Allen S. Shattuck was born in 1839 in Pittsfield, Washtenaw County, Michigan, the son of Asa (1807-1889) and Adaline (b. 1813).
New Hampshire native Asa married New Yorker Adaline in 1835. Soon afterwards, probably around 1838, Asa moved his family to Michigan, possibly from New York, settling in Pittsfield, Washtenaw County by 1839. By 1840 Asa was still living in Pittsfield, Washtenaw County, eventually settling in Lansing in 1850 where he worked as a cooper and Allen attended school with his siblings (two of whom, Daniel and Nelson would also join the Old Third).
By 1860 Allen was probably a farm laborer working for James Finch in Sheridan, Calhoun County, and living with his family in Lansing’s Second Ward, where his father was a “mover of buildings.” Late that same year or perhaps in early 1861 Allen became a member of the Lansing militia company called the “Williams’ Rifles,” whose members would serve as the nucleus of Company G.
Allen stood 5’10” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 22 years old and probably still living in Lansing when he enlisted in Company G on May 10, 1861; his older brother Daniel and younger brother Nelson would join Company G the following year.
During the retreat from Bull Run on July 21, 1861, Allen noticed the regimental colors had been left behind and took it upon himself to rescue them. Lieutenant James Ten Eyck of Company G described the particular “bravery of Allen Shattuck, a Private in company G, and son of Captain Shattuck, of this place [Lansing], who had the honor of saving the Regimental colors” during the recent action at Bull Run. “It appears that the U. S. Regimental flag of the Mich 3d had been planted upon a battery and was left by the color Sergeant, thro’ accident. Shattuck was on picket guard and came in after the retreat of the Regiment. He prevailed upon those who were with him to assist him in taking down the flag staff, when they left. Nothing daunted, he tore the flag from the staff, coolly wrapped it up, turned to the enemy's cavalry which were only about fifteen rods distant, put his fingers to his nose in K. K. style, and then overtook the Regiment some 80 rods in advance of him.”
Probably as a consequence of his actions, Shattuck was promoted to eighth Corporal of the company. Frank Siverd of Company G wrote in early August that Allen “deserved the promotion. He has distinguished himself on several occasions, last particularly on the 21st of July, by mounting to the top of an old building and cutting away the flag staff, thereby preventing the Michigan 3d from wearing the dishonor of turning their backs to the stars and stripes. On our expedition to Bull's Run our Regimental colors were not unfurled from the time we left the Potomac until we retreated. If the same bearer and guard are to be retained the ladies of Grand Rapids need never fear that the colors they presented us with so much pomp and ceremony will ever be taken by the rebels, as there is not the least fear that they will ever get sight of them, nor will there be an opportunity for any of the brave members of the 3d to either distinguish or have themselves extinguished, in defense of our Regimental standard.”
Shattuck was indeed a risk-taker. According to Siverd, at about 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning, September 27, 1861, Shattuck, along with Privates Abram Shear and Amsey C. Johnson, “ventured beyond the lines, and incautiously leaving cover and appearing in an open lot, they were sighted by a rebel rifleman and Johnson became his victim. He was shot with a minie ball, in the right leg, about half way between the knee and ankle. The ball struck the inner angle of the tibia, and completely shattered both bones. Several pieces of bone come entirely out and lay in his stocking. Shattuck and Shear carried him to our lines and a Surgeon was immediately sent for.”
Sometime in early 1862 Allen was probably taken sick, and by the first of June of 1862, he was reported to be “recovering his health.” In fact, on June 2 he left the hospital at Yorktown and returned to the company. Homer Thayer of Company G wrote the following day that Shattuck reported to “Sergt. J. B. Ten Eyck as getting better, but not yet able to return to duty.” Shattuck had returned to duty by the time he was wounded slightly during the action at Second Bull Run on August 29, 1862. On June 12, 1889, during the dedication of the Michigan monuments at Gettysburg, Allen gave an address recollecting the movements of the Third Michigan during the Gettysburg campaign.
