Eureka!

[Bruce Vail]

The first was a 90 day regiment, April-July 1861 ... Lincoln's "First Call."
Edward H. Day was 22 years old, there was also a Josiah L. Day (21), possibly a brother(?), both from Danbury.
So, you may well have found two! And, a good chance that one of them re-enlisted for later service ... a great many of the "first responders" did.

View attachment 154252
View attachment 154253
​

PS: There was a Josiah L. Day in the 17th Connecticut, too.

Hey John -- do you have a similar roster for Infantry Company B of the same regiment? I'm looking for John Day, who looks to be the kid brother.

 

[John Hartwell]

Hey John -- do you have a similar roster for Infantry Company B of the same regiment? I'm looking for John Day, who looks to be the kid brother.

No John Day in that or any company of the 1st Conn.
The rosters are HERE.

 

[bdtex]

View attachment 154224

I've been looking vainly for an ancestor with a military record in the Union armed forces and finally discovered one!

Edward H. Day is not technically an ancestor, but since he was the older brother of my great great grandfather John Day, I consider that to be close enough.

Day's grave marker is in Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Connecticut.

A collateral ancestor. And yes...close enough. Outstanding!

 

[Bruce Vail]

No John Day in that or any company of the 1st Conn.
The rosters are HERE.

Sure there is.

They just screwed up the alphabetization a little bit.

I'm gonna need some better confirmation that this is the right guy. The age is off (although young John Day could easily have lied about his age -- such a thing is not unknown), and John Day had been a resident of Danbury, not New Haven.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Congrats on the find!

Thanks to East Tennessee Roots. And an assist from Ashley Blake and Sarah Johnson of the Putnam County (NY) Historians Office.

 

[John Hartwell]

Sure there is.

View attachment 154264

They just screwed up the alphabetization a little bit.

I'm gonna need some better confirmation that this is the right guy. The age is off (although young John Day could easily have lied about his age -- such a thing is not unknown), and John Day had been a resident of Danbury, not New Haven.

OK, my fault. I just skimmed through quickly, reading as if they were strictly alphabetical -- just glimpsed Driscoll and Dunnigan, and gave up.
Congrats!

1st Connecticut Infantry

 

[John Hartwell]

According to Pension index, John Day was also in the 7th Conn., Co. B.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Expired Image Removed

Cool photo of the 1st. I guess Edward Day is in there somewhere.

This should be a fun one for the uniforms experts. What's with the different colored uniforms? The guys on the right look like Confederates!

Expired Image Removed

 

[Bruce Vail]

OK, my fault. I just skimmed through quickly, reading as if they were strictly alphabetical -- just glimpsed Driscoll and Dunnigan, and gave up.
Congrats!

1st Connecticut Infantry

No need to apologize. You are always terrific on this stuff...

I'm going to have to do a deep dive on the pension stuff. He filed for his pension in 1892. He died in 1903, but his widow lived till 1924.

What is the meaning of markings on the Pension Index card?

 

[John Hartwell]

No need to apologize. You are always terrific on this stuff...

I'm going to have to do a deep dive on the pension stuff. He filed for his pension in 1892. He died in 1903, but his widow lived till 1924.

What is the meaning of markings on the Pension Index card?

According to Edward's index card,

he died at the National Soldier's Home at Togus, Maine, on Feb. 9, 1917. Had filed July 12, 1890. No widow mentioned.

Wait a minute! You mean John's pension! (I'm doing good tonight!)
On March 5, 1892, John Day filed Application No. 1,096,775, was granted Certificate No. 854,907. [Shows how many more applications they got than were approved.] Those are the numbers you would need if you sent for a copy of his pension file from the National Archives. (I remember back in the '70s sending $4 and getting as many as 100 pages .. now it's something like $85, even if there are only 5 pages.) The law changed from time to time as to qualifications. By 1892 it was really starting to loosen up. At first a man had to be disabled due to military service and practically indigent; by the early 1900s, almost anybody who had served a month could qualify.

 

[Bruce Vail]

According to Edward's index card,
View attachment 154266
he died at the National Soldier's Home at Togus, Maine, on Feb. 9, 1917. Had filed July 12, 1890. No widow mentioned.

Wait a minute! You mean John's pension! (I'm doing good tonight!)
On March 5, 1892, John Day filed Application No. 1,096,775, was granted Certificate No. 854,907. [Shows how many more applications they got than were approved.] Those are the numbers you would need if you sent for a copy of his pension file from the National Archives. (I remember back in the '70s sending $4 and getting as many as 100 pages .. now it's something like $85, even if there are only 5 pages.) The law changed from time to time as to qualifications. By 1892 it was really starting to loosen up. At first a man had to be disabled due to military service and practically indigent; by the early 1900s, almost anybody who had served a month could qualify.

Yes...I mean, no.

I am looking for the military and pension records on both Edward and John.

It seems they were brothers, and served in the 1st Connecticut together at the outset of the war.

I don't see why I should pay $85 for incomplete copies. Can I go to a pubic library, or a National Archives office, for the same?

Please advise....

Best,
Bruce

 

[Bruce Vail]

Bruce - Sons of Union Veterans says you have a qualifying ancestor for their group membership.

