Soldier: Balera Jonathan Aurand
Regiment: 174th OVI Company: A
1st Cavalry K
Age: 22
Date Entering Service: 174th: 8/1/1864
1st: 9/29/1861
Period of Service: 174th: 1 year. 1st: 3 months
Remarks (When discharged, re-enlisted, wounded, captured, died of disease or killed): Balera J. Aurand entered the 1st Volunteer Cavalry as a Bugler He was discharged on 1/15/1862 with a surgeon’s certificate of disability. On 8/1/1864 he entered the 174th OVI as a private and was promoted to Commissary Sergeant on 9/21/1864 and mustered out on 5/24/1865 at McDougall General Hospital at New York Harbor, NY by order of the War Department.
Balera’s older brother , Rufus Aurand served in the 61st OVI Co: B as a sergeant and was promoted to Lieutenant in Co: K of the 61st. Balera’s younger brother, Enoch served in the 36th OVI Co: E and the 3rd Cavalry and was taken prisoner and housed at Libby Prison.
Battles in which he fought:
Battle of Overalls Creek, Tennessee 12/4/1864
Battle of the cedars, Tennessee 12/5/1864
Battle of Wyse Fork, Kenston, North Carolina 3/7 to 10/1865
Other interesting information discovered: Balera Jonathan Aurand was born on 3/23/1839 in Crawford County, Ohio. He had eight siblings and three half siblings. On 2/20/1861 he marred Elizabeth S Hurd. Balera grew up in Crawford County. By the 1870’s he was living in the Mt. Gilead, Ohio area and was employed as a carriage trimmer. Sometime after 1890 he moved to Indiana where he was a foreman for LaPorte Carriage Company. On 4/30/1862 he collected an invalid’s pension. His wife Elizabeth collected a widow’s pension on 8/12/1916.
Date of Death: 8/5/1916
Place of burial: Rivercliff Cemetery, Mt. Gilead, Ohio
Adopted By: Charlie and Christine Long
Researcher: Velda L Montgomery