John Rehberg was Richard White's great-great-great uncle.
John Rehberg, the fourth son of Fed and Sophie Rehberg, was born (probably somewhere in Georgia) on 25 June 1842.
John Rehberg served as a private in Company A, 7th Regiment of Georgia State Troops which was reorganized for Confederate service at Bainbridge, Georgia, on May 3, 1862 and was mustered into Confederate service at Bainbridge, Georgia, on May 11, 1862 as Company A, 59th Georgia Infantry Regiment, Captain B. H. Gee commanding. On a company muster roll for the period from June 16 to August 3 he is shown as present, but under remarks it is noted that he was sick in quarters. On a company Muster Roll for the period of October 31 to December 31, 1862 he is shown as absent, sick in hospital. A register of the Medical Director's Office, Richmond, Virginia, Hospital Gen. 16, shows that he was admitted on December 12, 1862 and that he was transferred to Camp Winder on June 17, 1863. A Regimental Return for the month of December, 1862, shows him absent, in Hospital Richmond. On a company muster roll for the period of May and June 1863, he is shown as absent, sick in hospital in Lynchburg, Va. In a muster roll for the period of July and August 1863, he is shown as shown as absent, sick in hospital Camp Winder, Richmond, Va. A Hospital Muster Roll "to August 31, 1863" for 1st Division General Hospital Camp Winder, Richmond, VA, lists his name (mis-spelled) but does not state whether he was present or absent. Muster Rolls for September and October and November and December 1863 show him absent, sick. Muster Rolls for March and April and May and June 1864 show him as absent without leave since March 22 and March 20, 1864, respectively. A Muster Roll for July and August 1864 shows him as absent, sick. His name (mis-spelled) appears on a register of Receiving and Wayside Hospital or General Hospital No. 9 for a date in 1864 that I can't read on my copy, but it appears to be in July. His name (mis-spelled) appears on a register of Jackson Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, showing admission there on July 30, 1864, and on that register under "disease" is written something that appears to be "V. S. head (wound?)". He appears on a list of killed, wounded and missing of the 59th Regiment, Georgia Infantry, for the year 1864, dated March 6, 1865, as having been wounded, "slight in the head" on July 27. His name (severely mis-spelled) appears on a register of the Medical Director's Office, Richmond, Virginia, dated August 11, 1864, which shows him to be in Jackson Hospital, and under remarks it says: "Soft Key, South Carolina". A morning report of Jackson Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, dated August 12, 1864 remarks that he (with his name again seriously... but differently... mis-spelled) was furloughed home for 30 days. A Muster Roll for September and October 1864 shows him as absent without leave since September 10, 1864. A Muster Roll for the period of January and February 1865 shows him as absent without leave. A undated roll of Prisoners of War shows that he was paroled at Bainbridge, Georgia, on May 20, 1865. An Index Card of Confederate Records refers to Series 1, Vol. 36, Part 1, Page 1060.
Mr. St. Elmo Lee's book, The Rehberg Family, indicates that John Rehberg married Pamellia Jane ("Mellia") Shores, that they had 6 children (4 boys and 2 girls), and that after John's death his widow married Jesse N. Folds and had 1 girl by this marriage.
John Rehberg's widow, (Rhonda?) Permelia Folds, then residing at Cottondale, Jackson County, Florida, applied for a pension from the State of Florida (Application Number A04253) based on his Confederate military service on 6 December 1915. In her application, she stated that she and John Rehberg were married in Decatur County, Georgia, in February, 1869, that she had resided continuously in Jackson County, Florida, since 1 January 1886, and that he had died in Decatur County, Georgia, on 19 April 1885. John and Permelia Rehberg appeared in the 1870 U.S. Census in Harrison's Precinct, P.O. Calvary, Decatur County, as household 106, family 106 and in the 1880 U. S. Census in the 1258 GMD (Georgia Military District) of Decatur County as household 70, family 70. She also stated that she had remarried to J. N. Folds on 31 January 1888, but that he had also died on 12 November 1901.
She also stated that John Rehberg had been captured in 1864 and held as a prisoner of war until the close of the War. The application was approved on 25 March 1916, however, on 30 December 1915 the Treasurer of the State of Florida requested confirmation that John Rehberg was in prison in New York at the close of the war, and on 31 December the Adjutant General, U.S. War Department, responded to the effect as noted above, that John Rehberg had surrendered and was paroled at Bainbridge (Decatur County), Georgia on 20 May 1865. The application was accompanied by an affidavit from Hardy Strickland, 3rd Lieutenant of Company A, 59th Georgia Infantry, who swore that he (Strickland) was at home on furlough "at Surrender", that John Rehberg was captured in 1864, and that he (Strickland) did not see him "any more till I returned home." Also, William M. Hollingsworth stated in an "Affidavit Made by Comrade", that John Rehberg "was captured in the year of 1864 in Virginia at or near the Wilderness and was imprisoned to the best of my recolection (sic) in a prison in the State of New York." However, Hollingsworth himself surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on 12 April 1865. M. P. Jones stated in an "Affidavit Made by Comrade", that John Rehberg "was captured in the year 1864 in Virginia at the Wilderness and imprisoned in a New York prison until the close of the war." Jones also stated that he (Jones) was at home on furlough at the time of surrender in 1865.
The Florida State Treasurer, on behalf of the pension board, also requested on 30 December 1915, that the Adjutant General of the U.S. War Department confirm that Hardy Strickland was a 3rd Lieutenant in the 59th Georgia Infantry Regiment. The Adjutant General confirmed that, as well as his enlistment and discharge place and date, which were consistent with Strickland's affidavit. The Grady County Ordinary, P. H. Herring, also certified that C. F. Rehberg, who attested the affidavits as Justice of the Peace, was commissioned by the Governor of Georgia to serve in that capacity for the 1258 GMD on 1 January 1913 and that his term of office ran for four years. C. F. Rehberg was a nephew of John Rehberg. His full name was Charles Franklin Rehberg, Sr., and he was a son of Charles Rehberg born in 1877. Incarceration of his father, Charles Rehberg, in the Union prisoner of war camp at Elmira, New York, is well documented; however, Charles Rehberg had died in 1898.
(Grady County was created by an act of the Georgia legislature passed in 1905 and it came into existence on 1 January 1906. Prior to that date, the 1258 GMD was in Decatur County, Georgia. Although John Rehberg's imprisonment in New York appears to be inconsistent with both unit records showing him as absent without leave and his surrender at Bainbridge, there were some prisoners held at Elmira, New York, who were exchanged before the end of the war because of their severely debilitated condition. Perhaps he was one of these?)
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