Oneil Savant

He was an unmarried farmer in St. Landry Parish when he enlisted on 23 June 1861 in Company F, 8th Louisiana Infantry at Camp Moore, LA. He gave his age as 22, but was probably 17 or 18 years old. He was 5 feet and 7 inches tall, had hazel eyes, black hair, and a dark complexion. He was promoted to Corporal on 8 September 1862.

He was wounded and captured in action on 17 September 1862 at Sharpsburg.

He was probably treated at a field hospital near Sharpsburg and briefly at US Army General Hospital #5 in Frederick, MD from 15-16 October 1862. He was sent to Ft McHenry, then Fortress Monroe, VA for exchange. He was exchanged on 10 November 1862 at Aiken's Landing, VA, was home on wounded furlough into February 1863, and returned to duty by October.

He was captured again, at Rappahannock Station, VA on 7 November 1863 and held for the next 15 months at Point Lookout, MD. He was exchanged at Cox's Landing, VA on 14 or 15 February 1865 and paroled at Appomattox Court House, VA on 10 April 1865 as Sergeant, Company F.

He was back in St. Landry Parish by the 1870 US Census, was "in indigent circumstances" by October 1872, and was on public assistance as a "pauper" by November 1876. He was noted as blind, date not known, and probably received a Louisiana Confederate Pension after 1898.

Service information from Booth,1 who also has him as Omer Savant. Frederick hospital details from the Patient List.2 His rank as Sergeant at Appomattox from the Park Service's Parole List. Personal details from family genealogists, one of whom has his birth in 1844, The Opelousas Journal of 12 October 1872, and the Lake Charles Echo of 30 November 1876. His name is seen in some records as Onil or Onile Savant. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of a badly faded photo c. 1874 of Oneil and his family.

He married Elisabeth/Eliza/Leiza Vidrine, probably while on furlough in Louisiana in 1863, and they had at least 3 children: Jean Baptiste Ulger Savant (1864-1946), Louis L Savant (1867-1949), and Emily Savant Johnson (c.1875-1959).

08/31/1843; Opelousas, LA

05/13/1915; burial in Indian Village Cemetery, Kinder, LA