Civil War Veterans in Australia

James Cawte, son of Stephen Cawte, was born in 1849 at Cornwell, Southampton, England. As a very young boy James joined the Royal Navy and worked as a “Powder Monkey” aboard the Royal Navy ship “Vincent”; loading gunpowder into his ship’s cannons. Eventually, his ship was either damaged or sunk, while in the waters of the United States during the American Civil War; resulting in his discharge from the Royal Navy in 1860. It was then he began working as a gunner in the Confederate Army.

Cawte is said to have been actively engaged with the Confederate Artillery at the Battle of Gettysburg, a turning point in the Civil War that saw the injury, death or capture of some 44,000 soldiers and having shipboard experience, he was later transferred to the Confederate Navy. James Cawte has not yet been found on the National Park Service registers and information relied upon comes from family descendants like his great grandson Barry Kenyon of Gilberton, later descendants and oral history.

After the war Cawte was said to have again returned to the sea and like many others ended up migrating to Australia. He is said to have resided at Balmain, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales before eventually settling down in South Australia. He had been attracted to the copper mines around Wallaroo, South Australia and being so poor they could not afford transportation, the family was said to have walked all the way from Adelaide to Wallaroo.

In 1874 James was again working as a seaman when he married Adelaide Maria Harradine at the St. Mary’s Church in Wallaroo, South Australia on Yorke Peninsula, a busy shipping port for grain and copper; on July 14, 1874. James stated at the time he was 25 years of age and Adelaide Maria was said to be 22. James and Adelaide had nine children, Ellen Fredericka born on July 16, 1875 at Wallaroo, baptized on August 29, 1875; James Frederick born November 11, 1877 at Wallaroo, baptized on December 23, 1877; Maria Ann on January 26, 1880 at Wallaroo, baptized on January 31, 1881 ; Emma Eatte on March 12, 1883 at Alberton and died in 1884 at Sydney, New South Wales; Lillian M. born in 1885 at Glebe, New South Wales; William born in 1887 at Newton, New South Wales and died in 1887; Charles Chapman born in 1892 at Newton; Elizabeth Florence May born in 1894 at Newton and Alfred B. born in 1899 at Newton. James Frederick in turn married Mary Elizabeth Dalby had three sons, Frederick George Nelson Cawte born in Wallaroo on December 3, 1899; Vincent Charles Cawte born in Wallaroo on January 7, 1902 and Sydney James Cawte born on February 22, 1916. Frederick George Nelson Cawte also had a son, John Ewart Cawte, born on July 7, 1925.

In 1883 James and the family left South Australia and settled down in a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales; it’s thought because he had relatives living there and Sydney being closer to the sea provided a better opportunity for his employment as a seaman. In 1889 though, James and the family again pulled up stakes and relocated, back in South Australia, settling in at Port Pirie.; again, near the sea.

James’s sixth child, Charles Chapman Cawte, married Ivy Evelyn Greaves on March 7, 1913 at the Methodist Minister’s home in Port Pirie and when World War I erupted the following year, Charles enlisted on April 20, 1914. Known as Private Cawte number 237, he trained in Melbourne for the 9^th Australian Light Horse Regiment; serving at Galliopoli, being wounded in battle and discharged on October 31, 1915; returning home.

Relatives of Cawte related he always walked with a limp, the result of a gunshot wound received during the war. Mr. Kenyon had a deep interest in the Civil War, but none of his relatives ever spoke much about their time at war or of Cawte’s involvement in it.

James Cawte died on October 12, 1919 at seventy-four years of age and was buried on October 24, 1919 in the family plot in the Common Protestant 1 Section of the Port Pirie Cemetery in Wallaroo, South Australia; grave number 2, 168; where his two daughters had settled. A Rev. Moyes conducted his services for the Symonds Funeral Parlor. Other headstones in the plot include his daughter Florrie, George Osborne, son of C. & N. Winning who died on December 13, 1909 and someone named Freddie who died at Wallaroo in 1898.