At
the end of this month, it will be 154 years since my great great great uncle
Daniel Mott died fighting in the Civil War. Younger brother of our Diadamia
Mott, who married William Youngs and whose daughter Kate married Byron Baker,
Daniel was a farmer in Virgil, NY.
He
enlisted in the 76th NY Regiment, and by all accounts went missing in action on
August 28th, 1862 during the Battle of Brawner’s Farm, in the Second Battle of
Bull Run, also known as the Second Manassas.
We
have written about Daniel’s death here:
Our
Daniel mustered in as a private in 1861 in Cortland, NY at the age of
twenty-six. He was to serve a three year term in the 76th NY Regiment, Company
A. The Register of Enlistments records that our Daniel is six feet, one half
inch in height, with grey eyes, brown hair, and ‘florid’ complexion.
Marker for the 76th NY
Regiment at Brawner's Farm Field that day
Six
weeks before Daniel died, he wrote this letter to his older brother Samuel:
Camp opposite
Fredericksburg,Va.
Sunday,
July the 13th, 1862
Dear
Brother,
I
seat myself on my knapsack with pen in hand to inform you that I am well,
hoping this will find you all enjoying the same blessing. We are under marching
orders and have got our knapsacks all ready packed so as to start at 15 minutes
warning yet we may not start before tomorrow morning. I expect we will go to
Warrenton, Va. about 35 miles northwest of this place and near the blue ridge
mountains. There is quite a great many sick in the regiment. Nearly all that
are not able to march have been taken to the hospitals in Alexandria and
Washington last Sunday.
The
climate agrees with me very well but I dread the march. We have to carry so
much on our backs that I often wish I had the strength of Sampson of old. But I
can get along as well as most of the Reg.; then we are all toiling together and
if needs be will fight till our last drop of blood is spilled in defense of our
country. I hope the President’s call for 300,000 additional volunteers will be
promptly responded to and I think New York will fill up her quota of 50,000 men
without drafting but to do this every town and county ought to bear a share and
I think Virgil should spare a few more of her sons.
My
advice to any young man that can possibly leave home and whose health will
admit, is to enlist by all means. ‘What’ says some young man ‘leave at such a
busy time of year as this.’ Yes I say leave now when you are called for
and so much needed to help crush out this accursed rebellion for the
preservation of the Union is of greater importance than haying or harvesting.
And if the new volunteers in large numbers will come on and hold the places
that we older and better drilled ones now hold so as to let us go on to
Richmond and Charleston, we could go on in such large numbers as to break the
back bone of rebeldom in a short time.
Tell
Laura, Alice and John (Samuel’s three children) that I have not forgot them yet
but want to see them all real bad.
You
must write soon as convenient. I send my love to you all, this from your friend
and Brother,
Daniel
Mott
Direct
as follows and it will follow us go where we will
Doubledays
Brigade 76 Regt
Co.
A N.Y.S.V. Washington, D.C.
Such a strong image
to imagine Daniel writing while seated on his bulging knapsack, waiting for
orders to march. His hope ‘to break the back bone of rebeldom in a short time’ did not come true, as the war lasted another
three years.
When Daniel died
in 1862, our Diadamia (sister to Daniel) was raising six year old Rosena and
one year old Edwin. Our Kate (my great grandmother) would be born two years
later. I wonder if Damie often looked at her three children and caught glimpses
of her dear Daniel. And do echoes of him pass down the 154 years onto our
lives?
Daniel, we thank
you, we honor your sacrifice for our country, and we remember you still.
