Hello all -
I'm brand new here and posted this as my welcome message, but it was suggested that I post here as well...
Hello -
I'm joining to try to get some additional information for a family history I'm writing (only for internal family use - not for the general public). My great grandfather fought for the Union. I have some significant details including his original civil war photo, 3 letters he wrote his wife during the war (in my possession), 3 more letters he wrote to his wife and one to his mother (online) and a pile of records I photocopied from the National Archives since he was wounded and applied for a pension.
My two main interests are any additional details I can find on his regiments (and I've searched pretty extensively online) and general accuracy check on what I've written. Also someone who can check some of my assumptions about his illness and situation after the war. I pieced much of that part of my story together via the military records & notes I got from the Archives along with internet research on the medical terms.
I'm pasting a very small portion of my draft family history below. I'm happy to share more directly with someone who would like to read it.
Bill
DRAFT
Samuel J. Bradlee enlisted in August 1862 at the age of 29. On September 9th he was mustered into the 10th Battery Massachusetts Volunteer Light Artillery. The 10th Battery began guarding Washington D.C. as part of the 8th Corps. They spent some time at Harper's Ferry and were in Northern Maryland during the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863. They fought in Auburn Virginia against J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry J.E.B. Stuart was a flamboyant and prominent Confederate major general.
Samuel was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant of the Massachusetts 3rd Heavy Artillery. Heavy artillery is usually used for sieging a city or for coastal garrisons. And one of several letters I have that he wrote to his wife in July, 1864 is from Petersburg where the Union Army is confining and starving General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army behind a 20 to 30 mile entrenchment between Richmond and Petersburg, VA...
...After the Mass. 3rd Heavy Artillery, Samuel was promoted again to 1st Lieutenant of the Mass. 14th Light Artillery Battery. He was wounded in August of 1864 during the final famous confrontation of the war -- the siege of Petersburg, VA. This diary entry, from his fellow soldier, private Emory Frost, describes that day:
Sunday, August 21, 1864. Cloudy and rainy. The rebs kept up a constant connonade all along our line all the forenoon. At noon a reb shell blew up one of our limber chests, killed sergt. Taylor, and corp. Howe; wounded Lieut. Bradley (sic), corp, Dodge, Tinkham and Bennie. Dodge and Tinkham cannot live. The battery hauled out soon after." (Note: a limber chest was a wooden chest used to store ammunition for use in the field. When being transported, the chests were attached to the artillery two-wheeled carriage [limber] and served as a seat for the cannoneers).
This letter from private Frost continues to describe that day:
Samuel J. Bradley (sic), on the 21st day of August, 1864 was wounded under the following circumstances. The guns of the 14th Mass Battery on the day above named were in position in a small earthwork in front line of the Union works before Petersburg, VA., that was known to us by the name of Little Fort Hell. Lieut. Bradley (sic) was in command of the battery; I was attached to No. 3 gun. On this day there had been steady cannonading and picket firing all the forenoon. We had been firing at intervals all the forenoon when just before noon a Rebel shell burst in the midst of the Battery, blowing up a limber chest and killing and wounding a number of the men...Reaching battery 21, I found Lieut. Bradley (sic) at the entrance to the bomb proof, into which he had ordered the men. He was holding his injured arm with the other hand. He had been injured in the wrist by a fragment of shell and his hand was covered with blood which was dropping on the ground. Directly after Dodge and Tinkham were sent to the hospital and I was sent to pilot the stretcher bearers. Before going I saw Bradley (sic) with his hand done up in a handkerchief. He also went to hospital and it was some time before he returned to duty...
...While in the hospital in the early fall of 1864, Samuel is taken ill with what was described as "malarial rheumatic fever." After several weeks of illness when the tending physicians decide he cannot recover, he tenders his resignation and returns home...
...The letters in support of his disability pension offer a clear glimpse into the suffering that he and many others soldiers dealt with after the war. Other than the wounded left hand, he left the war with life-long rheumatism and malaria. It appears he got sick with these illnesses while in the Virginia hospital recovering from his shrapnel injury that fractured and displaced bones in his hand. We know from his deposition for pension that during the war he had an "attack of quinsy sore throat" and the doctor treated the "inflamed parts with nitrate of silver." It seems likely, given what we know today, that the "quinsy" was strep throat and it was not really treated since there were no antibiotics at that time. And we know now that untreated strep can lead to rheumatic fever.
