Submitted by Sid Stroupe and Mike Stroupe; Edited and vetted by Cheri Todd Molter
Levi Stroup was married to Nancy Stucky Stroup and they had one son and four daughters. On September 19, 1861, Levi, then forty-six-years-old, enlisted in the Confederate States Army. The family was residing in Gilmer County, Georgia at the time of Levi’s enlistment. He was a Private in Company F in the 4th Battalion (Georgia). In his military records, Levi Stroup was described as 5’8” tall, with black hair and black eyes, and a florid complexion. Levi received a Medical Discharge shortly after his enlistment—on February 20, 1862—due to chronic rheumatism. According to the 1870 Federal Census, after the war, Levi Stroup and Nancy Stucky Stroup, the parents of Samuel A. Stroup, relocated to Buncombe County, North Carolina.
On October 1, 1862, at the age of 17, Samuel A. Stroup, Levi and Nancy Stucky Stroup’s only son, enlisted in the Confederate Army in Meridian, Mississippi. Samuel was a Private in Company K of the 11th Infantry Regiment, known as the “Bethel Regiment,” in North Carolina. Between December 28, 1862 and January 4, 1863, Samuel served in [Edward C.] Walthall’s Brigade during operations near Murfreesboro and Shelbyville Tennessee. While there, the Brigade was positioned in a field in between a river and the fence line and Samuel was severely wounded in the throat and died. It is believed that he was buried in Middle Tennessee.
Levi Stroup had a sister named Elizabeth, and her son, Samuel F. Stroup also enlisted and fought during the Civil War, just like his uncle (Levi) and cousin (Samuel A.). On January 1, 1865, he enlisted in Swannanoa, Buncombe County, N.C. He was described as 5’10” with hazel eyes, a dark complexion, and black hair. When he enlisted, he was listed as “S.F. Stroup” in the military records. He was a Private in Company K, 11th Infantry Regiment, serving in the same company as his first cousin, Samuel A. Stroup. Samuel F. was “present and accounted for” until he was captured near Petersburg, Virginia on April 2, 1865. He was imprisoned at Point Lookout Prison, Maryland and subsequently released on June 30, 1865, after pledging the “Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America.” He signed with an “X.” Samuel F. Stroup survived the war and married Sarah “Sallie” Redmon Stroup. He died in 1911 at the age of 64 and was buried in Buncombe County, North Carolina. In July, of 1920, Sarah was approved for “Civil War NC Widows Pension.” She was 79 years old and residing in Buncombe County at the time she received this pension.