July 1 [he said] we went into camp on the grounds of St. Joseph’s Academy at Emmitsburg and remained there for the night, but were astir at an early hour on the morning of July 2, making a forced march of twelve miles to Gettysburg, while the almost death-like stillness on all side as we moved along foreboded the storm that was to break upon our heads so soon. On reaching Gettysburg, or the scene of action near that place (for the regiment never saw the village) we were halted and informed that we could get our dinner, which we set about as promptly as we could, but again disappointment met our wishes and needs, for before the water for our coffee had begun to boil we were ordered to fall in, and in quick time moved on our back track, or in the direction from which we had just come. We halted for a few minutes in the peach orchard, where there was a small force of cavalry sitting uneasily in their saddles, but soon we were ordered forward to support the sharpshooters, who were on the skirmish line. But hardly had the battle opened when it was found necessary to lengthen the skirmish line, when we were ordered forward on the right of the sharpshooters, while they were crowded to the left to near or into Little Round Top. In this position, unsupported by even any excuse for troops, we fought and even gained considerable ground, which we held until the right had been broken and a large force of the enemy were pouring down across our right flank. Still the “Old Third” held on, until Gen. De Trobriand, riding onto the line unattended by staff or orderly, commanded us to change front to right, saying as he did so, “Third Michigan, change front to right. I give ze order tree or four times. Change quick, or you all be gobbled up; don’t you see you are flanked? Ze whole rebel army is in your rear.” And true it was, a very large force of the enemy had broken through on our right and were swarming across our right flank. Never did a regiment change its front in quicker time than did the “Old Third” on this occasion, all the time contending for the ground which the rebels were trying to reach, and after our lines were once more established we did hold them in check until reinforced, when they were driven from the field, and we retired a short distance to cook and eat our supper
But little sleep visited our eyes that night, for well we knew that lee was not whipped and would renew the conflict as soon as he could make his new plans, which had been upset by Gen. Sickles’ prompt action this day. We were kept under arms all night, and long before daylight were in line awaiting the attack which we knew would come and expected every moment, but, having failed to carry this point, Lee turned his attention in another direction, thinking to catch someone napping, but again he found Michigan on guard and was confronted by Custer and his Michigan Brigade of Cavalry, and was again driven from his desired position. But having cast his lot here, he must fight or surrender, and to Gen. Lee, surrender was an unknown term, so he chose to carry out his plans, hoping by desperate attacks to force the army of the Potomac from their position, and thinking that his cavalry had carried out their part of the program, he opened upon us from all the guns he could train upon our position. It has been said there were 125 of them belching forth their thunder and showering their iron hail upon our lines of infantry and batteries which had not been equaled except, perhaps, at Malvern Hill and Fredericksburg. They continued this terrific fire until our batteries were silenced, as they supposed, then came those veterans of Longstreet’s corps in solid column from their rendezvous, direct toward the position still occupied by the ‘Old Third’ and the one they had tried so hard to carry the day before.
Everyone believed this was his intention, for once in possession of these heights and the Army of the Potomac was done for. Our lines were quickly formed, our batteries put into the best position for defense, and everything was in readiness to receive their onslaught; but disappointment again awaited us, for on reaching the low ground halfway between their starting point and our line, they broke by the left flank, and at a run made their way to the front of Cemetery Hill and charged that with all the courage born of desperation. But with such courage of the flower of his army Lee was doomed to see that idol of the South wither and fall as the grass before the scythe, for our officers were quick to interpret that movement as the rebels themselves, and battery after battery changed their position, those that could not get a new position changed their direction of fire, and every soldier absolutely not necessary for picket duty was put on the run by the right flank. The distance being shorter than the one the rebels had taken made up for the advantage they had of being first in motion. When they did strike our lines of artillery, which were now pouring grape and canister into their lines with terrible effect, our lines of infantry numbered nearly fifty to contend for the possession of those guns and heights, and well did that infantry do its duty, holding the rebels back at the point of the bayonet, while the gunners double-shotted their guns and poured the contents upon the advancing columns. In this famous charge the “Old Third” formed the tenth line of battle, and while they did not fire a shot they received their share from the enemy’s guns and did their duty in holding this very important point. Having vanquished the enemy, large details were made from many regiments. Here again the “Old Third” came in for their full share of carrying and caring for the wounded and prisoners, working all night to get the wounded rebels into comfortable quarters.
On the morning of the fourth of July a detail was made to feel the enemy’s position, but were soon recalled and removed to the old position they had held up to their call to assist in holding the heights on the afternoon of the third. Here they remained inactive, except details to bury the dead, until the morning of the seventh they advanced by way of Emmitsburg, Frederick City and Middletown, and recrossed the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry on the 17th; crossed the Shenandoah and marched around the mountain and up the eastern slope, until near Leesburg and halted for the night. The march was continued without incident of any great consequence till the morning of the 23rd, when, after an all night’s march, we found ourselves nearly through Manassas Gap, and after a hasty breakfast we deployed our skirmishers and commenced our advance upon the -- not rebels, for they were too far away to be reached even by cannon shot, but we could see them on the mountains several miles away and tried to shoot them but had the satisfaction of seeing our bullets ground on the mountain side a long distance below them.
