Original Civil War Union Soldier Levi McAllister MAINE Discharge Paper Document

Description

Original Civil War Union Soldier Levi McAllister MAINE Discharge Paper Document
Fabulous Civil War Discharge Papers and Accompanying Historical Documents
Levi McAllister, from Stoneham Maine, a Private of Captain James W. Bryants was discharged from Company “A” 40
th
Regiment of Massachusetts.  He was enrolled from August 12, 1862 to June 16 1865.
Civil War History
The 40th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment was a three-year
infantry
regiment
of the
Union Army
that served in the
Department of Virginia and North Carolina
, the
Army of the Potomac
, and the
Department of the South
during the
American Civil War
.
[
The regiment was organized at the old militia training camp, renamed
Camp Stanton
, in
Lynnfield, Massachusetts
[2]
in response to Lincoln's 4 July 1862 call for 300,00 men to serve for three years. On 7 July, Governor Andrew issued General Order 26 which clarified that the Commonwealth's quota for this call was 15,000 men
[3]
and broke the quota down by cities and towns. As the Commonwealth was already in the process of recruiting and training thee 32nd, 33rd, and 34th, the Adjutant General decided to add the 36th, 37th, 38th, 39th, and 40th to the commitment.
[3]
In addition to the new regiments, 4,000 men were recruited to reinforce Massachusetts regiments already on active service.
[4]
The 40th began training in Lynnfield in August 1862, and mustered for a three-year enlistment by companies between 22 August, and 5 September 1862.
[5]
Major
Burr Porter of New Jersey,
[6]
a regular officer who had served on Fremont's staff was appointed commander of the regiment and promoted to
Colonel
. He would not join the regiment until they reached Washington DC.
[5]
In his stead,
Lieutenant Colonel
Joseph A. Dalton, a seasoned militia officer
[2]
took command at Stanton and led it as it left Massachusetts on 8 September by train, arriving in Washington on the night of 11 September where Burr took command.
Defense of Washington
The regiment arrived at
Fort Ethan Allen
across the Potomac from the Capitol on 12 September, 1862. It remained manning the defenses of Washington DC, under the operational and administrative control of the 2nd Brigade, Abercrombie's Division, Military District of Washington, until February 1863. This time was relatively uneventful for the regiment save for the response to a raid on 28 December by
Stuart
's rebel cavalry where they arrived only in time to capture a small number of the cavalry's rear guard.
[5]
The regiment remained in the defenses south of Washington through the winter and early spring of 1863. On 2 February, the forces defending Washington were reorganized into the
XXII Corps
. The 40th was assigned to the 2nd Brigade of Abercrombie's Division. On 4 March COL Porter took over command of the brigade and the experienced militia man, Dalton, took command of the 40th.
Operations in Tidewater
In response to
Lt. Gen.
Longstreet
's
Siege of Suffolk
, The 2nd Brigade was detached on 15 April 1863, from XXII Corps and sailed down the Potomac to Hampton Roads as part of the relief force  Arriving at midnight on the 17th,the 40th and its brigade became 1st Brigade, 3rd Division,
VII Corps
,
Department of Virginia
. After Longstreet lifted the siege to rejoin Lee, the 40th moved across the James to Newport News where it remained for the remainder of May.
[7]
Remaining in the Tidewater Virginia during the Gettysburg campaign, the regiment and the corps skirmished regularly with rebel forces keeping it under observation. On 1 July, the Corps raided toward Richmond. While the
Army of the Potomac
was engaged on its left on 2 July in Pennsylvania, the 40th's sharp repulse of a cavalry raid in force averted a disaster on the raid. After nearing to within fifteen miles of Richmond, the force returned to its positions near Yorktown as the Army of Northern Virginia retreated across the Potomac pursued by Meade.
Traveling by boat and rail, the brigade left the peninsula and joined the Army of the Potomac in Frederick, Maryland. The brigade was broken up as the 40th's brethren regiments were nine-month volunteers and had reached the end of their enlistments.
[7]
[8]
The regiment was temporarily assigned to the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division,
XI Corps
,
Army of the Potomac
, until August 1863. With XI Corps, the 40th joined the pursuit of Lee through the end of July.
[7]
[9]
Siege of Charleston
On 7 August, the regiment was embarked for
Folly Island
south of Charleston, South Carolina. Arriving 13 August, it joined BG
Adelbert Ames
' 2nd Brigade, BG
George H. Gordon
's South End of Folly Island Division, MG
Quincy A. Gillmore
's
X Corps
,
Department of the South
.
