4th West Virginia Monument at Vicksburg, citing officers killed in battle, including Lt. Finley D. Ong
Off and on over the years I have taken notes about family members who served in the Civil War (1861-1865). Growing up I was very aware of my branch of the family keeping alive the memory of Finley Ong, one of my great-great-grandfather's older brothers, who served in the 126th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and died of his wounds in a Confederate field hospital during the Battle of the Wilderness in Virgina (May 1864). The 1906 "Ong Family of America" book also mentions several members who served, including the three cousins and their uncle (the officer mentioned on the monument above) who made the supreme sacrifice.
Thanks to the age of the internet we can more easily find many military records, and I include here a list of all those I can see who served with the last name Ong, noting their unit, and I have also tried to group them by family linkages. Note there are a few I have not put in their proper place but will seek to do so. (All help welcome!)
The main take-away from all this is that the Ong family certainly made a substantial contribution to the Union cause, especially for a family which was historically Quaker (and therefore doctrinally pacifist). The list below includes over 35 young men from 10 states, all descended from a single set great (or great-great) grandparents (Jeremiah & Christiana Ong) who lived on the Pennsylvania frontier only a century earlier. But like many families who settled in part in the border states (in our case, Virginia/West Virginia), we had divided loyalties and were represented on both sides of the conflict.
I have left in brackets information about wartime service mentioned in the 1906 book which I cannot yet confirm from another source.
UNITED STATES ("UNION") ARMY
Grandsons of Jacob Ong (1760-1849)
1st Lt. Finley Davis Ong, Co. F,
4th West Virginia. Vol. Infantry mortally wounded Vicksburg 22 May
1863 (son of Jacob Ong)
Theodore W. Ong, Corporal, Co I, 37th Indiana Infantry died 1864 of complications from wound in 1863)
(brother to Finley D.)
Jacob Ong, Battery G, 1st Illinois Light Artillery (brother to Finley
D. & Theodore)
Jacob B. Ong, M.D., Co K, 69th Ohio Vol
Inf; Surgeon 14th (TN) then 18th (MO) Reg US Colored Infantry (son of Isaac
Ong)
Abraham C. Ong, Co H, 157th Ohio Vol. Infantry (Son of John McGrew Ong)
[John
Lewis Ong, (OFH “Captain of a company of government scouts”) (brother to Abraham)]
[(OFH: Capt?) Isaac A. Ong (Union Reg. Lived in TN) (brother to Abraham & John
Lewis)]
Great-Grandsons of Jacob Ong
Finley
M. Ong, Co. K, 8th Iowa Volunteer Infantry (son of Jacob Finley Ong,
grandson of Finley Ong)
John
Irvine Ong, Corporal, Co. L, 6th U.S. Cavalry (brother to Finley M.). Enlisted 20 Mar 1861. Discharged due to disability 20 Nov 1862.
Finley
Ong, Co. H, 126th Ohio Vol. Infantry, mortally
wounded Battle of the Wilderness 6 May 1864 (son of Moses Harlan Ong,
grandson of Finley Ong)
Lindley
H. Ong, 40th Ohio Vol. Infantry died of
illness in service 8 Jul 1862 (son of Lewis H. Ong, grandson of Finley Ong)
Finley J. Ong, Corporal Co F
4th West Virginia Infantry died
1863 (son of Nathan Ong, grandson of Jacob Ong)
William
C. Ong, Co F., 4th West Virginia Infantry (brother of Finley J.)
Albert
J. Ong, Co U, 5th Ohio Cavalry (son of Dr Jacob B. Ong (above),
grandson of Isaac Ong) (permanently wounded?)
Oliver
M. Ong, Co H, 157th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (son of James Alfred Ong,
grandson of Isaac Ong)
Plummer
Young (son of Eliza Ong Young, grandson of Isaac Ong)
2nd Lt. Oliver C. Ong 2nd West Virginia
Cavalry (son of Reason Ong, grandson of Nathan M. Ong)
Nathan King Ong, Co K, 9th Ohio Cavalry (brother
to Oliver C.)
Grandsons of Jesse Ong (1762-1857):
John D. Ong, 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery (b 1838. son of James Ong b 1809)
Great-grandsons of Jesse Ong:
First Lt. David McK. Ong (1829-1872), Co G, 2nd Kentucky Infantry& 2nd Missouri Cavalry (son of Jesse Ong (1804-1874))
William J. Ong (1835-1904), Co B, 14th Illinois Cavalry (brother of David McK. Ong)
William J. Ong (1835-1904), Co B, 14th Illinois Cavalry (brother of David McK. Ong)
Grandsons of Jeremiah Ong (1766(79?)-1850):
Wilson Ong, 44th Illinois Vol Infantry
(son of John Ong)
Nathan Ong, 44th Illinois Vol Infantry
(brother to Wilson)
Benjamin Ong, 4th New Jersey Infantry
(son of Isaac Ong)
Ira Connell Ong, 129th, Illinois Vol
Infantry (son of William G. Ong)
Benjamin W. Ong, Co H, 104th Illinois Infantry
(brother to Ira C.)
Jesse R. Ong, Co H, 104th Illinois Infantry
(brother to Ira C. and Benjamin W.)
Roger John Ong, Co B, 77th Illinois
Infantry (brother to Ira C, Benjamin W and Jesse R.)
John
Ong, Co E 155th Pennsylvania Infantry (son of Zadoc Alexander Ong)
William Ong, Co C 62nd Pennsylvania Infantry (brother to John)
William W. Ong, Co G, 139th Illinois Infantry (son of Thomas O. Ong)
William Ong, Co C 62nd Pennsylvania Infantry (brother to John)
William W. Ong, Co G, 139th Illinois Infantry (son of Thomas O. Ong)
Joseph Eli Ong, 44th Illinois Vol
Infantry (son of Wilson Ong)
Identity/descendancy
unclear
William
Ong, Co G, 12th Penn. Infantry (from website)
Ernest
M. Ong, 13th West Virginia Infantry
Jacob
Ong, 81st Pennsylvania Infantry
Jesse Ong, 52nd Indiana Infantry
John
Ong, 2nd Colorado Cavalry
CONFEDERATE
ARMY
John
Gardiner Ong, Co H, Crescent Regiment, Louisiana (Great-grandson of Jesse Ong)
Isaac Ong Co E 8th
Virginia Cavalry (Sgt., died May
1861) (descendacy unclear)
John W. Ong, 8th Virginia Cavalry (son of Isaac)
John W. Ong, 8th Virginia Cavalry (son of Isaac)
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