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Group 6

J. S. Louis Keepers[1]

Rank:  Lieutenant, Company C (Slocomb Rifles), 1^st Regiment, Louisiana Infantry

Born/died:  1835 – November 8, 1893

Cause of death: phthisis 

Residence at death:  Manhattan, New York

Served: May 27, 1861 – for the duration of the war

Age at enlistment: 26

Remarks:

J. S. L. Keepers joined the Con­federate Army early in 1861 at New Orleans. According to the record he was ordered to proceed to Richmond May 27,1861 per a dispatch from the Honorable, the Secretary of War, CSA, L. P. Walker.

He drew pay in Richmond for the period May 27 through June 30,1861 signing the voucher as Louis Keepers. Then he drew pay for July 1 through July 9,1861 but did not sign the voucher until July 15th. His signature appeared this time as J. S. L. Keepers. “Curiously, he signed in the presence of a Justice of the Peace suggesting that he was not at a regular army post.”[2]

In fact an involved court-martial took place during June as a result of charges and counter charges in the company.  Captain William Frances McClean was charged with misappropriation of company funds.  Lieutenant Keepers had brought a woman, Miss Julia Wellington, into the officer’s tent.  She was variously described as a “notorious prostitute” and as a woman who tended the sick and sewed for the men. Louis had been ordered to remove the woman from the camp, but failed to do so. Lieutenant R. W. Armistead responded to a countercharge, “The facts of the case are these; [Louis] occupied a room in camp adjoining that occupied by the three lieutenants of his company, but the partition between the two rooms was so open that persons in one room could be seen by those in the other. … “…Lieutenant Keepers had a bed alongside the bed of Julia Wellington … Being offended at this gross conduct … [Armistead] went into the room … with his revolver in his hand and ordered Lieutenant Keepers to separate the beds within five minutes….”

On June 29, 1861, the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office resolved the issues:  “The proceedings of the Court of Inquiry in the case of the difficulties which occurred in the Company of the Ben McCullock Rangers under the command of Captain McClean, will be stayed on the condition that harmony be restored to the command and that the officers and men resume their duty, and conform themselves to the discipline of the service.  With this understanding, the company will be ordered to proceed to Louisburg, Virginia and be assigned to the command of Brigadier General Wise. …”[3].  Louis Keepers (or his company) was assigned to the Louisiana troops by the Secretary of War.  They became the 2nd Company C, Nelligan's LA Infantry, apparently part of the Maryland Guerilla Zouaves.[4]

Louis married Eliza Whitaker (1846 – 1919) and they seem to have had

seven children: Charles William, Blanch, Loranzo, Joseph, Daisy M., Maude Louise, and Frances Hubert.  Louis became an insurance agent in New York City after the war. His death certificate lists Louis as a widower; it is assumed that Eliza & Louis were divorced prior to his death.[5]  On June 30, 1884, in Kings Co. Courthouse, 360 Adams St., Brooklyn, NY, a petition for Guardianship of Daisy M. Keepers was filed by Eliza Keepers, her mother. The petition states that no general guardian had been appointed by will or deed of father or mother, and that the father was dead.  Of course, in 1884, Louis was alive, so it appears that Louis & Eliza were divorced between 1880, when the census shows them living together, and 1884, the date of the guardianship petition.  The petition stated that Daisy owned property valued at $40.  The petition was successful.  The reason for the petition is unclear.  The birth record for Daisy needs to be examined in order to sort out the details. 

Eliza’s obituary claims that Louis was a Confederate spy who was reprieved after she begged President Lincoln to save him.  There has been absolutely no evidence to support this story.

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