Watson Franklin "Frank" Quinn
4 April 1836 - In July of 1908
Frank was born Monday, 4 April 1836 to Jesse Quinn and Susan Jernigan Quinn in Wolfscrape Township on Beautancus Road. Frank died July 1908. Frank is buried in the Best-Quinn cemetery on Beautancus Road in Wolfscrape with his Father.
4 April 1836 - Circa July 1908
17 years old at the death of his sister Rachel Wealthy Quinn 12 February 1854 and then his mother Susan Jernigan Quinn's death on 27 February 1854 is a lot to endure. She is buried in the Calvin Jernigan Cemetery, also on Beautancus Road about 1/8 of a mile south by southwest of the Jesse Quinn Quinn cemetery, now the Best-Quinn cemetery. See the Family Bible for References.
On 22 January 1860 Frank's father Jesse would pass and be laid to rest in his own cemetery with a wooden headstone long since decayed. Nothing is left today less the petrified wooden stob that was the base of the cross that was once stood there.
Frank would be and 23 years old at his father's death which left him as the eldest unmarried son. Now strapped with the farm, its contents and the legacy of owning other human beings and responsible for their well being was about to be reconciled once and for all in December of 1861, or age 24..
Watson Franklin Quinn's Story
4 April 1836 - July, 1908
Frank was born Monday, 4 April 1836 to Jesse Quinn and his 2nd wifi is Susan Jernigan Quinn in Wolfscrape Township on Beautancus Road.
Status of Frank's 13 Jul 1909 Widow's Pension Application filed by Julia A. Quinn.
Witness Affidavits
Deceased 13 Jul 1909 Clerk Certification
Deceased 13 Jul 1909 Pension Board Approval
Deceased 28 Apr 1910 Federal Census (Julia)Widow
Julia says in the pension application about her widowhood that she has been a widow and that she "has been for twelve months " and is required by NC Law immediately preceding this application"
Julia A. Quinn, is the widow of Watson Franklin Quinn and was residing in April 1910 within the household of her daughter Lena Cornelia (Quinn) Davis and son-in-law John Calhoun. Davis in Duplin County, North Carolina.
1860 United States Census / July 1860
Slave Schedule
Frank was listed as owning 14 slaves who resided in 5 houses as distinct family units on his property on Beautancus Road in Wolfscrape.
The Unionist Kinsey Jones Connection
Frank's sister Narcissa was married to Kinsey Jones in 1815 and bore him 3 daughters and 2 sons. However, Kinsey also owned slaves and was known to also have fathered at least 4 children with one of his slaves long before the US Civil War and loved her I am told through interviews from 2009 and 2011 with relatives of his African American family I found in Rocky Mount, NC.
See: https://quinngenealogy.org/quinn-slave-transactions
On the 1860 United States Census for Duplin County we have 2 parts Slave Schedule Part A (Right) and then part B transcribed by me as it was not readable as an image due to a poor scan by the archivist.. On the 1860 Slave Schedule - W.F. Quinn “owned” 14 people.
According to the 1860 Schedule 2: Slave Inhabitants of Duplin County, North Carolina (July 12, 1860), W.F. Quinn reported owning multiple enslaved individuals, housed in five separate buildings:
Building 1:
- One 55-year-old woman (Matriarch)
Building 2:
- One 35-year-old woman
- Four children (not named)
Building 3:
- One 24-year-old man
- One 24-year-old woman
- Two children (not named)
Building 4:
- One 24-year-old widowed woman
- Three children (not named)
Building 5: A three-part barn with tack room, loft, and stable, housing enslaved individuals connected to livestock and labor. Despite the seemingly organized housing, no justification can excuse the cruelty of bondage.
The Facts
North Carolina bore the heaviest human cost of any state in the U.S. Civil War.
North Carolina Civil War Deaths
- Estimated total deaths: about 40,000 men.
- This included both battle deaths and disease deaths.
- North Carolina supplied roughly 125,000 troops to the Confederacy, the largest number of any Southern state.
Context
- About 1 in 3 North Carolina soldiers who served did not survive.
- Disease was the greatest killer, as with all Civil War armies.
- North Carolina also had many Unionist families; around 10,000–15,000 North Carolinians fought for the Union Army.
Legacy
- Every county in North Carolina was touched by the war.
