Herman. In the 1870 census, his name is missing. The names of his parents and siblings appear in the 1870 census. They show up in various church books and civic records thereafter for marriages, christenings, and deaths. The other Hallen relatives have gravestones with dates in the cemeteries of Waterford, Burlington, Lyons, Phillips, or Marinette. Although stoic German parents would refrain from verbal expressions of grief, Herman’s death would certainly have been recorded in the church record and at the cemetery. Herman's niece sister was my Great Aunt Elizabeth, who lived to be 90 years old. In 1975, I lived in Elizabeth's home in Tucson, Arizona. One night, I took notes as she told me the story of our Hallen ancestors, who had immigrated to the United States in 1844, from the Dusseldorf area in Germany. Elizabeth told me that her father Godfrey had immigrated to southern Wisconsin with his parents and siblings. The youngest brother Herman died in the Civil War, she said. Was Herman killed in the Civil War? Racine County was well-known for its opposition to slavery ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racine,_Wisconsin), and free-loving German immigrants volunteered in great numbers. Research shows that Godfrey’s older half-brother, Bernard Henry Wink, was a Civil War veteran. Henry had mmigrated to Waterford in 1854 and later moved his family to Marinette. 

    Herman also volunteered to fight in the Civil War, but his name does not appear in the Wisconsin muster rolls. However, through Ancestry.com, I found his name on the death list for Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. Herman died of scurvy on 25 July 1864.

"11 December 2018, 12:15 p.m

Dear Folks and Friends,

 

Tonight, I have finally found our Great-Great Uncle Herman Hallen, who died as a prisoner in the Civil War at the Ancestry.com website. He is listed as "H. Hallen" in the Andersonville, Georgia Cemetery, of the infamous Civil War death camp: <https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3135&h=212591&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Vrl246&_phstart=successSource> and <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville,_Georgia> and <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site> 

Name: H Hallen

Death Date: 25 Jul 1864

Burial Place: Georgia

Cemetery: Andersonville National Cemetery

Grave Site: 3953

<https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/3135/40447_649063_0503-00607?pid=212591&backurl=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D3135%26h%3D212591%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3DVrl246%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Vrl246&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true> 

Rank: Private. Company: A. 

With grief and gratitude,

Cynthia L. Hallen"