Military Monday -- Samuel Carpenter

Samuel Carpenter (1828 - 1904)

My 2X great grandfather, Samuel Carpenter, was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts in 1828.  He was one of the fourteen children of Joseph and Nancy (Bullock) Carpenter.  He had a twin sister, Jane Buffum Carpenter, who died in 1830 not quite three months shy of three years old.  Sam, his older brother William Wallace Carpenter (b. 1826), and his younger brother Newton Francis Carpenter (b. 1831), were the three brothers (out of nine) who were referred to as “three boys of the most undesirable ages” in Emily Aplin’s November 1842 letter of eviction to Joseph and Nancy Carpenter when she accused Joseph of being a “Dorrite.” [See, the January  14, 2013 posts here and here on The Prism.]

Samuel was thirty-three years old, married to Ruth Ann Miller, and the father of two young children (Samuel Eber b. 1853 and Abby Laura b. 1859) when he was enrolled in Company H, 14^th Regiment of the United States Infantry on July 16, 1861 for three years of service in the Union Army.  He was discharged in Alexandria, Virginia with the rank of Corporal by reason of a “Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability” on January 13, 1863.  There was indication on his discharge paper that he was not fit for re-enlistment.  [Other records indicate that his wound was a gun shot wound to the right thigh contracted in May 1862 at Bull Run, Va.]  The reverse side of his discharge paper states that pursuant to “Act of July 1861” Samuel was paid a $100 bounty “for wounds rec’d in Battle.”  It also states that on July 26, 1886 Samuel was again paid a bounty of $100.  This is despite a notation on the front upper left corner of the discharge paper that sates, “No evidence that wound was rec’d in battle.”

Samuel spent the last ten years of his life living in Togus, Maine at the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.  He died there on December 28, 1904 and his body was shipped home to Cumberland, Rhode Island where he is buried.

The Togus Home for soldiers (often referred to simply as "Togus") began with the purchase of the former Togus Springs Hotel by the federal government in 1866 for $50,000.  It began operations as the “Eastern Branch of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers” on October 6, 1866.  The name was changed to “National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers” in 1872.  By the time of Samuel’s death there in the closing days of 1904, the population of the facility had peaked at almost 2,800 veterans.  Men who resided there lived mostly in dormitories, although there were cottages for some.

Eastern Branch of the National Asylum
for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers ca. 1891

My lineage from Samuel Carpenter 

Generation 1:    Samuel Carpenter m. Ruth Ann Miller

                          (1) Samuel Eber Carpenter ((1853 - 1929)

                          (2) Abby Laura Carpenter (1859 - 1929)

                          (3) Nancy Bishop Carpenter (1864 - 1928)

Generation 2:    Samuel Eber Carpenter m. Sarah Etta Freeman

                          (1) Ruth Ann Carpenter (1889 - 1920)

                          (2) Everett Shearman Carpenter (1891 - 1962)

Generation 3:    Everett Shearman Carpenter m. Ruth Eaton Cooke

                            (my grandparents)

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For more information on Togus, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togus,_Maine 

Eastern Branch of the National Soldiers Home in Togus, Maine  (1891). Lithograph created by A.B. Graham Co. ca. 1891.  No known restrictions on publication.  Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC 20540 USA.  http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003688758/ 

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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