Michael Mulvey, Co. K, 15th New Jersey: first to fall

John Hartwell

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[West Jersey Press, February 18,1863]​

Private Michael Mulvey of Co. K, left behind a wife and two young sons. On December 25th, 1862, Lt. John Trimmer, commanding the company, sat down to break the sad news to the bereaved widow:
We know little of private Michael Mulvey besides that he was the first man of the 15th New Jersey to lose his life in action. The regimental history gives a shortened version of the above newspaper report, noting only that "We buried him near where he fell." And there he doubtless still lies.

Sarah (Divers) Mulvey, and her two sons, Patrick (6), and James Henry (4) were granted a pension in March, 1863. Her pension ended when she remarried a few years later, but her sons continued to receive payments until they reached the age of 16. When Sarah's second husband passed away in 1908, she re-applied in the name of Michael Mulvey, and resumed receipt of $12 a month until her death in 1923.
 
These moments always flatten me. I was just browsing the Sanitary Commission reports- ' agents ' would write from the field ( wherever that was ) and always included ' incidents '. A lot are of burials we wouldn't know of otherwise.

Think I posted this before. Great great grandmother's brother never came back from Lee's pursuit post Gettysburg and we just couldn't find him. Some wonderful person tracked us down through Ancestry. She noticed a hand drawn map on display in Gettysburg's Special Collection and got curious. Another soldier in his regiment had written home of David's death and drew a map to his unmarked grave- somewhere near Goose Creek. He's still there too.

It's a little crazy to think about how many graves must dot this country.
 
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