- Today, numerous cemeteries (e.g., Raleigh National Cemetery, Salisbury National Cemetery) and battlefields (e.g., Bentonville & Fort Fisher) hold the memory of these losses.
- The state is often remembered for “giving the last at Appomattox,” since North Carolina troops were among the last to lay down arms when Lee surrendered.
Service Record
41st Regiment, 3rd North Carolina Cavalry, Company B
December 28 1861 thru 21 July 1862
Gatlin’s Dragoons
9th Regiment, 1st North Carolina Cavalry, Company I
July 21, 1862 - February 22, 1863
Duplin Dragoons
Discharged - Disabled and ordered to Richmond Hospitals.
RECEIVING AND WAYSIDE HOSPITAL
Received February 25, 1863
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
Transferred February 25, 1863 to Chimborazo No. 3
CHIMBORAZO HOSPITAL No. 3
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
Received April 25, 1863
Last Paid March 31, 1863 $20.80
Discharged April 22, 1863
Diagnosis Debilitas
36th Artillery, 2nd Artillery, 1st Company I
July 11, 1863 in Kinston, NC until November 4, 1863
HERRING ARTILLERY
Company I would be transferred to form 3rd Company G, 40th Regiment, 3rd Artillery en masse as the Scotch Greys.
40th Artillery Regiment, 3rd Artillery, 3rd Company G
November 4, 1863 - January 15, 1865 (Captured at 2nd Battle of Fort Fisher)
SCOTCH GREYS
The officer who officially surrendered Battery Buchanan (and Fort Fisher as a whole) on the night of January 15, 1865, was Major James Reilly, who raised a white flag and walked into the Union lines to announce the surrender.
When Major James Reilly raised the white flag over Battery Buchanan, Major General William Henry Chase Whiting was lying severely wounded inside the battery, near the river-side bombproofs. He had been shot twice earlier that evening, once in the thigh and once through the shoulder during his final personal counterattack inside Fort Fisher’s land-face.
After being carried back by his staff and a handful of men through the narrow causeway, he was brought to Battery Buchanan, the last defensive position on the river channel at the southern tip of Federal Point.
According to both Confederate and Federal reports:
- Colonel William Lamb, also badly wounded, and General Whiting were both inside Battery Buchanan when Reilly took command of the remnants of the garrison.
- Whiting was lying on a blanket on the floor of the bombproof, semi-conscious, when Major Reilly conferred with him before raising the white flag.
- Reilly, commanding the remaining artillerists, physically walked out to surrender the fort.
- Union accounts, General Terry’s report and Lt. Col. Curtis’s diary entries note that Whiting was captured inside Battery Buchanan soon afterward, wounded and unable to move, along with Colonel Lamb.
- Gen. Whiting’s own statement (O.R., Series I, Vol. 46, Part I, p. 404):
“When I reached Battery Buchanan I found Major Reilly there with a few men still serving the guns. The enemy had complete possession of the fort. I ordered Major Reilly to cease firing, and he displayed a white flag.” - Gen. Terry’s Union report confirms the capture this way. “Major Reilly surrendered Battery Buchanan; in it were found General Whiting, Colonel Lamb, and many officers wounded.
At the instant of surrender:
- Major James Reilly — on his feet, at the battery parapet — displayed the white flag.
- General W.H.C. Whiting — wounded, lying inside the bombproof of Battery Buchanan.
- Colonel Lamb — nearby, also wounded and taken prisoner with Whiting.
- Captured, wounded at the surrender of Battery Buchanan. Frank was sent to Point Lookout POW Camp. Hammond General Hospital with a bullet wound that entered his left lower thigh and exited from the upper thigh. i.e. shot from below.
Thus, Whiting was present at Battery Buchanan but incapacitated. Reilly acted on his own authority to perform the actual surrender.
POINT LOOKOUT POW CAMP, CAMP HOFFMAN MARYLAND
January 15, 1865 - June 17, 1865
Prisoner Patient Hammond General Hospital
Prisoner Company E
Repatriated June 17, 1865 (survived the war)
Unit Histories (From J.D. Lewis - Carolana Project)
41st NC Regiment (3rd Cavalry) Company B (1st Enlistment) GATLIN DRAGOONS (pdf)
Download9th NC Regiment (1st Cavalry) Company I (2nd Enlistment) DUPLIN DRAGOONS (pdf)
Download36th NC Regiment (2nd Artillery) 1st Company I (3rd Enlistment) HERRING ARTILLERY (pdf)
Download40th NC Regiment (3rd Artillery) 3rd Company G (4th Enlistment) (pdf)
Download41st Regiment - Gatlin Dragoons - Company B - Organized in Swansboro, Onslow, North Carolina
Col. Roger Moore, who assumed command of the 41st Regiment - Gatlin Dragoons, Company B organized in Swansboro, Onslow, North Carolina after John Baker was captured. This image is at the Cape Fear Public Library in Wilmington.
