Scanned and corrected by John O'Neall on 12 March 2004

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JOSEPH W. O'NEALL, Probate Judge, Lebanon; was born in Wayne Township Warren Co., Ohio, April 6, 1846; he is the son of James Smith and Martha A. (Sa Lee) O'Neall, the former a native of Warren County, and the latter of Woodford Co., Ky.; his father is still living and is a brother of J. Kelly O’Neall, under whose name a sketch of the ancestry is given; his mother is a daughter of Joseph and Judith (Hampton) Sa Lee, of Kentucky. Our subject received a very limited education, and remained on the farm until 15 years of age; when he enlisted in Company H, 54th O. V. I., at that time being barely able to read and write. He took part in the battle of Shiloh, but was discharged after the battle on account of his youth. On the 12th of August 1862, he re-enlisted in Capt. Joseph L. Budd's company A, 35th O. V. I., and joined his regiment at Decherd, Tenn. He was with the regiment and participated in the skirmishes and battles at Shepherdsville, Harrodsburg, Perryville, Hoover’s Gap, Tallahoma and Chickamauga, in the latter of which he was three times wounded -- once in the hand, once in the right shoulder and once in the head. He was left on the battle-field unconscious, and captured by the rebels, who took him to Atlanta, Ga., and thence, via Augusta, Branch Hill, Columbia, Charlotte, Raleigh and Petersburg, to Richmond, Va., where for forty-five days they confined him in Castle Pemberton. He was one of four prisoners detected in digging a tunnel from the prison, which resulted in the famous "Sugar raid," and for this was deprived of all rations for forty-eight hours and forced to stand erect twenty-four hours. He was afterward removed to Danville, Va., where he was confined six months. While here, a general escape, planned by all the prisoners, was betrayed, and the leaders, expecting to be court martialed and put to death, determined to make another and a more desperate effort to escape. Accordingly, our subject and six others concealed themselves in the vault and made their way down the drain as far as possible and then tunneled out. In this, Mr. O'Neall and two others succeeded, while the rest were recaptured. After three days' wandering through the woods, he was recaptured, but, escaping from the guards, had almost reached the Union lines, when he was captured with blood hounds and taken back to Danville. To prevent his further attempting to escape, he was deprived of all his clothes, and for six months, remained in almost a nude condition, only having part of the time an old shirt given him by a fellow-prisoner; he was then taken to the jail at Greensboro, and from there to the State Penitentiary at Raleigh, S. C., where, with twelve others, he was fastened to the “Bull-ring.” He was afterward removed to the penitentiary at Columbia, thence to Macon, Ga., and from there to Andersonville, where he was confined four months, after which he was taken to Charleston, where he was for fourteen days under fire of Union guns. From Charleston he was removed to Charlotte, S. C., and, on the 15th of December, 1864, succeeded in again making his escape, and, reaching the Union lines at Savannah, was sent on a Government vessel to Annapolis, Md. Here he obtained a furlough and returned home, much to the astonishment and joy of his people, who had long since supposed him dead, and who could hardly recognize in the wasted and emaciated figure before them the healthy farm boy who left them thirty months before. When capt-