On December 20, 1842, Samuel Sloop, son of Johannes and Christina (Gerber) Schluep, was born at Haselbach, Canton Bern, Switzerland. When Samuel was four years old, the family immigrated to the United States aboard the ship Marianna, sailing from Le Havre, France and landing at New York Harbor on November 6, 1847. They first settled in Herkimer County, New York where his father worked at his trade as a carpenter. During the 1850’s the family moved as far west as Illinois.

On August 15, 1862 at Taylorville, Christian County, Illinois, Samuel Sloop enrolled in Company A, 115th Illinois Infantry for a period of three years. He was mustered in as a Private on September 13, 1862 at Camp Butler, Illinois.

Upon his enlistment he was described as being five feet, eight inches tall, light complexion, blue eyes, light hair, and his occupation was that of a farmer.

The regiment was ordered into the field from Camp Butler on October 4, 1862. It reported at Cincinnati, Ohio on the 6th and, on the same day, crossed over the Ohio River into Kentucky.

Snow and rain were constant during the march from Danville to Louisville which followed. It was during this march, on January 26, 1863, that Private Sloop contracted a severe cold which resulted in catarrah, causing him much pain and apparent dizziness, and also producing dullness of hearing and a temporary loss of his voice. At the same time he also contracted chronic diahhrea and was treated for said diseases by the regimental surgeon.

The regiment was then transferred to Tennessee, marched against General Earl Van Dorn during the month of March 1863, and drove him across Duck River. They then returned to camp and remained there till June 1, occasionally skirmishing with the enemy. On June 24 they marched with the Army of the Cumberland against the Confederate Army under General Braxton Bragg and drove it across the Tennessee River.

On September 19, 1863 they engaged the enemy on the extreme left upon the field of Chickamauga, losing six men. On the following day the regiment engaged the enemy on General George H. Thomas’ right, at 1 p.m., and after a most fearful struggle held the ground till night, half the entire command being cut down.

The regimant participated in all the engagements around Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge, losing in the campaign about 245 in killed, wounded and captured. In February 1864, it marched with a detachment of the Army of the Cumberland against Dalton, Georgia, and spent ten days feeling out the enemy, losing six men in the expedition.

In the spring of 1864 they entered on the Atlanta Campaign and on May 7, 1864 led the charge on Tunnel Hill, Georgia, driving the enemy through Buzzard Roost Gap.

They were in the battle at Resaca, Georgia (May 13-16), stubbornly sustaining a charge upon the left flank, for which the regiment was commended in orders. It lost in that contest about 40 men.

On July 9, 1864 the regiment was engaged at a place called “Tunnel Hill” near Peach Tree Creek, Georgia. During this action Private Sloop was wounded by a musket ball in the right side. In addition to the gun shot, when he fell, his right shoulder struck the iron railroad track on which he was stationed, thereby badly fracturing the shoulder. Private Sloop was taken to Chattanooga and from there admitted to Sherman General Hospital at Nashville, Tennessee on July 14, 1864. He returned to duty on September 6th.

Private Sloop was discharged at Nashville, Tennessee on November 23, 1864 by Special Order No. 379, upon the application of his mother.

After his discharge from the Army, Samuel Sloop returned to his home in Christian County, Illinois. On October 11, 1868 at Pana, Illinois he married Lucretia Ann Anderson. She was born March 18, 1850 in Pike County, Illinois, the daughter of Robert and Mary J. (McElroy) Anderson. Together they had ten children.

In 1872 they moved moved from Illinois to McPherson County, Kansas, along with Samuel’s brothers John, Andrew, and Jacob Sloop, also a Civil War veteran. Here he again took up the occupation of farming. On March 20, 1891 the family suffered the misfortune of having their home burn to the ground.

Samuel Sloop was a member of the J. B. Steadman Post No. 456, G.A.R. and attended a reunion of Union veterans at Wichita, Kansas in the fall of 1892.

The U.S. Government provided him with a pension for the wounds and diseases that he acquired while in the Army, from which he never fully recovered. In 1900 he was found to be suffering from rheumatism of shoulder and pleurisy of the right side. The examining doctor also noted the gun shot wound, which entered eight inches to the right of lineal between the eleventh and twelfth rib, and exited 1 1/4 inches to the right of the spinal column.

Lucretia (Anderson) Sloop passed away on April 18, 1917. Samuel Sloop died just over a year later on May 19, 1918 at Roxbury, McPherson County, Kansas at the age of 75 years. Both were buried in the Roxbury Cemetery.