Frank Quinn was a private in Company B from Duplin, having enlisted in Swansboro, Onslow, North Carolina 27 December 1861 by Capt. Ward.
9th Regiment - 1st NC Cavalry - Company I
NC 9th Regiment, NC 1st Cavalry, Company Guidon (NC History Museum)
36th Artillery Regiment, 2nd Artillery, 1st Company I (Herring Artillery)
40th Artillery Regiment, 3rd Artillery, 3rd Company G (Fort Fisher)
Col. Lamb's Garrison Flag at Fort Fisher. This flag was captured at the fall of Fort Fisher. The flag is now in the Cape Fear Museum, Wilmington.
Colonel William Lamb's 36th North Carolina (2nd North Carolina Artillery) minus DUPLIN COUNTY'S men which formed HERRINGS ARTILLERY were totally absorbed into the 40th Regiment, 3rd Company G.
After Release from Point Lookout POW Camp in June of 1865
Married Julia Ann Garner 21 December 1865. The grand daughter of Julia Ann Herring and Basil Garner.
Julia Ann Garner Quinn was born 28 September 1845. The photograph is taken from between 1863–1866 and I imagine it was taken during her time attending St. Mary's School in Raleigh.
St. Mary's School photographed all their student enrollment.
November 20, 1868 - It wouldn't be long before Frank is cited with Outrages against Jerry Sullivan, his neighbor.
1870 United States Census - Listed as William F. Quinn in the Wolfscrape Township
1 June 1880 - United States Census where W.F. Quinn is the Census Enumerator for the Wolfscrape Township.
1886 Branch's Store, Wolfscrape Postmaster
1890 Branson's Directory
Frank & Julia Garner-Quinn
Married 21 December 1865, Frank and Julia went on to have 7 children together. The kids were born between 1868 and 1881.
In the United States Census of 1880, we find that Frank is the Enumerator for the Wolfscrape Township just before their last child Lena Cornelia Quinn is born on March 28, 1881.
By 1882 Frank and Julia began loosing family lands for back taxes that came due. In 1882 400 acres on the courthouse steps to J.W. Pearsall for $10.
In 1884 160 acres lands were lost to A.D. McGowen also for back taxes of $23.
In an effort to remain solvent, by 1886 Frank was the Postmaster at Branch's Store for a short while.
And in 1890, Frank became the Magistrate and Justice of the Peace for the Wolfscrape Township while the township sought a man that could read and write.
This information is found in the Duplin County section of the Branson’s Directory for 1890.
In 1890 the Branson’s Directory lists W.F. Quinn as one of four Magistrates in Wolfscrape Township with Everett Joyner, Thaddeus Jones and D.H. Garner (Kenansville).
In 1893 the couple sells the Whitfield Land for $250.
In 1895 the transaction land sale to D. Waller is confirmed.
On July 13, 1909 Julia Files for a Widow's Pension and it is approved and filed on the 13th.
Then on March 18, 1917 Julia dies at her daughter Clyde "Essie" Quinn Tolar's residence in Brogden Township at Mt. Olive and is buried with her mother and father in the Basil Garner and Julia Ann Herring Garner cemetery near Summerlin's Crossroads intersecting Beautancus and Red Hill Road. Clyde was the informant
Based on Julia's Confederate Soldier's Widow's Pension application Frank died in July of 1908 and is buried with his father Jesse Quinn on Beautancus Road.
Civil War Widow's Pension
Julia Ann Garner Quinn's Widow's Pension Application & Approval Trifold Cover
Julia Ann Garner Quinn's Widow's Pension Application
Julia Ann Garner Quinn's Widow's Pension Application Approval
© 2026 T. Allen Quinn. All rights reserved.
The content of this website, including genealogical research, images, transcriptions, and narratives, is the intellectual property of T. Allen Quinn. No part may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author, except for brief quotations for scholarly or non-commercial use with proper citation.