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Submitted: 10/3/21 • Approved: 10/15/21 • Last Updated: 10/18/21 • R1393557-G0-S3
Brynk or Brink
Company D 138 Illinois Infantry
or
64th Ohio Infantry Regiment
Civil War Union
July 184 - Unknown
The headstone for Samuel Brink is a mistake. Samuel served in the 64th Ohio Infantry Regiment. He died probably between 1905 and 1910. (He is seen in a 1905 photo with brother Cyrus' family, but is not seen in the 1910 Census.) He was buried in an unmarked grave until 1938 when a headstone for veterans in unmarked graves was mistakenly ordered under the name and military unit of a different Samuel Brink who had the "alternate surname Brynk" shown in some military records and who did serve in the 138th Illinois Infantry.
Samuel Brink was born in 1840 in Ohio, to Thomas and Margaret Brink. His 4 siblings were Henry, Thomas, Eliza, and Cyrus. By the time the Civil War began, both parents had died and Samuel and his brother, Thomas, enlisted in the 64th Ohio Infantry out of Richland County. Both brothers eventually became POWs and were released at the end of the war. They ended up together on the steamship Sultana along with about 2,200 other released Union POWs on a ship designed to hold just 376 people. They were finally heading home up the Mississippi River. At about 2:00 A.M. on April 27, 1865, near Memphis, Tennessee, 3 of the Sultana's 4 boilers exploded causing the deaths of over 1,700 people. Military and Ohio state records recorded both Samuel and Thomas as "perished in the steamer Sultana explosion." However, US Census records show that Samuel survived the Sultana disaster and was living in Johnson County, AR, in the 1900 census, just a few miles from his brother, Cyrus. Samuel and Cyrus are buried next to each other.
Contributed on 10/3/21 by billsully060
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Record #: 1393557