Casualties of War
Many descendants of George and Hannah Abbott served in the Civil War, nearly all of them on the Union side, although there were a few who served in the Confederate forces. Perhaps as many as twenty (or more) died as a result of participation in the war either killed in battle, died of disease, or died subsequent to discharge from wounds received during the war. Just of a few of these casualties of war are described here.
A Family Loses Two Sons
Joshua (Joshua4, Nathaniel3, Nathaniel2, George1) and Eliza (Kimball) Abbott were the parents of seven children all born at Concord. The father Joshua was an itinerant preacher who died in Norfolk, Virginia in 1824 while there preaching. Two of the sons in this family died in the war. The oldest son, Joshua Kimball Abbott, was a sutler of the Iowa Infantry. A sutler was a civilian who provisioned troops. Joshua died at Cairo, Illinois, 4 February 1863 while returning from a trip to the front. The sixth child in the family, Charles Henry Abbott, was a Colonel in the 30th Iowa Infantry. He was killed in battle 22 May 1863 near Vicksburg.
Parents Lose Their Only Two Children
Mary Scott (Bethiah Ames Scott5, Robert Ames4, Hannah Stevens Ames3, Elizabeth Abbott Stevens2, George1) and her husband Charles L. Fuller had one son and one daughter born at Peterborough, New Hampshire. Both children died during the war within one month of each other.
Daughter Mary Sophia was born in 1830 and married Colonel Charles Scott. Colonel Scott was in the 6th New Hampshire Volunteers. His wife Mary Sophia had gone to visit him near the front in August 1862. Colonel Scott, Mary Sophia, and many ill/convalescing soldiers were traveling on the steamer West Point from Newport News when there was a collision on the Potomac River between the West Point and the Peabody. Mary Sophia, two other women, and seventy-three soldiers were drowned.
Son Charles L. Fuller, born 1832, was a Lieutenant with the 6th New Hampshire Volunteers. He was wounded at the second Battle of Bull Run 29 August 1862 and died of his wounds 11 September 1862.
Killed in the Last Month of the War
Nelson Abbott (James6, James5, Isaac4, Ebenezer3, John2, George1) was born in 1839 and lived in Stow, Maine with his wife Lizzie Whiting. He enlisted as a private in the 54th Pennsylvania Infantry. He was killed in the Battle of Petersburg on 2 April 1865. Nelson and Lizzie had one son who was named Fred but went by the name of Nelson after his father's death. Young Nelson was raised by his grandfather James F. Abbott after mother Lizzie abandoned the family.
A Young Man Dies of Disease
Page M. Gove (Rebecca Cate Gove6, Rebecca Chamberlain Cate5, Rebecca Abbott Chamberlain4, Rebecca Abbott Abbott3, Nathaniel2, George1) enlisted in Company D of the 103rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteers on 12 August 1862 when he was 20 years old. He died at a hospital in Frankfort, Kentucky 7 March 1863.
A Young Nurse Dies at Age 19
Carrie E. Cutter (Calvin Cutter6, Mary Batchelder Cutter5, Rebecca Abbott Batchelder4, Joseph3, Nathaniel2, George1) was born 29 July 1842 the daughter of Dr. Calvin Cutter. Carrie was well educated having attended Mt. Holyoke Seminary. Her father was an Army surgeon with the 21st Massachusetts Volunteers. At Carrie's insistence, she was permitted to join her father at Annapolis in October 1861. She was on the steamship Northerner during action at Roanoke Island. Based on the ship, she provided nursing care to sick and wounded soldiers. She developed a fever and died on the Northerner in the harbor at New Bern, North Carolina on 24 March 1862.
Sources:
Photo Credit: "Battle of Gaines Mill, Valley of the Chickahominy, Virginia, June 27, 1862." Artwork by Prince de Joinville. 111-BA-1507. National Archives Identifier: 530495
Correspondence of the Associated Press. Acquia Creek, Va., Thursday, Aug. 14. [1862], "Dreadful Disaster on the Potomac"
Gove, The Gove Book
Morrison, History of the Kimball Family in America
Smith, History of the Town of Peterborough, Hillsborough, New Hampshire
U.S., Registers of Deaths of Volunteers, 1861-1865