During the Civil War it's estimated that over 1 million soldiers got malaria and 10,000 died from it. The cause of a parasite wasn't discovered until 1880 and the first demonstration of transmission by mosquito wasn't shown until 1897. A story published in Scientific American in 1861 highlights how little we knew about this disease at the time: "What malaria is nobody knows. It may consist of organisms, either animal or vegetable, too minute for even the microscope to detect or it may be some condition of the atmosphere in relation to electricity, or temperature, or moisture; or it may be a gas evolved in the decay of vegetable matter. The last is the most common hypothesis, but it is by no means proved, and it has some stubborn facts against it. There is no doubt, however, that malaria is some mysterious poison in the atmosphere, and that it is confined strictly to certain localities. It seems to favor valleys rather more than mountains; though the hills of Staten Island and the high lands about Greenwood Cemetery are as full of it as the Valley of the Mississippi."...
...So Samuel suffers from diseases he contracted in the hospital far more than the injury received on the battlefield. His brother-in-law, Stephen D. Salmon, describes him as "quite an athlete and very muscular. A sound and healthy young man in every respect" before he went into the military. He is described as a "bright, active and intelligent young man" by a friend and captain of the 11th Mass. Light Battery. This same fellow soldier also said that toward the close of 1864 Samuel was "worn, sad and lacking in spirit." Many people describe him after the war as lame with hands drawn in and using a cane or on crutches due to the rheumatism and emaciated and yellow in complexion, with frequent chills due to the malaria. His daughter Elizabeth Adeline described him having "5 or 6 or more attacks a year of rheumatism and malaria, many times confining him to the house and bed. She described the "chills followed by fever. He begins by shaking and shivering and it seems as though he cannot get warm." She also described how the rheumatism has affected his heart so that he would lose consciousness: "There has been no year for ten years that father has not fallen in a fainting spell on account of his heart." Another friend said "He has been a broken down man ever since he came home (from the war)."
We know from the many doctor records that Samuel was about 5' 10" and 160 pounds though his height and weight vary a bit from record to record over the years. He received about $12 - $17 a month in disability pension after the war...
...Many of the words used his letters can be difficult to understand today. The word "secesh" refers to the Confederates -- they seceded from the Union so were called secessionists. The General Burnside to whom he refers is the famous Civil War General (and later Rhode Island Governor, Senator and first president of the National Rifle Association) who wore long facial hair we now know as sideburns...
I'm brand new here and posted this as my welcome message, but it was suggested that I post here as well...
Hello -
I'm joining to try to get some additional information for a family history I'm writing (only for internal family use - not for the general public). My great grandfather fought for the Union. I have some significant details including his original civil war photo, 3 letters he wrote his wife during the war (in my possession), 3 more letters he wrote to his wife and one to his mother (online) and a pile of records I photocopied from the National Archives since he was wounded and applied for a pension.
My two main interests are any additional details I can find on his regiments (and I've searched pretty extensively online) and general accuracy check on what I've written. Also someone who can check some of my assumptions about his illness and situation after the war. I pieced much of that part of my story together via the military records & notes I got from the Archives along with internet research on the medical terms.
I'm pasting a very small portion of my draft family history below. I'm happy to share more directly with someone who would like to read it.
Bill
DRAFT
Samuel J. Bradlee enlisted in August 1862 at the age of 29. On September 9th he was mustered into the 10th Battery Massachusetts Volunteer Light Artillery. The 10th Battery began guarding Washington D.C. as part of the 8th Corps. They spent some time at Harper's Ferry and were in Northern Maryland during the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863. They fought in Auburn Virginia against J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry J.E.B. Stuart was a flamboyant and prominent Confederate major general.
Samuel was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant of the Massachusetts 3rd Heavy Artillery. Heavy artillery is usually used for sieging a city or for coastal garrisons. And one of several letters I have that he wrote to his wife in July, 1864 is from Petersburg where the Union Army is confining and starving General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army behind a 20 to 30 mile entrenchment between Richmond and Petersburg, VA...
...After the Mass. 3rd Heavy Artillery, Samuel was promoted again to 1st Lieutenant of the Mass. 14th Light Artillery Battery. He was wounded in August of 1864 during the final famous confrontation of the war -- the siege of Petersburg, VA. This diary entry, from his fellow soldier, private Emory Frost, describes that day:
Sunday, August 21, 1864. Cloudy and rainy. The rebs kept up a constant connonade all along our line all the forenoon. At noon a reb shell blew up one of our limber chests, killed sergt. Taylor, and corp. Howe; wounded Lieut. Bradley (sic), corp, Dodge, Tinkham and Bennie. Dodge and Tinkham cannot live. The battery hauled out soon after." (Note: a limber chest was a wooden chest used to store ammunition for use in the field. When being transported, the chests were attached to the artillery two-wheeled carriage [limber] and served as a seat for the cannoneers).
