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Subject: [GM-L] Roll of Honor - Lancaster Men in Civil War - Part 5
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 18:37:25 EDT
Subject: Roll of Honor - Lancaster Men in the Civil War
Source: History of Lancaster, Massachusetts by Rev. Abijah P. Marvin 1879
Part 5
p.712 RECRUITS
Several, if not all, of the following, had served faithfully, but re-enlisted:
Charles E. Blood
James A. Bridge
Joseph N. Day
George W. Farnsworth
John C. Haynes
John Ollis
Leonard H. Parker
Patrick Shorey
J. Prescott Wilder
George E. Wiley
John Verett.
UNITED STATES NAVY
Frank Wallace Barnes
Having enlisted among the volunteers, and not finding immediate service,
Barnes
entered the Navy and was in active service about one year. He sailed with
Capt.
Harrison in the Minnesota to Hampton Roads, 1862, blockading off Wilmington,
1863.
John Gould
Nothing has been learned of the service rendered by Gould.
Ephraim Mackrill
Like his brother, in the following notice, was faithful to the flag of his
country, and
encountered perils in her service.
William Mackrill
Shipped August 12, 1862 at Charlestown, on the gunboat, Isaac P. Smith, Capt
Conover. Captured in Stone River, S.C. Feb 1, 1863, when nine were killed and
twenty-five wounded. He was in prison at Charleston and Richmond till March
1st; sent to Norfolk hospital and discharged Aug. 13, 1863.
DRAFTED MEN WHO FURNISHED SUBSTITUTES
Milton H. Brewer
O. W. Carter
H. C. Cutting
George E. P. Dodge
Josiah Harris
E. W. Hosmer
Eli E. Howe
Horatio D. Humphrey
Henry Stowe
Charles L. Wilder, Jr.
STATE RECRUITS
There were five of these men credited to Lancaster in the navy and two in the
regular army. Their names and residences are not known.
The following soldiers are found in the rolls of regiments belonging to other
states,
but they belonged to Lancaster, made a part of its quota and did honor to the
town:
p. 713
THIRTEENTH ILLINOIS REGIMENT
Henry S. Nourse
October 23, 1861, joined the fifty-fifth Illinois volunteers, and at the
outset acted as
regimental clerk and drillmaster. Here follows his subsequent record. March
1,
1862, adjutant of the regiment; commissioned as captain of Company K to date
from
Dec 19, 1862. The regiment was one of those composing Gen. W. T. Sherman's
original division and attached to the fifteenth army corps, followed his
fortunes during
the war. It was engaged in over forty battles and skirmishes, and in the
sieges of
Corinth, Vicksburg, Jackson, Atlanta and Savannah. It first met the enemy in
battle
at Shiloh, April 6 and 7, 1862, and out of six hundred and fifty men actually
engaged,
the regiment lost two hundred and seventy three casualties of war; eighty
were killed
or mortally wounded in the battle. Eight officers were wounded and two
killed, out
of a total of thirty-six.
The more important battle experiences of Major Nourse, after Shiloh, were the
following: Battle of Russell's House; Siege of Corinth; battles and assaults
about
Chickasaw Bayou in 1862. Those in 1863: battle of Arkansas Port; Champion
Hill;
assault upon Fort Pemberton; general assault upon works at Vicksburg; siege of
Vicksburg; siege of Jackson; battle of Mission Ridge; Chattanooga. In 1864
were the following actions: June 27th assault upon fortifications at Kenesaw
Mountain.
After this date he was acting Major, the commanding officer having been
killed in
action. Battle of Atlanta; Ezra Chapel; assault upon fortified picket line
before Atlanta; siege of Atlanta; battle of Jonesboro. After this he was
senior officer
commanding the regiment. March through Georgia; assault upon Fort
MacAllister;
siege and capture of Savannah. November 4, appointed commissary of musters;
seventeenth army corps.
In the early part of 1865 the army marched northward and on the twentieth of
March
fought its last battle at Bentonville, N.C. After the surrender of Lee,
rather than be
mustered in as Lieutenant Colonel, and return to Illinois, Mr. Nourse came
directly
home, his term of service having expired a month before. Thus terminated a
military
career full of most faithful and honorable service.
p.714
George L. Thurston
Captain of company B, fifteenth Illinois volunteers. Thurston in his boyhood
had great fondness and aptitude for the military. He was captain of a
company of his
playmates. In after years he belonged to various military organizations;
among others, the Boston Tigers.
He was captain of the Clinton company when he left Lancaster for Chicago a
short
time before the war. By desire of Col. David Stuart he was appointed
adjutant of the
Illinois fifty-fifth, Oct 31, 1861. On the first of March, 1862 he was
appointed captain. Nothing less than the purest patriotism influenced him
to enter the army,
for his health was very frail, and a wife and young child claimed his care
and support.
At Shiloh, on the first day, his company, advanced as skirmishers, met the
first
onset of the enemy and checked their advance so as to enable the regiment to
occupy a strong position, whence the overwhelming forces of the rebels did not
drive it until ammunition failed and night came on to cover the combatants.
Capt. Thurston, far from well, led his company through the day, and lay with
his men
on the field through the drenching rain of the night. He was at the head of
his command the next morning, but fatigue, exposure and the loss of food and
sleep
during thirty hours were too much for his feeble frame, though his will
remained un-
daunted. He was seen to stagger and was helped, fainting, to the rear. From
this
shock he never recovered, but remained with his regiment until he received a
leave
of absence from General Grant, July 1, 1862, given on surgeon's certificate
"that
such an abscence is necessary to save his life." His comrades feared he would
never reach the North alive. Arriving in Chicago, the tender care of friends
gave him
strength to reach home at last, where he gradually sank and ended his warfare
Dec 15, 1862. The foregoing has been chiefly made up from notes by his
friend,
Mr. Nourse. It should be added that feeling tributes to his memory came from
different organizations of which he was a highly respected member.
Eigth New Hampshire - Frank C. Bancroft
Thirteenth New Hampshire - William D. Carr
Eleventh Rhode Island - Charles T. Wiley
Sixtieth New York - Martin Kelley
New York Tammany - James Finnesey.
To be continued Part 6 - p. 714 - Miscellaneous
Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth
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