Military Monday-Gaskill Civil War Files

After a few speed bumps, and following some advice from Heather Rojo, I  received Everett Gaskill’s Compiled Military Service Record and his pension file from NARA.

The CMSR confirmed the basics of what I found online, but it did have more detail.  He received a bounty payment of $100 for a one-year enlistment.  He only served about 6 months because the War ended.  He mustered out at Fort Berry, VA, not even six miles from where I currently live.

His pension file had much more information.  Now I know why everyone gets so excited when they get these records. 

The first thing I noticed is that he had some difficulty getting his pension approved, but maybe every applicant had to go through the same thing.  He was rejected once after an application in August 1912, but then in January 1913, notarized paperwork was submitted and a tracing of his signature was furnished by the War Department.  He was approved for a pension of $15 per month.  Then again in July 1915, he resubmitted paperwork, perhaps to get an increase, because there followed an approval for an increase to $18 per month, effective July 1915. 

I’m sure it’s the applications that get everyone so excited.    It confirms his birth and marriage places and dates, the name of his wife, Mary E. Hinds, and indicated she died in 1897. It also had the names and birth dates of his children.  Additionally, it indicated there was no official or church record of his marriage--the certificate was lost in a fire.  No point in searching for that!  It confirmed Mary Etta had not been previously married.  It also gave the specific date, March 12, 1868, he moved from Owego, NY to Emporium, PA, meaning he was in Emporium for three years before his marriage back in New York.  I originally thought Everett followed the Hinds family to Emporium, but it seems to be the reverse—his in-laws followed them to Emporium. 

The final piece of information confirmed by the file was his death date of December 16, 1916.  He must have been paid quarterly as there was a notice of a returned check for $54 dated March 4, 1917.  The check was returned by the Postmaster with the information that he had died.

One thing I wasn’t able to confirm was whether or not he was a drummer boy.  The age of 19 seems old for that role, so I was hoping for a clue.  One clue that did come out of this led me to a peripheral story I’ll post on Thursday.

Seeing all this genealogical information made me sad that my great-great grandfather, Erastus Murray, was rejected after enlistment and never served in the Civil War.  When I think what I would have learned from pension papers to enable me to get past that brick wall in my research, well….

Military Monday-Compiled Military Service Records

Military Monday is designated for posting images, stories and records of service in various branches of the military. Military Monday is an ongoing series by Cindy at Everything’s Relative – Researching Your Family History.


Bad News, Good News, Good News, Unexpected News


I mentioned about two weeks ago that I found some information about two Civil War Army soldiers, Everett Gaskill and Erastus Murray, on ancestry.com and also that I had requested their Compiled Military Service Records from the National Archives & Records Administration. Because I found both soldiers in the New York Archive’s Civil War Muster Roll and Everett in the Pension Index, I assumed (bad girl) there would be compiled records to find.


Well, NARA got back to me very quickly on both. I thought Everett would be an easy find for them because, silly me, he existed in the family record. And I thought Erastus would be a tougher find because he is one of the mysteries in the family.


So first the bad news-They found nothing on Everett. Zilch. Nada. Zero. I was very disappointed.  Now the good news--I sent an email to NARA telling them I received a "negative search", but that I knew the soldier in question was in the Pension Index, in the NY muster rolls, and in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System.  I got a very quick response from NARA telling me they did, in fact, have a Compiled Military Service Record for Everett Gaskill.  They will be mailing copies to me!


Then still more good news-They found Erastus with my original request. And now I know what his signature looked like (and know for sure it was Murray, not Murry):

I’ve been trying to learn what happened in his life in the early 1860s that caused the family to fall apart.  What I learned from this record doesn’t solve the mystery, but it does provide a little snapshot of the time.  As I paged through the documents, I saw there was a summary page mentioning three enclosures: Certificate for Discharge, Enlistment Papers and Casualty (!) Sheet. 

I was fascinated by the Enlistment Papers because part of it was written in his hand—proof that he could read and write. But I know he lied about his age. On August 9, 1964, he would have been about 52, not the 45 he claimed. I wonder if he joined because he was desperate for money ($100) or maybe there was a quota that the recruiters needed to meet, so they all looked the other way.


Then came the Casualty Sheet—blank??? Wait, another Casualty Sheet on which he was listed as a Recruit: “Recommended for Discharge, by Med. Examig Board, at Elmira, NY, Oct. 1, 1864”. Only two months from the time of enlistment? What could have happened?


Then the Certificate of Disability for Discharge (the handwritten portion is shown in italic):

We certify that we have carefully examined the said  Erastus Murray   of Captain ________ Company, and find him incapable of performing the duties of a soldier because of…. Want of teeth.

The unexpected news, he enlisted for free tooth extractions???  And the Examining Physician didn't notice a dental problem in August??

Dadgummit.

Civil War Ancestors-One Young, One Old(ish)

Because April 12 is the the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War at Ft. Sumter, I'm sure the media this week will be covering the topic. To mark the occasion in my own manner, I decided to take a look at ancestry.com to see if there was anything new.  Neither a paternal great-great-grandfather, Erastus Murray, and a maternal great-grandfather, Everett Gaskill, both of whom were Union soldiers during the Civil War, show up in the online Compiled Service Records.  I'm crossing my fingers that the records I'd already requested from NARA will bear fruit. 


But I was excited that I found some new information on Erastus and Everett. In this new information, it was physical descriptions that caught my attention: 


Erastus had brown eyes, grey hair, was dark complected and was 5' 9-1/2" tall.  It also said he was 45, so he probably lied to join.  Census records over the years show he was born around 1811-1812, making him 52 or 53. And I was excited to see another source stating his place of birth as Cayuga County, but I'm still not convinced that's where he was born. 


Everett had blue eyes, light hair, had a fair complexion, and was 5' 5-1/2" tall. He was 19.

Original data: Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts of New York State Volunteers, United States Sharpshooters, and United States Colored Troops [ca. 1861-1900]. (microfilm, 1185 rolls).Albany, New York: New York State Archives.

This collection contains abstracts compiled from original muster rolls for New York State infantry units involved in the Civil War. The records have personal enlistment information and military service, as well as regiment engagements.  A New York state law passed in 1863 required a record be made and preserved with pertinent information of every New Yorker who had volunteered for service. In 1876, New York authorized funds to copy the muster-out rolls, which is where this collection came from.