This letter from private Frost continues to describe that day:
Samuel J. Bradley (sic), on the 21st day of August, 1864 was wounded under the following circumstances. The guns of the 14th Mass Battery on the day above named were in position in a small earthwork in front line of the Union works before Petersburg, VA., that was known to us by the name of Little Fort Hell. Lieut. Bradley (sic) was in command of the battery; I was attached to No. 3 gun. On this day there had been steady cannonading and picket firing all the forenoon. We had been firing at intervals all the forenoon when just before noon a Rebel shell burst in the midst of the Battery, blowing up a limber chest and killing and wounding a number of the men...Reaching battery 21, I found Lieut. Bradley (sic) at the entrance to the bomb proof, into which he had ordered the men. He was holding his injured arm with the other hand. He had been injured in the wrist by a fragment of shell and his hand was covered with blood which was dropping on the ground. Directly after Dodge and Tinkham were sent to the hospital and I was sent to pilot the stretcher bearers. Before going I saw Bradley (sic) with his hand done up in a handkerchief. He also went to hospital and it was some time before he returned to duty...
...While in the hospital in the early fall of 1864, Samuel is taken ill with what was described as "malarial rheumatic fever." After several weeks of illness when the tending physicians decide he cannot recover, he tenders his resignation and returns home...
...The letters in support of his disability pension offer a clear glimpse into the suffering that he and many others soldiers dealt with after the war. Other than the wounded left hand, he left the war with life-long rheumatism and malaria. It appears he got sick with these illnesses while in the Virginia hospital recovering from his shrapnel injury that fractured and displaced bones in his hand. We know from his deposition for pension that during the war he had an "attack of quinsy sore throat" and the doctor treated the "inflamed parts with nitrate of silver." It seems likely, given what we know today, that the "quinsy" was strep throat and it was not really treated since there were no antibiotics at that time. And we know now that untreated strep can lead to rheumatic fever.
During the Civil War it's estimated that over 1 million soldiers got malaria and 10,000 died from it. The cause of a parasite wasn't discovered until 1880 and the first demonstration of transmission by mosquito wasn't shown until 1897. A story published in Scientific American in 1861 highlights how little we knew about this disease at the time: "What malaria is nobody knows. It may consist of organisms, either animal or vegetable, too minute for even the microscope to detect or it may be some condition of the atmosphere in relation to electricity, or temperature, or moisture; or it may be a gas evolved in the decay of vegetable matter. The last is the most common hypothesis, but it is by no means proved, and it has some stubborn facts against it. There is no doubt, however, that malaria is some mysterious poison in the atmosphere, and that it is confined strictly to certain localities. It seems to favor valleys rather more than mountains; though the hills of Staten Island and the high lands about Greenwood Cemetery are as full of it as the Valley of the Mississippi."...
...So Samuel suffers from diseases he contracted in the hospital far more than the injury received on the battlefield. His brother-in-law, Stephen D. Salmon, describes him as "quite an athlete and very muscular. A sound and healthy young man in every respect" before he went into the military. He is described as a "bright, active and intelligent young man" by a friend and captain of the 11th Mass. Light Battery. This same fellow soldier also said that toward the close of 1864 Samuel was "worn, sad and lacking in spirit." Many people describe him after the war as lame with hands drawn in and using a cane or on crutches due to the rheumatism and emaciated and yellow in complexion, with frequent chills due to the malaria. His daughter Elizabeth Adeline described him having "5 or 6 or more attacks a year of rheumatism and malaria, many times confining him to the house and bed. She described the "chills followed by fever. He begins by shaking and shivering and it seems as though he cannot get warm." She also described how the rheumatism has affected his heart so that he would lose consciousness: "There has been no year for ten years that father has not fallen in a fainting spell on account of his heart." Another friend said "He has been a broken down man ever since he came home (from the war)."
We know from the many doctor records that Samuel was about 5' 10" and 160 pounds though his height and weight vary a bit from record to record over the years. He received about $12 - $17 a month in disability pension after the war...
...Many of the words used his letters can be difficult to understand today. The word "secesh" refers to the Confederates -- they seceded from the Union so were called secessionists. The General Burnside to whom he refers is the famous Civil War General (and later Rhode Island Governor, Senator and first president of the National Rifle Association) who wore long facial hair we now know as sideburns...
Bringing the