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