1. You must directly descend from a Soldier, Sailor, Marine or member of the Revenue Cutter Service (or directly descend from a brother, sister, half-brother, or half-sister of such Soldier, etc.) who was regularly mustered and served honorably in, was honorably discharged from, or died in the service of, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Revenue Cutter Service of the United States of America or in such state regiments called to active service and was subject to the orders of United States general officers, between April 12, 1861 and April 9, 1865.
2. You must never have been convicted of any infamous or heinous crime.
3. You, or the ancestor through whom membership is claimed, must never have voluntarily borne arms against the government of the United States.

So in my best 'O Brother, Where Art Thou' voice, you is bonafide!

Oh...man...I am bonafide!

FYI -- I have never been convicted of anything infamous or heinous. Can't really speak for my ancestor yet though....

 

[John Hartwell]

Yes...I mean, no.

I am looking for the military and pension records on both Edward and John.

It seems they were brothers, and served in the 1st Connecticut together at the outset of the war.

I don't see why I should pay $85 for incomplete copies. Can I go to a pubic library, or a National Archives office, for the same?

Please advise....

Best,
Bruce

Only the NA Hq in Washington has them. They haven't been microfilmed. Go there, and you can see them for free -- if you want to make copies, it's so much per page, I don't know how much. If you sent for them, they would copy the entire file: which may contain anywhere from a few to 100+ pages. 15-20 pages is more usual. But the cost is the same. Govt. services like that, govt. publications, etc, used to be very cheap. Then came the Reagan administration, and now you have to pay through the nose for anything. They also gutted historic preservation grants, preservation tax benefits, etc.

As to the Service Records -- they'll be on fold3 eventually, but they haven't even started on Conn. yet. They cost less than the pensions (don't remember how much right now). The CSRs for the 1st Conn. probably won't have much: [a 3-months regiment with reports every 2 months]. Probably an enlistment card, and a couple of others just marked "present." The 7th, though, served a full 4 years (Sept. '61-July '65), and could contain a lot of information.

7th Conn. Regimental History

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Congrats! I wonder how on earth many ancestors East Tennessee has as notches in a helpful belt? Been seeing these reunions since joining over 5 years ago! Really, would like to thank East Tennessee too because gee whiz, you just love seeing these stories.

Probably gazillionth's cousins, Bruce- have a John Day from the Mass. ' Days ', circa late 1600's. Early families migrated into Conn. and Vermont, Mass. May wish to check the DAR registry, guessing you have Revolutionary War men, too.

Yes, the 85 bucks is crazy? We paid it for one grgrgrandfather out of desperation- have to say because there's so much information, it does give you helpful leads if you're looking for anything beyond war records. It's also incredibly interesting, following them through the war by reading those. Hope you can find them without taking out a mortgage.... .

 

[Bruce Vail]

Only the NA Hq in Washington has them. They haven't been microfilmed. Go there, and you can see them for free -- if you want to make copies, it's so much per page, I don't know how much. If you sent for them, they would copy the entire file: which may contain anywhere from a few to 100+ pages. 15-20 pages is more usual. But the cost is the same. Govt. services like that, govt. publications, etc, used to be very cheap. Then came the Reagan administration, and now you have to pay through the nose for anything. They also gutted historic preservation grants, preservation tax benefits, etc.

As to the Service Records -- they'll be on fold3 eventually, but they haven't even started on Conn. yet. They cost less than the pensions (don't remember how much right now). The CSRs for the 1st Conn. probably won't have much: [a 3-months regiment with reports every 2 months]. Probably an enlistment card, and a couple of others just marked "present." The 7th, though, served a full 4 years (Sept. '61-July '65), and could contain a lot of information.

7th Conn. Regimental History

That's good info and I am lucky to to live in Baltimore so I can get to Archives HQ fairly easily. Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library also had a very good staff to help with things like this.

(Old Enoch Pratt was sort of a Robber Baron, but his library bequest for Baltimore was really the start of something very, very good. -- http://www.prattlibrary.org/about/index.aspx?id=634 )

 

[Bruce Vail]

Congrats! I wonder how on earth many ancestors East Tennessee has as notches in a helpful belt? Been seeing these reunions since joining over 5 years ago! Really, would like to thank East Tennessee too because gee whiz, you just love seeing these stories.

Probably gazillionth's cousins, Bruce- have a John Day from the Mass. ' Days ', circa late 1600's. Early families migrated into Conn. and Vermont, Mass. May wish to check the DAR registry, guessing you have Revolutionary War men, too.

Yes, the 85 bucks is crazy? We paid it for one grgrgrandfather out of desperation- have to say because there's so much information, it does give you helpful leads if you're looking for anything beyond war records. It's also incredibly interesting, following them through the war by reading those. Hope you can find them without taking out a mortgage.... .

...guessing you have Revolutionary War men, too...

Yes, there were Days and Vails and Taylors on all three sides of that one...Revolutionaries, Tories and Quakers!

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

...guessing you have Revolutionary War men, too...

Yes, there were Days and Vails and Taylors on all three sides of that one...Revolutionaries, Tories and Quakers!

Ah! All of them, very cool! Really am sitting on my hands not to derail your thread, so sorry. Have a ' thing ' about ancestor stories, no one's is not ridiculously interesting. Always dangerous asking! Also had Quaker-Revolutionary War soldiers who continued to be Quakers. Not making a ' me ' topic, just find this stuff terribly interesting, that's all.

 

[donna]

It is such a boon to finally find an ancestor you been trying to find forever.

I thought I had one yesterday, and then death dates did not jib. They had person dying too early. I actually have picture of his grave and other verification of the date. Will keep looking.

Congrats on your find.