This ends the Gettysburg campaign, and standing here in this Peach Orchard today, where we stood twenty-six years ago, though under very different circumstances, I look upon this small band of heroes, a remnant of that noble band of patriots who filed out from their pleasant camp at Grand Rapids, Mich., just twenty-eight years tomorrow morning, the largest [?] infantry regiment in point of numbers that was sent from our State, and allowing my mind to run backwards, I take in the pleasant ride to Washington, one month of preparation at Chain Bridge, the march to Bull Run, our baptism in the art of war on the field at Blackburn’s ford, the retreat to Arlington, our daily toil building fortifications, the pleasant camp in Michigan [should read “Camp Michigan”] during the winter of ‘61 and ‘62, the Peninsular campaign, Yorktown, Williamsburg and Fair Oaks, where we left many of the noblest sons of Michigan to enrich the soil of the Old Dominion, the disastrous nine days from June 25 to July 4, in which Gen. McClellan made his masterly change of base from the Pamunkey to the James at Harrison Landing; the second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and thence to his memorable field; again I see the long line of patriots who have laid down their lives that the nation might live, and turning I behold this beautiful granite monument erected to the memory of the men who fell not alone on this field, but on every battlefield on which the ‘Old Third’ took part, and that stone tells a tale of the heroism of as brave and noble band of patriots as every shouldered a musket in any cause, and ages after the last man who took an active part in this struggle has passed away, the traveler will pause as he approaches this spot and, reading this inscription “from Bull Run to Appomattox,” may exclaim: What volumes would that fill if properly written!”
Allen reenlisted on December 24, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Lansing, Third Ward, was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864, and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February. He was shot in the right elbow on May 6, 1864, at the Wilderness, Virginia, and subsequently hospitalized (at the same time that his brother Daniel was wounded slightly).
He was still absent wounded when he was transferred to Company F, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, and was reported absent wounded through September. In fact, by late June he was home in Lansing on a furlough, “awaiting the healing of his arm, which was shattered by a ball.”
Allen was discharged on September 28, 1864, at Finley hospital in Washington, DC, for “resection of right elbow joint.”
After he was discharged from the army Allen returned to Lansing where he lived the rest of his life.
He married Engish-born Emma (1844-1906), and they had had at least eight children: Isabelle (b. 1868), Arthur (b. 1869), Timothy A. (b. 1871) Louis (b. 1876), Mrs. Frank Van Hinck, Mrs. Louis Storrs, Mrs. R. H. Menhinick and Mrs. Gillet Valentine.
By 1870 he was working as a painter and living with his wife and two children in Lansing’s Third Ward. (His parents as well as his brother Nelson were also living in the Third Ward in 1870.) although one source also reported that upon returning to Michigan form the war he took a position in the US Post Office where he wroked for some 15 years. He also reportedly served 10 years in the Michigan Adjutant general’s Office. (This is possibly when he worked on the official history of the Old Third Michigan history.)
He was working as a painter and living in Lansing’s Sixth Ward in 1880 along with his wife and children (two doors down lived his brother Nelson). Allen was living in Lansing in 1884 when he attended the Sixth Annual Reunion of the Soldiers and Sailors, at Battle Creek, Calhoun County. He was residing in the Sixth Ward in 1890 and at 1117 Lee Street in 1906, 1910, 1911 and 1919.
Allen was the “one selected by the state to do the interior decorating of the capitol dome and the blue vault and gold stars. . . .”
Allen was a very active member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, and for many years was the recognized “Regimental Association Historian.” At the association reunion held in Lansing in December of 1884 he served as Toastmaster, and during the banquet for the Twentieth reunion of the association in mid-December of 1891 he gave a presentation on the Regiment’s history, which was “a continuation of the previous one by him. It was full of reminiscences of the career of the Regiment, speaking particularly of the campaign at Fair Oaks [Virginia]. He spoke lovingly of the gallant Phil Kearny, their old leader.”
The following year, at the Twenty-first reunion of the Association, “Historian” Shattuck “made a sketch of the Battle of Chancellorsville, as seen from his own personal standpoint.” In 1893 Allen “took up the thread of his narrative of the Regiment’s deeds where he dropped it a year ago as they were leaving the field. He carried it forward to Gettysburg, where it was again left for another year.” According to the Grand Rapids Herald, he “took a half hour in relating the story of the work of the Regiment at Gettysburg. [He] criticized historians for not more specifically mentioning by name a Regiment which did some of the best fighting and held a position in the face of deadly fire, and probably gained the day for the union.”
