Sunday, October 07, 2007

Augustus Billings

Augustus Billings was born around 1841 or 1842, in New York, the son of J. D. (b. 1804) and Elizabeth (Todd, 1810-1888).

Connecticut native "J. D." and Massachusetts native Elizabeth settled in New York sometime after their marriage. The family moved from New York to Michigan sometime before 1850 (Augustus’ younger sister Mary was born in 1850 in Michigan) and by 1860 Augustus was living with his family in Lansing’s Second Ward where his father was a local merchant.

Augustus was 20 years old and possibly living in Clinton County or in Lansing when he enlisted on May 10, 1861, in Company G. (Company G, formerly the “Williams’ Rifles”, was made up predominantly of men from the Lansing area.) He was wounded by gunfire on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, and subsequently admitted as a single man to Douglas hospital (patient no. 882) in Washington, DC, where he died of his wounds on June 18, 1862. His funeral was held at 4:00 p.m. on June 18, attended by a military escort, and Augustus was buried in the Military Asylum cemetery (Soldier's Home National cemetery), section C no. 3933.

No pension seems to be available for his service in the Third Michigan. (There is a pension reported for one Augustus T. Billings of Company E, Seventeenth Michigan infantry, no. 135,555, dated 1865).

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