Vicksburg National Military Park Ranger Elizabeth Joyner, far left, and Superintendent Bill Nichols listen as Charlie Appel, center, tells a story of his great-grandfather Capt. Theobald David Yost, who fought as a Union soldier during the Civil War and whose sword, held by Appel’s daughter, Christine Clason, was donated to the park Wednesday. Looking on is retired Brig. Gen. Parker Hills.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[04/24/03]After 140 years, another proven piece of the history of the Campaign for Vicksburg has returned to where an artilleryman from Ohio carried it in 1863.

Charles M. Appel of Romeo, Mich., and his daughter, Cristine Appel Clason of nearby Warren, Mich., presented to the Vicksburg National Military Park an officer’s sword carried by Appel’s great-grandfather, Capt. Theobald David Yost, during the campaign and siege of Vicksburg.

“The park is pleased to get this part of the Vicksburg story,” said Bill Nichols, park superintendent. He then assured Clason the valued family artifact would find a suitable home in the park’s display collection.

“The park is thrilled to have Captain Yost’s sword. It is one of the few items with Vicksburg provenance in our collection outside the Cairo artifacts,” said Terry Winschel, park historian. “We have another tangible piece of the Vicksburg puzzle we can put on display for visitors to enjoy.”

In explaining the trip the sword has taken through the years, Appel said Yost gave the sword to his daughter, Viola Yost Appel, who then gave it to her son, George Appel. George Appel gave it to his son, Charles Appel, who gave it to his daughter, Clason.

The Yosts immigrated to the United States from Bavaria after a son managed to dodge being drafted into the German Army.

They first settled in Pennsylvania where Capt. Yost received his naturalization papers. They then moved to Minerva, Ohio. Just after the Civil War began when Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, S.C., Yost enlisted in the 32nd Ohio Infantry as a sergeant.

“My great-grandmother never could understand why he did that,” Appel said.

The 22-year-old rose quickly through the enlisted ranks and became a captain in 1862 in an artillery unit formed from the 32nd Ohio called Potts’ Battery after the regimental commander.

Appel said Yost served in several Civil War campaigns in the east, including the Antietam Campaign. During that campaign, Yost and his battery were near Harpers Ferry when they were overrun by Confederate forces under Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and lost their cannon. The unit was paroled and exchanged. They were returned to infantry and sent to the west where they became involved in the Campaign for Vicksburg, during which Yost’s unit fought as infantry at Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson and Champion Hill.

Union forces at Champion Hill captured the 1st Mississippi Light Artillery and took over their guns when Union commander John Logan asked the commander of the Ohio unit, to which Yost’s unit was attached, if there was someone who could fire the guns.

“I’ve got just the group for you,'” Appel quoted the Ohio commander as saying, explaining how Capt. Yost regained command of an artillery unit that was named Yost’s Independent Battery. Later, at the request of the Ohio governor, the unit became the 26th Independent Battery Ohio Light Artillery.

Winschel said Yost’s Battery at first had six guns at Battery De Golyer, the largest concentration of guns in the Union line. Later, a two-gun section was detached and sent to Battery Hickenlooper, east of the present location of the Illinois Monument. From there, they battered the Confederate forces at the 3rd Louisiana Redan.

In spite of being in some of the thickest action in the Siege of Vicksburg, Capt. Yost survived and died at age 84 in 1924.

Appel said he and his family first got the idea of donating Capt. Yost’s sword to the Vicksburg park about a year ago while visiting the area as participants in an elderhostel. That is when they met Parker Hills, a retired Army brigadier general who operates Battle Focus, a leadership training and tour organization in Clinton.

“Parker first suggested the idea of donating the sword,” Appel said. “We then talked about it in the family.”

In addition to the sword, which Capt. Yost actually carried in battle, Appel donated copies of photographs of Yost as a young officer and as an elderly veteran, biographical documents and a copy of his naturalization papers. They also turned over “a tub of documents” that Appel said dealt with his great-grandfather.

Appel said there is another sword owned by his great-grandfather, a ceremonial one presented to Yost by his men, that is in the possession of his brother.