 |
| General Assembly Session Record (NC) (1891) -- A bill to be entitled an act
for the relief of J.J. Bennett of Ashe County – “having right arm off below the
elbow, and left hand off with the exception of two fingers” |
The outcomes of any war are often great losses of
life and “limb.”
For losses of
life we check probate records, cemetery records, etc.
What about for a
lost limb? If the soldier (or wife or
children) lived long enough (and/or were poor enough) we might find a pension
record that mentions a lost limb.
Sometimes compiled service records will mention that a soldier is in
hospital and the nature of that stay (possibly) a lost limb. Or a newspaper
article might suggest a grievous injury to a limb.
Like today,
after the Civil War (and other conflicts and my focus is the Civil War), soldiers
who lost limbs had an opportunity to receive artificial limbs. A difference is that many credit the Civil
War as the real genesis of artificial limbs, The Civil War and the Birth of the U.S Prosthetics Industry.
As with other
Civil War records you will need to know whether your ancestor was a Union or Confederate soldier.
Records of
artificial limbs for Union Civil War Veterans are found in NARA NARA
I have
researched Artificial Limbs for Confederate Civil War Veterans where qualifying
soldiers were offered limbs or money.
For many reasons, many soldiers accepted money in lieu of artificial
limbs (even if physically able to make use of such).
 |
| NC State Auditor, Register of Artificial Limbs (1866-1870) left side |
As an example,
in NC, I tracked one soldier J.J. Bennett through the support services
available in the post Civil War and found mention of him in the listed papers
and his mutilated arm (qualifying for an Artificial Limb) as noted by [Q]. This
is a reminder to do try and exhaustively search for the extant paperwork for
your soldier. The papers for J.J. were
found at both state and county level as his civil war records reference four
different counties where he lived in the immediate post Civil War time period.
+ [Q] Newspaper
article about Chancellorsville May & June 1863 – “J.J. Bennett, in hand,
severe”
+ [Q] Army of
the Confederate States, Certificate of Disability for Retiring Invalid Soldiers
(1865) [part of compiled service record] – “Gun Shot wound Requiring Amp. of
right arm”
+ [Q] State
Auditor, Register of Artificial Limbs (1866-1870) & Register of Pensioners
(1879-1884) – “arm below elbow” received payment 1 April 1867
+ [Q] General
Assembly Session Records (1891) – A bill to be entitled an act for the relief
of J.J. Bennett of Ashe County – “having right arm off below the elbow, and
left hand off with the exception of two fingers”
+ [Q] Soldiers
Pension Application (Joseph J. Bennett) (1892 & 1901) – “his right arm off
below the elbow”
+ [Q] Soldiers
Home Application (1901) – “wounds right arm below elbow”
+ Ashe County
NC
 |
| NC State Auditor, Register of Artificial Limbs (1866-1870) right sid |
+ Widows Pension
Application (Susan M Bennett) (1914) – note that we can only prove that she lived
with J.J. before the Civil War (and that’s another story) & her application
makes no mention of his disabilities
Though not found
for J.J., I would also suggest checking hospital records (held at NARA NARA
As for NC, other
states where the Confederate Army raised troops, also looked after their
Confederate soldiers as the war concluded.
+ [Mississippi
And, as you can
see, there are many places where one might learn that an ancestor could have
had an artificial limb which information you can then use to do further
research into the applicable records (Federal for Union soldiers and
State-level for Confederate soldiers).
Does your state have a great
resource that documents Civil War soldiers and their need for artificial limbs?
Did your ancestor have a limb
amputated?
Have you acquired his paperwork?
What was the most interesting tidbit
you learned?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
copyright © National
Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia
22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NGS does not imply
endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog.
Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily
reflect the view of NGS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Republication
of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for
non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a
note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written
permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles
for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission
to [email protected]. All republished articles may not be
edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom
of each UpFront article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Think your friends,
colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post
interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suggestions for
topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send
any suggested topics to [email protected]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unless indicated
otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Want to learn more
about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks,
Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment