Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Edward Case

Edward Case was born 1838 in Dewitt, Clinton County, Michigan, the son of Nathan (b. 1805) and Emeline (b. 1816).

Edward’s parents were born in New York and moved to Michigan sometime before 1838, eventually settling in Clinton County by 1838. By 1840 Nathan was living in Clinton County and in 1850 Edward was attending school with his siblings and living with his family in Watertown, Clinton County, where his father worked a farm. By 1860 Edward was working as a farm laborer and living with his family on a farm in Riley, Clinton County.

Edward stood 5’6” with hazel eyes, brown hair and a sallow complexion, and was a 23-year-old farm laborer living in Clinton County when he enlisted on May 10, 1861, in Company G. (He may have been related to Alonzo Case who would join Company G in 1862.) In late may, shortly after Edward arrived in Grand Rapids and had joined the Third Michigan then forming at the old County fairgrounds south of the city, he became ill.

According to Frank Siverd of Company G, in early June of 1861, while the regiment was still at Cantonment Anderson near Grand Rapids, Edward was reported sick with the measles. He was, Siverd was quick to add, “well cared for. [Regimental Surgeon D. W.] Bliss leaves nothing undone that will contribute to the comfort of the sick. To prevent the disease spreading, as soon as the first symptoms appear,” Bliss had Edward along with several others “removed to the house of a physician, some three miles from camp.”

Several days later, shortly before the regiment left Michigan in June of 1861, Siverd wrote that Edward was still in the “measles infirmary”. And according to Captain John Price of Company G, who remained behind in Grand Rapids after the regiment left for Washington on June 13, in order to command the three dozen or so soldiers still sick in the city, Edward left with a squad of convalescents about two weeks later to join the regiment. Captain Price also reported some years later that Edward “went with the squad as far as Ionia, Michigan, and seeing that he was sick and unfit for travel," Captain Price told Edward to either go back to Grand Rapids or go home until he recovered.

Edward probably returned to Grand Rapids where he soon recovered, and on July 10 left with another convalescent squad, arriving in Washington DC on July 12 or 13 and joined the regiment on July 15 at Chain Bridge, Virginia.

Shortly after joining the regiment in the field near Blackburn's Ford in northern Virginia, on July 18, 1861, Edward took sick again, probably while the regiment was in the vicinity of Vienna, Virginia. He returned to the regimental camp at Chain Bridge. Captain Price stated later that he did not see Edward again for about two days or so after the battle of Bull Run on July 21.

Another member of Company G, Allen Shattuck, reported in 1880 however that he saw Edward carrying a wounded comrade off the field at Bull Run on July 21, 1861 and it was this time, claimed Shattuck, that Edward suffered a hernia. According to Siverd, as of November 27 Edward was convalescing in a hospital in Georgetown, and by December 10 Siverd wrote home to Lansing, that Edward was “permanently disabled”. Indeed he was reported admitted to Union hospital in Georgetown, probably around September 1, and was discharged for a hernia on November 29, 1861 at Fort Lyon, Virginia.

Following his discharge Edward returned to Michigan.

He was married to Michigan native Mary E. or Maryette (1845-1919), and they had at least four children: Zilpha (b. 1865), Harry (b. 1871), William (b. 1874) and Alice (b. 1879).

By 1870 Edward was working as a farmer and living with his wife and daughter in Olive, Clinton County, and by 1880 he was working as a farmer and living with his wife and children in Dallas, Clinton County. He was living in Olive in 1890 and 1894, in Fowler, Clinton County in 1901, 1906 and in 1909. By 1921 he was living at 1222 Chelsea Avenue in Lansing.

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association and joined Grand Army of the Republic Foster Post No. 42 in Lansing on June 19, 1918. He was also a member of Grand Army of the Republic Hutchinson Post No. 129 in Fowler, and Anderson Post No. 58 in Dewitt.
In 1878 he applied for and received a pension (no. 178,391).

Edward died a widower on October 31, 1924, in Olive, and was buried in Wilsey cemetery in Olive: section 11 C lot 10.

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