Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Thomas Conger

Thomas Conger was born 1839 in Oneida, New York.

Thomas had reportedly been residing in Olance, Huron County, Ohio shortly before the war broke out, and apparently arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just in time to enlist in the Third Michigan before it left the state.

He stood 5’10” with hazel eyes, brown hair and a light complexion, and was a 22-year-old nurseryman (or gardener) probably living in Grand Rapids when he enlisted in Company F on May 13, 1861. He was possibly a Sergeant when he was wounded in the hip on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run, and was subsequently absent wounded in the hospital. In November he was reported as an ambulance driver, and in December was a provost guard at Brigade headquarters where he remained through July of 1863.

In August of 1863 Thomas was reported as both a Sergeant and as "absent without leave" (AWOL), but he eventually returned to duty since he reenlisted on December 24, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Caledonia, Kent County. He was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February.

Thomas was transferred as a Sergeant to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He was shot in the right leg on June 16 near Petersburg, Virginia, and admitted to Armory Square hospital in Washington, DC on June 22 with a “gunshot fracture of the right thigh”. The hospital admission records listed him as a single man and that his nearest relative was a sister Carrie living in Olance, Ohio.

Thomas died of a fractured right thigh on July 1 in Armory hospital and was interred on July 3 in Arlington National Cemetery.

No pension seems to be available.

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