[10]
It went up the beach to the trenches in front of
Fort Wagner
on 15 August where the regiment remained until the attrition inflicted on the defenders forced them out on the night of 6 September.
[11]
Jacksonville Expedition
The 40th remained in the forces besieging Charleston until 16 January, 1864 when relocated to
Hilton Head
, South Carolina, on 18 January. On the island, the regiment joined the 2nd Battalion,
4th Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry Regiment
(operating as the Independent Massachusetts Cavalry Battalion), and Battery B (Horse Artillery), 1st U.S. Artillery to form the Light Brigade attached to BGEN
Truman Seymour
's Jacksonville Expedition forces. The 40th received horses and cavalry equipment and drilled as mounted infantry until its embarkation for Jacksonville on 4 February.
[9]
Landing in the Union enclave in Jacksonville, the brigade started roaming the countryside. During Seymour's expedition, the Light Brigade's duties were the usual of a cavalry force with the added weight of a battery and infantry command. On 15 February, a detachment of the 40th captured Gainesville for several hours and brought away a large amount of war supplies before rejoining the Union forces. During the defeat at the
Battle of Olustee
the Light Brigade protected both Union flanks and screened the force on its retreat to Jacksonville.
[8]
It repulsed rebel attempts on 1 March at the
Battle of Cedar Creek
and kept them out of the outskirts of Jacksonville until the expedition re-embarked on 22 March.
[12]
A
rmy of the James
Arriving back in the Yorktown area 28 March 1864, the regiment turned in its horses and cavalry equipment and reverted to infantry.
[13]
General
Butler
, at
Grant's
direction was organizing the
Army of the James
. The regiment was assigned to
Henry
's 3rd Brigade,
Brooks
's 1st Division,
Smith
's
XVIII Corps
. It participated in
the unsuccessful Bermuda Hundred campaign
during May 1864.
[12]
On 28 May, XVIII Corps detached from the Army of the James and sent to join the Army of the Potomac at
Cold Harbor
. As the Siege of Petersburg commenced, XVIII Corps as part of the Army of the James took up the left, southern wing of the Union forces. Through its time in the siege, the regiment suffered many losses so that when it came out of line at the end of the
Battle of the Crater
, on 27 August, only two officers and forty-five men could muster.
[14]
After a month of rest and provost duty, the regiment was back up at strength from the return of wounded and new reinforcements. When it returned to the front, it did so at Bermuda Hundred.
In December, the Army of the James was reorganized into XXIV and XXV Corps. The 40th found itself in the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, XXIV Corps.
[15]
It remained with this organization through the end of hostilities. The regiment continued in the lines until the fall of Petersburg and the evacuation of Richmond on 2 April. Occupying Richmond on the 3 April, it moved to the outskirts of the city where it was on the day the war ended.
[16]
The 40th Massachusetts Infantry mustered out of service June 16, 1865 and was discharged at
Readville, Massachusetts
on June 30, 1865.
Other Historical Documents related to Levi McAllister that are included
1.
Book of Meeting Minutes GAR Post 136 Geo. F. Lepprien, Stoneham, Oxford County, from 1885 (formation) to 1907
The
Grand Army of the Republic
(
GAR
) was a
fraternal organization
composed of veterans of the
Union Army
(
United States Army
),
Union Navy
(
U.S. Navy
), and the
Marines
who served in the
American Civil War
. It was founded in 1866 in
Springfield, Illinois
, and grew to include hundreds of "posts" (local community units) across the nation (predominantly in the North, but also a few in the South and West). It was dissolved in 1956 at the death of its last member,
Albert Woolson
(1850–1956) of
Duluth, Minnesota
.
Linking men through their experience of the war, the G.A.R. became among the first organized
advocacy groups
in American politics, supporting voting rights for black veterans, promoting patriotic education, helping to make
Memorial Day
a national holiday, lobbying the
United States Congress
to establish regular veterans' pensions, and supporting
Republican
political candidates. Its peak membership, at 410,000, was in 1890, a high point of various Civil War commemorative and monument dedication ceremonies. It was succeeded by the
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
(SUVCW), composed of male descendants of
Union Army
and
Union Navy
veterans.
2.
Newspaper Story
“Record of Stoneham During the Decade of the Seventies”
by A.E.Cole walking around in 1911
3.
Some handwritten genealogy information and residents of the town of Stoneham and East Stoneham (Where Levi McAllister lived)