Our Family in the Civil War

Members of our family served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Wilson M. Gamble, the grandfather of Marian and Agnes Wilder, joined the army when nearly eighteen, in 1862, and served with the 69th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, as well as the Pioneer Battalion of the Army of the Cumberland. He was present and probably saw heavy combat at the Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro) in Tennessee in late 1862/early 1863, was present during the siege of Atlanta, and was in Sherman's March to the Sea, being mustered out of service in 1865. On his return north, he was listed as a passenger on the Union army transport "General Lyon", which caught fire many miles to sea off the coast of Cape Hatteras, and was listed among the dead, who numbered in the hundreds. He is listed as having perished in this disaster both in his army records (which I have a copy of ) and in the regimental history of the 69th Ohio Regiment. As this disaster happened at almost the exact time of Appomattox and Lincoln's assassination, it is not well known today. Whether he was mistakenly listed as a passenger, or if he somehow survived it, is not known. He did eventually return to Ohio, and lived a long life, dying in 1908.

Wilson's older brother, William Gamble III, enlisted earlier than Wilson, and served in the 43rd Ohio regiment, in the same company as James Hathaway, the brother of Wilson's future wife, Sarah Jane. William fought and survived 27 battles in this regiment, before being wounded or succumbing to disease in April of 1865 in South Carolina, only four days before Lee's surrender at Appomattox. James Hathaway left the regiment in 1864 to become a sergeant in a newly organized colored infantry regiment. In those days, the officers and non commissioned officers where white. He survived the war.

The extended families of both the Gambles and Hathaways sustained losses--a first cousin of Wilson's was captured and died in a Confederate prison in Virginia, and an 18 year old first cousin of Sarah Jane, named John Hagerty died of disease only six weeks after joining the 43rd Ohio in 1864. An uncle of Sarah Jane, also named John Hagerty, a school teacher, was killed in action in the Civil War.

The uncle of Lew Wilder (and great uncle of Marian and Agnes Wilder), William Conrad Wile, joined the Union Army at age fifteen with his father's permission. He served with the 150th New York Infantry Regiment, known as the "Dutchess Regiment" because they were from Dutchess County, New York. Originally on garrison duty, they were pressed into their first combat at Gettysburg, fighting at the Trostle Farm and at Culp's Hill during the battle. He was present during the pursuit of Lee's retreating army in to Virginia, but was badly injured by a kick from a mule. After recovering, he rejoined his regiment, which had joined the siege of Atlanta. He was present during the March to the Sea, and through the battles as Sherman fought north through the Carolinas in the Spring of 1865. Wile studied medicine after the war, and had a successful career as a physician in New York and Connecticut. Among his many accomplishments was a term as the Surgeon General of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) , the organization for Union army veterans, which preceded the American Legion.

Other members of the family, while not in service, had experiences related to the war, as well. Francis L. Wilder, the grandfather of Marian and Agnes Wilder, was on a list of men eligible for conscription for service in June of 1863 in Philadelphia, as Lee's army invaded Pennsylvania. The same went for Samuel H. Hathaway (Sarah Jane's father) , and his brother in law Nathaniel Hagerty (whose son John was to die a few months later). None of these men served, in the end. Great uncles of the Hathaways and Hagerty's--the Enslows, donated money for army supplies in the war drives.

Benjamin Franklin Wile, the father of William Wile, was a Presbyterian minister in Pleasant Valley, New York. While he didn't serve, he was active in providing for the 150th New York--at one time sending a box of socks to them, and also participating in activities for the Sanitary Commission, the predecessor of the Red Cross, which provided medical and hygiene supplies for the troops, and tried to assist families of men who were feared dead with information. Benjamin Wile was an ardent Union man. His position resulted in harassment by pro Southern sympathizers in the Pleasant Valley area early in the War. After raising a large Union flag on the front of his church, someone set a fire in the basement, which was discovered before it caused much damage. His horse had its tail cut off-- a mark of a horse thief in those days. At the end of the war, when the regiment returned from the South, Wile offered to marry any man who had served for free, an offer that according to the story was taken up by several.

Patrick Burke, the grandfather of Snooze, Dick and Burke McMurdo was in California by July of 1863. He had come west sometime in 1861 with his first wife, and returned to Massachusetts the same year. He has his own tie to the Civil War. Family tradition is that he made the wheels for the guns at Fort Sumpter. Facts support this, with an unproven but interesting twist. Paddy Burke did indeed work as a wheelwright and possibly wagon maker (he was well known in Central California for the quality of his wagons) at Watertown Arsenal before the Civil War, and this arsenal seems to have provided weaponry for Fort Sumpter. In his obituary in 1917, it was stated that "he was in the employ of the Federal Government as wheel maker at Fort Sumpter during the Civil War". While on the face of it this seems like a confusion of the above story, in the months leading up to the bombardment of Fort Sumpter in April 1861, the US Army did in fact send a detachment of men from Watertown arsenal to Fort Sumpter to help in the maintenance of the weapons. These men were removed soon before the fighting began. I have not been able to find names of these men, but on the face of what's known about this time in his life, it seems possible, anyway. So perhaps Paddy Burke was at Fort Sumpter, was removed before the fighting, and then, when the war began, went West. Speculation.

Of the known men who served from our extended family in the Civil War here are their fates:

Wilson M. Gamble, 69th OVI. Survived the war.

His brother, William Gamble, 43rd OVI, Company C. Died in South Carolina, 1865.

His first cousin, also named William T. Gamble, Ohio militia, Died at Danville Confederate Prison, 1864.

James Hathaway, brother of Sarah Jane Hathaway, 43rd OVI, Company C. and later, a sergeant in the 111th United States Colored Troops (USCT) He was captured at the Battle of Sulpher Trestle (Alabama) by the cavalry of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, and interned in a number of confederate prison camps, including the notorious Andersonville in Georgia, where he was freed near the end of the war. He lived until 1908.

John H. Hagerty, 43rd Ohio OVI, Company C, the first cousin of James and Sarah Jane Hathaway (all raised on the same farm, and the same age as Sarah Jane. Died of disease 1864 in Alabama, at age 18.

John Hagerty, the uncle of James and Sarah Jane Hathaway, (the younger brother of their mother), killed in action according to family tradition. He was in his thirties, married and had been a school teacher. Death date unknown. He may have been in the 43rd Regiment, or the 69th Regiment, as a John Hagerty appears on both of these muster lists.

William Conrad Wile. 150th New York State Infantry. Survived the war.

Note. From census data, it seems that all of the Gamble, Hathaway and Hagerty men lived close to each other. The Gambles lived on adjacent farms or were perhaps separated by a very short distance, as was the case for the Hagertys. William Gamble and James Hathaway enlisted within a day of each other in the same regiment and company. A younger sister of Sarah Jane, Alice (the namesake for who Aunt Alice may have been) lived as a young girl in the home of the older John Hagerty, as did Sarah Jane's grandfather, James Hagerty.

Three family men survived the war. Four died.

It is said that Grandpa Gamble didn't discuss the war with his children.