Fort Zachary Taylor on the coast of Key West, Florida, engraved engraved between 1861 and 1865. Courtesy of U.S. Library of Congress.
Research into my great-great-great-uncle Willet Rathbun’s experience as a Union soldier in the Civil War is leading me to many sad stories. This is an appropriate one to share for Memorial Day.
Willet died of yellow fever on June 15, 1864, while his regiment, 110th New York Infantry, was on garrison duty in Key West Fla. The Union stronghold in Key West was of great strategic importance but also was the site of horrific outbreaks of yellow fever.
Willet’s parents, Job and Electa Rathbun of Parish, N.Y., would be informed of their son’s death by a letter from C. Gardner, 1st Lieut. Company K of the 110th NY volunteers. “He was a good soldier and always done his duty under the most trying of circumstances,” Gardner wrote of Willet. Toward the end of the letter he added these words:
“Since we came here we have lost six of our best men. No one can tell who will be called next…”
C. Gardner would die eight days after Willet.
His service records indicate he died of “disease” C. (Chauncy) Gardner was 28 years old, according to military records.
Like Willet, Chauncy was from Parish, N.Y. Before the war, Chauncy was a farmer. His 100 acre Northern New York farm included three horses, two oxen, eight cattle, eight sheep, and six pigs, according to the agriculture census of 1860. He grew crops including corn and oats.
“Lieut. G. was a most efficient officer, and much beloved by all his Company,” Chauncy’s hometown paper, the Mexico (N.Y.) Independent, stated on July 21, 1864, in reporting his death from yellow fever. What's more, Chauncy had a younger brother, Charles (about Willet’s age) who died in a New Orleans hospital while serving in Company K in 1863.
Tragedy abounded.
Chauncy Gardner's service record.
This is an occasional blog entry about the Civil War and my great-great-great-uncle Willet Rathbun (1844-1864) of the 110th New York Infantry. I am researching Willet and his experience for a book.
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