In 1894, during the evening’s banquet held by the Association, Allen “was the first speaker and he gave several chapters of exciting incidents in the active service of the Regiment.” At the annual Association reunion banquet on December 17, 1895, he “gave a partial history of [the Regiment’s] movements,” and indeed, by now Shattuck’s comments became something of an annual tradition.
On December 17, 1896, the Herald and the Grand Rapids Democrat both reported that “A. S. Shattuck of Lansing, as is his custom at each meeting, gave reminiscences of the war, picturing in an impressive manner the action taken by the Regiment in the first day of the battle of the Wilderness. He stated that it is a mistake as printed in the histories that the battle began at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, for from a record he made in his diary at the time and his personal recollection, he knows that it began at 1 o'clock and lasted until midnight, after which it took three hours to bury the dead. At the next session he will take up a description of the second day's battle.” The following year, during the association banquet Shattuck “gave a graphic description of the engagement and the death of 2nd Lieutenant [Milton] Leonard of Company F.”
According to the report from the Thirty-third annual reunion of the Association, held on June 30, 1904, Shattuck “was authorized to correct the records of the Regiment, now being prepared at Lansing.” This referred to the official state history series known generally as the “Brown books,” then being prepared by the State of Michigan. However, for reasons which remain unclear, the following year during the annual association business meeting, Allen reported that he had in fact been unable to correct the official history then in the process of being published. We know that his wife died in 1906 so he may have been preoccupied during the last ye4ar or so of her life.
In any case, this was unfortunate since the present official history reflects inaccuracies and and incompleteness which would not have existed had it been proofed by Allen who must have possessed the historical information on the regiment and its men needed to produce a thorough and proper history.
In 1909 he was still providing the wartime anecdotes during the annual Association evening banquet and, according to the Herald, “gave a splendid account of some of the trying days of the war.” The following year he was elected president of the Association, and during the banquet held that evening he “gave a short history of the Old Third as he saw it personally.”
Allen was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic Charles Foster post no. 42 in Lansing, and a witness in the pension application of Orville Ingersoll of Company G.
In 1864 Shattuck himself applied for and received a pension (no. 35,613), dated November of 1866, drawing $18.00 per month in 1883 for a wounded right elbow.
After an illness of some four months, Allen died of “old age” at his home on 1117 Lee Street in Lansing, on March 26, 1919, and was buried on March 29 in Mt. Hope cemetery, Lansing: 6-29-C.
Daniel W. Shattuck was born in 1838 in Michigan, probably in Washtenaw County, the son of Asa (1807-1889) and Adaline (1813-1888).
New Hampshire native Asa married New Yorker Adaline in 1835. Soon afterwards, probably around 1838, Asa moved his family to Michigan, possibly from New York, and by 1840 Asa was still living in Pittsfield, Washtenaw County, eventually settling in Lansing in 1850 where he worked as a cooper and Allen attended school with his younger siblings (two of whom, Allen and Nelson would also join the Old Third).
By 1860 Daniel was a fireman and engineer living with his family in Lansing’s Second Ward. According to his brother Allen Daniel was apparently with a woman named Lavina Cory, possibly since around Christmas of 1860, and they resided together until he enlisted in 1861. Allen was unsure whether or not they were married but he claimed years later that he was under the impression that they were.
In fact, according to another source, they were not married although they had been living together as man and wife. Mrs. Marietta Mises, a friend of the Shattuck family in Lansing both before and during the war, stated in that she “was present at an interview between Daniel . . . and Lavina Cory at the city of Lansing sometime in 1862 and the last time Daniel Shattuck came home in which conversation the said Daniel Shattuck said to Lavina Cory that he had wronged her and was willing to make it right as near as he could, and would marry her and make her his wife and asked me to go with them and witness the marriage; Lavina then and there refused to intermarry with Daniel and that after the death of” Daniel Lavina “told this affiant that she was sorry that she had not married” him.
Daniel stood 5’10” with blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion and was 22 years old and still living in Lansing when he enlisted Company C, First U.S. Sharpshooters, along with his younger brother Asa, on August 21, 1861, for three years, at Detroit, and was mustered on August 26. (The First U.S. Sharpshooters were comprised of companies from several different states; Michigan was represented in Companies C, I and K.)
By September most of the companies of the regiment were concentrated at Weehawken, New Jersey, but on September 24-25 they were moved to Washington, and were mustered into service on November 29. The regiment participated in the defenses of Washington through the winter of 1861-62. Daniel was discharged for disability on January 8, 1862, at Washington, DC.
