Felix (Phenise) Bensley Danner served in Company G of the 57th Indiana Volunteers. Felix was born in 1822 in York, PA, but orphaned at about age 10 along with 4 younger sisters. The guardianship was given to Samuel Danner who apparently cared for the children.Felix was married about 1845 to Rachel Greer , also from PA and together they had at least 8 children between 1846 and 1865. In 1850, they lived in Latimore Township, PA, in 1860 they were in North Hampton, Ohio, and then moved on to Indiana.
On September 20, 1864 Felix was drafted into the Union Army in Terre Haute, IN at the age of 42. He was 5ft 7in with dark eyes and grey hair, a shoemaker by trade. He was mustered out in Nashville, TN, in June 16, 1865.
In 1864 and 1865 the 57th Indiana Volunteers participated in:
Operations against Hood in North Georgia and North Alabama September 29-November 3. Nashville Campaign November-December. Columbia, Duck River, November 24-27. Spring Hill November 29. Battle of Franklin November 30. Battle of Nashville December 15-16. Pursuit of Hood to the Tennessee River December 17-28. Moved to Huntsville, Ala., and duty there till March, 1865. Operations in East Tennessee March 15-April 22. At Nashville till June.
According to his application for an invalid pension in 1888, Felix contracted malaria and diarrhea in January 1865 near Huntsville, Alabama in January 1865. Rachel Greer died in 1872 and Felix remarried her niece, Mary Anne Ellis. However they had no children. Felix B. Danner died April 13, 1900 at the age of 78 and is buried in Terre Haute, Indiana, beside his first wife Rachel Greer.
His daughter, Elizabeth Jane Danner, married Eucebius Wilkinson in Terre Haute in 1870 and their daughter Sarah A. Wilkinson was my maternal grandmother. Sarah must have known her grandfather when she was a child, but I never heard any stories about him. She knew, however, that he was a Union Veteran of the Civil War and she was a member of the Daughters of the Union Veterans of the Civil War in Chicago in the early part of the 20th century.
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