Thursday, May 7, 2015

Civil War Soldier - William Wallace Court



   We just got back from a wonderful trip to the Charlottesville, Virginia, area to see family and join a tour of three Civil War Battlefields. This tour was arranged by some of my husband's college classmates. We had 110 participants and it was narrated and guided by a wonderful man, Dr. James McPherson. He is a former Professor at Princeton University and a Pulitzer prize-winning author and an expert on the Civil War. This man could answer ANY question about the Civil War you could ask. We visited Petersburg, Manassas and the Appomattox Courthouse and heard about the battles and loss of life.
   A real treat though, was the tour and dinner at Montpelier one evening. This was James Madison's home. We had a docent from Montpelier tell us how James Madison secured himself away in his library at the home for several months and read everything he could from other countries about how they set up their governments (he was proficient in several languages). This was the beginning of the "Virginia Plan" which eventually turned into the U.S. Constitution. It really brought home how much went into this process and how important the Constitution is to this country. Please refer to this website for more detail:
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/madison/aa_madison_father_1.html
   One of the reasons I was excited about this trip is that my paternal great-great grandfather, William W. Court served in the Civil War. I have written about the Court family in prior blog posts. And I wrote an article about the Court family of New York, in a publication called the Desert Tracker, from the West Valley Genealogical Society in Sun City, Arizona, which I refer to on my website (www.relativesintheattic.com). 
   William  Court (1842-1925), enlisted in the 147th Infantry Volunteers, 1st Corp., Wadsworth's Division, Co. K, on September 23, 1862, from Oswego, New York. He served until the end of the war and was discharged on July 15, 1865, in Washington, DC. He was made Sgt. at some point, and 1st Sgt. on January 1, 1865. But, he must have done something to make someone unhappy because he became just a Sgt. again on May 1, 1865. He saw battles in Chancellorsville (although some sources say the Regiment didn't actually fight in that one), Gettysburg and Rappahannock. His Co. was assigned to the 5th Army Corps starting in March of 1864 and was at the Siege of Petersburg, VA. There, according to his pension records I received from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in DC, he caught a terrible cold while on picket duty somewhere after the Hatcher's Run battle in early March, 1865. He suffered from Rheumatism after that, the effects which stayed with him the rest of his life. Initially, he was in a hospital in City Point, VA, before being transferred to Campbell Hospital in Washington, DC, in April of 1865. He was discharged from the service in July of that year. Therefore, he did not make it to Appomattox where Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Grant. It is amazing that he survived three years of fighting in the Civil War. We lost (the country) about 750,000 of OUR people during this war. Sad, indeed.
   So, we walked in areas in Petersburg where he did serve. I was able to follow his footsteps closely because of a book I  have digitally, by Thomas J. Ebert, Librarian Emeritus, California State University, Fresno, entitled: "147th New York Volunteer Infantry, September 22, 1862-June 7, 1865, The Oswego Regiment: A Documentary History." It is a detailed accounting of this Regiment during the war.
   The Beckington-McDougall family has at least five other soldiers who fought during the Civil War. Bruce's family has at least one that I have found so far - I am sure there are more. I will write about these soldiers in future posts.