Left for dead at Gaines' Mills

Your country has become embroiled in a civil war with the fate of the Union hanging in the balance. Your enlist, are mustered in as a private and your regiment goes on to fight in some pretty well known and important battles — Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville among them. A little more than one year into what was supposed to be a two-year hitch, you're part of what is, at that point, the second bloodiest battle in American history. There are roughly 15,500 casualties in the battle, including nearly 2,400 dead, and your brothers in arms leave you on the battlefield believing you're among the lives lost. You survive the war, you marry, your wife is pregnant with your first child, but before your little girl is born you're killed in a railroad accident at age 29.

This is the story of Grant S. Marvin, my 1st cousin 5x removed.

Grant is the sixth of eight children born to my 5th great-uncle Ransom Marvin and his wife Sophronia Hutchinson. He was born February 2, 1840 in New York, presumably in or near Camden, just north of Oneida Lake and some 30 miles southeast of Lake Ontario. Grant was raised in Camden and was 21-years-old when, in May 1861, he went to the nearby town of Rome and enlisted in Company G of the 14th Regiment New York Volunteer Infantry. About one year later, in May 1862, the regiment was assigned to the famed Army of the Potomac, which was commanded by General George B. McClellan. The regiment took part in a series of fights known as Seven Days Battles in the area of Hanover County, Virginia.

On June 26, 1862, the regiment took part in the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek, also known as Mechanicsville, on June 26, 1862. Slightly outnumbered, Fitz John Porter led Union troops against Confederate General Robert E. Lee and secured a Union victory, though one some concede to be a strategic victory for the South. Grant survived this first big fight, but there would be no rest for the weary.

On June 27, 1862, the regiment was right back at it in the next fight in the Seven Days Battles. This time around it was the Battle of Gaines' Mill, sometimes called the Battle of Chickahominy River. The number of combatants were nearly three times that of the prior day's battle as more than 91,000 troops — 57,000 of whom were Confederate soldiers — and there would be some 15,000 casualties by the end of the day. Grant was seriously wounded in the battle, though the nature of the wound has not yet been uncovered in my research, and left for dead on the battlefield. The Union lost the Battle of Gaines' Mill, a key early victory for Lee's time at the helm of rebellion's forces.

Though left for dead, Grant survived and was apparently able to avoid being taken prisoner. He would receive a pension for his military service, designated as an invalid as a result of the wound he suffered. The severity of the wound and its long-term impact is not currently known.

As the war raged on and 1863 was coming to a close, Grant was married on Christmas eve to Lovina D. Seymour. After several years as husband and wife, Lovina was pregnant, and the couple was apparently living in Illinois. Sadly, with Lovina several months pregnant, tragedy struck as Grant was killed in Secor, Illinois, a very small town 25-30 miles east of Peoria. Grant's death was the result of a railroad accident, though current research has not yet uncovered whether Grant was a passenger on the train, an employee of the railroad, or otherwise.

One month to the day of Grant's passing, new life was welcomed in Illinois with the birth of his daughter May L. Marvin on June 3, 1869.

I've not yet conducted much in the way of research on Grant's widow and child, though they do return to New York, settling first in Batavia and then Rochester.