Daniel returned to his wife in Michigan, probably to Lansing. He reentered the service in Company G, Third Michigan along with his younger brother Nelson and joining another younger brother Allen, on August 9, 1862, at Lansing for 3 years, crediting Lansing’s Third Ward, and was mustered the same day at Detroit. Daniel joined the Regiment on September 9 at Upton’s Hill, Virginia, and was sick in the hospital from October of 1863 through May of 1864. He returned to the Regiment and according to one report received a slight wound along with his brother Allen during the recent actions in early May at the Wilderness, Virginia or he was wounded severely in the hand and left leg.
Daniel was transferred to Company F, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, and taken prisoner on June 22, 1864, near Petersburg, Virginia.
He died on April 26, 1865, “from barbarous treatment in prison” (probably from disease), or he may have died on September 17, 1864, as a prisoner-of-war in Columbia, South Carolina, and if so was presumably buried among the unknown Union prisoners-of-war at Columbia.
Daniel’s “widow” resided with his parents for two or three years after his death. His parents were living in Lansing’s Third Ward in 1870.
In July of 1887 his mother Adaline applied for a pension (no. 357731).
Lavina eventually moved to Ionia County, married a Mr. Swanger, and after he died returned to Lansing. She eventually married a second time to a Mr. Fuller and they settled in Lamont, Ottawa County. In 1888 Lavina wrote to the Pension office, apparently replying to an inquiry about whether or not she and Daniel had ever been married. “I will say,” she replied, “that our marriage was a mutual agreement between us, that we would be husband and wife to each other so long as we both lived. We considered that sufficient as the laws of Michigan recognize marriage to be a civil contract.”
Nelson T. Shattuck was born in 1841 in Michigan. the son of Asa (1807-1889) and Adaline (b. 1813).
New Hampshire native Asa married New Yorker Adaline in 1835. Soon afterwards, probably around 1838, Asa moved his family to Michigan, possibly from New York, and by 1840 Asa was still living in Pittsfield, Washtenaw County, eventually settling in Lansing in 1850 where he worked as a cooper and Allen attended school with his siblings (two of whom, Allen and Daniel would also join the Old Third). It is possible that Nelson was living and working in Whiteford, Monroe County, Michigan in 1860.
In any case, Nelson stood 5’11” with blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion and was a 21-year-old farmer living in Lansing’s Third Ward when he enlisted in Company G, along with his older brother Daniel (and joining another older brother Allen who had enlisted the previous year), on August 9, 1862, at Lansing for 3 years, crediting Lansing’s Third Ward, and was mustered the same day at Detroit.
He joined the Regiment on September 8 at Upton’s Hill, Virginia, and was a Corporal when he was wounded on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville, Virginia. According to one member of Company G, Shattuck had a finger shot off. One report listed him as being wounded a second time at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and in Summit House hospital in Philadelphia by mid-July, while another claimed in early July that he was wounded and in West’s Building hospital in Baltimore. In any case, Nelson was reported absent sick in the hospital from June through February of 1864.
Nelson eventually rejoined the Regiment and was apparently wounded a second (or third) time on May 5, 1864, at the Wilderness, Virginia, after which he he was hospitalized in Satterlee hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was still absent in the hospital when he was transferred to Company F, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, and remained absent wounded until he returned to duty on September 13. He was wounded severely a third (or fourth) time on October 27, 1864, probably at Boydton Plank road, Virginia, and subsequently hospitalized until he was discharged on February 18, 1865, at Alexandria, Virginia, as a consequence of his wounds.
Nelson eventually returned to Michigan.
He married Pennsylvania native Winnefred “Winny” (1846-1895), and they had at least seven children: Nellie (b. 1866), Asa (b. 1868), Carl (b. 1869), Adeline (b. 1871), Laura (b. 1873), Frank (b. 1876) and James (b. 1879).
By 1870 he was working as a laborer and living with his wife and children in Lansing’s Third Ward. (His parents as well as his brother Allen were also living in the Third Ward in 1870.) By 1880 Nelson was working as a laborer and living with his wife and children in Lansing’s sixth Ward (just two doors down lived his brother Allen). Nelson was living in Springport, Jackson County in 1883 when he was drawing $18.00 per month for a gunshot wound in the right arm and left hand (pension no. 39,804), but by 1890 he was residing in Lansing where he was living in 1911 and 1915.
Nelson may have been married to one Esther.
Nelson was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association and in May of 1914 he joined Grand Army of the Republic Charles Foster Post no. 42 in Lansing.
Nelson died a widower on September 19, 1921, in Lansing, and was buried on September 21 in Mt. Hope cemetery, Lansing: 5-203-D 1/2.
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