Deeply Rooted
by Admin
Department of the Interior, Pension Office
15 June 1866
Sir:
Mr. George S. Thomas whose application for an invalid pension, No. 104.064, under the act of July 14, 1862, is pending in this office, must report himself for examination to Dr. E.R. Ellis of Grand Rapids, MI.
Respectfully yours,
Joseph H. Barrett, Commissioner
P.R.L. Pierce, Grand Rapids
by Admin
Name: Elam Branch, Sr.
Date: 24 July 1862
Rank: Private, Captain Hugo’s Company C, first Regiment of Excelsior Brigade
[See: Elam Branch Discharge.jpg]
“To all whom it may concern:
Know ye, that Elam Branch, private of Captain Hugo’s Company C, first Regiment of Excelsior Brigade, N.Y. volunteers who was enrolled on the 23rd day of May one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one to serve three years, is hereby Discharged from the service of the United States, this 24th day of July, 1862, at Detroit, Mich. by reason of a wound in the leg. Said Elam Branch was born in Lawrence in the State of Michigan, is twenty years of age, five feet seven inches high, light complexion, gray eyes, light hair, and by occupation, when enrolled, a farmer. Given at Detroit this 24th day of July, 1862. JR(?) Smith, Lt. Col. USA, Military Commander.
$100 Bounty Paid – March 23, 1866(?), by Maj. W.H. Jameson, Paymaster, USA.
$100 Bounty Paid Washington – May 21, 1868, A.d. Robinson, Paymaster USA, Act July 28, 1866.
Military photo of Elam Branch
http://haldigitalcollections.cdmhost.com/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/p4006coll3&CISOPTR=455&CISOBOX=1&REC=13
by Admin
Author: Marcus S. Nelson
Title: Pittsburg Landing [Battle of Shiloh]
Date: 1862
Curator: Christine Fisher
Note: hand-written poem of the Civil War battle at Pittsburg Landing, shortly before Marcus was killed in action
Copied by Francis M Jones a few days before the author’s death from the original manuscript; who belonged to the same mess with young Nelson.
Oh ‘tis beautiful, ‘tis beautiful
The noble Tennessee
Where it winds among the woodlands
And along the flowing lea;
But the blood of martyred patriots
Has dyed its waters red
Where it sweeps by bloody Pittsburgh
Dark Pittsburgh where they bled.
Twas a fearful scene of carnage
Where the opposing armies stood
Each resolved to win the victory
Or to drench the field with blood
And they fought with desperate valor
Those union soldiers brave
And full many fell at Pittsburgh
At Pittsburgh found a grave.
Where they rest in peaceful slumber
Beneath the traitors soil
Their battles all forgotten
Secure from care and toil.
But full many hearts are mourning
In their distant northern homes
For those who died at Pittsburgh
But bravely met their doom.
In full splendor broke the sunrise
On the fatal Sabbath morn
But its light was soon extinguished
By the rising battle storm.
Then the cannon loudly thundered
And bullets whistled past
And the ground red at Pittsburgh
With the life tide flowing fast.
Bravely fought our patriot soldiers
Firm they met the rebel hosts
But their forces was far outnumbered
And alas the day was lost
Stretched upon that field at sunset
Thousands slept in calm repose
Slept in peace at bloody Pittsburgh
Undistinguished – friends and foes.
That night on the field of battle
Those hostile forces lay
Prepared to renew the contest
By the mornings earliest ray;
Then again the smoke of conflict
Rolled fiercely over the field
And before our fire at Pittsburgh
The traitors ? phalanx reeled.
Awhile the rebels columns
Unbroken – firmly stood
Till their ranks were thinned with carnage
And the soil was red with blood
Then they willingly retreated
From the fray themselves had sought
And we conquered there at Pittsburgh
Though twas victory dearly bought.